Rashtra looked at the book in his hands, or rather tried to look at the book in his hands, one that was bound in coarse a leather-like material, with strange inscriptions. The book was larger than his palm; he could fit three apples in his palms, if he really tried he could probably carry a fourth.
Rashtra shook his head, 'No, that's wrong.' he thought, measuring the book's size in apples wasn't going to help him. He felt the book all over with his hands again, measuring it with his palms, he could tell the book was about twice as long an average ruler - 30 centimeters, or about 11 inches, and twice as wide too, as for breadth the book, it was almost as long as an average ruler - 15 centimeters, or about 5 inches.
'This book is...quite large.' he thought, and he was right; in terms of length books as long as 30 centimeters were definitely not unusual, but a book almost 5 centimeters wide and 30 centimeters long? And its added 15 centimeters in width? That was a heavy book, or a book that was supposed to be heavy, which for some reason it wasn't.
And Rashtra wasn't complaining about its weight...he would've been injured by the book, if it was as heavy as its usual counterparts.
He shut his eyes and thought back to how he found the book; the way he came across the book...or the way it came across him was pretty bizarre.
***15 MINUTES AGO***
Rashtra, looked at, or tried to look at whiteboard in his class. He knew exactly where it was, thanks to how many times he walked in and out of the classrooms, and how long he spent in there.
He listened to his teacher talk about wavelengths, and how different wavelengths meant different colours...physics sure was an interesting subject. It was the science of movement at its core, an important aspect of the universe, something Rashtra thought was cool to learn.
"For example, Red has the longest wavelength and Violet has the shortest..." the teacher continued to explain how light was perceived in different colours and Rashtra listened intently, it was the only thing he could do anyway.
As he listened to his teacher, he wondered what the colour Red looked like, he wondered how the cool Blue painted the vast sky, he wondered how the calm White on the whiteboard contrasted the tranquil and Black marker ink. The room he sat in had White walls, was filled with Beige desks and was floored with white tiles, or so he was told.
He noted the overuse of White in the room, and returned his attention to the words of his teacher.
BRRRRIIINNNGG
The ring of the bell signalled the period's end.
"Alright everyone, that concludes class, remember to do your homework, and study the electromagnetic spectrum!" the teacher said loud and clear.
'Ah, missed the end.' Rashtra thought, he was slightly disappointed from missing out on the lecture's end.
Before getting up, Rashtra moved his hand around to the right of his desk to find his backpack, and soon his fingers touched something coarse made of fabric, he lifted the coarse object and placed it onto his lap, and he touched around the backpack's front.
The backpack was a (supposedly) Dirty/Dark Green coloured bag with 3 zipped compartments, one for his books, one for his lunch and one for his stationery.
The smallest compartment located at the front of the backpack contained his stationery, which Rashtra quickly found from experience. He slid his hand in and pulled out an object, this object looked like a folded stick, and was folded into four segments, three of the segments were white, while one was red, the edge of red segment had cylindrical tip. The four segments remained folded thanks to an elastic loop holding them together. This segmented device is called a probing cane, or more commonly a white cane and is a tool used by visually impaired individuals to navigate.
Rashtra quickly closed his stationery compartment, stood up and wore his backpack. He neatly tucked his chair and touched around his stick to find the elastic loop, upon locating it, he pulled the loop off the segments, causing them to unfold and straighten into an actual cane.
He used the cane to navigate his way to the door, his steps were slow and careful. Rashtra's relatively long get-ready-to-leave-class session meant that the corridors weren't as packed as they were immediately after the bell rung.
Rashtra passed the cane to his right hand and fished into his pocket for his phone, and while he located the device near-instantly, he struggled to pull it out of his pocket. 'I can't believe capitalism' he thought to himself, slightly annoyed.
Soon he managed to pull the phone out of his pocket, and it came along with a pair of Black wired-earphones. The phone wasn't particularly old in it looks; it was a round cornered, delicate piece of metal and glass and looked like an old nokia on steroids. It wasn't touchscreen, alternatively it had an unusually large keypad making it easy to navigate the keys.
Rashtra wore his earphones and softly spoke to his phone, "What's the time?" he heard a gentle feminine voice reply, "The time is currently 12:07 pm." Rashtra smiled, not because of the time, but because he finally succeeded in changing the phone's 'Voice'.
'I better wash my hands and eat my lunch soon.' Rashtra thought, he wanted to read a book in his spare time, one he had been looking forward to.
He quickly navigated his way towards the restroom to wash his hands and use the lavatory.
After reaching the restroom, he dropped his backpack outside, but continued to navigate with his stick. He slowly opened the door and walked inside.
He removed his earphones as he walked toward where he remembered the toilet cubicle to be.
PLOP
He turned away and proceeded toward the urinal. Defecating was something he found a bit annoying because he couldn't tell where to aim. After a bit of poking he reached the urinal, he left the stick next to it and proceeded to touch the urinal to locate where to urinate.
Unfortunately their school wasn't very well off, which frankly sounded pathetic. They had one toilet cubicle and two urinals, but in their defence, there weren't many students either.
He soon understood the dimensions of the urinal, which prompted him to do his business.
...
Rashtra then grabbed his cane and navigated toward the wash basin to clean his hands. He knew where the washbasin was as unlike the urinal he used it regularly, and he had a good sense of direction.
As he washed his hands, he looked up, staring into the wall in front of him, a wall he was told had a mirror on it.
He finished washing his hands and quietly stared at the mirror
If he could see, he knew he'd probably see a relatively tall man about 18 years old, with a medium dark complexion, black hair and brown eyes.
Yet he wondered, about what the mirror could show him, had he been able to see. He thought about it for a few seconds and decided to leave.
He exited the restroom, picked up his bag and navigated his way to the library, his favourite spot to eat lunch, a spot filled with peace and quiet.
As he navigated to the desk he usually sat on, he looked around, he was told that the library was vast and filled with many books, most of them being donations to the school. The library's walls and floors copied that of his classroom, and in that regard every room and location in the school was the same, white walls and white tiles for flooring, quick and cheap.
He heard that his spot was located right next to a bookrack, but the rack was more or less empty, so he never really worried about a book falling on him. He looked forward, where he was told there were more desks, filled with people, eating, drinking and talking, albeit with a lesser intensity compared to their homerooms.
He then slowly set his back on the floor and sat on the chair and tucked himself in and he reached in to the second compartment in his backpack to pull out his lunch, which was lemon rice, with pickle as a side dish.
As he fished around for his lunch...
Thump
Something bounced on his head and landed on his desk, the object felt relatively light and was unable to hurt him.
He picked up the object and felt it with his hands, surprisingly it was another book written in braille.
As he moved his hand against the raised dots, he read something.
'A Comprehensive Study Of Shadows and Art.'
***PRESENT***
'Weird that the library has another book written in Braille...' he thought as he opened it.