Arthurian Legend IV

Several levels up the kaleidoscope of staircases, Lancelot and Arthur look down.  Centaurs start pouring out of the pool below them.  The horse-women's confused looks are similar to how the boys looked at the room and the staircases.  

​Lancelot helps them out, "Hey ladies!  Good of you to join us.  Race you to the top!"  The floor is uneven red brick and terrible to run on, but no helping it now.  Lancelot and Arthur make sure to get to the next level fast, but find themselves upside down looking down on the centaurs.

​However not just upside down.  The centaurs are now falling off the ground floor as if it were the ceiling!

​A dozen centaurs fall past the boys, literally, up the staircases as if the pillar of stairs all the way to the top were a bottomless pit.  Lancelot watches as the centaurs whinny and cry each time they hit the stone staircases, breaking bones with each jostle all the way down.  Or is it up?  He doesn't even know anymore.  Some centaurs grip for dear life and try to help their compatriots but only a few hold on.

​Arthur voices the sentiment, "Well, that's interesting."

​"No time to waste.  We have to reach the top before they figure out how to reach us."​

​The boys draw swords and go through another door.  Each time they go through a door it exits on the perspective of the pillar of stone and staircases, whether upside down, sideways or right side up.  After a few more levels, neither boy knows what right side up is though.

​The centaurs keep coming through the pool.  Arthur looks down and sees a virtual stream of centaurs following them on the staircases.  They go through another door and are upside down on another staircase.  All the centaurs not already upside down the same as the boys fall towards them, breaking backs and limbs as they plummet passed them.  Arthur peaks a glance downwards, or is it upwards?  The centaurs that land on a staircase oriented like them seeme to steady themselves.  

​He watches one centaur go into a door, chasing them from the opposite direction of her fellows.  She goes through a door and finds herself on a staircase across from where she was on a lower level, but isn't oriented like them.  Yet she would have been for the same direction as the as the pool.  She immediately looses her footing and falls past Arthur again.  Her scream echoes as she splashes in the water below.  Arthur smiles.

​Some land on staircases above them.  The boys goes through another door and are right side up.  The bodies of dead centaurs and half alive ones fall pass them towards the pool.  

​Lancelot sees a glint of a sparkle up towards the top.  He watches it.  As the centaur drops below her sword swipe is parried by his drawn sword.  Sparks light up the area around them.

​"This is getting too intense.  We need to finish this Arthur.  They keep coming."

​Their running turns to a gallop.  The boys burst through doors, cutting off limbs of their enemies as they wield swords in one hand and grip the staircases with the rest of their limbs.  Still more come out of the pool to follow them.  

​Whereas the room was peaceful with just the lapping of the water, now there's a cacophony of screams and yells.  As they climb, the staircases become dark and slippery with blood.  Arthur looks down.

​An endless stream of centaurs are climbing the walls instead of the stairs.  This makes it less likely that they will fall when Arthur and Lancelot change from upsides down or right side up stairways.  They seem to control this, whereas the centaurs are effected by it.

​Their enemies are gaining on them.  The staircases are not directly going, some doors lead to circular staircases.  Its maddening to be going downwards towards the centaurs and have the centaurs just fall closer to them.

​Lancelot glances up towards the goal.  "A few more staircases!  Look, that door is different."

​Arthur cuts the neck of an angry centaur quieting her scream.  "But its metal, and locked."

​"Hurry up!"

​Arthur catches up to Lancelot to the last wooden door.  Above them is a stone ceiling.  There are no more staircases, just a landing with several dead centaurs lying sprawled over its surface.  

​Arthur and Lancelot walk to the door.  There's a rusty padlock on it.  The keyhole is so large, Arthur could probably put his hand into it and pick the mechanism.  A centaur bursts through the door.

​Lancelot turns first, "I'll hold her off, get it open!"

​She is bloody and weak from making it so high.  Her movements are slow but still with that indomitable strength of her race.  Lancelot parries a blow and is able to cut her forearm.  She doesn't even notice.  She's already walking on a broken leg.

​Arthur turns back to the door and slashes at the lock with his sword.  Muted sparks erupt and the lock disintegrates into dust before his eyes.  There's still no noticeable handle to open the door, but now it's slightly ajar.  He puts his hand in the dark gap between the door and the wooden frame.  A much larger, gnarled hand covers his.

​He backs away, both hands on his sword.  The staircases have taught him things aren't always as they seem in this place.  The door is pushed open from the inside.  A giant crawls out on his hands and knees, somehow fitting through the door, though he's twice as wide.  

​The giant looks up and with anger shoots an arm past Lancelot's battle punch the centaur.  She crumples against the wall.  He roars.  His voice fills the staircases with answering cries from the centaurs.  

​Lancelot and Arthur turn towards the monster and watch the door as more creatures start to pour out of the metal door they just opened.  An endless stream of fantastic creatures, ignoring the boys, but now climbing down to fight the centaurs.  

​A hooded old man exits the door.  The creatures pass through him as if he's a ghost.

​Lancelot yells, "You!  You were trapped in there?"

​Arthur turns to Merlin, "What did we do this day?"

​Merlin's floppy hat seems to tip downwards to the growing battle up and down the pillar of staircases.  The wizard says in his usual cryptic tones, "You've evened the odds."