Page 20 of His Human Librarian

“I don't need your help in this shed,” she grouses.

“I am doing this with you.”

“You're only doing this because you don't trust me to do it by myself.”

I smile down at her. “True, I don't, but I'm still here, so deal with it.”

She blows out a breath.

I open a nearby box. “What is all this?”

Taylor looks over my shoulder at the contents and then pushes me aside. “These are the monitors and this is my handheld scanner. And these”—she opens another box—“are mobile tech so that I can immediately start activating repairs and put a barrier around artifacts that will protect it from the elements and keep it intact until I can get it back to the lab on Gravian.”

“This technology won't harm what I found?”

“No, we have used this on countless other artifact retrievals with one hundred percent success. I've done this many times on large batches and it always works. And I'm going to be truthful with you; the cache in your cave is considered small.”

“Small, meaning that's why they only sent one small human?”

She rolls her eyes. “You still think I'm not worthy?”

I grin. “I’ve now upgraded you to reasonably worthy.”

She tosses her hair over her shoulder. “I’m kind of the best at what I do. That's why they sent me.”

“I believe that.”

Her shoulders soften. “You do? Even after how I behaved when we first met?”

“Your drunken, formal apology last night helped matters greatly.”

Her cheeks pinken. “Yes, well then… are we going to go to the cave today?”

I look at her. “Today?”

“Yeah, let's get started. Why wait? I'm dressed. You're dressed. Look. The equipment is here. I've got it. It's a nice day outside. Let's do it.”

I look her up and down again, noting her soft curves, lack of tail or horns. “We cannot get to that mountainside as easily as you think. It is not accessible by vehicle.”

“Hovercraft?”

“No, we have to arrive by riding beast,” I say. “And then the last part is traveled by foot on a rocky trail.”

“Oh.”

“Can you sit and ride a riding beast all the way to the cave?”

“I don't know what a riding beast is, but the name itself seems to explain it. Yes, I can do this.”

I look her up and down, noting the firm set of her plush lips and jawline.

I grin. “Follow me.”

At the barnTaylor eagerly approaches the beasts in their stalls, squealing with delight and loving the look of them. Her excitement for this mission is infectious. She is genuinely excited to start our journey to see these Hyrrokin artifacts, which is nice because I haven't shown them yet to anyone else. Part of me wouldn’t mind finally seeing someone else’s reaction to the interesting crates I only briefly opened in that remote cave one moon cycle ago.

I give her Leeta,the gentlest riding beast. Taylor sits her beast well and takes the reins with more authority than I’d first assumed. In fact, she looks good on her beast. I tell Tilden vaguely of my destination and how long we plan to be gone, not giving details of the cave yet, because I’m not ready to share. This could be a large thing we have found, or it could be nothing. Today I will find out.

I find I’m curious to see what Taylor thinks because she is indeed the professional when it comes to identifying the historic value of these tablets. The Librarian’s equipment can time and date stamp what I have, which is indeed highly valuable and it’s a proprietary tool, only used by Librarians from the Antiquities Council. I am now having to admit she is indeed the exact being I needed and maybe Erid’s need to call in the Librarians wasn’t as wrong as I’d first assumed.

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