Betrayed

Welcome to the B day of the A-to-Z challenge.
Once you're finished here don't forget to see the other participant at www.a-to-zchallenge.com.

Let's continue our exploration of emotions. Today it's a story of betrayal. This is a new version of last year's Morgan.

Morgan was running in the forest. Her bare feet hitting the ground as fast as she could. She knew exactly where she was going, the trees seemed to be creating a path for her to leave. Not a single branch to block her way, not a single roots to make her stumble. As if the trees too had decided not to listen to the stars any more.

It was tonight. She would finally leave the Fairy World, she would finally be allowed to love, to forget about what the stars had been telling her to do all her life. In the Human World she would be free and Cameron would be with her, forever.

There were lights near the lake, she could see them from far away. She slowed down a bit, puzzled. She had told Cameron to wait in the dark, not to do anything that could alert anyone, the trees were so talkative. Cameron had always laughed out that she was too cautious. 

She accelerated, the sooner she would meet him, the sooner they would be gone and she wouldn't have to worry ever again. 

"They're coming, they're coming, they're coming for you, for you, for you," the echoes in the trees had never been so loud. She had never heard them without touching them.

Morgan paused a second and put a hand on the closed trunk to make sure that she had heard clearly. They were after her. It was impossible. How could they know? Who had warned them? 

Faster, faster, she needed to reach Cameron before them. She couldn't breath any more, her lungs were on fire, she was scared. Something was wrong, everything was wrong. They should have felt earlier. She should have forgotten about fixing her stuff before living. They should have just gone and create a new life from scratch for themselves without caring about what she was to left behind. Why didn't they leave yesterday? What had seemed to her so important few hours ago seemed totally futile now. 

She step in the glare. Cameron was waiting for her, uncovered. She tried to reach him but it was too late. He smile changed first then she noticed the arrow on his chest, straight to his heart. It was coming from the left. Maligan stood under a large oak tree, his bow still in position. He was smiling at her.

"One two three, one two three," Maligan sung, "when we grow up would you marry me." 

He and Morgan were spinning under the trees, faster, faster. 

Morgan laughed.

"You know the stars said I need to marry someone called Romuald." 

"But we don't know where he is, and I'm right here," Maligan answered.

"There is no need, Dahis, is nice too you know, you're lucky to have her," Morgan said. "At least we are allowed to be best friends."

Maligan suddenly stopped spinning and caught Morgan. 

"I will never let you go." 

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Anger

Welcome to the first day of the A-to-Z challenge.
Once you're finished here don't forget to see the other participant at www.a-to-zchallenge.com.

Let's directly jump to today's post, a story of Anger.

There were definitely not enough colour. Emera who was in the same class had a full box of twenty. Evalynn had tried to put one colour on the top of the others like mummy had shown but there was no way she could manage to create a new one. Last time she tried she just ended up with a hole on her page. She put down her blue pencil in frustration. She was trying to colour the sky but it looked like a baby's drawing with only one shade of blue. 

This was the first time it happened. Her fingers were feeling warm suddenly as if she could feel the temperature of the oven where mummy was roasting a chicken. She put the paper down to look at her hand and couldn't suppress a cry. Her fingers weren't fingers any more, they were twigs, little pieces of wood which kept on growing. 

"What is it?" Mummy asked whipping her wet hands with a towel.

Dad looked over his newspaper. He didn't like being disturbed when he was reading. He didn't like being disturb by a child. Evalynn looked up at him trying to hide her hand but he was faster and grab her at the wrist. His eyes were big and his face was turning red. The corner of this eyes started to tremble every time it did that mummy would send Evalynn to her room and mummy and dad would make lots of noise.

So Evalynn knew this was bad.

"You're one of them!" he yelled at mum, pulling on Evalynn making her hang half way above the table. As if she was his proof. His nails digging in her tender flesh.

"It's nothing, I can explain," mummy said but she lacked confident already, her voice was trembling.

"There is nothing to explain! You are one of them!" 

"But the Nephil," mummy started. Daddy stood up and threw her the newspaper. 

He kicked the chair he had been sitting on.

"How dare you do that to me, woman? Coming to my house, making my child sick!"

