A while passed. About two weeks if I remember correctly. Cyrus woke up as the sun shined through the curtains and hit his face. He blinked and sat up slowly with a quiet groan. He was in an inn room, obviously, but when he looked out of the window he noticed this wasn't the floor he'd passed out on. The snow was gone from the ground, the sky was clear, and there looked to be… sand? The boy stood and scratched at his own head. He couldn't find Eloise and Durthu, not to mention Meri was gone from around his arm.
Cyrus felt his face drop to a frown as he regained feeling in his legs and checked his surroundings, albeit slowly and carefully. He peeked his head outside of the inn room and looked back and forth through the hallway. Quickly, the boy skittered to the corner and just as he turned it, he bumped into someone. He looked up and held his nose, feeling like he'd just ran head first into a brick wall. He thought he busted his lip or something as he could taste iron in his mouth.
"Oh, you're awake." The voice sounded old and had a peculiar accent, one he couldn't recognize.
When Cyrus looked up, he was looking at some kind of dragon. Then the Sibyrath fight resurfaced and for his own safety he quickly held his sword between them, "What are you?! Who are you!?"
"I'm the innkeeper here, my boy." Said the voice, slowly pushing the blade tip away, "My name is Flolial, a friend of your friends Eloise and Durthu."
"And where are they?" Asked Cyrus, trying to move against the dragons finger. He couldn't.
"Ah you know, off adventuring and exploring and whatnot. The usual things all you Climbers enjoy doing." The reptilian, Flolial, waved his hand dismissively.
"Are you not a climber?" Cyrus raised an eyebrow, confused now.
Flolial smiled, his teeth sharp and pearly white, but his smile radiated a warm kindness, "Put the sword down and let's return to your room, I'll explain everything you missed out on."
"O… kay?" Cyrus still distrusted him, but he followed instructions.
"So? Where are my friends and where am I." Cyrus asked as he took a seat.
"About two weeks after we discovered you following your little fight, you passed out." Flolial began.
Cyrus interrupted, "I know that."
"Let me finish." Flolial sighed, "With the help of an attack team, including Eloise and Durthu, we managed to find and subjugate the boss of the previous floor and we made it here."
"So this is the third floor? Why is the environment so different from the second?" The boy asked.
"We have no clue how any of this works, kid. For your other question, while I categorically am a Climber I have no desire to get to the top of this tower." Flolial looked at his clawed hands, "I am merely an innkeeper, I go up a floor after it's been conquered, set up my inn, and allow for your lot to have a place to stay."
"And why are you letting me stay here? Why'd you come to check on me? Where is my pet?" Cyrus bombarded him with questions.
Flolial leaned away, "Gosh your friends were right, you do ask a lot of questions. I like Eloise and Durthu, good kids, so I'm allowing you three to stay here for free. I promised them I'd watch over you while they were gone, and they took the little hatchling with them on their journey."
"Meri agreed to go with them?" Cyrus sounded surprised as the last thing he remembered of the Lindywrm was that it seemed afraid of people.
"Hatchlings care much for their parents, I would know. He saw them taking care of you and knew they were friends, thus he decided to go with them to protect them." Flolial said.
"Where are they right now?" Asked Cyrus.
"They should be returning soon, as they usually don't leave for more than two or three days. Be warned though, they've become much stronger while you slept." The Draconi gave a warning before he stood and left.
"How annoyingly cryptic." Cyrus murmured and decided he'd bathe himself and wait for his friends.
.
.
.
.
.
About two hours after that whole little bit, Cyrus was sitting alone in the room waiting. He heard the doorknob rattle and watched as the door creaked open. He stood up to greet them but quickly something slammed into his face and knocked him down. He hit the floor and stared at the ceiling for a moment in utter confusion. He picked up a scabbard and blinked as he stared at it for a few seconds.
The boy looked at where it came from and saw Eloise with a funny looking scarf, and Durthu who looked just as surprised as Cyrus did. The human boy sat up and held out his arms.
