Staring at the gate in front of them, a grim expression appeared on his face. He then turned to his right to face Natalie, whose looks seemed distant.
Directing his gaze at the gate in front of him, Jean raised an eyebrow.
'What could she be thinking. This seems weird.'
At that moment, Natalie stepped forward and placed her hand on the steel gate. She then paused for a moment and stared blankly at Jean.
Jean's heart skipped a bit as he shuddered.
'I don't like that stare at all. What could it imply, though? No need to care. My intuition had been telling me that there is something behind that gate, right from the moment I set my eyes on it. It even became clearer, when she told me that the gate has another purpose. Which is its main, other than acting as an emergency exit of this compound. Time to find out the truth.'
In the next moment, the ringing of steel assaulted Jean's ears and the gate in front of him flung open. Natalie who had opened the gate, shifted to the side and gestured at Jean to step forward and enter the gate.
Looking past Natalie, Jean noticed a narrow pavement behind the gate. At that moment, a gust of wind blew through the gate, bringing with it, a scent of fresh flowers and some other inexplicable sweet smell.
Smiling with the corners of his mouth, Jean sighed heavily and stepped forward. When he reached the gate, he stopped abruptly and shifted his gaze towards Natalie.
"Do you expect me to go in alone?"
Natalie let out a weak smile and looked Jean straight in the eyes.
"What is wrong with you exploring the site by yourself?"
She then paused.
'…Is this the reason she gave me the safety boots when she didn't have any to protect herself? This is getting creepy than I expected.'
After a short moment of silence, Natalie raised an eyebrow and continued:
"Perhaps, I can go with you, just to guide you through what you might find difficult to understand."
This was what Jean was waiting to hear. So, immediately Natalie finished her statement, Jean had already an answer in waiting.
"I need to go with you, mom."
Natalie immediately wore a complicated look and stared behind the gate for some moments.
During this time, Jean felt restless. He really needed Natalie's help, in order to fathom the main purpose of the gate. Which in return might play an important role in his stay in this new home.
'If she knows the main purpose of the gate, why can't she just tell me? Or is this some sort of challenge? If this turns out to be true, and I run out of time to understand the main purpose, could I be subjected to some sort of danger?'
Jean was getting confused by the sudden eccentric nature of his mom. He had failed to understand the reason to why his mom didn't want to tell him the answer he was seeking, directly.
On one hand, he was sure that his mom could not subject him to danger that easily. But on the other hand, he was puzzled by his mother's reluctance to accompany him to the back of the gate.
Perhaps the situation was not as dire as Jean had anticipated. And that could have been the reason behind Natalie's reluctance to accompany him.
Natalie glanced at Jean and smiled at him reassuringly.
"Why a sudden sense of insecurity? Of course, I was going to accompany you. How could I leave my only son alone in such a place?"
Jean's mood darkened a bit.
'Such a place… what is that?'
At that moment, Natalie entered the gate as she instructed Jean to follow.
"Follow me."
Lingering for a moment, Jean shook off his thoughts, lunged forward and followed Natalie.
As he entered the gate, he was mesmerized for a moment.
Looking a bit confused, Jean seemed shocked by what his sight had caught.
At first, when he saw the narrow gate on his first visit. He had imagined it to be the main exit of the compound. When he later saw some tree branches protruding from the top edge of the perimeter wall on the right side of the compound, he became sure with his guesses. This is because, he had assumed the trees to be along a neighboring fence that could have lied beyond the wall.
But what was in front of him at this moment, was an astonishing scene.
'I didn't expect this!'
With wide eyes, Jean scanned the surroundings for a while.
He Stared at a vast column of trees that spread on either side of the battered pavement, that he was now standing on. It was a small forest of strangely short trees of mixed species. It spread three hundred meters far and one hundred and thirty meters wide. Albeit, the trees were short, they were a few meters taller than Natalie - The tallest among the two, with a height of five feet and five inches.
There was a pristine pavement around the forest of trees, that stretched on either side from the main battered old pavement. Different from the old pavement cutting through the column of trees, the pavement around the tree columns looked in better condition. It appeared to have been constructed more recent than the battered one.
It looked like, he had just left one world and entered an entirely different one with a count of several steps.
With a sigh, Jean turned around and faced the gate now standing at his back. He then looked forward and paused for a moment.
'It seems like we have entered a jungle. Hope there are no fierce animals around.'
Stopping abruptly, Natalie turned to face Jean, who was now standing closer to the gate.
Noticing this, Jean lunged forward and caught up with Natalie. When he got where Natalie was standing, he cleared he throat as his gazes darted from the pavements, to the wall and finally to the trees.
With his gaze now fixed on the surrounding trees, Jean hesitated for a moment.
"From what I had imagined of this place, this was none of them."
Natalie grinned and patted Jean on the shoulder.
"I suspected of such, and that's why I decided to choose this part as the last area of our house tour."
At that moment, the sweet aroma and the flower scent grew a bit stronger.
'It is like the source of this smell is not that far from here.'
Faking a cough, Natalie lingered.
"I almost forgot something important."
With that, she turned around and headed toward the gate.
Noticing this, a grim expression settled on Jean's innocent bleak face. His expression looked funny instead of serious.
'Where is she going to? Let it not be that she is going back.'
A few moments later, Natalie outstretched her arm and closed the gate that had been left wide open by Jean some moments ago.
Seeing this, Jean smiled wryly and turned around to head deeper into the forest. Just as he was about to make the first step, Natalie resounded from the back.
"Where do you think you are going? As if you even have a clue of the routes you need to take."
Jean shuddered and slowly turned around to face Natalie. With a confused expression surfacing his bleak face, he remained still for a few moments.
"Then I think I will have to wait for you."
Standing like a dozen meters away from Jean, Natalie shifted her gaze toward the pavement along the perimeter wall, that extended to her left.
"Before we dive deeper into the forest, I need to take you around it. This will help in familiarizing you with its stretch and its surroundings."
Pausing for a moment, she then turned to her right and fixed her gaze on the pristine pavement. She then pointed at the pavement and added nonchalantly:
"This is where we would be emerging from. After which we would move deeper into this small forest."
By this time, Jean had already approached Natalie and was now looking at her closely.
A second later, Natalie turned to her left and stepped on the pristine pavement. They were now going to cycle the forest. This would give Jean an opportunity to have an overview of the field of study before their commencement.
Trailing from behind, Jean was still studied the forest with varying moods, from scorn to bewilderment. He didn't like the parts of the forest that contained numerous undergrowth. Whereas he was elated and mesmerized by sweet scents and beautiful flowered plants in some edges of the forest.
At some point, he requested Natalie to stop. This was because he had noticed something different in the parts of the forest that they were now standing.
This was when they took the first turn away from the perimeter wall.
Right from the edge of the perimeter wall, the fence stretching along the lengths of the forest was somewhat different. Its height was half the height of the perimeter wall that surrounded the house. It extended from the edge of the perimeter wall, and stretched along the length of the forest. On the top edge of the forest wall, there extended a metal grill, that ended in sharp spikes, at the same level of the perimeter wall.
The view of the forest from outside the fence, was obscured by some tall leafy plants along the fence on the outside of the wall.
Staring at the forest wall for some moments, Jean found something about its structure a bit disturbing.
--(~~~)--