[Nicolay]

The conversation he had with his female guardian one night hadn't quite abandoned Nicolay when he woke up the next morning and ran to work which, for some odd reason that normally required the planets being aligned properly, had been particularly time consuming, himself often needing to extend hours just to finish one, measly delivery and then go home starving and nearly capable of devouring everything they had in their cupboards. So when that day and chance came where he'd managed to finish early (while the rest of his team was still toiling about, though thank goodness for good weather), Nicolay decided it was time to be a good foreigner and pay the library a visit.

It was suffice to say the biggest he'd seen in his entire history. It was unlike anything he'd seen back home, in a city with medieval tourist attractions, and was caught walking in with his lips well apart -- something he promptly clamped shot when that black-winged personnel had began laughing at him in spite of the rules of the library. He couldn't begin where to look at first -- the sheer height of the walls, the intimidating works of furniture, the seemingly historical value of the whole place or the mere thought of how wide the ranges of her books must be. Nicolay was almost confident he would find what he needed but the questions were: Will he and how?

The first order of business, of course, was to get a library card. In spite of the fact that he was still technically an intruder in this fantastical city with no legal documents proving his existence whatsoever, the thought never did cross his mind as he approached the central concierge of the wide, wide building and leaning against the sleek counter just beside a cart of sorts filled with what he guessed were new acquisitions, whispered kindly to the middle-aged lady's back, “Excuse me.”

She turned around and popped her golden eyebrow up. She was clearly busy.

Nicolay put on his best smile as he said to her his script, “Hi, I'm interested on purchasing a library card.”

The lady didn't seem very impressed. But still, she dropped whatever it was she was holding (a book about to be tagged and prepared for shelving) as she spun and approached the inner desk closest to Nicolay. Later, she handed him a squared piece of paper as well as the library's fountain pen.

Nicolay filled everything up dutifully (as precisely as he could, else he just made things up. They wouldn't know, anyway, right?) and handed it back to the lady.

“You'll hear from us in two weeks.”

Nicolay thought that was an awfully long time but his smile never wavered and simply thanked her while she told him to stay for his receipt to be presented for when he was ready to claim his card. As she went about the ceremony of doing so, he allowed his eyes to stray around the gigantic space, landing on the cart beside him and becoming interested on what looked to him as crystals assorted accordingly in checker boxes. His brows were knitted and he tilted his head a little as he read through some of the easier tags he could see.

One of them looked strangely familiar and yet he could not, for the life of him, read it. “The...The...Ther...”

“Therians?”

Nicolay straightened up at the lady's unimpressed voice, her popped brow and that flimsy piece of note she held by her fingers. “Oh,” he cleared his throat. “Yes, of course.”

“Seven Days and Nights with a Therian as seen on first broadcast. Couldn't read something so simple?”

“I'm Dardanian,” he lied.

And yet in his application, he explicitly wrote being born in New Alexandria. Oh snap.

He took the note with another word of thanks as he slid out that crystal from its space and held it up to the bored lady. “May I watch this here?”

“Second floor, left hallway.”

“Thank you,” he said with a smile and turned to leave until he'd remembered something and spoke again to the disinterested staff. “Also, I want to find books about animals and dreams. Where are they?”

“Second floor and here, right wing,” she said with a point to her left.

“...I see,” Nicolay said in spite of her clear directions, smiled and thanked her for her incredible service. He walked away from the concierge and pondered about the crystal that he held while he sauntered towards the eastern wing of the ground floor, in search for books on dream interpretations -- how utterly occult of him. A part of him was hoping no one he knew would suddenly bump into him, announce his name and figure out his motive. How embarrassing would that be?

[Lazuli]

Lazuli spent a lot of her free time in the library. And why not? The library was lovely, cool, spacy, and full of undiscovered adventures and treasures. ...Or maybe her thoughts had been embellished by the recent series of stories she had just finished reading. She held all the books of that collection in her hands. The stack came over her head so she struggled to see as she walked, but her mind was honestly in the clouds, still emersed by the magic of the story's finish. A good ending was an ending that stayed. And Lazuli knew she would remember this one for a long time to come, from the heroine's brave sacrifice to the hero's discovery of a new world....

