As he stepped into the hallway, Moxxie passed massive portraits, at least three times the height of himself, all depicting Stolas in regal glory, Octavia's younger years from owlet to teenager, and/or Stolas and his wife.
The hallways were long and ornate. Their size intimidated him from the moment Stolas had brought him there. It was one of the main reasons that the imp had stayed in his room.
Moxxie couldn't help but marvel at the home décor that he and his wife could never dream of having. He couldn't believe that such a place was now his home. It was beautiful yet Moxxie couldn't completely enjoy it, but that was to be expected. It was hard to enjoy a cage.
Eventually, Moxxie found the stairs and made his way to the kitchen where he began getting out the cooking supplies that he needed. After searching out stepping stairs to reach the counter, he began to gather ingredients together from the fridge.
Moxxie had to stand on his tiptoes on the stepping stairs to reach anything. The struggle was frustrating. Everything was so much bigger than the kitchen Moxxie and Millie shared together. The whole house was huge and Moxxie felt microscopic in comparison.
It was yet another reminder that he was somewhere he didn't belong.
Moxxie sighed sadly at this thought as he got the last ingredients he could find onto the counter and checked his phone to see what other ingredients he needed.
The remaining ingredients were vegetables that had to be picked out of Stolas's garden, so Moxxie made his way towards the garden.
After wandering around for a few minutes, Moxxie found the doors leading to the courtyard outside. He couldn't help but stop for a moment to stare. The doors were eloquently fashioned with detailed metallic lining, and they were beautiful enough to bring a smile to Moxxie's face.
After he had his fill of staring, Moxxie hopped up and opened the brass handles. The doors instantly swung open, giving Moxxie a full view of Prince Stolas's massive garden.
The doors opened to a massive courtyard paved in stone with immaculately manicured hedges making up the walls on either side. In front of the hedges were plant sculptures of Stolas and his daughter, each perfectly manicured and blooming with lively, colorful flowers.
Moxxie's mouth opened in a gasp as he snapped a picture of the scene to show Millie later. Few places in Hell were this beautiful. It almost moved him to tears. He continued to stand in awe of the scene before him for the longest time contemplating its beauty before he finally made himself walk down the stone stairs to the courtyard.
Moxxie crossed the large courtyard, marveling at the statues and taking more pictures of them to show to Millie later as he walked by.
Moxxie briefly glanced at a table where Stolas' other servants were setting up a table with tea, pastries, and other refreshments and continued walking by.
One of the taller servants looked over at Moxxie, grimaced, and called out to him, "Hey, prisoner! Come over here!"
"Um, okay…" Moxxie answered as he approached the servants at their table.
The servant in his butler garb looked down at Moxxie and said, "Prisoner, our majesty has allowed you to wander outside into the gardens. Is that right?"
"Yes, that's correct," Moxxie replied nervously.
"Here, you go," the servant said, dropping a large basket in Moxxie's arms that was about half the size as he was. "Use this to pick all the vegetables you see."
Moxxie looked at the basket and said, "Thanks? But I don't need this many vegetables..."
"Who said all these vegetables were for you?" the servant replied while the other servants snickered in the background. "We need vegetables too, you know. How else are we going to prepare dinner later?"
Moxxie then realized what he meant and replied, "Ooooh...so where is the vegetable garden?"
"That way," the servant replied. "You can take whatever you want, but don't get greedy, especially considering your place in this house."
The other servants snickered even louder than before while Moxxie tried to keep his cool.
"Anything else?" Moxxie asked in mild annoyance.
"We will be needing a floral arrangement as well," the tall imp servant replied. "When you're done bringing in our vegetables, of course. We wouldn't want them to get smashed by the vegetables with your clumsy hands."
Moxxie growled but turned away and headed to where they pointed out the vegetable garden.
"Thanks, cherub!" the servant called out as Moxxie walked away.
"Petruchio!" another servant teased. "That's too mean!"
"What, Mercutio?!" Petruchio complained loudly so that Moxxie would hear. "That's what he is. Isn't he?"
"Oh, I suppose you're right," Mercutio replied as the group of servants burst out into fits of laughter.
Moxxie gripped the basket more tightly and hurried away. He grumbled under his breath against the imp servants as he made his way over to the vegetable garden.