Civilians shuttled themselves around the mousy librarian Yomiko Readman, rustling her coat. Squirrels and chipmunks crawled over her feet. Vehicles kicked dust off the road, onto the sidewalk, onto her coat - and onto the pages of her book. She rubbed the dust off its pages and only then realised its words had gone blurry.
Yomiko took her glasses off with one hand and rubbed them off on her coat. Her book suddenly shook. She clutched it tighter in her other hand. She had dealt with the Monster Book of Monsters early in her Library Special Ops training. It shook again, and this time fell out of her grip. She quickly replaced her glasses, looked down, and ducked back.
The book thrashed violently on the ground, battling an unusual internal force. A distorted face appeared in the center of its cover, and suddenly a shiny black exoskeleton loomed over it. The alien shoveled the book up in its sharp claws. Yomiko sighed in relief at the book's survival.
The alien's long snout hissed. "Thank you for the gift, Agent Paper"
"That's my book!" Yomiko shrieked.
The alien's long legs swiveled and it started to walk away. "It's mine now!"
Yomiko took a notepad from her coat pocket, and with a simple flick made it into a stiletto dagger. "I'm not done with it!" She flung the dagger toward the alien's back. The dagger stuck into one of its scales, and the alien tripped her with its long tail.
She clutched the tail and started to crawl along it. Though the alien hissed and tried to shake her off, Yomiko drew close to its back, retrieved the dagger, and plunged it into a fleshy spot under its neck. As acid squirted out she dove away, landed smoothly on her feet, and offered a hand to the alien.
"Now will you give me back my book"
Like a beached whale, the alien flipped onto its back. The book was still in its grip, and the acid had eaten through its cover. "Noooo!" Yomiko yelped.
She flipped to the last chapter. It was still intact.
At least she could finish the story.