This comes after Chapter 13.

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Chapter 7: On the First Floor

A groan came from the brunette child laying face first in the white sand. Water from the tides splashed around him, some seeping it's way into his mouth. He flinched and coughed violently, successfully waking himself up. The boy jumped to his feet all too quickly causing his head to spin. His eyes flashed open, but he could hardly see anything. He weakly got on his knees as he waited for his blurred vision to return to normal. His clothes weighed him down significantly which was odd, but one look at his reflection in the body of water explained to him why.

His eyes widened, greatly surprised. Tobias didn't look anything like himself. To be more exact... he was a cowple. There were black spots dotting his milky white skin, long folded ears, quite a few fingers were missing, and he had purple and green robes. The eleven-year-old got closer to the water, steadying himself on his hands. In the same moment he blinked, he could swear a black, ghastly figure swept behind him.

"Who was that?! I'm warning you! I know seven different types of fighting! A bear would pee itself if it saw me coming at it!"

Tobias got up. He did various fighting stances before noticing a cloaked figure standing behind some black rocks, gesturing for him to come closer. She was quite a distance away.

"Why does this place look familiar?" He glanced around at the large, seemingly endless sea behind him, cloudy gray skies with some bolts of green lighting and thunder, and then the large castle atop the dark rocks that towered above him. A voice spoke to him as he looked at the mountains surrounding the area covered by a thick blanket of mist.

"You've been here before."

Tobias jumped, feeling a shiver travel down his spine. The female voice was directly in his ear. "Was that you?!" He spun around in the direction of where he saw the figure.

There was no one there.

"Ahaha..." He laughed awkwardly. "I'm really good at playing hide and seek too."

He gulped and took one last look around. As best as he could, he ran towards the direction of where the supposed woman was. He tripped over the end of his robes just as he had made it around the corner, falling face first in the sand again. The child hero turned to his side to see a flight of stairs that had been carved into the rocks. The dark surface of them wasn't perfectly flat and different portions of them shined in the rays of light passing through the clouds. He rubbed the side of his head as he slowly raised up, using a large rock to steady himself. "Well, you have to be in here... right? You do exist, right?" As he feared, there was no answer. "I-I'll just be moving along now~!"

With that, he cautiously made his way to the stairs. He hadn't even placed one foot down on them before the double doors at the top of them flew open, sending a burst of wind rushing over his body. He threw his arms over his face in defense. Much of the water on him had been dried surprisingly fast. He let his arms fall as he peered into the darkness behind the doorway and gulped.

Once he made it inside, the doors closed, creating another gush of wind that ignited several candles along two long walls. Other than the windows that allowed whatever light from outside to come in, the long hallway- it took him a moment to realize where he was- was glowing a dull shade of green. Tobias took in his new location.

The floor had a multicolored diamond pattern with red crisscrossing lines separating the diamonds that were apparently moving. He watched the diamonds change size on an endless loop; at first believing that his vision hadn't cleared up like he thought it had. The walls were covered in a green velvet material with intricate designs that were in a darker shade of the base color. The paneling on the floor and towards the ceiling were made of wood painted gold. He took notice of tiny shapes carved into them. Portraits and landscapes hung on both walls in between the candles. Despite everything that had happened outside, he couldn't stop himself from finding it all to be incredibly cool. It was like being in a horror movie, except the ghost didn't want to kill him.

"Hm. Nice interior decorator." As expected, there was nothing said to him in response. "A thank you isn't too much to ask for."

He moved out of the small puddle of water he had been unknowingly forming at the entrance and strode forward, looking at each painting he passed.

"I've done some drawing myself before." Tobias paused to look at a painting of Victorique. "Hey! I know her!"

The centaur queen was posed in a sitting position. Her hands lay in her lap, her face was looking at the viewer of the painting, and her posture was perfect. She was wearing a pristine, well fitted white dress with some portions of the dress being transparent. Behind her, there was what appeared to be a window with a hard to see figure standing on the other side of it. He placed his hand on top of that portion of the painting, but jumped back so fast he fell on the floor. The portrait had fallen, sending shattered glass everywhere and breaking the carefully designed black frame.

"I swear that wasn't me!" He yelled at nobody. "What the...?"

The fallen picture revealed another one underneath. It too was of Victorique but much different. She was dressed in all black, her posture was slanted, and her arms were crossed over her body as though she wanted to protect herself. The queen wasn't looking at the viewer but somewhere behind her. Though there was nothing behind her but darkness. The frame around the portrait was white and had the same designs as the previous one. There was also no glass covering it. Tobias was more than confused.

"What's going on with this one? Looks creepy." He tried to take a step closer to it but the shards of glass and his lack of shoes didn't mix well.

Out of nowhere, a vine shot out from one side of the painting and quickly traveled down the wall from under the wallpaper, diving under and over anything it's way. With not much left to do, Tobias assumed it would be best to follow it. His short journey was ended though when he reached a place where the long stretch of the hallway finally had a place to turn. The vine had cut him off from continuing down the hall. Instead, the opening to the left of him leading down another hall that had doors but not a single painting was left open to him. He glanced out a few times into the darkness behind the tangled mess of the vine, curious about why he was being led away from it. The boy looked out into the opening which wasn't as long and contained more lighting. The walls and candles were blue while the floor had various shapes constantly switching positions. The doors were rusty, and after failing to suceed to open the first few, he assumed they were either all locked or rusted shut.

"Why'd you bring me here if there's nothing for me to do...?"

His answer came in the opening of a door behind. It slowly moved open, creating a horrible sound that made the child want to tear off his own ears. Once he recovered from that, he peeked inside. The room was decorated like the bedroom of an adult; at least that's what he guessed judging by the lack of toys and bland colors of the room. Everything was faded from the walls to the pillows on the bed. Paint was peeling on any painted surface, and there was a cracked yet open window. The scenery outside was completely different. There was a dark blue sky dotted with twinkling stars and a pure white moon. Though what really caught his attention was the portrait hanging crooked on the wall behind the large, dusty bed.

"Oh! I can fix this! Is this all you really noted me to do~?" Tobias said in a teasing voice. "Annnnnnd there we go!"

He had climbed onto the bed and reached up to adjust the position. The brunette took a step back to look at the painting. It was of a man with blonde hair tied into a long braid that was resting on his shoulder. He had a beard, a horn like Victorique's along with a crown containing shining stringy material tied around the horn, and strangely, a pair of wings stretching out behind. Is he a centaur too? He was incredibly well dressed in mostly red clothes that had little jewels all over them.

"He must be royalty too... Or maybe he likes to play dress up."

Just then, just like in the hallway, the painting came crashing down, but on top of Tobias' head. He had no time to let out a scream or move out the way. Everything had gone black.

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