Session 4 - The Forgotten Library

Classes are continuing in their normal fast curriculum, of course they’re not waiting for me to fix my previous report, so now I’m writing two reports at once. I have to cut back on sleep, and while I’m afraid it’s not going to make the report much better, there are just not enough hours in a day to do proper research on two subjects at once. I may have to fudge the deadline on the second a bit, in order to finish the first report to my liking.

Today Esi and Haibram told me there is an upcoming rowing competition, and they’re looking for some volunteers. While I still don’t understand why people would voluntarily take the chance to get wet or dumped into a lot of water, I’ve been told that the experience isn’t so bad for the hairless ancestries. But, I’ve been able to help out Esi and Haibram with thinking about a better shape for the boat and peddles, with some out-of-the-box questions. I mentioned the competition to my cohort, but I’ll leave it up to them to decide if they want to get wet, eh strike that, participate.

Another thing Esi told me is that the masking ceremony is also slowly drawing nearer. I’m going to have to work on a design, in between my previous report and the current report. Guess there goes another hour of sleep every day.

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This morning Teacher Ot asked our cohort to find some books for him. Not just to get them from the library, but to actually track them down, because they were not registered as checked out, the other teachers don’t have them and could nowhere be found in the library. During his investigation he found that a couple dozen years ago a couple of crates from the library had been moved to a new building that should have become a new part of the library, but for some reason the move had been halted, and the already moved books and crates were forgotten.

We went there, and understood both the comment on bringing a machete, as well as the library name. The entire building was surrounded by dense vegetation, and the building itself was carved out from a gigantic tree stump, hence its name: Tree Stump Library.

There was a lot more physical activity involved then you’d think if you’re asked to find some books, because large vermin and scrits (ink gremlins) had made the library their home. Those poor books, most of them are totally unrecognizable or destroyed. But after fighting off the squatters we’re able to find 4 of the 5 books that Takulu is searching for. We actually find the 5th book as well, but it was used by wasps to make their nest, so there was practically nothing left of it, not even Takulu could restore a book completely chewed up by insects.

Interestingly there were some scrolls and items left in the library, and since they were unclaimed for the last who knows how many years we can keep them.

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Maybe in the future when I’m done with the double reports I can go clean up the Tree Stump Library one way or another, because it does not feel nice to keep all those damaged and violated books there with no one to care for them.