The Chronicon of Zeom 

Short Story: The Grand Library

by

M.R.Yuvaraj

The First Floor

Obi Okoro reverently walked into the Grand Library and escaped by a hair from dashing into the Floor Monitor, who dragged two youngling by their short blue ears and snapped warnings at them.

“If I ever catch you again making a bestial noise at the picture books, I shall seize your Library entry and send you back up to the Land,” she said and turned to look at Obi. Recognition crossed her face that ended in a signed scowl. He looked away and down, inspected his shiny new soft sole shoes, and sent a quick thanks to his Grandpa for the pair. He wouldn’t want to be caught by her again for any noise in the library.

She turned her glare back to the boys and said, “Come back when you learn to read without making a sound,” and headed back with clicking heels against the Ocean Marble flooring, and dancing braids.

Obi thought, ‘Four braids! Wonder who dared marry her?’

Following her fading image, his vision left him with the view of the Grand Library First Floor. A smile came over his heart. Obi had been to the Library every chance he had got since his first blue moon. Everything about it fascinated him - the polished Ocean-bed Granite Staircase in the centre, the Rolling Ladders with brass encased wheels, the monstrous Laywood Book Tower, and the neat catalogued Books. ‘Ah, the Books,’ thought Obi. The new, the old and the ancient, all arranged in chronological order in their respective sections by their subject, the way he likes it, and not by Author like his family private library. A silent ‘Thank you’ went out from him to the rows and rows of the books, which have bought him so much joy over the years, as he walked towards the Centre Staircase. 

Obi held the railing and stood at the bottom of the staircase as his eyes wandered across the room taking in its busy traffic, his ears pricked at the hushed sounds of its patrons and felt the warmth of the ocean as the bright shine of the Red Sun’s reflection in the water lined the Library walls.

 “I am ready”, he said and took a deep breath as he climbed with his eyes set on the second-floor plank - “For Age 10 and above”. 

The Overdue Book 

Obi walked up to the second-floor entry counter and waited in line, with one hand in his pockets clenched the slip of his Born Day from his birthing midwife. Even in the natural cool of the ocean insolation, pearls of sweat trickled down Obi’s forehead. His eyes darted forward and back, and then at his watch. He wished to get his pass done fast and head to the inner sanctum of the Second Floor Library. He wondered ‘What would it be like inside?’, ‘Would he get a decent study lounge?’ and ‘Do they have books off-shelf limits?’. 

In the mundane wait, he could not resist eavesdrop on the conversation up ahead. 

“Did you hear? Someone anonymously returned a 255 Zyears overdue book to the Library.” 

“Really?”

“Yea, I think it was one of the first edition books of the ‘Duscworld’ series.”

His eyes widened at the mention, and nostalgia caught up. He remembered the author fondly. As a youngling, he enjoyed Duscworld books, set on a round world, orbiting a star and held in place by an invincible force called ‘Gravity’. The simple premise intrigued him. He had collected the entire series, from ‘The Colour of Normalcy’ to ‘The Crown’s Sheep’. 

As he waited for his turn, his thoughts were with the author- may his soul rest in peace.

The Second Floor

It was Obi Okoro’s Bornday and he would rather be nowhere else in Zeom, but here. He had waited for two Blue Moon for this day. 

Obi reached the counter and handed over the Born Day Slip to the Second Floor Librarian. He showed all his teeth in hope of a brave smile, but the longer the Librarian took to inspect his records, lost his nerves. He plucked his Blackish-Blue eyebrows and fidgeted. Finally, the Librarian handed him his entry pass and mumbled as she got back to her records, “Go, live honouring Zeom.”. 

Super excited, he skipped towards the large Laywood doors with the happiest smile on his face and walked into the second-floor inner sanctum that would lead him to the rest of his life. His eyes moistened and his cheeks ripe. He grew a huge grin grew at the towering shelves and whispered wide-eyed “Proper books, not just picture ones anymore.” 

He straightened and strode to the ‘Zeom - Flora and Fauna’ section. He took out his pocket-book and picked out all the books from his ‘Read List’ for the day. With two scores of books in hand, he found a cramped but secluded corner lounge. He settled, legs dangling, at the reading lounge and picked his first book ‘An Archive of Extinct Carnivorous Species’ by Weldad, First Order Magus. Obi left the world and into the Library’s own. 

