Lovely!!!! This is so cool!

Day 1, Part 2

Lyric shyly followed Dewey once she came back into the library, and The Librarian smiled at her, then glanced around at everyone else. “Ready for the tour? Yes? Mmk y’all, then let’s go! Onward!”

And so, Lyric was right behind Dewey as she breezed past the reception desk, and through the opening into the rest of the building. In this part of the building, the shelves were only about four feet high, with just three shelves on each row. Books were displayed on top of the pale white shelves here and there, showing thin, children's stories. 

“Now this,” Dewey explained as they walked by the neat rows of books, “is the picture book section. Now, before you wrinkle your little noses and ask why in the world I’m showing you the section when you are clearly NOT children, let me explain. First of all, I’m quite grown up and I STILL look at picture books. They are often quite nice. For example,” she picked up one of the books on display and showed the others. “I do like this type of book. They are ALL pictures- no words, so you can guess the story. As for this particular one, I sincerely suggest this book, Flotsam, by David Wiesner.”

This cover showed a giant, orange fish with small fish swimming next to it. Lyric made a mental note to find it again later.

“And besides,” Dewey said, replacing the book, “not all the picture books are fiction, as I’m sure y’all know. There are non-fiction, like historical, or space, or stuff like that. Anyway…”

She went on through the shelves. Looking across the room, Lyric could see that they were in the middle row. There looked to be about 8 book shelves across, and there would be an opening between them so you could cut across to another row. Lyric wasn’t sure how many shelves there were lengthwise, but there were certainly a lot.

“And here,” Dewey was saying as they all reached the end of the room, “Is the storytime spot. We have storytime for younger children (and older!) here every Friday morning.”

Here, there was a cozy area. There was a round light and dark blue carpet, with the alphabet around the edges. Two couches all but closed off that area, making it a nice little nook. A chair sat against the wall, facing the carpet. On the couches, once Lyric leaned over the tops, were an assortment of pillows and stuffed animal toys. A smile flickered across her face as she leaned back. She gave a slight jump when she noticed Silver Crystal next to her, but she gave Lyric a friendly smile, so Lyric gave a shy one back.

“Aaaand now we have to trek back across the room to the stairs,” Dewey said with a laugh, pointing back across the room from which they’d come. “Let’s go, double time!” and she playfully started to march between the shelves.

Everyone fell behind her, and Lyric waited until she could have the last spot this time. In front of her, Silver glanced back at her, and asked, “want to walk beside me?” and Lyric gave a slightly less shy smile and nodded. And so, they both walked in the back, until they arrived back at the opening by the reception desk. 

“So,” Dewey said, pointing on either side of the doorway. 

Peering over heads, Lyric noticed the bottom of stairs that she hadn’t noticed on the left side. And then turning her head, she noticed a giant book that she had also missed. But peering closer, she saw a crack in the book, as though it were a door that slid open.

“Elevator,” Dewey said, nodding to the huge book, “and stairs. Take whichever! I’ll be going up the stairs so-” and she suddenly dashed off- “race ya there!”

Lyric giggled and went over to the stairs too, and Silver followed her, along with a few others. The rest swarmed the elevator, but Lyric was already in the stairwell, so she didn’t see the doors open. 

“Ooo,” she heard Celine somewhere behind her over the echo of their footsteps. “I love the stairs!” 

Looking down more closely at the stairs, she noticed that each step was painted like a book, or a few, stacked on top of each other. Lyric nodded her approval, then turned the corner to the right and went higher. At the top, she saw that these bookshelves were higher, the books fatter. Across the way, she saw an identical giant book, and just as she walked over to it, the doors dinged open, and the rest of their group spilled out. 

“We beat you!” Celine crowed, but they were all grinning.

Everyone knew that the elevator was usually the slower way.

“Now this is the adult section,” Dewey waved a hand around. 

Lyric was slightly disappointed, she had been hoping it was the juvenile section. She observed that the bookshelves were much taller, almost touching the ceiling, and there were sliding ladders here and there. The shelves were spaced wider too, and armchairs scattered about the room.

Peering down the row that was by the elevator, Lyric saw that the windows seemed bigger.

“Well, since there isn’t much to see here, why don’t we go to the final level? You can’t take the elevator up, but you can take the ramp.” Dewey headed back for the stairs.

Looking, Lyric saw that the stairs turned up again, but it was a ramp now, not stairs going up. And so, the group filled the hall leading up and emerged into the glass dome.

They were VERY high up now, and looking around, Lyric could see that there were no books, just a walkway going around the glass dome. Approaching the edge, she looked over the railing, and down at the chairs below on the bottom floor. Looking across the way, she could see the walkway of the round area on the second floor that they hadn’t gone on.

“Okay, WOAH,” Celine said behind her. “Check out the floor!” 

Lyric let out a giggle, because she thought that Celine was about to say, “Check out the view,” and she doubted the floor was anything special. But. Lyric looked at her feet, and she stepped back from the railing in surprise. Looking all around, she saw the floor was a painted mural. Starting at her feet, she could see scenes that started in the morning, and behind her, she could see that the mural went all the way around, and ended at night. There looked to be several different scenes, some nature and animal areas, ocean, cities with people. There was even a place with dinosaurs.

Most everyone walked around the thing with their heads down, and when they came to a jungle scene, there were definitely shrieks as a cockatoo flew out of the picture and landed on Dewey’s shoulder, feather and flesh.

“Oh, yes,” Dewey said, not sounding surprised at all, “I forgot to tell you about Talk-a-Too. Just so you know, he is the only living animal actually in the paintings, so don’t think that tiger is going to jump out at you. Say hi, Talk-a-Too.”