As she headed down an aisle surrounded by tall columns of books, she did not realize that she was heading quite fast. The faltering stack of books required her to move quickly to keep the balance.

Therefore, when she approached the end of the aisle, there was no way for Lazuli to know whether someone else was coming perpendicular to her path. So she only caught a glimpse of a boy with dark-hair when she crashed directly into him from the side.

Books exploded everywhere and Lazuli fell backward onto the floor as one book (the third and heaviest volume of the series with the worst pacing and most cliff-hangers) bounced off her head. She immediately pressed a palm over the area of impact in order to soothe away the sudden pain. "Ow..."

Then she remembered why the collision had occurred in the first place.

"Oh, I am so sorry, sir!" she said, staring wide-eyed at the poor boy she had bumped into. She pulled herself up and flew to his side to help him off the floor, since that was where he likely also ended. "I was careless. Are you hurt?"


(( What better way to start a meeting than with a blast! Please tell me if anything isn't ok and needs editing ))

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[Nicolay]

OOC: Seriously, just keep posting. I'll poke you when something goes a little too out of hand for me but don't be so worried.

Nicolay's legs moved fast -- as could be expected of someone with his kind of training. So although distracted by the peculiar crystal he held and the thought of his possible embarrassment preoccupying further his mind and completely making him a victim of the shower of books, his limbs had twisted out just in time and he turned to look at the girl falling back with a pair of round eyes. “Oh,” he said with a start, moving to her rescue, putting his lifted foot down to renew his balance but a book was on the way and his limbs were confused so he ended up giving a quick yelp as he fell back to land on his buttocks on the marble floor.

Someone in a uniform had seen them and was making his way towards them.

Nicolay took a second to regain recollection of his current position, shaking his head and giving his bangs a quick flick. He meant to ask the lady if she was all right, watching her touch her forehead with a wince and he prepared to stand up -- until he felt a small bulk under his legs.

His reaction was a really loud curse word -- an English one, thank goodness, although it echoed throughout the library and merited five-thousand "Shhh!!"es -- while he hurried his weight out of the poor defenseless crystal which had, much to his relief, been saved by another book he had landed on. “Oh my God,” he said again in his native language and added a softer cuss, inspecting the crystal for anything remotely damaged. It didn't help that he had never seen such a peculiar thing in his entire life so he couldn't be sure.

“Oh, I am so sorry, sir! I was careless. Are you hurt?”

In his next minute, the lady was already all over him and he was the one being rescued off the floor now. “I, it's nothing...” he said again in English as he picked himself up and with a solid shake of his head, switched his linguistic mode to Elysian. “I'm all right! Thank you. Don't worry,” he said -- then motioning towards her, asked, “How are you? Are you all right?”

The uniform had arrived just then and after apologizing for the slippery floor, had began picking up the lady's books.

Nicolay didn't say anything to him, giving him only a glance before he turned to the female and with a small laugh and smile, said to her, “What a mess, huh?” After which, he had also bent over to take the book he had landed on. God and Xanth bless it.

[Lazuli]

When Lazuli realized that the boy was all right, she breathed a sigh of relief and glanced down at the scattered books. "Oh, I'm fine, but I shouldn't leave these here..." And she bent to help the uniformed worker scoop them up whilst making sure that none of the precious books had been damaged in the process. She made a mental note to be more careful next time, determined no one else would have to suffer through that episode again.

She nodded to the worker. "Thank you sir, and I apologize for the disturbance." After the uniform left with the books, Lazuli turned her attention back to the boy, her head still throbbing. She patted her bangs over the area to cover any potential bumps or redness. She couldn't stifle a laugh despite herself. The situation had been a little funny. "Hm, I seem to be getting a bit too absent-minded lately. My name is Lazuli, by the way. Is your crystal okay?"

