Closed Freezing the Midnight Snow [Liarra]

[Lorelle]

Timestamp :: 61st day of Summer, 513 AV

Books. There are so many books. Fat books, thin books, boring books, interesting books. Books, books, books. Lorelle never knew that she could ever tire of the things, but she has. Well she hasn't really tired of them. They just aren't as fun to think about and spend time around as that seems to be about all she thinks about these days. She spends quite a bit of time with them as well. Which is what she is doing now. In fact, she is working late. Well, later than normal. All the others who work at the small library have left. Lorelle decided to stay behind and work on some left over stuff. She wants to get caught up so that she has less to do the next time she comes into work. Though in truth, she will never be caught up. There will always be something to do. A new copy of a book to put away. Mistakes to be fixed. Calligraphy to be worked on. The tasks are almost endless.

Currently, Lorelle is working on trying to find where a new copy belongs. It is a fiction book, a romance as far as she can tell and it starts with the letter S. She isn't really confused as to where it should go, she is just slow today. Or that is what she keeps telling herself. Finally, she finds the place the book belongs. She tries to slide it in when she realizes there is no room. Sighing, she takes a step back and looks at the shelf and all the ones under and above it. There is room, but things will have to be moved around. It will take awhile.

Another sigh escapes Lorelle's throat. She does love her job, but this is rather annoyed and time consuming. She looks out the window. The sun is low in the sky, it will be night soon. Lorelle knows this will take longer than at nightfall. She will have to walk home in the dark. She thinks about it a minute, taking in the scent of paper and ink that is heavy in the room. She looks at the book in her hand. It smells fresh and new. Personally, Lorelle prefers the smell of old books. They make her feel at home. They feel used and loved, broken in. The new books don't. While the new ones are easier to read sometimes, Lorelle will always prefer the old ones. They bring back better memories.

Nodding to herself, the Vantha decides to get this book in its place and just walk home in the dark. She really isn't smart enough to go outside and feel the signs of a storm that is soon coming. She is to focused on what she is doing. First thing is first, while she can still see she goes and gets some lamps. After finding them and lighting them so that there is now a golden hue around the area she is standing, she gets to work. She starts carefully pulling out books and setting them in a way so that she can remember the order they go in. She starts shifting things around, trying to make room and hums a melody as she does so.

The melody really isn't anything particular, just a random progression of soft notes coming out from her vocal chords. It is done almost as a second thought. She doesn't think about it. It is just natural and sometimes annoying to other people. Lorelle does it quite a bit. It is a habit she has been unable to break. She does it mostly when she is bored or doing something that doesn't take all her her brain to do. So she does it now. She hums as she makes room for a new book that she doesn't even the storyline of.

As she works, she grows not really bored but interested. She looks towards the book she is making room for. She really pays attention to it now. The title is "Souless". Lorelle's attention is perked. She looks around, knowing or at least thinking she knows that there is no one else around. She lifts the book and starts reading the first page and then the second and third and so on and so forth. She is soon gripped by the story of a girl who feels controlled by those around her instead of herself. The girl says multiple times that she feels like a puppet on strings who is being made to go through the actions but not really feeling anything. She feels souless which, Lorelle guesses, the book is titled that. There is romance as well, a boy who pulls the main character to try and feel something other than what she is told to.

Lorelle relates to the story in some ways, but in others she finds it somewhat cheesy. The boy making her feel something? That doesn't exactly make sense to Lorelle as she thinks a woman can do just fine without men. Not as a whole of course, seeing as the men are needed for any species to continue, but they aren't exactly needed to "find yourself" or "your soul". At least, that is how Lorelle feels about it. It is a bit annoying in that way, but at the same time Lorelle finds it gripping enough to keep reading it. So she stretches on her stomach on the floor of the library and continues to read, ignoring the setting sun and what is the begins of a large snowstorm that will trap her within the library the rest of the night.

[Liarra Frostfawn]

Liarra stepped into the foyer of Avanthal's great - and only - library. She had just finished an early dinner over at the Commons and had come here to get some extra curricular reading done. As the young woman dusted the snow off her cloak she looked toward the front desk. It was oddly empty. There was typically someone there at all times. Taking her cloak off and hanging it on one of the pegs on the wall of the foyer, Liarra shrugged.