"The hell was that for?!" Shouted Cyrus.
"Shuddup." Eloise snapped at him.
From around her shoulders came Meri, who chirped and wrapped himself around Cyrus's arm.
Eloise saw this and shouted, "Traitor!"
"Calm down, Eloise." Durthu laughed and patted her shoulder, "We're glad you're awake, Cyrus. Are you feeling okay?"
"Eh, I feel fine. Anything of note on this floor?" Asked Cyrus, standing up.
"A few things." Eloise said.
The two went on to explain some information regarding the third floor. The first thing was the fact the floor wasn't only desert, but rather it had two other regions. The first was some kind of tropical forest that touched the border of the desert to the west and the second was a grassy plains-like region to the east. Despite being in such close proximity to the desert, all three environments had entirely different temperatures and thrived despite meeting and seeming to be separated by an inch of space. The second thing they disclosed was the beasts and monsters they'd encountered so far, from giant beetles to some kind of burrowing creature that very rarely showed itself in the desert, to large monkey-like creatures and even talking tree people in the jungle. They had yet to find anything in the grassy plains-like region, but the other Climbers decided to set up camp in the desert due to there already being a sort of settlement here.
Cyrus nodded slowly and scratched his chin. He eyed his two companions and saw they were wearing different gear than before. He asked about it and Durthu decided to cover this topic alone. Eloise didn't change her armor at all, but she was using a different sword than the Sword of Thorns. Durthu explained she had made this decision because although the Sword of Thorns was useful, it wasn't needed in most battles so she decided to get herself a second sword. Cyrus looked over it. The sword was thin, made in a way he'd never seen before. The closest thing he could compare it to was a Jian, a kind of Chinese sword. He admired the craftsmanship as Durthu went on. The Orc needed armor himself, while he had naturally tough skin many things could probably pierce it, so he got himself the armor set he was wearing. The armor was plated, thick and heavy metal plates coated the Orcs body. Cyrus could tell how sturdy it was just by touching it, when asked how they got these items, Cyrus was surprised to find out they found these items while exploring different structures.
"Seems like I'll have to come with you two on these little expeditions, I need some armor after all." He motioned to himself.
"Yeah, you definitely do." Eloise punched him and made him crumple.
"Holy fuck you're strong!" He coughed and held his chest.
"You thought we were playing the whole time or something? We've gotten much stronger." Durthu grinned and flexed his arms.
"My ribs hurt…" Cried Cyrus on the ground.
"Oh suck it up." Eloise giggled, helping him back to his feet.
"Gotta catch up then." Cyrus rubbed his chest where he was punched, "I think you may have bruised me…"
Eloise stared at him, puzzled, "You have a healing ability?"
"Okay and?" He stared back.
Durthu, sensing a fight was about to happen, quickly intervened, "So you've met Mr. Flolial!"
"That dragon looking guy? Yeah." Cyrus moved his attention to the big man.
"How'd you like him?" Eloise asked, still regarding him as party leader.
Cyrus scratched at his chin and sat on one of the beds, "He's… alright. I'm not the best judge of character, but you three seem to trust him so, I'll trust him." He softly scratched under Meri's chin.
"Oh thank The Father." Eloise let out a breath of relief, "You didn't disrespect him right? He's older than us."
"How old? Because I may have pointed a sword at him." Cyrus whistled.
"He's 2,300 winters old!" Interjected Durthu.
"God damn is he old!" Cyrus shouted in surprise.
"That's what I said!" Eloise laughed.
The three went on laughing and joking. Meri was resting on Cyrus's arm with a calm expression on his adorable little reptilian face. They were so at peace with their life, it was honestly quite adorable… but this happiness would not last. This is quite the abrupt jump and I do greatly apologize, but allow me to skip forward two years.