"She is not..." mummy said taking a step back, "I can explain, I can..." 

A fire ball from dad's hand hit her in the temple before she had time to see it coming. Evalynn looked at her, her heart clinching in her chest. 

"What is wrong?" She said.

"Silence," Dad threw her against the wall and she fell on the ground.

Dad continued to hurt mummy. The kitchen floor was turning red. The smell of the blood mixed with the smell of the roasted chicken nauseated Evalynn. She tried to stand up but mummy discouraged her with a pleading look.

"Get away from my house!" Dad yelled.

"Not without my child," mummy answered.

She was ready to fight but dad was too strong. It lasted for ever then pushed her away to the door, locked her out.

"Don't you dare to ever come back!" He said.

Mummy was sitting on the floor in front of the house waiting for things to get better, maybe.

"Now I'm going to teach you how to be a Watcher," dad said to Evalynn with a soft voice. "Stand up!"

Evalynn stood, feeling dizzy. She was holding her guilty hand which didn't look like a hand, leafs at started to grow on her fingers.

Dad held her by the wrist.

"This is a decease, it's in your blood because of your mother," dad's voice was getting harder and harder again. "I will cure you, be a good girl."

Evalynn didn't move, she even stopped breathing, trying not to trigger his anger again but it was too late.

He dragged her to the garage, he seemed to be looking for something. 

"You like wood, don't you?" he said smiling taking a small branch they had saved to start the fire in the chimney. "Wood isn't good, it makes you a monster."

He hit her on the shoulder. He hit again and again until finally her hand took it's normal shape. 

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Indie Block Party Post 3: Interview one of your characters

For the next two weeks, I'm participating to the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.

Today I'm supposed to interview a character. As Kamaril has been the most annoying one lately I'm going to try to interview him. Kamaril is a demon and secondary character in "Demon World", a finished first draft not yet edited.

Kamaril: Secondary, you bet, if it wasn't for me it would all end with a stupid little love story, you know the kind: the girl get kidnapped and the guy come rescue her, pathetic. If it wasn't for me there wouldn't be a sequel brewing, right here, right now for that book and there wouldn't be any idea in the bad guys' minds they would just be kidnapping people randomly... pathetic...

Me: hum, you see what I meant by annoying...hum... hum... so let's get going with the interview's question, shall we?

Kamaril cross arms on his chest: if you want.

Me: What was your life like growing up? What is your family like?

Kamaril: I was alone, the usual deal. Father, too busy working to notice that I existed. Mother, too busy with other guys to cook me breakfast. Not that I mind, she would bring me nice stuff so that I keep my mouth shut. That was the good time really, before they figured out my dad was a Nephil. He was at a meeting in an hotel for work, you know the kind, well my mum was at the same hotel having fun. Her new guy ended up a bit... wet... that runs in the family... *grins* But that was shitty, so I ended up at the sanctuary. Goodbye nice demon life, welcome to the new Nephil guru crap. Damn they thought they were going to teach me something there. 

Me: Who are your closest friends?

Kamaril: I don't have any friend. I don't need any friends. You mean I should make friend with the other Nephilim, with Azazel and his crew? Damn that guy! He is hanging out with a Watcher all the freaking time thinking he is a big shot because he has Evalynn hanging at him like a jellyfish. Seriously, what the hell would I need friends for? Beside, people are made to help you reach your purposes. I'm not telling that you need them to help you but people are usable, you can step on them to reach a higher place, you know what I mean. And I know exactly who I'll step on next.

Me: Who?

Kamaril grins: If I tell you that's not going to help me, is it?

Me: I'm the one asking the questions, here. Who do you love?

Kamaril: Love! Damn you're so funny! Is that really all you think about? I don't need love, never had any, never going to get any. Have you seen Azazel and Evalynn? Doesn't it make you wanna vomit? *mimicking Evalynn's voice* Where is Az? We have a problem, someone broke a nail and... *mimicking Azazel* I'm here babe, let's go. *he rolls his eyes* Seriously, that the way they escape classes to hide in the closet. He is lucky I'm not anywhere near to see what they are doing 'cause I would show him how to give a girl a good time. I might try it in the middle of the class, I mean no need to hide in a closet for that, but I won't go back to the sanctuary anyway, the place is kinda destroyed now, just the way it should be, there are still good things about the Hunters. *grins.*

Me: As you don't seem to be too kind on people, let's change topic a bit. What are your 3 most prized possessions?

