Jack took a deep breath of pure clean air yet untouched by the taint of eons of civilization. He hadn’t realized how thin the air was in the future library, but here, at the library of this earlier era, the atmosphere was still thick and filled his lungs with… not primordial, but a much younger and richer breath. He glanced back at the arched door he and Mara had come through. The door was already fading away, and with it his last glimpse of the future library. Mara stood beside him idly batting at a library card that hung from a chain around her neck. The odd little lizard librarian man had gifted her a complimentary Orange Basic Membership. Mara was particularly interested in visiting the Storybook Forest located just outside the main entrance. Toran’Sar had walked ahead to stand next to a man that was also dressed in the same ‘cowboy’ fashion of Jon Black. Jack scanned the vast space where all the shelves of books had been, but were now gone – even the shelves were gone. The only thing he could see in their place were glowing terrestrial globes set in tall ornate stands. Jack went to the two men standing at one of the globes. “Are you CC?” asked Jack. The man, big by even Aeden standards, held a finger up to his lips in the gesture of silence. Jack studied the globe, it was nice, and well crafted, with carvings of leaves and trees set into the stand, but he couldn’t see anything particularly spectacular about it. A movement from his left caught his attention. Another of the arched doors appeared and a group of Atan amphibians marched out of the door in a stately column. Jack could see a vast ocean through their door behind them. The Atans silently gathered around the globe. “What’s going on?” whispered Jack. The man Jack assumed was CC glanced at Jack in stern annoyance. “This is the Tomul home world, now hush or you’ll be thrown out of the library.” More arched doors appeared, and more people began to arrive. Within a few minutes the crowd had swelled to nearly a hundred people. Jack saw a group of Aeden Gatekeepers arrive, led by the Gate General himself. The man saw Jack and nodded, then led his group to a place around the globe. A Ruk arrived next leading three other Ruks. Jack knew them all, they were the Senior Historians of the RS-40, RS-72, RS-64, and the RS-2. The Senior Historian of the RS-40 seemed as surprised to see Jack as Jack was to see him. Jack had never heard of The Great Library until a few hours earlier, nor would have imagined that people he knew had secretly held memberships. Two Erodens arrived next. The lead Eroden saw Jack and stopped to gesture at him with… legs? mandibles? pointy things that looked lethal? Jack knew almost nothing about the arachnid species, then… Jack was fairly certain the Eroden was bowing to him. CC leaned down and whispered into Jack’s ear. “He is a great Eroden General and knows what is occurring on the time-line. He is giving his respect to the great warrior that has died 2,346 times to defend his home against over-whelming odds. He also knows you are the last Jack and the fate of the universe will soon be decided. Use the Ruk salute and bow back to him.” Jack made a fist and placed it over his heart, then bowed to the Eroden General. The Eroden chittered and took a step back. CC whispered to Jack. “Good, he now knows you are fighting not for the cruel Aeden that has brought terrible suffering to fifty galaxies, but for the peaceful Ruk that are known for their kind treatment of other species, to include the Eroden. He is no longer certain of the justness of the Eroden invasion.” Jack didn’t reply, he had never thought of the Eroden as anything but mindless killers. Did they really have a moral code? He didn’t have any time to think about it right now. The Zilinth librarian lizard men arrived and shooed everyone back from the globe. The lizard men placed a red rope, like you might find in a theatre, in a wide circle around the globe. The crowd was already hushed, but it was like the silence deepened even more while they waited for whatever was going to happen. Mara suddenly growled and leaned against him. Jack dropped his hand down to her head, and received a nip for the effort. Then he heard it… a drum beat, low and barely audible at first. Mara growled again. The drum beat rose slowly from somewhere far away, growing in rhythm and pace, its cadence calling from a place before time. The beat was primordial and lonely as it reached out, a desperate search for others of its kind. The beat entered his head and his thoughts swirled to a world without words or language. He shook his head to clear a gathering mist of something so ancient it held only emotion. He heard a roar and saw Mara enter the cordoned off area inside the ropes. He searched the crowd to see if anyone else was being affected by the drum, but no, they were just spectators. Something had called to Mara, and Jack was hearing it also. Another roar and Jack saw Mara stalking in circles around the crowd. Jack felt it, in her mind, a searching for another of her kind. Black tendrils of smoke rose from the globe in twisted vines that fell to the ground. The image of a round sphere with tentacles formed – it was a primordial Tumul, beating the