“Let’s head upstairs then" Avian decided as he ushered her towards the creaky staircase. She wasn't too sure on how old this mansion was exactly, but from the noises the floorboards were making, it was obvious that this home was ready to disintegrate at any given moment. Though she probably weighed the least compared to the others, she could clearly feel the steps curve down a bit under pressure and because of this, both hands were clutched onto the railings incase one of them decided to give up and send her plummeting to whatever lay beneath. Too bad Jasper was too worked up over the unstable flooring that she wasn't able to admire the beauty of the structure around her.
Artworks and fragile chinaware dotted the walls on the way up and also as they headed for an unexplored hall.
"Stay safe there Jasper," Inadi called to her as the two pairs parted ways into parallel corridors. His smile was comforting and the tilt of his hand was sincere. Her blinking quickened a bit as she watched him turn the corner.
Jasper cleared her throat and hastily followed suit after Avian who had already surveyed some of the rooms up front before signalling her to enter one with him. Though she did not have the chance to see the other suites available, she just knew that this one was marvelous. A king-sized mattress was placed in the center of the room cloaked in ceiling-high curtains. There was even a lounging section with a couple of classy looking armchairs surrounding a gold-trimmed coffee table.
“Seems like there’s an adjacent room, miss Jasper. Probably a study?” Avian pointed out to her.
Following the direction at which he looked, she too noticed the smaller door. It blended really well with the wall, camouflaged in the same wallpaper that the rest of the accommodation was designed in.
“I’ve always wanted to look under a bed. Back in Aven children slept in cots near their dragons, and Victoria doesn’t let me look under our bed because it’s ‘silly’ and ‘something a grown man like you, honey, shouldn’t do’,” the dragoon was reflecting on his past days as an adolescent.
"I always had my mother check when I was younger. It's better to be safe than sorry," she replied in relation to his memories. Though Rosen insisted monsters weren't real, Jasper had always refused to sleep let alone climb up on the bed unless she was sure that an arm wouldn't lash out from whatever was under there to grab her ankle and pull her down. The elderly lady would laugh and though it was painful to bend down, she would make the effort to look beneath the bed to provide Jasper with the satisfaction she needed.
The albino was about twist the petite knob on the door before she was stopped by a light knock coming from the opposite side. Out of shock, she tumbled backwards and landed on a piece of cushioned furniture.
"Yeah seems like it Avian. And next time you decide to move into the neighborhood you might want to warn someone about it. Nearly had be throw my spear through the wall there. We found some interesting drawings in here that seemed a little odd. We'll continue to look at them but be on the look out for some weird symbol. It looks almost like two M's merging into ones or something similar to that."
After hearing the familiar voice, she exhaled the fright that had welled up inside her. Dropping a hand down to the bed-end bench she had ended up sitting on, she was surprised to hear a hollow noise project from her movement. Standing up, she crouched down and inspected the short box-shaped chair and noticed a darkened line under its cushioned top. Pushing her fingers into the indented strip, she shook it a bit until it gave way and she was able to push it back.
"Avian.." she coughed as she came to look down on a pile of newspaper clippings that had been tucked away. Slipping a hand down into the compartment, she lifted up a couple from the surface and mentally scanned the sections that grabbed her attention, two of which stood out to her a whole lot more than the others since they were extremely relevant to their current situation.
Placing a hand on the royal dragoon's arm in order to get his attention, she wordlessly brought them into his line of vision as she too still had her eyes glued to the documents. After allowing him to read, she tapped her pointer finger at the words 'midnight man'.
"Him. Him. We need to find this guy," she concluded and began to fidget with the hem of her sleeve as she tried to imagine what sort of horrid creature held such a title.