The long halls were beginning to feel normal to her, even though it had been-what? A few days? A week? It was hard to keep track of time since she didn't sleep many nights. She didn't need to sleep, so she stayed awake every night. After life was becoming boring- she knew no one but Hades here in the Greek underworld. There hadn't been too many international people in the Greek underworld and the ones who were international were no where close enough to the mansion to meet her. She truly was alone here.
Since meeting Cerberus Yui had gotten a bit more bold, opening door after door, but there wasn't much to see. She did find a library once, but she had no idea where it was now. She was getting tired and sleep was the fastest cure to that, even in the underworld. She would sleep if she could find her room, but she was utterly lost. She swears that if she found her bedroom she would sleep for a month- not that that wasn't realistic in the underworld.
Yui slowed her pace, finding herself with no need to rush to anywhere. She had eternity left to do as she pleased. But how do you deal with an eternity? How do you live forever? Surely it was less than it was chalked up to be. She had no way to go away now- even without the necessary components of life she could keep going. She had nothing that she wanted and she had no need for anything. Still, some entertainment would have been nice for her, something for her to do, to work with, to distract her from the shadow of her own mind. But nothing came to mind.
Yui walked solemnly down the corridor, turning a corner and finding a hallway with plenty of windows. She was either around the edge of the large building, or just found yet another secluded outdoor area, like Cerberus' pen. Yui wandered to the nearest window, peeking out to see what she could find. She was surprised and delighted all at the same time as she peaked out. She found a lovely garden with trees, bushes, flowers, small streams, and little pathways. Yui stared outside for a while, taking in all of the colors and life out there under the fake sun.
Yui sidestepped across the hallway, never taking her eyes off of the plants outside, excitement bubbling up from within her. This was very exciting and new. She had no idea this was here and was glad it was. She just hoped that there would be an entrance around here somewhere. Side stepping along the hallway, she found that there was more in there than she originally thought. A small bird flew by and a butterfly sprang up from the window as she passed by. Who knew what other creatures lived in there.
Jumping for joy, Yui found the door and quickly opened it up, stepping inside and closing the door behind her, as of not to let the creatures out. She stood there, looking around in awe of the wonderful garden. She felt like Alice in Wonderland, walking through the magical woods. She walked down the cobblestone path, slowly moving towards the greenery, wanting nothing more than to savor it. She took a deep breath in, loving the freshness of the air. The air was stuffy everywhere else, but here it was full of the lovely scents of nature and clean as could be. She spread open her arms and took it all in, closing her eyes and feeling the heat on her skin.
She walked once more down the path, down to the trees, but stopping first. She went off the path and over to a small stream, looking down into the rushing waters. She was delighted to see little fish swimming upstream, fighting against the current. She reached in and cradled one in her hand, still letting the water rush to it. It didn't seem to mind, there must be no danger here for them, nothing but freedom and security in the sanctuary. Yui smiled at this and made sure to keep her hands firm as she lifted the tiny fish up to her face. It seemed confused by the lack of current, swimming in circles in her hand. It was maybe an inch long, gray body and a bobbing mouth. It was small and cute and Yui loved it as it swam around. She gently lowered it back down into the water, letting it continue to fight against the current.
Yui kept kneeling by the stream, watching the little gray fish swim by. She smiled at her blurred reflection, enjoying the feel of the grass between her fingers as she let her hands run through the soft, cold greenery. Taking to her feet, she turned from the stream, continuing on. It seemed that the path lead to a small bridge, which was a small walk over the stream, a bit wider her. She took another pause and resumed her watching of the water, finding that there waters were calmer and had more fish in them.
A small, yellow fish darted around, along with a few ren and orange ones. Goldfish and koi alike swam around together, enjoying and welcoming each other's company. Yui smiled down at them, finding their game of tag to be quite amusing. Even though the water was only a few feet long and maybe a foot deep the water seemed to be just fine for them, clear as day and shimmering in the light. Suddenly a fish jumped from the water, causing Yui to giggle. She could get use to this. She watched as leaves gently floated down the water's edge and flowed away, the picked up current moving them quickly down stream.
Yui pushed off the bridge's railing she was leaning on and continued over the brown bridge, following the cobblestone path further down. She soon found herself in a field of flowers. Yui was delighted to see all of the colors and as she moved to walk through the squeaked, jumping back in surprise as many butterflies, startled by Yui, fluttered off, quickly landing back down onto their flowers. Yui smiled, walking towards the flowers and bending down to them, smiling at a monarch butterfly on a dandelion. She reached out and gently plucked the butterfly from the flower. Like the fish it wasn't scared of Yui at all, feeling along her finger for pollen. She pulled it to her face and slowed her breathing, as to not scare it.
Finding little interest in Yui, it flew away and back to another flower. Yui smiled at it, turning to the flower. She let her smile grow, bending down to smell the flower. She took in a waff of air and felt pallen tickle her nose. She reared back, letting a loud sneeze out, causing butterflies to suddenly scared and fly up for a moment before landing back down on their flowers. Yui giggled, finding it cute how they did that- flying up and down so suddenly, like the petals falling from cherry blossoms with every wind.
Yui found little paths that extended from the main path, smaller than the original but still welcoming. She took one, wishing to enjoy the flowers for a while longer. She startled a few butterflies, but found them to be more use to her than she originally thought. A few landed on her, taking a free ride to another area along her. Soon she found at least twenty butterflies along her and quickly ran into honey bees.
She followed them along a path and found the largest beehive she had ever seen in her life. It had to be at least a few feet long and probably three feet wide. Honey oozed from the bottom of it, a large jar underneath. It seemed to have been emptied recently, but a puddle was forming again. Yui kneeled down and put her finger in, pulling out a bit of honey on her digit. It smelled sweet and oozed down her finger in a brilliant yellow shine. She stuck it into her mouth and hummed, closing her eyes and tasting the sweetness of it. It was heavenly, and there was so much the bees didn't seem to care she was taking it. Still, she didn't want to overstay her welcome and stood up, causing her butterflies to take off, a few returning to her body happily.
Yui walked back down the path towards the main path, but hesitated going further down. There were still many paths to take and so much more to see. On the other hand, she could come back anytime she wanted. Shrugging, she took another path, walking down the dirt path quietly. She had to watch where she stepped since lots of butterflies seemed to like hanging out on the ground and she didn't want to crush them.
She kept going down the path until she found the end of it, leading right back to a different part of the cobblestone path. It seemed the main path went in one, big circle while smaller paths branched out to show off more things. This garden had much to explore. Even though her feet were beginning to hurt, she turned back around and headed back to the cobblestone path. There was still much to see.
Ok, so I got a request to slow it down, so I have. This entire chapter was as slow as I could make it and it will probably be in the next few chapters too, since I love it. And don't forget about that library she mentioned, it'll come back eventually.
I hope you enjoyed the longer chapter. I know I've been skipping out on the word count, but I haven't been feeling it lately. Hopefully this long chapter will make up for that.
So there will be a few filler chapters in the garden before the plot comes back, since I want to fully explore this area first.
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