Ash stopped suddenly, an ear twitching.

He could hear someone- up ahead.

He moved through the last bend slowly, just until he saw a young pink cheeb come out of a room that was ablaze with an orb like the one in the room he had just left. Ash watched as the little girl wove to a pale Sagittarius cheeb inside the room. A Virgo- taller than the one who had let Garren and Ash inside the Kapok Tree- cast in shadow from their strange orb behind her- closed the door.

Ash was left in the dark, watching the cheeb as she stood there for another moment before proceeding quietly down the hall. Ash waited, holding his breath. Once he could hear the clacking of the little cheebs hooves no longer, he moved forward quickly.

Crouched next to the door she had just exited from, Ash's eye gleamed and narrowed. He took one more glance around the hallway, then he brought his hands to his chest, pressed palms together.

Taking a deep breath in and exhaling slowly, Ash closed his eyes. With the last of his breath, he whispered-

"Inu Mulki!"

Ash concentrated, breathing slow and deep. He could feel the warmth building between his pressed together palms, and what felt sort of like a bubble, pushing out from his chest. Keeping his eyes closed, Ash reached deep within himself and pushed out on the bubble.

After a moment of concentrating, focusing on the bubble that floated in front of him in his mind's eye, Ash's spell started to take effect and form the essence of the celestial eye he was trying to create. When it was finally ready, Ash's heart beat faster with excitement.

Still crouched in the dark with his eyes closed, Ash opened his celestial eye. First, he looked around the hallway he was in, just to be sure. With no one other than himself in sight, Ash turned the eye to look at the sturdy wooden door he was crouched next to. It took little effort for Ash to urge the celestial eye forward, through the wood.

There was a moment of utter darkness as the eye was in the wood itself. After it passed through Ash could see the now shadowed room within.