Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound ✓ [when the moon lies]

Ch.18: One Prestigious Parlor

Edited: May, 19, 2020

==========

Making a soft whooshing sound like a faraway breeze, the curtain swayed back and forth until it turned into a white wooden door. The door was wedged into a rock face that had moss growing in crevices.

"Is that Thereanbold's house?" Deel furrowed his eyebrows. It did seem likely, but Pinti was beginning to have doubts that someone in their sane mind could actually live here.

"I'm going. Maybe." Deel walked up to the door and just stood in front of it. "Okay, I'm knocking!" He announced and raised a fist in the air. "Knocking!" His voice squeaked with nerves.

Before he could knock, the door opened inwards without a sound. Deel jumped backwards and fell on his butt. Inside was a pine forest and a dark gray sky with white wispy clouds. Chandeliers hung off branches and on the forest floor, a room was set up. Old chairs with rundown red velvet seats stood along the sides of an old wooden table. It was like a banquet had been prepared and forgotten about for decades.

"Whoa, look!" Deel shouted and took a step inside. The door began to close. With a jolt she sprang in, just squeezing inside after him. It nearly slammed on her tail. Panting and catching her breath to slow her fast beating heart she searched for Deel and found him on the side leaning against nothing.

"What is... What?" Pinti blinked and rubbed her eyes. There was nothing behind him. Tentatively, she reached out and felt something like a stone wall under her paw. Galag had talked about invisible things. Was this one of them?

"I'm leaning on nothing that exists." Deel grinned and stretched his arms up putting his full weight on the invisible wall. Behind him was the pine forest.

With a tinkle of glass hitting glass, a chandelier came down hanging from nothing. When it stopped to suspend in the air, a wooden plank with a golden rim dropped before it. Although the chain that held it up was invisible, Pinti could hear a metal chain clanking as a light wind swirled around them and the plank. Golden lettering gradually appeared as if someone was burning the words into the wood.

"Returning Impassable," came a low thundering voice. It echoed in her head, numbing all her senses. The sugary scent returned then. Pinti felt compelled to close her eyes and focus on that scent. Images of apple pie, sugar cookies, custard pudding, and chocolate brownies appeared in her mind. Licking her chops, she became aware of a soft velvet carpet beneath her feet. She opened her eyes, but there were only pine needles scattered on dirt ground with small pinecones littered all over.

When she lifted her head, Deel was standing before one of the chairs, talking with someone. She could tell it was a pleasant conversation with the way he smiled and put one hand on his hip, casually leaned back on his leg and acting quite normal for him.

"Pinti," a male voice called her name. She whipped her head around but there was no one there. "Pinti," he said again. "Would you like a seat?"

A seat? Where? She stared at the battered chair before her for only a few seconds when it's washed red velvet deepened. Soon, all around her was a luxurious parlor. Chandeliers shimmered in sunlight. A large rectangular marble table was piled with sweets. Her eyes gravitated to the chocolate cake and she breathed in the warm, rich scent of chocolate, filling her lungs with the aroma.