Kamaril: I just hate people in general, they don't know anything about life, that's all, nothing else to say. But Azazel is really dear to my heart. *he puts his hand on his heart with a bad smile.* Three things I value.... hum, I can't really think about that now. I feel that there was something I used to have long time ago but really I can't figure out what that is. I think it has to do with the god awakening. I might not be totally awake though. *laughs* Three things I values? I'm on the run, I'm not going back to the sanctuary, so I don't have anything much really, I would say my wings and my new powers *grins making some water flow out of his hands.*

Me: What is your first memory?

Kamaril: I remember blood. That was at the time when my mum was still bringing her guys back home. It was messy at that time. I think she liked the fact that my father could get back home and discover her anytime. She locked me in the closet, I was small at that time. Well, I couldn't see a damn thing but I could hear them a lot. Evalynn is a lot quieter with Azazel, that guy can't do anything properly. Well, it ended up that my mum opened the door suddenly and told me to run. They were playing with knife, I'm not kidding, there were two guys lying in the bed, they looked dead and they both had knifes in their hands. I stand there looking. My mum kisses me and laughs, she put money in my hand and tell me to run to the store to get some water. I mean they needed a lot more than water to clean the mess. "I'll give you whatever you want but just go get water now" my mum said. She was a nut case really. When I came back the place was clean. I don't know how they did it. The guys didn't seem too happy to see me though.

Me: Hum, let's stop talking about family. What about you is heroic?

Kamaril: I'm a fucking god. Isn't it all there is?

Me: I mean what did you ever do that that makes you a hero, a person who save others and can be looked up to?

Kamaril: I stopped Azazel's little friends from roasting us like chickens. I'm not a good guy and I don't pretend to be. But once I'm done with them, the world is surely going to look up and all they'll see is me. 

Me: Thank you for taking the time to answer those questions.

Kamaril: Stop doing stupid blog hop and writing about vampires, really it's starting to get on my nerves. Anyway, you know where to find me once you decide to get serious.

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Vlad

It has been a long time since the last character post. Today, I want to continue with the characters of Vampire Heart and here is an introduction to Vlad, which Viorel always calls "my uncle" for the moment, I might change that later with the editing.Vlad is based on Vlad III Dracula even though the real one was not born yet when the story is held while my Vlad is at least few hundreds years old already. Here is a bit about Vlad education way before Viorel was even born. As usual, it doesn't appear in the novel but was helpful to build the character. I apologize for any anachronisms  in here I haven't checked the character building part or the draft of the novel for them yet. It will be a huge part of the editing process.

Viorel

"Humans are not like us," the preceptor said pulling his glasses back up on his nose.

Vlad knew that vampires didn't need glasses and that he was wearing them just by habit, to look good maybe or scary. When the preceptor moved his glasses up, he was scary and Vlad knew that he had said something wrong but he couldn't stop.

"But they look like us," he said.

The preceptor took his stick, the long one which could reach over the desk to slap Vlad's fingers if he didn't want to bother standing up and interrupt his reading to punish him. But his time he stood up. Vlad knew that he was going to get an explanation but that it might also be painful. 

"The humans," the preceptor said putting down his book upside down on the desk not to loose his page. "They are a lowest species on the food chain. They eat lower ranking animals that they have to kill and greeneries, they would even eat dirt if they had to, to survive. We are the closest thing to god, we don't eat rotting dead flesh, We feed on life itself, We suck the blood out of the humans and We decide who should live and who should die because we are Gods." 

Vlad swallowed looking at the stick going up and down in his preceptor's hand. He had more questions and was weighting the risk of asking them. 

"Then why does the human pray to.... another God when they go to church?" He asked speaking the last words as quickly as he could as if he feared to receive the stick before being able to finish it. He knew that the blow would stop him to speak.

