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"Mastara Lendra?"
"Yes?" Lendra looked up from her work, neck spikes rising to acknowledge and greet the youngest of her library apprentices, a dark-skinned Human woman. "What is it?"
Danis pushed a handful of her gold-bedecked braids behind her shoulder. "I need you in the main library."
Lendra returned her attention to her work table and the clamp holding the book she was rebinding. She carefully hammered the exposed spine, rounding it evenly. "Danis. If the lights have failed in the Conjuration section again, you'll have to deal with it on your own. I've shown you thrice how to cast that spell."
"No, Mastara. Well, yes. But I figured it out after the second try." Danis held her hands a span from her chest and arched her fingers, imitating a Draconian gesture of embarrassment. "We had an intruder in the night."
Lendra dropped the small hammer on the table and splayed her blunted claws. Heat bloomed in her thorax and a puff of smoke emerged from her nostrils. "Intruder. An intruder? And you waited until now to bring this to me?"
"Well, I've only just spotted her. She's in Temporal Studies. And she's asleep, so I didn't want to bother her!"
Lendra flicked her forked tongue out and tasted the air. The scents coming from Danis held no fear or anger, nothing indicating danger. Lendra sat back on her haunches and rested her hands on her abdomen, calming her heat core. She slowly tapped her claws on her belly scales as the last of her smoke faded. "Is she Human? Draconian? Wingfolk?"
Danis bared her teeth, then quickly covered her mouth with one hand, though that did nothing to muffle the rapid patter of noise she made. "Sorry," she said.
Lendra lowered one ear to accept-dismiss the brief apology. As as much as it resembled a Draconian threat posture, the 'smile' was a Human indication of amusement and she had learned to tolerate it. The sound Danis made was another indication. A jiggle, if Lendra recalled the correct term. "What's funny?"
"Our invader. It's just a catling, Mastara."
"A ... catling?" She didn't know the word Danis had used, and she attempted to bring an image to her mind. "Do you mean a mountain catabear?"
"No, no, Mastara. Not a catabear. An ordinary housecat. A young one, a catling." Danis gestured a shape in the air, approximating the size of a hatchling. "About so big."
Lendra drew her nictitating membranes over her eyes and retracted them, her imitation of a Human's blink. "Show me."
Lendra followed Danis out of her office-lair and into the vast storage and work room. She nodded to a pair of Wingfolk couriers who were filling their carryalls with carefully packed scrolls and books for transfer to the branches in Oshela and Harborview. "Tell Drani that she still owes me six gold for that festival ticket," she said.
Krioc clicked their beak in a laugh. "Lucky to see it again," they said. "Drani grips tight."
Lifting her neck spikes in acknowledgement, Lendra caught up with Danis. "That reminds me. Find a spot in your duties to clean the landing perches," she said as they went into the main library. "Ekarc said the algae was building up again and they nearly lost three incunables when they slipped coming back from Oshela last month."
"Yes, Mastara. I'll have that done by end-week." Danis led Lendra through Alchemy and Thaumaturgy, around Beasts and Beings, and into Temporal Studies. They passed Hydromancy and Aeromancy, and paused at Geomancy, where Danis huffed. "She was right here just a minute ago."
Turning in a circle with her hands on her hips, Danis made a strange clucking sound. "Kitty, kitty," she said in a crooning tone. "Here, kitty."
Lendra's tail rose as a tiny chirruping noise responded. She held still as a small creature peeked up from behind the boxed set of Esterian's Futures in Faultlines. The creature had two triangular ears atop its head and emerald green eyes with slitted pupils, and when it slipped out of the shelf onto the floor, Lendra saw it had long multi-colored fur, four legs, and a plumed tail. It opened its mouth, showing tiny quadruple fangs, and made the chirrup noise again.
"There you are," Danis said. Without hesitation, she picked the creature - the catling - up and cradled it on its back in her arms. "Who's a gorgeous girl? You are," she said, scratching the catling's chin.
