The next morning, Sarasin took me on a special hunting trip. Evidently, she doesn't see many visitors and wants to take advantage of our time, brief as it might be. We got to be good friends by the time we made it back to her cave, but, by then, it was time to go.
I bid Jazz, a red dragon, and Sarasin, a yellow dragon, farewell and thanked them both for their hospitality and generosity. Demitri and I continued our journey east, crossing back into Mystia and Demitri showed me where he had gone to school.
It must have once been a beautiful place, but you couldn't prove it by me because it was almost all ruin now. Demitri seemed sad at how diminished his childhood home looked. Below, I could see what once was a training hall, with old swords on the walls in racks and the floor was smooth and slippery, like my gymnasium back at my High School. On a hill a few miles away, there was a castle and Demitri was headed straight for it.
I followed him as he landed and dephased. Demitri stood at the entrance, looking up. The walls were crumbling and the gates were in pieces due to rust. After a silent moment, Demitri made his way inside and I followed, looking around.
He led me to the center of what was once the courtyard, the hedges, once green and healthy, were stripped of all leaves, dark brown and bent over. The flowerbeds were just small, brown sticks in a group. The path was pure dirt and marked with stones and a field of dead grass. Demitri paused here and studied the remnants of his childhood. I walked up to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. He looked at me, yearning and grief and disbelief in his eyes. The corner of his mouth twitched into a brief smile, and then he looked back at the wasteland.
"I grew up here. It used to be so beautiful." His voice cracked with emotion as he surveyed the landscape. "Derek and I would play in the hedges over there." He pointed with a finger to a section of the brown wall. "While Mother looked on over there." He pointed to a patch of dead flowers with a rusted, white-and-red table and chair set. "Father would be tending the ponds and roses over that way." His gaze shifted to the green pond and surrounding brown. "And groundskeepers would be tending everything else. Come, let me show you the inside."
He led me through another set of doorways and we were soon inside the castle. He let me take a look around what must have been the kitchen, and then he escorted me through a doorway to the foyer, where his parents, Derek and he received guests. It was a sight to behold. The windows let in no light, the couches were moth-eaten, the draperies torn to shreds, the wallpaper also moth-eaten, the floor was covered in bugs of varying species, every surface was covered in three inches or more of dust and the air was stale and almost unbreathable.
"I can't believe how much damage a hundred years can do to a castle when no one is around to care for it." Demitri whispered, his voice pained.
"I know. It's so depressing! I've an idea. How about, if it means so much to you, we move down here and continue my training while getting this place back on its feet. You can relive your childhood and I can get a change of scenery."
"Why?"
"Because this place deserves to be taken care of and we are the only ones who can. My mother had me be the housemaid since I was ten. I had to clean everything, so I can take decent care of it. We can hire help, if need be. But, you can be in familiar surroundings and Hutser won't have to worry about anything."
"I'll think about it."
"Okay."
Demitri led me through the remainder of the first floor, which included a study for the master of the household and a room where the children would have their studies.
The second floor wasn't as grand as the first floor, but each individual bedroom had its own character. The master bedroom was bigger than Hutser's shack, the walls a deep green and floors a vanilla yellow carpet, the dressers and furniture were stained brown pine wood. After that, each bedroom was done quite similar, but in different colors. Each had a queen-sized bed, a couple dressers of the pine, a vanilla carpet, and walls of a solid, unbreakable color. One room, number twelve I believe, had walls of this hideous hot pink and matching curtain. If we did move back in, that room would be my first priority once we got the rest of the house squared away.
Demitri finished the tour of all three levels and the attic. Not surprisingly, each room had its own number, except the master bedroom, and the largest number was thirty-five.
The attic was the largest room in the house by far. It had only one level, but that level went from one corner to the opposite corner and the corner diagonal to it. It was of a size equal to the first floor, with no walls or corners to interrupt the vastness.
The tour took so long, that we decided to bunk down for the night. Dusk had long since passed us by, and it's dangerous for us outside at night because of the Scylla that's been active so recently. We phased and bunked down on the first floor in the ball room.
...............
While I slept, I heard voices. Well, one really. It was raspy, throaty and it was male.
'So hungry. Must eat. Must hunt. So hungry.'
I woke up, slapping my eyes open. Immediately, I dephased, ignoring the cold as I slipped back into human form, and woke Demitri.
"Demitri. Demitri, wake up." I whispered, shaking him. He groaned, and opened his eye. He yawned and dephased. "What is it, Sam?"
"I just heard a voice. While I was sleeping. Did you hear it?" He shook his head, slowly in exhaustion.
"Maybe I'm imagining things." I whispered, puzzled. If I heard it, then why didn't Demitri?
Letting the subject drop for the night, I let Demitri go back to sleep, apologizing to him for waking him. I phased and fell asleep again.
My sleep went undisturbed.
