Two Destinies Chapter 11: Portraits from Another World
Author's Preface: Here starts Chat's Hut part 2! And here also starts a time skip! Well, here goes… I own none of these characters!
"Seriously!" Reid complained as he and his friend stepped into yet another puzzle room. "We've already ascended five floors!"
"How many floors does this blasted place even have?" Kyle complained. "It's like this place has an infinite number of floors…"
"Don't worry, we'll reach the end of these puzzles eventually…" Farah said. "I just wonder how many floors of puzzles we'll need to complete…"
"Thousands!" Meredy burst out. This outburst made Kyle jump backward.
"W-what?!? Really?!? T-there can't be!" The fair-haired child wobbled back and forth as if he was going to faint. Reala ran over to where Kyle was standing to prevent him from falling over.
"Meredy!" Farah said, putting her hands on her hips. "Don't scare him like that. You know these puzzles have been really stressful for him…"
"When Kyle said he wasn't good at puzzles, he wasn't lying…" Keele said under his breath.
"Let's just keep going forward." Reala said. "We can get out of here, but we need to keep going!"
"Please tell me that we won't need to complete thousands of puzzles first…" Kyle said rather dizzily. Reala giggled and whispered something in his ear. He instantly perked back to his normal energy level once she was done. "Okay, then let's keep going!" He said, running into another room.
"What did you say to him, Reala?" Reid asked. Reala chuckled.
"I told him that there are probably only one or two puzzles beyond this one." She said. "I also said…" Just then, there was a yelp from nearby.
"What was that?" Meredy said. Keele sighed.
"Why do I think it was Kyle making a klutzy move?" He said. "Let's see if he's all right…" The team opened the door that Kyle had disappeared behind and saw he was laying on the floor all the way on the other side of the room.
"Kyle? Are you all right?" Reid called out. Kyle groaned.
"Owwie…" He said, still not moving. "I hit my head on the floor…" Reala started to run towards the fallen swordsman.
"Here, let me… Aah!" All of a sudden, the floor underneath her feet began to move. Reala nearly lost her balance.
"Meredy knows what happened!" Said the Celestian girl. "Kyle must have tripped when the floor started moving and the floor brought Kyle over to the other side of the room."
"That seems very likely…" Farah said. Keele sighed.
"He really is a klutz sometimes…" Reala hopped off of the moving floor over to where Kyle was.
"Are you all right?" She asked him, using a healing spell on Kyle. He sat up.
"I am now…" Kyle said, rubbing his head. "I really wasn't expecting a moving floor like that…" The rest of the team boarded the moving floor and gathered on the other side of the room.
"So, the puzzle for this floor probably has to do with these sliding floors…" Reid said. "Well, let's start searching for the duck and the spring…" And upon saying this, everybody nodded and walked into the next room.
The puzzle on that floor was not too terribly difficult. The team easily navigated the sliding floors and got past the blockades once again. The duck and spring was found once more, and the toy was used to hit the button again. The team climbed the staircases and went for the door...
To discover yet another puzzle that needed solving!
"This is ridiculous..." Reid muttered under his breath. "Was Meredy really right when she said that there would be thousands of floors to traverse?" He sighed.
"Well, let's not worry and just continue onward..." Farah said, going into another room. Seconds later, she poked her head out again. "Well, it looks like the sliding floors aren't on this floor..." She said.
"I wonder what's the puzzle for this floor?" Keele said. He and the rest of the team went into the room where Farah had entered.
At the end of the hallway, they opened up the door and saw the toy duck sitting on a pedestal. Reid walked up to the pedestal, grabbed the duck, and braced for something bad to happen. A few seconds later, once he realized nothing had happened, he gave a sigh of relief and walked back to his friends.
"Well, that was just way too easy..." Reid said, shrugging. He gave the duck to Farah, who stuffed it into her bag.
"So, let's just go look for the spring now." The team turned around to leave through the door.
"Keeping in mind the general layout of these puzzles, the spring should be in the end of the corridor on the other side." Keele said, scratching his chin. "Why would they make this just way too easy, though?" He said under his breath. "There was no trap or anything when Reid grabbed the duck..." Just then, Keele realized that the rest of the team had left without him. "Wait for me!" He said.
On the other side of the door, everybody was slowly walking through the corridor. Returning back to the main area, they went into the corridor on the other side.
"That's so strange..." Meredy said. "There is no puzzle at all!" She skipped along to the end of the hallway and opened the door. "The spring is here on the other side of this door!" She beckoned her friends to come. Once inside of the room, Kyle walked up to the pedestal that the spring was sitting upon and handed it to Farah, who assembled the duck.
"There's gotta be a catch to this..." Farah said, holding the completed duck toy in her hand.
