Novel Full Chapter 1928 Following the Strange Sound
Chapter 1928: Chapter 1928 Following the Strange Sound
— Kat —
They’d found a nice stock of orbs and were considering turning in for the night, at least, for Hedera and Lily. Things were winding down… but Hedera noticed something was off. She rushed forward and placed a hand against Kat’s chest, stopping her in place. “What is it?” asked Kat softly.
“I’m not sure. I didn’t notice before because we weren’t close enough, but now I can hear a section of the town… ’eating’ the sound,” answered Hedera.
[What does that MEAN? I can’t hear anything odd?] “Lily didn’t notice anything off, can you describe it?” asked Kat.
Hedera nodded. “I’m not sure how quiet we need to be, but the sound of our footsteps isn’t echoing properly. In a section a few streets over the sound simply vanishes. It takes a bit of experience to notice it… and I’m taking a bit of a risk doing this but…”
Hedera pulled out her bow and arrow, aiming it in the direction she’d just indicated. “Lily, try and listen for the sound of the arrow landing, Kat you might be able to as well…” Hedera whispered as she lined up the shot. A breath later and the arrow was released. Lily could hear it slicing through the air… until suddenly she couldn’t. It simply stopped making any noise at all. It didn’t hit anything, at least, not that she could hear. It was… strange by its absence.
Kat could almost hear what Lily was hearing, but definitely noticed the lack of a clank on landing. “So what do we do?” asked Kat. “And why are we whispering exactly?”
“Because it might just be a one-way field. The arrow might alert them… or it might not. As I said it really depends on how it’s enchanted,” answered Hedera.
“So do we head over there?” asked Kat.
“I think we have to?” sighed Hedera. “We can’t risk sleeping in the dome if we don’t know what’s going on over there.” Kat nodded and started to take to the air before glancing at Hedera, who nodded and dashed away by herself. Lily had hopped off Hedera’s shoulder as the elf did this… before deciding that sticking with her was probably a better idea. So Lily turned and chased after her.
Kat flew over the houses directly to the area in question. From the outside, it looked the same as the rest of the town. Which was odd. Kat was expecting some kind of illusion. Even as she got closer and spotted the arrow. Hedera had managed to get it lodged in one of the backyards so it wasn’t hard to see.
Kat landed next to it and looked around. There wasn’t anything odd here as far as she could tell and tapping the wall next to her made… the sound of tapping a wall. *Anything odd on your end?*
[Yeah… now that we’re inside the area I can hear something odd. Hedera probably can as well… but I’m not really sure what it is? I can really describe it properly. It’s… a weird combination of hissing and cracking and a few other sounds mixed in together.]
*Not ideal news… where do I need to head?*
[It seems to be coming from the centre of the area… which is a crossroads. You can see it a bit further along.] Kat nodded as she jumped back up into the air and spotted the crossroads Lily was likely talking about. Kat flew over and as she approached, she too could hear the noise in question. It was muffled, and hard to make out but odd to hear. Kat thought it sounded… almost like steam? It wasn’t quite right but the closest thing she’d heard in real life was a steam engine on a train.
*What’s the plan here? It’s pretty obviously directly below us… but just breaking our way inside might not be the best idea.*
Hedera let out a short, sharp whistle that caused Kat’s head to snap over to the elf, who gestured for Kat to come over. She was currently hiding out along the fence line nearby. Kat flew over and sat down so that she wasn’t visible from the other side of the fence. Lily transformed as well and stayed low. “So… as I was just asking Lily, what’s the plan? Do you want me to just break through the ground?”
Hedera shook her head, “Nope. I bet there’s a way down in one of the nearby houses. I don’t know what’s inside… but I’m getting the sense it’s a big deal. It’s either a deadly trap, or a monster of some kind and I don’t know if we really want to fight it.”
Kat nodded, “Alright so what’s the plan? Canvas the houses one by one?”
“I suppose so. Just… pay special attention for any trapdoors and the basement in particular,” said Hedera.
Kat nodded and soon, the trio got to work. They started on the closest house and got to looking around. They were old hands at this and anything even slightly out of place in the houses was homed in on. In this case, it was a bookshelf in the basement. Kat slid it off to the side… and which revealed a locked door with some heavy duty chains and oversized padlocks. “Urgh… do we need to look for the keys?” groaned Kat.
“Maybe not,” said Hedera as she moved forward. Gently tracing a finger over the looks Hedera’s lip twitched a few times. “I think whoever enchanted these was in a rush. I’ve said before, I’m not master enchanter… but even I can tell the enchantments here are all broken. Whatever authentication with the real keys it was meant to have? It’s missing, or well… non-functional. I’d guess they were in a rush when they made this and didn’t stop to double check it was done properly. Even a casual glance let’s you know it’s broken.”
“Ok… so do I just try ripping the chains?” asked Kat.
“No, no, don’t do that,” said Hedera immediately. “I have no idea what that would do to the enchantments. I can however, pick locks. I didn’t bring my lockpicking set with me… but that’s not a real issue. One moment,”
Hedera ducked back upstairs, and Kat listened as the sound of shifting curtains sounded out. A few moments later, and Hedera had a number of bent metal pieces that she was quickly able to insert into the locks. It really did look like Hedera was just shoving random bits of metal into the locks and hoping for the best… but that was only what it looked like. Hedera made good progress on them all, with the first falling after about two minutes and the rest all taking less and less time. The last lock snapped open after only twenty seconds of effort.
With the last lock gone, it was a simple matter to pull the chains away. They were wound through special holes made in the wall an door for them… but that also meant with it all unlocked it was easy to unwind them as well. With the doors cleared, Kat pushed it open. As she did so, Hedera and Lily both redyed their magic or bow for whatever they might see inside.
They were being silly though. This was a basement, off to the side of the centre point. All that was in front of them was yet more stairs. These in a tight spiral circling down into the darkness. “Ah… feel kind of silly now…” mumbled Kat.
“No, no I should’ve spotted this…” admitted Hedera. “I’m far more used to exploring and this sort of thing is easy to overlook.”
Some tension drained from the group though they didn’t drop their guard completely. Kat and Lily floated down the centre of the stairs, with Hedera slowly and quietly making her way behind them. When they got to the bottom of the staircase there was another set of doors, this one didn’t have any locks on it but it did have a number of warning signs. No words, but the various signs did indicate death. It was mostly various skull signs.
“Do we want to open this door?” asked Kat.
“I still don’t know WHAT it is,” grumbled Hedera. “I can sort of hear it… but I’ve still no idea what that sound is. The closest thing I can think of is… like… steam that’s dragging nails along a chalkboard while someone runs a rock tumbler in the background… but it’s constant and looping. The sound is almost exactly the same so… I’m not sure. Is it a machine of some kind?”
Kat rubbed her chin. “So… do we risk going inside?”
Lily shrugged and carefully stretched her shadows towards the door… and then past them. Just a bit. Once there Lily quickly retracted her shadows. “Nothing seems to be stopping us,”
Hedera frowned at that. “Strange… very strange indeed. I’m not sure what the best course of action is. If it’s not a machine and it’s something like that statue… well… it’s not too late to fight it… even if I’d rather not… but I also don’t want to sleep with this thing nearby without knowing what it is. I really don’t know what to suggest.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure either… what a pain…” mumbled Kat.