Her expression turned to wonder when she recalled how the boy had spoken a different language amidst the crisis. She tipped her head slightly. "Are you from Earth?" she asked curiously in English, although she noticed a slight accent in her voice that probably resulted from a lack of use. It had been quite a few years since she'd last set foot in the other world. "I think I understood what you were saying there, except for that one word which I can't remember ever hearing before." She touched her chin and looked at the floor in concentration as though in an attempt to remember what it meant.

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[Nicolay]

“Mr. Armitage? Is this yours?”

Nicolay turned to the uniformed worker with his folded piece of note and nodding, he thanked him and accepted the thing that was handed to him as he slid out his wallet and began to keep the thing into the bulky flap of leather, all the while listening to this lady named Lazuli (what a cute name) excuse and introduce herself.

“Is your crystal okay?”

“Yes, I think it is,” he said with a laugh as he turned to look at the thing he held with his right hand, his left one slipping his wallet into his back pocket. “At least I hope,” he added and finished with a small laughter. “My name's Nicolay, nice meeting you. In spite of...” he gestured towards the books that they held, indicating that incident from a while ago. He opened his mouth to talk again, his lips' sides still peeking up in a smile until she said to him:

““Are you from Earth? I think I understood what you were saying there, except for that one word which I can't remember ever hearing before.””

“You speak English?!” Nicolay spat out, meriting ten-thousand more "Shhh!"es from the visitors and personnel around him and he winced and apologized to them with a small nod.

But more importantly--

“You speak English?” he whispered to Lazuli with excitement leaking out of every sound he produced, eyes wider than a pair of plates. “E, English is my first language and you have no idea how long I have been looking for someone who speaks my language! Everything here is Elysian or Dardanian or Sylvian, whatever that is, and it's so difficult sometimes-- oh, let me help you with those!” his hands were instantly upon her books. “Where did you learn to speak English?”

[Lazuli]

"Yes, I do," Lazuli replied, surprised at the strength of Nicolay's outburst but also happily amused at how excited he seemed. The boy was so friendly. "You see, I lived on Earth once."

She grateful allowed Nicolay to take what was left of her books when the boy excitedly reached for them. Her arms throbbed a little from carrying that whole stack before, but the pain on her forehead luckily receded with each passing minute.

"Oh, so you're new here!" Lazuli said brightly when he expressed the difficulty of the Elysian languages. "That's amazing! It's not often that we find someone who's just came to Elysia. Were you born on Earth?"

As they talked, Lazuli glanced around at the library-goers to make sure that they were no longer making a distraction, as it really took effort to keep a low voice. A few people seemed to occasionally glance their way, and a good number of staff personnel still returned suspicious glances when Lazuli made eye contact. She turned back to Nicolay and pointed upward toward a large, embellished flight of stairs made of rich oakwood. "Do you want to head to the second floor?" she asked. "We can find a more private place up there to talk. The books up there are also very interesting! I think there may even be a handful that had traveled from Earth a long time ago." Lazuli found herself going off on a bit of a tangent, but she had discovered someone unique!

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[Nicolay]

A dam of questions was about ready to burst open when Lazuli had told Nicolay an incredible fact for him: that she had come from Earth. His face was uncertain, forehead wrinkled, lower lip dropped open, the ghost of a smile unsteady on his agape mouth. He wanted to ask her so many things, the whole pile of books on his arms now a mere faction of his imagination and he would have begun an intense discussion right in the middle of where people crossed if she hadn't suggested climbing up the next floor -- which was also a destination he had in mind.

“Of course,” he said. There was still that brush of excitement on his voice although it was clear that he was keeping enough for him to launch at her for when they get to sit down and talk more properly.

Nicolay didn't get to wait for that, though. Just when they'd reached the stair break, he shot another question at her, his whisper loud and energetic, “You came from Earth? How did you get here? I've been wanting to go back but I don't know how!” He completely ignored that glare shot at him by a passing gentleman.

