The castle was, unfortunately, huge. Kipo's eyes widened as it loomed above them, seeming getting even larger with every push of the current below them. But, just as it was tall, it was also in complete disarray, looking almost like it was rotting away. Parts of it sometimes fell away as they watched, just a couple of stones here and there, but frequently enough that it looked like the castle of crumbling onto itself. Half the towers of top of the castle were almost completely gone, with only the base left, and whole parts of walls were missing, exposing part of the interior within, but even with Kipo's eyes, she could really see within it.

A wind blew through them, and everyone in the boat shivered. A low whistled echoed throughout the little valley, coming from the castle, and it sounded like someone singing creepily. Kai jumped, about to say something, but Tulip told him it was just the wind going through the castle before he could say it was a ghost or something.

Not that ghosts don't exist, Kipo thought, but in this case, she was willing to guess it was the castle this time, not... a spirit.

Fei Fei diligently led them towards the castle, not complaining, but Kipo could see her hands shaking on her oar. The river they were on led to a tunnel built into the castle, and even though it was the middle of the day, Kipo couldn't see the end of it, if the even was one.

The boat was, for once, completely silent, with Tulip not needing to give any more instructions. They had no distractions from the tunnel yawing in front of them like a mouth, and though no one said anything, they all saw how each of them sunk into themselves as they passed through the opening, even though the roof was high above them.

Kipo blinked, her eyes easily adjusting to the darkness, and she found a dock waiting just within the entrance of the tunnel.

"Uh, Fei Fei?" she called out. Fei Fei glanced back, not completely seeing her in the dark, and Kipo pointed to the side, towards a dock. "Take us to the right. There's a dock that I can tie us to over there."

Fei Fei looked. "I see it," she confirmed, before paddling over towards it. It wasn't very far, so when they were in range, Kipo awkwardly stood up, grabbing at it and pulling them closer, electing cries of surprise from everybody else. The boat bumped into the side of the wooden dock, and Kipo hopped off, finding a frayed rope on the side, and tied the boat up.

"There we go," she said, self satisfied. She looked to her friends, seeing that some of their eyes had mostly adjusted to the dark.

Coraline stepped out first, wincing as she stretched out her legs, but she didn't complain as much as Kai and Mabel did when they stepped out.

"Ow," Mabel said. Suddenly, she started jumping up and down, making the wooden floor underneath them shake. "Ow, ow, ow, ow-."

"Mabel, that's enough!" Kipo called out nervously, steadying her friend. She nervously glanced down at the wood that dipped beneath them. "This place doesn't look too steady anyway."

"And we definitely don't want to end up in the water," Coraline agreed, albeit a bit harsher than Kipo. But she was right, and when Kipo looked over the side, she saw that the water below them had gone from an icy blue to an inky black, and she didn't think it was just because of the darkness.

"Bingo, a door!" Luz called out from behind them. "Come on, everyone! In here!"

Without delay, the little group followed Luz through the door, a faint light spilling into the tunnel as she heaved it open, holding it there so it didn't swing shut. It seemed pretty heavy, so Kipo hurried through, giving Luz her thanks as she passed. Luz only nodded, saving her breath for holding the door open.

The building they had stepped into was... well, for lack of a more sufficient word, well lit for a room with no windows. It was a very grand room, very tall, with a chandelier that may be bigger than Kipo swing above her. It was well lit, almost like a bonfire, and the room was better lit than if it had been outside.

Paintings lined the fancy walls with wallpaper depicting falling leaves, almost like cheery blossoms, and her feet, and very fancy looking red carpet laid. It looked warm and fuzzy, like a blanket, and Kipo felt a little guilty as her shoes tracked mud and other sludge through it.

On the other side of the room, there was a spiralling staircase that led up to the second floor, and probably to more floors beyond that. When Kipo moved closer to it and peered up, trying to see were it led, it seemed almost endless, with only a tiny pinprick of grey at the top, which Kipo assumed was the ceiling.

