novelxo Chapter 8
Willow cursed as she stirred, if only she had more time to have figured out that swirl puzzle, she would have been able to go back to her own dimension. Of course, the second that she became cognizant that she was again Willow, she quickly scanned around her. She obviously remembered the Snake-man and remembered the Red Ogre. Willow quickly got up and looked around.
She was still in the temple, but something looked off. Willow looked around trying to figure out what it was, what was off about this place? The fact that something felt off about this place made her realize that she was not in the same dimension she was in when she was Willow before. That meant this was now the third alternate dimension that she had now reached.
Willow really didn’t waste time, so she got up and decided to go looking for the murals and see if they had changed. Willow quickly reached the summit of the grand stairs and she looked around. The Monkey-man had not changed or, so he seemed like. But on his mace was the number 33489.
“What the hell?” Willow said looking at that number. That was way different than the last number. So, her theory that this signified how many times you had to go into the mirror before reaching your original location was wrong. So, using the same idea as before she came up with EEDGH when she formed letters out of it.
After carefully making sure one could not make a sensible word out of this assortment of letters, Willow started to figure out what each meant. The two E’s could mean his eyes. Willow started there, and she looked at the monkey man’s eyes and just like in the other mural in his eyes was that strange swirl.
D probably meant down, she looked down and beneath this mural she saw an opening. Willow was confused about that. But then had a fading thought that maybe GH meant Go Here. Willow looked at where the hole was and wondered how in the world was, she going to get there? If this Willow was her parallel self as a girl then that meant that…. Willow reached down at her heels and looked for a knife.
Willow pulled the heels she had off and searched through it. Soon on the stiletto of her right shoe, she found a hidden compartment and inside…was a knife! Willow felt glad all versions of her carried a knife and put her shoes off to the side. She started stripping and tearing at her clothes, she was going to use her clothes as a rope and her knife as an anchor. It was a wild idea, but she had to give it a try.
Down to her underwear she managed to make herself a pretty sturdy and long rope. Willow looked around to see if she could find something near the opening to lasso. She noticed that just to the left of the opening was a pole that was holding a banner. On the banner was the design of the swirl. So, this literally was what she needed to do.
Willow lassoed the pole after several attempts. Once she tugged on it and tested its sturdiness, she decided to go for it. Willow made a running start and jumped off the side of the stairs and towards the opening. Willow braced herself as she went into the opening and she rolled for a bit before she stopped. Willow got up and felt some of her cuts in pain. Her body was covered in them.
She felt weird she had just done that and felt weird that she was in a girl’s body and she took this girl’s clothes off. Willow didn’t know what to think about that just yet. Willow looked around in the opening where she had landed, and she wondered where in the world this could possibly lead to.
Willow began following the opening, trotting carefully, she wasn’t sure if this was designed to support a girl of her stature. There was nothing wrong with this Willow, but just like the last Willow, she was a bit heavier than girls that Walter would have interests in, exception being Tonya. But as luck would have it there was no cave-in or nothing weird.
Willow made it to the other side and she was shocked. It was another mirror. Willow looked back down the opening in the opposite direction to make sure that she had not somehow made herself go around in circles. She had not.
This mirror was below a long set of swirling stairs. The stairs wrapped around the mirror like a giant tornado or something. Willow noticed the mural of the woman she had seen earlier heading down towards this mirror. The woman looked the same. But there was one difference, here the woman was nude.
Willow looked at the mural confused. But then she realized it must be a clue. Willow felt weird, but she decided to take the rest of her clothes off. Once fully in the buff she walked down the stairs, careful as she did as they looked slippery. She didn’t see any murals of the Monkey-man, so she wondered if that meant that the mural only leads it here.
Willow wondered if the other mural with the swirl would have led her to an opening in that other dimension. Willow wondered if she had gone through it did it mean that she might have made it back instead of jumping to being Willow again? Willow wondered this as she walked down.
As Willow reached the mirror, she looked at it. It didn’t look different, at all. Willow hesitantly walked up at it and she very nervously extended her hand towards the mirror as the mirror swirled just like the other mirrors, she had been in. Willow very gingerly placed her hand on the mirror and just like the rest it let off a flash!