The clerk was most likely among the books, and Liarra didn't plan on checking out a book today. It had been a long day over at the wildlife manager research center, and even though Liarra had been surrounded by the hand written journals of her peers the Vantha wanted to do more reading. Animals outside of Taldera were of particular interest to her, as learning about them might help her with their Talderan counterparts.

So Liarra was frequently at the library. It had never occurred to her as a child that taking care of wild animals meant a lot of reading and study. She stomped her boots, still standing in the foyer, so as not to track more snow than needed through the library. There was a light snowfall in Avanthal at the moment, but Avanthal being Avanthal that wasn't out of the ordinary.

Before heading into the stacks Liarra looked around once more. There had been a few times over the Summer where Liarra had thought one of the clerks was someone she recognized. Not a friend, just another girl whose name she might have heard back as a child during her time at The Northern Star. The young woman shrugged to herself and rolled her eyes slightly. She wasn't privy to the work schedules of the library, and really, what did it matter to her?

With her long braid softly swinging side to side behind her Liarra made her way to the animal and wildlife section of the library. She fully expected to spend a few or more bells hunkered down in the library among all the tomes.

Courtesy of Thayer

[Lorelle]

Lorelle is absorbed in the story of the Souless book. She isn't a particularly fast reader. In fact she is somewhat slow. Whoever copied the book though wrote fairly clearly, but they used lettering that is on the larger side. It makes reading the book easier, but Lorelle doesn't understand all of the words. She stumbles over ones she doesn't know and just guesses, not caring to see if there is some way of finding out the meanings of the words other than asking someone who will know.

She is at the beginning of the third chapter when she hears footsteps on the floor. She looks around the room, but can only see the two shelves she is in between. She sighs, mentally griping to herself about how she is being pulled away from her book to see what is going on. She hasn't been here at this time of night before so she didn't know anybody actually came after what is usually the last meal time of the day. She is slightly confused, but decides to check it out for safeties sake. Though, she probably isn't being very smart considering the fact that she has absolutely no way to defend herself if their is something unsafe lurking around the corner. Maybe a book to someone's head, but that is about as far as her defense goes. She doesn't have her Talon sword and even if she did she wouldn't know how to use it really. She has been very bad about practicing with the thing.

Regardless of the dangers of moving about like she is to inspect what is going on, Lorelle moves to figure out what is going on. She doesn't have to walk very far before she catches a glimpse of the other figure in the library. It is fairly dark, with only a little bit of light. There is just enough of a glow that the Snowsong can tell that the figure in front of her is a woman. A woman of almost Lorelle's own height, dark long hair in a braid. A Vantha. Or at least, that is what Lorelle is thinking. Her nerves of possible danger disappear, not thinking that this girl could really do anything to her. She isn't positive, but it she doubts it. "Um Hello there," Lorelle calls to the girl, "You looking for something? Anything I can help you with? I am Lorelle, one of the clerks here."

Lorelle has decided to just do what she would normally do with someone coming into her place of employment. She wants to get the Vantha in and out of the library as fast as possible so she can return to her book. Though if the girl wants to grab a book and read, Lorelle isn't sure what she will do then. She assumes she will probably just help the girl if she wants it and then return to her book, checking in every so often to make sure everything is going well. Or if it looks as though she is bothering the girl, Lorelle will just leave her alone, only making sure she is gone by the time Lorelle herself is ready to leave. Sighing mentally, Lorelle stands there and waits for an answer, trying not to be to anxious to get back to her book but at the same time being nothing but anxious to return to it.

[Liarra Frostfawn]

The voice that came suddenly from nowhere at all made Liarra jump. Literally. She had been on her feet, reading the titles of the books on the shelves in front of her in order to find what she was looking for. Liarra hadn't found a book she wanted to pull out yet, and having been startled so severely that she had nearly jumped to the top of the book shelf her thoughts were now quite elsewhere. In fact, Liarra had been so caught off guard that if her braid had a mind of its own, it would have been standing straight up.