And then there were the walls. On top of the wallpaper, there were a million paintings, almost too many to possibly fit, and they were all squeezed together. If Kipo had to guess, she'd say there was probably near a hundred of them if not more. And they all depicted a different person. It certainly wasn't a small room, but there for almost more paintings in here than in an art gallery. It was kind of ridiculous.

"This is a little creepy," Coraline noted as Kipo turned back to the rest of them. She started shrugging off her jacket before pausing, her eyes going wide.

"Jeez, it almost colder in here than it is out there!" she cried, hurrying to pull her jacket back on, pulling it tight around her. She glared at the candles above them. "Is that doing literally nothing?"

"It looks like it's a safety hazard," Tulip said thoughtfully, stepping up beside her. "Like they put a literal bonfire up there. How has it not melted through the candles yet? This place looks pretty old."

"They're probably magic candles," Luz pointed out. Tulip opened her mouth, and then closed.

"With what we've seen so far, I guess it's hard to argue with that," she sighed.

"OOooOOH," Mabel suddenly spoke up, and Kipo looked to her only to find her friend stepping up to a painting of a young boy with a... flirtatious expression. "Who's THIS handsome guy?"

Kai frowned at him. "He doesn't look that handsome. What's wrong with his eyes? I TOTALLY look better than that guy."

"Relax, he's probably dead," Coraline said sardonically, at the same time that Luz started nodding enthusiastically.

"He's probably a prince!" she said, ignoring Coraline, before she blushed. "Not that I don't have a girlfriend... I'm just noticing!"

"He's probably dead," Coraline reiterated, but she sighed as Mabel started tugging the painting off the wall, Kai helping her despite his previous complaints. Coraline frowned at them. "Seriously? That is NOT a good idea. What if it's haunted?"

Mabel giggled. "I HOPE it is," she said slyly, and Coraline cringed,

"...Forget I said anything," she gave in, sighing. But when she turned away, Tulip stepped forward, frowning, before her eyes widened.

"Oh, Mabel!" she exclaimed. "You found a secret tunnel!"

Mabel blinked, now carrying her prize under her arm. "I did?" she asked, before grinning. "All according to plan!"

"Oh... no," Tulip called her, her voice muffled with disappointment. "It's just a hole."

"What's in the hole?" Mabel asked, still interested.

"Nothing."

Mabel frowned, her shoulders slumping. "Oh."

"Well, that was fun for a minute, I guess," Coraline grumbled. "Now what?"

"How about we leave?" Kai suggested, peering into the hole as Tulip climbed out. "That hole looks grave sized..."

Tulip rolled her eyes as she stood up from the floor. "There's nothing in there, Kai."

"Until we're DEAD!" Kai argued.

"We'll be fine," Coraline grumbled. "Now, as I was saying before, what now?"

Luz moved towards the staircase, peering up it like Kipo had done. A daunted look crossed her face. "We'll just have to start searching."

Mabel groaned. "But it's so BIG though! How am I supposed to carry this picture all that way?!"

Tulip hummed. "I suppose leaving it behind is out of the question?"

Mabel titled her head. "Wasn't that obvious?"

"I don't think we have a choice," Kipo spoke up. "We'll have to split up. We can go in pairs and each pair can take a floor."

Coraline looked... cautiously hesitant. "Are we sure that's a good idea?"

Kipo winced. Feeling her own doubts add up on top of Coraline's, but before she could say anything, defensive or otherwise, Luz added her own opinion.

"It's probably the best idea," she noted. "Otherwise, this is going to take forever, and we don't have that kind of time.

Coraline still looked hesitant. "This is the place were the kids before us died, right?"

"We don't know that for sure," she said firmly, but it wasn't long before that confidence broke. "But... yeah, probably."

Coraline frowned, looking troubled. "Right. We'll have to be careful, then."

Kipo nodded, and Kai immediately stepped forward.

"If we ARE doing this," he announced, sliding closer to Kipo. "I'm going with Kipo."

Kipo blinked. "Me?"

"Yeah, I mean, you have superpowers, so..." Kai pointed out.

