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// Chapter 18; A Shiny New Bauble  
// Story: The Wander Through Lands Unknown 
// by Tomas Lutwig 
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Hiding in the castle seemed to be a relatively good idea until the sounds of ponies was heard outside, and more noticeably entering the castle itself. I could only assume it was guards as the metallic clanking against the stone floor gave it away that whomever it was had armor or weapons of some kind. 

It hadn't been long before not only had I gotten lost, quite easily in fact, but my feet had started to become cold quickly to the point where my toes had begun to numb. 

'Seems I left enough of a trail for them to come here and scour grounds before assuming I had gone in as the trail disappeared' I thought, hoping they had actually lost track of me and decided to search the castle under suspicion. Meaning that if I found a reliable hiding spot I could wait them out and they would leave for a different part of the forest to continue the search. 
My thoughts on the makeshift plan were halted as the sounds of metallic hoofsteps were heard from in front of me and around a corner. Looking around, I found a few doors lining the walls. Going to the closest and swinging it open revealed what appeared to be the remnants of an old bedchamber. 

The sounds of the guard neared making me quickly, though as quietly as possible, shut the door and find somewhere to hide. Looking to the now rotted and nearly destroyed bed I shook my head as it wasn't large enough ot hide under, the wardrobe left me with a sense of unease as I looked at it as it seemed too obvious, the small window above the bed letting light into the room being too small and possibly deadly, but the only other structure in the room was a fair sized pile of rotting wood I could only assume was once a desk or other such pleasantry. 

Doors being opened sounded from behind the door of the room I was in making me tense even more. Rushing to the wardrobe I pulled at the handle only for the hinges to start a creak making me stop in my tracks. My eyes darted to the door when the sound of rummaging was heard from the other side. Making me turn back to the piece of furniture in front of me this time edging the door only enough that the hinges didn't creak. 

The interior was filled with a small assortment of what looked to be noble's clothes, or was once as they had been feasted upon by moths and presumably other insects. Little time was given for me to think as I nearly jumped into the wardrobe, the bottom giving only a very slight complaint. 

I managed to pull the door closed as the door swung open and impacted something making a small racket outside the confines of my hiding place. I breathed into my hood that I had pulled around to cover my mouth, praying it was quiet enough to evade his detection. The sounds of hooves made their way around the room, making me wish I had some way of seeing through the doors of the clothing container. 

Pushing on one of the doors just enough I managed to see out of the crack as the guard looked through the pile of rotting wood before making his way to the bed and lifting it with a hoof. I shifted back as the guard allowed the bed to fall back to the stone floor pressing myself against the back of the wardrobe dread creeping into my chest. 

'Alright' I thought trying to steel myself for what was about to happen. 'When they open the door, I'll attack bashing them in the face with my shield' I thought before looking to the clothing around me. 'I can tie them up with this so that it'll take a while before they're discovered' 

Pulling on one of the dresses I was surprised when the cloth broke making me elbow the back of the wardrobe with a dull thunk. The hanger, broken as well, quickly followed to the flooring of the wardrobe, but almost impossibly, I felt myself being shifted around as the door of my hiding place was swung open to reveal light just for it to disappear again. Replaced instead by a think darkness and the feeling of movement as I slid down what appeared to be a stone slide. 

I suppressed a cry of surprise before a stone floor met my feet making me stumble and land on mossy stone. Picking myself up, the chill of the area seemed even greater than that before. Looking around, I found that I could see very little as my eyes adjusted. 
Having fallen into what seemed to be a strange hall, it was decorated with moss between the stones and little else beyond the torn remnants of a banner of some kind. Hearing and seeing nothing of danger. I quickly replaced my boots, the cold stone hurting against my already cold feet. 

After lacing the footwear and sabatons to my legs again I looked down either side of the hallway. Not knowing which way to got, I started down the path to my left. 


Very little of interest was found on the leftmost path, besides a single locked door after what felt like fifteen minutes of walking. Having tried everything beyond taking hours to cut the hinges away from the wooden door or something otherwise as tedious, I started back down where I had come from going past the strange chute that I had fallen from. 

Though this way seemed much like the first, I found that doors lined the walls not far from the chute, though unlike the wooden and iron doors I had seen before, these ones seemed to be made of only iron similar to those of jail cells. 

Looking through the doors revealed different things, some doors, closer to the assumed entrance, held little more than what appeared to be skeletons. Some appeared to be of ponies, though others looked to be different including what I guessed was a couple of minotuar and what looked to be a griffon. 

Past the cells containing remains of one kind or another, there was one that held a darkness that I couldn't see through. Others held items of one kind or another, one holding a small blade that sat on a pedestal in the middle of it's room, another a book made of very simple bindings, and many other strange objects. 

