Jason let his eyes wander the room as the bell tinkled gently above his head and the smell of old paper washed over him. He did so enjoy second-hand bookstores, you never found what you came looking for, but you always walked away with something. He strolled into the shop, absentmindedly picking up a basket as he looked over the section titles.
Fiction – Scifi/Fantasy…
Fiction – Young Adult…
Fiction – Children…
Ah, there it was. Non-Fiction – Philosphy and Religion. Always something interesting to find there. He made his way to the section and let out a sigh as he stepped between the shelves towering far overhead. He bit down a pang of fear at the memory of the Hedge looming overhead and took a deep breath, the smell of the books anchoring him. The books in Arcadia always smelt wrong. Too sweet, trying too hard to smell like books and not quite managing it. These books smelt right, he was safe.
As he collected himself he walked the spines, taking in titles as he went. Always interesting to see what each store stocked, as the selections were never quite the same, for all that they tended to follow the same trends.
Plenty of New Age books here, of course. He let out a long sigh before pulling one of the books from the shelf, 1001 Spells. “Probably rubbish, but then…” His mind drifted back to his time with his keeper and the unlikely looking book that heralded his freedom. “Better safe than sorry.”
He dropped the book into his basket and resumed his hunt.