Quiet Leaf & Her Adventures

Week 3

The morning sun begins to rise and watch over the land as I land Gar Gar and we get off her back one by one. The land around the tower seems somewhat peaceful and calm. Not much happening or to be seen. I follow the others as Mars leads the way into the tower.

"Damn. This place seems pretty big for a tall, thin tower."

No one responds to me and we continue walking farther into the tower. I peer around the area and notice a large foyer that we're entering with four doors on the sides and a large doorway ahead of us. The doorway seems to reveal some sort of throne room with five different thrones. I feel a bit uneasy, seeing as I've never been in such a place before. I lag behind the others feeling slightly anxious about the place, almost as if something isn't quite right. This feeling is confirmed once I hear the noise of metal moving.

I look back forward towards my friends to see several sets of knightly armor begin to come to life and move towards us. I back up as Kalimay and Mars make more of an effort to get farther from the armor since they were right in front of them. My focus gets distracted as I hear what seems to be the noise of marching coming from the doors on the sides of the large room we're in. What is going on, I think to myself. I quickly revert my gaze back ahead once I realize there's some sort of hooded figure standing in the doorway to the throne room ahead of us and the armor sets begin to come to a halt.

Kalimay makes a note and says aloud, "It seems they will only come within a certain distance of us."

She takes a breath and flies up before informing us on her plan to fly to the other side of them. I nod to her and Mars seems to take advantage of this and goes around to the side of them, clinging to the wall. The armor sets don't make any moves as we are where we are. It makes me curious.

I signal Bagheera to approach them, just to see if they will attack animals. As he walks to them, they seem to ignore him entirely, so I tell him to go to Kalimay on the other side. He runs across the room and without any command from me, he walks up to the hooded figure and heels by his side. I feel a bit anxious, knowing that this man could easily take advantage of this and use my panther in any way he wants, but another part of me feels this could also mean he's safe. I take a deep breath and begin to walk across the room, determined to get to my panther and figure out what the hell is going on.

I get to them and exchange a confused yet curious glance with Kalimay before using a spell of mind to communicate with my panther. While I did this, Kalimay began flying back and forth, bringing the group of us over to the doorway as I listen in to the conversation between the man and Bagheera, repeating everything I learn aloud for the rest of the group.

"This man is the guardian of beasts that come into this castle. He protects beasts and animals and the knights guard the doors in the castle. Each door goes to a different kingdom or world. The knights will attack if they sense we're here to harm anyone in the castle or if we try to use the doors without permission. The kingdoms these doors lead to are the kingdom of dragons, the kingdom of frogs, the territory and sanctum of the phoenix, and the final one goes to the woodland spirits."

With that, I asked Bagheera to ask how we can get permission to enter these doors. Turns out it's a very long process of communicating with the kingdoms and getting permission on both sides.

I turn around to face my group and ask, "What now?"

Mars speaks up to say, "We could explore the place. There seems to be stairs to an upper area."

We all nod in agreement and head up. I also make sure to inform them of how we should look for the room to ask permission to enter the doors, since there's a very specific way of doing it. All in all, it's just very complicated. I'm not even that interested in going to the other rooms, I just want to explore the castle.

We get up into a hall and end up splitting up. Christopher and Mars go right, while the rest of us head left. As we walk farther down, we see several doors. I watch as Kalimay heads through one door and I follow her, not wanting to get split up too much. However, I don't see Janvier following us.

Myself and Kalimay end up being in this giant library, however, we can't pick up any of the books it seems. We split up in the place and wander around, looking for really anything. As I'm walking, I notice this door popping out from the bookshelves. My curiosity gets the best of me and I head through the door without hesitation.

As I enter, the door seems to disappear behind me and I look forward to see a familiar place. I look around more and notice I'm in my clan's camp again. How did I get here? I frantically look around for an exit, but can't find one. I then hear my name being called and turn to see people from my clan looking right at me. I turn to run but stop once I see them walk past me as if I wasn't even there. This must be some sort of simulation. A dream of some sort. I decide to take advantage of this and walk into the camp.

Once I get into the camp I can see my parents distressed, my mom in tears, in the center of the camp as people come to them with no luck. They don't go any farther than the territory borders, since they're all still fearful of what they had run away from. I walk around concerned in a way for them until it hits nightfall and they begin to give up and go to bed. I see my parents going into our little cabin, where I notice my mom wipe her tears and go back to sleep, while on the other hand, I notice my dad talking to someone via the back door of our home. I walk closer to listen in as I hear him talking about his plans with another about how he plans to get a small group together to search for me. Rather than sorrow, it seems my dad is angrier than ever before. He didn't miss me. He only wanted me back to put my mom at ease, but I could tell he would have his own "words" with me if they ever found me. I can't imagine the amount of pain he would put me through if he ever retrieved me.

I can't go back. While I feel bad for mom, I'm afraid of dad. I can't believe how self-centered he could be. I guess no matter where I am, what I'm doing, he'll never like me nor will he be proud of me. All I'll ever be is a worthless piece of shit. No more than a mere grain of sand. I seek to prove him wrong now. I want to put that old bastard in his place. I'll be ready for him when I see him again, whether it's when I go back to confront him or his search party finds me first.

I do whatever I can in that moment and release my anger on my father. I don't seem to actually harm him but he seems to feel something. I break down while releasing years of pent-up anger and frustration before eventually calming down and going to my mother, who I hear silently sobbing in their bedroom. I embrace my mom and cry on my shoulder, kind of missing her. Even though she can't hear me, I say aloud, "I forgive you, mom. I love you."

And with that, a door seemed to have opened nearby.