SUMMER

Angkar: Wet season. Precipitation is common during the late afternoon and evening hours. Vegetation grows significantly during the summer, but flooding is a danger due to the monsoons that ravage the country. The rainforest sees evenly distributed rainfall throughout the season.

Ashoka: Desert: Extremely hot and dry. Violent, heavy downpours following long dryspells. Jungle: Hot and humid with frequent, violent rainstorms.

Morrim: Relatively hot and dry, but with a chance of thunderstorms from time to time. The heat may cause forest fires.

Soto: Hot and humid, tree cover is dense while ground growth is restricted. Thunderstorms see the most amount of rainfall during the season, and it can be very windy. On occasion, there are flash floods that can destroy homes and farms built on flood plains.

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March 30th, 2018 As you might have noticed, Elenlond has changed hands and is now under new management! If you have any questions, please direct them to DaringRaven! As for the rest of the announcements, including a season change, you can find them over here at the following link!

January 16, 2018 As you might have noticed, Elenlond has a new skin, all thanks to Mel! Don't forget to check out the new OTMs as well!

December 2, 2017 Winter has settled on Elenlond, bringing sleep for some and new life for others.

September 26, 2017 With the belated arrival of autumn come some interesting developments: new OTMs, a Town Crier and the release of the Elly Awards winners!

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May 31, 2017 Summer has arrived and so has activity check! That's not all though – we also have some new OTMs for you and some staff changes!


WHAT IS ELENLOND?

Elenlond is an original free-form medieval fantasy RPG set on the continent of Soare and the Scattered Isles, which are located to the south in the Sea of Diverging Waters. The four chief nations of the western side of the world—Ashoka in northern Soare, Soto in western Soare, Morrim in eastern Soare, and Angkar, the largest of the Scattered Isles—continue to experience growth and prosperity since the fall of the Mianorite gods, although power struggles within the countries—or outside of them—continue to ensue.


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    Gryllidae [Vorkael]; -Potential Violence Warning
    Topic Started: Sep 10 2011, 01:53 AM (1,019 Views)
    Nevneni
    Member Avatar
    Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

    The songs of crickets made Nevneni nervous.
    Summer was coming to an end and so they sang all the louder, as if they sensed death on the air. The final burst of heat was perhaps a sign; the winds had stilled and the air was now suffocating, crowding around her like people in a marketplace.
    She tried to take comfort in the silver coin moon above, the stars sprinkled across the velvet heavens, the trickling of a brook by the road and of course, the gentle repetition of her footsteps. But this place, it felt too familiar. Too close to home.
    It was a beautiful night- even in this state, she could see it. The moonlight fell through the spreading leaves of the trees, onto the well-worn chalk and dirt road. In the last days before the fall of summer, the forest had proliferated- grasses grown tall and bending over tangles of flowers and vines. The air smelt of life.
    And this was what scared her.
    Nevneni felt that something bad was coming, though she couldn't tell if she had any reason for it or if it was because she was remembering things she'd rather forget.
    I wish he'd hurry up.
    Vorkael was out hunting, and despite the fact that she didn't know him very well, despite the fact that he was a vampire who could take her for dinner at a whim, she felt safer around him. Especially since she now had a silver chain about her neck, to keep him at bay.
    She played with this chain as she walked, a bit quicker than usual. With her other hand, she gripped her hickory staff, slowly clenching tighter and tighter as the world began to press around her. Hurry up, Vor, hurry up. Talking would help maybe. Even if it was about nothing, it would at least distract her from the memories beginning to creep through her mind like miasma.
    The bushes to her right rustled. She snapped to attention, staring into the dappled shadows beyond the path, her hand flying to the hunting knife at her belt. She couldn't see anything- the world seemed to be wavering, she couldn't get her eyes to stay in place. Vorkael wouldn't just hide in the bushes, she knew that, but perhaps he was playing some trick. Wasn't funny, if that was the case. He should know better. She began to slip her knife from its sheath, silently, slowly, her body tensed, though it felt like she was floating and hardly in the world at all. She breathed in, and let out a quavering whisper. "Vorkael?"
    The crickets in the area of the noise were silent, she realized. There had to be something there, and she felt fear pulse through her body. "Vor? What are you doing?"
    And the undergrowth burst violently into life. She screamed into the dark.
    Edited by Nevneni, Sep 10 2011, 01:57 AM.
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    Vor
    Member Avatar
    A vampire in control of his urges

    (Eh...warning of violence? I suppose it's pretty graphic. For anyone else who is reading this, I'm supposed to warn right? >_>)

    Vorkael hadn't been gone too long. He'd just managed to track something down - strange, since it was summer. But it was what it was.
    About to pounce, he froze.
    A scream pierced the night, faint but there. He recognized it, and he whipped around, eyes wide.
    What?
    He ran with all the speed he could muster back to the path, and sat right in front of the scene, turning invisible. A few turned to look, but shrugged and dismissed it.

