username: StormSerpent
cat name: Sheali
link to thread: Evergrimprompt: One sees many interesting and exciting and terrible things when one has unrestricted access to every room in evergrim castle.
You can escape mortal peril with nothing more than a story when you are already dead.
The things you hear when no one can see you.
It is a lonely life when you have all these tales but you cannot share them with anyone.
Sheali no longer had any sense of time, she'd been here, doing this since the beginning of time for all she knew, it was just another day, or night, it was all the same.
She worked tirelessly, she couldn't get tired anymore, not physically anyways. She cleaned the castle, it was all she did with no need for food or rest there was no reason to ever take breaks.
She was busy dusting the great lion statues, they were as large and detailed as real lions made out of a shiny black stone. They'd been there for even longer than she had and were the closest thing she had to friends. She hummed as she worked, she didn't know where she'd heard it before but it was her favorite tune.
There was no one else in the room with her, and time was slowed almost to a halt, she was the only one who could move freely she made sure of that. But something was causing the fur along her spine to prickle up. It felt like the room was filling with static and she stopped moving all but her eyes which were darting around wildly.
There was a great burst of light, only it was faster than light, it happened in less than an instant. She couldn't even see it happening at all, but now the freshly swept floors were covered in rubble, and statue she had just finished dusting was gone, it's shattered pieces scattered everywhere.
Even that couldn't come as too much of a surprise from the things she'd seen, but in place of where the statue had been there was a lion, in the exact position but very much real. A real lion, those were supposed to be extinct weren't they? But here one was, laying right in front of her.
She hurried to speed up to real time, she had to know what would happen next. The lioness was breathing, definitely alive. "Where am I?" She thought out loud, the room was dark, there wasn't a door to let any light in.
"Welcome to evergrim, your worst nightmare that you'll never wake up from." She muttered, not like anyone who didn't already know that could hear her anyways. The stranger needed light she supposed, the living couldn't see in pitch darkness so she lit one of the torches along the walls as she spoke.
The lioness was bristling, not used to what she'd think was a self lighting torch. But when she spoke the words that came out of her mouth were completely unexpected. "Who said that?"
Sheali went as still as one of the statues, the woman wasn't looking at the torch, she was looking right at her. "What did you just say?"
"You, who are you? What's evergrim."
She walked as she spoke and the lion's eyes followed her "You can... see me?"
"No but I can hear you. Who are you?" She asked yet again. She didn't seem to be panicking, she was just filled with a resigned sadness.
"I'm no one." She wasn't supposed to talk to anyone, Kori was always watching, he'd know what she was doing.
She looked confused "Well I'm talking to you. What's your name?"
A name... everyone had a name, she must have had one once but it was lost to time. "I don't have one. Listen I shouldn't be talking to you." She was feeling very nervous, this was most definitely not allowed. The dead didn't speak with the living, that was a fact, and she didn't even speak with the dead, it wasn't allowed.
"We're kind of stuck in this room together, I don't see a way out so you're kind of stuck with me." She pointed out. Sheali didn't respond, she wasn't going to say anything else to this lioness. "Are you there?" Still she didn't speak. "Okay fine be like that. I'll figure out what's happening on my own."
The stranger continued speaking, but it was a very one sided conversation. She was making her way around the room trying to figure out if any of the walls pushed open. But she wasn't walking, her back legs didn't move at all, as if they couldn't. She was dragging herself along the floor and Sheali watched.
"Okay fine, just leave me alone." She said opening a door in the solid wall, big enough for a lion to fit through.
"Farewell my mysterious friend." She resonated with a sadness, a deep sorrow that pierced you to the core. The same one that filled Sheali's entire spirit.
This was the first living person she'd spoken to in a long time, she couldn't let this chance slip away that easily. "Wait!" She called after her.
"Yes?"
"Would you like to hear a story?"