Dead Rainbow

Push

Two bowls of stew, two pints of ale, two teleportation jumps, one vomiting on his new clothing, and fourteen hours of straight sleep later, Redwing woke up with both an incredible need to urinate and an extreme thirst. He opened his eyes to light coming through a set of open windows. The smell of salty sea air filled his sinuses and the dull crashing of waves wasn't just a dream. 

He was in a large feather bed with a hand died red wool afghan wrapped around him. Next to the bed was a nightstand with a chamber pot, a basin, and a large full pitcher of fresh water. He drank his fill and let water pass through him while eyeballing clothing draped over the desk chair across from the bed.  

He put on the shirt and trousers, stepped into an old pair of short boots, and read a note that sat atop a single book that lay on the desk. 

Redwing,

I've often found this book helpful in overcoming the great loss of a loved one.
The kitchen is below and the laboratory above.
I will return by supper.

~ M

He pushed the note aside and opened the Book of the Dead. It was a funerary guide of sorts. A set of incantations and chants meant to help the dead navigate the underworld. A ritual intended to bring peace of mind to the living. He struggled to read the runes and hieroglyphics. 

The simple bedroom had curved stone walls, two windows, and a single door. When he looked out the windows he saw the ocean stretch out before him to the horizon line. He went to the door and out into a stone hallway. There were two sets of stone steps, one going up and one down. He went down one level. There were two rooms there similar to his but smaller and empty. The stairs kept going down and so did he. 

On the next level was the kitchen with a large fireplace, a benched table, and a pantry stuffed with food. He ate cured meat with fresh bread and sharp cheese. With bodily needs fulfilled he began to wonder where he was. The sound of a closing door below brought his thoughts from the abstract into the immediate. 

"Melock?" 

The stairwell curved down to the next level. No one answered him. He heard someone rummaging around down there. The next level had yet another bedroom and a large pile of gear. Armor and swords, axes and helmets, the like of which he had never seen, as well as saddles and packs, and lanterns. He was about to continue down to the next level when he heard heavy footsteps coming up. 

"Melock? Is that you?"

A huge green head with black hair sat atop the yard-wide shoulders of a nine-foot-tall ogre. The beast had a dead deer under one arm and a longbow in its other hand. Bulging blue eyes and chunky square teeth crowded the monster's face. Redwing turned and ran back up to the kitchen. 

He looked around for somewhere to hide. The monster's footsteps kept coming up. Redwing ran up the next flight when the creature called out. 

"Wait." 

He heard the deer's body hit the kitchen table with a thud and the quickened pace of the monster on the stairs. He ran up past his bedroom to the next level. There was one door but it was locked. The creature kept coming, so he ran the only way he could; up. 

On the penultimate floor, Redwing ran smack into the side of a wooden work table. It sat in the middle of a large open room with curved stone walls. The warm scent of lavender released from a bronze cauldron simmering over a low flame in a curved fireplace. The walls were lined with shelves full of big glass jars, the contents of which was at once unfathomable and recognizable. 

One held white powder, another black sand, fluorescent lime green goo, one was full of dead frogs, another held a live octopus, feathers, diamonds, trinkets, thick red blood looking liquid, lizard scales by the pound, candies, gold or was it fools gold, buttons, beads, wire, shoelaces, little sticks, sparkling water, crystals, the head of a goblin, what looked like a jar of dirt, curled ram horns, dead insects, live fireflies, bat wings, teeth, human hair, various sized eyeballs, a miniature galaxy, small daggers, things marked poison, and one that seemed to hold a liquid version of a mirror. Redwing surveyed the collection of magical ingredients with awe. 

The green monster reached the top of the stairs. 

"Hey," said its low gruff voice.

Redwing dashed up the final stairwell to the roof. Light replaced the dimness of the structure's interior. He came to a circular room of windows with a mechanical contraption at its center. It slowly revolved a large oval-shaped mirror with a light directed into it. He was on top of a lighthouse.  He pushed a glass door and went out on the catwalk into the wind. 

The sea below crashed on the rocks and waves ran up the long beach. At the shoreline was the start of a great city. Towers rose high into the midday sun. Wispy clouds drifted in off the ocean. Thousands of people milled about the streets in the distance. It was a sight to behold for his young eyes.

The glass door opened behind him and the massive ogre stepped out onto the walk. The forest green hulk had no shirt, ridiculous oversized muscles, course leather pants, and boots that could stomp Redwing into dust. He panicked when the mammoth monster cornered him and he remembered a spell called push.