"Let her be." Iris stated, without rising from her seat, gazing at the peacefully asleep Julia. "She is probably very tired."
"Well… I'd assume so if you can instantly just knock yourself out like that." Alan shook his head, leaving his thoughts behind, he moved a piece of meat to feed Sparky.
…But there was nothing there.
"Ah, he's gone again."
Gulp
The fucking air ate the meat.
"Yeah, never mind, he's still here."
Lucian, sitting opposite to Alan, was roasting marshmallows, having snatched them from Iris sometime while he was conversing with Julia.
He shared the toasted marshmallows with Iris, who lightly chewed on it, even though she previously tried assassinating Lucian with the same marshmallows.
"Want some?" Lucian noticed Alan looking, raising a stick holding a brown marshmallow, he offered to Alan.
"Yeah, sure." Alan accepted the stick, pushing it into his mouth. "Yeah, this is pretty good."
As the interacted, Iris slowly stood up, stretching her arms out, then stepped over the log, moving towards the other sleeping bag Julia tossed out.
"Going out early?" Alan asked, while eating.
"Yes." Iris simply nodded, raising the sleeping bag to hop inside.
"Alright, goodn–"
Snore Snore
"What is wrong with these two?"
Iris also instantly fell asleep, just like Julia.
"Hmm?" The marshmallow Lucian was holding a moment ago, begun mysteriously floating in the air, then disappeared.
"Let's just go to sleep, man." Alan sighed, tossing the rest of the grilled meat in the air, which also mysteriously vanished mid-flight, well, not so mysterious, Sparky bloody ate them.
"We got sleeping bags, right?"
"Yes, but I already set up the tents."
"Yeah, screw that, it's weird to be inside of tents when these two are sleeping outside."
"Fair point." Lucian agreed, tapping his ring, he brought two sleeping bags then threw them on the ground, a bit far from where Julia and Iris were sleeping.
"Alright, I'm heading out first then." Alan waved at Lucian, approaching one of the sleeping bags he opened the bag, and jumped inside.
Warm wool wrapped around his body, engulfing him in a comfortable embrace, for a small moment he tried rolling on the ground like Julia did, but felt stupid for even trying to do so.
Alan closed his eyes, thinking back about his day.
He got a cool haircut, arrived at the royal castle, found a garden that's not exactly a garden, met a dragon.
"Pretty eventful." Alan whispered, closing his eyes, allowing his brain to shut down.
…
"Wake up."
Alan's eyes snapped opened, immediately tensing his body in preparation for danger.
However, what met his eyes was a familiar pair of teal orbs staring down at him with a calm stare, Lucian pressed a finger to his mouth gesturing him to be silent.
Alan nodded, quietly rising out of his sleeping bag without making a sound, he looked over the camp, the fire long burnt out leaving the place in darkness, still Alan could see Julia and Iris laying in their individual sleeping bags.
Turning to Lucian, Alan raised a brow, silently questioning why he woke him up, instead of responding properly, Lucian gestured with his hands, telling Alan to follow him.
Despite having many questions, Alan listened, soon trailing behind Lucian.
They moved through the woods, passing by trees upon trees, only after walking a fair distance from the camp did Alan speak up.
"What's going on." Alan didn't doubt Lucian for bringing him here, he trusted the man with his life.
"Remember the thing we were looking for?" Lucian replied without looking at Alan. "I think I found it."
"Is that so..." Alan nodded, his lips pressed to a thin line, carefully inspecting his surroundings.
Again all he saw was trees, their surroundings were incredibly dark, the sun had long crossed over the horizon, dowsing the entire sky in inky black colour.
Something Alan didn't miss was the increasing density of the repulsive presence, as if they were walking towards a crack leaking the insides of something terrible.
After a while.
Alan spotted something in the dark, one of the trees next to them had a mark, so small someone may have missed it, but Alan didn't, staring at the mark he glanced at Lucian.
"An animal?" Lucian wondered, already seeing the same mark Alan did, it was three diagonal lines, like an animal clawed the tree.
"Maybe." Alan muttered a response, turning his gaze from the little mark, they continued walking.
They traversed deeper into the forest, venturing deeper into the woods, the environment becoming increasingly eerie the more they walked.
"This kind of forest was just next to us?" Alan narrowed his eyes, it was to believe such an ominous place was just casually within the royal castle, where the continent's most important people lived.
And for Julia to even settle here was concerning, surely she must have sensed something off about the entire garden as well, meaning it was a deliberate choice, either she truly disliked the royal castle that much, or she had something to do with the place.
Alan stopped in his track, looking at the tree right next to him, it too bore a claw mark, except it was bigger and deeper than the previous one.
Alan and Lucian exchanged looks, slightly nodding to one another, they continued walking through the woods.
The more they walked, the more trees with marks they found, increasing in size and depth, as if leading them towards something.
Soon the trees they passed by were toppled over from claw marks too deep for the tree to handle, some were cut in half, others barely holding on to the tree stump.
The earth was dishevelled, with deep crevices in multiple locations, trees lay destroyed in the background.