[Lazuli]

Lazuli giggled quietly at how excited Nicolay was being, and she continued in a decently low voice, "I was born in Elysia, but I went to Earth once to live with an aunt, after--" She hesitated, unwilling to spoil the moment by saying something depressing.

Instead, she smiled and looked at Nicolay in mild amazement when he stated he did not know how to get back. To be honest, she personally would always prefer Elysia over Earth, but she realized that her own bias as a nymph would lead her to think that way... indeed, Elysia had much less pollution. "You must use portals to travel among worlds," she explained nicely. "They aren't hard to use; you just need to have a clear destination in mind, otherwise you could end up in all sorts of wild places. New Alexandria has one... I could show it to you sometime if you'd like."

As they arrived on the second floor, Lazuli glanced left and right and then looked at Nicolay with question in her eyes. "Which way do you want to go?"

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[Nicolay]

Even if it didn't show with the way Nicolay kept his gaze solid and attentive on Lazuli, he did feel like frowning when he noticed they'd landed on a less-than-desirable topic.

But he was glad she picked up -- and that was when the brunt of the confusion materialized in his mind. She was Elysian but she went to and back from Earth? Something boiled within his chest, he felt that it was unfair that he shouldn't be able to do that, too, so it was with extra graces that he received Lazuli's tip -- and his brows furrowed.

“I...” First, he had to answer her question. Nicolay followed the directions she'd turned to but the clues that the first shelves left him were hardly helpful to him. “I thought I might read up on some animals. Mammals...” he said finally.

And then to address the bulk of curiosity waiting to bounce out of him. “I've never heard of a portal before,” he said and then quickly added, “Or well, I have heard of one but never really got to see one, more so use one--” or maybe he had “-- or maybe I have. Th, the first time I got here...I was angry and confused,” he shared in a softened voice, eyes on the path ahead of them, a little lost while a part of his sight returned to his memory. “I just...heard something bad so I ran away and I ended up in some dark forest. And then--” Whatever it was he might have said, it all went out in a throaty cough as his feet stumbled for a heartbeat and his arms pushed the pile invisibly closer to him. Inside, he'd felt his muscles tightening and swore he had nearly heard his bones at the back popping at the memory of that night. If not for Lazuli's readings on his arms, his left hand might have stroked through the long line of scar on his right forearm as had been his habit since having received it.

Nicolay finished it all with a laugh, shaky at first breath but natural in general. “Something bad happened,” he said to Lazuli, turning to show her his smile, lips closed and the tips of it peeked up just enough to show a shape. “You need to teach me how to use a portal. I'll end up getting lost if you don't!” and here, he laughed again, inwardly fighting the bud of fear in his mind away.

OOC: If it's okay and if it's within your plans, you can mention that around the fourth paragraph, they've already began walking? ;; If not, it's totes fine!

[Lazuli]

As per Nicolay's wishes at wanting to read about mammals, Lazuli began heading in the destinated direction, all the while keeping her gaze on Nicolay. Although she had been chipper and excitable before at the prospect of an interesting new friend, her expression turned to a type of serious wonder as she looked at Nicolay with attentive, slightly curious eyes.

He had never heard of a portal before? But it was possible... she had heard stories of people who "accidentally" stumbled into Elysia, although she didn't know anyone personally. Even so, she knew that those experiences were rarely pleasant.

So when Nicolay began retracing the emotional experiences of that night in the dark forest, she politely refrained from questioning him in fear of forcing him to recall more painful memories. Lazuli was no sadist anyway. Instead, she gently placed a hand on his forearm with the instinctive intention of comfort. "I see," she said simply and kindly. "If you aren't afraid, I'll be happy to teach you."

She paused and couldn't help but ask, "What do you think of Elysia? Is it better or worse than Earth?"