    What he found was one tying a cloth around Nevneni's mouth, another standing over her, and two more searching their stuff. Three more were guarding, facing in different directions.
    Awfully smart of them, but maybe between a bow and a staff, they had assumed there was more than one person.
    Then he noticed the dead body. The one gagging her was being a bit too rough, and there was a knife a few feet off, out of her reach. He looked at her, studied her face for a moment, then he got angry. Jumping her, forcing hr hand...
    A bloodthirsty grin slowly spread over his face and he darted silently to the bushes, dragging one human over and knocking him unconscious before he could make a noise. He took the other out, snapping his neck.
    The third turned, wide-eyed, but he growled loudly and grabbed him, tearing his throat out with his ejected fangs.

    Now they all turned and he grinned, blood and skin dripping from his mouth.
    "You just made a huge mistake, human filth," he growled, his voice dropping an octave. He tossed aside the man with ease and they all took a few steps back. They'd let go of Nevneni and stepped away.
    "We'll...we can just go," the apparent leader said, the one who had been gagging his traveling companion himself.
    "I have to say I admire you do the...'dirty work' yourself, but no," he replied, snarling.
    They went to run but he took out the remaining three in seconds, snapping shins and leaving them screaming and writhing in the dust. After that, when the leader had only taken five running steps, Vorkael grabbed him by an arm, whirling him around to roughly bite his neck.
    The man screamed, terror and pain.

    "You get to suffer the longest," he hissed into the man's ear, stroking his hair gently - the vampire then snapped a leg and let him fall.
    He returned to the three other men, crouching by them. Only one registered his presence through the pain. He screamed more, and with a grin he punched his temple. The man spasmed and died in an instant.
    Blood was all over his plain shirt by now, spattered across his chest and sleeves. It was also dripping from his chin.
    He snapped the other men's necks, then stood. He walked slowly to the last one alive, who was whimpering quietly and occasionally squirming.

    The man sat. "How ya doin'?"
    With glazed eyes, the certainty of death in his eyes, he turned and spat at him.
    "If only you could have chosen something different, you might have been a good man."
    With a kick of an outstretched foot he broke a few of the man's ribs. Then he grabbed him and feasted from his bleeding neck, the man holding back more screams.
    Edited by Vor, Sep 10 2011, 03:04 AM.
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    Nevneni
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    Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

    (Yeah...this is graphic and potentially triggering to some. Be warned.)

    The shapes rose from the darkness, men formed of shadows, they swarmed and fell upon her like wolves. She was slow, the world warped so much around her, she couldn't tell if these were humans or beasts, though perhaps the difference wasn't that much anyways.
    She drew her knife just as one of the things tackled her, pushed her to the ground and pinned her there. Her staff fell from her grip, rolled out of reach.
    Others were pulling the pack from her shoulders, they wrested it from her and carried off somewhere into the darkness.
    The man ontop of her grabbed her face and held it in a patch of light. "Well, you're pretty, aren't you?" She could smell his breath, his sweat. Laughter came from the others, or perhaps it just rolled out of the shadows, or was it in her head? She struggled and screamed but his hands pushed her shoulders into the ground.
    "Pretty enough, anyways."
    In her mind, she was in a dark-filled house, the chalk and stones under her became packed earth, the man stank of alcohol and the stridulations of the crickets swelled up like a wave and swallowed her whole.
    Her body tried to swim in this tide- it kicked and flailed without her telling it to but her mind was not there, her thoughts flickered and died. She was not Nevneni; she wasn't anything at all.
    Then impact shuddered its way through her arm, and she was brought back to the world. Movement, blood, screams. Her knife had found its way into the man's leg, buried itself in fat, muscle, bone. He fell off her and she rose up, moved by something that may or may not have been her. She fell upon him and sank the knife into his chest, jabbing it between his ribs and into his desperately beating heart. He ended.
    Hands pulled her off, yanked the knife away, they tossed her around and shoved cloth in her mouth to stop her endless screaming.
    Nevneni was in the room again, her eyes pointed at the ceiling but not fully seeing the moonlight that arced its way across the thatching.
    A face presented itself to her- unshaven and contorted in rage, whispering something full of malice. In the next second, its expression become one of surprise and disappeared.
    A familiar voice reacher her ears. The world returned once again.
    Vorkael, standing against the dark, covered in blood. He seemed suspended for a long moment and then he sank down to feed. She closed her eyes; she did not want to see. The songs of crickets carried her into darkness like cold arms.
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    Vor
    Member Avatar
    A vampire in control of his urges