Liarra turned, searching for the voice, and promptly found its owner. Her eyes that had turned yellow moments before were starting to turn green again upon seeing the voice belonged to a young woman. The startled Vantha silently hoped that the light in the library was dim enough that the other girl couldn't see that her eyes had been yellow in fear.

"Oh," she cleared her throat. "Hello. I'm just here to do some light reading for a bit. I don't think I need much help, but I am looking for information regarding breeds of foxes outside of Taldera. If you know of any books about them, that is."

Lorelle? The name sounds vaguely familiar...

"Um, Lorelle, was it? How long have you been working here?" What was an innocent question out of pure curiosity came off in a haughty tone. Liarra's tone made it sound that what she was really asking was: "I don't know you, I know everyone who works here, and if you're new you probably can't help me."

A sound of haughtiness in her voice was something Liarra had "inherited" from her Grandmere. Unlike Grandmere, however, who could often be haughty entirely on purpose, the same was untrue for her granddaughter. She never saw herself as being above any other in the world, human and animal alike, it was only a bad habit that was entirely too easy to miss when she did it. However, that wasn't information everyone in Avanthal, even Frostfawn Hold, knew about Liarra. All too often Liarra had walked away from others unknowingly leaving a bad first impression.

Courtesy of Thayer

[Lorelle]

Lorelle looks over the girl, disapproving of the haughty tone. "So... She is one of those type of people." Lorelle states mentally, trying to keep her outer appearance look neutral. She just nods instead and forces a smile, happy the girl mildly sea green, irritated eyes. "Yes, that is my name," she confirms before stepping forward. She looks to the shelf the female is looking at. She looks over it quickly before picking out two books. "I've been here since late spring," she answers the second question with a roughness in her tone as she holds out the books for the girl. "One on all known fox species, one on the foxes of Taldera. Not what you asked for but you may surprise yourself and find something interesting."

Lorelle looks at the girl a minute before setting the books flat on the lip of one of the shelves. "I'll be that way if you need me," she says, pointing towards where she has made her little spot. With that, she turns on her heal and walks back to her spot on the floor where she sits down and leans against one of the bookcases. She gathers her thoughts, trying not to be to irritated or annoyed. She doesn't like when people think she can't do something. It makes her lash out. This is her job though and she doesn't want to make anyone unhappy. She could loose it for that.

With a sigh, the Vantha grabs her book off the floor and flips to the page she was on. She continues reading, soon to wrapped in the story and trying to read it that she forgets the girl's haughty tone and her own irritation. She also is to consumed to notice the whistling winds outside and how the storm is starting to get worse the farther the sun gets low in the sky. Soon enough it will be nightfall and she will be trapped here and so will the other girl who's name she never got. Probably it is best though, better to be trapped here than on the trail home, stuck in the snow.

[Liarra Frostfawn]

Before Liarra had been able to introduce herself, or thank the girl for her help the library clerk had brusquely walked away. Liarra stood facing the direction the young clerk had left in, her mouth slightly agape. She was left feeling completely bewildered by the experience.

What just happened? Did I say something wrong? Her mind raced, unable to find an answer as to why Lorelle had been so curt. All the while completely oblivious to how her earlier tone had sounded.

Liarra pondered over what she should do, if anything. It was times like these that made the young woman feel abnormal among her fellow gregarious Vantha. Social situations, while not bad or meant to be avoided, often troubled Liarra. What should say and not say to someone? What was too prying, and what wasn't showing enough interest?

She sighed deeply. As troubled as Liarra was feeling at the moment, she decided to take some time to let herself and Lorelle cool off. Grabbing the books Lorelle had offered, Liarra sat on the floor and opened the book on snow foxes to the chapter about mating. The young Vantha woman had already read the book; a few times in fact, but felt it would be interesting to compare the mating habits of the snow fox and other breeds of the species.

The second book, which Liarra had not read, was a rather large tome. There were various breeds and sub-species all across the known world and every entry was as highly detailed as possible. It even included a large number of drawings and sketches, which made Liarra wish she had brought her journal and charcoal with her to get some drawing practice done. She continued to read, and promptly forgot about the situation with Lorelle.

