Dragon Boy

11: Library

Kyle, feeling well, returned to class the next morning. The subject was history, and Dr. and Miss Finch were reminding their students for the upteenth time not to disclose information about the Academy or Familiars to non-Family members, or people who were not aware of Familiars and the Academy's existence. The cousins acknowledged that some planets did know all about everything that went on, and proceeded to explain how complicated these things were on traditionally non-magical planets and so on and so forth, until most of the class was dedicated to them investigating every nook and cranny of "these things". At one point, Kyle began to tune out his professors and really think about this for the first time. All around him was indisputable proof of intelligent life - not only elsewhere, but everywhere - in the universe, as well as of magic and mythical beasts, and he could tell no one about it. How did they ensure no one told? Did they have people follow the students around? Was it really possible that no one in the history of ever had told anyone about it? Maybe they did, and no one believed them. He thought that if someone told him at the start of the school year that there was a magical world where aliens gathered to learn about their mythical pets, he would have backed away slowly and assumed that the person was on some sort of crazy drug.

Eventually, the lesson began, but Kyle was too distracted by his revelation to pay much attention. It lingered with him for the rest of the day. He started to think about the school's history, and wondered if there would be anything in the library. But more importantly, where was the library?

"Maybe it's near the courtyard where we have our free period?" Elvia suggested at dinner.

"That'd be a good place to start," Kyle acknowledged. "We can check next chance we get."

"You could also ask your English or Grammar or whatever teacher," Nixie proposed.

"Grammar," Kyle told her. "I'll do that if I can't find it, but I feel like exploring could help us out."

Nixie cut into a hunk of meat with a stabbing motion. "Tell you what: I'll ask where it is, and I'll watch you two struggle."

Elvia giggled at that. "Why are you so evil?" she laughed.

She stabbed her fork into a chunk of her food. "Some men just wanna watch the world burn."

Kyle sat back a bit and his mind almost immediately returned to his revelation from earlier in the day. "I still can't believe we can't talk about this."

Nixie shrugged. "I guess I can. Like, if someone wanted to kill you, and you knew they did but you didn't know who they were, then would you tell anyone any information about you?"

He let that idea in. "I think I understand what you mean." But once that thought was done processing, he jumped right back his many miscellaneous thoughts of the day. "Does this make the little green man alien caricature racist?"

Nixie and Elvia both shook their heads, but they also laughed at the idea.

During Kyle and Elvia's free period, they searched for the library. They found classrooms and hallways that displayed art and other projects, a set of bathrooms with graffitied doors, a room full of plants, and a room full of mice, spiders, and snakes. They stumbled into the prop room for the school's drama club. They even found Mr. Connolly's office. But the library still escaped them.

"Do you think it's underground?" Elvia suggested at a point.

"Everything else is," Kyle sighed, "don't see why that wouldn't be."

So the two descended to the ground floor. They looked for another stairwell heading down, but at first they had no luck. Once again, it seemed that they could only find classrooms and storage rooms.