Jiahao awoke in the same spot she had fallen asleep in, huddled in a corner with her head pressed against the bars. For a second she considered wallowing in self pity, before realising that it wasn't getting her anywhere.
She sat up, stretched, and got a move on. She needed to find a way out of this maze. Every door she passed, she opened, each of them leading to various different rooms. Eventually she found herself in a hallway, the same as the one outside of Alice's bedroom, but this particular hallway had two doors directly across from each other. Alice's hallway only had one door at the end of it, which led to her bedroom.
Jiahao opened the door on the right, inside was a small bedroom. It was very clearly lived in, and one could assume it belonged to Arden. Jiahao scanned the room quickly, looking for any sign of Arden, but they didn't seem to be in there. She let out a small sigh of relief, before closing the door behind her.
She had no real reason to believe that Arden wouldn't be happy if they knew Jiahao had been snooping, but most people wouldn't be happy if you snooped through their bedroom.
The room was significantly less fancy than Alice's room. Her room had a very royal feel to it, but Arden's was clearly that of a servant. It was well kept, and all the furniture was high quality, and fancy, but it was clear that they weren't the Master of the manor.
A large bookshelf sat next to the bed, and Jiahao couldn't help but think 'May would love it here.' She was still unsure of the actual whereabouts of her siblings, but pushed these thoughts aside. It would do no good to her to be worrying about extra things.
Jiahao skimmed over the titles of a few of the books on the shelf, it was all odd things like 'An in depth study on vampire biology' or 'A comprehensive record of chimera breeds' they all seemed like fantasy titles to Jiahao. But after last night, she's more than aware that they likely aren't.
Upon the bedside table sat a small, brown notebook, Jiahao picked it up and began to scan the contents. She was unable to read most of it, the handwriting was crude, and messy, almost like a child wrote it. She placed the book back where she found it, and began searching through the dresser drawers.
Nothing.
The closet.
Nothing.
'Goddammit,' she mumbled under her breath, somehow shocked that all the dresser had was socks in it, and the closet, well, it's all just clothes. Feeling frustrated, she left Arden's bedroom, and headed for the door across from it.
Not expecting anything new, she opened the door with a sigh, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw grass. There's grass.
She's outside.
This moment of joy was soon ruined by the realisation that large walls surround this grass, making it an enclosed garden, and not the escape she had been hoping for.
Arden looked over once they heard the sound of the door opening, a frown on their face at the realisation that somebody had entered their garden.
"Um, hi…" Jiahao's voice was slightly shaky, feeling as though she had been caught doing something wrong.
Arden didn't respond, they just went back to picking grass, and placing it in a large wooden bowl. Jiahao didn't even question this for a moment, until she realised how absurd this sight was. Curious, she began to walk over to Arden.
They weren't dressed as proper as they had been yesterday, today they were wearing a white vest and baggy trousers that had both seen better days. Jiahao was almost taken aback at how muscler the shorter person was. She knew Arden was somewhat built, but actually seeing it, was kind of scary.
Before she could ask what Arden was doing they spoke, "What?"
"Um, what are you doing?" Jiahao asked with clear curiosity in her voice.
"Getting my dinner before I have to feed Alice." Arden's response was blunt, and cold.
"So, you eat grass?" Jiahao seemed even more confused now.
"Yes. I eat grass, and you eat dead animals." Arden's retort was sharp, with a weird sense of underlying vitriol.
Jiahao decided to change the subject, sensing that maybe Arden didn't want to talk about food, "You wouldn't be able to tell me how to leave the manor?"
"Believe me, I'd tell you if I knew how. This place is designed like this for a reason, like a spiderweb, easy to get caught in, almost impossible to escape from." Arden didn't look at Jiahao, instead just continuing to grab long blades of grass out of the ground.
Jiahao paused for a second, before coming up with an idea. "I'll help you pick grass if you answer some of my questions."
Arden didn't respond immediately, clearly thinking this over. "Two more."
"T-two more what?" Jiahao stuttered slightly.
"Two more questions." Arden reiterated.
Jiahao got down on her knees and began to help Arden with no complaints. "So, what are you?"
Arden scoffed, "A goat-human chimera." Their response was quick, and blunt.
Jiahao raised an eyebrow, "What does that mean though?"
Arden rolled their one visible eye, the other one still hidden by an eyepatch. "Goat-human chimera's are a subspecies of humans, bred specifically by vampires to be a renewable, and low effort source of food. We're the product of hundreds of years of selective breeding."
Jiahao knew Arden only agreed to answer two questions, but she chanced her luck, and asked a third. "But you look mostly human besides the whole white hair thing, why's that?"
"You're not gonna stop until I answer everything are you?" Arden sighed, the question was of course rhetorical, they sat back in the grass, and began to unpack this next question.
"Look." Arden popped their eyepatch up to reveal what can only be described as what would happen if somebody stuck a goat's eye in a human body. It's a stark contrast to Arden's other, more human looking eye.
"I have a tail too, and I used to have horns, but the vampires cut those off when they start growing in." Arden moved a piece of hair at the front of their head away to reveal what seemed to be a stump of a horn.
"And why do they do that?" Jiahao asked, still diligently picking grass.
"Protection, goat horns are for fighting, they don't want us to fight back." Arden shrugged, this is all new information to Jiahao, but for them, it's been their whole life.
"What age are you?" This question seemed slightly off topic, but Jiahao couldn't really pin an age on Arden, sometimes they seemed younger than her and other times they seemed older.
"Don't know, to be honest, I don't know how to count past one hundred. And I wouldn't even know that if Alice didn't teach me." Arden looked up at the night sky, not seeming too engaged in the conversation.
Jiahao chuckled, "Yeah, my brother Damien can't count past one hundred either."
"Wait, speaking of Damien, is he alright? And what about the twins?" Jiahao's tone suddenly turned serious.
"Alice let them go." Arden responded without a care in the world, before posing their own question.
"Say, human girl, what's your name?" They began to actually make eye contact with Jiahao.
"Oh, it's Jiahao, but everyone just calls me Jia." She responded with clear relief in her voice. Now that she knew everyone was safe, she felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
"How do you spell that, G-I-A-H-O-W?" Arden seemed puzzled.
"No, it's J-I-A-H-O-A, it's actually a boy's name, believe it or not." She chuckled, she didn't know what her name meant. She doesn't even know what language it's from. The orphanage didn't have these records, but she remembered one of the nuns told her that it's a boy's name.
"Why not change it then?" Arden seems to be even more puzzled now.
Jiahao shrugged, "I guess, it's all I have from my parents. Stupid, I know. They left me at an orphanage, with nothing but a first name, no surname. Nothing, just a note with my name. And in some way, I guess, I think of it as their only gift to me."
Arden couldn't seem to understand this logic. "Are names really that important?"
"I mean, didn't your parents name you?" Jiahao asked, now equally as confused.
"Oh, no, that's not a thing that happens, we get given a number by the breeder, Alice gave me my name." Arden spoke about this as if it was something casual, and not a clear human rights violation.
"So, are you also an orphan or?" Jiahao left the question open-ended, not wanting to overstep.
"No, I know my parents, 83371 and 56290." Arden said with confidence, and assurance.
"Right…" Jiahao was slightly disturbed by how casual this seemed to be for Arden. A silence fell between them, before Jiahao finally worked up the courage to ask Arden the one question she'd been wondering since first seeing them.
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
Arden paused, seeming almost bewildered by this question.