Mariusz's wings flapped slowly to hold him in place as he perused the upper reaches of the bookshelves in the Mansion's library. Blizzard conditions were making themselves known outside with driving snow and a stiff chill wind. He really had no desire to be outside flying about in this sort of weather unless it was absolutely necessary. By the time he got to wherever he was going he would be a complete mess with rumpled feathers sticking out every which way. Most unpleasant. Because of the abominable conditions outside, Mariusz found himself in the library this morning. He was really starting to wonder if there was anything that this place did not have. The room was floor to ceiling books with plenty of tables and chairs spread about for ease and comfort while reading for either study or leisure.

Slowly the feathered man floated along the bookshelves, clad in a comfortable pair of sweats and a hoodie with a deep hood that would easily hide his face. As he moved through the books he kept his eyes open for anything that might prove interesting, eventually coming across the name of one of his countrymen though the author in question was long dead. Franz Kafka.

Selecting an English translation copy of The Metamorphosis from the shelf Mariusz allowed himself to float gently to the ground. Furling his wings he crossed the library as quietly as he could and settled himself into a large comfortable looking arm chair and opened the book.

Mariusz lounged easily in the big chair he had appropriated for his day of reading. Idly the feathered man thumbed through the pages of the Kafka work as he read them. The Czech man was not the fastest reader in the world, especially when reading in English rather than Czech. Still, if there was one skill that almost all college students learned it was how to read quickly. Of course, a work with the length of The Metamorphosis, was not something that presented a terribly large number of pages to wade through and Mariusz finished reading it in about an hour and a half. Glancing over at the clock on the wall he noticed that it was nearly lunch time and his stomach took that moment to rumble to remind him of the fact. Placing the book he had just finished reading down on a cart to be reshelved the feathered man made his way out of the library to head off in search of food.

[Exit Talon]