The forty steps up to library entrance started out very wide but with each tier got narrower and narrower until, at the top, one felt like they had climbed to the top of a sort of flat mountain. There, at the pinnacle, were three doors. One was an entrance, another an exit, and a third was always locked.
Poople frowned. “Why have a dumb door that’s always locked?”
“I suspect the truth may be identical to the question: why do you ask me questions that you know I have no idea what the answer is?”
“So that door was designed to annoy Noople. Cool.”
The guard by the entrance door was completely covered in shiny, metal armor. He stood upright and motionless, with a razor sharp spear held in his left hand. The afternoon sun bounced off his metal boots, sending dazzling shards of light in all directions.
Poople shielded her eyes and scooted herself right up to the guard’s leg. Standing up as tall as she could, she came up to his belt level. “Is it cool if we go in, metal man?”
“They not supposed to move or speak unless there is an emergency.”
“So?” Poople scooted closer, so that even the summer breeze could barely fit between her frowning face and the guard’s leg. “I mean, that sounds like the worst job ever.”
“For you, maybe.” Noople gently pulled Poople away from the guard and through the entrance.
“But they talked to us before. Were they just less dorky before?”
“No, they were more under the influence of anger magic.”
The inside of the library was cold. Somehow, the marble floors and stone walls sucked the summer heat out of the air. The massive wooden rectangular desk of the checkout librarians stood against the far wall. Six busy clerks stood stamping cards and handing books to waiting customers. Closer, there was a circular information desk. A single clerk, dressed in a white shirt, and a black coat smiled at them through green rimmed glasses.
“Do you have any legs,” asked Poople.
The clerk guffawed. “Because you can’t see them, because they are behind this exquisite desk, they don’t exist, do they?”
“Maybe you’re just a torso screwed into that thing.”
Noople’s face turned bright red. “Excuse my friend, she has a tendency to say rather absurd things. We were hoping to peruse your mythology section, can you please tell me where it is?”
The clerk kept smiling. “Oh yes. Third floor, section six. Talk to the third floor librarian when you get there.”
Poople stuck out her tongue and turned away to stomp off but stopped suddenly and pointed. “Oh, look at that gorgeous fluffy gray rabbit. Hey little guy, come here.” She broke off in a run.
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