Chapter CCLVIII: Annoying Children and Eerie Shadows ~Travallian

A few young villagers crossed paths with Kenzo and Jaded. They stopped and looked cautiously at the two men. The youngsters looked like mere children around the ages of ten and fourteen as they peered at the two. Both boys looked as if they were brothers. The older boy was holding a torch in one hand while the younger one held a metal trap in his hands timidly. They seemed to be very apprehensive as they looked around.

“Erm, sir…” the older brother started to say finally to Kenzo, “have you seen a wolf around here? We heard that it ran into the village and it’s very dangerous!”

The younger jumped in excitement. “Yeah! Some guys were saying that it’s going to eat us if we weren’t careful!”

“Not to mention that this strange guy with these emeralds on his weapons told us to go in search of it in either small groups or alone. Aren’t we suppose to go in groups so we can help each other?”

“He was weird. I can’t believe the adults listened to him!” The younger brother seemed hop every time he spoke. “He had this strange look on his face too! Like he was planning something. He also had these funny looking teeth! All long and pointed when he smiled. The others probably couldn’t see it, but I did!”

“Pipe down! You’re getting annoying and you’ll hurt yourself with that trap!”

“No, I won’t!”

“Yes, you will!”

“Nooooo, I WON’T!”

Both Kenzo and Jaded looked at each other then back at the two children. Every time Kenzo attempted to speak with them, the two boys seemed to become louder with their senseless quarrel.

Kenzo sighed, his eyes blinking beneath his helmet. “Kids, please. What were you saying about this man you saw earli–”

“You’re always making up stories! Why don’t you grow up?! He was just a lad like you and I!”

“It’s not a story, big bro! I really did see long pointy teeth! I swear!”

“Oh, come on! It’s not like that guy had fangs! You were just seeing things! You’re so short, that maybe it just looked that way from the angle and the lighting!”

“You never believe me! NEVER! I’m telling Mom!”

Kenzo was about to speak once more, but Jaded stopped him, coughing abruptly.

“Don’t bother with them, Oznek,” he jokingly said as a chuckle came from him lightly. “They are not worth the time.”

~ ~ ~ ~

From not a far distance, Travallian could hear the squabbling of the two boys just down the corner. He let out a faint snicker as he walked towards the direction he heard the disagreement. Slowly he peered out at them, suddenly noticing the tin can he saw earlier there. He backed away slightly.

Hmm. It’s that knight again. I would have thought that he left this place by now.

In slow response, he felt a chill and the small, thin hairs on the back of his neck rose. It felt as if someone was watching him. He shook his head hard and jerked his head to one side, catching a girl slipping away quickly in a fair amount of distance away from him. He was only able to see her for a split second before she disappeared from his sight. She was too far for him to read her thoughts. He cocked an eyebrow slightly then shook his head, turning to look back at the children, Kenzo, and Jaded, seeing that they were still there. The curve of his grin looked almost grotesque and wraithlike despite his current human form.

Still there. With those children there, I may pass through quick enough without being seen.

Looking out forward, Travallian darted by the four without a sound as if he did not touch the ground at all. As he went by, it would have felt like a typical gentle night wind. If someone were to catch sight on him, he would have been too fast to see or perhaps appeared to be a shadowed blur if one were to be so lucky to see. He came to a refined stop with no trouble at all when he reached a rundown looking area of the town.

Travallian sneered slightly, glaring at how filthy this section looked. Even so, he perked up slightly when he heard screaming and the sound of glass bottles breaking down one corner. He titled his head slightly to one side then rushed to see what was going on. From a corner, he looked vigilantly and listened.

“You jerk!” This woman was seen there clutching the collar of a man’s shirt furiously, the young man struggling to stand from her grasp. “We made a deal! How dare you! You’re leaving me?!”

The mortal man gasped out his words. “Please! Let go of me! You’ve hurt me enough and I want to take my leave!”

“I’m not letting you get away! Not alive, at least, you spineless worm!”

The vampire let our a low laugh internally as he saw the kinky-looking woman draw a long, diamond shaped dagger from within her bag. He could sense the fearful thoughts that swam in the boy’s mind. Seeing this, he knew that he just had to take the chance. Those two mortals seemed to be the only ones who were not looking for the wolf. They were the only mortals in the area, it seemed.

With an ethereal motion, Travallian moved closer to the two human beings. He looked like nothing but a shadow to them from the speed. He was at one side of the woman one second, snatching the dagger from her hands, and then he had split the two away from each other the next. A spiteful smile appeared on his face as he looked at the woman.

“You have a chance now,” he said to the mortal man in an echoing tone without turning to look at him, dropping the dagger to the floor. “Run.”

Slowly, the man shuffled onto his feet scruffily then ran away. His deep gasps for air made him sounded like a frantic mutt.

“What, what are you doing?!” the woman shrieked at Travallian as she skittered back until she was sitting against a wall. Tripping over her dress, she scampered onto her feet almost chaotically. “Who are you?!”

In a ghostly slow movement, Travallian closing in on her and wrapping his arms securely around her. The tone of his voice changed again. It sounded soothingly eerie to mortal ears.

“I am…the one to end your life, my dear.”

The woman was to scream, but Travallian had clasped one hand to her mouth. Her eyes widened a terrified manner and muffled whimpering came out from her. He drew himself closer to her as he moved some of her hair away from her neck. He bared his fangs with a faint hiss which made the girl try to wriggle herself free, but failed to bitterly.

It was no use. He laughed devilishly at her and began to lower his head until his lips touched her neck and sank his fangs into her neck gently, yet firmly. He began to drink her blood that seeped out from within her supple neck. Some of the blood trickled out of his mouth, ran down his chin, and small drops fell to his tunic. The young woman weakly stopped struggling and soon enough became helplessly limp. Her heart ceased to beat shortly. Dead.

Feeling that he had enough from her, Travallian let go of his grasp on her and let her fall lifelessly to the ground. He licked his lips and wiped the blood from his chin as he looked down at her without emotion on his face. He narrowed his eyes, and the body oddly began to shrivel before his eyes and turned to nothing but ash and charred bone as if caught in fire, including her clothes which became nothing but dust.

Black wings slowly appeared on the malicious vampire’s back. He had spread them out and flapped continuously at the ash that was once the woman until there was no trace of her cinders seen to any further extent. As he saw that his work was done, he turned to walk away from the scene, his wings slowly fading from existence at each refined step he took.