The Book

Obi dedicated himself to the Books. He walked into the library every day at daybreak and would read through the night if required until he completes the day’s ‘Read List’. Every day, he would pick his books and cosy himself in the same corner and would leave the world behind. He had so much fun. But his family worried. Time flew by, and he found no area of interest for exploration. Nothing intrigued him enough to investigate the actual world. If he was ever to start a ‘Coterie’ of his own, he would need to submit his first discovery by the next blue moon. And, for acceptance in the Council of the Librarians, an honour all Shadhu parents dreamt of for their youngling, he would need to make a remarkable discovery.

###

On the first day of his third Blue Moon, Obi immersed in his book and oddly a glow at the corner of his eyes distracted him. He peered from the book. The inner lighting of the library contrasted with ocean blue hue reflecting the Full Blue Moon. Dark shadows danced on the noiseless Library's glass walls. He sensed an unease. A strange feeling of being watched. 

He dropped the book on the cushions and slinked towards the wall and focused on a faint dot in the waters. He moved closer to the glass wall, squinting at the dot to get a clear image. Fog formed on the glass as the sharp chill of the ocean met his warm breath. He wiped it with his sleeve and concentrated as the dot fanned out and got bigger as it moved towards him with intent. 

He turned to his side and whispered, “Anyone there?”.

Obi sighed in the silence and turned. He yelped! Obi stood face-to- eye with a black giant fish, five times his size. Locked in its intense stare, he backed away. As he slow-walked, he noticed white patches around its eyes and corrected himself, “Not a fish, a mammal.”  

The elegance of the creature and its monstrous size mesmerized obi. He crossed a whole book tower before he recognised it was not a lone Orca, but a school of them; all staring. 

He inched away but stumbled on a tangled carpet rip and fell. As he rose, he realized the Orcas were not looking at him, but past him. A faint purple glow reflected on the glass wall caught his eye. He held his breath. Sweat trickled down his forehead as he turned. A purple fume speck danced straight ahead, on the other end of the Library. He had read about such anomalies in Obsurin and he remembered his father’s words, “Obsurin is always trouble. Stay away from it. And, if can come face to face with it, run!”  

A chill ran down his spine, shaking him all over. He looked around for any sign of life. Finding none, he inched sideways to the Floor doors, but it too edged forward, following his retreat. Obi’s back hit the giant doors, and he pushed them with his rear. He found the lobby empty too. He moved towards lobby rails, keeping the speck in view, and peered over to the lower floor. He found dim lights here and there, and opened his mount to attempt a call for help, but pressed his lips shut at the sight of the Floor Monitor at her desk. Images of his Library pass being confiscated came to his mind, and he stood petrified. 

The speck and Obi locked in a tight gaze. Obi's grip on the rails tightened as he contemplated what to do next. But the Speck broke the stillness and glided in. Obi advanced and stood at the hall entrance, watching it creep away to the rear of the Floor. He turned to the wall where the Orcas were and found all but one had vanished. He moved to the right and then skipped to the left and then slid to right again. The Orca was looking at him and followed his every moment. A sense of peace came over him and his gaze locked with the Orca. As it beheld him in its stare, a strange warmth spread through his heart and a a sudden gush of rare courage and curiosity surged through Obi. He turned towards the Speck and found it disappearing into the aisle's rear. His gaze returned to the Orca, but it too vanished. 

By his newfound courage, Obi rushed towards the Speck and followed it to a worn yet recently unused shelf in the Library's rear floor; The section read ‘Taxonomy - Polyploid’. While he knew the rudimentary Taxonomy of Zeom's life, he was unfamiliar with this one. So, he searched his knee pocket and fished out his latest edition of Compendium, and searched. He read aloud “Polyploid -organisms whose cells have more than the usual number of complete sets of chromosomes, structure in the cell nucleus that contains DNA, histone protein, and other structural proteins.” He pocketed the Compendium and instead retrieved his pocketbook ‘Read list’ and scribbled ‘Taxonomy- Polyploid’. He dotted his pen on the paper thrice, thinking… and added a questions mark at the end. As he finished, he noticed the purple speck darted in front of him and disappeared inside a Large Leather-Bound book. He arched his brow and cautiously removed the book from the bookcase. He fingered its gold emblem’d Tile and read ‘The Chimaera’. With a quizzical expression, Obi browsed the initial pages but could not comprehend. Losing interest, he casually flipped through the pages and stopped dead at one. Obi gaped at an image on the page. In the image's bottom, it read ‘The Northern plains Chimaera - Courtesy Eldad, First Order Magus’.

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At the end of the Three days of Blue Moon, the Okoro family set out North. The rest, history!