"Maybe the person who made these puzzles was running out of ideas..." Reid said. Kyle's hand shot into the air.
"All right!" He said. "This must mean that this is the final floor! We're nearly out of here at last!" The team returned to the main area, somewhat excited to get out of the dungeon. Meredy took the duck toy, wound it up, and it pressed the button, as usual. The team braced themselves for something bad to happen, but nothing did.
"We really are done, I guess..." Keele said. "What a shame... I was expecting more than this for the final floor..."
"I can't wait to get outta here!" Kyle said, ascending the stairs. However, a few steps up, the stairs turned into a slipperly slant, which caused Kyle to fall onto his face and slide back to the bottom. Once Kyle had slid off of the slope, the slope returned to its original form of stairs. Kyle shot back onto his knees. "Aww man!" He said, pounding the ground with a fist. "There WAS a catch!"
"Well, looks like we need to go looking for a way to prevent the stairs from becoming a slippery slope..." Reala said.
"Meredy remembers seeing doors in the first corridor that we entered!" Said the purple haired girl.
"Well, we should try opening them up, then..." Farah said. "Let's head back." They reentered the first corridor that they had entered when they had been searching for the duck and spring. Sure enough, there were three doors in that corridor. Reid opened up the first door in the corridor and the team stepped inside. The room was almost completely empty, except for a picture that was hanging on a wall. The team examined the portrait. The picture was of a girl with long green hair pulled into large braids with red bobbles on the end of them who wore a white outfit and glasses. Reala gasped.
"T-this picture!" She said. "I know the person who's in this picture!" Reid, Farah, Keele, and Meredy stared at Reala.
"You do?" Farah said. "She looks strangely... Inferian... But you said you've never been to Inferia before..."
"That's because she's not from Inferia..." Kyle said. "This picture is of Priestess Philia... Well, from when she was a bit younger..."
"You know her, too?" Reid said. "What, is she from your world or something?" Kyle nodded.
"Yep. She's a High Priestess back home." He looked at the picture again. "Why is there a picture of Philia here in Celestia, though?"
"There's gotta be something with this picture of... Philia that has to do with this puzzle..." Keele said, examining Philia's portrait. He touched the picture, and, all of a sudden, it rotated slightly. "Whoa!" He said. "It rotates!"
"I think it's gotta rotate a certain way..." Reala said. "And that could lock the stairs in their current position..."
"But way is that?" Meredy said.
"Maybe we need to keep searching for clues..." Reid said, turning around. "Well, let's go look into the next room..." The team followed him out of the room, but not before Reala looked back at the picture of Philia one more time.
"Are our worlds really connected?" Reala said to herself. "There has to be some link between Celestia and..."
"Reala, let's go!" Kyle said. The pallid girl nodded, turned around, and rejoined the group.
The team opened up the next door, and there was yet another picture. This time, the picture was of another girl who had short black hair and a red, white, and black outfit. She was hamming up the camera, grinning quite widely and giving two thumbs up. Kyle jumped back once he saw the picture.
"What the hell?!?" He yelled. "What is THIS doing here?!?"
"Does Kyle know this person, too?" Meredy asked. Kyle nodded slowly.
"Y-yeah..." He said. "I know this person all too well..." Farah crossed her arms.
"A second picture from your world?" She said. "This is way too freaky to be mere coincidence..."
"So, who is the person in this picture, Kyle?" Reid asked. Kyle took another step backward before speaking.
"T-t-that's... my mother..." He said, still very freaked out. Everybody looked very surprised.
"Your MOTHER?!?" Keele said. "This is your mother?" He went up to the picture and examined it closer. "She doesn't look anything like you, Kyle! Are you sure about this being a picture of your mother?" Kyle flailed about.
"I'm 100% completely positive!" He said. "That's definitely my mom, Rutee! I-I just look more like my father, that's all..."
"Okay, this is just WAY too weird..." Reala said. "First a picture of Priestess Philia, and now a picture of Kyle's mother? What's next?"
"Does this one rotate, too?" Reid said as he went to touch the portrait of Kyle's mother. Upon touching it, the portrait moved, just like the last one.
"We really need to figure out how these pictures are supposed to be oriented..." Farah commented. "Otherwise, we'll never get out of here..."
"Next room might have some clues..." Reala said. "Let's go." The team started to leave the room, all except for Kyle, who continued to stare at the crooked picture. Keele turned around just before leaving the room chuckled at this.
"So, should we leave you here to catch up with your Mommy, Kyle?" He asked rather cynically. "Or would you like to follow us?" Kyle frowned.
"One, it's just a picture..." Kyle said. "Two, I don't call her "Mommy" - I call her just "Mom". And three, of course I'm going with you guys." He ran up to where Keele was and left the room with him.
