The blue-green grass wasn’t particularly tall, fortunately. At best, it was tall enough to hide something the size of a raccoon, anything larger would be clearly visible. That being said, there was enough grass to hold possible hundreds of raccoons, thousands even.

“An angry raccoon is no joke,” said Pernie. “I would know. I went to put the trash away and there was one in the dumpster. It wasn’t happy when I unknowingly dropped a bag on it.”

The winged Traveler asked something.

“I wasn’t gonna fight the raccoon, let alone kill it. It just wanted to eat trash.”

He suggested something while stretching his wings.

“I’m beginning to think you’re more bird than just your wings. Not everything can be solved by picking it up and dropping it from a high place.”

The Traveler laughed.

“It actually solves quite a few problems,” added Little Man.

“Like what?”

“It would make an angry raccoon 100% less angry,” stated N-3.

The raccoon horde never made they’re move. If they had, the group would have heard them coming. The plain was completely silent, no chirping birds, no screeching insects, and no wind. Just complete silence, besides their footsteps and idle conversation. For all they knew, they were only ones using the road as well. They could very well be the only living souls (in any capacity) for miles. Given the nature of realms like the one they found themselves in, they could be the only living souls.

After enough walking to make Pernie’s feet hurt, they finally came upon the supposed castle. It was a miracle that they hadn’t seen it before considering its size; it wasn’t small by any means. Little Man’s earlier assertion of an “invisible castle” could have been very much true until they crested that last hill.

“Perhaps it was invisible,” stated N-3.

“I told you.”

The entrance lacked signage in any language. In fact, the castle lacked many things, most notably occupants. It was entirely abandoned and in complete disrepair (much worse off than the earlier amphitheater). Dr. Case, having seen the place through N-3’s eyes, contacted Pernie.

“It wouldn’t hurt to give the place a quick look-around,” he said. “Chances are there’s nothing of interest but hey, you never know.”

“Will do.”

The group split in two: Pernie and N-3 explored one half, Little Man and the Traveler investigated the other. Much sooner than anyone expected, they found themselves back in the castle's center.

“We found nothing,” N-3 stated. “What about you two?”

“The most interesting thing we found was a nail stuck in some wall. Nothing beyond that,” said Little Man.

The castle was completely gutted. Either the former occupants had taken everything and left, or others had come by and had taken all that was left behind when they hadn’t. This all assumed there was anything there to begin with, which was a possibility, as was anything really. Pernie’s VRGL directed them to continue following the stone path which went directly through the castle. Yet again, there was no signage on either side of the exit, not that it would have had anything useful to say considering previous examples. Who knows, maybe the next one would get the distinction between entrance and exit correct.