Maids' Dormitory
Inside the room are columns of beds, separated further into rows. The beds are small and have plain white sheets on them. Next to each and every bed is a small drawer. You go to the closest one and slide it open. Inside contains a pouch, a necklace, hairpins, and some other personal possessions. Inside the zipped pouch are some copper coins. You put the pouch back and close the drawer. This must be the dormitory for the servants. You also smell a delicate sweetness in the air and taking into account items you saw in the drawer, this is probably the dormitory for the maids.
You walk around the room in search of the animal or thing that made that growl. Starting from the entrance of the door, you work your way up in a zigzag fashion. After checking the first few drawers and finding nothing much other than some personal possessions, you decided that it is not worth it to check each individual drawer. You make your way up the rows until you are at the second to last row by the third column from the wall when you hear shaking in the next column over. You stop for a second before hurrying over to the source of the sound.
You narrow down where you think the sound came from and find yourself in front of an inconspicuous bed. It looks no different than the rest of the beds in the room. You grab the sheets and pull them off. There is nothing but a mattress under. Strange… You can swear that the sound came from here. As you are scratching your head, you hear the rattling sound again, loud and clear. It is not coming from the bed, it is coming from under it.
You take a few steps back put your lantern down and drop to the floor to peek under it. You spot a wooden container that is about half the length of the bed stored away underneath. You stare at the box for some time like a predator stalking its prey until the chest shakes again. There is something in that box.
Though hesitant, you reluctantly reach for the box. Curiosity overtakes your fear as you put your hands around it, and that is when you regret your decision. The box lunges out at you and its lid flies open. Rows of pointy teeth that look like they can tear metal bites at your face. With your hands, you push yourself away, avoiding the teeth by a hair’s length. You stumble back onto your feet and grab the lantern. The box is actually a chest, and it is alive. A low growl, perfectly matching the one you heard from outside in the main hall shakes your body. The mimic lunges at you again.
You duck and the minic goes flying over your head. You hear a crashing sound followed by another growl, this time a lot louder and a lot more angry. A tingling sensation in the back of your neck warns you to duck again. You duck even lower, hitting the floor this time and you feel wind blow by over your head followed by a second crash and yet another growl, even louder and angrier this time. You get up and see the minic ready to pounce, and you doubt it is going to fall for the same trick a third time.
You flee towards the door. The mimic flies past you and slams into a bed, rendering it unresponsive for a second. It recovers quickly and takes a moment to calculate its trajectory before jumping right at you, managing to predict your path. Without thinking, you swing the lantern at the minic and smack it on its head. This causes the mouth to snap shut. The mimic crashes into your chest and bounces back onto the ground. The impact hurts like hell but it beats getting chewed up.
You keep running and make it almost a third of the way to the door. The mimic sounds like it is quite far away as its thumping is no longer as loud, but you shoot a glance behind you anyway to confirm its location. It is sitting on top of a bed and is hunched over for some reason, almost as if it is winding up or something… Your eyes widen and you stop running. You dive to the side just in time as something zips by you at breakneck speed and crashes into the wall. An anguished growl tells you that you have narrowly avoided death again. You jump back onto your feet and look around for the mimic. You find it lying upside down against the wall with its tongue sticking out. This is your chance. The mimic does not look like it is going to recover from that any time soon.
You run the rest of the way to the door and you jump through the door, slamming it shut behind you. You then grab a chair and jam it against the knob to prevent the door from opening. Not certain if that is enough, you bring over some more chairs and form a barricade that the mimic would most certainly not be able to get through. Satisfied with your work, you sit down and take a short break.