Lendra sank onto her haunches and examined the catling from a safe distance. It—No. Gorgeous girl, Danis had said. The catling was female, and she had closed her eyes and started to make a rumbling sound. "I don't know this creature," Lendra said.
"Really? You've never seen a cat?"
"I have not left this library since my nest-mother acquired it and sent me here to oversee her hoard," Lendra said. "And no 'cat' has entered it before. Is she dangerous?"
"Only if you're a mouse. Cats are carnivores. She hunts for her meals. Well, she can. Generally ones kept by Humans get fed so they only hunt if they want to."
"And the sound she is making?"
"It's a good sound," Danis said. "She's happy. It's called purring."
Lendra curled her tail around her feet and contemplated the catling. "You said she is a young one."
"Yes. I'd say about three, maybe four months old. She can take care of herself, but she was probably looking for a safe place to sleep. Cats sleep more than half the day, more when they're this age. The library is a good place for a cat, really. She wouldn't damage any of the books or scrolls. And there are lots of hiding places, nothing that would consider her to be prey, and you know we have mice. They're very self-sufficient and—"
"Danis," Lendra interrupted. "I see what you are doing. You wish to keep her and are attempting to present your arguments, yes?"
Danis's cheeks darkened. "Well. We could use one around the place. And she's so cute! I was planning to name her Stacks."
The catling stretched, all four limbs extended and toes spread, then began making displays of the claws on her front feet, alternating left and right.
Lendra blinked. The movements were almost identical to those of Draconian young, like a hatchling re-arranging its nest in preparation for a sleep.
The image warmed her blood. "Very well," she said as she stood. "The catling Stacks may stay. As you seem to know a great deal about them, her care will become one of your responsibilities."
"Thank you, Mastara!" Danis bounced in place. "Thank you very much."
"Speak with Theralin about accommodating her needs from the tribute funds. The Human accounts have plenty to pay for food and whatever other things she requires. And Danis," she said as she turned to leave. "If another 'intruder' appears, fetch me before you misplace it behind the books."
A few hours later, Lendra examined the various pieces on her work table, checking over her efforts of the morning. The headbands and muslin stiffener for the spine had been glued to the book block, and it was drying in the tightly-clamped press. The boards for the covers and spine had been glued to the leather and were drying on the table under felt-covered weights.
She would have to wait until she could reassemble the repaired book. With no other duties clamoring for her attention, she could take a nap.
Lendra dropped to all fours and strolled under the work table and into the short, sloping tunnel hidden there, emerging into her den beneath the library. The sensitive thermo-pits beneath her eyes picked up a change in the heat levels of her den, a very slight elevation of the temperature. She scanned the round space, flicking her tongue to taste the air, and immediately found the reason for the change: a warm-blooded creature. Stacks had invaded her territory for the second time that day.
"Hello," Lendra said to the catling sitting on the fur-lined rim of her nest. "Got past me, did you?"
Stacks twitched one ear and stared at her.
After allowing Danis to keep the animal, Lendra had taken a few minutes out of her day to read a text about cats, learning their behaviors, habitats, and characteristics. Like Draconians, they were often social in sleep, pressing against each other as they sought warmth and comfort. Lendra's den was the warmest place in the library, environmental spells and several thick furs maintaining her temperature while she slept.
Lendra made a gesture of understanding-sympathy to the cat, then slithered into her nest, careful not to disturb Stacks. She curled up, tail wrapped around her body. "You may join me if you wish," she said once she was comfortable. "I intend to have a short sleep and then I will check the tribute box. Perhaps there will be meat to share."
Stacks answered her with a trilling noise, then leapt down from the rim of the nest, landing next to her without a sound. The cat sniffed all around her tail and her neck spikes before tentatively putting a paw on her muzzle.
Lendra thought for a moment, then lowered her voice to a nest-mother's whisper. "Kitty, kitty," she tried, as Danis had done.
Stacks chirruped and rubbed her cheeks on Lendra's muzzle before falling over to rest on her back, paws bent over her chest. She gave a long sigh and closed her eyes as she made her soft rumble. Purring, Lendra reminded herself as she also closed her eyes. A happy sound.