Vlad was not the kind of student who was frequently found hanging around in the library. He was not the most studious of his year by any means, although he did certainly work hard to maintain decent grades, mostly in a quest to please his parents, both of whom were former Sonora employees. He succeeded in keeping around what Muggles would call Bs or Cs, although that was primarily due to the help of his sister, who was also smart. Otherwise he would’ve had to do more of the academic support stuff if he wanted to keep his grades high enough.
No, he liked the library not for its academic value but because it was just a nice environment. Vladimir was not necessarily a quiet person - on the contrary, he could be quite loud when excited, a state in which he frequently found himself - but the peacefulness of the place made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And he liked the librarian, too. Vlad thought that he was a fun man, and he made the library feel very accepting.
Today he was just sitting at a table not far from the librarian’s desk, not working on anything academic. In fact, he was coloring. His mom had given him a few of those cool adult-level coloring books for his birthday, and Vlad had been very excited to bring them back to school with him. They were a great stress reliever - not that Vlad was ever particularly stressed or even discouraged - so that was fun.
He happened to glance up from his work - in this case, a ferocious tiger which he was coloring green, the sneaky devil that he was - and noticed somebody walking not far from him. “Hey,” he said in just above a whisper. (It was a library, after all.) “Would you like to join me?”
12Vladimir BrockertThe colors of the wind1400Vladimir Brockert15
Are those anything like the colors of the gemstones?
by Tatiana Vorontsova
Pecaris were considered somewhat unusual creatures in the library, particularly the more boisterous and typical members of their species. Tatiana, however, was largely unaware of this fact. She had always liked to read, when she was for some reason either in a mood to or compelled to sit still, and at Sonora, a lot of time in the library had become a necessity for her – first, she had to study very hard, with a grim determination which would have surprised those who knew her only casually, just to keep up with everyone else in English, and second, the library was where she spent much of the time she spent with her friends. It was therefore a familiar, comfortable, even happy place in addition to being a frustrating one (as everywhere that spoke primarily English, and therefore every inch of Sonora except her own bedroom, was).
As a result, one of the first things she wanted to make sure to show her sister about the school was the library. Professor Wright had taken the new students on a brief tour of the school, but for all she knew it had not been thorough enough, and even if it had, it was possible Katen’ka had not fully understood. At first, Katya had been amenable to this plan, but once Tatya had shown her what she wanted to see – for some reason, history books – her sister had surprised her by thanking her but then telling her she could go, that Katya would be fine on her own. Mildly offended, she had done so, going to look for some books to help her with what they were covering in classes.
When she had found what she wanted, she had gone to check again on Katya, who had been sitting at a table, absorbed in books and still insistent she didn’t need Tatiana’s help. Now really offended, as well as slightly hurt, Tatiana had decided to leave, and was near the front of the library when she crossed paths with Vlad Brockert.
“Yes, ok,” she said, secretly gratified to have her company requested. This was proper Teppenpaw behavior, not like Katya’s insistence that she was fine on her own. “You – make pictures?” she asked, sitting down and putting her books in an empty chair. “Pretty, but – that is tigr, yes?” she asked, pointing to the picture. “I don’t know English word. He is orange, yes?”
16Tatiana VorontsovaAre those anything like the colors of the gemstones?1396Tatiana Vorontsova05