𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗛𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 - 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙

Chapter 21

     They'd been trekking through the forest until mid-morning, and then they'd passed through the grassy fields with huts dotting the hillsides here and there at noon, they'd trudged through the hot desert just as evening fell, and now they were flying over the mountains as the two moons rose.

     At around midnight, they padded into the innermost ring: the Empire.

     They padded into Empress Cinnabar's castle, which was made of bumpy cobblestone bricks.

     It was a rectangle shape with towers on each corner and trees and other plants growing everywhere, including on ledges up the pillars and walls. In the middle, a dome roof with a little spire sticking up out of the roof was visible peeking over the outer walls. The dome was blood-red stained glass with thin swirly gold feather patterns made of metal wrapped over the window panes.

     There were tall open windows with no glass in them along the outer walls and up the towers. The tower roofers were made of dark gray slate with long coal-gray spikes on top of them.

     The Pacrees filed in through the huge black wood doors that had gold hinges and a big gold feather symbol on each door.

     The interior of the castle was warmly lit with a blood-red carpet down the middle of the entrance hall. There were gold statues of royal dragons along the walls, with black wood doors here and there.

     They reached the end of the hallway where the huge gold-adorned doors leading to the throne room were propped open.

     Inside was a glowing room with gold bricks here and there in the cobblestone walls. The floor was made of black marble with cracks that were filled with gold, and there were blood-red tapestries with gold feathers displayed on them hanging on the side walls.

     The red carpet from the hallway continued until or reached the foot of the black-marble-with-gold-cracks throne. At the tallest point of the back of the throne there were three gold spikes imitating a crown.

     Behind the throne was a huge blood-red stained glass window with a gold frame.

     Wow, Eclipse scoffed in her mind. Empress Cinnabar sure does love gold. And her interior design choices are very... bold.

     Eclipse snapped back to the present just in time to realize that the Pacrees were disappearing through a dimmer hallway to her right.

     She trotted after them, noticing that the hanging black metal lanterns were letting off a red light instead of the warm golden light in the entrance hall and the throne room.

     At last they came to four big guest bedrooms along the hallway, and each Pacree filed into their own. Eclipse followed Rowan, Hailee, Starspeaker, Rodin, Bee, Ruby, and Brooke into the room Pacree Sky was staying in.

     Everyone settled down for the night, the Pacree plus Eclipse and Sapphire laying in a huge dog-pile, while Rowan, Brooke, Starspeaker, Rodin, Bee, Ruby, and Hailee curled up a little ways away.

     This place is really pretty, Eclipse thought, but there's still almost something... menacing about it...