Hello readers! Been a while, ne? ; sorry, I got side-tracked writing chapter 5...but the good news is you get 2 chapters in one night! So please review, I'd love to know how I'm doing
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A large, opulent castle is not a place one can live without exploring. So on the second day of her stay, Megan decided to do just that.
"Okay, go ahead," Pegasus said after she asked permission. He was working amid a huge pile of papers, even so early in the day. Smiling and humming, Megan started to walk off.
"Wait," Pegasus stopped her. He suddenly looked more worried about her exploration. "Come here for a second."
"Gladly!" Megan practically skipped to his side. He got up from his desk and moved to the window.
"Do you see that tall tower?"
Megan took her eyes away from his face and looked out the window. "Yeah. What about it?"
"Don't go in there. Go anywhere else in the castle, but not that tower." Megan looked back at him. There was a far away look in the eye she could see. His left eye was, as always, covered by a curtain of hair. Even in photos, she'd never seen it. For some reason, Megan felt an impulse to pull that curtain back. But before she could, he turned back to her.
"Please, promise me you won't."
"Of course," Megan replied, drawing back her partially outstretched hand. "No worries." She smiled. "It's like the West Wing. I got it."
"West Wing...? Ah! Okay," he understood, and smiled back at her. "So stay away, Belle."
"No worries," Megan said again, walking out of the door. "I'll see you later!" She blew a kiss and left.
She paused just a moment outside the room. "He called me beautiful!" She smiled and giggled, then ran off.
Megan, for all her childlike tendencies, was a methodical person when it was appropriate. So, she decided to start her exploration of the castle from the top floor. The very top rooms overlooking the ocean were bedrooms. Megan's own room was a few floors down, and there were only a few rooms on the entire floor.
One room was obviously Pegasus'. Megan blushed a little, but walked in with little reserve. She didn't touch anything; his room seemed almost sacred. Megan looked around everywhere and walked softly. She couldn't stop herself from giggling.
When she'd finished looking around, Megan started to walk out the door. But she looked out into the hallway and saw no one, and looked back into the room. Suddenly, she had an idea. Megan paused for only a second before jumping headlong onto his bed. She buried her head in his pillow and lay there for a minute. Then reluctantly, she got up, smoothed the covers she'd messed up and left.
Megan didn't want to know what the next room meant. It was right next to Pegasus', but entirely different. The long, thick curtains were drawn, and only a few rays of bright summer sunshine could get through. There was a bed in the room, but all it did was make the room feel small because of its size. Dressers were covered in jewelry, and closets filled with dresses. Nothing looked like it had been used in a long, long time.
Megan looked around cautiously. The room had a feel like a museum or shrine; it felt like she wasn't allowed to touch anything.
But who could all this be for...? She wondered.
Starting to get chills from the dark room, Megan left.
At the start of a hallway on the next floor down was a huge tapestry of a rose. Megan ran her fingers across it, feeling the thickness of the cloth and detail in the art. Then she began to poke around the rooms.
The first room was a huge library, not of novels but of music. Books lined the shelves. There was sheet music for practically anything—guitar, piano, with and without vocal accompaniment, percussion, string quartet, anything you could think of. Though, as Megan noticed, there wasn't much Broadway-style music. Come to think of it, there wasn't much piano music, either.
The next room explained that lack. The centerpiece was a grand piano, a beautiful black instrument. Showtunes were lined up on shelves and piled on tables, as well as simply scattered across the floor. Megan clapped her hands in delight to see these, and pulled a few books from the shelf. She sat down and fiddled with the piano for a minute or two, before giving up and just singing A Cappella. This was able to keep her attention for another large chunk of time, and then Megan moved on.
The other rooms in the hallway were likewise musical.
Pegasus must be more musical than I thought...
The rooms were filled with different instruments, all kinds and all families. Strings, brass, wind, reed, anything and everything. When Megan had finished exploring the hallway, she went back to the tapestry.
"I'll remember this," she said to herself. "I'll be back here."
The next few floors were for servants. Megan didn't spend too much time here— it didn't interest her as much as the other floors. Below this was the floor her own room was on, which Megan had already seen.
Megan's floor was the last before the courtyards. Megan had had no time outside since she got to the castle. Happily, she walked out through flowerbeds and ponds.
Before long, Megan of course got to the forbidden tower. As we all know, telling someone specifically not to do something makes her want to do it all that much more. So Megan lingered around the tower base for a few moments. It was probably lucky for Pegasus that the guards he'd posted were still employed with him. So many of those guards had left after the tournament a few years ago. But these two had stayed, and it was nothing much more than their presence that kept Megan to her promise, and caused her to continue on her way.
