Chapter Eight

Tai groaned out loud and rolled over in his sleep to curl up against the cold stone wall. His eyes flew open with a start as he realized he was no longer in the forest laying with Agumon beside a dying fire. He noticed a square of light interrupted by a shadow and rose unsteadily to his knees to see the person better. It was a girl wearing a short, revealing pink dress, belted at the waist by a black leather strap and gold buckle, exposing more skin than Tai was comfortable with and he quickly moved his gaze to her face. She had large, emerald green eyes and short, fiery red hair that shone like embers in the light behind her, leaving her face in shadow.

"Hello, Taichi Kamiya." She drawled in a deep, sensuous voice, draping one arm lazily over her leg where she leaned against the frame of the small room.

"W-Who are you…? W-Where am I…?" Taichi asked, wondering in the back of his mind why those cliched words were the first to come to mind.

"I am Chloethia, and you are in ab Ceastle jic Faenti, the Castle of Dreams." She pushed herself from the doorway and bowed formally, her skimpy dress revealing a canyon of cleavage as she held out a hand to help him from the floor.

*****

The walk down the hall with its many defensive aspects was done in a silence so heavy that Matt felt afraid to breathe to loudly lest he interrupt it. His hand was beginning to ache where Mimi had it in a death grip and he felt her press herself against his side as they passed through another spiked gate. The tunnel was beginning to feel claustrophobic and he worried at the thought that maybe the supposed envoy and honor guard were sent to get them hopelessly lost before gutting them like fish. He squeezed Mimi's hand in a wordless giving and receiving of reassurance and strength. Just when he thought that he could stand no more of the enclosed space, the corridor opened to reveal a hidden paradise that the outside of the castle gave no hint to.

Trees, so big around that ten men couldn't encircle the trunk with linked arms, stood in strategic positions through out the building. The branches starting barely twenty feet from the ground and reaching all the way to the top of the castle, standing atleast fifteen stories high. Sun light poured down from the open ceiling, showing that the appearance of a roofed castle had been a ruse. Birds, some with brightly colored feathers that drifted behind them, flew down from the trees to greet them, chirping and squawking playfully as the twirled and danced before them, seeming to welcome them to the heaven on earth. Flowers grew along side the rock path that continued from the hall they'd just exited and some vines with purple and blue flowers curled up the trees and out onto the branches.

The garden had a dreamlike quality that Matt found he was unimmune to and he began relaxing against his better judgement. Mimi's grip loosened but didn't let go and Matt was content to keep her hand comfortably in his. They both gaped like dazed fish, but their escort didn't stop to play tour guide so Matt decided to close his mouth and gawk later, but the silence was starting to make him uneasy again and he was reluctant to lose the relaxed mood.

"How can these trees fit in here, they're so huge, bigger than the castle looked from the outside?" He asked the oldest girl, Lyanna.

"They are several floors higher than the castle." She answered with out turning or slowing her pace.

"But if they're taller than the castle, how can they be inside it?"

"Did you not notice that we were descending in a circular motion in the tunnel?" She inquired casually, still not glancing at him.

"Well…no, actually I didn't." He replied honestly, becoming aggravated with her evasive manner.

"Good, you weren't meant to." She paused, and Matt wondered if she'd make him ask again, but she continued after another breath or two. "The tunnel was built to confuse anyone attempting to enter by force, you noticed the other, more defended halls leading from the main corridor yes? They are to lead the opposing side off to their deaths since they were constructed as traps for just that purpose. All the corridors circle the castle, leaving the entire interior to our vale." Finally she turned and flashed him a brief smile before again concentrating on the path.

"If the inside is entirely for this "vale" where do you live?" He asked, looking around but seeing nothing that looked remotely like a house.

"In nests." She answered in a voice that sounded more amused than it should be by the question. Matt opened his mouth to asked what that was suppose to mean when Mimi's grip tightened and she stopped dead.

"There's a house up there!" She exclaimed in surprise, pointing up with her other hand. Matt followed her gaze and stiffened himself when he spied the underside of wooden floorboards built around the tree trunk and supported by the large branches.

"So there is." Matt replied absently, looking away from the tree house and to their envoy who was smiling and the youngest princess who was giggling uncontrollably, earning a warning look from her sister. Lyanna cough politely into her hand, trying to hide her smile and appear serious though she was obviously amused aswell.

"We really must hurry, the Queen and her consort are waiting." She successfully kept the smile off her face, but it rippled through her voice so clearly that she needn't have tried.

"Lead the way." Matt said with a bow, equal humor in his voice. Lyanna, losing the mask of representative, laughed and fell back with him as they started walking again. Taking his other arm in hers, she leaned her head in close to his and said, in a voice so full of mock seriousness that Matt smiled.

"I believe, misuer Ishida, that we will get along very well."