It was some time later when Liarra began to pick up on the howling gale force winds. The library had gotten considerably darker, and she had lost most of her reading light. Liarra had intended to go find Lorelle to ask for a little additional lighting, but the harsh sounds of the wind distracted her from that task.

Liarra made her way out from between the book shelves in order to find the nearest window. When she did, Liarra silently cursed her luck. She could see little outside, save for the heavy white snowfall swirling around. The situation outdoors did not look promising, and Liarra's eyes began to turn yellow with worry.

"Umm... Lorelle?" She called out, wondering if the other girl knew of the snowstorm outside. Or if Lorelle was even still in the library for that matter, and had left Liarra all alone.

Courtesy of Thayer

[Lorelle]

Lorelle is brought out of her focused state of mind when she hears her name spoken in the library. At first she thinks she has imagined it and almost falls back into reading the book in her hands. Something about how her name was said though makes her think that maybe she didn't imagine it. That maybe someone actually spoke it. It takes her a minute to remember the other person in the library. With a sigh, she stands up and grabs the handle of the lamp and starts looking for the girl.

She first looks for her in the fauna section of the library. When she finds she isn't there she decides to try and call out to her. "Yeah, I'm hear, what's going on?" she asks as she carefully walks through the library and looks in between the shelves. She is finally able to locate the woman when she sees her shadowy figure in the dim light. She walks forward, making her way to the window. "You called me?" she asks once she reaches the girl.

It takes the Snowsong a minute to catch up on the sound of the whistling wind. She turns to the window and she realizes that she can't really see anything. Just darkness. She can hear more than she can see. She lifts the lamp in her hand and it does just about nothing to help her see. She can hear the storm though. With a sigh and a bit of a frown she looks to the female who's name she still has not had the pleasure of learning. "It seems that we are stuck here. At least till it settles," she says, guessing it is a lot worse outside than it sounds inside. She looks around the library a minute, not really wanting to be trapped here but knowing it is to late now to be anywhere else.

"Well you better get comfortable, I think we will be here awhile. While I could be wrong ... Well I just know I wouldn't want to go out in something that sounds like that," Lorelle adds, "Do what you want though, I won't hold you here." With that she turns on her heel to leave the girl on her own again when she thinks better of herself. She sighs, turning back to the girl. "You are welcome to sit it out with me if you want, share what little bit of light I got left here till it goes out. Course, I will want to learn your name first. It seems most impolite to call you just girl or something of that nature. So your name, what is it? Or at least, what would you like me to call you?" Lorelle feels as though she is rambling, trying to over explain herself. She can't help it though, she does that when she is unsure about something sometimes. Almost like it is a defense mechanism or something like that.

With a mental sigh and a stern word to get herself under control, Lorelle waits for the girl's name for she truly does want to learn it. While she doesn't really like getting close to people, she does at least like to be polite and call them by what they wish to be called. It seems like the polite thing to do.

[Liarra Frostfawn]

Liarra nodded, silently agreeing with Lorelle's assessment of their current situation. "There isn't any amount of gold mizas anyone could pay me to go out in that. I just hope there isn't anyone out there."

"Yes, thank you, I would love to share your light," Was that as awkward coming out of my mouth as it was thinking it? She cleared her throat, one of several nervous habits. Right now Liarra really wanted to start fiddling with her braid. It frequently helped her clear her head, but she didn't want to look the fool.

"It would be nice to have a little company while being stuck here. Not that I'm afraid of the dark, or anything." Am I rambling? Am I saying to much? Gah! Liarra wasn't afraid of the dark, but she was nervous as to what to say to the other girl.

When Lorelle mentioned that Liarra had still failed to give the other girl her name, she became immediately flustered. "Oh! I'm sorry. I meant to introduce myself earlier but..." Her voice trailed off. Liarra had been about to say, "But then you walked away" and this time her intuition had actually gone off. It told Liarra that saying that probably wouldn't help her situation out.

"But, I'm Liarra. From Frostfawn Hold." She held out her hand, and felt incredibly awkward. Had Lorelle taken notice of her pause? Was offering a handshake the right thing to do? Liarra wasn't sure where she should look, and her eyes darted around. Even with a blizzard raging outside mere feet away from them, Liarra could feel her hand began to sweat.

