The Reincarnated King (ManxManxMan)

Chapter Four: A Normal Museum

~Chapter Four: A Normal Museum~

Though Tom was being really cagey and vague when he skirted around the topic of where we would be going, there is nothing 'sort of' about this museum. It even has the word 'museum' in its title.

However, even though it is called a museum and even is a museum, it is an admittedly weird one. After all, most museums feature priceless artwork from famous artists, both new and old, or the odd object with an important historical background. Some museums are even dedicated entirely to a single time period, war, or event. Many even have their own murals - painted onto the very walls of the building.

This museum, though...this museum does not fit into one building. In fact, it is not even inside at all, in a manner of speaking, because the museum is not about just art or historically-important trinkets; this museum is about the buildings themselves. Houses from different decades and even centuries have been taken and rebuilt on the museum's property, showing daily history of how people lived, worked, and even prayed during certain time periods rather than featuring only buildings with particularly important history.

Though, there is also a castle.

Sort of.

The man at the front desk in the entrance building was very helpful and eager to talk about the property, but all I was able to get out of him before Tom literally dragged me off towards the candy shop was that the castle is not really a castle, despite the name on the map he handed us. I would have preferred to have gotten more information than just that, but Tom was really adamant about getting candy, despite the fact that the shops are usually meant to be stopped at on the way out.

Still, grabbing a couple bags of sugary snacks before walking through the outdoor museum might not have been an entirely terrible idea since candy is a great way to gain small bursts of energy, and this museum is ginormous. We are not even ten minutes into the museum-that-also-might-be-a-park, and I can already tell that we are going to be here for hours, if for no other reason than that everything is so spaced out.

"Kind of reminds me of the zoo," I comment, as we walk from the entrance-exit area full of shops to the nearest set of buildings. This section, which is surrounded by a lush landscape of trees and grassy sitting areas, is supposed to be of houses dating back over the last century or two, and from what I can see of them, even from a distance, they do look pretty old, half looking pre-World War I while the other half look more modern but still pretty dated.

Though, there is one house that is only about fifteen years older than I am, which makes me feel kind of old, even if I'm only thirty-five.

"The atmosphere?" Tom asks.

I nod. "And the openness. Smells better, though."

"Much," Tom snorts in agreement, as we turn onto a cobblestone path that leads down to a series of old houses.

The first one we step into is the oldest on this path, and I spend a few minutes taking it all in with interest until Tom quietly scoffs at something, which makes me glance over at what he is focused on. "Steep stairs," I mutter, eyeing the stairs that look like they were built more with leaving space in mind than actual safety. They are not even wide enough for a whole foot to fit on completely, just the toes, really. "I think I'd die."

"Can't handle simple stairs, Jas?" Tom teases, peeking over the guardrail that keeps people from actually going upstairs - based on the age of the house, it is probably not stable enough to be walking around up top - to see what he can of the upstairs area. Whatever there is to see, though, is apparently not very impressive since he just wrinkles his nose a bit before turning to admire a picture on the wall.