    It didn't take him long to finish his meal. He took a few minutes to feed from another man, then looked at them with a little regret. It would be a shame to waste all the blood, after all. The man heaved a sigh, something wholly unnecessary - he didn't need to breathe. It gave him that feeling of closure, though.
    But for now, he was sated. About to approach Nevneni, he decided against it and stayed where he was, watching her for a few moments.
    "Are you alright now?"
    His voice came out rough, even to his own ears, and he cleared his throat and looked around at the bodies.

    No, it would be inconsiderate to even...think about asking her to help him. It wasn't like he couldn't do it on his own. But then again, where was he going to put them all?
    He shook his head, brow furrowed. It didn't matter. Throw them off into the bushes and trees along the side.
    Vorkael tore his grey eyes away from the bodies, and back to the woman he traveled with.
    "I'm going to...dispose of these. You sit there and recover as best as you can, okay?"
    He did take his time, doing everything at a normal human speed, in order to give her as much time as she needed. Each body went a few feet away from the last, and out several yards into the trees. The woods was only on this side of the road, and a pile-up was never a good thing.

    After about an hour he was finished, and he took a few minute break out in the woods by the stream to drink a little more blood and wash himself up.
    He came back with his torso and face damp and the wet shirt slung over his shoulder, and walked over to where Nevneni was.
    "Can you continue, or do you need more time? I am patient as you know, and I'm not going to force you to continue if you can't."
    After a a small pause, he added, "And I'm sorry I wasn't there when it happened. Maybe if I had been there, they wouldn't have even tried. I don't know. Maybe from now on we should have the same rest breaks, and me not wander so far away, either."
    He took in another breath, letting the sweet night air fill his cool lungs completely. It steadied him even more.
    Edited by Vor, Sep 10 2011, 03:53 AM.
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    Nevneni
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    Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

    Nevneni floated back into earth to hear Vorkael saying something. She could see his feet moving away, off into the shadows, and she reached out towards him for a second, unable to force any noise from her throat.
    He was moving something. A body.
    This couldn't be real.
    Dazed, she sat up and saw the dead about her. One of them, on his back, the blood still spreading around him in the dust. She recalled, so vividly it seemed to be happening a second time, the thud of knife in flesh, the way the handle shook a little when it scraped against the bone.
    I killed him.
    She dimly became aware of the pains in her body- the bruises blooming across her back and shoulders, the bloody scrape on her cheek and arms- but what was more important was the fact that she, the one who always healed, had taken a life. She could not stand- only crawl on hands and knees towards the body. His eyes were still open, reflecting the moon. A line of blood traced its way down from the corner of his mouth, winding through stubble to the ground.
    She forgot for a moment what he had tried to do, saw only the man who was once a boy, and before that a baby. The man who under any circumstance, would have been dying under her care, not because of the blow he struck. What secrets would he have confessed to her before his final breath?
    She closed his eyes with trembling fingertips and sat there, her knees folded up to her chest, until Vorkael took the body away.
    The hour passed as she tried to imagine his life- where he came from, who his parents had been, who he had loved...The possibilities were endless, and this was what she had taken from the world.
    Strange though, that what had happened in the room...or here...she no longer knew- should suddenly become small in comparison. What had been stolen from her on a summer's night paled in the face of death. At least on this night. The only thing that was clear to her in all this desperation was the realization that she now had yet another burden to carry.
    Vorkael stood before her and said things, but she didn't know what to say. She just looked up at him, his body cast in shadow as he stood against the moon, the pointless breaths he drew into his dead lungs.
    "I killed him." It was the only thing she could think to say, because it had been echoing in her mind since she had returned to earth. The weight of it settled upon her, and tears began to well up, the sobs coming out freely, and so satisfyingly. "I killed him."
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    Vor
    Member Avatar
    A vampire in control of his urges

    Vorkael had had a feeling this might happen, and he crouched by Nevneni and watched her face, concerned.
    He wanted to say something, that she had a reason - he had tried to kill or rape her, or that she had healed many others, he was sure, so it was okay...but he kept silent. Instead, he hesitantly opened his arms and pulled her to his chest, dropping the shirt in the dirt to get it out of the way, because he didn't care.
    The man looked down at her, feeling her pain and her sadness and her sobs; her blood sang to him too. He shut it out and just held her to him, one hand placed mid-back and the other on the back of her head.

