Page 54 of Found in Obscurity
“Awesome,” she said. “You can browse the shelves and pick what you want and I’ll have your card ready and waiting for you when you’re ready for checkout.”
“Sounds good,” Lorin said, looking around and realizing he had no idea where to start. “Um, would you mind pointing me in the right direction?”
“No problem. What are you interested in?”
“Books on familiars,” he told her, and she hummed, looking around the library as if cataloging what they had inside it.
“Anything in particular or just in general?”
Given he didn’t really want to advertise Kit’s status before they could figure out what the issue was with him, he shrugged. “Anything and everything. I’m in a bit of a research spiral and familiars are my recent subject of interest,” he told her, going for casual and aloof.
“Ah, gotcha. Well you can start on the second floor. Head over to the right once you climb up and count three shelves from the window on the far right. The bulk of our inventory on familiars is there. See if you can find something that interests you. If not, we can try to narrow things down for you.”
“Thank you,” he said, returning the friendly smile. “I’ll let you know.”
“I’ll be here. Just call for Stella. Have fun researching!”
He nodded and headed for the stairs, heading up and locating the correct shelf in no time. The floor was almost completely empty, save for a few people already settled into comfortable chairs around the shelves. The only sounds he could hear were his and Kit’s footsteps and the soft rustling of pages being turned.
The place smelled of wood polish and dust, just as he remembered, and Lorin was reminded of just how much he loved libraries and all the scents and sounds that came with them. This time though, there was something else in the air too. Like a tingle of electricity. He figured he was just excited to be back somewhere he enjoyed being.
He started at the top shelf, pulling books meticulously and searching the contents before replacing them back on the shelf when he realized they didn’t have what he was looking for. It went on for a while, and with each book he found that held no mention of shifter familiars he grew more and more hopeless, frustration building until he was nearly growling with it.
He was about to throw in the towel when a book somewhere in the middle of the second to last shelf caught his attention. The cover was leather and looked ancient. The lettering on it was barely visible since the gold foil had peeled off almost completely, leaving the title etched into the leather hard to read. But the artwork called to Lorin. It depicted several people holding their hands out to a large cat that still had human limbs and eyes. An animal mid-shift.
He turned the cover to show Kit and the fox jumped in place, turning around and yipping at Lorin. Lorin realized the little turn more than likely signified a yes, so he tucked the book under his arm and perused the rest of the shelf and the one below it. He found nothing of value there so he stood up, stretching his limbs.
“I guess this is it,” Lorin whispered to Kit, and the fox turned his tail to Lorin, leading the way back to the stairs.
They went back to the front desk, Stella beaming at him when she saw Lorin carrying his book.
“I see you found something you like!” she said, as if it was a personal victory for her.
“I did, yes.” He smiled back, placing the book on the counter and pushing it toward her to scan.
She took it and scanned the barcode, frowning when the computer in front of her beeped but nothing came up on the screen.
“Weird.” She scanned again with no success.
“Everything okay?”
She looked up at him. “You found this on the shelf I mentioned to you?”
“Yes,” he said, brow creasing. “Third from the window on the right. It was on the second to last shelf. Toward the middle.”
She tilted her head and scanned a third time with the same results.
“The barcode isn’t leading to anything we have in our system,” she said, looking at the screen for a second longer before shrugging. “Must be a glitch.”
“Am I still okay to check the book out?” Lorin asked.
“Oh, yeah, no problem at all,” she said, writing the title on a slip of paper along with his name and tucking it inside a messy drawer. “I have you written down for it. You can hold it for two weeks and then either extend it or return it.”
She placed his newly laminated library card behind the front cover and handed him the book. “Enjoy!”
“Thank you for your help,” he said, accepting the book and turning to leave.
“See you around!” she called after him, and he returned her wide smile before exiting, feeling oddly good about the exchange. Maybe he wasn’t as much of a black sheep as he thought?