Activity

@ariella-newheart Yours is awesome! I love Caedon’s reason for choosing the plain door. It almost made me cry. I get sentimental over the smallest things sometimes 🙂

*nods* I thought so. Yes!! That’d be awesome! I may write that in mine in a second.. We’ll see how far I get.

Yay! I’m glad you like it! Yeah, my original one had the hall completely lit by tons of candles, but I like this one better 🙂

Yesss!!! I wasn’t sure if that’d work, but since earlier you’d said something about the castle cleaning up whatever havoc our characters cause, I thought I’d expand that thought!

(I’ve never read that one, but also the Castle Glower series by Jessica Day George is like that. The castle can shift its rooms around as it sees fit, and it’ll create totally new rooms at times)

Alrighty! So I think at this point I should give a physical description of Lucas, since we’re now interacting…

Lucas is, as I said, 21, but he could pass as 25. He’s about 6 feet tall, oval-ish face, strong jawline, blue eyes, black hair* (long-ish and kinda messy), kinda pale skin (he has Scottish ancestors not too far back in his family tree. I’d say he’s about 40-50 % Scottish). He’s thin, but attractively thin, not creepy-thin. He’s usually clean-shaven, but he has a reddish beard that he sometimes forgets to trim, so he sometimes (usually when he’s been otherwise occupied) has a few days’ growth of stubble. It’s when he’s grown it out that he looks older. He’s got a long scar on the underneath of his jaw from where he very nearly died falling off the roof of a garden shed. He’s got a birthmark on his right wrist that looks like the Roman numerals VI. And he has, on his left arm, a tattoo of thistles wrapped around a sword (sword to represent justice, freedom, strength, and thistles because Scotland).

(Oh. *facepalms* I forgot. He has to wear reading glasses. I’ll fix it later lol.)

Continuing.. He wears 1800s’ style clothing, obviously, and a long cloak and scarf (kinda like Sherlock Holmes).

*Here’s a pic of what his hair looks like (because I’m particular about my hair descriptions). Ignore the guy’s face though, cause that’s NOT what Lucas looks like lol

Ok so. I’m gonna paste in my first bit and edit it just a tad, then continue with my next part.

___________

Lucas blinked. Once minute, he was sitting at his desk working on a new calligraphy technique, and the next, on the floor in what seemed to be the main hall of a castle. It was lit only by sunlight coming though the tall windows along one wall, and a lone candlestick, which sat on a large, round table in the middle of the hall. A map was spread out over it. Lucas thought he could see floating letters of some sort, fading to and fro in the air above the map. A pair of wooden, green doors led somewhere; outside, he assumed. From the hall, many similar doors, of many other colors, led off to other places in the mysterious place.

Lucas didn’t believe in magic, as such, but he knew he wasn’t dreaming or crazy, so he drew the conclusion that he must have been carried off, to wherever this was, by some greater force.

First things first, he decided, getting to his feet. What’s in my pockets? And what’s outside the main door?

He didn’t have his cloak or scarf, and for that, he was sorry, since it was chilly here. Also, had he his cloak, he’d have his [thing]. But he didn’t, so he’d just have to make do with what he did have: his reading glasses, a handkerchief, a matchbook, and a stray [thing].

Now, for the door. Lucas tried pulling it open, then pushing, but it wouldn’t budge, as if the stone wall itself had been painted to look like a door, and handles attached. Paying no attention to the windows, since whatever was on the other side had no effect on him if he couldn’t get out, he studied the other doors. Red, blue, another set of green; they all looked equally promising. He noticed one, plain brown, and decided he liked the looks of it more than the others, whose colors were beginning to mess with his mind, all blending together. He found it opened easily, and, having taken the candlestick from the table, followed the corridor beyond it, through twists and turns and many corners, til he came to another set of doors. One was already open a crack, and he pushed it the rest of the way open, venturing into the room cautiously, not quite sure what he’d find.

