BXBX NOVEL Chapter 708
*I wish I was surprised,* thought Kat as she shook her head to remove some of the debris still there. It might not stick on her long, sliding off at the first opportunity, but headbutting a wall meant a lot of little bits of stone were sitting on her head with a few lighter pieces in her hair. Blue was of course, just sort of watching all of this go down from the other end of the hallway. She was slowly approaching Kat but didn’t really know what to make of the odd sequence of events she’d just witnessed.
With a drawn out huff Kat dragged the body over to the next door and threw it open. Kat was quite pleased to see a similar storage room, though the intact boxes off to the sides indicated it wasn’t the same storage room the pair had recently left. This one was also missing the lovely map. Kat bit her lip at that. *A shame. Would have been nice to check if this hallway is actually still on the east side of the house.*
Kat got to work, throwing the bodies into the room and trying to ignore the bloodlike sap stains. As it wasn’t real blood Kat was sure with a bit of time and some effort they could be cleaned properly but Kat decided that wasn’t really worth it. By the time the bodies were dealt with Blue had caught up to Kat. The fae had tried running over but with her eardrums shot and the blood, it was also affecting her balance so she was forced to walk instead else risk falling over her own feet.
Seeing Blue nearby Kat pulled her back into a princess carry, causing the fae to pout and say, “You know you don’t have to carry me right?”
Kat just shrugged and checked the other two doors with her tail pulling on the handle. One was a storage room and the other was a storage room... but for food. So more like a pantry really but it certainly wasn’t what Kat was looking for. So, seeing as Kat couldn’t use words to express how little it inconvenienced her to carry Blue, she just got back to exploration.
The next corridor they found was empty, doors and servants alike, and the one after that had only servants in it. There were a full ten servant Thymes just hanging out in the corridor. Kat agonised over how to deal with them for a good five minutes before Blue hit her hard on the arm and pointed back the way they had come.
.....
Kat frowned a bit at the idea of just giving up before Blue repeated the motion with a roll of her eyes and somehow that was enough for Kat to get the idea without Blue needed to resort to whispering the answers and risk the Thymes hearing them. *I’m can’t believe I forgot. The rooms move when you’re not looking at them, so heading backwards is fine, or at least, backtracking a bit can be excused.*
Turning around Kat raced back down the empty hallway and looked down at the hall that should have contained four doors and a few bloodstains. Instead it was a completely clean hallway with one butler and a single large door. Kat slowed her pace before looking at Blue. Blue got the message and summoned up a spell taking the Thyme out in one shot.
The pair snuck, or in truth Blue remained in Kat’s arms while Kat snuck up on the door, listening for anything but the same white noise that had prevented any meaningful findings before was still around. Kat let Blue stand on her own two feet to check the door herself. Kat found herself looking at the ballroom.
It was a beautiful room backed by stain glass windows that framed a stage with Thymes all sitting next to their own instruments, mostly familiar ones like trumpets, flutes and what looked to be a saxophone made from wood. The Thymes all seemed to be just chatting with each other at the moment, with their own unique uniform consisting of a tight blue jacket, slightly puffy green pants and shoulder pads large enough to be hats, complete with dangling gold tassels.
The rest of the room was fairly spartan, obviously so that guests could actually use the space to dance. There were three large tables pushed up against the walls but there wasn’t anything except a white tablecloth that had some embroidery on it.
The only other thing of note was the door on the other side of the hall. *Hmm... do I want to risk getting across this room and hope it’s the healer’s wing?* Kat quickly checked her memories and found that, yes, the room did occasionally link up with the ballroom. Not in any regular way to suggest it was likely that room was there right now but it was possible. Kat didn’t really want to acknowledge the fact that the room behind the door was constantly randomising at this moment either. If she did, it meant the best course would be to just keep going through hallways and Kat couldn’t help but think that was a mistake for some reason.
“Come on, let’s just go,” said Blue, having got board of Kat’s second guessing and marched out into the room, not even caring if she was seen. Kat followed awkwardly behind and as soon as the pair crossed a golden design on the floor a magical barrier shot up around them. Kat jumped, startled somewhat from the sudden magical phenomenon but calmed when she took a spare glance at Blue and found her companion was utterly unconcerned.
The band on the other hand, were much more concerned. Instead of attacking or something else sensible though, they all pulled out their instruments and waited. Kat froze, looking around. Every band member was mid breath and she braced herself for whatever was about to come for her...
Thirty seconds past before anyone made a move, well except Blue who had kept walking and was stumbling her way across a quarter of the room. That’s when the trombone player kicked something hidden from view and a Thyme with a tube popped up from the ground. It was a female looking Thyme, shortest of the whole group. They were practically minuscule and didn’t really look like they had any business playing the tuba.
Of course this was Thyme so the little tuba Thyme sucked in a huge breath and started belting out notes. The rest of the band picked up as well, following the baseline the tuba player set down. Then everything broke into Swing.
*WHAT?* Kat still stood frozen, trying to work out why the band was playing swing music of all when music notes started to fly out of the instruments. The notes varied in thickness and quantity based on the instrument. The low bass of the tuba was one over sized treble clef while the flutes had a flock of twenty sixteenth notes that used their flags as wings to flap around.
It was at this point Blue started dancing, it was more of a shuffle really and hardly in time with the band at all. The thing is she was doing it, and Kat was not. The notes converged on Kat who still had no idea what to do about all of this when a quarter note from the trumpets slammed into her face, knocking her back a few steps.
Kat wound up a fist, but just as she was about to punch the note in question Blue shouted, “You have to dance your way across Kat. This is like... puzzling one o one. It’s not exactly common, but it is a classic!”
Kat frowned again. *Why couldn’t this have been ball dancing or something else that they taught in PE class. Why did it have to be swing? I’m surprised I even recognise the fact this IS swing and not just jazz.*
Kat took another glance at Blue and got struck by a sixteenth note for her troubles, it slapped both sides of her face with the ‘wings’ before flying off. Kat was able to see that Blue didn’t really know what she was doing either. Part of this was from balance, a lot of it was from the lack of hearing, but it was still surprisingly good. Those noble dance practice lessons must have been paying off.
So Kat, always one to mess around with the kids at the orphanage did something she was quite used to. She decided it was time to make a fool of herself. Kat would also swear, in that moment, she could hear Lily giggling over their connection.