#anywhere

She picks up the fur and pockets it to look at later

"Here we are. Paulo Coelho, T.H. White, and good ol' Charlie D." Mr. K says, holding up a handful of paperbacks that were spared the carnage.

"This can be fixed."

"Hole looks worse than it is."

"You know a carpenter, or a wood worker? Those shelves are vintage, they were here before I was. I was afraid we'd need to switch to something pressboard and pot metal from Ikea." Mr. K says, with interest. Then, he calls over to Arty again. "Your books? Ready to go when you are."

Arty is mumbling to himself and hasn't moved from his crouch.

Mr K. sighs - at least his friends are helping, and he's a soft touch... he'd have let the boy borrow the books anyways...

"Like.. no, like... you trim the edges, then set in a batch and reinforce from behind..."

"Mmm " The satyress looks up "It's not much but I think I found a copy of Frakenstein, the New Prometheus that looks intact?"

Her fingers itch and twitch, brain piecing together a plan.

"Oh, wonderful!" Mr. K perks up, and hurries over to check out the book.

Dee hands it over "Take a look for yourself, but not a dent that I can find"

Mr K. accepts it eagerly and starts flipping through with care, checking for missing pages.

"Pardon, I have to add this to the check list. We're recording losses, but how wonderful to mark off one as found." The librarian disappears back into the office behind the front desk.

Arty's books sit, unclaimed, on the counter.

"Arty? You still with us?" the satyr moves to him and touches his shoulder

"Yo, Art?"

He YELPs and flails at Dee as his eyes, which looked almost glazed over, snap back to reality, and - tips over, his legs asleep from the crouched posture for so long.

From the back room, Mr. K carols, "It's still a library, even if we're closed..."

"Sorry Mr. K.."

Then quietly "Dude? what's up?"

Arty gazes around in bewilderment. "It's not here? It's not here!" Arguing with, or triyng to convince, himself?

A little grump as she helps him up.

"What's not here?"

"The..." He blinks, trying to make sense. "You didn't see it? The figures in the dark - or they WERE the dark, and swallowed up the night... "

Brows rise under horns

"It ate the stars out of the sky, and there was... something..." He looks frustrated. "It was right here."

"I remember fireworks and stars."

"I found a tuft of fur " She whispers "We'lll look it over later. For now, get those books Mr. K is nice enough to let you check out. I'm gonna keep helpin..."

"I'm not remembering, it was RIGHT here...." He argues!

"Maybe you remember something from before? You said it was fuzzy."

He gives her a troubled look. "I don't know. I think I want to go home."

Shaking out his legs against the pins and needles.

"Okay. I'll get you there."

"Okay okay..." She calls out. "Mr K? Arty is feeling sick.. I think he got whiff of something sour.... "

Katrina hasn't even gotten to see if the microfiche viewers were damaged yet...

"Katrina is gonna get him home, but I'll hang around and help more"

Mr. K's head pops out. "Oh. Feel better - but if you DO feel under the weather in the morning - think of it as more time to catch up on your reading, mm? I'll see you tomorrow to check up on your progress!"

She pats his shoulder before crossing over to grab the books.

"C'mon, Art. You know how to do this now..." Leading him out and back to the scooter.

He follows after her. "They were looking for something, hunting..."