With Margrett's strength, the doors dragged themselves open, groaning as they did so. A burst of wind emitted from the inside of the castle, startling Tallia for a second, as she grabbed Margrett again. Inside, they could see a mess of chairs along the walls, no doubt blown around by the sudden wind gust. Darkness subsided everywhere they could look; any kind of small light would be more than helpful. The air was also thick and foggy, limiting their already impaired vision. Tallia, still close to Margrett, looked around her as she searched for Falion.
"H... h-hello...? Fa... Falion...? F-Falion...?"
The cold silence told them that he was not there. Or, at least, couldn't respond...
From what Margrett could see, there was naught but broken chairs and damaged weaponry, as though a fight had broken out around the area. Chipped swords and axes as far as her eyes allowed her to see. A table, holding a single candle and a few matches to the side, sat barely in Margrett's vision, resting along the northeast of them. Tallia, using her inherent night vision, tried as best as she could to see through the smoky darkness.
"T... there's s... s-some stairs... th... that go up... t-th... that way... a... and a... a few r-rooms... on the side..."
She pointed northwest of their location to show where she was talking about.
"...a... and... over t-there... s... stairs th... that go... d-d-down... a... and... a... corridor...? I... I c-can't see f... from here..."
She pointed northeast this time, her hand shaking about. They would have to find something to light their way soon; the moonlight only aided them very little, as there were not many windows about the castle.
Tallia nodded feverishly; she didn't want to get separated either, probably a lot more than she thought. As they eventually made it to the table, the door shut behind them, as Margrett suspected. The wind that pushed them closed sounded oddly like a scream. Tallia's body shook as she registered the howl in her head, and moved a little too close to Margrett. As she bumped into her, Margrett involuntarily hit the table, causing the matches and the candle to tumble across the floor.
"A... ah...! S... s-sorry...!"
Tallia scrambled as quickly as she could to pick them up, and handed them both to Margrett.
Margrett hissed and rubbed her leg where Tallia had bumped her into the table, wincing a little.
Mm...s'okay, kitten. That was pretty loud.
She took the match and struck it against her armor, lighting the candle. Then she grimaced, holding the candle around to recheck the passages in the room.
Though I can't say I didn't expect it. Hold onto my cape if you want...let's head upstairs.
Tallia "There are some things... that we all can't escape from..."
Tallia gave a slow nod, and promptly latched onto Margrett's cape. They continued onward up the stairs, running into no particular trouble as the staircase spiraled upward. From what they could see, there were a few torch sconces on the side, unlit for whatever reason. Arriving at the next floor, the first thing they could clearly see was red; the walls were awash with blood, which trailed down to the floor. Despite the prevalence of blood, there were no bodies — only the skeletons that once belonged to them. Again, amongst the bones lay broken weaponry and pegs about, possibly in the wake of a somewhat surprise turn of events. The smell of the dried blood caused Tallia to clutch her nose; with the room being closed off, it didn't seem like much air had gotten into the place, even with the addition of the cracks within the walls facing the outer side of the castle. However, the cracks sprinkled moonlight throughout some of the floor, alleviating some of the bleak darkness it contained. From what they could see, the second floor housed the quarters, most located to the left of their position. In front of them, there were a few storage rooms, along with a bathroom, but, from their position, they could not see what they held.
"..."
Tallia's eyes moved from the blood along the walls, to the skeletons frequenting them. With one hand on Margrett's cape and the other along her face, combined with the shock of seeing so much blood, she didn't make a sound.
Moonlight? She took a few steps toward the window, then thought better of it.
Got dark awfully fast. And all these are too fresh to be Falion. So he's not here... She slowly picked her way down the hallway, careful to avoid the remains.
Let's see what's down here. Maybe we can find a window we can climb out of.
Tallia "There are some things... that we all can't escape from..."
As they roamed through the hallway, one of the bones near Tallia's feet suddenly rolled over. She noticed it as it bumped into her foot slightly, but, she knew wasn't because of the wind... Tugging lightly on Margrett's cape, she pointed over to the bone with a shaky finger, as the bone collected with the rest of its body. It rose to its feet as it scrambled towards the duo, arms outstretched.
It was unarmed, as far as she knew, so she stepped in front of Tallia, bodyblocking the skeleton and lifting an arm to smash it against the wall, keeping the kitten behind her.
Tallia "There are some things... that we all can't escape from..."
As she smashed the unarmed skeleton against the wall, the reanimated skeleton lost its form. As it did, however, another took its place. Then, another came to being. Then, another... Shortly thereafter, the room was filled with reanimated bones throughout, and they all came through the hallway, bones clattering. Tallia tugged on Margrett's cape, whimpering softly, as she saw the army of remains shifting towards them.
She wasn't quite sure what Margrett meant by that; this was the first time she had seen skeletons reassemble themselves and try to kill them. Regardless, she gulped hard, and shook off the fear binding her in place.
"I... it... c-can't be helped..."
She withdrew her sword, spinning it in her hand as Margrett did with her hammer, and held it to her side. Tallia moved to Margrett's side to get a better view of what was going on. Together, they struck against the force of skeletons, but, like the first, they continuously regenerated, rendering their efforts useless. Knowing that this would eventually get them killed, the only thing they could do was flee... Tallia whipped around to see the rest of the hallway behind her. At the end was a staircase, which seemed to lead upstairs.
"Captain...! O... over there...!"
She pointed over to the staircase, as she deflected a blow from a skeleton.
She spun on her her heel, hammer swinging at head height and flattening three of the clattering piles of bones. She looked over her shoulder to Tallia and backed up a few paces, batting away two more of the things before turning and following Tallia, running past her up the stairs to make sure the way was clear.