"The humans are foolish creatures who believe that there is something higher than us to take them away from their misery," the preceptor said bending in front of Vlad, a hand on the table to put his face just in front of his. "The humans don't deserve your clemence, the humans deserve to die and suffer by your hands because you will rule on this clan some day." 

He stood up and slapped Vlads fingers. 

"And I will make your ruler's hand strong so you can feel the pain you need to bring on the humans," he said slapping Vlad's fingers again. 

"And when I rule I will have you dead," Vlad thought gritting his teeth to hold the pain and looking straight at his preceptor, he hated the man. 

Blood leaked between his fingers and the preceptor stopped hitting him.

"Now take back your book and read out lout," he said walking back to his chair. 

"Why do I need to learn Latin. Nobody speaks it?" Vlad asked with anger. 

The pain was disappearing as the cuts on his fingers healed slowly, but he was angry that a servitor had spread his blood.

The preceptor reached for the stick he had left on the desk and hit Vlad on the check. It cut the tender skin and Vlad smelled his blood again. 

"Because you don't want to be an illiterate pig," the preceptor said.

Vlad gritted his teeth and looked down at the book. Nothing made sense, it was just letters in a weird order. 

"Out loud," the preceptor said.

Vlad started to read the unknown words. 

I hope you liked it, let me know what you think. With a teacher like this, no wonder Vlad became a really really bad vampire. Scary, scary, but you'll see more of old Vlad on Saturday.

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Sorina

I haven't always been a vampire. I was born a human so long ago and I still remember the sun, it's warm and the colorful shade it gives to this world. But my fate had been decided despise me, on the fatal day when my world collapsed. 

I was a little girl in a Romanian village called Sighişoara. The village was ruled by vampires but they and we were living in harmony. They would come at night like shadows and ask for our blood tribute. They especially liked to feed on young girls. It seemed to make their imagination run high but when they needed more strength, they would chose a man. My father had an inn in the center of the village, like everyone else, he was afraid of the vampire but he knew he had to pay tribute and that some day they would come for me. They were faster, stronger and they could kill you with their bare hands, if they asked for something, there was no way to escape, no way to refuse except in death. I wasn't in age to be feed on yet but my parents still hide me front the vampires and only allowed me to go out of my room during the day, they were hoping for the vampires to forget about my existence even though they new it was unlikely.

But I felt in love with one of them. A lady had come to the inn with a wolf, people were scared of her. She was the only human living in the castle with the vampire, she seemed to have some magical power of some sort which had the priest thrown her away from the church. She could talk to wolf. She entered the room and sat at a table near me. My father made a sign for me to come close to him but the wolf was between him and me. My father looked scared, he always had the same twinkling on his cheek when he was scared and his left eye would narrow a bit because of it. It was the look he had at night when the vampires were coming. I knew that wolfs were supposed to be scary, they came out of the wood to kill the sheep sleeping peacefully around the village, sometimes, they even stole little kids who stayed out alone. I had never see a wolf before and this one didn't seem so scary to me. He lowered his head to the ground and brought it near me, his muzzle touching the stone floor. My mother put a hand on her mouth horrified to see it so close but I raised my hand slowly not it scare it and stroke it gently on the thick fur on the top of his head. It didn't move and let me do then lowered his body yawned and stay put next to me.
"I would like your daughter to be friend with my son", the lady said.
My parents didn't look please at first but they couldn't refuse. She was with the vampires and everything from the vampires needed to be accepted. I was happy. I never had friend before and I wanted to see the boy. But every day the lady would come with the wolf and I soon realized that he was the one she was calling her son. It didn't make sense to me at first but I was still happy to play with him.