    Things flitted through his head.
    How he wished he could say something comforting, but he knew saying nothing was better right now.
    He didn't think he could do anything for her. She had to cry and let it out, and then she might withdraw again. Maybe she would spill some of her past. Either way was fine with him. Like he'd said...
    The vampire gritted his teeth. The crying was getting to him. Not in an annoying way, but in a...it had been so long since he had cried himself and he felt bad for her; it didn't help. He looked away and stroked her hair a few times.

    He realized he'd forgotten to check his bow and quiver, and her staff - the man was sure she hadn't done that. She'd crawled over to the man she had killed, then sat there for the remainder of the time.
    The main reason he didn't cry was because he understood why she was torn up about it, but he didn't agree with it. He'd gotten past thinking about the lives he took, because he had to. This was probably the first man's life she had actually taken, and he wasn't surprised by her reaction.
    Actually, he'd felt pretty terrible too. They both had their reasons, but he felt she was even more justified than him. He could live off of animals, but she already had her emotional scars.
    She didn't need another.
    Edited by Vor, Sep 10 2011, 05:49 AM.
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    Nevneni
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    Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

    Arms wrapped about her, a chest pressed close against her ear. She was not fully aware of it- tears and memories took her up like the flow of a river and carried her away. It wasn't often that she cried. No, more often, she was the one being cried upon, by the dying and by their families. More often, she didn't feel the need, not if she kept watching and paying attention to the cycles that surrounded her.
    Slowly, the poison in her mind worked its way out, until she was left sodden and limp in his arms. Life goes on.
    She had thought once that she would die, simply end from the pain that consumed her, but she lived. Yes, it was a life with a scar still sore, but on it went.
    She realized then where she was- surrounded by Vorkael's arms. Filled with a sudden claustrophobia, she pushed him away suddenly, hands on his chest. She sat there for a moment, eyes wide, and then calmed. He had intended no harm, she saw, not like other. "Sorry...I didn't mean..."
    What don't you mean, Neni?
    She sighed and reached her for her pack, digging around until she found a rag to blow her nose on. Her hands were crusted with dried blood. She shuddered.
    "Perhaps I should wash," she said, weakly. "Cleanse."
    She tried to stand but yelped- her knees had been scraped, somehow, and the newly-forming scabs cracked with the movement. She let out a sound somewhere between a whimper and a soft cry of rage. She'd always had a low pain tolerance.
    She held her hand up to him. "Please."
    Edited by Nevneni, Sep 10 2011, 09:23 AM.
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    Vor
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    A vampire in control of his urges

    Vorkael was pulled from his thoughts when she shoved at him. He shook his head in response, understanding.
    "It's fine," he said quietly - didn't matter if she heard, she was already digging in her pack, not expecting an answer.
    Standing, he listened as she said she should wash, cleanse. She had already, in a way, but getting the blood off her actual hands...that would be like the final act of cleansing.
    Atleast for tonight.
    She cried out, and he glanced sharply to her, and noticed the knees as well. Then he asked him to help her up.

    Clasping her hand with his, he pulled her to her feet, patting her shoulder once with the other hand.
    "Yes, you should clean yourself up. The stream isn't far from here, just straight in through the trees. Did you want my blood again, or will you just let it heal naturally?"
    Nevneni probably still felt disconnected, if he were to guess. She might just brush the offer aside, atleast for now.
    When and if she wanted to talk, she could do it then. He couldn't imagine it being much more than what she had already said, but then again, this was coming from the vampire. He would just have to wait and see.
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    Nevneni
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    Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