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[Nicolay]

Nicolay, glanced at her hand, looked at her to smile at her pleasantly and thanked her on her offer. If he wasn't afraid...yes, that was true. It was easy to just think about it, go to some portal, think about your bedroom, step through and things should be okay -- if that was what Lazuli's explanation really meant. But if he were to be honest to himself...he was a little scared. What if portals didn't really work that way? Or what if they were harder to use and Lazuli just knew how to use them really, really well? Or what if at the last moment, he remembered what happened to him and would be taken there, again? There were so much possibilities and he only wanted one of them and disliked the rest.

“Maybe in time,” he said with a nod, partly to convince himself, partly for Lazuli. “I'll definitely ring you up when I'm ready.” Don't these things allow you to practice first before you dive into the real thing? Because they ought to.

When Lazuli asked him of his opinion regarding the two domains, he let out a breath of laughter. “You're asking me that? I've only been here for one or two months! And I still can't understand a lot of things like how they work the HoP or difficult words or I don't know Dardanian or Sylvian and I can't tell one specie from another unless they have big wings on them!” he ended up laughing at his own words, throwing his head back a little although mindful of the quiet that they walked on. “Besides,” he went on, “I have so little friends here. And my parents aren't here. Back home -- in Earth -- if I'm bored, I can just ring my friends up and then I'll be out the door, hanging out with them. Here...I don't even have a cell phone yet! Or a com, rather. One of my better friends lives 5,000 miles from here,” that was Kiel, “I hardly know how to contact my workmates unless we're working and my guardians' friends aren't exactly...my age anymore. And I can't really keep up with conversations yet. You know, like the way people my age talk to each other?” he glanced at Lazuli. “They still talk too fast for me, sometimes. And I'm not really into the stuff they talk about...I've been trying but I guess I'm really just not interested.” His last words were rolled out in a half-mutter.

Shaking his head, he said, “Oh what am I saying? I'm such a drama king, I'm sorry!” Again with that smile he put on for his new friends, he asked Lazuli, “What about you? You enjoy living here more than back home? I mean-- Earth?” How strange to be saying that.

[Lazuli]

"Oh yes! Feel free to tell me whenever you're ready for the portal," Lazuli said reassuringly. "No need to rush things. Those portals can be really tricky, oleaginous substances sometimes. And you could have a lot of fun here in Elysia, meanwhile! I'll even be happy to show you around."

She had to focus more carefully when Nicolay launched into a wave of speech. After returning to Elysia for her Rites of Passage, she had rarely held conversations with Earthians, and thus she struggled a bit with lumpy dialogue. She got the gist of what Nicolay was saying though, so she nodded understandingly as her companion spoke about missing Earth. She felt rather sympathetic not just for him but for his old friends and family as well. They surely missed him too, although she had no place or need to say that.

Instead she remarked, "In some ways Elysia is quite like Earth. We can get you a COM, and then you can easily contact people in the blink of an eye." She smiled radiantly. "I can even help you learn Elysian! What things do you like? I'll teach you the words to talk about them."

Lazuli glanced around at the bookshelves when the attention turned to her. Nicolay was looking for animals... let's see...

"I must say I like Elysia better," she replied truthfully. "I'm a nymph, you see? We live better in Elysia's unpolluted environment."

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[Nicolay]

Ole-- Olea-what? Nicolay, who lived his entire life in Earth, did not even know that word existed. Maybe it was a borrowed word from Elysia or something?

His face looked pleasantly at her when she offered to teach him and again, he thanked her. Lazuli was such a nice person! “What things do I like? Let's see now...” he gazed up for a bit, “I enjoy running. Sometimes, I watch movies. I like going out with my friends. I know a lot about cocktail mixtures and the perfect places to hang out in. I don't read a lot but when I find a book I like, I try to get through it. It's kind of difficult, though.” He laughed. “What else...I like parties but you already know that. Sometimes, I play basketball.” Shrugging, he said, “That's what I can think off the top of my head right now.”

