Lately I’ve noticed the librarian at the public library watching me whenever I’ve been there. She looked at me curiously at first, then she started giving me a calculating look. This time was an exception. She was obviously trying to avoid eye contact. I was looking at some fantasy books and when I looked up the librarian was standing over me. I quickly shot a  glance toward my Dad to see if he noticed but he seemed a little distracted.

“Kid, I need you to come with me.” she said, startling me. I desperately tried to get my dad’s attention without the her noticing. A difficult task which I failed miserably at.

“Kid, Stop that. I’m not going to hurt you it won’t take long.” she looked at me before adding “It’s about a book you reserved ”. She failed as badly as I did trying to give me a bored look.

“My name isn’t kid. If it’s about a book I reserved and you know what I look like, you know my name also!”.

“I… You… My colleague pointed you out to me and told me to get you”. I looked around her at the desk. A red-haired elderly lady with too much bright red lipstick on was sitting behind the desk.

“Sorry for being so defensive,” I said reluctantly. She looked conflicted and I could only imagine the internal battle that was going on. This must be awkward for her after staring at me for so long. She led me to the back where I noticed on one was around as we descended a nearby set of stairs leading to a door which appeared to be heavily locked.

“I don’t think my book is in there,” I said with a look of uncertainly.

“It’s not,” the librarian replied seriously. She took out a strange, metal key, unlocked the door and motioned me inside. Once inside this librarian, if she truly is a librarian,  pointed me to a table covered in ancient drapes with an ancient and enormous leather book bearing a metal symbol depicting a dragon along with crystal like projectiles coming from the fanged mouth of this dragon resting next to these intricate drapes.

“What’s going on? More importantly What is this?” as I rested my hand on the large and obviously ancient book.

“That’s yours. It’s called the Dreka. and this cloth is called a Dreki Handhafa,” she told me as she eyed my (clean) hand resting on it. I noticed and quickly removed my hand from the Dreka as I scanned around and saw the books surrounding this Dreki Handhafa.

“This isn’t mine. I don’t understand. Why would you bring me down here?” I questioned, Confusion clouding my face.

“It was left to you by my Grandfather” She replied.

“I don’t think I knew your Grandfather” I quickly snapped back.

“You didn’t know him” this librarian confirmed.

“Why would he leave something for me if I never knew him?” I continued to question.

“He knew you, even though you never met” she said cryptically.

“This is mine then. Can I read the Deka book?”

The librarian laughed and said “It’s called the Dreka and you can read it if you want. It is yours after all”.

I sat and read until the librarian came back into the room, never realizing she had left to begin with. As she entered she said “Your dad’s looking for you and I can’t think of any other way to stall him”.

“OK. I can tell him about this right?” I asked.

“Yes but do it in an isolated location after you finish the book” she said, this time with a slight smirk creeping into her face.

“Why do I have to finish the book?” I asked quizzically.

“Trust me, you need to finish the book and it’ll all make sense” She said, as the smirk now became a full grin.

“OK” I replied leaving back up the stairway.

To be continued…

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