Azurelle

“Is your writing going well?”

We were up at the lookout point on the steep ridge that descends from the cliff into the middle of the U-bend in the river. It’s the only flat spot on the ridge, protected by the top of the headland just above, and a small stand of stunted trees and black rocks around it. You can see the whole valley from here.

“I haven’t had time for it today,” I told the librarian truthfully. I’d asked to shadow him for the day, picturing an easy time reading or possibly dusting bookshelves, but Azurelle had me up at the crack of dawn, dashing hither and thither to gather materials for the drafting of plans for the next lair expansion. I was glad that he did the actual drawing, because he produced lines so smooth I wouldn’t have believed they were free-drawn if I hadn’t watched it myself, in the moments when I wasn’t running off after something he or the others needed.

Then he’d skimmed over the basics of his particular shorthand and had me file a whole shelf of meeting notes, and after that he put me to work taking down details about the experimental cultivation program from Tephra and Goss, which also involved a crash course in coatl so I could understand what Tephra was trying to tell me about seed collection and distribution. I had to tag along with Maliberte on a plant scout, which is what he and the other horticulturalists call their exploratory forays outside the valley for things that don’t grow here. Luckily, Goss, who spends half her time introducing hatchlings to edible, medicinal, and poisonous plants anyway, basically laughed and told me she probably didn’t have anything to add that wasn’t already in the records somewhere.

After that, Azurelle had me copy out a map of a section of mountains that Kyankith was describing from memory. The librarian loomed over my shoulder the entire time, making me remember the perfect lines of his architectural drafts from this morning. The pencil wobbled and I sweated through my coat, but he congratulated me anyway and Kyankith pressed his shoulder to mine before he left, which is a tundra gesture I guess he’s picked up.

And then, worst of all, Azurelle dragged me along to a nesting where he calmly talked the young mother through the egg-laying process while I cowered behind him feeling nauseous. The heat of the day made the smells of body fluids and distress worse, but in the end there were three eggs, and I was glad to go and fetch water to rinse them with, and then they were clean and glowing in the hollow stump and the mother didn't seem to mind that I couldn't stop looking at them.

After all that, it was good to get some fresh air up at the lookout, and I said so. Azurelle only replied with an “mm-hmm” sound, and when I looked up he was staring down towards the delta.

“Is it always this busy, being a librarian?” I asked, remembering why I was there.

“Oh, no, this isn’t a typical day.”

I nodded with satisfaction.

“My days are usually much busier.”

“What?”

He finally took his eyes from the horizon. “Having your help has reduced my workload almost by half,” he said with amusement. “Now we just have one last task to do before closing the library window shutters for the evening.”

“What’s that?”

In answer, he pointed down towards the mouth of the valley, where we could see three figures moving towards us. One was huge and dark, and the others were much smaller.

“Taking notes from the defense team,” Azurelle said seriously.

B and Jast were buzzing around Cruach when we got down to the valley floor. Goss and Eos had been called, and they worked over Cruach's injuries with B while Azurelle and I kept out of the way. He was rigid beside me as other dragons began to swarm around, bringing items that Goss was calling for or taking away pieces of Cruach’s armor to be washed, but he kept his cool and interviewed Jast in one of the moments where the white skydancer wasn’t making ice for Goss. Azurelle didn’t show any personal emotion until Cruach was out of danger and everyone else was drifting off to dinner, except B, who pressed her small, furry shoulder to Azurelle’s huge one before she went to check up on the nesting ground.

I kept back when Azh finally put down his own notebook and went to Cruach. I felt that this was the moment when librarians went away to give loved ones some privacy.