The Watcher in the Woods Chapter 1 - Love at First Feel

>>The ground beneath you feels cold and smooth, like polished marble.

>>Odd, you could have sworn you were standing on grass a moment ago. Maybe your mates dragged you indoors and left you on the kitchen floor

>>brain, damage report

>>++Still geting everything under control here. Eyes are having trouble opening, cranial damage is minimal, considering what Mr Arsehole did to us. And there’s no sign of alcohol anywhere, which is strange considering I would have gotten report from liver and Bladder.++

>> *groan*...All right. Focus on getting brain functions up to standard, I’ll work on the eyes.

 

>>After a few minutes of just lying there, you finally manage to get an eye open, and from you’re skewed perception of the world you see that you are not in your mate’s kitchen as you originally thought. Rather, Instead of the faded linoleum and wooden bench top you were expecting, you see the vine-ridden walls of a ruin worn away by the unrelenting passage of time.

>>Brain, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore

>>++Gee Dorothy, you think?++

>>Your jimmies rustling like the gentle breeze before an oncoming storm, you force yourself to get up despite the protesting aches and pains that run riot throughout your body. Thankfully your tricorn came along for the ride to wherever the hell this place is with you and - after placing it snugly on your head where it belongs – you set off to explore these strange ruins

 

>>Wow, this place is big

>>++No kidding. I’m guessing that this place used to be a castle once upon a time.++

>>Orly? What makes you say that?

>>++Well, there’s the size of these ruins, the broken stained glass windows, and the fact that we’ve just hit the throne room.++

>>...ah

>>The room that stood before you was awe inspiring to say the least. A large banner depicting two winged unicorns encircling an orb containing combining both the sun and the moon hung on the back wall. It was flanked by two high-backed thrones, one golden with red velvet upholstery and a sun motif, and the other made from Ebony with sapphire blue silk and inlayed with pearl moons and constellations. Both were situated on a raised Dias with a crimson runner stretching from the thrones all the way to the doorway where you are standing. The walls are bedecked with tapestries depicting what you think are equine analogues of the royal family doing various deeds such as defeating a chimera-like creature, uniting the scholars, workers, and soldiers of the land under their banner(gee they must really like their horses), and other such acts.

>>You look around the throne room taking it all in when you notice that the main banner is moving gently as if blown by a slight breeze.

>>++Anonymous, you should really check out what’s behind that tapestry++

>>What? Why?

>>++I have no idea, but I’m getting messages from everyone saying that we should go check it out and quite frankly I agree with them.++

>>O...kay, that’s odd

>>++What, you’re still here? Get investigating!++

>>Heeding your body’s demands, you pad over to the banner and push it away, revealing a small, unassuming door behind it. Opening the door, you find a dark, hidden passageway that you are mysteriously compelled to follow (along with a distinct lack of prehistoric mega fauna) leading deeper into the castle. Walking down the passageway feels right somehow, and although the light has faded to pitch black a few minutes ago you instinctively know the way, letting your legs carry you along whilst you ponder upon recent events.

>>Hey Brain?

>>++Yeah?++

>>Did you notice how all the tapestries and whatnots back there were in such good nick?

>>++Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. At first I thought that it may have been due to a dry environment like how mummification works, but the air around here is fresh, and even with preservation there would be signs of aging, and everything looked brand new. Also there’s the fact that you’re blindly walking down a passage that you’ve never even seen before like you’ve been here all your life. Something unexplainable has drawn us here, but for good or ill I know not what.++

>>Kinda waxed lyrical at the end there.

>>++Eh,  it felt right at the time. Oh look, we’re here.++

>>You see before you a stout wooden door with what you now assume to be the kingdom’s emblem engraved on the aged timber. Steeling yourself for whatever awaits beyond, you turn the ancient handle with surprising ease and open the door.

>>Torches placed around the room flare up as you step inside, giving you pause as you behold the wonders around you.

>>Woah

>>++Woah++

>>The flickering light reveals a room bathed in gold and silver. Miniature barding seemingly made for miniature horses are piled next to stacks of landscapes and portraits of colourful horses with comically large eyes and strange clothes (again with the horses!). Equine statues and jewellery are strewn across the floor, flowing across the floor in a cascade of riches.

>>All of these pale in comparison to the sight your eyes fall upon.

>>Enshrined in a glass case in the centre of the room is a beautifully crafted claymore. The blade measures a full 4 and a half feet in length and is polished to a mirror sheen. As you open the case you notice that you can see all sorts of mathematical formulae dance across the blade as the ruddy light of the torches plays along its surface. The hilt is an artwork unto itself, with the cross piece in the form of the busts of the same two winged unicorns you’ve seen pictured throughout this strange place. One polished to a mirror sheen and the other black as midnight. Both have their necks crossed over each other, their horns jutting upwards from the hilt away from the blade, their wings stretched out behind them forming the arms of the cross piece. The grip is a foot and a half of red cedar chased with intricate patterns of gold and silver designed to dig into the hands when gripped. All of this is topped off with a circular pommel engraved with a sun and crescent moon on either side. Gazing upon this you instantly know:

>>This sword was made for you, and it has been waiting a very long time.

>>At the bottom of the case is a harness made to carry the claymore on the back. It consists of a fabric webbing with large powerful magnetic strips spaced diagonally across the shoulders allowin for ease of the draw without impeding movement.

>>You strap the harness on over your coat before lifting the sword from its case. Gripping the sword by the hilt, the siren song sounding throughout your very being fades away, leaving nothing but a sense of completeness, as if at last being finally reunited with a long lost lover. The weight of the claymore feels comfortable in your hands, and as you move it through the motions of attacks, parries, and guards you can almost hear the blade singing with joy at finding its partner.

>>You place it onto the harness with an audible clack of the magnets adhering to the blade before checking your pocket watch for the time.

>>Hmmm, nine a.m. No wonder I’m hungry.

>>++Better grab some of the jewellery, you can use that to barter for food++

>>So with a pocket full of jewellery and your steel on your back, you close the door on this hidden treasury and find your way out of the castle