The castle seemed to me without a doubt a living thing, its surfaces gently swelling and releasing like the belly of an animal. My skin felt clammy, damp– almost as though something were breathing down my neck. And then there was the sound, so quiet at first I thought I imagined it. A gentle beat rose from the floor, trembling in my bones with the resonance of something that lay far beneath the earth. A heartbeat.
Did I feel anything? I almost laughed at the question.
I felt everything.
The walls were inside my head, wary of the bright flames Morrighan wielded with such ease. With each step, the red carpet unrolled in the pit of my belly. But I knew all that was not what she meant. I lowered my horn to the floor as I walked, dragging it along the lush carpet with the delicacy of a butcher lining up a cut. In the wake of my touch a message sank down into the bones of this place. “A girl passed through here. Where did she go?” The red threads reached up with excitement toward my horn and hooves, although I did not slow my stride to entertain them.
The castle’s story was not easy to decipher. (places in general are not very eloquent, and that place was more guarded than most) But I understood haltingly the message, and I broke into a lope with a quiet murmur: “The throne room.” I did not speak louder lest the emotion leech into my voice. I was afraid… yet I was distinctly happy, too, for reasons I could not explain. A strange little smile curled catlike despite my grim expression.
As I pressed deeper toward the heartbeat of the island, it felt almost like a homecoming. Like I had been away for far too long from this place I had never known. It felt right, and only later would I realize just how wrong that rightness was.
I slid to a halt before a set of massive doors. They were cut from obsidian, a hue of black so dark it drank up the light of our fires and left nothing else. On the other side I heard a low growl– Furfur, I was sure of it, although I still could not reach him through our bond. I glanced once to Morrighan, and then with my horn I pushed open the door to the throne room.
@Morrighan <3