He thought she might ask her the same, since it would be courteous and good practice so he made sure from then on to listen more intently to her words in case he might pick up a hidden interest but more than that, what she'd told him was something of a shocker and gaping a little at her, he said, “You're a nymph?! Nymphs are like...faeries or spirits, right? Or--” oh, he had completely forgotten his lessons! (And his tact.) “--so you're into nature and things? But you look completely human!” Save, perhaps, for the shape of her limbs and her overall built being too good to be true even for the prettiest human celebrities.

[Lazuli]

Lazuli nodded in welcome and listened carefully as Nicolay listed his interests. Meanwhile she matched her own interests with his so that they could both talk about the things they liked. He seemed so easy to talk to, and she would love to share some similar passions with him.

"I like running and going out with friends, too!" she said excitedly. "And I absolutely adore books! ...Although you probably knew that since I had such an armful just earlier. I also have a whole collection at home."

She tilted her head in curiosity at some of the things Nicolay mentioned. Cocktails... basketball... what were they again? She couldn't quite remember, and was planning to ask Nicolay later until the next thing she had said amazed him.

"We are just nymphs. Daughters and sons of nature," she explained, and giggled. "But of course we all qualify as that. I am a nyad; I understand the feelings of water the most. And yes, unlike 'varis or anyeli, we look exactly like humans do. We're also great friends with therians, did you know that?"

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[Nicolay]

There was that word again: Therians. If this was just the whole world conspiring to work against him or just...do something baffling with him, Nicolay would hate to become a part of it. Still, it couldn't be denied -- they had interested him ever since his female guardian told him about them in relation to his dream -- and seeing as he pretty much had a lot of time in his hands until he got back home, he figured it wouldn't hurt to get down at the bottom of it.

“Therians, eh?” Nicolay said to connect his thoughts to her words, in spite of the nagging inside him to talk about her running. “But aren't they like...people who turn into animals? Although I guess with you being one with nature, it wouldn't be a surprise that you would get along with them.” Just then, they'd reached the desired section -- as he had guessed with the alphabet clues posted over a series of numbers on each shelf -- and he slowed down his steps. “To be honest, I know very little about Elysian people,” he continued with a small laugh, stopping in his steps to concentrate on facing her. “I think I have a Dracovari friend and you're the first nymph I got to know personally...I think. Everyone else feels human to me! I don't even know what a Therian is even if I see one -- that's how bad I am at this thing.” Secretly, he was trying to pry more information of the species from her but he didn't want to look too eager or obvious on doing it. Probably because it seemed so needless and yet here he was, so interested.

[Lazuli]

"Some people think that therians are animals who can change into humans," Lazuli explained mysteriously. "It's quite amazing, isn't it? You can't really tell what they are unless they have a notable marking. Otherwise they look just like humans."

Lazuli slowed down her steps to match Nicolay's and peered up at the shelves. It looked like the right section. If he was searching for books on mammals, then maybe they could even find some readings on therians, she realized happily.

As for Nicolay's comment on Elysian people, Lazuli herself did not know all specifics of the traditions of every race. Especially since being a nymph had meant living in seclusion in the Fae Forest. She thought about Phen, Kiel, and every other Elysian she had met. As a nyad she felt a special bond with Phen, of course, but she had never considered Phen a friend solely for that reason.

"Maybe they feel human because everyone's a little similar inside," she wondered aloud. She smiled. "If you want to learn more about Elysians, there are lots of resources here. I could help you read them. Did you have a specific book on mammals that you were searching for?"

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[Nicolay]

“Eghh...” Nicolay obviously hadn't thought about that just yet. He figured that if he had access to the internet or a menagerie of opinions, he would have a clue and now that he'd had none, he stood pretty much blindly in his place. It was just so him, too. He could be searching for a penumbra for all he was worth and no one would notice the difference.