    Nevneni was glad for his help. She leaned on him for support- she felt so weak, and the world still wavered and shook around her. With his help, she began to head towards the stream, relying on her ears to bring in her in the right direction.
    When asked if she wanted his blood, she shook her head, grimacing in pain. "No...no..."
    She felt the need to pay, in some small way, for the life she had taken. If it meant struggling to walk, so be it. It calmed the despair and anxiety boiling in her chest.
    They stepped through the lush undergrowth, the crickets falling silent around them. Several times, she nearly tripped over vines and tree roots, but grabbed onto Vorkael for support and managed to right herself.
    They came to the banks of the stream, and she stepped away from him, settled on the pebbles and sand to tug off her shoes, pull her hair out of its braid and then crawled right into the water, clothes and all, and laid down in the current. The water was pleasant, a relief from the damp-paper humidity and heat of the air that night. It blocked out the sounds of night around her. She closed her eyes and breathed out. Pretended not to be there.
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    Vor
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    A vampire in control of his urges

    As he helped her through the woods to the little stream, careful to guide her away from where he'd put the bodies, he thought back on the time they'd been traveling together.
    It had been just under two weeks now. She had a hard shell, he had to admit. Not that he'd been really trying, just that she never really softened up too much n that amount of time.
    This trial though, it seemed to be loosening something. After all, there was only so much you could talk about if the two of you didn't know each other that well, or one or the other didn't really try for a friendship.

    All he was saying was that if you were traveling with someone indefinitely, you should try to be friends, end up becoming friends. You wouldn't have accepted such an offer if there hadn't been some chemistry.
    He let her go to the banks, and then into the water. Staring at her for a moment, Vorkael smiled suddenly.
    The man had thought she would just wash her hands, but if he thought about it, this made more sense.
    Thinking of their stuff, he told her he'd be back in a minute - not sure if she'd even register it - and vamp sped back to pick up her pack and his bow and quiver, as well as the very dirty shirt. His belt was still around his waist, and he resolved to take that off when he got back.

    With a little searching he found a small clearing with a flat rock off to the side very close to the stream. It was only about twenty feet away, and in view. He set his bow and quiver down, then untied his belt and put that on the rock as well. He tossed the shirt onto the ground again. It was already dirty; he'd deal with it after she had finished.
    Thinking of her clothes, he peeked into her pack; he found a dress, and pulled it out. Holding it up, he blinked at it for a moment before lowering his arms and looking to where she was, trying to find a tree branch or rock that he could put it on for her for when she was done.
    She didn't have many clothes, he noted, but then again, neither did he. He draped the dress over his shoulder and closed her pack, then walked silently towards her to hang it off a low branch that was just a foot away from the stream.

    Seeing she had her eyes closed and probably didn't wish to be disturbed, the vampire went back to the rock and pushed the stuff aside for a place for him to sit, then sat, one knee up and the other leg hanging down, the tip of his bare foot barely touching the dirt.
    He caught sight of his bracelet then, and memories flashed through his mind of his encounters with other vampires. They hadn't gone well, and now their teeth hung from his wrist.
    There'd only been two so far...vampires were usually good at hiding themselves, as they needed to.
    He rolled his shoulders, then looked back to Nevneni to watch for a sign that she was going to come back to earth, so he could tell her about the spare clothes.
    Edited by Vor, Sep 10 2011, 11:35 AM.
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    Nevneni
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    Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

    (Meehhhhehhfhg it's a bit crap.)

    The flow of the water adopted a cycle- it seemed to pulse around her, the strength of the current waxing and waning ever so slightly. She felt as if she lay in a vein, surrounded by a heartbeat, her face protruding just above the flow.
    Nevneni's mind drifted away and she remembered, with aching clarity, bathing with her sisters in the brook near her home, before nudity mattered, before anything mattered really. The smiles on their faces were clear, the fall of summer light on the water and the grass around them. She was verging on adulthood then, it had only been a few days before-
    She sat up suddenly, drawing in a great gasp of air. She parted the curtains of wet hair around her face and looked around the forest in confusion. She panicked for a moment until she spotted Vorkael on a rock, keeping an eye on her. She tilted her head at him, questioning, and began to stand. It hurt but she managed it, stepping out of the flow and onto the bank of the stream.
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    Vor
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    A vampire in control of his urges

    It didn't take too long before she had sat up, and then stood up. He smiled slightly in response, and pointed to the dress.
    "I saw that in your pack, figured you might want it since the ones you have are all wet now."
    Vorkael stared at her for a moment, lost in thought, then cleared his throat and spoke again.
    "I have to stay in the area to make sure...but I'll turn my back, or go behind this rock or a tree or something, so you can have your privacy. Just let me know when you need it."
    Oh, wasn't that great. This was one of the worst times to be thinking about sex. He growled under his breath and turned away a bit, bringing his other leg up onto the rock so that she would see him in profile now.

