Trustful: Day 10

Word Count: 60,017

Summary of Events:

Rosemarie got up and was visited by Hulda, who magically lengthened her hair so that she could haul up her food; she was also visited by the eagle who brought a message from Wolfgang she replied to. Wolfgang packed up his camp, moved his horses to a different location, and then swam across the subterranean lake before making his way up the stairs to the courtyard. Rosemarie was elated by Wolfgang's appearance and they discussed plans, including Wolfgang's suggestion that she build a fabric ladder. Wolfgang found Rosemarie's room and cut up the dresses in there to begin the ladder before going the next day back down the stairwell to find the room with Rosemarie's dresses in it . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"He'd found a flint and steel in Rosemarie's room — as well as a candle, eventually — so he was going to light the candle once he was inside the stairwell. Then he could start looking for the room.

Her note was securely in his dagger's sheath so that he could check inside each room to determine which one was the room that her dresses were being stored in based on the description.

As he approached the door he walked carefully, watching for something to happen that would cause the hidden door to open for him and show him where the stairway was.

It took a long time before he heard a stone scraping, then there was a bit of a sound almost like a rock being pried loose. Wolfgang then saw a jagged line of darkness appearing as the door swung inward.

He moved forward quickly and struck the flint and steel over the candle until finally a flame took hold. Then he started off, carefully shielding the candle against any wind that might extinguish it.

The door started grinding closed as he made his way down the stairs and closed with a rather solid and, admittedly, chilling thud.

After a few moments, however, Wolfgang's eyes were adjusted to the dark and he arrived at the landing that led to the door out, but he continued past that because he knew where it went.

Walking down the stairs, he felt a trepidation that seemed greater than the trepidation he'd had coming up in the pitch darkness before; which seemed odd, after all, he had a light this time around, one would've thought that he would be a little bit more comfortable this way than he'd been before.

Not, though, that he was going to get particular about it at all, he was going to keep going to the first landing, which he could already see, and check to see if the room ahead of him was the one with Rosemarie's dresses in it.

Going down the stairs was far easier than going up, although Wolfgang dreaded the fact that he was going to have to come back up the stairs later yet. His legs felt sore doing movement in general, to do walking up stairs — which had caused them to hurt in the first place — would probably end up making them hurt worse than they even had yesterday.

At the first landing, Wolfgang opened the door and found that the room was filled with dust, as well as all kinds of broken debris that looked quite eerie under the thick coating of dust.

Wolfgang drew out the note carefully and looked at it. She said that the room had a dresser, in which the dresses were stored. There was obviously no dresser in this room. Once he found a room with a dresser inside of it he could probably worry about checking the note again."