"Hellooooo! Anyone here?" I poked my head inside the dining hall to see if any heroes were present. Unfortunately, the hall remained silent and empty.
"Darnit. How can over a hundred legendary heroes just vanish into thin air? Did I do something weird? All I did was sleep…" I gave a small sigh of frustration and closed the door to the dining hall.
"Is it something with Breidablik? It was working fine a few days ago." I pulled out Breidablik from its place on my leather midpiece and examined it.
"It looks fine… and I don't think it would have sent anyone home...would it?" I heaved another sigh and placed it back on my belt.
"Might as well keep looking… there's only so many places for heroes too hide." The clicking of by boots echoed through the hallway, the only sound accompanying it was the sound of early morning birds. I listened to their chirps that were slightly muffled by the closed windows. I approached a window we liked to keep open for the sake of fresh air and stood in the morning light, a few feet from the actual window. It was still a bit chilly from the night, but not nearly as bad as it was when I had first arrived in the middle of autumn. As I stood in the warm light, I shifted my weight to the leg that wasn't constantly sore and folded my arms in front of me. The quiet was nice, but I still missed the presence of heroes in the castle. But that quiet was suddenly interrupted by a large skwak, and a frenzy of flapping wings outside the open window. With a small jump, I dashed a few feet to the window and peeked my head outside.
"What poor bird could have possibly made that noise?" I mumbled to myself, genuinely concerned. I listened for a while, trying to pinpoint the sound of the suffering bird I had heard. After a decent amount of time though, I stepped back from the window.
"It must have already died." I stood straighter and placed my hand on my heart and puffed out my chest, lifting my chin higher in a mock stance of remorse.
"Poor songbird of the morn, for thine songs of jarring skwak and thereafter silence were the only song I heard from thee. Rest well songbird of the morn, rest well." I stifled a snicker and went on my way, the absurdity of what I just did making it harder for me not to laugh. Finally, I burst out in a fit of laughter, alone, in the middle of the hallway.
"Man, the things I say when I'm bored." I flipped my hood off my head and continued on with a smile on my face.
"Kinda sad though. Birds always sing so nice here. Oh well, guess it's just the circle of li-" I cut myself off, my smile falling. Far ahead, there was a corner where one could enter an adjacent hall, a small glimpse of bright blue fabric could be seen disappearing from view. I knew that cape and who it belonged to very well.
"Marth!" I broke into a run, ignoring the increase of pain in my leg as I closed in on where I had seen the cape. When I made it to the corner, I made a sharp turn and continued down the hall despite the fact that I couldn't see or hear Marth anywhere. I kept going, but when I finally made it to the end of the hall where it split into two directions, I froze.
"Where…" My one and only lead was gone. In one big wave of tiredness and frustration, I yelled into the silence of the giant castle.
"Ugh, DARNIT! I WAS SO CLOSE!" My voice carried easily through the halls and echoed back to me and my stressed self. The echoes of my shout were only accompanied by my heavy breaths.
"Where…" I didn't know what to think at this point. They had all deserted the place to parts unknown. Yet another sigh flooded my lungs. I seemed to be doing that a lot today.
"To the library I go." I resumed my intent listening to the clicking of my boots on the tile. It was all I could do at this point. My hood being down allowed my still-too-long hair to lift from my face as I walked with considerable speed, ignoring the leg that still hurt from my run.
"I could have sworn that was Marth…" But he couldn't have disappeared so quickly. A ninja disguised as Marth? Did they steal his cape? Why would they do that? Am I seeing things? As these questions kept coming through my mind, my speed gradually increased until I was walking so fast that my robe had started to billow behind me. I honestly couldn't tell if I was angry or really, really, worried. Maybe both. Probably both. With my speed walking though, I arrived at the library fairly soon. I strode up to the door and swung it open with such speed that it almost kept going and slammed into the wall beside it.
"Hello? Anybody?" My voice didn't echo as well here, but I shouted loud enough for it to carry. And with my shout, came silence in return.
"Heh, kinda like that bird, huh." A dry, emotionless laugh escaped my throat as I recalled the sickly bird from outside the window. I turned around and faced the hall again, pulling the door behind me.
"Thud."
A low, heavy noise sounded from inside the library and made me jump a bit, stopping my exit.
"What was…" I scanned the library for what could have made the noise, and my eyes eventually landed on a book that looked like it had fallen from a shelf.
"How did it…" I strode over to the book on the floor and picked it up.
"'The Westward Garden' Huh." I read the title of the book out loud, and decided to take it with me. Not for any real reason, just because I felt like I should. As I exited the library again, I absentmindedly paced down the hall. My mind was preoccupied with how a book could have fallen at such a perfectly timed moment, and with nobody there to make it fall. My mind drifted back to reality as I suddenly found myself in front of an ornate door with sunlight streaming in from the underside.
"Where even am I? Darnit, I really should mind where I'm going." My hand went up to scratch an itch on my ear, only for me to notice I subconsciously put my hood back over my head.
"Weird. Might as well keep it on though." I pushed open the door to see if there was some sort of clue as to where I was, and in front of me were the gardens that Sharena enjoyed taking me to sometimes. Unfortunately, I still didn't know how to get to familiar territory, meaning I was lost.
"Great. Darn book title made me want to come here. Subconscious stuff really can be annoying." Suddenly, despite the warmer air, a fierce chill ran down my spine and my hand automatically moved to pull my hood down to cover more of my face, a small quirk I had developed when I was around people, especially the more intimidating heroes. I stood perfectly still, waiting to notice whatever gave me such a violent chill. But in the end, nothing came. What could have caused that? The only thing I can think of would be Felicia or Flora. Maybe Fjorm or her siblings?
I breathed a sigh and flipped my hood off again, setting off to wander the castle until I found something familiar to navigate by.