The Castle of Resurrection: Part Four

by phifi

The Way to the Castle

The next morning came over Neopia, dark and cold. Not high above the evergreen forest, thick, grey rain clouds were hanging and a chilly wind was blowing. In the heart of the forest, at the banks of the lake of moonstone, Antanie awoke because of the cold.

After she had completely awaked and gotten up, she had another careful look at the area, but nowhere could a sign of Shamathia be seen. Ati decided to go to the hidden castle right away, because it was only a question of time when it would rain. There might even be a thunderstorm, she though. Before she left the banks, she put some twigs in form of an A on the ground and a arrow which pointed into the direction she was about to go to. If Shamathia would pass this place, she could see that Ati had been here and to which direction she had gone to. She took out the copy of her map and enter the forest again.

Soon the forest had completely swallowed her, she could not see the lake anymore. Here in the wild and untouched parts of the forest, it was very difficult to come forward. Bushes and smaller trees were always standing in the way and more than once Ati wished she had taken her Ultra Bubble Beam with her to simply blast the way clear. However, she slowly made her way.

Shamathia awaked around the same time as Antanie. She watched the lake, which was now looking beautiful, deep blue and icy fresh. What should she do next? She had arranged with Ati to meet each other at the castle if a scenery happened like it did. But she had lost her map and absolutely no idea where she was nor where she had to go to. Should she just walk along the banks until she found the river by which she had been flown into the lake and than walk back next to it up the the grey river and back to one of the main paths? But what would happen to Antanie if she was still in the forest and went to the castle all alone?

After considering each possibility carefully, she decided to go to the other side of the lake to find out where the tiny light had come from last night. And so she started walking along the banks of the lake of moonstone, but the lake was even longer than wide and the way seemed to be endless for Sammy.

After walking for a very long time, how long exactly she could not say for her watched had stopped when she fell into the water, she made a break to eat something and to relax a bit. She sat down on a rock and opened the bag with the food she had found. The wild berries tasted very sweet and refreshing while the mushrooms seemed to give her back some energy. After drinking a bit of water from the lake, just when she wanted to go on walking her fell on a little blinking something in the mud. It had reflected a ray of sunlight directly into her eye, otherwise she would not have seen it for it was very small. She took it and removed the mud and dirt. First, it seemed to be a blue crystal, in shape of a cube but than she saw tiny black numbers which were carved on each side. It was a dice! This was really mysterious, finding a dice made of blue crystal on a place like this.

Shamathia put in her hands and shook it several times before she let it stop in on hand. It showed II, so two. Funny, but for a moment Shamathia had the strange feeling that it had become a bit darker around her... she put the dice into her pocket, had a lost look at the place where she had found it and went on walking around the lake.

Later on, the sun had already started to sink again, Shamathia found the place where Antanie had stayed last night and the sign she had left for her. But Antanie had also walked all day long and so they did not meet. Shamathia decided to follow her path right away, for the forest is not a place where one should stay alone over night. It was easy for Sammy to follow Ati's path, for her eyes worked in the dark equal as during daytime and also because path was still very new.

At the time when Shamathia found her sign, Antanie had come very close to the castle, or at least to the position marked on her map. She decided to climb a tree to have better view over the area. Maybe the castle could already be seen. Climbing on the ancient trees turned out to be more difficult she had imagined. The trunks of some trees were slippery while the ones of other had large spines and the twigs and branches were sometimes easy to break for they were so old. Finally, Ati had reached the top of one them and put her head above the green attic of leaves. Outside, it was much brighter and she could see quite far. All around her was only forest, forest and more forest It was like an ocean of trees. Far out in the distance, at the horizon, she thought to see the central mountains of Neopia, but she was not really sure. And than she suddenly saw the tower. It was only about half a kilometer away but she had not seen it at once because it was covered with weeds and ivy. Was this the castle? A single tower? Or was it only an outpost, a kind of guard tower of the castle? However, Ati knew where she had to go to. Maybe she could also stay in the tower for tonight, the clouds looked more like rain than ever before and the idea of a great thunderstorm lay in the air.