As I was growing up however, I was becoming of age of becoming food for the vampires. They were coming to the inn more and more often and one day, one of them asked to see me. My father started to refuse, saying that I was too young, that I still have a year before the coming of age ceremony but the vampires started to shout and threaten him.I had never seen him so sad when he came to my room that night and took me down the stairs to meet them. There were three of them and just the look of them scared me. They were pale, their skin had the color of milk, with red eyes and very old black clothes, they were playing cards and interrupted them when I arrived. They started to shout again to ask me to come closer. I had never been so scared. One of them stood up and walked toward me.
"I won't feed on her", he said to my father who was still holding my arm so strongly that I could feel his fingers entering my muscle painfully.
My father released me against his heart.
"Let's go to the garden", the boy said.
He was smiling at me. I was too scared to smile back. I had never see the vampires before but I had heard stories about what they did to people in the village, I had heard of them killing people when they were too thirsty or just wanted to play with their victims. Every week at church the priest was telling us of the eternal damnation awaiting the vampires victims and the one being bitten by them. Girls were crying and praying for forgiveness with a scarf attached to their neck to dissimulate the trace of the vampires' fang. My imagination was running high about the possibility of what he might do to me and the pain of being bitten and my soul going to hell after I died. I really wanted to cry.
"Let's play on the see saw" he said inviting me to sit.
I shallow hard seeing him going behind me. It was even scarier not to see where the danger was coming from.
"I'm sorry I can't push you during the day", he said pushing the my back and letting the see-saw slightly balance.
I didn't answer, I was too afraid to speak, to say something that might have leaded him to bite me. I clung my fist around the see-saw's ropes and tried not to cry.
"Please tell me a story again", he said, "you know the one about the princess."
I still didn't answer, it was my story about the lady in the vampire castle. She was so nice that I had imagined that she was hold prisoner and that she could only come out during the day but a strange force was bringing her to the castle and the wolf was there to protect her of course.
My father was looking at us through the window. If the vampire was to bite me, I couldn't even think of what he would do. In an instant the vampire was in front of me. He stopped the see-saw high making his face just in front of mine.
"You know who I am, right?" he said.
He had picked up my curiosity. I looked at him deeply. He had the same eyes as my grey wolf. But it was impossible. I looked at him more and more unable to forget the initial though.
"My wolf", I finally said.
He smiled brightly and I was sure it was him. I threw myself in his arms, I was shaking like a leaf in the winter wind. He held me tight and turn around to show to my father that he wasn't feeding on me.
"The vampires don't know about it, that will be our little secret", he said. "Why are you trembling like that?"
"I was so scared that you were going to bite me", I said.
"Nobody will ever bite you, I will never let anyone bite you."

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Yobi

Yobi looked right and left before walking furtively out of the bushes. His stomach growled with hunger, there were still lights in the kitchen but he need to go catch one of those chickens. He licked his lips just thinking about it. He lowered his body as much as he could on the ground and ran to the grillage, his nine orange tails floating behind him. He looked right and left again. There was no farmer to be seen. The chicken were sleeping in the chicken house already, they wouldn't make a mess this time. He started to dig near the grillage. He needed to get under it. It was really deep in the ground. The humans were so annoying, alway keeping the chickens for themselves. 

He finally managed to pass on the other side. He took his human form, changing slowly into a little boy, only his nine tails and fox ears remaining on the top of his head. He then made his body become invisible. He wanted to laugh at his own trick but he knew that it wouldn't miss to attract the farmer's attention. He could hear him talk with his wife in the kitchen. The nine tailed flown near the door of the chicken house. Yobi reappeared partially and knelled trying to pull the door up. It was heavy. He tried a little more making the house shake, he could hear the chickens inside starting to awake. He looked right and left, he was still alone but he didn't know for how long. He noticed that something was holding the door shut. There wasn't really enough light to see what it was so he moved his fingers around it and turned it slowly. "Click, click" he heard the door say. Once again he looked right and left to make sure that he was alone and smile, licking his lips again. Soon the chickens would be his. He pulled the door open, it wasn't so heavy anymore. The inside of the house was dark. He stayed at the entrance a little, time to turn himself back into a fox, that way his eyes could see in the dark. As he moved forward, the door slammed on one of his tails making him yell in pain. He tried to pull but he couldn't. The chickens were flying all around and jumping on him and trying to escape in disorder. Yobi changed himself back into a little boy. From the inside it was difficult to open the door. Yobi pulled on his tail a bit more and managed to get it out. He was blowing on it and stroking it with tears in his eyes when the farmer pulled the door open. Yobi tried to hide at the back of the chicken house but it wasn't so deep and the chickens were making such a mess that he fell backward. He tried to become invisible again but the farmer grabbed him by the leg and pulled him out of the chicken house. He was full of straw and already smelling like the chicken picking at him. 

