Note: This whole story is a chapter-tradeoff collaboration with Carol J. This chapter serves as companion to Carol J's own branched-off story following Ricard. That said, I beg, no,
implore
you to go read Carol_J's work--it's breathtaking stuff!
Not a ton of sex in this chapter, but lots of mind games! :)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I really hope Ricard is having an easier time of this than I am,
Felix thought as he ascended the steep staircase. He was still sucking off his fingers, savoring the sweetness of the cupcake the Keyhole Maiden had rewarded him with (it was a bit too sweet by most measures, but to Felix, that was a sign that
somebody
out there knew how important sugar was to any culinary delight).
If he's had to climb half this many stairs, he'll be a mess!
Not that Ricard was necessarily weak, of course. But in Felix's measurement, the fellow was really only in shape for one reason, and it was not to climb stairs.
Felix had begun this climb taking it three steps at a time, a spring in his step, eager to advance onward. He was certainly over that phase now. He was drenched, his clothes stinking of perspiration and general exertion. His heart was beating fast, and his footfalls were slow and heavy. Surely, even by the pace of his current size, he had to be coming close to the attic at this point!
And as he thought that, Felix came around the corner and found a rather abrupt end to the endless steps.
He had reached the top of the shaft. The stairs cut off to a deadly drop, and across the gap stood an archway carved in stone. Felix's eyes widened in delight, even as he eyed the drop.
It's really, really good I'm not scared of heights.
Of course, the gangly locksmith barely had to hop to make it to the other side, and he did so with utter glee. He was so eager to be rid of the cursed stairs, he almost didn't notice the inscription above the archway.
Almost.
Felix,
he chided himself, hopping back onto the final step,
you mustn't be so hasty! It's not a race! Stop and smell the roses once in a while!
He turned to face the subtle scratchings.
The dancer of the dizzy-ditzy-daze-dazzled maze
Takes a spin on one foot, and he sways, in a haze
Takes in a deep breath, and he gives 'em a bow
Then he falls to the floor--and he's all ours now!
Behind every boy is a head full of flowers now.
Felix hummed under his breath. "Takes a spin on one foot," he mumbled, trying to find the rhythm. "No, no, it's completely nonsensical. What a mess. Fey might be fun in a party, but I don't know what kind of meter this is supposed to follow at all. Maybe everyone's just too drunk to notice."
He reached up and traced the inscription. Surely this was some sort of riddle, but he couldn't find any trick to it. Maybe it would make sense in the next room. Or maybe it was just a silly song meant to make him nervous about what was to come.
Disappointed, he pouted and hopped back over, passing under the archway and into a long, dark tunnel. This dungeon really was a bit of a disappointment in the puzzle room department so far.
~ ~ ~ ~
As Felix continued onward, he sniffed the air curiously. This surprisingly long tunnel was starting to smell rather interesting. The staircase had been a dank, musty affair--as one might expect traveling through what probably served as a ventilation shaft. But this tunnel smelled almost...
Floral?
He studied the walls curiously. Was the smell being carried from elsewhere in the house? Then why did it smell so fresh? Reaching forward, he ran a hand over the wall before him. It was curiously smooth. Bumpy. Was it some sort of tiling? Perhaps... a mosaic?
In a flash, Felix had whipped out a candle, and before it even occurred to him that creating a light might alert others to his presence, he'd set the match to the wick.
The walls exploded in color as light bloomed around him. Felix realized he was surrounded by lovely tile mosaics of men and women prancing through meadows of flowers, fruits, pumpkins and amber fields of wheat. Here and there danced merry green women and men as well, as well as numerous hopping rabbits.
It was quite a pretty design, really, though the art was extremely simplistic. Each tile was about the size of a fingernail, and even so, it was hard to get very detailed with such a vast image. He noticed one man taking a bow who was particularly simplified--his head was just represented by a single diamond-shaped brown tile.
Felix blinked. "Oh...
oh
!"
Mosaic puzzles were easy, but so,
so
satisfying. Giggling with delight, Felix hopped about, eagerly seeking out every man whose head was single-tiled. Sure enough, there were a number of them in the distant background.
Not the most intuitive puzzle for a rookie, but you only had to deal with two or three such riddle rooms to notice the clichés in dungeon design. Clearly, Felix noted, fey were no different.
The tiles sank into the walls with satisfying clicks. He noticed a man doing a merry jig atop a stage, and pressed his head in with a grin. Next, he found a man being spun around by a group of giggling green women, then a drunk one swaying, then one stumbling through a foggy pollen field, led by a rabbit on a leash.
There were eight boys in total as Felix skipped forward, searching with bright eyes for every last button. At last, he spotted the eighth sitting within an old gazebo, immersed in a mass of poppies as fluffy bunnies crawled all over him. The gazebo looked almost cage-like in the simple mosaic, and it took Felix a while to notice its occupants.
As the last tile sank in, the world around him gave off a curious shimmer. The walls began to glow. Felix was forced to cover his eyes as the glow became almost radiant, and a wind rushed by from up the tunnel, quickly extinguishing his candle.
"Oh, goodness
gracious
! Took you long enough, didn't it?"
Felix did a spin, swayed, then straightened, blinking away the glare as the lights faded. His surroundings had totally changed.
The walls were gone. The tunnel was gone. Instead, he was now in some sort of vast crawlspace at least fifty feet across.
And brilliantly glowing flowers were
everywhere
.
Up ahead, wooden walls were broken by a single wide archway leading into darkness. Sitting in a rocking chair, grinning mischievously at him, was a woman who struck Felix as... well, pardoning the vague descriptor, just a little bit odd.
In strictest terms, she most closely resembled a woman, with bouncy blonde curls, milky skin that was just a
little
too pale to look healthy or conventionally attractive, and a colorful violet dress and green leather coat. The clothes were a little bit odd, of course. The dress was lovely--a summer dress, and more than a little reminiscent of a nightgown in how revealing it was--but it certainly did not match that coat.
In less strict terms, she rather resembled a rabbit. A hare, to be precise--or perhaps a bunny. Felix wasn't great at zoology. Two floppy rabbit ears bobbed from atop her head, and from the way she sat, he rather suspected she had a bushy little white tail to match. Her nose was very small, and just slightly reminiscent of a muzzle, though not quite enough to trigger an Uncanny Valley effect like her skin tone did.
She was a little bit plump, and quite short, adding to his 'bunny' suspicions (Felix once again noted to himself that he was not actually really certain of how rabbit species were classified, but he knew hares were quite long and thin, because he never seemed to be able to catch one). With her jacket open and her revealing dress, he could see that her hips were quite wide, but by contrast, her breasts were just the size of rather large apples, or rather small cantaloupes--albeit quite clearly perky and filled out.
He also noticed that she wasn't looking directly at him as she approached. And as he drew nearer, openly staring at the curious woman, he noticed the pink hue of her eyes was not some natural fey effect.
The bunny was blind.
But her ears twitched as he took one last step, and she continued to follow his movements loosely as he advanced. So, very good hearing--and possibly very good smell, judging by how her nose was twitching--but very poor vision, assuming she wasn't completely sightless.