Surprised and awed, he stared around him at the shelves and shelves of books that seamlessly lined the walls, up to the vast, domed ceiling where an intricate, golden candelabra hung. A large fireplace was blazing cheerfully, and along that wall there were no books. There were many tables, with comfortable-looking chairs around them, all with candles, globes, maps, quills and inkwells, open books, and many other objects sitting upon them. Setting his candlestick down on one table, Lucas walked around the room, looking at the various things that sat on the tables. Some he recognized; others, he didn’t. He climbed some of the ladders that slid along rails at the tops of the shelves, pulling books off and flipping through them, then re-shelving them.

After a few hours of this, he realized he was hungry. He hadn’t eaten since supper last night, having skipped breakfast to gather flowers to press. Having thought aloud that he could use a cup of good, hot coffee and a biscuit right about now, he selected an interesting book about the history of Beijing, and settled into a chair beside the fire. After a few minutes, he heard a door open, then close. Glancing up, he was startled to see a silver serving-tray floating itself towards him, a coffee-pot, cup, and plate of biscuits atop it. It set itself down on a small table by his chair. Lucas eyed it suspiciously. He really didn’t think an invisible force, or a ghost or spirit, had borne it in, since the door had closed behind it as it came in, but he certainly wasn’t used to having food brought to him in such a manner. But, having been taught by his mother to never look a gift horse in the mouth, he set to work diminishing the quantity of the coffee and biscuits.

Finishing the last of the coffee, which had been just about the best he’d ever had, he heard the door open again. Expecting perhaps another floating tray, though he hadn’t asked for anything else, he looked up. It wasn’t a tray, but another living person.

“Hello. Is it all right if I come in?”

A small boy, perhaps ten or twelve years of age, stood in the doorway, looking uncertainly around the room. He was visibly shivering, probably from the walk down the corridor.

Lucas regarded the boy with interest and a bit of suspicion. There had been no one else in the hall, though he had no reason to think the boy hadn’t come from one of the other doors. However, the way he’d asked to come in, and the awkward way he stood there implied he was just as new to this place as Lucas himself, and he was just a boy. Lucas’ strong desire to help people when he could got the best of him, and with a kind smile, he set down his book and pulled another chair closer to the fire.

“Of course. Come and warm yourself.”

The boy shut the door behind him and walked over to the chair Lucas offered. He sat down, but did so stiffly, not quite at ease yet.

Lucas resumed his former position in his chair, and noted that the boy wore clothing more fit for medieval ages. Interesting… A theory began to form in his mind, but he had no sure way to test it, so he settled for introducing himself.

“My name is Lucas McAsgain. Long walk down the corridor, isn’t it?”

The boy nodded. “Long and cold. I’m Caedon. Nice to meet you, Mr. McAsgain.”

Lucas smiled, and was pleased to see the boy treated strangers with respect. “Likewise. I wish I still had some biscuits I could give you.”

“S’okay.” Caedon shuffled his position slightly, still tense.

The door opened and closed again, and Lucas, who had a pretty good idea what was happening, wasn’t surprised to see another tray floating towards them. Caedon, however, shrank back into his chair, wide-eyed.

Lucas held up the empty tray to clear room for the new one, which was laden with biscuits, a glass of milk, and more coffee, and smiled again at Caedon.

“I was alarmed the first time it happened, too. The castle seems to hear our requests and wishes and grant them.” Then, to the general surroundings, “Thank you. We appreciate it very much.”

The fire seemed to grow warmer, and the chairs softer. It might have been just their imaginations, but Lucas didn’t think so. The tray he held gently floated out of his hand, bobbed once in the air, then out the door it went.

As he poured himself more coffee, Lucas glanced up at Caedon, who seemed to have gotten over the shock of seeing floating serving-trays and was staring hungrily at the biscuits.

Lucas handed him the plate, and glass of milk. “Help yourself.”

_________________

😀 😀 😀

I’m loving this XD