"What are you doing here?" , the farmer said.

Yobi tried very hard to make his ears and tails disappeared, even though he could easily transform, those were requiring more efforts. He was looking like a human. The farmer seemed to be nicer than if he had been a fox, he was smiling at him. Yobi sneezed making his ears reappeared. 

"What is that?" the farmer said letting go of him in his surprise.

Yobi turned into a fox and started to run to the grillage. The farmer ran after him with his carbine. He couldn't find his way out anymore and run along the grillage for a while. The farmer aimed at him as he was starting to get through the grillage again. He changed into a little boy. The farmer let go and walked toward him slowly. One of his tail caught itself in the grillage.

"Martine, Martine!" the farmer called. "I must be becoming crazy."

His wife came out of the kitchen.

"What is this Joshua? A boy", she said.

Joshua pulled on the tail and got Yobi back to his side of the grillage. His back was bleeding due to the iron and the chickens. Yobi tried to free himself but the farmer hold him tight. He had strong and large hands.

"It's a fox disguised as a boy or a boy disguised as a fox", the farmer said. "I'm not too sure my poor Martin."

"Don't stay here like that, bring him in so we can have a look at it", Martine said.

Yobi was dragged to the human house. He tried to behave as a boy, he hadn't done it for a very long time. He couldn't really count but he remembered that his tails had been frozen hundreds of time since. He didn't like the humans much, they were always doing things they didn't really want to do just to be "good" and they were always cooking the chickens making them taste funny. When they reached the kitchen, Joshua let him on the floor. He took his hurt tails in his hands with a disdainful look and started to look around. 

"This is a very curious thing Martine, I have never seen such before", Joshua said.

Martine was looking at the little boy walking around naked in the kitchen.

"I'll see if I can find him a pyjama, it will also need a bath", she said.

Yobi didn't like the sound of it, water wasn't really his friend. He smirked, he was going to teach those humans what it meant to capture him.

Yobi is a secondary character of Demon Soul and Attic Mirror

 

Xokolate

Xokolate heard the machines turned off, that's what never missed to wake him up. He yawned, and his stomach growled. He smiled thinking about last night. They had a lot of fun. He wondered what the girls had planned for tonight. At first he didn't want to play their games because he could never chose what they were going to do but staying alone was a little boring. Now he was impatiently waiting to see what they were going to prepare. He wanted to stay with them during the night too but they always said it was better to separate so that the humans wouldn't find them. It was a bit strange because the humans didn't seem to try to find them or to care about them but the girls had said that if the humans were to find him, they would eat him. Xokolate thought that was even stranger but the girls were really scared of humans.

One night, a human had come to the factory. It was a very big human. Xokolate wondered why humans were all so big. The bigger thing in this human was his stomach. He was wearing a shirt but one of the button had popped out. The girls had gone into hiding and Xokolate had stayed to look at the man. He had a machine to make light in his hand, the girl said it's called an amp but Xokolate was not too sure, the girls always made mistake about the name of things, they had called him Xokolate when they had found him but now he knew the real name was Chocolate. The girls had defended themselves saying that Chocolate was for the one like him that didn't move and that's why he needed a different name but he didn't believe them. They were called Mind and Strawberry and that was exactly the name on the tank where they were coming from. But he was used to his name already so he didn't mind. The X was cool anyway. There were magazines in the office about people called X-men, he felt like with his X he was a bit one of them. He would go out to find them soon but first he had to grow up and to learn more about the scary humans.

The light went off. Xokolate put his ear on the door of the closet where he had been hiding for the day. Sometimes, they would turn off the light and then come back. He was looking at the little hole on the door to see if they were staying black. They were. He heard the sound of the keys turning into the door lock. Then he counted to one hundreds. The girls had said that to count to one hundred was enough to know that the humans had gone away. The door of his closet opened suddenly. He startled and hit his head at the top. The girls were laughing at him. They were always holding each others hand, that seemed to him so mysterious. Mind was the green one. Her skin was light green and her hair a lot darker and she was wearing a white dress. Strawberry was the pink one. Her skin was light pink and her hair much darker. She was wearing the same white dress. Xokolate didn't know where the clothes came from, he didn't have any when he went out of the tank, the girl gave him some the next day. They were always having secret. Xokolate minded a little.

