sorry for the delay! D:

Element had, at this point, thought that he'd read just about every book in the Halifax library that there was to read, save the occasional non-fiction book that provided no interest to him, such as a book on mathematics that lay unread in the corner of the library. But in all his months of living in the library, he had never noticed that there was a second floor - having squeezed between two corridors to try and find a mouse that had slipped his notice, he found stairs; ragged, old stairs with rungs missing, but stairs all the same. Curious, he began to climb up.

Suddenly, however, the step below him crumpled, and with a yowl, he shot out his front legs to grasp the step above him. Looking down, he saw that he was quite high; even though he was a cat and, by definition, extremely flexible and had the ability to land on his feet, he didn't know if he could land on his feet this time while escaping harm. Behind him, the other step was gone as well - Element was trapped.

Frustrated at himself for not being more careful, his tail lashed and his hind legs dangled in the air; his white claws were dug into the step above him, and he bunched his muscles, preparing to leap with all his strength to the step above.

Element suddenly paused as he heard with his large and cupped ears a sound. Looking up, he saw and smelled simultaneously a wolf - he was white, and on the second story. Wondering vaguely how he got there, but more of how he was going to get up there, he saw as the wolf pulled of the bit of cloth he was wearing and lay it down so that Element could reach it, telling him not to leap like he was planning to, but instead grab the shirt and let him pull him up.

Element sank his claws into the cloth and waited for the man to pull him up - the plan was interrupted, however, by a cracking sound underneath Element, and with a yowl, he pulled himself up to where the wolf was, pushing himself all the way with his hind legs and resting safely on the solid floor of the second story of the library. Unhooking his claws from the shirt carefully as to not rip anything, he looked back down to the stairs; several steps were now missing, and although Element could leap easily to the next step down, he didn't want to risk it in case that one crumbled too.

He looked at the white wolf and dipped his head. "Thank you," he said.

Element was pleased when the man dipped his head and introduced himself as Tal; usually, canines were surprised that Element could speak with them, and said so out loud before introducing themselves - and in the case of the white woman Giselle, thought he was magical and attempted to pet him; Tal seemed to take it in stride, however, and for that, Element was yet again grateful. "I'm Element," he offered in return.

"Thank you," he said yet again. "And yes, I do read! I find books wonderful, and quite interesting at that - do you enjoy reading, too?" he asked Tal inquisitively; he assumed that he did, or else he wouldn't have been found in the library, but the library had its other uses, too - some gathered furniture from it, and wood, and yet others, to Element's disgust, attempted to take the books to use them as kindling for fire; Element put a stop to that when he could, but he couldn't always stop those were were so much larger and stronger than him.