“Hi,” squawked the bird. “Wordi Birdi.”

“Oh, yes,” Dewey let out a laugh, “But he rather be called Wordi Birdi.”

“Hey!” said Moon Wolf, snapping her fingers. “Yeah! From Wings of Fire, Willow has a cockatoo called Talk-a-Too, but Bumblebee mumbled that Wordi Birdi would be a better name!”

“Oh yeeeah,” Celine nodded. “I remember now.”

And they continued on. When they got to the dinosaurs, Scuttles looked strangely at one of the flying dinos.

“Heyyy…” they said slowly. “That looks like Ptheo, my pterodactyl.”

“Oh, were you the one with the dino?” Dewey asked, Wordi Birdi bobbing on her shoulder. “I should’ve assumed that he would’ve fallen in there. Here-” and she tapped the dinosaur with her foot. 

With a squawk, Ptheo flew out of the painting, small and about the size of a normal chapter book cover. Scuttles laughed, caught the dino, and held the small reptile in their hands.

Once they had gone a full length around the room, sometimes looking out the glinting glass at the world about, and sometimes at the floor, they started halfway back around so they could all go to the second level on the other side. That level had turned out to be mostly a study area, with desks, tables, and computers.

“And here,” said Dewey with a grin, waving her arms around, “the young adult and juvenile section.”

They were all back on the first floor, and Lyric grinned happily at the sight. The bookshelves were so tall, they really did touch the ceiling. The wood was the same color as the reception desk, a soft dark brown. Rolling ladders were on every shelf, and every now and then there was an armchair by a window, or a few bean bag chairs in a corner or at the end of a row. Lyric was fairly certain that this might just be the best place ever in the library. Well, that was before the cafe. 

“Who’s hungry?” Dewey asked as they came back to the place they’d started. Lyric saw that the cafe was open now, with lights on and the smells of delicious food wafting out. 

“Okay, food in a library?” Peri had to ask. 

“Like I said, the brownies come and clean everything, in exchange for living here,” Dewey said simply.

Peri nodded, and then went into the cafe. The others followed, and as Lyric ducked in, she caught sight of the sign, and it read:

Fantasy Foods

~Come for a spell to this charming cafe with hexcellent food and jinx~

Lyric grinned at the wordplay, then looked around the cafe better. There was a counter on the right wall, with stools in the front. Small wire tables with three or four matching wire chairs with cushions. The floor was tile, a tile was white with the golden writing, once upon a time, and then the alternating tile was a green book. The light was a soft golden color, and the walls and ceiling were off white.

“Hello, guests!” a cheery voice came from the counter, and from a swinging door behind the counter, a young man appeared. He looked no older than 15, but he was ridiculously tall, with shaggy light brown hair, a big smile, and kind eyes behind rectangular glasses. He wore a white apron, matching the tiles on the ground slightly by saying in golden writing, once upon a cook.

“I’m Harrison, and I’m your chef/server! Just tell me what food or-” he winked “jinx you want, and I’ll have it! Granted, this IS Fantasy Foods, so it’ll be easier to serve something that you’d find in books.”

“Wait, for real?!” Parody asked. 

“Yuuup,” said Harrison, looking pleased.

“Sooo, if I ask for some mallowmelt, you can give me-?”

Even before Silver Crystal finished speaking, Harrison ducked back through the door, and then came back out a moment later, and set a tray of that food on the counter. “Here!”

Silver Crystal approached the plate, pulled out a stool and sat on it. She poked the food with her finger, then picked up a square and put it in her mouth. She let out a little moan, and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they looked a little teary, and her voice was even a little choked when she said, “Thank you soooo much. The Keeper books always have a special place in my heart, and you totally made my day. They taste even better than I imagined.”

“You’re welcome,” Harrison smiled. 

Lyric glanced at the other CBer’s, who were looking excited. Then they all crowded the counter, and shouts ran out excitedly.

“Butterbeer, please!’

“Prattles!”

“Custard bursts!”

“Ambrosia and NECTAR!”

“Lushberry juice, AND cinnacreme!”

“Chocolate Cauldrons, 100% PLEASE!”

Harrison laughed, whipped out a notebook, and jotted down all the orders. Then he bowed, turned, and left the room. The group chattered excitedly as they found seats at the counter or table. Lyric sat at a table of three chairs, and Celine joined her with Parody. The two talked excitedly with each other, then turned and talked to Lyric about the library. Lyric warmed up to the two CBers, and then excitedly ate the food once Harrison came out with the food. Everything was amazing.

Once everyone was done, they all asked how to pay for the amazing snacks and meals. 

“Usually, you’d pay with money,” Harrison admitted. “But since you are guests, everything is FREE! But I wouldn’t say no if some of you would like to help here sometime.” And then he waved them out the door.

Dewey was behind the reception desk, typing out stuff on a computer that hadn’t been there before. She smiled when she saw the group streaming out of the cafe, and said,

“Same with y’all! If you want to help, say the word and I’ll give you something to do. Oh, and I forgot to tell you, the books are sorted by author's first name.” she glanced around, then found a clock above the revolving door. “People should be coming soon. But other than that, just do what you want to do!” 

Dead: 0

Alive: 15 (CelineBurningBright [Celine], WildWolf, Hex, Lyric, Periwinkle [Peri], Moon Wolf, pangolin, Eclipse, Scuttles, Cillian, Marin, Endless Parodies [Parody], Silver Crystal [Silver], Seadragon, Bushy Tail [BT, Bushy])

i love this so much! this is a wonderful story, and i love how descriptive you are. it's such a pleasure to be in it. <3

are you jaybells, hex, or perhaps...artemis? you seem more like artemis, to be honest.