If Riley could speak, she would have used one of those words mummy and daddy say are not allowed. In that moment of panic, she had done something drastic, something that led to the opposite effect of what she had planned. Now this smelly monster peered down at her, its six eyes widening in sickening delight. Riley felt like she was shrinking in its gigantic presence. 

Anger at herself, coupled with an extreme fear of being hurt, drove her legs to leap just as the monster lashed a stretchy arm out at the two of them. Nina escaped the bounds of the bookshelf and bounded away, and Riley quickly followed suit in the other direction. The two animals tore through the library, diving through bookshelves and popping out the other end in a mess of paper and leather bindings. From somewhere she cannot see, Riley heard a deafening roar, followed by the sound of wood smashing. She kept up her breakneck pace, knowing on some animal level that the monster could not be far behind her at any time.