Ch 2: A Mysterious voice

Hmmm? What is this place? Am I dead? I must be. There’s no way I can be alive after being stabbed.

It seems like I am in an empty space; there is nothing around me. Everything is pitch black. I wave my hand in front of me. I cannot see it.

Am I dead? No wait. I can move. If I can move, I can’t be dead, right? But then…why is everything dark here?

I pinch myself.

Ouch. So, I’m not dead then. But what is this place?

A small ball of light appears, hovering beside my face. It floats toward a shimmering gate in front of me. I hear a soft click and then the door of the gate starts opening. The little ball of light floats past the gate.

I guess I should follow this ball of light. Wherever it leads to, this is my only way out.

I approach the shimmering gate and walk inside. I look up and down, and spot six magnificent stones.

The stones are in a circle, with one extra-large in the center. The one to my right has the word Healing engraved in it. The stone next to it has Truth. The stones after those two read Life, Gift, Fire, and Solace. But the biggest stone lies in the center just says Stone. The little ball of light drifts toward the big stone in the center, as if it has a mind of its own. I follow suit.

As I approach, I notice an outline of a door. It is very faint, but it is there. The little light floats toward it and disappears from sight.

Let me give this a try then.

I take a deep breath and step into God knows where.

Before me appears a staircase. A floating mirror appears at the top of it. The little ball of light floats up the staircase, and I follow suit.

We reach the top of the stair and step through the mirror.

This room’s layout is just like last one. However, instead of stones, these are statues. Each and every statue is carrying an item of some sort. One is holding a rose. Another has a sword. One statue is holding a gift box and another has a butterfly on its finger. One is holding a book of ancient text that I cannot understand, the other holding a potted cactus. But what perplexes me the most is what stands in the center. It’s a statue of a woman with wings guarding…another door.

I walk up toward the woman statue with wings and slowly approach it. The door…it opened by itself!

This is quite interesting. I wonder what I’ll find on the other side of this door…

Unlike the other two rooms, this one does not have anything on the floor. There are paintings of beasts on the walls instead. I have no idea how to describe these beasts, they look like half humans, yet not. Some have a lot of eyes and some a lot of toes. Some have a lot of arms and some wings. Some have talons, and others claws. Some even have all those things combined!

At the center stands a shimmering mountain. This mountain is interesting, though.

I have never seen a purple mountain before! What a sight! But where is the exit?

I look at the little ball of light beside me. It floats toward the bottom of the mountain, towards the center. That is when I see it.

There is a door!

You know Goldilocks and the Three Bears? One is big, one is small, and one is just right? Well, this door is just right for me to go through. I approach the door, reach out, turn the knob, and step through to the other side.

So, it seems like the center is where the exits are. However, what on earth are the meanings of the surrounding paintings? And why is the mountain purple?

This room only has red walls with short creatures that look like dwarves. The beasts in the last room have toes, talons, eyes, wings. These dwarfs don’t. Instead, they have claws and scales. Claws like a dragon, and scales like the serpent. They also have pointy ears.

Since there is nothing but red walls with these strange looking dwarves, how am I to exit this room? Where is the door this time?

The little ball of light seems to be confused too. I think while I walk around the room.

The past two rooms must have had some clue that I am not aware of? All the rooms were empty except for seven statues and stones…wait. That’s it! The key is the number seven!

I walk around the room seven times and a gate appears on one of the walls.

So that’s how! I should’ve known! It seems the number seven is the number of all this. This is a pattern! I bet anything that the next one has seven items too! Maybe they’ll be more pictures or statues?

Well, this is new. Who would’ve thought that there are colorful snowmen in this world?

One is green, one is red. One is light blue, one is orange. One is pink, and one is gray. There is also a giant white snowman in the middle, with a slate on it. Looking closely, I realize that it is a riddle. Here is what it says:

I am a gem

I can heal

I can break

I can help you

But also be fake

I can calm crisis

Yet start a fight

I can shield you too

Or harm you instead.

I represent the month

Of when snow is here

The time of giving

For those who holds dear.

What am I?

The riddle said to not only identify the item, but also the color. It’s kinda tough, but they did give us a hint by saying it is a gem.

I guessed the riddle, identified the color, said it out loud. The snowman turns to that color. However, nothing happened. There is no door. I am confused, and so I look and walk around a bit. After walking around seven times, I grow frustrated, and start hitting and kicking at the snowman. As soon as I touch it, the scene in front of me disappears.

___________________________________________________________________________

I am standing in a clearing.

Vivid green trees surround a majestic waterfall. The trees form a circle around the waterfall, almost making it look like a place for a ritual. On top of the trees are butterflies. The butterflies have all the colors of the rainbow, and I realize that most of them are the colors of the snowmen in the last room! How nice!

But, what is on the other side of the waterfall?

I approach the waterfall and breeze through it. In front of me stands a cave of some sort.

The pattern of seven figures in the previous rooms are not here. Instead, there are grass on the ground, and flowers of multiple colors everywhere.

Where is the door…?

Then, an idea strikes me. What if this one follows the pattern of the one in the red room? In that red room, there were no gates. I had to go around seven times before a gate appeared. What if this is the same way? Only…how am I going to do this?

I look around me, hoping to see the little ball of light. But it is gone, so I guess this is all up to me now.

Whatever. Let’s see… Since there are flowers, why don’t I try to pick up seven of them? One of each color…red, blue, green, gray, orange, pink…

“One, two, three…ah seven flowers! Oh, there it is! I was right! Sweet!”

I step through the door, and a shiver runs down my spine.

Okay, this place is creepy. How on earth does this place even exist? I shiver at the thought of whoever lives here, that is, if there is even life here. I need to find the gate as soon as possible!

Just then, I hear a crash from the ceiling. I look up to see a ceiling with a giant hole in the center. A staircase appears in front of me, leading through the hole in the ceiling.

Huh. It seems like I have to climb these stairs and go through that black hole in the ceiling. Whatever, Violet. You can do this! You’ve been through so much ever since, what do you have to fear of a little hole? Go for it!

Taking a deep breath, I climb up the staircase.

__________________________________________________________________

Well…here I am. Now what? I look around.

This...

I am in the middle of seven walls. Each and every wall has a word on it. They look familiar to me. Looking closely, I realize that all of them are the words from the first room with the stones that I had entered.

Interesting…

Just then, a voice speaks in my head:

Violet Spells, my little champion. I need your help. There is an evil darkness coming. I cannot put my finger on it, but the source seems like it is from multiple places. I have tried to shield it with everything I have, but wherever my powers touches, the darkness somehow seeps it in. Hurry! Time is of essence! I am sorry I have brought you this fate. I never wish this on any of my children. Yet I will not trust anyone with this except for you, because you and you alone, is the secret to everything. Step through this gate, and you will understand everything that had ever happened to you in the past.

“Wait! Why must I-“

The voice fades, and a gate appears. I look around me one last time, and step into the unknown.

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