Re: In the Land of Zu
The ground floor has the same layout, but there is clearly a difference here. At either end of the hallway, where the stairs are, there is a double door leading out. These wooden doors have a large glass pane in the top... for visibility.
The stairs at this end of the building stop at the ground floor; they don't go any deeper.
The hallway also has several benches in it, placed against the right-hand wall as you are facing rearward (you came down the front stairs).
Most of the doors on this level are open. Only two are closed.
The offices on this level have benches in them, and counters. One of the central room has a door along the side wall. It is locked.
One of the closed doors opens into a room that is decidedly different. The narrow room has a desk and a chair, and peg hooks on the wall opposite the desk. There is no window in this room. There is a door on that same wall at the end. It is also unlocked, but you realize that it kind of lines up with the locked door in the other room, but would be on opposite sides of the room that should be on the other side of the wall. There was no doorway from the hall that would give access to this inner room. The desk is mostly uncluttered.
As you approach this unlocked door, you hear faint voices. Opening the door as quietly as possible, you see that beyond is a 'room' about half the width you were expecting. This is because it is not a room, but a stairwell, with stairs leading down to the left. The door, of course, only opened onto the landing.
The voices are a bit louder, but still not enough to really understand them, even if you could speak the language.
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Outside, Tealon realizes that the creatures are not tracking Ioelenna by scent, since she is in the water, but via some other sense. At the same time, they aren't quite certain where she is, and they are either reluctant to go into the water, or else their masters aren't permitting them to.
As for masters themselves, they don't seem like they know what to do. They are whisper to each other.