My Adventure in Mikellar

Chapter LXIV | Slayyed

The wooden door creaked open and a cold gust of wind brushed my cheeks sending shivers down my spine, I stepped on the thick layer of snow as it softly scrunched beneath my feet, the snow rising to meet my feet, the powerful emotion of being in sync with the winter flourishing my body. I looked up from my feet and paused as I gawked breathlessly at the majestic castle of Mikellar, its architecture covered in multiple layers of snow.

We were standing on a low snow-covered hill, and behind us was a tall medieval tower, and when I say tall, I don't just mean tall, I mean tall with the 'a' sound stretched out, like probably a hundred storey tall, and in front of us-I-I didn't even know how to describe it in words...

The magnificent Mikellarian castle stood amid the cold chaos of winter, its slate roofs covered in the imperious snow, the diverse variety of rocks that made the wall of the castle, looked as if they have stood there united together for centuries to protect its glorious owners, but something also spoke to me that it wasn't as content and standing as magnificently as it used to while it fended its present keeper. Another medieval-like building surrounded the castle in a circle, a few metres shorter than the huge castle, with towers with sharp-pointed slate roofs shorter than the ones that stood on the main fort. The warmth and golden light of the chateau's rooms and halls, and the brittle chill wind of the air glided past the glass windows. There were three more towers (like the one we were standing in front of) around the castle, at its south, north, east and west. A huge bronze door stood on one of the sides of the building that surrounded the castle, the entrance to the castle certainly. Flags with a red silhouette of an owl with its wing spread on a black background swayed on top and around the roofs. The Flag of Mikellar. And on the tallest tower on the main castle building was a sundeck, you could see the shimmering gold boundary's columns shining in the winter moonlight, for its owner to admire its great kingdom from.

In front of the glamorous castle lay an amphitheatre, it looked age-old, yet it was still standing so proudly as if it had just been assembled, its gold floors and columns shone beneath the full-moon night sky as a crowd of people all murmuring and whispering tensely, some shouting protests alongside some others of a strange phrase 'Free The Dusk!' There was no sign of trees or any natural habitat except the thick layer of snow on the ground for metres and miles around the castle. The palace ground was built on a high hill that overlooked the grim medieval yet futuristic-tall towers of the Main city of Mikellar, in which slept the riches and nobles peacefully while we, the rebels and the dreamers, suffered and cried. It seemed today even the night sky cried as the snow that fell from it slowly fastened its pace.

"Crickey!" the red-bearded guy exclaimed as he casually took out a red umbrella from his pocket, "It's gettin' bloody cold!"

"Yeah, hopefully, it doesn't get worse, we didn't prepare for this!", the freckled guy nodded, he looked at me and an apologetic look flushed on his face, he fished in his pocket and took out a red muffler, "Here, Have it," he said, giving it to me.

"Oh no, no thank you, you might need it" I snapped.

"Please, I insist" he urged.

I sighed, "Fine," the dude wrapped the muffler around my neck in a fatherly manner before getting hold of my arm again. And it did help, more than it should have as a sudden wave of warmth brushed me, certainly a Mikellarian science magic.

We walked over the thick layer of snow, towards the hubbub amphitheatre, battling the blizzard and the darkness of the night sky, only lit by the silver light of the moon and the crystal lamps that lit the amphitheatre. The chorus of protests grew louder and louder as we reached the bronze columns at the entrance of the amphitheatre.

"Kay' little chap, don't be a-feard, it would finish soon" the red-bearded guy tried to say words of comfort but failed terribly.

"Right,", I sighed as we stepped on the gold and ceramic marble floor of the amphitheatre, arranged in squares like a chess board.