By this point in their journey, they'd seen everything they thought they could see. This little trio were… on a… gosh, what's the human phrase? Ah! They were on a generational run. After only two years, barely even eighteen yet, they had climbed ten entire floors! That may not seem like a lot considering how many floors there are, but trust me. They were on quite the roll. They'd fought all manner of beast, large and scaly, small and furry, hairy with sharp teeth, heck at one point they even fought an envoy of Death himself! But they survived, they won, and they learned and grew.
Meri was bigger now, unable to wrap around Cyrus's arm and being forced to either walk or fly everywhere, the reptilian was starting to look fierce and grow into his regal appearance. Speaking of Cyrus, he had been staying in Flolial owned inns, so he was getting fed more than enough. The boy had grown about a foot and a half and put on some muscle, he was looking much healthier than before, he'd even begun to master and understand his Magik!
Durthu as well! The big man was soon about to go through an evolution, a very rare occurrence where he would transcend to the next in line for his species. He was getting bigger bit by bit, and stronger as well. He could probably bench press a truck at this stage. His hair was longer than before, reaching nearly to his knees, the unkempt nest of hair was… hard to clean to say the least.
Eloise, my dear Angel, she was growing as well. Steadily getting stronger and bigger, she was beginning to look less like a child and more like a woman now. Gah that sounds disgusting to say, but it's very true. Puberty hit her late, but by me did it hit her like a truck! She was taller than before, her face wasn't as child-like anymore, and she looked as if she could be a model. Her wings were larger, reaching a span of roughly ten feet, but with large and heavy wings comes an equally built body.
Altogether this little group was growing steadily, and I was enjoying watching their growth. But to get back on track, it's been two years now. They were searching for a way off of floor thirteen as they seem to have been stuck there for a while now and it was ruining their streak. But finally, Eloise believed she had found a lead.
Durthu and Cyrus were sitting in Flolials inn, part of which they'd turned into something of a smithy. The two boys were crouched over a fire creating new armor for themselves due to their growth. Cyrus was using his purple flames to heat the metals and Durthu was beating the metals into shape. The two were laser focused, but when they heard flapping and saw dust being kicked up they stopped what they were doing and turned around.
Cyrus let out a deep exhale and pulled at the dark tank top he was wearing. His hair was short, a bit shorter than it previously was and his eyes were brighter in color, as if they were regaining that light all humans have in them, "What's up Ellie, you found something?"
The Angel, fully grown with her halo and now golden wings, dusted herself off and adjusted her braids which were in a ponytail, "I think so. A big castle looking thing."
Durthu moved his hair from his face and pulled it into a ponytail himself, turning from the fire, his char black skin glistened with sweat, "Anything in there you could see or was it another blacked out one?"
"Weirdly enough, this one had windows I could see through." Eloise seemed nervous as she spoke, "But I didn't see anything inside… like at all."
"What? No monsters? Signs of life? Nothing?" Cyrus looked surprised, almost dropping the armor piece he was working on.
"Be careful! If you mush that one, we'll have to start over!" Durthu exclaimed.
"Hey, this is my armor. It'll be fine." Cyrus waved his big friend off.
"You two have been working on armor?" Eloise asked as she looked at the strung up metal.
Cyrus went back to smelting with Durthus' help, "Yeah. Been making me a new armor set since my last one got turned into swiss cheese." Cyrus said.
"How will you make this one stronger?" Eloise touched one of the pieces.
"We'll figure that out when we get there. This is the last piece and it's the chest. After this I put it all together using a secret magic of mine." Cyrus grinned and smelted the metal a bit more.
"What did I say about experimenting with new spells?! You could hurt yourself… again!" Eloise wanted to throw something at him.
"I will be fi~ne!"Cyrus waved her off and handed the metal over to Durthu who began to shape it.
Cyrus had overtaken Eloise in height. Now, by no means is my Angel short, she stands at a satisfying five foot nine… Cyrus just has peculiar genetics, standing at six foot three now. The two argued about… something stupid, I can't really remember. Durthu had long become used to their senseless bickering and was quite good at blocking it out completely. He was shaping Cyrus' chest piece when Flolial came out of nowhere and nearly made the Orc drop it.
