[Trade] Spooky encounter at the haunted mansion

It was a beautiful afternoon in the fall. At the end of October to be precise. The afternoon sun shone with warm rays on the scales of a Cryolophosaurus. It opened its ice-blue eyes and enjoyed the sun on its white-grey body. It also had a broad purple stripe on its flank, which extended to its tail and split at the end. It also had an orange crest and a similarly colored lower lip. The cryo had heard about a haunted house where a strange dinosaur was said to be hanging around. Driven by curiosity, he had set off in search of this very property. As he was about to set off again from his rest, his gaze fell on an Anetosaurus coming straight towards him. The Cryo eyed the dinosaur walking towards him. It had a very dark, brown belly. This dark brown extended down to its feet and its neck and face were also this color. The rest of the fur was a slightly lighter brown. The shoulders, feet and parts of the face were sand-colored. The Anteo stopped and looked at the Cryo from his amber eyes. “Hello, I'm Glace,” the Cryo introduced himself in a friendly manner. When there was no reply, Glace asked “and who are you?” - “My name doesn't matter,” the Anteo replied neutrally. Glace couldn't really tell whether his counterpart was friendly or not. On the other hand... if he wasn't friendly, he would certainly have attacked by now.

“I've never seen you here before. What are you doing here?” said the brown one with curiosity in his voice. Glace now looked at the Anteo curiously too. After a brief, thoughtful silence, he replied, “I'm looking for the creepy house where this strange dinosaur is supposed to live.” The Anteo tilted his head. “Ah, I see. The legend of Rot at the old mansion in the forest” ‘Do you know more about that?’ asked Glace excitedly. “Yes, a little.” Glace looked at him with curiosity. He wanted to know more. The stranger seemed to notice this too. “I can see by the look on your face that you want to know more. So... the villa is simply a large, collapsing building surrounded by a long wall, which is now quite... permeable. Legend has it that a... not-so-living anteosaurus lives there. It is said to be rotting, hence the name Rot. It is said to be missing its right rear foot. It's just a stump. Its skin and muscles are also rotting, causing them to gradually fall off and you can see its bones inside. This Anteo is said to live on the grounds, or at least in the vicinity, of the villa. But I don't know anyone who has seen this creature,” the Anteo concluded his story.

Glace, who had been listening very curiously and attentively, was now gripped by ambition. “Then let's go there together. Maybe we'll be the first!” Anteo tilted his head. “Do you know where you have to go?” he asked Glace. The latter lowered his head, somewhat demotivated. “Unfortunately not, that's my problem. I've been looking for it for days” Glace sighed and looked down. “Well, today is your lucky day,” replied the Anteo. “I know the rough location of this villa. I've never been there myself, though, so don't expect me to be able to lead you there in a targeted manner.” Glace's eyes began to sparkle with joy and you could tell how excited he was getting. “You're curious and like to explore too, aren't you?” said the Nameless One kindly. “Yes, very much! ...wait, too? Does that mean you're just like that?” “Oh yes. That's already got me into trouble. But I've learned from my mistakes. So, shall we set off?” he asked. Glace nodded, ready for the adventure. So the two young dinos set off in the direction of the forest.

As evening slowly fell and dusk set in, the forest became darker and more sinister. Many old, gnarled deciduous trees surrounded them. The ancient giants looked as if they could run off at any moment and chase the two dinosaurs. Here and there you could hear something rustling in the undergrowth and ravens flew up bleating when the duo startled them. They also came across a large owl sitting on a high branch and watching them steadily with its large eyes. It did not take its eyes off the two of them. It also followed them for a while. When it was almost dark, they reached an old, crumbling wall. “So this is it,” said the Anteo to Glace. He in turn looked around in the pale light of the rising full moon. The shadows of the surrounding vegetation looked even creepier now. “Let's find a way inside,” the Anteo nudged the Cryo. Glace flinched slightly at the touch and then nodded. He followed the Anteo's shadow along the wall. It didn't take long for them to find a section that had collapsed enough for the two of them to slip through easily.

