Chapter 5 - v: maps and statues

I was honestly expecting to be a little late as I made my way out of my room I always had a tendency to sleep in heavily brought on by years of partying and dodging classes so I was rather surprised to run into Dakota as I exited my room. She seemed to have just about managed to throw herself together as well and was clad in a set of dark grey yoga pants and a red hoodie which set off her crimson locks of hair pretty well. It also however set off a notable bulge around her belly area the red material being stretched upwards and revealing a thin crescent moon of what looked to be an overtaxed belly. The rest of her appearance was a little off too with a slight spraying of powdered sugar around her plump crimson lips and a slight softness to her face that wasn't there the day prior, her long legs looking a little more chunky than they had when I was checking them out going up the stairs before we met Whisky.
"Right I guess I missed breakfast then" I said in a tone of mild chagrin as I admired the stuffed brit. "Eh if you did then so did I love, I just woke up" Dakota responded in a slight upbeat tone that was clearly dampened by a bit of mild exhaustion the slight bags under her mischievous eyes reminding me of why it was I had stepped out the night prior. "Well in that case we can walk together, hopefully keep each other away from any occult BS" I said wrapping my arm in hers and beginning to walk towards the entrance to the corridor. "Hey I tried to talk to you last night I heard some odd noise coming from your room and...". I started to say trailing off as I realized she was quite clearly not paying any attention in the slightest her eyes zeroed in on the pig knocker from the day prior her mouth slightly agape and drooling, her eyes misty and distant as tugged me over towards it knocking on it in a single oddly polite motion. As she did I saw something change in her demeanor her focus returning her eyes darting back to me as I opened the door for us. It was at that moment I finally pieced together what exactly was going on in this place, which was ironic since one of the objects had me wrapped around it's silky fingers. "Could you repeat the question?". She asked nonplussed by whatever strange sensation had over taken her mere moments prior.
I did repeat the question as we made our way back into the main room which seemed to have actually received a light dusting of some kind, no longer looking quite as much like a bomb had been set off in it even if the floor boards needed a little work still. In response to my question all I really got was some pleasing if unhelpful flirtations about the fact she would've been happy to see me had she been awake, all of which she said while staring at my boobs. I flirted a little back about how scary the place was at night with all its strange noises and eventually got lost in our little dialogue. I did learn that she was from London and that she only arrived here two days prior and thus was jet lagged but other than it was mostly a lot of duel sided teasing from both of us.
We lost track of time as we wandered the dusty old castle distracting each other effectively from the occasional object that twinkled enticingly in the shade of the rooms we passed through. There was a portrait room which held many a pictures and sculptures of women ranging from skeletal to elephantine in size, the strange portraits seeming to flicker through a variety of weights and shapes as we stepped through the odd and dusty room. One particular statue caught my eyes of a simply massive if regal looking woman a belly button on display in spite of her many belly rolls the cavernous hole having a stinging ruby resting deep in it's tunnel like gape. As interesting as the statue was Dakota managed to be more interesting by regaling me with a particularly raunchy story from some of her clubbing days while pulling me along out of the room.I knew we were getting close to our intended destination when we made our way into a room that looked to have been cleaned and polished. Occupied primarily by a single circular table of oak in its center and elegantly lit by an opulent chandelier that made it thankfully rather clear what the tables duel purpose was. Thankfully I didn't get any of what I was now affectionately referring too as bad vibes from the table that doubled as a sort of map of the grounds. Each of what looked to be nearly sixty rooms across three wings and four floors along with an adjoining tower. We made small talk about which of the rooms we'd like to visit as we both perused the table in a hunt for the atrium in which we would be dining with some new housemates. Dakota wanted to check out the gallery and the vault, apparently having something of an artistic streak and showing what I was beginning to identify as a penchant for greed. Not that I was any better I said I wanted to visit the Cinema and Performance rooms to maybe check out the sound systems but In reality I wanted to see what kind of ancient magical treasures might be sequestered in the large third floor vault just as much as she did. Before we could get to that however I managed to actually locate the atrium which was unfortunately a little way back the way we had come and directly adjacent to the portrait room.
With an an annoyed sigh we both made our way back into the other room but as I did so I suddenly realized that I had forgotten something back in the table. I didn't in fact have anything to forget but I wasn't aware of that in what I would later identify to be a slightly magically addled state I took three steps out of the room to collect some imaginary bauble before the effect wore off, an impending sense of dread washing over me as I practically threw myself back into the room only to find a thankfully seemingly perfectly normal looking Dakota leaning against the statue. She smiled at me in this way that briefly stunned me. And left me standing there just drinking her in, basking in the early day rays of the well naturally lit room. For but a single moment an image flickered in my head of the girl before me stretched out on throne a gut as big as a boulder draped in royally finery and covered in a large spread of impossibly succulent foods, in this strange image I couldn't see myself but I knew where I was, I was buried somewhere beneath that titanic gut in the ocean of rolls beneath it I was servicing her. All this information I comprehend in a flash about the length of a child playing anxiously with a light switch, and much like any dream I struggled to determine what on earth had happened after it had passed. She was still there, still gorgeous and yet I couldn't help but feel that something strange had taken place. But as I couldn't place it just yet I simply blushed like a teenage virgin and made my way over too her and joined her in stepping into the eastern most door which would no doubt send us into the atrium.