After Wren was excused from the brunch, he found himself left to his own devices. Feeling a bit tired, he decided he’d like nothing more than to find his room and lay down for a while. He hoped he wasn’t catching a cold.

Twenty minutes later, Wren found himself utterly and hopelessly lost in the labyrinthine mansion. He traveled down twisting corridors of endless Victorian green, but couldn’t find his room. Every door looked the same to him and even when he dared to try turning a few knobs to look inside, he found each one locked.

Wren finally made his way out of the corridors, only to find himself in a courtyard. A splendid garden lay beyond the courtyard, and beyond that, Wren saw what appeared to be an endless hedge maze stretching into the distance. He didn’t dare chance the maze. He’d already gotten completely lost just trying to search out his room. Besides, he didn’t know what kind of booby-traps or monstrosities awaited him in the hedge maze. With his luck, he’d get lost and end up wandering around in the maze until he starved to death. Either that, or be eaten alive by some weird creature.

At this point, he wasn’t discounting any such possibility.

Instead, Wren looked around the courtyard and gardens, inspecting the strange varieties of flowers and life-sized marble statues. He stopped to inspect one particular statue set above a fountain. The statue portrayed two intertwined figures and looked to be in the Greco-Roman style. The subjects’ clothing was also suggestive of an Ancient Greek or Roman setting and bordered on the indecent. The marble garments, like the rest of the statue, was meticulous and skillfully carved. The cloth draped elegantly over the figures, billowing out behind them as if caught in some heavy gust of wind. One figure held a vase from which water flowed into the pool below. Wren couldn’t tell whether the water-bearer was male or female. The water-bearer looked over their shoulder in shock or surprise as another figure, this one clearly male and sporting a diabolic grin, appeared to seize the water-bearer from behind.

Wren decided that the figures’ expressions and poses left much to be debated as to what was actually going on in the scene. He wasn’t sure if the scene depicted a lover surprising another as he embraced them from behind or if the statue depicted something of a more sinister nature unfolding between the two figures. Either way, the statue with its the scantily clad figures and suggestive poses, had him looking away and blushing.

Wren suddenly felt someone or something push him hard from behind. He stumbled precariously for a moment and then one final thrust on the small of his back sent him tumbling into the fountain’s freezing water.

Wren pushed himself up into a sitting position, spitting water and trying to push his wet bangs out of his eyes. Seated in the fountain up to his waist in frigid water, Wren quickly scanned the courtyard for the perpetrator, but saw no one.

With a sigh, he climbed out of the fountain and, shivering due to the cold, shuffled his way back into the mansion. He dreaded having to search for his room while his teeth audibly chattered.

Crossing his arms in an attempt to preserve some semblance of warmth, he rounded a corner and nearly collided with Ash. The redhead was dressed in a similar manner to what he’d worn at the brunch earlier, only he’d traded black slacks and a white button-down shirt for a pair of faded dark jeans and a well-worn black henley. A pair of black and white checkerboard Vans completed the ensemble. The redhead carried an open hardcover book in one hand, holding it as if he’d been reading it while walking. If not for Ash’s otherworldly good looks coupled with the fact that Wren knew the other man to be something non-human, he would have looked like any other twenty-something college student.

“Do you make a habit out of getting drenched and wandering around soaked to the bone?” Amber eyes took in Wren’s bedraggled condition.

“I was in the garden’s fountain.” Wren replied.

“Bathing in a fountain like some some sparrow in a birdbath? If you were so inclined to take a bath-”

“Someone pushed me into the fountain.” Wren said defensively, cutting the redhead off.

Ash’s eyes narrowed. “Pushed you in? Who would do something like that?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t actually see anyone, just felt them push me from behind.” Wren brushed past the redhead. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go to my room and dry off.”

“Of course.” Ash made a show of stepping aside to let Wren past him.

Wren started to walk away, hunched into himself as he did so. Then, he halted and turned around to face Ash.

He was surprised to find the other man watching him with a pensive expression on his face.

“Ah,” Wren began, suddenly embarrassed for no reason he could identify. “I- I don’t really know where my room is.”

Ash’s lips curved into a crooked smile and he snapped the book closed. “Well then, let me be your guide.”

The redhead extended an arm. Wren ignored it.

“Just lead the way, please.” He said as he moved past Ash.

The other man chuckled, his amber eyes aglow as he easily caught up with Wren’s shuffling steps. With a snap of his fingers, a blanket suddenly appeared in midair before them, accompanied by a cloud of quickly dissipating black smoke. Ash caught the blanket before it could drop as Wren coughed and tried to wave away the thick black smoke as they passed through it. Wren felt the blanket drape over his still shivering shoulders. He was surprised to find that it was warm, as if it had been recently taken out of a dryer. He clutched the blanket tighter to him, soaking in its warmth and letting it sooth his chilled body.

“Thanks.” He mumbled.

“Don’t mention it.” The redhead replied gruffly. Wren chanced a glance in his direction and Ash was looking away with a frown marring his handsome features, as if he were either embarrassed or miffed by his own actions.

“You know, I’m beginning to think you’re not all that bad.” Wren said. He blamed the blush on his rising fever.

“Don’t do that.” Ash growled.

“Do what?” Wren asked, genuinely concerned.

“Let down your guard.” The redhead said. “With my parents. With everyone else…”

“And with you?” Wren asked.

That actually had the redhead looking at him, but Ash’s expression was unreadable. “Especially with me.”