After standing on the site and looking around, they realized that they had landed among strangely shaped stones. On closer inspection, they realized that it was a small cemetery. A shiver ran down both of their spines and the Anteo's fur stood up. “Let's go on to the house,” whispered Glace in a slightly shaky voice. The Anteo nodded curtly and so they continued slowly and attentively on their way. The building now appeared before them in the light of the full moon. The mighty, broken walls were overgrown with moss and ivy. There was nothing left of the punky roof except a few broken shingles scattered here and there. The wood of the roof truss and the window frames is black and rotten, and a cold wind blows inside through the broken windows.

The pale light of the moon made the dilapidated building seem even more ghostly. Fog was also slowly gathering, which made the scene seem even more eerie. The once well-tended garden was now overgrown with old, gnarled bushes and shrubs. They seemed to block the way inside. As if to say, no one is allowed in here.

The duo circled the building slowly, carefully and attentively. Finally, they came to the large entrance, whose once magnificent oak doors lay decaying on the floor. But they could still see how beautiful they must have been. They entered the entrance hall of the building. A large, stone staircase greeted them. Several corridors led off the first floor, and some doors led off the corridors. The doors, some of which were still there, closed off the rooms behind them and concealed their contents. The floor was tiled with white marble, which had lost none of its beauty.

Glace and his companion looked up the stone staircase. They were just about to set off to climb the stairs when they noticed a movement from the gallery. The two of them froze and took a closer look. There was indeed something there. This creature seemed to be about the size of an Anteo, but they couldn't see it clearly through the stone railing. They followed the creature's movements and did not take their eyes off it. It walked slowly towards the stairs, stopped at the top landing and paused. In the next moment, it slowly turned its head towards the duo. The two of them were being looked at by ghostly white eyes. There was no skin or flesh on the body, so the bones inside were clearly visible. The rear left foot was also missing.

The two young dinos looked in disbelief at the creature at the bottom of the stairs. “Rot...” they whispered simultaneously and in disbelief. The creature looked at them for a moment. This moment felt like an eternity. Then he turned away and walked slowly into a corridor on the upper floor. Glace and his companion stared at the spot where Red was standing for a while, incredulous as to whether what they had seen was real. When they were more or less together again, they both took a deep breath. Glace finally broke the silence: “We saw him. Rot. That was real, wasn't it?” His voice was barely more than a whisper, but the Anteo heard him clearly.

“I... don't know,” the brown dinosaur replied hesitantly, his amber eyes searching the top of the stairs and the gallery. “Maybe it was real, maybe not. But something was there.” Glace looked at his companion. “What do you think, should we go up and have a look? Maybe he's friendly!” “Are you crazy?” The Anteo looked into Glace's icy blue eyes, his voice sharper than intended. “This... Rot... or whatever he is, no longer belongs to the world of the living. We should be glad we escaped unscathed.”

Glace remained silent, but his eyes showed that he was still curious. They stood there and looked at each other. Neither of them could shake the feeling that they were being watched. They didn't say it out loud, but they knew that they both had the same feeling. Finally, it was Glace who started moving and climbed the old staircase. The Anteo followed him directly, and when they both reached the top, they looked around the old, crumbling corridors of the villa with a queasy feeling. They searched every nook and cranny with their eyes, but saw nothing.

Suddenly a barely audible, regular sound reached their ears - a soft Tack... Tack... Tack... that could be heard in the vastness of the corridors. They both paused. “Did you hear that?” Glace asked, his eyes widening in fear. The Anteo nodded. “Yes. And it's getting closer.” They pressed themselves into an alcove in the wall where a marble column with a bust on it might once have stood. The sound became louder, more rhythmic. Finally, they saw a silhouette appear in the corridor in front of them. It was tall, slender and moved slowly, almost stealthily. “It can't be,” whispered the Anteo. “It's...” “Rot” Glace completed the sentence in a trembling voice.

The creature stopped, just a few meters away from them, and its ghostly white eyes fixed on them. This time, however, something happened that they had not expected: it spoke. “Why... have you... entered... my home?” The voice was croaky and sounded like the wind whistling through the old walls. Glace summoned up all his courage. “We just... wanted to see if you really exist.” Rot looked at the duo. Then he began to speak croakily and slowly, in a voice that sounded like the creaking of old wooden beams. “You have the courage... or the folly... to enter my realm. Why are you here?”

