The Librarian’s Search

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. One by one another book hit the floor. “Oh where is it?” Fiona muttered angrily to herself. A very unsteady pile grew next to her as she clumsily pulled books from the shelves, her hair falling across her face as sweat trickled down her brow. Outside, rain beat hard on the windows, and flickering candle light illuminated each pane in a warm, orange hue. It was dusk, and Fiona had closed the library and locked the heavy oak front doors, but the day's work was far from over.

The library was old, with stone, whitewashed walls on the outside and wooden frames and beams on the inside. There were bookcases everywhere. As you walk through the library entrance, a wooden desk in the shape of a 'U' sits to the left. To the right, a wide fireplace surrounded by armchairs hidden away behind a maze of bookshelves. A place of comfort and ambiance for those who want to read within a quiet setting.

Today, only Fiona had been working at the library. She had been so busy that she barely noticed the sly goblin avoiding detection in the ‘Magic’ section. It was slumped down rifling through one of the shelves which, ordinarily, may have distracted her. However, she had been so busy that she failed to notice the uninvited guest. By the time she caught sight of the creature, it had clicked its fingers and disappeared. Fiona was so in her own world that when a customer appeared out of nowhere asking for the whereabouts of a book, she completely forgot the goblin even existed.

Goblins weren’t allowed in the library, least of all in the ‘Magic’ section, because they were known for their schemes and, in this case, it was looking for other worldly information to sell to the highest bidder. Fiona had never seen a goblin in real life but had heard customers grumbling about them following goblin reports in the local gazette.

Now, she knew the creature was in the ‘Magic’ section but couldn’t remember which shelf it had been standing next to. If she did not find what the goblin was looking for it might end up in the wrong hands. “Hmph” sighed Fiona, as she tied her long, ginger hair into a bun. She walked over to the front doors and gave a little tug on the handle to make sure they were locked before making herself a fresh cup of tea. She made her way around the side of the front desk and through the archway behind it. In here housed a stove, kettle and a sink as well as a countertop and an armchair. To the right of the room was another archway which led to a stockroom.

Fiona busied herself with heating water on the stove and finding a nice biscuit because a cup of tea wasn’t the same with a sugary treat. She found some on the countertop beside the stove and, when her tea was ready, she made her way over to the armchair. Tucking one leg under herself, she got comfy and tried to think hard about where the goblin had been standing.

30 minutes had passed and Fiona was still none the wiser, so she decided to carry on looking, returning to where she had been pulling books from earlier. She hoped whatever book the goblin had been looking for would make itself known.

She stood up and stretched, realising how cold it had gotten, and grabbed her cardigan from the iron hooks on the wall beside the archway. It was getting darker outside and wasn’t overly light inside either, and so thought she had better light another candle.

She made her way to the front of the library where a cupboard besides the doorway held her matches. All of a sudden she heard the slow scratching of wood. She froze. Slowly, she grabbed the matches and turned around, listening out for that same scratching. Towards the customers' reading area where a fire was burning nicely, she heard something again. The front doors were locked and Fiona wondered if the goblin had come back. She steadily made her way towards where the noise came from, holding the matches out in front of her like a weapon, not wanting to think about what she would do if it was a goblin.

As she got near the reading area, a large shadow came into view on her left. However, it didn’t look like a goblin; it’s silhouette was almost fluffy. Goblins are known to outsmart their enemies with shadow trickery, but, it was raining outside, so maybe it was just wearing a coat? Unsure how to handle the situation, she decided to jump out into the middle of the reading section. As Fiona launched towards the fireplace, the creature also jumped and Fiona skidded onto the burnt orange rug before falling over on to her back. Groaning, she sat up and looked around.

There, licking its paw and sitting in front of her, was the source of the noise; an elderly, black cat. “Oh!’ Fiona exclaimed, leaning forward to scratch its head. She said “How on earth did you get in here?” The cat looked at her with disinterest and she sighed, asking “I don’t suppose you can help me?” The cat stood up, stretched and sauntered off towards the ‘Magic’ section and where Fiona had pulled the books from earlier. 

Following the cat, she looked at the mess she had made. It was still raining outside and the place looked gloomy as water continued to pour down the window. She groaned as she realised she hadn’t yet found the book and would have to put all the books back onto the shelves. “She thought to herself that can be a problem for later, as she gathered the mound of books into neat piles. As she was doing this, the cat quietly came and sat near her. Fiona looked up, and noticed the cat had moved. Tilting her head to one side asked it gently “Can you help me kitty or are you just sheltering from the rain?”

