You enter into the library and immediately notice that half of it is meticulously neat and clean, and the other is utter chaos. The room is very large, circular, with a high ceiling. Shelves line the walls. A crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling, shining soft light that comfortably lights the whole room. There is large desk off to the right, with a small slanted table nearby, a few things hung on the wall, and a large table surrounded by perfectly aligned chairs a little beyond the desk. On the other side of the room tables and chairs are scattered. All around them are piles of books and papers. There is a small path cleared that runs through the mess. You take a couple steps while looking around and decide to head over to the desk instead of trying to navigate the messy part of the library. Suddenly you hear some of the papers rustling.
A head pops out from behind a stack.
"Hi there! I just heard you come in," says the creature. "Please, come sit down!"
A body follows the head out from behind the pile, the same blue and orange you saw from outside. The dragon indicates a chair for you and then goes and sits next to the desk, not needing a chair to be sitting at the proper height to use it.
"Please sit, you've probably been walking for a while. Especially out there," the dragon says as he gestures a claw over its shoulder. "That Hall is quite long. Seems to me it grows a little longer everyday!"
"My name is Micath. I'm called after Anne McCaffery, as I'm rather fond of books." He stops and looks around.
"Sorry about the mess, it's taken me months and I only have half of this place cleaned up! The keeper of the Hall is a very nice person, but she tends to be a little messy and she can't spell either. She says she has asystem, but I haven't figured it out. I don't know if I ever will." He looks around again and sighs.
"When she asked if I would help her out with the Hall, I said sure. It didn't sound so hard, plus I'd finally have a place to live. You see, I was adopted by a friend of the Keeper, and then sent toher as a birthday gift. So I had been moving around a lot up until I got here. That was seasons ago, and I've been working pretty non-stop since then."
Micath is interrupted by a little creature dashing out from under a table and stopping at your feet. It cocks it's head as it looks at you.
Before you can respond, the little one breathes a small plume of fire. You suddenly feel warm and comfortable, and then the dragon disappears under another table.
"Don't mind that," Micath says. "The Keeper thought the library was a bit too cold for hertastes, so she brought in little Flame to keep things warm. Flame may be small, but that one suredoes give off heat!"
"Anyway, I've been trying to clean this place up. And organize! But there's still a lot here. I think I've cleared up all the spelling errors. If you see any I missed, please let me know. Now I just have to finish arranging things. Maybe put up some more pictures too."
You look up at the walls and notice that except for one window in the room just off to the side of Micath's desk, and a couple of pictures, the walls are pretty bare. But something about the window looks a little strange, almost as if it were actually... a picture! You realize.
Micath notices you looking at the picture. "Isn't is wonderful? With all the books and things lying around it fits right in. Sometimes I actually forget it's not a window. Though if it were things would get very drafty around here. All these papers might even get blown into more of a mess all the time! That would make it harder to organize, so I've asked that a real window not be put in."
"Now that we've rested, why don't I show you a few things? Hmm, where to..."
Micath is cut off by a small cry. It sounds almost like a baby, but more animal in nature, and it came from above you! You look up but don't see anything other than the chandelier. A second cry echos the first, and you realize they are coming from the chandelier! Micath smiles at you.
"Ah, it's sounds like our talking has woken the babies. Don't worry, they're just hungry."
Micath goes behind his desk and pulls out something you don't quite catch before he jumps into the air. His wings beat lazily as he rises to the sparkling and shining chandelier. You move around and crane your neck to get a better view, and suddenly between gaps you see them. Two... no, THREE hatchlings!
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You hesitantly ask why they are where they are. Micath replies,
"These little ones, we call them the Twins, are Sparkle Dragons. Their name comes from the fact that their skin and eyes, as well as everything in their immediate vicinity, tends to sparkle. When these two were born they had no one to take care of them. Since they never left them, they became quite attached to their eggs. When the Keeper found them, she thought they'd like it here, and she was right. The Keeper also thought she was only getting two, hence calling them the Twins. But when they arrived here there were three! The Twins immediately took to the chandelier because it was the only thing that sparkled like them. Since then they've been quite happy, and we've discovered that the chandelier now shines without candles!"
He finishes handing over the food to the baby dragons and looks around the library as he smiles broadly.
"I know, I can show you adoption papers and directions to where we all were adopted from."
As he lands back on the ground he says,
"I was adopted from the Adopt A Dragon Foundation by Lady Demonskrye. She's a wonderful person, and a very good friend to the Keeper. Obviously, since she brought the Keeper and I together! But she had also built her own place called Lady Demonskrye's Dragon Guard. It's a beautiful place. Unfortunately you can't visit the dragons the Lady has adopted, or adopt your own egg from her anymore."
"The certificates are in that book over there," he says pointing to the slanted table near his desk. On it is a large bound book for holding certificates.
Micath then points to a set of shelves filled with books behind the large table with chairs.
"Over there I think you will find some books you'll like. You can take them to that table to read, just be sure to put the books back!"
He then points opposite the door you entered the library through. As you look you notice a small doorway not quite hidden behind some boxes.
"That's the new hatchery. As if there weren't enough dragons around here already! Now new ones are going to be joining the old ones out their in the Hall!"
You head over to the shelves to look at the books. Most of them have titles written in languages you don't recognize. As you scan the shelves, a couple catch you attention.
When you have finished and placed the books back in their places on the shelf, Micath smiles at you. "Thanks for stopping by!" he says. "Come back anytime. Oh, and don't forget to sign the guest scrolls on your way out!"