Et Stellas: Beyond Different Worlds

(Aurelius; IV) To the stars, and higher

Aurelius (IV)

Walking down the long and quietly corridors of the huge palace is Aurelius. He's following his father, that's walking a little faster, his fluffed tail wagging at a hurried, but still pleasant, rhythm. "My Father, May I inquire where are we going?" Aurelius dares to ask, while Arthur just leaves a low and catching chuckle that makes the younger Samoyed giggle as well.

Aurelius looks behind him to find that Maximus is not around.

How weird, he's literally the butt of the Emperor, He thinks. And it's true, Maximus is and has been always behind the Emperor to serve him in any what.

Arthur continues leading the way, turning unexpectedly from corridor to corridor, until they stop in front of a single big, a little old, door with slightly but smooth openings, and an only guard in front of it.

The guard makes a big bow to the Samoyed dogs before quickly opening the door.

The three canines drop their pointy ears as the old door begins to screech loudly while opening, leaving a cold breeze that pushes their fur and releasing the dust, which clearly specifies that the door hasn't been opened in a long time, fly slowly around.

Once the door is fully open, the guard grabs his big and long Scutum(9) shield before walking away without looking behind.

Arthur enters the room with no hesitation. Quiet darkroom to say, with spiral stairs not too far from the small entrance. But Arthur stops on the first step of the stairs. He looks over his shoulder before turning around to look at his son, which's still standing outside the room, sticking his head out of the door frame to throw his blameless cinnamon glance at his father.

"Is something wrong, son?" Arthur asks abstractedly.

"Father, long ago you told me to never enter to this room, and I always respect everything you say" Replies Aurelius, lowering his ears once again flat behind his head with a sad grimace on his face. The father responses with a dry laugh, before turning around, making a sign with his hand "C'mon".

Aurelius sighs, sharply, and enters to the room carefully closing the door.

The stairs only go up, big and perfectly made cold stone steps. The two Samoyed start going up, hopping the stairs from two-to-two, the only sound of the huffing and puffing of both dogs.

A few minutes later hoping from stair to stair, they reach the top of what seems a tower. Aurelius looks around the circle closed dark room, there's no guards, no Maximus around, only a door with a curious light shining from the small groove in the bottom of it.

The door is even shorter than both dogs, with nothing more than an old silver handle that doesn't shine, and doesn't have any decorations either.

Aurelius quickly approaches the door to silently grab the rusty handle and open the door for his father, making the darkness of the room got killed by the strong brightness of the afternoon light.

His father grabs the door and offers him, a slow and formal low wave gesture with his paw, to enter first. Aurelius enters first at the request of his father, crouching a little to not hit his head on the small frame of the door. And, effectively, it is a tower.

A big, very tall tower that Aurelius, living in the palace for more than 25 years, has never been before.

In the horizon is a huge lake where you can't even see its end, but you can perfectly look at the villages around the calm water and a little farther. The entrance of the big Empire seems small, the green fields look even more beautiful with the dancing tall grass that glides in the company of a magnificent chilly breeze, a huge and dark forest not too far from the entrance, a big river that passes in one side of the huge Empire, cutting in half the green fields, to finally finish in the lake, and Arcus fei scriptor or the felines Empire.