Draiks and Angels: Vignettes

Effe Mahlberg - Part 1

Based in Book #3

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Effe clocked in five minutes early for her day at the Sverige Central Library. She put her lunch in the fridge and double-checked her long, straight, blonde hair in the break room mirror. She had left it down today, but had some bobby pins in her purse if she needed to pull it out of her eyes later. She put said purse in her designated locker, pinned her badge to her light blue blouse, straightened her conservative, black skirt, and headed out to check the stacks for any serious messes left behind from the previous day before the doors opened.

Effe was starting to pull reservations when her coworker and fellow librarian, Blida, came rushing up to her as professionally as possible when obviously so excited.

"Effe!" Blida whispered animatedly. "There's a Draik in the library!"

Effe was super surprised. In all her twenty-eight years, she had never seen one of the black, webbed-winged people in person!

Blida continued, "A pair of Angels and he came in not long after we opened. Wanna go see?!"

"We really shouldn't be spying on guests..." Effe whispered back, "... but let's go!"

Trying to keep the illusion of being professional, the pair walked calmly into the main area of the library. Blida led the way into the foreign language section. Effe noticed a female Angel in the Anglian section and assumed she was one of the ones Blida spoke of. The pair continued to the edge of the Andalish section and Blida surreptitiously pointed out the Draik.

Effe could see why he was likely in the Andalish area. He was very obviously foreign to Sverige. He was younger than Effe and Blida: maybe by seven or eight years. His skin was copper-colored and his hair was black, cut longer on top. He was wearing cargo shorts and a light blue sleeveless shirt that really didn't fit properly. It was way too tight and a little short. She couldn't see his face as he was looking at the books on the shelves, but she recognized the shape of his shoulders that meant he was frustrated at not being able to find whatever he was searching for.

He picked up a book and thumbed quickly through it, then put it back with a huff. Then he strolled down the shelf, paused, and picked up a book that Effe recognized the size and paper quality as likely being a novel. He straightened up, looked at it a little longer, then flipped around to lean against the shelf and read. He had to open his wings some to get them out of the way of his leaning and Effe stared at them. They weren't open far, but they were so... different than what she had seen of the Angels. Not that she had seen many of those either.

Blida pulled out her phone and quietly snapped a picture.

"You aren't supposed to have your phone on you during work hours," Effe hissed.

"I'll send it to you~," Blida wheedled.

Effe paused, then started pulling Blida away, "Fine! But we have to get back to work or someone will notice!"

Effe spent the next fifteen minutes pulling reservations, quietly sneaking peeks at the Draik whenever she passed by. She noticed an increase in guests sneaking around to take pictures of him, but he didn't seem to mind. As long as they were quiet and didn't bother the other guests, she let them do as they pleased.

As she brought the cart back to drop off more reservations, she wondered where Blida was. Effe hadn't seen her coworker in a little while, and while she would believe the other woman might have gone back to peering at the Draik, she had just walked by that area and Blida wasn't there.

As Effe wheeled the squeaky book cart down the hall in the back area, the door to one of the storage rooms on her right suddenly flung open. Effe jumped to her left in surprise.