Cyrus jumped as well at the sudden appearance of the Draconi and held his own chest.
"Come on old man! You can't go around scaring me like that!" Cyrus shouted.
"Oh shut up you scaredy cat." Eloise softly slapped his arm.
"Hello to you three as well. How have you been?" Flolial asked.
"We've been good. Steadily climbing and getting stronger." Durthu exclaimed as he continued to form and cool the metal.
"I think I may have found the way to the next floor, you gonna move up with us?" Eloise asked.
Flolial thought for a moment, "Probably not. The weather here is quite nice."
He was right. The weather on the thirteenth floor was quite nice and was perfect for Draconic species. It was a tropical environment, the sun was warm and the winds were nice, not to mention the surplus of beasts that could be captured and bred for food here. The Draconi could flourish in these kinds of environments, so it was highly likely a majority of the species, and their subsequent subspecies, would stay on this floor until a nicer one was discovered higher up.
"Well back to what I was talking about." Said Eloise.
"Right, the castle." Cyrus nodded, "Anything else you notice?"
"No, there was nothing to notice. It was like the entire thing was dead." Eloise hummed.
Durthu was doing the final cooling of the armor, "Maybe it's one of those things where we have to go at night?"
"Oh god please don't be undead. I fucking hate fighting the undead." Cyrus clasped his hands together in prayer.
"I didn't feel any undead energy, it's like the entire structure is just a blank space." Eloise held her halo in her hands.
No, halos are not locked in place.
"Let's check it out after I put this together." Said Cyrus, grabbing all his armor pieces.
"I'll go grab my stuff." Durthu wiped sweat from his forehead and left.
Cyrus took all the different metal pieces to his armor and put them together like a sort of puzzle. This new Magik he'd come up with allowed him to create ultra thin wiring with the initial durability of string, he used this wiring to slot each metallic piece together before imbuing these strings with Metallurgic Magik to harden and reinforce the strings, turning the strings into an amazing binder for the armor pieces. Now for the other problem, which was strengthening this armor. He scratched at his chin and pulled a small blade from his hip, almost pricking his own finger in the process.
On their journeys up these ten floors, over the course of these two years, Cyrus had discovered and refined an ancient technique known as Rune Binding. Rune Binding is an interesting technique, as it was invented by a long forgotten race (even by me!) that had no Magik of any kind. This forgotten race figured out how to focus the powers and energies of nature into special markings and engravings for different effects. This race was rather primitive though, so the technique was rough and had some faults, but with the help of Eloise and Durthu, our human managed to refine and perfect this technique. By engraving specially designed Runes into his armor, he could increase its durability and defensive capabilities, but this was a delicate process. To be frank, he shouldn't have been doing this with a knife on metal as the Runes could come out crude and have differing effects, but he had to hurry as they were about to head out and anything would do for the time being.
Eloise hovered over his shoulder, watching him work as he carefully and delicately carved a Rune into each part of his armor. When a Rune was finished being carved, it would disappear into the metal and become nearly invisible. She found this process absolutely marvelous, even practicing it herself sometimes. She could find wonder in anything new, even the simple process of smithing and metallurgy was interesting to her as she had only recently begun to see it with her own two eyes. She crouched down and softly ran her hand across one of the, now complete and faded, Runes.
"Such an interesting… art." She whispered.
"Art?" Cyrus looked up as he carved the final Rune into a leg piece.
"Yes, it's like an art. Especially when you make the more detailed ones." Said Eloise, her tone hushed in fear it could ruin the process of Cyrus's Rune Binding.
"It's a skill, same as black smithing or cooking. I don't view it as an art." Cyrus stood up and let out a groan as his back popped.
"You have no appreciation for anything, gosh." Eloise huffed and rolled eyes.
Durthu came back with his armor on and his axes on his hips, "I'm ready!"
"Perfect. Meri!" Cyrus shouted and let out a high pitched whistle.