Glace looked at Rot. He hesitated, but finally said, “We just wanted to know if the stories about you were... true.” There was a mixture of fear in his voice - fear and curiosity. The dinosaur remained silent and pierced the two young dinosaurs with his white eyes. Finally, he replied, “Stories... yes, there are many. About me. About this place. But the truth is not meant for the living.” Glace's companion now found his voice again. Nervously but firmly, he turned to Rot and Glace alike: “In that case, perhaps we'd better go. We didn't mean to intrude, Red.”

With a bony crack, Red tilts his head slightly to the side. “Disturbing...? You're not the first to come. But most of them don't return.” The curiosity in Glace was piqued again, and he didn't even think about leaving now. He swallowed nervously and finally asked, “What happened to you? Why... are you like this?” The one addressed remained silent for a moment before giving his answer in enigmatic, eerie words: “A curse... a punishment... an eternity of decay and darkness. What was once life is now a shadow. You want to know what happened here? Do you know that knowledge has a price?”

Anteo's fear was now visibly boiling more and more. “We... we don't want any trouble. We'll just go...” he said in a slightly shaky voice. Rot in turn took a step closer to the two dinosaurs. The “ Tack” of his mangled leg echoed eerily through the corridors of the old building. “Going...? You've already crossed the line. Ghostly hands have noticed you. Perhaps you will leave. Maybe you won't. But you now carry the memory of this place within you... and that can be a heavy price to pay.” Glace felt a shiver run down his spine, yet he tried to show courage. “We're sorry if we've disturbed you. But... maybe we can help you? Free you from this curse?” he wanted to know from Rot.

The addressed only laughed softly. It sounded like a glass breaking. “Helping...? You are naive. What is dead cannot be saved. Go now... if you still can. But remember... not everything that follows you belongs to the living.”

Glace and his companion hesitated, but they felt it was better to take Rot's advice seriously. Slowly, they began to move backwards, their eyes fixed steadfastly on the ghostly figure. The “ Tack” of its mangled leg and the voice of the strange creature echoed in the minds of the young dinos, while Rot remained motionless, watching them with his dead eyes.

Just before they reached the stairs, they heard a soft whisper behind them - barely audible, but still unmistakable. It sounded like voices coming from the walls of the old villa, or perhaps from the shadows. Glace turned around, but there was no one there. “Hurry up,” whispered the anteosaurus in a trembling voice. They hurried down the stairs, their footsteps echoing loudly in the deserted villa.

When they reached the entrance hall and stepped outside through the broken doors, they noticed that the fog had thickened. The world outside the villa suddenly seemed blurred and strange. Glace looked around. “Are we really... outside?” he asked quietly.

“We've gone,” his companion replied, but his voice sounded uncertain. “Come on. Let's get out of here.”

They walked through the overgrown garden, across the small cemetery and finally through the collapsed wall back into the forest. The darkness seemed to close in around them and the feeling of being watched never left them. Glace kept glancing over his shoulder, but the villa had long since disappeared into the fog.

When they finally reached the edge of the forest, dusk began to fall. The world felt more normal again, but there was a strange chill in the air. Glace stopped and looked back in the direction they had come from. “I don't know if we should have done it,” he muttered. “I mean... free Rot or...”

“Some things are better left alone,” the anteosaurus interrupted him, more firmly this time. “We're still alive. That's all that matters.”

Glace nodded slowly, but his curiosity wouldn't quite let him go. Finally, they turned and walked back into the open countryside. The fog lifted and the first rays of the new day's sun warmed their scales.

But in the distance, from the shadows of the forest, there was a soft “tock... tock... tock...” that slowly faded away. Glace stopped and looked over his shoulder, but nothing was there. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

His companion shook his head. “Just the wind. Let's keep going.”

With one last look back, Glace followed him. But deep down, he knew that they had awakened something - something that didn't belong in the world of the living. And as they walked away, the shadow of the villa still seemed to weigh on them.