"This is the place, right..."
(⊙o⊙*)
It didn't take long for Annie to arrive at the gate of the old mansion, carrying her Little Bear.
At a glance, she saw that the vermilion paint on the gate had become mottled, with large patches peeling away. The bronze rings were covered in verdigris, corroded by the passage of time and some unknown, sinister force. Even the auspicious beasts on the rings had been tainted with a malicious aura.
The gate stood half open. Inside, the second gate creaked under the night breeze, making a series of spine-chilling "creak... creak..." sounds. Who knew what secrets were hidden within?
"..."
|o`)
Annie peered inside from outside for a while. When she realized she couldn't make anything out, she finally decided to go in and have a look.
"All right!"
(*--)
"Tibbers, let's go take a peek!"
(...)
(●￣￣●)
Tibbers didn't mind. They were already here, after all. It wasn't as if they could turn around and go back.
As soon as she stepped into the courtyard, Annie noticed that no one seemed to have walked along the stone path in a long time. Moss covered the stones and filled the gaps between them, and everything was damp. Each step felt like treading on soft, rotten flesh, accompanied by a series of unsettling "squelch" sounds that rang out especially loudly in the night.
Still, this was all within her expectations. It was an old mansion, after all. This sort of thing was perfectly normal.
"!!"
ヽ(ヽ`д′)┌┛★Crash!
So she paid it no mind and kept walking. Before long, she kicked open the second gate, which had been creaking away, and headed straight toward the front courtyard beyond it.
"Anyone home?"
|˙˙) Hello?
Of course there was no way anyone lived in a dump like this.