Taarkara let out another caw and flew through the ornate arch to flee the predatory hole.
Taarkara's flight through the arch finds the world distort around her as she passes, however given what she'd seen happen to the human that went through before her she was prepared and maintained flight control unimpeded.
As the distortion ended, she found herself before a simple wood door, though of an uncommon wood, maybe willow? Said door is labeled in block letters of wrought iron, with a large looped handle jutting out into the hallway far enough she could land on it if she so chose.
The iron lettering had a single word she'd seen before upon it. 'Coros'
Duh? I look at what I can see, in each direction, then try to join the nearest human-like person I think I can reach. I will not approach or try to cross corridor-wide gaping toothed and vined holes, however. If I can get close to anyone, I'll say, "No Duh? Right, course, I'm Duh? Yeah, so, hi. What's going on?"
If Duh? thinks he cannot safely approach anyone from his vantage, he'll instead just look around, then start gently seeing if the nearest doorknobs to him can open; if not he'll try his key then move to the next.
There's a kid with a red winged lizard on his head stepping out into the hallway near you, likely you can talk to him if you want.
Esselez
She spends some time grumbling about this limitation of her power. What good is turning into a tiny doll, anyways? Besides getting through tiny, doll-sized doors? Possessing a flame would be useful. If only for burning big, scary things.
Welp, turn into doll to pass through the door, close and lock it behind me, then unpossess and carry the doll since I still don't want to be tiny. Assuming nothing apocalyptic is happening out there, proceed in the direction away from the huge claw monster I saw, and toward the big room.
Since something apocalyptic is happening, try to avoid it and figure out what's going on!
Re-entering her doll, Esselez goes back out into the hallway and locks it behind her, before leaving the doll and taking it with her as she heads over to the large warehouse area and the cat waiting there.
The room is lit from above by what appear to be hanging oil lamps.
The shelves are almost entirely empty, with the only occupied shelves being near the far right wall, and containing what appear to be large wooden crates.
the room extends only a short distance to the left, but a substantial way to the right and ahead, but with no significant changes throughout, and occasional gaps between empty shelves forming walkways around the place.
on the far wall a series of heavy wooden doors can be seen, but also on the far wall and a ways to their right there is a giant opening showing what appears to be a large open room of circular tables ringed by chairs. and finally a bit to the right of that opening, also still on the far wall, is a single wooden door.
On the near wall there appear to be a pair of arched openings, one closer and one further, but Esselez can't see through them from this angle, only able to tell they exist unless she goes further into this room or approaches the openings from the side.
Oh, and the cat just failed to jump from shelf to shelf across the asiles between them, leaving it tumbling and scrambling as it drops onto the shelf below its target.
"Easy there, pal, mind the claws," Val asks. He pauses a moment, checks both ways down the hall for anything noteworthy, and calls out, "Hell-o?" He winces as his voice cracks, shaking his head.
Well, on the one side you see a doll walk out of a tiny door before a pale white mist sprays out from it, rising and solidifying into the form of a girl draped in a yellow dress to big for her.
Said girl immediately picks the doll up and heads over to the area at the end of the hall with a bunch of empty shelves.
She might be noteworthy.
On the other side there's a young man in casual clothes approaching you and trying to start a conversation. Maybe he's noteworthy?
Oh, and of course, there is the giant predatory hole in the floor. That's probably noteworthy.
Candlestick still in hand (why didn’t she think to leave it outside?) Hireshite approached his throne, bowed and spoke coldly.
“Greetings. I assume you must know me well, but how shall I address you?”
"Call me Kurdow"the man hops down from his throne, standing upright and revealing just how tall and lanky he really is.
His total height seems to be something close to 8 feet (2.4 meters), and his arms and legs are disproportunately long for his size.
He dusts off his black suit and grins at Hireshite with perfect teeth.
"And you, you lucky little thing, have been selected to be my agent."
Climb up into one of the shelves, getting just a bit higher than human head-height, then travel through the room by jumping shelf-to-shelf. Go peer through the two archways Celosia couldn't see through.
Climbing into a shelf was no trouble at all for Celosia, but as things turned out hopping from shelf to shelf across the asiles was just barely too much, the gap a tiny bit too wide, causing Celosia to only get his forepaws onto the next shelf and go tumbling onto the shelf below, unharmed, but completely undignified. And of
course this happened as a spectator approached. A human girl holding a doll.