Courtesy of Thayer

[Lorelle]

Lorelle isn't sure about this girl, but she decides to play nice since they are stuck here till the storm ends whether they like it or not. She puts on a pleasant smile and takes the girl's hand. She gives it a shake. "Nice to meet you Liarra. You already know my name so I guess I won't say it again... I don't know why I just said that," she says with a semi weird sounding laugh. She let's her hand fall from Liarra's back down to her side before looking at the floor and shaking her head. She looks back to the girl and gives another laugh. "I'm sorry, that was all really weird. I don't know what is wrong with me today," she says, being honest and trying to find her footing here. Liarra's rambling is starting to rub off on her. "Um how about we try and start over sort of? I'm Lorelle, your Liarra, we got that covered. Storm, light, let's go find a place to sit," the Snowsong suggests, trying to rid the area of the awkwardness but she just feels like she is making it worse.

She sighs and looks to the ground once more. "I am just making this weird aren't I?" she asks. Looking back to Liarra she tries focusing in on the girl and seeing if she recognizes her or anything. The name sounds vaguely familiar, like a distant memory from the past. The distant past at that. Like twirling in the snow as a child or a day at the Frostfawn stables with her father. Upon inspection of the girl's face though, Lorelle recognizes nothing. If she does know this girl it was from a very long time ago. "We should just go find a spot shouldn't we?" she asks but isn't really asking as she turns on her heal after speaking and starts walking back to her spot. She turns back towards Liarra, realizing she didn't make what she is doing very clear. "My stuff is this way," she tells her before continuing on towards the books.

Upon reaching her destination, Lorelle recognizes that it is going to be kind of hard for two people to fit here with all the books the way they are. "Sorry, kind of made a mess. One tick, I'll fix it," she says and puts the light down before hastily putting all the books but the one she is reading back into the shelf. Since she pulled them out and placed them on the floor how they were in the shelves it doesn't take to long and after a few clumsy tries she gets them all in as they were before. When she is done she looks to Liarra, realizing that they don't have to stay here. "We could stay here or try to find somewhere with a little more room. What do you want to do? I don't really care. We probably shouldn't keep the light on long anyway," she tells the girl. As she waits for a reply, Lorelle listens to the storm outside. She sighs mentally, sounds like they will be here for awhile. Great.

NoteItalics = thoughts

[Liarra Frostfawn]

Liarra was beginning to feel more relaxed now. It seemed to her that perhaps Lorelle was feeling just as awkward as her. What a relief. She followed Lorelle into the shelves.

"You really don't need to..." Liarra tried to say as Lorelle picked up the books. She didn't mind a bit of mess, in fact, when she worked indoors Liarra was always surrounded by some kind of "mess". However, it seemed like Lorelle hadn't heard her, as the other girl continued to put away the books.

And more awkwardness... Not being able to help Lorelle put the books into their places made Liarra feel just a bit useless. And awkward. Always the awkwardness. It just didn't feel right to her standing around doing nothing as someone else did all the work.

"Well," Liarra began. She too had kept an ear on the noises from outside. It was entirely likely the two of them weren't going anywhere tonight. Liarra suddenly thought of her family, and she hoped beyond all hope that her family didn't worry about where she was. "It really does sound like we'll be here a while. And, even with this," she lifted her left hand and bent it back at the wrist to show the small snowflake mark on the inside of her wrist. "It might just get a little cold in here."

Liarra wasn't too familiar with all the workings of the library. Was there even a fireplace or something similar to heat even a corner? Her cloak was still at the entrance to the library. I should probably get that soon. It wasn't of the best quality, but it helped keep her warm on most days while within the Hold and city.

"You know the library better than I do, I'm sure. Do you know of anywhere that might be a little more comfortable and warmer?" She put the question out there. Liarra didn't mind staying where they were, but she was a bit concerned a bit concerned about keeping warm. Ok, maybe more than just a bit, she admitted to herself as the roar of the blizzard seemed to get even louder.

Courtesy of Thayer