Chapter 3: This is the Way I Came in... Right?

"Trolly-molly..." Orko's hushed whisper echoed softly in the tower, which was nothing like he'd imagined. Before him was a large room that took up most of the first floor, dominated by a blood-red rug upon the floor. The walls, ceiling, and floor were a cold black stone that reflected no light seemingly; the walls bare of any decoration save for torch sconces. Steps wound up one side to vanish through a hole in the ceiling, presumably to a second floor. The whole place gave him a rather creepy feeling.

"Trolly-molly, what was I thinking?" He turned about, as if to leave, then a muted noise from up above caught him attention. Against his better judgment, Orko moved towards the stairs and up them towards the second floor.

The stairs continued up through another hole in the second floor's ceiling, while the second floor itself was half a huge, open-air library, and half a walled room. The library sported a fireplace and a very large chair amongst the shelves of darkly covered volumes. Orko gulped at seeing the chair, but if Adam had sat down upon the deep purple cushion and put his back to the backrest, his feet would have not come close to touching the floor.

What kind of creature would sit in a chair that big? Orko shuddered. Still he moved upwards.

The third floor was much different. As he came out of the hole, he saw there was only a narrow ledge and a wall with a door. The rest of the room was cur off by a wall that stretched from side to side. He listened at the door, and, hearing nothing, looked in... and gasped aloud.

Inside were cages, several containing captives. He saw several elves, a few faeries, and even a pegasus. They all looked ill treated and despairing. One elf looked up wearily, and his eye lit up when he saw Orko.

"Stranger, help us!" he whispered hoarsely. All the others looked over, and began to plead for help too.

"How?" Orko asked, slipping in and looking around. He smiled when he saw a key ring hanging on a hook on a wall.

"They keys are of no use," a female faerie moaned. "You can't touch them." Orko looked over at her as he floated up - suppressing a shudder when he realized the ring was set at least seven feet from the ground - and reached out.

"What do you mean?" Despite that she'd said, he took the keys easily and began unlocking the cages, making them gasp.

"No Dream can touch the keys," the first elf whispered in shock at the Trollan undid his cage. The prisoners slid free, all looking at Orko with expressions of awe and great respect. He just blinked, confused.

"What?"

"Thank you, Dreamer," the elf whispered. "Now we'd all best flee as fast as we can, before He realizes we've escaped." They began to carefully creep down the stairs, Orko with them. Going down seemed to take a lot longer than coming up, especially now that Orko knew some malevolent force occupied the tower. Slowly they reached the ground floor and the door.

"My friends outside will keep us safe," Orko whispered encouragingly.

"You have friends here as well?"

"Yeah. A force field of sorts kept them out, but they're right outside." The elf slowly opened the door, and Orko's eyes popped wide. "Trolly-mo-umph!" he started to yelp, but another elf covered his mouth.

Gone was the snow-covered plain. Gone were He- Man, Battlecat, and Skeletor. Instead he saw dark clouds in the sky, and a blackened, dead woods.

Dazed, he slumped to the ground with a soft moan.

"Not again!"