cadence on a drum made from clay and stretched animal skin. Mara leapt into the air and roared again and again. She twisted and turned and spun on her powerful legs while her tail whipped in rhythm to the drum as she danced the dance of tigers. Conscious thought fled from Jack’s mind, he was linked to Mara’s mind and felt the primordial call to join her - He slipped under the red rope, and the lizard men moved aside to let him pass. There was no Jack now, no Mara, they were one. Jack spun, and twisted, and jumped in synch with Mara and the beat of the drum. He crouched and slapped the ground with his paws as a roar so primordial escaped his lips that the crowd backed away. Together, Jack and Mara danced the ancient dance of the tigers together. Jack roared as Mara nipped at him. He pounded his tail on the ground and grabbed her neck in his jaws and shook her. He was only vaguely aware of her roar of submission as she bowed to his strength. He was tiger – powerful, strong, and graceful. He released Mara and stalked the circle, roaring at those watching. His muscles rippled as he walked with purpose and primal majesty. The red rope fell away and the crowd fled even further from the ancient dancers. But he did not remain tiger, he was more. The Tumul, a telepathic species, infused their music with such powerful emotions as to cause the music to become a living thing, but this wasn’t the refined music they would eventually create tens of thousands of years from now, this was pure primal emotion. Jack became a flame against the darkness as he danced and spun. The flame grew until he was a towering inferno of outstretched wings dancing under the night sky with all the promise the great civilization the Tumul would become. He became the Phoenix of Creation that would burn into the minds of the Tumul people as they rose from the primordial forests of their world and cried out to the universe that they were there. The drum fell to silence as it had begun. Jack collapsed to the ground. He watched as the Tumulian drummer dipped the tip of one of his tentacles into a small clay bowl of dye and made marks on the back of a piece of dogwood bark. The Tumulian drummer faded away, but the drum and the bark remained as if forgotten gifts to the globe they lie under. The crowd began a thunderous applause as the Zilinth lizard men gathered around the drum and piece of bark. The Tumul had written their first book on the back of the bark - the marks a recorded record of the drum beats for other drummers to repeat. Another group of the lizard men carried a display case and set it near the globe, then carefully placed the drum and bark inside. Jack looked at his hands and arms, they were covered in ash. He searched for Mara and found her staring wide-eyed at him. Toran’Sar reached a hand down. “Come, boy, before someone asks for an explanation we couldn’t possibly give. I have never seen anything like that before, and I have no idea if what I just witnessed was real, or illusion.” Jack rose to his feet and moved away from the circle with Toran’Sar. The Zilinth hurried in and placed another display case over the ash Jack had left behind. He pulled away from Toran’Sar and went to the new display case. A plaque on the case read: First known sighting of the Phoenix.” Jack hurried away, the library even in his own time was too great a mystery. He wanted to be away from this place that defied anything he knew. He went to stand in front of the other man with Toran’Sar. “Who are you?” asked Jack. “I should ask you that same question,” replied the man. “I am Marshal Colton Cyness. Come now, this little display of yours is going to ripple down through time. The Ravens will soon know you were here. We need to go now.” The man shifted his gaze to Toran’Sar. “Open a door, get us out of here.” Toran’Sar opened a door with the view of a mountain forest beyond. Jack didn’t really care where they were going and staggered through the door. The two men followed. “What now?” asked Jack. “I’m going to teach you to be a Cettise Gunslinger,” replied the Marshal. “How long does that take?” “Ten years.” Jack laughed. “I can’t stay here ten years, we’re not in the library anymore, I’ll be 26 years old by the time I get back. My fiancé, Kalu, will still be 16. I’ll be too old.” “You were never going to marry Kalu, the Universe has different plans for you.” Jack looked down at his side where Mara usually was standing. “Hey, where’s Mara?” Jack and the two men turned around. Mara was still standing on the other side of the door in the library. “Mara, we have to go, those winged people are looking for us.” Mara batted at the library card hung around her neck. “The librarian man said I can go see the Storybook Forest.” “Mara, we’ll have to do that another day,” said Marshal Cyness. Mara sat down. “I want to go to the Storybook Forest.” Jack shrugged. “If she wants to go to the Storybook Forest, then that’s where I’m going.” Jack walked back through the door. Toran’Sar turned to the Marshal. “Colt, the Ravens will never look for us in the Storybook Forest, I think we’ll be okay.” Marshal Cyness sighed. “Everyone back in the library, because, you know, the Universe can wait to be saved until after story time.”