    Wasn't his fault it had been a decade since he'd gotten any...not many were willing to sleep with him if they found out he was a vampire. And the non-ejection of fangs in lust was not something he'd been able to do yet.
    Of course he'd thought about it before, because she was a woman, and a pretty one, and a nice one...and so on. She was also damaged, but he didn't mind that, with all the time on his hands that he had.
    The man ran one finger across the four fangs that hung from his bracelet, listening to the soft clacks as they hit each other.
    Instead he thought about that, immersed himself in the bit of his past, and the lust was gone. Well, bodily lust, at the least. It definitely made him kind of hungry again, but he could deal with that far better.
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    Nevneni
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    Asperges me hysopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

    His words took a moment to register. She slowly turned her head to the dress, then looked back at him for a second before finally moving to pick up her shoes and then go retrieve it.
    Like a ghost, she wandered between the trees, dress hung over her damp arm, her shoes hanging from a limp hand. She found herself a screen of undergrowth and peered behind her to see if Vorkael would be able to spy on her. The leaves formed a curtain that was to her satisfaction, so she spread her dry dress over the bushes and began to peel the wet cloth off her body.
    Her skin glowed in the dappled moonlight, rising with goosebumps. She spread the wet dress on the bushes and picked up the dry one, but stood still for a moment, admiring the ghostly pallor of the skin on her arm in this light. The goosebumps slowly smoothed themselves out, and she felt comfortable to be naked, for once. She put the dress down again, wrung the water out of her hair and braided it before dressing, putting on her shoes and making her way back to Vorkael, still feeling as if the world moved about her in some disconcerting dream.
    Nevneni stood below him on the rock and looked up. He was dead, she realized. Perhaps he would know.
    In a soft voice that barely carried above the songs of the crickets, she asked, "What is it like to die?"
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    Of course it made more sense for her to move. He just wasn't sure what she had been going to do, not exactly. He glanced after her when she disappeared, realizing she had picked a good spot, and turned his head away regardless.
    It would be creepy if she were to come out and he was staring.
    This time he could tell she took her time, and he didn't blame her. Wet clothes were not the most fun things to wear, after all, and she had to dry some before putting on nice, dry clothes.
    He watched her come closer, ever so slowly it seemed, and then listened as she spoke.

    Vorkael grew completely still - as vampires could, without the need to breathe or twitch - and simply stared at her for a few moments. He felt the seconds drawing out like minutes, then memories came crashing upon him.
    Putting his hands down on the rock beneath him, he closed his eyes. No faster heartbeat, no twitching; nothing but his emotions to tell him what he was feeling. Sometimes it was a good thing, but you got so used to the clenching of your stomach, the pulse quickening, sometimes the shaking.
    He tried not to think about his death too often - it had been violent, bloody, terrifying. He had been pounced like prey, torn open, let to suffer for some time.

    He shuddered, shaking himself, then regained his composure. He put his hands in his lap and looked at her with a blank face.
    "Regardless of actual cause of death, what I experienced was...nothing. I felt like I was floating in a void, and I simply was. Not even peace or contentment, just...existing. It lasted...what seemed a long time. I don't know how long. People are turned by draining almost all of the blood from one's body, then feeding them the maker's blood. I was dead for that night and the rest of the next day."
    The vampire paused, looking off into the distance, completely still.
    "At the end of my death, there was a change in what I felt. What I saw. I felt happy. I didn't know why when it started, because I thought I was dead, of course. Then I saw a light. It was red and orange, like a sunset, and faint. It didn't grow much stronger since...I woke up at sunset. And there were a few stars overhead. Everything was sharper, brighter, clearer. I could smell like I never had before, and the energy in my body...it felt like...I could run forever, like I could fly without wings."

