[Insert Creative Title Here]

Astrid

Getting around the palace walls was easier than Astrid had expected, however, getting into the dungeon was going to be a completely different matter. King Ferdinand had filled the area with guards. The palace was wide and open, with little space to hide in, teeming with hostile eyes. Just great, she thought.

Not sparing another second, Astrid quickly grabbed a makeshift map that Esther had given her, scanning through it to find the location of the dungeon. She traced a path across the map with her finger, trying to find the best way to the dungeon with the least number of guards posted.

For a moment, she stood there in admiration at Esther's map. The detailed list of exits and entrances-every nook and cranny covered-not a single corridor missed.

But still, Esther out was her number one priority.

As she crept through the endless maze of hallways, Astrid was unsure of what was up and what was down-her sole guide being the map.

She proceeded down an empty stretch of hallway, leaning up against a wall to muffle her footsteps, she heard a curious tapping noise echoing up and down the hallway. At first so subtle that she barely noticed it, the tapping noise seemed rhythmic, like a signal.

As Astrid leaned her ear against the wall, the tapping got louder, as if it was travelling up and down the walls, coming from below her feet. She squinted at the floor, checking her map again to see what the source of the noise might be.

And then the world broke.

The thick stone floor below her feet shimmered like water, an image of it collapsing like glass. Beyond the punctured image of the stones, she could again see streaks, strings, or chords of reality, whatever they might have been, infinitesimally growing and shrinking in chaotic, dizzying patterns. For a split second, reality seemed to become irreal. Astrid gasped at the magnitude, amazed and stunned by the exotic beauty of the image. She tried to make a noise, but something was stopping her from doing it.

And then the world was fixed.

The gap wavered like dunes of sand and imploded without a sound. What was left was a gaping hole, a perfectly circular cut out of the ground, as if somebody had precisely sawed a piece of the ground out.

And right below her was Esther.