As I continued down this corridor a dim light shined from inside a room near the end of the corridor. Looking inside I saw a small necklace sitting on another pedestal similar to the blade. I couldn't understand why, the simple necklace with shining yellow gem seemed to draw me to it. Glancing at the handle for the cell's door, there was a simple kind of padlock, though it was rusted. 
I pulled on the handle to the door a couple times to test the strength of the bars that held the lock in place only to find them holding firm just as before the rust. Focusing instead on the lock, I saw how the space between the shackle and the actually lock was fairly large. Leaning my spear against the wall next to the door, I took out my knife, thankful I made it close to the game's rendition as I saw the steel pommel, and bashed it into the top of the locking mechanism hoping to loosen the shackle. 

The ringing impact echoed through the corridor only for the lock to stay in place. A look of annoyance came to my face as I hit it again letting the sound ring through again and again until a clang was heard. Looking down at the lock a smile came to my face as I pulled it away from the door and threw it behind me. The door swung open after a small amount of resistance from the rusted hinges. 

The dim glow of the pendant seemed to brighten as I got closer to it until it was shining at the brightness of a small campfire, easily giving light to the entire room. Replacing my dagger in it's sheath and picking it up I watched as the gem's light dimmed to a slight glimmer. The silver chain was connected to a small round pendant that held in the center a yellow gem in the shape of an upside down triangle who's sides were rounded off. Around the triangle were smaller circles at each of the sides and a larger circle made up of a decorative knot. 

Shrugging I was about to put the necklace in the small pouch on my belt when it started to glow brighter again, this time emitting a yellowish light instead of the white from before. Giving the necklace a questioning look, I put it into the pack. 

Heading out from the cell door I looked around only for my eyes to of gotten used to the light and it took a few seconds for them to adjust to the darkness. After a moment of rubbing my eyes, I grabbed my spear and started back up the corridor as nothing else in the other cells really caught my attention. 

'Wonder what the "magical necklace" is supposed to do' I thought glancing down at my now glowing pouch as I looked for the exit. Though it seems my search was in vain as beyond the chute from where I had fallen down I couldn't seem to find any other way that could lead out besides the only wooden door in the corridor far from the strange cells. 

Heading for the other door I started trying to think of some way to get it open. 'Well it's supposed to open inward, so I wouldn't be able to kick it down, even if I had enough strength to kick wooden door like this open.' I thought, shooting down ideas left and right. 'There's got to be something I can do, I sincerely doubt I could manage a climb back up that chute and I really don't want to die of starvation here'

I started pacing in front of the door only for my pouch to start glowing even brighter. Letting out a sigh I opened it and pulled out the now very bright necklace which seemed to dim as I pulled it out to it's normal glow. "What the hell is up with you?" I questioned, expecting some kind of answer from the strange magical artifact as my voice rang out through the corridor. 

'Hell why do I even have this?' I questioned mentally turning back to the darkness that hid the now wide open cell door. 'As far as I know this could be some kind of evil artifact that would corrupt my mind or some other kind of thing. Would make sense for it to be hidden away like this if that's what it does' I thought before turning back to the necklace hanging from my hand. 

As I looked back at it though, the thought of putting it back in the cell seemed stupid, it was mine now, evil or not. Shrugging I pulled it over my head shivering from the cold metal on my neck. Before I could put the rest of it in my jacket, the yellow glow seemed to double shining it's light out in front of me and making a strange feeling rush through my body. 

"What in the...?" I asked looking at my gloved hands before a smile came to my face. The feeling started to change, a gentle coolness radiated through me like stepping into a refreshing pool on a hot day. Clenching my fists around my weapons, I felt better, there was no chill in my body from the cold stone surrounding me or aches due to my rather quick stop from sliding down the stone chute at high speeds. 

Reaching for the handle of the door I pulled on it making whatever mechanism had locked it creak before giving way under the strain. A stairway rose above my head in a spiral though even as I started climbing my smile never faded. 


The necklace emitted a soft yellow glow before I tucked it into my shirt, the feeling of calmness and comfort not fading as I reached the top of the staircase. A lever sat in the wall next to what looked to be a wooden back of something in the stone wall. 

Taking a guess at what it would do, I pull the bar down and what turned out to be a bookshelf was pushed forward on rails before stopping and moving to the left revealing a rather torn down room that looked like it was once quite cozy. Looking around I found it to be a lounge or some other kind of room for relaxing as there were a pair of sofas covered in now rather damaged pillows. More pillows sat near a pair of stain glass windows that showed the sun and moon respectively. 

Turning back to the bookshelf I watched as it slowly moved back into it's placed before stopping as if it had never moved in the first place. Looking around the room provided little of assistance beyond a number of damaged or ruined books. A small wooden pulpit stood in the middle of the room that seemed to be angled towards the two sofas looking as though someone was to be reading to the occupants. 

Turning towards the door leading out I started towards it before putting an ear to it to listen for any sounds of the guards that had been patrolling the castle before I had fallen into that strange dungeon for prisoners and artifacts of an unknown nature. 

Hearing nothing, I opened the door.