Open Knowledge should be shared [Valkalah Library]

[Adrien Dair]

12th, Fall 514 AV

The morning was still young and the city was alive. The young man had decide to make the most of today and visit the Valkala libary and retrieve some new text. Maybe read up on some of the scrolls and books of magic, but that would take time. Instead he thought of a more simple approach. Things for basic life. He figured that it was about time that he fed the simple side of life that he had been ignoring. So he would travel to the library in hopes of finding some useful guides to the basics, like cooking and gardening. Adrien walked down the halls of the acadamy, his mind wandering as he made his way to the library. Upon reaching the halls of recorded knowledge. He pushed open the doors and walked inside. The smell of the the older text filled his senses, causing him to smile widely. The young rhino quickly went to searching. His fingers sliding over the spines of the book. The feeling of the knowledge before him had his eyes darting from spine to spine. He finally pulled on out and opened it up. Slowly reading through its text. It was going over the basics of cooking. Cleaning off fruits and vegetables. Cutting them and preparing them for a number of simple dishes. His eyes were glued to the words. The idea of different knives being used to cut up different types of fruits and vegetables and the styles of how to do so were shown on the page.



A slight hum escaped his lips as he flipped through its pages. He stopped as he came to a recipe titled Honey Roasted Red Potatoes. "Honey roasted? Potatoes?" he said titling his head to the side. He looked at the recipe, his eyes scanning the words trying to memorize everything he could. "Salt. Honey. Pepper. Onion" he mumbled to himself. Reciting the ingredients back in his head. "I need to get this recipe" he said, closing the book. He looked back up at the bookcase. Once again looking through the books. The library was extremely quiet today. Very few people were in there. Adrien looked around then turned his eyes back to the books. He didn't mind. He enjoyed the solitude of the library and being able to read whatever as long as he wanted. He pulled out another book, flipping through it. "The basics to gardening" he said. He paused for a few ticks, ideas circulating through his mind. "I could grow my own food... Save miza's?" he said. He continued scanning through the book.

[Lynx]

Date: 12th of Fall, 514 AV

It’s strange, this new feeling. It’s like ever since I began using this power of hypnotism, I just want to continue using it. Although it really depends upon the person that I am using it upon. I have noticed that certain key words will make a person take a step back. Not only the words used, but also the environment and the current situation…
It’s all really hard to describe in words, but I do know this, it can be draining upon a person, it makes me tired after some use and that is when it happens. Small whispers, whispers that tell me that I should keep pushing on the person’s will. To bend it using my words, environment and the tone of my voice. Sigh…

Lynx had decided upon writing in her journal before she would start copying for Zandar and Kvanth, she hadn’t written one word since she had fallen and decided that she should write in it now to describe the feelings of power that she had been having lately. It was strange, for originally she had fallen as a woman that was of peace, but now… It seemed that hypnotism was beginning to pull her in, even if she did struggle against it. She waved a hand above her journal to dry the ink, her violet hues drifting away from the book in front of her. She didn’t exactly feel like looking at her own written words, for it meant that what she had said was true. Although, deep down she knew that she couldn’t exactly control it anyway. For every time that she was in a conversation with someone, she wanted to practice the art, to further better herself. There was so much that she didn’t know about magic and she wanted to know more, however, for now she had decided to settle for hypnotism. For she feared that if she practiced more than one, she would become even more addicted to the power that magic held.

A sigh reached her lips as her violet gaze slid back to her journal that rested upon the desk before her. Magic wasn’t the only thing that held power, for knowledge also held power. The more one knew, the more sought after someone became and she craved knowledge. So it seemed that she was destined to become a little greedy for knowledge and the power that came with it. It was then that she heard the soft humming coming from the shelves of books and she angled her head slightly. The library was generally very quiet, but it seemed that they had a hummer. Once she was sure that the ink upon her page had dried, she placed the quill into the pages and closed it, replacing the stopper in the vial of ink that she had been using. She would then stand, gathering these things into her arms and began to make her slow way towards the shelves to try and identify the source of the hum. It wasn’t as if humming wasn’t allowed, it’s just that she had never heard anyone hum inside the library before and so, she was curious. Slowly, she made her way along the shelves until she spotted the source, the woman paused for a moment to view the male.

From what she gathered of his words, he was looking for recipes? Slowly, she leaned her left shoulder against one of the wooden shelves while she shifted her things to rest within the crook of her left elbow. Her right hand would then simply brush back her white locks before lightly brushing down the front of her simple white dress. He was most definitely not an Akalak; he lacked the colouring of the skin. His gaze did seem to be very interested in the activity that he was doing though and she paid attention to that of his body language, it seemed relaxed. The lethafal also paid attention to those dirty blonde locks that framed his face and his eyes, they seemed to be very engrossed in whatever it was that he was doing. Something that she wasn’t exactly very sure of, for she rarely spent time down in this isle of shelving. She continued to linger for a moment before she watched him pull out another book and she decided that maybe he might need some help. She shrugged off of the shelf that she had been leaning upon to slowly make her way towards him, a smile curving her lips. ”Hey, did you need help at all?” She paused a couple of steps away from him and pressed her right hand, open palmed, to her chest as she introduced herself. ”My name is Lynx, I generally only copy things here, but I don’t mind helping people if they are looking for something.”