Giving a gentle meow, the cat turned its head and focused on the bookcase it was sitting in front of and began licking its paw. Fiona looked at the bookcase, which was the ‘Historic Magik’ section and wondered if the book would be there. Abandoning the newly formed piles of books, she made her way over and looked at the bookcase quizzically. There were five shelves, each with about 25 books on them; a mixture of small, thin recipe books and big, leatherbound beasts with titles like ‘A History of Prophecies; Fifth Edition’ and ‘Advanced Draconic Anatomy’.

A candle went out and a slight chill filled the room. She said to herself “Well, I’m going to take that as a sign, if a slightly odd one” and with a glance at her new friend, Fiona went back to the fireplace to find dropped matches.

The cat had followed her and seemed eager for her to get back to the section, circling her and making lots of noise. “Okay okay I’m coming!” The cat leapt ahead, returning back to the ‘Historic Magik’ bookcase and curled up in front of it. Relighting the candle, the bookshelves returned to a warm hue. Fiona reached up to the top shelf as the cat ‘meowed’, almost as if confirming that’s where the librarian should start.

She began pulling books off the shelf and a cloud of dust enveloped her, causing her to cough and lose her balance. Fiona dropped the books as she hid her face behind her cardigan. The cat gave her an angry hiss as it sprang out of the way of the incoming books. “Sorry!” Fiona shrieked, reaching for the cat to make sure he was okay but as she did so, she tripped over the pile of books she assorted earlier. With a loud bang, Fiona and the books went spiralling across the floor. “Ugh, maybe I should just give up and let the goblin just take the book next time” she said out loud, adjusting her hair bun and gathering herself together. Again, the cat had quietly made its way back to the ‘Historic Magik’ bookshelf before licking its paw again. “Maybe I’ll have one more look, just for you.”

Pulling the books from the top shelf slowly this time, Fiona felt assured as the cat curled up next to her and purred quietly. Fiona took the books from the second shelf too and put them in a neat pile, out of the way, and began taking the books from the third shelf. Outside, it thundered in the distance as rain began to drum louder against the windows. She soon got to the end of the third shelf when the cat, unbothered by the commotion outside, sat upright again.

Fiona sat down, crossing her legs, and began taking books from the fourth shelf, slightly perplexed as to where the book was and whether she had already taken it off the shelf. “These are magic books but they don’t look like something a goblin would want to take, I don’t think they’ve been touched for hundreds of years.” Stifling a yawn, she looked over to the cat and said “Can you help me again please?” 

The events of the evening so far meant it was nearly midnight and Fiona was starting to grow tired. The cat stood up, arched its back and gracefully leapt forward. It stopped in front of the bookcase and leant up to the fourth shelf and peered at it. “So you want me to look at this shelf? But what at? I’ve taken all the books off it!”

Leaning forward, she peered at the shelf to see if she had missed any books and noticed the hardwood at the back was different to the ones on the shelves above. “Look, there are some faint ruins carved into each corner on the back of this shelf!” She glanced at the cat to see if she was onto the right thing and it gave it a soft “meow.” Fiona stretched out and knocked on the hardwood. It sounded hollow, so she pressed hard against it to see if it would open but it didn’t.

The cat gave a loud meow and stood as close to the shelf as possible, which gave Fiona an idea. Slowly feeling around the edges of the wood, she poked her fingernails down the left hand side to try and prize the wood away.

It didn’t budge.

She tried again, but still no movement was made. “Hmph” Fiona said, getting agitated, “Why won't it budge kitty?”

The cat looked at her and pressed up against her comfortingly as it wound its way to her right hand side and sat down again. “Are you saying I need to try from the right?”

Getting giddy, she leaned over the cat to the right of the shelf and once again poked her nails down the edge of the wood and prized the wood away. It opened out towards her like a door and she exclaimed out loud as she jumped up to grab the nearest candle so she could see.

Behind the hardwood was a hollowed out zone that Fiona instantly recognised as magic space since the bookshelf was pushed flush against the library wall. In the middle of this hollow space was a large, leatherbound book encrusted with small red and amber jewels. Old scriptures from centuries ago decorated the front cover as a circular ruby stone lay in the center. Fiona reached in disbelief and carefully brought the book into her arms.

She layed it down slowly, glanced at the cat, and then back at the book. Fiona couldn’t believe such an old book had been hidden away. She held her breath as she contemplated opening the book and, as she did, the light of every candle around her died, plummeting the library into darkness.

Shocked, Fiona felt around for the matches and lit the candle closest to her, producing a warm glow.

Standing beside her was a small, elderly man with a rounding belly and small circular glasses balancing on a button nose, as if opening the book had summoned him.

Smiling at her gently, he offered her his hand and said “Ah, I see you’ve found both my familiar and my spell book.”