Havasu opened yet another carved wooden door only to find a plain room. It was the tenth one he had found and it was bugging the crap out of him. After finding the cave behind the falls and figuring out how to open the secret door into the complex of rooms he figured there would be something more exciting to see then what amounted too as hotel rooms. Dozens of impersonal rooms with the same dark woven wood furniture, brass lamps either mounted on the walls or hanging from the ceiling, brass framed mirrors, and brightly patterned fabrics. The only difference in the rooms were the fabrics and the furniture lay out, after the first two rooms he didn’t even bother to enter them any more. A chest of empty drawers is the same no matter what room he opens them in, the only room that gave him pause was the individual bathrooms. The showers and sinks were pretty self explanatory, pull the brass chain and water came out the spout, but the toilets were a bit more of a mystery but he had a feeling it worked basically the same way ‘modern’ ones did. He didn’t over think it and moved on to the next room… and the next and the next.

Until he reached the end of the ‘hallway’ where the doors just ended in a blank red stone wall. The squire turned around and surveyed his path. The hall was carpeted in a semi-southwestern pattern in dusty tones of red, cream, green, and gold. Ornate brass lanterns were mounted at regular intervals on the walls, the frosted glass hid the light source from curious eyes. Every so often there was either an alcove carved out of the stone walls which held a wooden pedestal and some kind of random sculpture or a painting against the wall of some sirene looking location.

Annoyed by his lame wonder Havasu made his way back towards the center chamber where he had split up with Phact, his fingers trailing along the polished smooth surface of the red rock walls. The most interesting thing he had found was the walls themselves. The stone seemed to glow with a internal light and Havasu would have sworn that the flecks of mica and quarts sparkled all by themselves. It really was a beautiful stone; a swirl of pale red and a much deeper maroon, hints of gold and sandy cream, flashes of mica, quartz, and other sparkly material, all polished to a dull shine.

A dozen doors later and he made it back to the center starting point, a large lounge. Here was the space he first spied after opening the secret entrance at the back of the cave once he swam behind the falls that gave him his name sake. Like the hotel rooms, he mentally dubbed them that after the fifth room, the chairs and couches scattered in the large open space was made of some kind of dark colored woven wood, the cushions and pillows adding bright colors to the room, side and coffee tables were topped by polished stone, and the brass lamps were more prevalent. The major difference between this room and the others he had explored was the double set of shelves carved into the walls by the entrance to the falls. There sat a stack of towels and a basket of what he could only call loungewear in a dark vibrant green which he totally swiped a set of and was now currently wearing, well the bottoms at least.

The only really interesting thing in the room was a huge stone mural against the far wall, directly opposite of the entrance to the falls. It was a beautiful rendition of the actual falls, the crystal clear turquoise color swirling with deep azure blue of the sky contrasting against the red of the walls. It was practically mesmerising. Havasu pulled himself from the mosaic with a aggravated shake of his head. He needed to go find Phact. Maybe she found something more then just more hotel rooms.

Sirene Naiads