ORIGIN

The dog that answered the call held his brows furrowed in friendly concern, golden eyes glowing softly. The moment he spotted Wild, his white-tipped paws did a little dance across the floor. A broad, feathery tail swished behind him. "Oh! Hello! I'm Bentley!" he greeted, punctuating it with a little 'woof!'

"What sort of--knowledge? Which kind do you mean?" he asked. His tone was warm, friendly, and welcoming, and he looked back over his shoulder toward the library entrance. "There's books here! -I know how to read, mostly!" he added. He'd been working at it, under supervision and with help, for many cycles now and could almost read a whole book on his own!

Oh--but this stranger probably wouldn't know what a book even was! That was okay; Bentley was here to help. "A book is a bunch of thin slices of tree! So thin they're bendy and soft! And then Gembounds make little markings on them, and the markings mean things! And once you learn what all the markings mean you can understand what it says. It's like listening to someone talk, but on the tree slices! -Those are called 'paper,'" he explained cheerfully. "So maybe if there's something you want to know, we can find a book about it!"

Bentley paused, head cocking to one side, thinking. His tail then began to wag.

"Oh, err--I don't thiiiink so? We can check!" he added, enthusiastically, and turned to bound inside. Paws scrabbled at marble, claws clicking as he trotted in among the vast, towering shelves. "There are librarians but let's look at the books first! Most of the books are old! And... general... knowledge?" he hazarded.

He nosed along one shelf, sniffing his way, then another; at one point he stood up on his hind legs, white paw pulling at a leatherbound spine. "These are about how to build weapons!" He dropped back down, trotting over to another shelf. "And these are about cooking! And this one's about plants! And that one has... um." He paused, scrutinizing the title on the spine of the book, tail swishing. After a moment, he tried to sound it out. "'The Evo... lution Of Lan...joouah... Language! Among... Non... Migrat... Migrat-... Migra-tory? Neighbor... Cultures?" He squinted, for awhile, frozen in thought, and then shrugged it all away, turning back to Wild.

"You can learn just about anything here! But I don't think it's about anyone in particular. I don't even know if they were written in the caves!"

Nonetheless, he kept on, sniffing at this book and that, before at last dropping to his haunches and looking back apologetically. "Sometimes there's books in the restricted section but Isra says those are 'purely fiction' and 'only for adults.'"

Clearly, this would be questionable content at best.

"Yes!" Bentley barked, and--with careful prying of paw and chin--pulled the book from the shelf. With a practiced maneuver he caught it on his nose before it fell, then settled it on the ground and nudged it toward Wild.

"Here! I can help you! I can read! There might be pictures!" he added excitedly, tail wagging. "What do you want to learn about plants?" he asked, enthusiastically nosing the book's cover open.

The first couple pages were empty--leaves protecting the rest--and the third was a title, which Bentley quickly tried to read aloud. "This says--Sub... tropi... cal... Plants of So... South... Amer...ica?" he hazarded.

Bentley did not know what a South America was, but he plodded dutifully over to sit beside Wild, nodding to the book. "You have hands! So it will be easy! You can turn the pages, and I can read!" His tail swished the ground excitedly.

"You asked about Gembounds who lived here! But we do not just live here. We are caretakers of the books! We are librarians! If you want to be a librarian I can teach you about books and how to take care of them? There is a lot to learn, but it is fun. Then maybe you can join us if you still like it!" he suggested.

He read a few flipped pages. These were long, full of text; it took him almost twenty minutes to get through just a handful, his words still stuttering and stopping often.

The book's introduction spoke about soil conditions (he didn't know what that meant) and moisture, humidity, altitude and temperature. It spoke of canopy levels and sunlight filtration, and 'fenestration' of higher leaves (he didn't know what that meant, either, and he apologized as he told Wild as much). Then there were a couple starter diagrams depicting all of this--the levels of a rainforest, what the temperature and light were and so on at those levels, and what might grow there. This was, of course, not even getting into the individual plants yet.

Then Wild spoke.

Bentley paused, confused, as the monkey-creature told him what reading and writing were. "...I know!" he barked, after a moment, enthusiastic again. He was a librarian! Of course he knew that. And they asked his name-... He looked confused again. "I said! I'm Bentley!" He'd introduced himself, but maybe they'd forgotten. It was a lot to remember, after all.

"But okay! I can teach you," he repeated--in case she'd forgotten this too--"and after you learn maybe you can join us!" He thought about this, for a moment. "We have to start with... how to take care of books. Do you want to eat, first-? We have a cook in the palace! He can get you foods, even plants and fruits!" His tail wagged furiously. (Bentley liked food.) "And then--or now, if you don't want food!--I can start teaching you?"

"Okay!" he answered enthusiastically. Then he was off, trotting cheerfully toward the kitchen. "This way! I can tell you a little about librarianing-" (this was not really a word) "-while we walk! Our job is to take care of the books. That means keeping an In-Ven-Tory." Bentley pronounced this very carefully, and specifically, as though it were very important. "An In-Ven-Tory is a list of all the books, and where they are. And the shelves are organized! The topics are all in different places--I'll teach you where!--and then we organize them by title. That means the book name! Alphabetically. Oh-... I'll have to teach you the alphabet," he realized. "But I can do the In-Ven-Tory until you learn!"

He turned down a second hallway, glancing back to ensure Wild was keeping up, adjusting his pace for her. "It'll be good to have someone else there! -Anyway, then we have to note who takes a book, and when! So we can note if one gets lost. And if a book comes back damaged! Then we have to try and fix it! Menkheperre does most of all of that. But we can take the notes! It's so books never just go missing, or so one Gembound doesn't ruin a bunch of books every week."

"And--oh! Here we are. Hello, Nedies! My new friend! Wild! She eats-... Um." He glanced back at her, trying to remember what she'd just said in its entirety. "Fruits and plants and--insects? And--flowers?" He squinted. "I think I forgot something, but no meat!"