Above the small buildings and shops that existed, a shadow passed over and wind followed. Cyrus watched as something, about the size of a car, came towards them. He smiled as the sun began to reflect and shine off of the unblemished white and glittering gold scales of his reptilian companion. The Aetheris, now grown enough to be ridden, landed in front of him and let out a soft huff.
Meri had developed eyes with a similar golden shade to Cyrus's own, but he didn't look particularly threatening. He was large, yes, and his two legs ended in talons, but an interesting part of Lindwyrms and their appearances are their apparent relation to… Geckos. Many Draconic or reptilian species may share appearances akin to that of a Crocodile, Alligator, or Komodo Dragon, but Lindwyrms are different. They seem to share a close relation to that of a Gecko and thus have a similar facial and snout structure to them. Not only that, but the existence of setae on their feet allow them to stick to walls, which made for some amusing situations.
"C'mon big guy, we're heading out." Cyrus put on his armor and started to walk.
"Why aren't you riding Meri?" Eloise asked.
"He doesn't like being mounted, so I don't." The human shrugged.
"And how would you know that?" Asked Eloise.
"I tried riding him, he shot me with lightning, I didn't try again." Cyrus quickly explained, "Now let's go, we have somewhere to explore don't we?"
"Yes, right, let's go! I'll lead the way." Eloise walked ahead of the group.
The three humanoids and one reptilian all walked together to their destination. They walked for roughly three hours, when Eloise's feet got tired she began to fly. Meri, the lazy reptile, got tired far too quickly from walking and flew almost the entire way there. They had to fight through a multitude of beasts of all manners to get to their location, but it was nothing worth noting. The trip was slow and tedious but after about two hours of walking, it became beautiful. Fields of flowers seemed to stretch on in every direction and looked very well kept.
Eventually though, they arrived. Cyrus and Durthu marveled at the structure in front of them. Eloise was on the money with her description, she just couldn't name it. They were looking at a Chateaux, a kind of French architecture. As Cyrus took in the massive and grand structure, the thought occurred that this entire area was part of its general occupied space. This idea of his was confirmed when the flowers they'd noticed previously seemed to originate here. Eloise crouched to smell one and let out a breath of satisfaction at the smell, even Meri laid in the flowers and curled up to smell them. Durthu and Cyrus got closer to the building before something… particularly odd happened.
As Cyrus stood at the front of the chateaux and debated entering, a weird feeling began to crawl up his back. He shivered a little and stared more intently at the building, when Eloise and Meri found themselves beside him. None of them had let out a single word yet, in fear of disturbing the blissful silence of the chateaux grounds. Cyrus touched a flower and ultimately, he nodded at the rest of the group to show them he decided on entering, and almost instantly, as if conjured from thin air… Cyrus saw something from the corner of his eye that gently flew past, without a single sound. Not a single creature he'd seen yet, aside from other humans, were from his world or shared any semblance of it, but coincidentally he saw… a butterfly. He knew for a fact it was from his world, because it was particularly a Monarch Butterfly. He wanted to reach out to touch it, but it flew off into the sky and was gone.
"Was that some kind of omen…?" Cyrus thought to himself, staring at the sky where the butterfly disappeared to.
He didn't think about it, this time at least. He approached the doors, expecting them to be locked, but when he turned the handles to the doors, they slowly opened. There was no creak, no creepy whisper of wind through the halls, no dust kicked up from the floor. Just like the garden of flowers, the chateaux was well kept. It was almost unnerving how it seemed to be regularly cleaned, not only that but it was big enough for Meri to fit inside the halls comfortably. The group proceeded with caution, checking every room and every corner as carefully as possible before moving on.
Oddly enough, they didn't find anything. The place was so empty, but so well kept. There were no signs of life ever existing inside the chateaux in the first place. Durthu looked out of a window, noting that the sun was beginning to set. He alerted the other two, who looked at each other with a puzzled gaze.
"We… got here a little after noon right?" Cyrus asked slowly.
"Yes, the sun shouldn't be setting… not yet." Eloise nodded.
