The street lights are strong but widely spaced; powerlines hum loudly in the still air. The sky above is a vault of deep, rich blue: an effect of the warming weather and the pollution from the great city to the north and west. Somewhere, an ominous and singularly lonely rumble of thunder can be heard. Around them, the road is surrounded by yawning gulfs of shadow. Pin pricks of light indicate where the neighbours are, but none are close enough to disturb them on their excursion.
The walk is pleasant enough for night creatures. The scent of rich earth and heady vegetation lingers in the air. There is dust from the road and the gentle scent of night flowers where they cling madly to the fence line. The mansion's boundary is all stone and crumbling stucco. There is a singular tag by the gateway - a pyrrhic victory for urban blight - that leads directly to the mansion's door via a gravelled drive.
The mansion is a dark bulk against the darkness. There is a flickering light emanating from an upper room.
And just to confirm, there is no gate at the entrance to the mansion's grounds. There is only an elaborate gateway that would no doubt have looked expensive, tasteful, and yet forbidding, during the day.
From there position at the gateway, they can make out the large lawn, now spotted with riotous growths (from the recent rains) and patches of soil and dirt (where the lawn has not recovered from the long drought). Trees, shrubs, and climbing plants frame the boundary walls - they too have become wild, lean, and forbidding.
Aaron can confirm with his acute senses that the other side of the property, beyond the mansion, is overgrown with trees and shrubs. His sensitive sight also picks out something unique down one side of the main building: a cultivated patch of ground well away from the main building and positioned so that it would not be easily visible from the road.
Lina forges ahead, her feet quiet in the dusty grass and grasping vegetation. Her practiced eye picks up on how feral the place has become - yet there is no wood fall: trees and shrubs are missing withered limbs, and they should be on the ground, yet they are not.
The Daeva prowls, and find the savaged remains of a wild bee hive. Something feasted on the hive recently.
There is a spot where night critters fought a terrible battle. The horror of this contest is plain to see: in the shredded earth and torn up trees; in the scattered and savaged bodies left to rot, locked together in one last, hostile, embrace.