Five-year-old Swift searches his любим library for a missing book and finds a clue that points to a bigger mystery.
In the little town of Green Forest, the library stood with clear glass walls and warm light shining through them. Inside were shelves full of fairy tales, poems, and stories that smelled of paper and dust and rain. Swift, who was five, loved it there. He liked to curl up in the purple armchair in the corner and read until the world grew quiet.
But one morning, when Swift skipped into the library as usual, something felt wrong. His favourite book, Little Cloud's Wanderings, was gone. Not on the shelf. Not on the table. Not under the chair. Swift peered between the books again, then all along the row, but the gap where the story should have been stayed empty.
Swift hurried to the desk where Mrs Malwina sat with her kind smile and her neat silver glasses. "Mrs Malwina, my book is missing," he said, trying very hard not to sound too upset.
Mrs Malwina looked up at once. She checked the shelf, then the table, then the borrow list beside her. Her smile faded into a small frown. "That is strange," she whispered. "Very strange indeed."
Swift leaned closer. On the floor near the shelf lay a single tiny blue feather, and beside it, a narrow trail of silver dust leading toward the back of the library. Both of them stared at it.
Then, from somewhere between the tall shelves, something made a soft rustling sound.