***

At dusk, Antanie had arrived at the tower, but what she saw was shattering: She had found the castle, or at least what had been left of it. The tower was the only part which could be recognized as a building. The main house was broken down up to the ground walls, grass, little bushes and already some trees had started to grow between the large undressed stones. The guard walls and turrets were not existing anymore and the tower was also looking rather like a ruin. It's roof had big holes and the walls were partly broken as well. The whole compound looked as if it had been deserted since ages and the forest was slowly taken back it's territory.

The clouds had tighten and some raindrops were already falling on Antanie. The clouds were just about to drop their load which would certainly unleash a thunderstorm. Ati decided to search the tower if she could find anything of interest, but she did not really believe she would. The whole plan had been silly, what else than this had she expected to find? She gained access to the tower through the main entrance. The wooden gate was so rotten that it broke easily. But it had been locked from inside once, long ago. Inside it was very dark and cold. Ati was standing in a large entrance hall. Around her were old and broken furniture, filth and over everything a thick layer of dust. Obviously, someone had been here for years. Outside the storm was now completely in progress, she could her the rain drumming on the attic. Somewhere water was leaking in. Ati decided to stay here for tonight, but before she wanted to search the tower carefully. Sometimes, deserted buildings in lonely areas are occupied by little friendly fellows or creatures.

Left the entrance hall was a little room which seemed to be the guards' room. There was only a broken table and two chairs, also broken in it, something of interest. It become darker outside, and so Ati took out her torch which never went out by magic and illuminated the scenery with it's pale light. She went back to the entrance hall, crossed it and enter another room. This one looked as if it had been a store room. Rotten shelves and cupboards were lying on the floor and in a corner stood some barrels. Ati let the light of her torch move from one side of the room to the other, than she went to the barrels, but they were open and empty. Ati left the store room and went back into the hall. From there she entered the last room. It was a stairwell. Some very used looking stone steps were going up- and downstairs. The way downstairs was blocked by some huge stones which had fallen out of the ceiling, so Ati went up stairs.

The first floor was completely empty. Through a big crack in one wall, Ati watched the storm outside for some time, before she went to the second floor. The second floor turned out to be better preserved than the rest of the tower. Maybe it been used longer than the other parts... Ati searched the rooms carefully, and with some imagination she could see in front of her inner eye how beautiful the tower must have been in past days. There was a large dinning-room with an incredible long table in it, in a corner Ati discovered a small shaft in the wall which was leading down. It seemed to have been used for pulling the prepared food up from the kitchen in the cellar. Than there was a large living room with an huge fireplace. Rain was now dripping in... next to the living room was a dormitory which seemed big enough for at least four persons, but the most interesting room Ati found was a library. It was quite big, but completely messed up. Books were lying around on the floor, partly ripped so that pages were lying everywhere. In a corner was a small heap of ash, it looked as if someone had burned books. Because of the cold to warm the room, or because the books had not been written to be read by everyone? Ati decided to search the third and last floor first before she had a closer look at the books.

The third floor was filled with quite modern looking medical and electrical equipment. In fact, it looked very new, but because the attic had many holes, water had gotten in and destroyed most of the equipment. Ati wondered. Who had kept his/her equipment here were it was exposed to the weather? And who had lived here after all? Maybe some of the book contained clues to the answer. Ati went to the library again and looked at the books.

Sammy had certainly enjoyed this, she though. Most of the books were about magic spells, not only simple, but very advanced ones. Than there were lots of medical books about creatures of Neopia, like anatomical books books with very detailed pictures in them or descriptions of diseases and ways to cure them. Had this place been something like a hospital or a clinic? It looked like, but this was so unreal. Who on Neopia would build a clinic on a place like this, hidden in the depths of the evergreen forest?

To be continued...