    He stopped abruptly, realizing he was going beyond what she had asked. But he still had more to say, so he wrapped it up.
    "I've always taken that feeling, that one emotion at the end, happiness, as an indicator of what I truly felt, and feel, about being turned. Sometimes I wish I'd had a little more time or warning, or I even hate what I am, but I'm happy to be alive, and I am glad to live forever. So far. You'll have to get back to me on that one in a few thousand years, because many are sick of life at that point. I guess it all gets repetitive after long enough."
    Vorkael finally stopped talking, finally moving to lay back. The rock was barely big enough, but it was big enough, so he had room. He put his hands behind his head, turning his head and cool grey eyes to look at her.
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    Nevneni
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    His voice blocked out the crickets, and Nevneni felt more at peace. She sank to the ground and sat with her back against the rock. She closed her eyes and imagined what he described- nothingness, perhaps like what she felt when she had laid down in the stream. Perhaps that was what he felt, that man whose body was now lost somewhere in the woods. Only for him, there would be no light.
    Despite everything, she hoped he was alright. She hoped they were all alright- all the people she'd failed to save from death and now the one she had managed to kill.
    In the silence that followed, she offered a prayer to any gods that listened, asking that he be carried safely away, and that she be forgiven. Her lips moved to shape words that she did not voice.
    After some time, she opened her eyes again to the moonlit forest. The dream-like state had by now left her, now she was confronted with the various pains in her body- all the wounds that stung with the air. Her linen dress was sticking to her scraped knees. She grimaced and pulled up her skirt to her thighs, not really considering the fact that she was baring them to the man who may or may not have been observing from the rock.
    Other than this, she resolved not to do anything for these wounds. Perhaps not even if they became infected. She did not feel she deserved it. It was like those days after she had left home, how she did not let herself eat and only walked and walked, self-hatred choking her like bile. Eventually, she ate enough to sustain herself- berries, scraps of bread, even leaves and grass. It took her a long time to be able to force a full meal down her throat.
    It wasn't your fault.
    Though sometimes she still thought it was.
    She finally broke the long silence between her and the vampire with another question. "Where do we go after this?" They hadn't really had a destination in the first place. Just go down the Kaadian Way. Don't stay in the forest. But now she didn't think she could go on, walking at night, full of terror, without knowing where they'd wind up.
    Edited by Nevneni, Sep 11 2011, 08:33 AM.
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    Vorkael had noticed the baring of thighs, and he chose to tactfully look away. She didn't seem to care abut her knees, didn't ask for blood or use what was still in her pack. Didn't even prepare something to heal it with her own hands.
    The man was sorely tempted to jump down and sit next to her. But suddenly jumping down would almost certainly startle her, and then she'd notice the dress pulled up, and it wouldn't be a good idea.
    He ran a hand through his hair, then looked down at her again. Her skin seemed to glow in the moonlight - that was something he'd always treasured since being turned. He was able to see at night much better, and things stood out more too, than during the day.

    "Well...Beinv and Yuna both liked Morrim. Yuna liked the volcano especially, and since she gained the ability to fly when she was turned, well, she can get away. They both liked the mountains, and the swamp too. That's why I'd orginally planned on going to the mountains."
    He paused, looking away again. He couldn't see her eyes unless she turned her head up and back anyway.
    The vampire spoke again, his voice considerably quieter.
    "Problem with that is...Beinv can be weird around humans, and Yuna is rash. I don't think it's a good idea to go looking for them until...we part company. Whenever that would..."

    They hadn't talked abut when they were parting company. They hadn't even hinted at it happening, but he assumed they both knew it would eventually. The vampire didn't like to think about it because he'd grown to like this woman, as was natural since they'd been traveling together for weeks.
    The question was whether it was sooner rather than later, and why it would happen. Would his maker intervene, would they have an argument, would it just feel like the time to? Or would it even go so long that he outlived her? She was only half elf after all...
    Grimacing, he looked at her again to try and catch an expression.
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    Nevneni
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    "Morrim sounds good. Even if we don't go looking for them."
    She stared at the dappled light on her legs, placing her hands between her knees and clenching them there. She didn't really notice his comment about their eventual parting- she was instead remembering the last time she had been in Morrim, in early spring, when she'd spent several days collecting yarrow and borage under a bright yellow sun.
    "The weather there should be much milder when we get there...it gets so hot in the summer."
    She turned her head back to look at him, but only managed to catch the top of his head in her line of sight. "I've never been near Mulciber Volcano though."
    Mostly because it hadn't many medicines to offer, though perhaps she should learn to live a little. Life was such a fragile thing, after all.
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    Vorkael looked down the passage of years in his life, everything flickering by, almost too quickly to be seen. The work on the farm, something he had, by now, almost forgotten; his beautiful wife, long dead, the curve of her belly and the son born but soon dead; then his turning, his maker's face, his anger, the urges; learning control, and once done with that he encountered a vampire pair, young, and they threatened so he killed; struggle, making Yuna, teaching her, Beinv coming and...taking her...
    That wasn't the right word, and he knew-
    "The weather there should be much milder when we get there...it gets so hot in the summer."