The rest of the team headed into the third room in the hallway. This room, like the last two, had a lone picture on the wall. However, unlike the other two pictures that had been found, this picture was already on its side, with the character in the picture's head facing left, towards a wall that had a door on it. The picture was of a person who had large yellow hair and a green headband, as well as white armor decorated with blue trim on it. The initial appearance of the character betrayed no gender, until you looked at the person's one open eye. The blue eye was obviously masculine in nature. Like with the picture of Rutee, this person was also hamming up the camera, winking, smiling in a cheesy manner, and holding up a victory hand sign. Everybody tilted their heads to look at the picture. Seconds later, everybody was staring at Kyle.
"This person looks a lot like Kyle!" Meredy said. "Except Kyle has much shorter hair."
"Let me guess..." Keele said. "This is a picture of your father, Kyle?" Kyle walked up to the picture, stood still for a couple seconds, and finally spoke.
"Yes..." He said. "This is my father..."
"The great hero Stahn Aileron..." Reala added.
"Kyle was right..." Meredy said. "Kyle DOES look a lot like his father..."
"This is way too odd..." Reid said. "Whoever owns this house must have visited Kyle and Reala's world or something... Why would there be not one, not two, but THREE pictures of people from their world here in Eternia?"
"Does this picture turn, too?" Farah said, walking up to the picture of Stahn. She touched it in the same manner as Keele had the other two times, but nothing happened.
"Meredy thinks that this picture of Stahn is a reference." Said the Celestian girl. "Perhaps there is another picture of Stahn on this floor, and we need to move the picture to be in this position." Keele scratched his chin.
"So, we should memorize this picture's orientation..." He said. "Well, Stahn's large mullet is pointing left... That shouldn't be too hard to remember..."
"Perhaps we can find more pictures if we go into this door..." Farah said. "Maybe we'll find the reference pictures for turning the pictures of Philia and Rutee and also find the rotating picture of Stahn..."
And, just as she said, in the next hallway were three pictures, one of each person that was seen in the other rooms. However, this time, the picture of Philia was upside down, the picture of Rutee was tipped on its right side, and the picture of Stahn was in a normal orientation. Kyle instantly ran over to the picture of his father and touched the picture repeatedly until it was facing in the direction that was shown in the other room. There was a small clicking noise when the picture was oriented correctly. Kyle touched the picture again, but nothing happened.
"Well, I guess once you've got it correct, it doesn't move anymore..." Reala said.
"That's good." Kyle said. "That'll make our lives easier..."
"We should split up so that we can get the other two pictures going the right way faster." Farah said. "Reid, Reala, and Meredy can take one picture and Kyle, Keele, and I will go for the other. Okay?" The six travelers nodded, and then rushed through the door they had entered the hallway from and back into the other rooms. Soon, all three pictures were in the correct positions, and a loud high pitched noise emanated through the floor.
"Meredy thinks that means we can go to the next floor now..." Meredy said once the team had gotten back together. "Now, we should try to go up the stairs again..."
"I can't wait to get out of this place..." Reid complained. "I'm tired, and a bit hungry, too..."
"You're always hungry..." Keele groaned. "It's like your stomach is a bottomless pit..."
"I'm hungry, too!" Kyle said. Keele looked at Kyle after he had said this.
"Your stomach is the same as Reid's..." The blue haired scholar added. "Seriously, you two are alike in so many ways..."
"Actually, even I'm hungry..." Farah said. "Let's get out of here..." She began to ascend the stairs slowly. Soon, after she had climbed halfway up, she called back down to everybody. "Well, I guess that was the ticket..." She said. "Let's go!" The rest of the team ascended the stairs quickly and hurried through the door...
To be met with another floor...
"Okay, it's official..." Reid said, falling onto the ground. "We're never gonna get out of here..."
"Don't worry..." Farah said. "There's gotta be an end to this somewhere along the road..."
"But this is the EIGHTH floor!" Reid continued to complain. "I'm so tired of this!" Kyle went to open his mouth to complain, too, but Keele gave the younger boy an angry glare.
"YOU are not allowed to complain..." Keele said while crossing his arms. "You weren't awake when we completed the first couple floors... You should be in better condition than any of us!" That shut the fair-haired boy up. The travelers moved into the new puzzle, and Reid forced himself to his feet to catch up with the others.
Author's Nota Bene: Okay, so I sorta changed the layout of the second floor... So sue me... Anyways, originally this and the next chapter were supposed to be one longer chapter, but I decided that it would be a really long chapter if was kept that way, so I decided to split it into two chapters... Next chapter: The team finally gets out of Chat's hut! Hooray!