[Adrien Dair]

Adrien had become so wrapped up in what he was reading that he did not even know anyone else had been in the library. He especially did not notice woman who came to the same isle as him. "Different things grow in different seasons." he mumbled to himself. "But what about areas? Heights and different soil types should matter to?" he questioned. Flipping through the pages as he hunted his answers. He jumped as he heard someone else's voice. His eyes turned up to meet hers, the purple meeting his green. He remained silent for a few ticks before speaking up. "I am. A-Adrien" he said with a stutter. His eyes shifted to the ground, socialization was not his strong suit. It was not that he could not talk, but he was afraid of upsetting or offending someone. He looked down at the books, one tucked beneath his arm and the other still in his hand. "I um. I am just looking for books that can teach me the basics of things. Like cooking and gardening" he said holding up both of the books. "I found these two so far but.. I do not know what I am really looking for" he said. His eyes glancing up to her lips, slowly following the curve of her jaw.

His eyes traced the soft edge of her face before they met her eyes again. He blushed lightly, one would not be able to tell unless they were close enough. "You copy things? I um. I am looking for something. Non specific. For anything that might help. Something to learn from" he said. His eyes turning to the book case. He scanned the spines again. He was nervous, his leg bouncing slightly, as he looked for something to pull out. Anything that he could look at. To distract himself with so he would not feel rude for not looking at the woman talking to him. But her beauty had stunned him, and made the shy boys mouth not work. His brain was firing fully, but his lips did not respond. He could not find anything, his eyes would not focus in on the spines themselves. "I am sorry. I am kind of shy" he said, his head not turning towards her but his eyes did.

"I could use help. I'm trying to better myself for living alone and such" he said. "I have never really cooked something before. So I am not sure how" he said. His eyes remained locked on her even though his face was towards the bookcase. His fingers tapped on the cover of the books.

[Lynx]

Honestly, to Lynx, he seemed very engrossed in what he was doing before she had interrupted and it had been very interesting to watch him go from a guy who was very engrossed in the task that he had been doing to seemingly shy. She didn’t understand why, but she did learn that his name was Adrien. She had noted the shyness, mostly because instead of his gaze returning back to the book that he was holding, it had fallen to view the floor under both of their feet. His voice had also contained a stutter, which she wasn’t sure whether that was because he was shy or because she had startled him. The woman had not meant to startle him just that she was used to trying to move around the library with quiet steps. Not that she ever accomplished that, because her footsteps were still detectable by everyone. So it was mildly amusing that he had not detected her the moment that she had approached. Maybe it had been because he had been humming, or because of the simple fact that he had been very interested in the task that he had been doing, that he just simple did not detect her.

The man mentioned cooking and gardening and she perked a brow at him. It was interesting to say in the least, because she had never heard about a man being interested in cooking and gardening. It was… Different and she wasn’t sure if she liked different, especially considering that she had gotten used to the Akalaks and their… Ways. Not that she knew all of them, in fact the Akalaks still remained to be a mystery to her in so many ways, even though she worked with one… Well two. She would have told him that looking through a library of books without anything in mind was in fact rather stupid, but he seemed too shy to be able to say that. If she did that, she might send him running and Zander and his brother probably wouldn’t appreciate that. Which, speaking of the two, they were acting strange. Something of which she had noticed about herself and a couple of other people, it annoyed her to a point that she once thought that she was dreaming. Yet her frustrations and annoyances seemed far too real for it to just simply be a dream. Was this a memory? No, she could not think about her memory, it would more than likely set the spark of frustration that she already felt about her attention span, to fire.

A shrug of her shoulders was given when he had apologized for being shy, pressing her lips together, especially when her initial assessment of him being shy was indeed correct. She angled her head slightly to the right as she thought about whether she really should help him, before she finally decided to. The lethafal didn’t have anything else to do other than write in her journal and do her job of copying texts that needed to be copied. This man was speaking about being alone however and she knew just what it was like to feel alone. She had felt alone before she had gotten her pair of dogs, Snipe and Shadow. They kept her company for the most part, whenever she wasn’t at the library that was. ”Hmm… Well I’m not sure what we have on that specific topic, because my particular interest lay elsewhere, but I can look with you if you like.” She offered him a smile as she shrugged off of the wooden shelf that she had perched herself upon, only to walk forwards to face the same line of shelving that he was facing so then her violet hues could also peer at the spine of the books upon the shelves. ”Got any food preferences? Do you prefer the greens or meat?”

~Word Count648

[Adrien Dair]

Adrien's ear twitched as he looked up from his book. "That would be helpful if you do not mind" he said with a smile. "Greens really. But I do not mind meat every now and then. I'd rather cook things that wont cost to much and will be simple to make." he said looking back up to the bookcase. He felt a slight annoyance coming from the female beside him. He shook his head, ignoring it in a favor of a more serious mindset. It was not the first time he had to shrug off annoyance or some slight hate from others. Most Akalaks looked upon the man as something strange. He had his own way of doing things that did not fit into the norm. If there was even such a thing. In a city of weapons and fists, he was a shield. Ready to defend someone dear to him but trying to end things without bloodshed.

He looked over at her. Lynx? What a interesting name. He thought to himself then turned his head away. "What about you? Are there any particular dishes you like? I know you said your interests lay elsewhere. But I am sure that you have something that you like to eat" he said with a nod. For all his time that he spent in the library and just watching people outside. He noticed that most had some sort of pattern. Though he could not remember everyone's, he knew that he had one. Every day he woke up and did one of two things. He made his way to the sea of grass to spend the day in his other form. Or he went in search of knowledge. Studying, meditating or even just people watching. He tried to find something that could help strengthen himself and his mind.

The rhino continued to look over the books. Pulling out a recipe book, scanning a few pages then putting it back. Pulling another about advance gardening techniques. He shook his head sliding it back to where it was. Nothing stood out to him catching his interest. Cooking was something to live on. It was a way to make bland food taste better and usually a way to bring out more nutrients then eating something raw. But it still was not the first thing on the rhinos mind. There was a world of strange things out there and he could not even find something to help him get started on cooking.