Night 45: F21-F30 Hallway

[petalwitch]

Dinner had been pretty quiet. In fact, upon coming to temporary terms with the fact that she was alive, Aerith had wondered if things didn't seem a little too quiet. Traveling across the Planet with AVALANCHE had rendered her used to the constant voice of Gaia in the back of her mind at all times. It hadn't been like Midgar where the only whispers

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[mrs_nose]

Like a busy, worrying hand at her shoulder, Sophie was stirred awake by the lack of noise. If anything else, the booming and ringing in her ears had stopped but in it's place was a sudden blinding darkness. Heart hammering in her chest, she dully wondered just how close the Witch of the Waste had gotten to Howl. If they were feeling the battle this far away, she couldn’t imagine what was happening outside in Porthaven.

"Oh, bother that witch," Sophie muttered, raising a hand to scrub at her face indelicately. Eyes adjusting to the darkness, it surprised Sophie to find a stone ceiling swim into view. Strange… Shouldn't it have been a door? The Porthaven door to be precise and, oh goodness where did Michael go? Why was she lying down?

Sophie sat up, alarmed. This was most certainly not Howl's castle unless there was some secret room she hadn't been told about, which was entirely possible with Howl being all wit whenever she was around, but all she could concentrate on was that this wasn't at all the other end of the Porthaven door either and as far as she was could recall, it hadn’t even been nighttime yet! Good heavens!

Breathing a little heavily, Sophie decided that she wasn't being of any help to anyone just sitting there. Butterfly wings beat at the edges of her stomach lining and Sophie wished desperately for someone or something to talk to. Not her feet, certainly, nor the slippers she was currently pulling on. What a lonely place she’d fallen into.

The change of clothes didn’t bother Sophie, who was by now learning how to blame magic for all the little unexpected miseries of life. Completely by accident, she stumbled upon a strange item under the pillow she'd been lying on.

"And what should I suppose you are, friend?" she asked it, curiously turning it over in her hands. The device was an odd metal thing, mostly hard and rough to the touch; it was heavier than a thing its size should be but it was easy enough to carry with two hands. Pressing a bump on the side revealed its true purpose and Sophie fought to not drop it when the sudden light startled her.

But the light helped, and with it Sophie managed to find the doorway out. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for what she might find once outside it.