Chapter 24: 24
They thanked the boy for his cooperation and bade him farewell. Felicia and Arthur moved to the end of the field and they discovered a well-hidden trail that led into the forest just like how it was described by the boy.
As they started their journey, Felicia asked Arthur for his opinion as she tried to break up the monotony of traveling, "What do you think of the information we have gathered so far?"
Arthur kicked a pebble off from the trail as he focused on his thought. "I find the dichotomy of the impression for this Mother character between the adult villagers and the children to be quite interesting. Even the way they referred to her is wildly different, one calling her the Blood Mother and the other Red Mother, one was definitely more scary-sounding than the other.
"For the adult villagers, the Blood Mother is a scary visage who is out to steal their children should they whisper bad things about her but for the children, the Red Mother is a guardian who will look after lost and unloved children.
"I wonder why is there this discrepancy between the two age groups. How can one thing be such complete opposite to different people?"
Felicia was silent for a while after Arthur proffered his analysis. Then she added, "We cannot rule out the possibility of the monster spreading fake rumours about herself to the kids so that they would walk into her trap. At the end of the day, children are more gullible than adults.
"Also, what about that mention of the pipe?"
"I have no idea," Arthur added, "but that should be something that we should pay attention to."
"I'll need to depend on you for that. You have a better sensitivity to this type of thing than I do."
Arthur nodded. "In any case, I have a feeling this quest will be more than it appears."
"That, I can agree with."
...
Felicia and Arthur followed the trail that snaked through the forest. Felicia expected some run-ins with dangerous animals but that did not happen. Either they were incredibly lucky or there was something about that particular piece of woodland that the wild animals knew to give it a wide berth. Naturally, Felicia preferred if it was the former.
They continued their trek until the sun fell and the moon rose but it felt like they were no closer to their destination than when they started the journey from Spring Leaf Village. Arthur wanted to bring up the possibility that they might have been lost but considering their already low morale, he did not think that would have contributed positively to the situation. They just kept on following the trail that meandered through the forest.
Just as they thought they were never going to reach their destination, Felicia and Arthur stepped out from behind a bush that grew over the trail and a wide area opened up before them. They were suddenly deposited out from the jungle and they found themselves in a relatively open area.
The first thing that caught their attention was definitely the house. It was a manor or at least it had the size to be called one.
"Why would someone build something of this size in the middle of nowhere?" Felicia asked.
"I have no idea. Perhaps there is someone inside that might help us answer that question."
Felicia and Arthur walked around the manor to scope out the place. The perimeter of the manor was sealed off by a tall brick wall and there was only one entrance that they managed to spot. It was the front gate that led from the trail that they used to reach this place.
The gate was left unlocked and open like the owner was expecting them.
The manor itself was two-story high and was laid with bricks. It had a Victorian touch to it with the wooden steps and awnings. It looked like something right out of a fairy tale, the dark original ones, not the ones touched up specifically for children consumption. However, there was a lack of light inside the place which concerned Felicia.
It suggested the lack of human activity and Felicia did not like what that implied.
The brick wall was far too high for either of them to scale. Arthur was not physically trained to do something like this and even though Felicia had great agility, the wall was much too high for her as well. Furthermore, that was not yet considering the broken glass that sat on top of the wall as a form of primitive security.
Felicia discussed their next course of action with Arthur and even though she did not like this idea, there was no other choice, they would have to use the front door. Felicia and Arthur understood how that might expose them to the enemy but there was no other entrance that they could see.
Arthur comforted Felicia with the idea that perhaps this Red Mother was not a hostile entity. After all, there had to be a reason why she was popular with kids. However, the words sounded hollow even to Arthur's ears. For one, if this Red Mother was not harmful, why would the adventurer's guild set a quest on her and for another, in the children's stories, the Red Mother was only kind towards kids and while Arthur might look like one, neither him nor Felicia could really pass as actual kids, at least not under the scrutiny of an adult.
Felicia smiled at Arthur's effort to comfort her as they moved past the front gate and up the stairs to the front door.
The place looked even larger up close compared to when they had just come up from the trail. Neither Felicia nor Arthur knew what the protocol was, should they try to knock on the door or do something else?
While they hesitated on what to do, Felicia and Arthur heard something. Arthur raised his eyes and the shock in them was reflected in Felicia's eyes that looked at him.
Arthur opened his lips and breathed out, "Is that the song of a pipe?"
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