“Actually, I don't,” Nicolay said sheepishly before a winged uniform came in with a shy smile and offered him a basket for the books he had been carrying and he obliged her offer, dumping them in the moment he could and taking it from her as he thanked her and she left. Looking back to Lazuli, he went on in English, “You seem to know your way around here. Maybe you should help me. I'm umm...to be honest, I'm not even sure if I can find what I want here.” He laughed uncertainly. “I've...recently been interested on cheetahs but...my friends,” that is to say, his guardians, “don't know what they are so I'm not really expecting to find anything.” Then after a quick pause, he asked cautiously to Lazuli, “You do know what they are...don't you?”

[Lazuli]

What Nicolay said was true. Although a normal visitor could easily get lost in the great penumbra of the library, Lazuli came often enough to know her way around most of the areas. That and she had worked there as a librarian before. She didn't know the exact locations of every subject, of course, but she at least vaguely knew what was on the majority of the shelves.

She thought about Nicolay's question with intense focus. Cheetahs... cheetahs? Earth housed such a wide variety of animals, perhaps even more than Elysia, that Lazuli couldn't possibly remember all of them. The first step to remembering was to recall the form and color. No, that's not right, she thought as she ran images of various animals through her mind's eye.

Then she got it. Expression visibly brightening, she leaned forward a little in imitation of a prowling creature. Curling her hands into paws, she charaded the walking style of a feline, putting her hands in a cycling motion in the air. A few library-goers gave her strange looks but she conveniently missed them. She looked at Nicolay and grinned. "A big cat!" she declared happily. "It's spotted. It can run fast, right?"

Still imitating the animal, she glanced at the shelves thoughtfully. "Hmm, I don't think there are any detailed books about Earth's creatures," she said.

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[Nicolay]

Nicolay let out a healthy, good-kind of laughter when Lazuli rolled her hands into paws and began acting like a feline creature. Especially with her height, her face and her bones, she looked particularly cute when she did it and he smiled brightly when she described the cheetah to him. “That's right!” he said, visibly entertained by her quick show.

And then she said: “Hmm, I don't think there are any detailed books about Earth's creatures.”

And his expression promptly fell. Perhaps Lazuli, more Elysian than he could ever be, knowing about cheetahs had boosted his hope a little stronger than he'd expected but he fought to keep the sides of his lips peaked up as he said, “Y, yeah...that's what I thought so. W, we wouldn't know until we tried, though, would we?”

When he thought about it, though, he wasn't really interested in cheetahs. They were creatures who ran fast, that was all he needed to know about them. But he wanted to know if he could find anything that might have something to do with a more...philosophical or almost-cultural background about them that could shed some light on its presence in that dream he had that night. He thought a book on dreams might be what he needed more than a zoology one -- but to admit that would just be too embarrassing. No one needed to know that he was starting to believe such fanciful things.

[Lazuli]

Lazuli stopped and look at Nicolay sympathetically. She could sense the disappointment in his voice; he must have really wanted the cheetah books. She wasn't going to give up, though, if he was brave enough to put up a smile. "You're right," she said optimistically. "Let's search for those books you need and then decide if they're findable or not."

She hastily led Nicolay down one of the nearby aisles, glancing up at all the book spines baring the names of one animal or another. Cheefles... desert lions... squirrels... phoenixes... Hm, no. An aged librarian walked by, and Lazuli followed her, tapping her on the shoulder. "Excuse me," she said nicely. "Do you know where my friend and I may find books on creatures of other dimensions?"

The librarian peeked at her behind an armful of envelopes. She pointed a thin finger toward a bottom corner of the shelf. "There may be one or two that mentions lifeforms of other worlds," she answered. "Don't expect to find anything too dependable, though."

As the librarian hurried away, Lazuli picked out a book from the section she had pointed to and flipped through its pages. There were a few sketches of generally four-legged creatures and loads of text, but there appeared no mention of a spotted animal. Lazuli turned back to Nicolay. She couldn't resist a disappointed sigh. This might be a lot harder than she'd thought.

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