"Hey, was this hallway this long before?" Durthu pointed at the ever-stretching hallway.
There was a long silence as the three shared looks.
Shit.
Meri climbed atop the ceiling as the other three began to run as fast as they could through the halls. They weren't finding any exits, and the interior of the building was extremely confusing. When they found some stairs, they debated running up them. They debated until Meri sniffed the air and turned around before letting out a chirp of surprise and fear. Upon looking, the group saw the figure of a woman standing at the end of the hallway. She was clad in white and had no identifiable features on her face. She didn't say anything, but upon noticing her presence Cyrus and Durthu had a sharp ringing in their ears.
Eloise didn't have this same initial reaction, but she did suddenly hear something. It was the sound of humming? Maybe instruments? It was hard to tell, but something was letting out music. Cyrus didn't have to stare for long before something in the recesses of his mind made him run up those stairs at full speed. He even got onto all fours to get to the top faster! Eloise, Durthu, and Meri followed his lead without a word. Upon getting to the top, Cyrus let out a sharp exhale.
"Is she following us?!" Durthu squealed like a girl.
"She… she's gone." Eloise looked down the stairs and where the woman once stood.
"You said you didn't detect any undead presences here!" Cyrus shouted, clearly exasperated.
"I didn't! I still don't, which means she can't be an undead!" Eloise shouted back, shaken up.
"Why are we even so scared?" Durthu asked, staring confusingly at the ground.
Cyrus was about to shout before he paused, "Actually… yeah, why are we so shaken?"
"Do you hear that?" Eloise looked around.
There was quiet giggling and laughing. Cyrus stood and looked over the railing of the stairs to see three children, of indecipherable gender, sitting there. He stared for a second and noticed they were partially translucent. He stepped around the railing and approached the children who were shushing one another, not seeming to pay attention to him until he addressed them directly.
"Hey…" Cyrus softly called out.
The children looked up and squealed in excitement before standing up and scurrying off, disappearing as moonlight came through one of the windows. The passage of time inside this place seemed to be slower compared to the true time outside. Cyrus began to slowly explore, the rest of his group following him. Then they found it.
Cyrus opened the door to a room and stepped inside. Meri was above him on the ceiling and calmly watching. Inside the room he discovered, there was a woman and three children. They looked clearly afraid of the strangers, and the woman held out her hand and held onto the children. The woman cried out in a language none of them could understand, it seemed she was trying to protect the children.
"No, ma'am, we aren't here to hurt you!" Cyrus held out his hands and backed away.
The woman continued to cry out in the unknown language, covering the children.
At a closer look, Cyrus could see she wasn't looking directly at him, and upon closer inspection she was also translucent. Cyrus blinked and suddenly she was clad in white and the children were partially see through. The woman cried out again and this time she screamed something that caused her eyes to light up for a second.
"Get out!" Cyrus pushed Eloise and Durthu out the room.
"What?! What's happening?!" Eloise almost fell when suddenly there was no more Cyrus.
On the ground, at her scream, a circle appeared. Cyrus could recognize that the circle was lined and covered in Runes. For the first time in a while, the boy couldn't actually recognize the Runes that covered the circle, but he assumed it was something bad. As soon as the circle disappeared, so did Cyrus. Eloise instantly started to panic and ran back into the room. She looked around and so no sign of either Cyrus or his reptilian, but neither the woman nor the children were there.
Now, this part is where things get a bit uh… iffy. When Cyrus disappeared, I seemed to have lost him. I couldn't actually find him, not then and still now I don't know where he went, but I know he was gone for four consecutive years without a single sign of him, and following his disappearance the exit for the chateaux appeared.
Durthu had to basically drag Eloise out, as she was hellbent on trying to find him, convinced he was somewhere inside the chateaux. As if sensing no one remained inside, the chateaux shimmered in the moonlight and disappeared completely, leaving behind a small box of "loot," I guess. I was angry at this time, due to being unable to find my favorite specimen.