"Oh, that's true," Kipo admitted, though she wasn't sure if she would be able to transform in this place. The foyer was big, with the mega jaguar probably only half the size of it, but the room still wouldn't leave much space to move.

"Luz!" Mabel called, waving the hand that wasn't clinging on to the painting. "You'll help me move this, right?"

Luz blushed. "Uh, of course!" she agreed excitedly, hurrying over. Soon, the picture of the 'pretty boy' was hovering in the air, slightly above Mabel's head, where both she and Luz admired it.

"Eh," Luz decided. "Still not as pretty as Amity."

"A definite four out of five, though," Mabel said. Luz nodded.

"Definitely."

Coraline moved over to where Tulip was moving around, checking under painting after painting. Coraline gave her an odd look.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Tulip barely glanced at her, instead focusing on her task.

"Maybe I'm just looking at the wrong paintings, but it seems like that one was the only one that hid a hole underneath," Tulip explained. She stepped back from the wall, frowning. Kai previous comment about graves came to mind. "That's a little weird."

Coraline made a noncommittal noise, though Kipo could see her glancing at the wall, too. "We're splitting up. Can we go together?"

Tulip shrugged, still distracted. "Sure."

With that, there were three groups that were decided, and one still alone. Kipo moved towards Fei Fei, standing in the middle of the hall and looking awkward.

"You can come with us, Fei Fei," Kipo offered, and Fei Fei nodded, moving towards them.

And then they still only had three groups. The thought of that made Kipo frowned, both in grief and in worry. Three small groups were not much better than one big one, but enough that the risk was worth it. It really showed how small their groups were by now. If there were sixteen of them had first, then they had pretty much been halved.

Nine people. Nine kids who got trapped here and now could never get home. And it could be more soon, if they weren't careful.

Really, what was better? Taking a big risk that could possibly get them all home, or staying safe, but trapped in this world?

...The answer was obvious. As long as they stayed here, it would never be safe. Not as long as so many things were out to get them.

Kipo moved towards the stairwell. "Everybody listen up!" she called out. "The sooner we start, the sooner we get answers. But remember, be safe. I know this whole thing is dangerous, but please don't take any unnecessary risks. After we've searched each floor, we'll meet back here, and figure out what we've learned. Also, we should probably look for things to protect ourselves with, like weapons, or places to hide. Ok?"

Everyone stared up at her, and while they looked nervous, Kipo was sure that they saw the same logic she did. Mabel gave her an encouraging thumbs up, and Kipo smiled tightly at her.

"Every time we finish a floor, we should meet back here, to share what we've found, and also make sure everyone's accounted for," she continued, and, suddenly remembering the large sign she was still carrying, dropped it by the stairs. "Right here. Ok?"

Kipo got a few nods, but that was it. She decided to take what she could get."

"Hm..." she said, her eyes looking over her small group of friends. Did the gaggle of kids always look so small? "Coraline, Tulip, I guess you can stay on this floor, since you already got started."

Coraline nodded, and Tulip got back to checking her paintings. Kipo doubted she wanted to check every painting in the room, but she also knew Tulip at least needed to check most of them before she could confirm her theory.

Kipo turned to Luz and Mabel... and the painting hanging between them.

"You two can check the next floor," she told them. "And Kai, Fei Fei and I can check the floor above that. And after that... well, we'll see what happens. Everyone good?"

No one really had any arguments to that, and even though Kipo wasn't really expecting any, it still surprised her. Everyone seemed to have accepted what they had to do, even though 'We have to search a castled were kids like us had died and the castle is already proven itself to be strange and mysterious' was... insane.

Kipo lead them up the stairs, waving to Luz and Mabel as they stepped off into the landing of the first floor. The flight of stairs to every floor was long and dizzying, because the height of every floor seemed to be as twice as tall of the main foyer.

Kipo would assume that this was a castle for giants if everything else wasn't normal person sized.

When Kipo, Kai and Fei Fei finally got to the landing, they saw a long hallway stretch out in front of them. Kai groaned, and Kipo saw a wince on Fei Fei's face as she looked out at it.

Inwardly, Kipo sighed. They certainly had their work cut out for them.