There were some contradictions in Natalie's statements about the ancient room. At first, she had said that the paintings were located in the ancient room and yet she hadn't been there before until this day. How did she know that the paintings were located there without her visiting the room? Maybe she was told the same way she was told about the lamp.
"Just to make you understand, the information I had about the ancient room, I only obtained it from your dad. The only thing I didn't know about the ancient room was its entrance. But I happened to stumble on the map that aided me in tracing the entrance. So, everything I know about the ancient room from when it was constructed, to the lamp in it including the paintings I had only heard it from your dad."
Jean nodded but still wore a surprised look.
"What is that look for?"
Natalie asked out of frustration.
With a shrug, Jean looked away and said,
"I don't doubt your statements, but I would like you to clarify for me why you didn't ask dad to show you the ancient room after sharing such information about it with you?"
Pushing some of her hair to the side, Natalie glanced at Jean with dubious eyes.
"There is something that I didn't tell you initially. When your grandpa was constructing this house, I wasn't yet married to your dad until it was done. After the house was done, your grandpa still preferred to stay in the village and could occasionally visit the house from time to time. During that time, your dad was the only closest person to him as he was the only child and his only surviving family member as your grandma was already late. So, your grandpa ended up sharing most of his secretes with him. That was before I got married to him. So, by the time I was getting married to him, he had already accumulated a lot of secretes."
Pausing for a moment, Natalie gulped and looked aside.
"After I got married to him, your grandpa offered us the house to us but, we turned down the offer."
At that moment, Jean intervened,
"And why would you turn down such an offer when you were staying in a wretched house?"
The moment Jean finished his statement, Natalie's eyes gleamed with ferocity.
"That was the time when I had just been posted to the village hospital as an internee, and I had not worked there that long. So, I only did that for the sake of protecting my job. The whole decision was majorly made by me and your dad was lenient to agree. By then I had not given birth to you yet."
Jean wanted to inquired about how Natalie came to know about the ancient room yet she was staying in the village for her entire life as far as Jean was concerned.
***
Back then, when Natalie was just married to Jean's dad, the two could visit the modern house built by Jean's grandpa whenever they would visit Kili city. They would spend a few days there before returning to the village.
The two were forced to spend most of their time in the village because of the nature of their jobs.
Natalie was a nurse and she was posted as an internee in one of the village hospitals, and since she was passionate about her career, she didn't want to risk the chance by relocating to the city.
Jean's dad on the other side, was a farmer and he operated a sizable farm together with his dad. Therefore, the act of relocating to the city could have stalled his work in general.
These were one of the reasons to why it was easy for the two of them to turn down the offer of relocating to the city.
During that time when Natalie and Jean's dad could visit the modern house in the city, they could take some time to inspect it, and that was how Natalie got to know every nook and corner of the house, but with an exception of one. The ancient room.
The way she got to know about it was when she spotted its external walls and asked Jean's dad about it. Jean's dad shared with her some information about it, but when it came to the information about the entrance, he kept that to himself as he was forbidden by his dad from sharing it with anyone. So, he kept dodging Natalie's question by pretending that him too was not aware of the entrance because his dad had refused to show him, and in the long-run, Natalie believed him.
Then it came one day when Natalie found the four drawings in the store room, this was before the demise of Jean's grandpa. When she studied them, she noticed the well, a tree, a cave like structure and a lamp impacted in the shades of black on each of the four paintings. She then asked Jean's dad how the drawings found their way to the storeroom. That was when Jean's dad said that they were given to him by his dad to place them in a secure place.
When he asked about their origin is when Jean's grandpa told him that he was the one who drew them and that he had been storing them in the ancient room.
Natalie then went ahead to ask him about each and every single drawing on the paintings. But to her surprise, Jean's dad was only able to give out some details about only one drawing. And the drawing was the drawing of the lamp. That's how Jean's mom got the information of how the lamp operates and where it was located.
***
Fifteen minutes later, Jean sat upright facing the opposite wall with a distant look evident on his face. Natalie had just explained to him how she got to know about the existence of the lamp and how it operated.
In the process, he was able to have a clue of what was contained on the rest of the paintings.
'A well which I already saw, and a cave like structure, a tree and finally the lamp.'
What Jean was thinking this time was what these drawings represented in particular. The lamp itself looked more advanced than most of the modern lighting devices yet it is an ancient device.
This aroused the curiosity of Jean identifying the location of the rest of the drawings.
At that moment, he turned to Natalie and grinned.
"Can you have a clue of where the other two features in the drawing are located, because as for now, I already know where the lamp and the well are located?"
In an instance, Natalie froze and stared at Jean with wide eyes. In the next second, she shook her head in disbelief.
"Before I answer your question, can you tell me why you are eager to know the location of the remaining features?"
Suddenly, Jean blated,
"Because I am a family member and I deserve to know about such unique features in our family."
Immediately Natalie heard Jean's response, she let out a chuckle.
"Okay, just to answer you, I only know of one that you don't know."
With that she paused and gazed at the adjacent wall… then continued…
"The tree is the one on the rear side of the house."
When Jean heard this, he forgot to breathe for a few seconds. He then felt a slight headache. He was dreadful of the ominous tree and now that it was linked to these drawings, its impact grew ten folds.
'I knew it, that tree isn't normal in some ways.'
From the information he had about the lamp, he had deduced that the items and features contained on the drawings, were not mundane. With this deduction in mind, he found it hard to ignore the location of the rest of the structures in the drawing.
A minute passed by without anyone uttering a word. In the next moment, Jean looked at Natalie with dubious eyes.
"Oh, the tree! I already knew it was special the moment I set my eyes on it for the first time. And what about the last feature?"
Shifting uncomfortably, Natalie placed one of her hands under her chin and glanced at Jean.
"If you find it that important, I challenge you to find it for us."
Natalie said with a wicked smile surfacing her face.
At that moment, a thought ignited in Jean's mind.
'That strange spot in the middle of the forest, could it be related to the last feature in some ways? But there is nothing like a valley there. There are high chances that that isn't the last feature.'
When Natalie challenged Jean to find the last feature on the drawings, the only thing that felt out of the ordinary that came in Jean's mind was the strange spot in the middle of the forest. But considering what Natalie said the last feature was, he was forced to drop his speculations out of the equation.
'Maybe I need to confirm the paintings by myself, who knows, she might have lied to me.'
With that thought still in his mind, Jean remembered something about the lamp that he was intending to ask Natalie for a while now.
(❁´◡`❁)