He went out of the closet. The girls were jumping up and down.
"Let's eat! let's eat!"
"Hello", Xokolate said. The girls had bad manners but he didn't want to be like them.
"Hello", they repeated with the same voice.
He didn't give them too much attention, he was too hungry for that. He walked straight to the chocolate tank and climbed the ladle. He looked down inside of it not believing his eyes. The girls were already taking their clothes off at the top of their tanks as if nothing happened. Empty, his tank was all empty...

Viorel

In Augsburg, they had this nice horse renting facility at the inn. I could rent a horse there, ride for the day, leave it at the inn where I would stay and continue. The next customer would bring the horse back eventually as I would bring back the horse that someone else used further west. But riding a horse wasn’t as easy as I expected. The game first was to choose a horse in the stable and it wasn’t easy for me either. For normal people it probably was, for me it was different. Animals can sense things at a very different level than a human does. It was the first time in my entire life when I ever had contacts with horses, and probably with any type of animals. But something in me really scared them. As soon as I entered the room, they started to kick on their boxes doors and to neigh angrily. I wanted to go out and to start my journey on foot once again but the groom in there pushed me forward laughing and telling me not to be intimidated.

“They are probably having a bad day”, he said and he laughed more seeing me doubtful. 

That one horse could have a bad day, I would understand, that the bad day started when I entered the room and was so highly contagious was another story. I didn’t know how but I knew it was me. They were feeling the predator in me, the sleeping vampire beast I presumed. It took a while to have them calm down. I had remarked from the start that one was calmer than the others. It was a dark brown horse, with lighter mane. I sat in front of it without moving, just looking at it and calming my breath as much as I could while the groom was taking care of the other horses forgetting to tell me that sitting like that was dangerous. While still nervous, the horse started to look more intrigued by my behavior. After some long minutes looking in each other eyes, I had the feeling deep inside that we started to communicate. I stood up as slowly as I could, making sure that he could see my every movements and rending him a bit nervous again. I stopped moving again, trying to keep contact with his eyes. I realized that communicating with each other didn’t mean that we actually understood each other, but at least on my side, I was trying. He wanted me to go, for sure, as far away as possible. But I wanted to tell him that I was tired of walking and tired to share cars with talkative human beings who were only talking for the sake to hearing their own voice as if they were going to forget it any minutes. We looked at each other and started to fight, slowly as I concentrate all possible reassuring thoughts toward him in my mind, I started to feel that I was wining his trust. Extremely cautiously, I extended my hand toward his head. Slowly, slowly I reached it and it bit me. I still didn’t move, that was a protective reaction for it and I knew it. I kept the pain for myself and waited it to release my hand while a foggy memory came to my mind once again.

I was in tears, sitting near a wolf, a black and grey wolf which suddenly transformed into a beautiful woman with big caring blue eyes. She pulled me close to her and cuddled me.

“Don’t cry Viorel, don’t cry baby”, I raised my hand to my mouth, it wasn’t a hand at first, it was a wolf feet but then it transformed into a human hand.

“It hurts”, I said, “Why do they do that? It hurts so much.”

“I know baby”, she answered, “But human like all creatures need to eat and to protect themselves. Therefore, they need to set those traps.”

I looked at her as she started to leek my wound and stopped crying.

“You have been very brave today. Some of us would have just bitten their feet to free themselves. You stayed and born with the pain until I came to release you, I’m very proud of you.”

“Mum”, I said, “Why would someone rather lose a feet than wait?”

“Because that’s the difference between human and animal, baby. Animals find the easiest way to deal with things without thinking about the consequences. Human are more careful. That’s why I’m proud of you.”

Tears came to my eyes as the image of my mum disappeared. I had been looking for her in my memory for so long and for the first time since that night in Sighişoara I finally remembered her, this time, for the first time as well I understood the meaning of my tears. But my mother wasn’t a human as I expected her to be since that night when she had been called worthless blood. She was a Lycanthrope, a werewolf. They too were originating from Transylvania. I started to understand more and more the relationship between my judge and my father.