Blanch shirt and pants and a scarf over his neck. A flower necklace that is only worn during the festive season. The young man, his smooth face devoid of a beard, bowed as their guests approached.
The threshold was too low for Hikari. Several sand benders gathered round the doorway and channeled. The stone responded, the blocks at the top of the doorway shifted to the side, creating an additional headway for the giantess.
They followed the bell boy into the halls. Light green crystals embedded into the stone on either side dimly illuminated the blanch stone.
As Hikari stepped onto the ground, she felt echoes of neutral energy pulsing through her and back down into the surrounding stone. It was mild, unlike the sting in her arms she felt when she channeled the flames of the RazenHeir house.
"The hearthstone house, we are probably the first RazenHeirs to enter their chambers."
Even Ria's usual weak squeaky voice echoed through the empty hall.
"The rice…"
"Shush about that already. I thought you were going to eat me. We'll have more when we reach the estate."
"Apologies, my lady."
"No need, we're in the hearthstone house now. Behave yourself."
"Yes, my lady"
The gate at the end of the hall rumbled as it opened. A blinding golden light blooded the halls.
Hikari and Ria stepped onto a stone platform at the edge of a massive empty chamber. Except for the area of stone they were standing on, the ground was filled entirely of sand.
"Please, remove your shoes." The bellboy asked.
It was a simple matter for Ria but she and the bellboy had to stand against the wall for their own safety.
Hikari's feet touched the ground, drawing Ria's eyes to it. It was a rare sight even for her.
The bellboy standing beside her held out well up till this point.
"The young miss will tend to you soon." He hastily bowed and left the chambers out the way they came.
Curious, the layer of sand was completely flat as though it was solid ground.
Hikari carefully placed one foot onto the sand, expecting her weight to sink in.
But as the skin on her sole touched the grains, the sand squeezed themselves together under her foot to support her weight.
She moved her entire weight onto the foot and the sand held. It felt no different from standing on solid ground.
Ria tried walking onto the sandy surface. She wobbled a bit like any ordinary person would. The living sand closed up her footprints behind her.
Hikari began walking on the sand effortlessly. She strided over to the opposite end of the chamber and back. The heavy footsteps created brief shockwaves in the sand but the living sand regained its shape within the next instant.
"Wow… this place… even I can sense its power."
"HeHe. Welcome to the core of the hearthstone house!" A tanned muscular giantess appeared through a doorway. She walked up to Hikari, her height reaching around her hips. Ria in turn was below the level of the sand bender's hips.
"Sheela hearthstone, it's an honor." Ria lifted the tips of her skirt with both fingers and did a quick bow.
"Huh!? Why are you addressing me like my grandfather? It's Sheela, alright!?" Despite being less than half Hikari's size, her physique was still overwhelming for Ria who felt tiny in the presence of the two gigantic women.
"Oh, sure. Good evening, Sheela."
"Hrmp, that's more like it."
She turned to Hikari and slapped her on the kneecap with a swing of her arm. The force of her arms was deafening.
"Hey, where in the scorpion pits were you all this while? We sent men into the wyvern peaks over and over again and couldn't find you. Couldn't you have at least told us if you were going hunting on your own!?"
The sand bender bellowed with such passion that even Hikari was taken slightly aback.
"Apologies, master Sheela."
"I hope you have apologized to your lady over there. She was completely freaking out."
Hikari's gaze turned to Ria whose face turned completely red.
"She has, we're all good now."
Sheela nods. She closed her fist and pressed her knuckles onto the muscle just above Hikari's knee cap.
"Good job out there disposing of those berserking fatties from the slayers guild. Sure wish I was there giving those freaks a piece of my mind. Come along"
Sheela walked to the doorway where she came from. Cracks of light green energy glowed on her muscular arms. The stones folded backwards expanding the doorway for Hikari.
A platform of stone materialized below Ria, allowing her to keep up with the stride of the two giants.
They walked down the main hall. On their left, they passed by a training hall full of sand benders lined up in a neat formation performing synchronized movements.
"We really can't thank you enough. Looks like there was a whole nest of those weird plant monsters growing in our backyard. We thought Port Carla was the end of it. Even my grandfather has noted your achievements."
"The legendary khan?"
"That old fart? Legendary my ass. He spends all day in his fortress snoozing like a stone camel. I haven't seen him in months. When I do, he smells of stone camel dune."
"Umm.. haha… you shouldn't speak of your family that way."
"Well! You're right. I wouldn't have if he wasn't the one who grounded me. But he did. So he can stuff it."
Sheela stopped and channeled. The stone door before her shifted and folded into the walls allowing them into her room.
It was a spacious but mostly featureless room. There was just a rectangular bedsheet about the surface area of an infantry tent.
The floor was split down the middle between a stone ground and a rectangular sand pit.
As Hikari's bare foot touched the solid stone, she felt a surge of energy through her feet. The energy in this room was several times stronger than the streets of Escher.
Ria felt it too as her delicate skin touched the ground.
"Ah, I really owe Hikari a big one for saving my younger brother from that mess, which reminds me!"
Ria felt a warm breath on her toes. It felt moist and warm. Curious. The hearthstone chambers were located somewhere in the upper middle floors of the fortress interior where there is little insulation from the chilly weather.
Slow, regular breaths of moisture brushed her toes. She wriggled them ticklishly. The breaths keep coming.
Out of curiosity, she looked down and jumped. Her face was blushing. Her hands pressing her skirt into the middle of her legs.
A boy's head was sticking out of the ground in front of her, his whole body was buried beneath the sand. His dead eyes tilting upwards at Ria, his poker face expression.
"Rey! What the heck? Are you an actual pervert?"
"Damn right he is." Sheela stomped her feet inches away from his face.
"Hey Hikari, you remember somewhere around chapter 51 just before you entered the wyvern peaks, you shipped him back to Escher in your sock on a train carriage"
"Yea."
"I don't know how he managed to talk you into it. I guess he didn't tell you how he could survive two weeks in there if you gave him his supply pouch. Not even your thick sock could completely hide the spot where he repeatedly did his mess."
"Bad Rey."
Ria was redder than a furnace. One could almost imagine the steam floating out of her ears.
She felt a sudden nudge behind knocking her forward. She shuffled her feet to either side of Rey's head and fell backwards on a stone seat that appeared from the ground.
"Do me a favour will ya? Why don't you rub your feet all over his face for lets say an hour. That'll teach him how filthy and disgusting feet are and hopefully cure his new found fetish. Oh and hey! You there! Fetch Lady Ria's shoes and sock from the door will ya!"
The bell boy quickly bowed and scurried off.
Ria kept quiet, she was fidgeting in her seat, her mind unable to process the situation.
She pressed her skirt into the stone seat as hard as she could as Rey looked up at her from below with a pair of dead eyes.
"Don't worry, I made sure he took his dose of Hortifern so he doesn't get excited down there. All he gets is the filth on your feet. That'd teach him to be a pervert."
Sheela walked onto the sand pit.
"Now come, Hikari, my good student. Let me check on your condition."
"Yes, master Sheela"