Chapter 17 – Exploration.

After a night of celebration, it's finally time to explore the island. Again we will split into teams. Gandalf will go to the east side of the island, I will go north.

This time I'll take Abigail, as well as Loki, who seems willing to follow me after our battles together.

Moving on, let the adventure begin, the forest is relatively closed, its tall trees prevent sunlight from infiltrating, bringing with it a feeling of oppression as if an ancient beast were watching us.

Still it is possible to see small animal trails that go in all directions, choosing a relatively cleaner one, which seems to go north, I start walking.

Loki seemed to like Abigail, they are both floating behind me as they pick fruit from random trees, commenting on which ones are better.

Apparently I brought two gluttons with me. Still, their conversations at least give me some distraction from this sinister feeling.

Less than thirty minutes of walking the terrain finally starts to change, the ground once composed of forest floor, now gives way to a small stone path, looking into the distance I see what appears to be a stone tower.

We approach slowly, even Loki is watching in silence, after about three hundred meters of walking, I am in front of a strange stone arch, such arch is formed by two finely carved black stone statues like two giant snakes cross in the air, their heads look down, their mouths open and their razor-shaped teeth seem to have life and can devour any intruder.

Abigail has her eyes wide open, Loki who has positioned herself in a sitting position on her lap has a small greedy glint in his eyes, moving forward we continue towards the tower.

Now looking closely the tower is about seventy meters high, and quite wide, as if it housed many people in its heyday.

Two iron doors save us as we reach the end of the trail. Pushing open the door with all my might, I feel it start to move, my heart pumps my blood at breakneck speeds and I feel the adrenaline rush through my being, this is going to be fun.

The first thing that pays off when you open doors is the smell, it's like an accumulation of all death and decay trapped in one place for centuries before finally breaking free.

The second thing is absolute darkness, as if all light has been banished from this place. It's terrifying as well as unnerving.

Conjuring a small orb of light I move forward, Abigail is behind me, Loki is at our back to see to our safety. With each step popping sounds reach our ears, looking down at porous white bones, a single step is enough to break them showing their advanced age.

Abigail suddenly lets out a scream, startling me and causing Loki to create several purple flames, looking at the flames distracts me for a second before following Abigail's gaze.

Following Abigail's gaze, I see the cause of her scream, a snakeskin stretching across the floor of the tower, indicating that a snake has changed its skin there.

Trouble is, that skin is at least a hundred feet long and at least two feet wide, whatever it was that left it here. I can only pray he's dead. Although I'm probably fooling myself again.

Better to ignore the skin for now, ahead of us are two options, one flight of stairs leading up, and one leading underground.

Looking at the skin on the floor, the stairs up look much more inviting. Climbing the stairs we can see that whoever built this place had a lot of wealth, gold and silver candlesticks are hanging on the walls, in some places still preserved pictures are hanging depicting epic battles or arrogant looking people. Loki with his top hat in hand is collecting each of the items we passed. I want a top hat like that.

Loki seems to read my thoughts. With a victorious look on his face he turns his paw towards me where a black hole forms, from there a beautiful black top hat with silver details takes shape and falls into my hands.

Putting the top hat on my head seems to make Loki even happier. Giving me a second unexpected surprise.

'' Infuse your magic in the Top Hat, just wish, and you can put something in and take something out of it.''

It was really worth my day, just not having to carry so much weight, I'm happy. Abigail has a look of envy, but since she can't use magic, nothing can be done to help.

At the end of the stairs we reach a small round room, in the north corner a flight of stairs leads to the next floor, while in the other three other corners doors protrude.

I head towards the east door, Loki with Abigail in tow-heads for the south door, she's been Loki's pet since they met.

Opening the door I see what appeared to be a bedroom, a stone bed protruding from the wall, as well as a stone table where the resident of this room should carry out his night studies judging by the leather books of some kind that are kept preserved In recesses in the wall.

Furthermore, silver candlesticks are again hanging on the wall, highlighting the wealth of those who lived in this tower. Using my new top hat I start to gather everything useful from the room, looking at one of the books I recognize the language as a kind of High Valyrian, although I still can't speak that language fluently, reading is not a problem.

After leaving my room Loki and Abigail going to the west room following they repeated what we did in the other two, this time however I take the books while Abigail and Loki share the silver, seeing my interest in books Loki hands me a few hundred books he's picked up during his walks, although I'm curious where he got all this from, I won't make the mistake of asking.

I believe his answer will cause me problems. On the next floor the same configuration is repeated, the rooms however present a subtle increase in wealth, two hours later we are finally on the top floor.

This floor however is different. At the end of the stairs a black wooden door prevents us from entering, looking at the door Loki is drooling as if he's found an incredible treasure. Turning to me as if asking permission for something, I just give him a nod, and he does something that shocks me.

Like a professional robbery master, Loki approaches the door, and quickly rips it out of its frame as he tucks it into his hat. I admit that I didn't expect this, but I've seen him do worse things, besides in front of me a gigantic library stretches out. Looking at the black wooden shelves, I start to pack everything into my top hat, I don't know how Loki did it, but I'm happy. So much knowledge, I hope you have something about magic here. But even if there is nothing magical, it will still be a good pastime.

And so, looking at a solitary room in the east corner of the huge library, we decided to take a short break before ending our exploration of the upper part of the tower.