Alan was becoming increasingly confused, the more he saw, the less he understood what could have even happened here.
Alan and Lucian stopped, on the ground in front of them was a long trail of claw marks leading forward, as if something inhumane was dragged against its own will.
Tensing their nerves for any possible danger, they followed the unnatural trail, advancing past numerous fallen trees and uneven dirt.
Until finally, they halted, the trail stopped just before the castle wall, Alan stared at the ground, looking closely at the mark, then at the wall.
The layered gray cobblestones looked natural, pristine, like it was meant to be there, only if the trail didn't stop just below the wall.
Looking at it carefully, the wall was indeed too natural and pristine, so much so it looked improper when comparing to the other cobblestones beside it.
"Lucian." Alan ordered, without tearing his gaze from the stone wall.
Snap
Lucian snapped his fingers, a jagged shard of ice materialised just in front of him, at the slight flick of his finger the shard flew forward, colliding with the stones.
...Only that it didn't collide, the shard passed through the stones like it was an illusion.
Crack
The sound of the ice shattering echoed, but much further than it should have.
"What is this." Alan frowned, staring at the illusionary castle wall. "Why would they even need this shit here?"
From the start this was weird, a huge forest inside the royal castle, Alan and Lucian hiked for a really long time just to get here, the forest wasn't small by any means, it was multiple kilometres thick.
The only possible thing he could understand was the trees were meant to hide something.
"Looks like we found it." Lucian stated, he glanced at Alan. "What do we do?"
"Hmm." Alan was seriously considering his options, he could relate this to was the so-called secret Iris mentioned long ago, and the secret was their switch for wanting to escape the castle out of the blue.
Knowing all these facts only make it even more mysterious for Alan, well, he wasn't one to pass up an opportunity to solve some of his questions.
"Let's go." Alan made up his mind, stepping forward towards the illusion.
Lucian nodded in response, agreeing to the plan, still he kept his guard up, wary of any possible danger they may face.
Standing before the castle wall Alan paused for a moment, then stuck his finger in first.
It passed through the wall like it didn't exist, he felt nothing, no force acting on his finger, but at the same time it looked very odd, with just his finger passing through a stone.
Dismissing his idle thoughts Alan stepped through the wall, Lucian followed soon after repeating the same process as Alan.
The exterior remained the same, pristine and clean, leaving behind no traces of their actions.
...
"Whoever built this place must be brain-dead." Was the first thing Alan said the moment he walked through the illusion.
Pitch-black darkness, there was no better way to describe what he was seeing, it was the fact that he wasn't seeing anything.
The shadows of wherever they were, blocked everything in sight.
Step Step
Alan recognised the pattern of footsteps approaching from behind, it was Lucian.
"This isn't what I expected..." Lucian scratched the side of his chin, wondering what to do.
"I got this." Alan patted him on the shoulder, then snapped his fingers.
Snap
A little ball of violet flames ignited directly above Alan's head, circling around his shoulders, providing light to their otherwise dark surroundings, it was a little wisp of flames, convenient for situations requiring light.
"Couldn't you make it yellow or something?" Lucian lightly frowned. "Why'd you make the flames purple."
"Aesthetics man." Alan shrugged. "Gotta look cool, convenience comes second."
"Is that so." Lucian rubbed his chin... possibly encouraged by Alan to try something stupid.
Brushing his thoughts off, Alan scanned his surroundings provided by the little wisp of flame, there still wasn't much to see, the light didn't cover a far distance, only brightening the area a small distance from where he stood.
There was still mostly darkness that remained in front of him, until he glanced down, he spotted something he didn't notice before.
A single step of stair.
Alan gestured his finger forward, following his command the wisp moved slightly ahead, uncovering three more steps, all leading down.
The steps weren't narrow or small, it was big, abnormal for any humans to use, Alan still couldn't see the walls on the side, causing him to assume the stairwell to be huge.
He took a step down, then another, he kept going with the little wisp leading the way, Lucian followed just a step behind.
Alan glanced to his side, pausing his steps for a moment, the wisp followed his line of direction, moving that way before stopping in front of a stone wall.
"It's way too big." Alan noted to himself, the stairwell walls were about thirty metres away from each other, he didn't even bother seeing how high the ceiling could be.
"All of this is leading underground?" Lucian was trying to understand exactly where they were headed, but observing the location. "Under capital?"
"Uh, I guess?" Alan continued stepping down the stairs, then ran into a curve on the stairwell, turning an entire one eighty degrees, leading deeper downwards, just in a different direction.
"Not under the capital." Lucian corrected his previous conception. "But under the castle itself."
"Yeah..." Alan whispered, falling into his thoughts, there was absolutely no way the emperor wouldn't know about a place like this in the castle, something this foul, directly under his nose.
For a moment, he remembered the words of the strange man he met, the man who called himself Ziray.
'Is this what you meant, my ambitious?' Alan recalled the man's words, he called the emperor ambitious, but in all the wrong ways.
'Just what could he be doing down here?'