There were books, books, everywhere; and not a spot to spare. She had them piled so high that poor Averella had to stand on TWO stools to reach the top of them. And after she had procured exactly all that she had wished to use, she found herself dropping back within her chair and craning her neck up at the towering walls all around her as she sighed.
"I wonder if I over did it?" she said with a nervous twitch of a smile. "No matter, this library offers quite a selection and I thank you for your-" but she paused, blinking to the vacant spot beside her as she finished her sentence with a curious rise of her brows. "Help?"
There had been a library assistant beside her but a moment ago, and now, no one stood there, not even a shadow. She stood up curiously, glancing around, but it seemed almost the entire side of the library she had taken homage in for the past six hours was all but vacant.
"Hello?" but no one was there, and her voice simply echoed up towards the tall ceiling of the famous library in Uthlyn. Sighing, she frowned and shrugged it away, before dropping back into her seat and burying her nose deep within a few hefty sized books, that of which by now were scattered across the table as if a storm had come through.
ALl of her books varied in what they contained, but the predominant theme was information collected on ancient Essyrni. And a few of the pages she had open contained crude images, long since faded from time, of mummies and the processes there of. Her finger traced along the wordings, frowning when she realized a few portions of text were so worn and old, they were unable to be read. And she sighed, wilting as if defeated before closing the book and shaking her head. But then she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, a certain, red leahter bound book, worn well from age that had the title pressed into the leather reading: 'The Secrets of Ancient Essyrni.'
Her eyes went wide, her heart beginning to pound heavily within her chest, but as she reached out to take it, she flinched back adn craned her neck up. Right.. the tower of books that now weighed down upon it. How was she to get it easily? Go one book at a time?
She could't even count how many books were crammed ontop of it, and noticing this particular book near the bottom was shifted, somewhat farther out from the others and ..perhaps if she could just give it a little push...
and push she did, but the entire tower of books began to wave. Gasping, she tried to push back on it's opposing side, to get the tower to calm down in it's scary wavering, however, the precariously tall tower of books began to topple back the other way now, and before she knew it, she let out a scream and the first tower of books went down, crashing onto the table and into the other tower of books, which they too, fell over, clattering into a messy, dusty heap upon the table and floor all around her as if an angry sea of books came forth and crashed through that entire side of the library and onto the floors all around her so thick in a mess, it buried nearly all of her calf high boots in books!
Coughing as the dust began to settle, she blinked and peered around at the terrible mess.
"Oh dear.." she said, tucking back some of her black hair behind her ears. She took a light step, turned around and noticed not a single book remained stacked...
which meant.... oh! The red book was free. Stepping gingerly over the mess, she swam through the pile of books upon the table, while a single, dainty boot lifted up into the air behind her as she craned over that table. And there, afte rpushing book after open book aside, she let out an exclamation of elation.
"The book! I've found the book!" but the second she picked it up, she ended up scattering nad knocking over another round of books off the table, those of which now fell onto the floor in another loud series of clatters and paper shreds. She cringed to think of all of the ruined pages from this fiasco. But she got her book! Her book! And shrunk awy to her chair to begin to flip through the pages, only to realize as her face darted over to the table...
the notes she had been taking...
THey were buried under the sea of her newly created book mess! And as she was gasping, the head of hte library stepped into the room, his jaw slacked open as he stared in awe and utter, repulsive surprise.
"Dear god woman!" he shouted, his voice echoing angrily around her. Averella whirled aorund, gasping to see the man wiht such an angry red face, one that matched his red robes quite nicely, or so she thought. "How in Angsar's green earth did you manage to topple over all of these books!?"
Averella only stared at him, her lips falling open to reply, appearing much like an opened mouth fish, but then she quickly closed it as the man took another angered step forward.
"You!" he said, jabbing an angry finger into the air directed her way. "Start spitting out an explanation! And I'll want a name, for these books are expensive and you will be severly fined if a single one of these books has been ruined by this mis- en-devour!"
Averella shrunk back. "I..."
"Well!?" he said, his hackles rising, his hands clenching into fists. "Speak up, woman! This place is a catastrophe!"
"I..." and she looked around, completely horrified to see the extent of the mess she was swimming within. But what was there to say or explain? She just so desperately needed that book and it had been how many thousands of years that she had been collecting research to find a cure....
"WELL!?" the man barked, and she jumped out of her thoughts and nearly out of her skin, finding herself sweating beneath his glare. "Don't you have ANYTHING to say for yourself!?"