The Library

Act I: The Girl

7 Years Later...

The broom in the young boy's hands moved back and forth methodically across the tile. His mind was somewhere else entirely as he worked on the menial task in the dusty old room at the back of The Temple. Suddenly the door burst open and a figure ran in, slamming right into the boy and sending them both to the floor. Dazed, the boy slowly got to his feet and examined the figure still on the floor. A young Altean girl with short white hair, fair skin and grey eyes sat in front of the boy's eyes.

The boy stood gawking for what seemed like forever as the girl stared back at him, finally she said, "WELL, are you going to help me up or am I going to have to do it myself?"

Broken out of his trance Atlas quickly shot his hand out for the girl to grab onto as he mumbled an apology and asked if she was alright.

"That's ok," she said as she took his hand and pulled herself up, "I'm fine, are you ok..." she trailed off for a second as Atlas looked at her blankly "...what's your name?"

"Oh...I am Atlas," he responded, still a bit shook up by this new turn of events, "I am just a servant here at the temple.

"Hey, I recognize you," the girl said after getting a better look at him, " you're the one who looks different from the other servants...why is that?"

"Oh well I guess that is because only one of my parents was an Altean...or at least that is what I have been told, apparently my father was human but I do not remember either of them very well," Atlas explained.

Curious, the girl looked him up and down as if to spot the differences, causing Atlas to blush and look away. In contrast to her white hair, Atlas's was quite dark, an uncommon feature for Alteans.

"Well, you don't look so bad to me," Vellatha exclaimed after finishing her examination, this of course only causing Atlas to blush harder.

"My name is Vellatha, my father is the captain of the temple guard, so I live here and train so I can be a temple guard one day as well."

A small pause in conversation insured as they both looked at each other for a moment, waiting for the other to make a move.

"So, umm, what are you doing here, Vellatha?" Atlas finally blurted out, breaking the silence. Realizing his question was not very clear he continued, "By here I mean in this dusty old room."

"Well, Father wants me to train every day, but training gets boring sometimes, so I'm hiding instead," Vellatha answered.

As if suddenly remembering that to hide you have to be quiet she put her finger up to her mouth.

"Shhhh."

In the ensuing quiet they could both hear footsteps growing closer to the door. "Well, it was fun, but looks like I gotta go Atlas, see you again sometime?" Vellatha said, her tone suggesting the question was quite rhetorical.

Without giving him a chance to respond, she winked at him and then just as quickly as she had appeared she was gone, leaving through a door on the other side of the room.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8 Years Later...

"You know Atlas, I think Father is getting suspicious of my absences. We haven't exactly been that subtle about our relationship. It feels like whenever I'm not training, I'm with you," Vellatha told Atlas.

The pair sat huddled together in a small room in the back of the Temple. Only the light of the small candle Vellatha held illuminated the surroundings.