Turning your heads, you three look at the pane of glass that covers the window. It has an intricate design of flowers, trees, and woodland creatures. The eerie, dull thump comes again from the window. All you see is the dark shadows of the mountains and the rain lashing at the windows. But, squinting your eyes, you can just make out some dark shape thumping against the glass. It starts off slow at first, but it seems to be quickening, hammering at the window faster and faster. Suddenly, you realize what's going to happen.
"LEONA! CAIN! DUCK!" you cry. You instinctively dive towards the two, sweeping Cain up in your arms and landing on top of Leona to shade her from the impact. You three roll behind the bed, bending your huge wings painfully just as the thing cracks the glass. A few hammerings later and a loud crashing noise can be heard as the shape breaks the window, sending glass shards cascading onto the bedroom floor. The wind roars into the room, instantly chilling it. Rain starts to puddle on the thick carpet below the window.
Opening your eyes, you look into Leona's, who seems to be grateful for your action. "Thanks. That was really sweet of you." She says in a quiet, soft voice. Her snake has wrapped around your left ankle and is licking it with it's tongue. Yipping, Cain squirms out of your arms and licks you on the face, tail wagging, tongue hanging out. "You're... welcome." You say. For just a second there, you were about to bend down, towards her soft lips, and...
Shaking your head, you realize this is no time for fantasies. Unwrapping the snake from your ankle, you stand up and say, "Wait here. I'll go check it out. Leona nods. You walk across the room, being careful not to step in any shards of glass or puddles. You peer out at the thunderhead-filled night sky and are awestruck at what you see. A piece of PVC pipe, with an L-bend on the end, is waving in the wind, sometimes swinging towards you. At fist, you think it's being blown by the powerful winds, but then you realize that it's sometimes swinging towards your hand. But should you grab it? Whoever is swinging this obviously wants you to grab it, but given the track record of trustworthiness in this castle, you're not sure if you want to.
But the choice is taken out of your hands when the pipe hits your palm. Bracing yourself for any ill effects, you take a step back and shut your eyes tight. But after a minute of nothing happening, you decide to play along. You hear a soft whispering coming from the end of the pipe. That's when you realize that someone on an upper floor is trying to use this as a telephone. Looking back at Cain and Leona under your right wing, you decide to answer whoever is trying to call you. Putting your mouth up to the end, you say, "Hello?" into it. Putting your ear up to the end, you wait for a response over the roaring wind and occasional crack of thunder.
"Hello? Are you there?" the voice on the other end says. It's male, somewhere in his twenties. But there's an underlying tone to it. It sounds growly, guttural, and unnatural. Whoever he is, he's trying to speak through something he doesn't normally have. "Thank god you answered. I'm stuck on this balcony right above the room you're in. Don't ask me how I got here, cause I don't know. But there's some kind of listening device hooked up here, which leads to whatever room you're in. I heard everything you said, and from what I've seen since I've been here, I can almost guarantee that it's true."
At first, you're not sure what to make of the voice. On one hand, he sounds genuinely scared and desperate. On the other, this could just be another one of the castle's tricks, and you're not sure if you can trust this voice. Suddenly, he begins speaking again. "Look, I'm cold, wet, tired, and hungry, As you can probably see, there's a storm raging out here. Just find a way up here, please. I'll tell you everything and you can help me down." The voice sounds very desperate and sad, almost pathetically so. "How can I trust you?" you whisper into your end. There's a moment of silence before he answers again: "Just trust me, please! I want to get down!" he cries. You can hear him sobbing through the pipe. Something about the voice's tone, the crying, and just the finding of another seemingly trustworthy thing in this god-forsaken place makes you feel sympathetic. "Ok, I'll be right up." You say, then give the pipe a yank. It slips easily through the voice's grip and you pull it into the room.
Dropping the pipe on the floor, you turn and walk back across the room, where Leona is petting Cain. You tell her what you heard. She is very skeptical. "I wouldn't go up there, if I were you." She says. "How can you trust that guy? You haven't even seen him." She says. "Look, do you want to stumble blindly around this castle some more or do want to take a chance on a lead?" you say pleadingly. Leona sighs and says, "Fine. But if you don't come back, and I die, it's all your fault." You give her a sympathetic squeeze on the shoulder and she smiles. "Be careful." she warns with a sad smile. "I will." You respond, and walk back over to the window.
You use the pipe to break the rest of the glass out of the window. The wind is howling in through the now paneless frame. Rain is driving into the room, soaking the floor. You get up on the window sill, unfurl your wings to full span, and jump. At first, you're battered and tossed by the swirling gusts, but, flapping hard, you manage to get steady, despite the rain smoking into you at ten miles an hour. There's almost no light out here, so it's hard to see. You flap over to your window and fly straight up until you reach a balcony two floors above yours. It's a small expanse of concrete between two gables with a wrought-iron railing. A green door with a frosted glass window leads back into the castle. And there, on the balcony, is...