Night 73: Secret Stairs

[forsworn]

[from here]

The lights flickered on as Kratos entered; he quietly sheathed his sword and then walked onto the escalator after checking to make sure that Castiel and Lloyd had made it in after him.

"I realize our keys may not match," he said, mostly for Lloyd's benefit, as the escalator began its slow climb upward. "We have the radios, though, so if there are any issues, call." Both Castiel and Lloyd had easily remembered numbers; hopefully, they both recalled his.

Comments

[lighthearted]

[From here.]

This was the furthest they'd gotten, but Sora felt like they'd made it in much less time, which was a good sign. He paused at the bottom of the escalator. The room was well-lit so there really weren't any nooks or crannies where monsters could be hiding, and yet he took a moment to look over the whole room before he stepped onto the escalator and triggered it to start moving.

He spun around, turning his back to the top of the room as he glanced down at Link and Tsurugi. "I went into a storybook too, by the way! I used to visit Winnie the Pooh and all his other friends... but you really went back in time, huh? I've never done that before."

He'd done plenty of other things, and he was more than willing to brag about it if the conversation went that direction. There was nothing Sora enjoyed more than talking about the places he'd gone and the friends he'd made.

[his_legacy]

"There is always a moment of silence before the worst arrives," he quietly said aside to Tsurugi's comment. Yes, it was too quiet. He knew exactly what followed 'too quiet.'

Link let out a small gasp as he stepped into the hidden room. There hadn't been any shock in how the passageway opened, but what was behind it... The bright light, the strange staircase... It was like they had entered an entirely different place. Yes. This was the way they needed to go.

He was startled out of his silence as Sora spoke.

"Yes. In the ruins of a past era of my country, there lies a route into the past." He watched with curiosity as the stairs came to life before stepping on himself.

[knightspirit]

It looked like they made it to escalator. From here on out, it was anyone's guess where the path would take them; with the teleporters to deal with, there was no way to know where they were actually heading. He could only hope they managed to pick the right ones.

In the meantime, he stepped onto the escalator and crossed his arms, resisting the urge to run up the stairs. As much as he wanted to make sure they were as productive a possible, hastiness lead to mistakes, and mistakes led to injuries. And getting hurt here instead of being able to move on would just be too stupid.

"... Winnie the Pooh?" he repeated curiously. It was surprising to hear; making that particular jump had been pretty difficult for Kyousuke and his friends to achieve, so he wondered how Sora could come and go through a world like that so easily. Or what the story was even about.

He fell silent, though, as Link spoke up. Ruins, huh...? "... That's a little different from me. We have a time machine that can take wormholes through different time routes—it's called the TM Caravan. You can take it just about anywhere if the conditions are right. We've been to a few different eras. The future, too."

The future, where his friends would be fighting right now, if his memories were right. He could talk about the things he'd been through easily enough, but he still didn't understand how they really worked. Had all this already happened, or had he lived through it early? And if he had, what would that mean when it really came? The boy went quiet, dragged away by his own thoughts.

[lighthearted]

It wasn't often that there was time for them to share all the details about their lives back home, so Sora was actually grateful for this escalator ride. He did his best not to let his guard down even as they spoke, though. Things seemed quiet here, but Link was right about that usually being the calm before the storm.

"The future, even? That must be pretty cool! I'd like to be able to visit different times like that..." Still, Sora was content enough to be able to travel to a variety of different worlds. In a way, that already felt like time traveling, since some worlds were more advanced than others.

It made sense that Tsurugi hadn't heard of Winnie the Pooh, which meant that Link probably hadn't either.

"Winnie the Pooh is a story about a group of animals who live in the Hundred Acre Wood together. Winnie's the main character, he's a bear who loves honey! And there's Piglet and Tigger and..." He trailed off, realizing that this wasn't going to make much sense unless he had more time to explain.

And they'd already reached the top.

Sora stepped off and eyed the door. This was where night had ended for them before, but it wasn't going to work that way this time.

"Ready, you guys?" Once both Link and Tsurugi gave their consent, he led them through...

[To here.]