    Head spinning, he nodded slightly, waiting for her to finish the next sentence as well before he responded.
    "I've only actually been on the slopes twice. Not very far up, at that. But it's quite beautiful in it's own way."
    He put his palm to his forehead. Vampires didn't exactly get sick, but headaches were certainly still a possibility. It would soon pass, though.
    "So the volcano it is, then? Excuse me for a moment, though, I've got to wash my shirt."
    The man hopped down, bending to pick up the dirt-caked and mostly dry shirt. He growled quietly, but it wasn't to be helped. It was something to do, anyway.
    In a few seconds he was at the stream and on his knees, dunking the shirt in and scrubbing at it with his hands.
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    Nevneni noticed that he sounded odd, strained. She barely managed to say "Alright," before he was gone, off to the stream to wash his shirt. She watched him from a distance, wondering why he was behaving so strangely.
    The thought faded from her mind, her eyes slipped out of focus and she was thinking of the dead man again, remembering with sickening clarity the way the knife had felt as it plunged through flesh.
    She pulled her knees up to her chest, whimpering as the raw skin stretched but giving herself no respite from the pain. She could not rest her chin on her knees, as she usually did, and so let her head loll back on the rock. She watched the stars and they watched her back.
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    He went about the task thoroughly, making sure every last trace of dirt and grass were gone, and that the whole thing was soaking wet and a dark olive colour. With a shirt that colour, it was difficult to see all of the dirt, but he'd used his nose too, and found no scent of it on the shirt, just traces from the dirt in the water itself.
    Vorkael stood, then, debating where to put the very wet piece of clothing. Going over to his belt, he pulled out a bowstring. After a moment's consideration, he pushed out his fangs and bit into it, severing it in half; then he made a small hole in each shirt sleeve. He went to a thin, low-hanging branch and tied the shirt up to let it dry.

    "As soon as my shirt dries, we should head off again, deal?" he said, looking at her. "It will take some time, since it's night rather than day. I suppose the weather's not bad for it, but a breeze would be better. I don't think winds are coming any time soon."
    This time he chose to sit next to her, watching her face. Then he looked up as she had been, and he could see the stars.
    "No matter how long I live, the night sky will always be beautiful," he murmured, smiling slightly. "Now I only wish I could see the sunrise again, or a full sunset," he added, sobered.
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    Nevneni didn't want to leave. Walking seemed like an insurmountable task at the moment, but then again they couldn't stay there with a scattering of bodies about them in the forest, not when they'd start to smell in the heat of the coming day.
    She nodded vaguely and closed her eyes, trying to wish her thoughts away into a darker space. She had nothing to immerse herself in- not her mind, not the sawing of crickets, not the heat. It was all too familiar, the thinking raked across her mind like thorns across already traumatized flesh. She jiggled her foot but the repetitive motion did little to ease her.
    Vorkael's voice floated out of the world, and she was calmed. She didn't really care what he said, just as long as it blocked out everything else. She closed her eyes tighter, pulled her knees into her chest so hard it restricted her breathing. "No...please keep talking. I don't want to think."
    I don't want to exist.
    Edited by Nevneni, Sep 20 2011, 05:28 AM.
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    (Longpost is long : D)

    Vorkael glanced over at her when she spoke, right after he stopped.
    "How long will I have to talk for then? I guess it doesn't matter, but a cave or hollow would be nice to find before daybreak. Maybe there's one in here..."
    Realizing he'd gone several moments without talking, he began.
    "Well honestly many of my memories aren't too happy. So I can't talk about them, and I don't think you'd appreciate hearing about hunting...doesn't even matter if you can't or won't hear me now, I'm not going to talk about something you wouldn't...appreciate. But then what do I talk about? Memories and feeding are all I have, and all I will probably ever have..."
    At that he sobered, then quickly kept going, keeping his voice relatively level.

    "It's Beinv and Yuna, and that's it for the rest of my life? I'm glad I decided to travel with you, and you let me. I was a stranger after all, or close enough. And male, and a vampire. Yes, not something you would invite to come with you in normal circumstances. But then, I'll outlast you too, even if we were to travel together for a long time and become...friends? Who knows what lies in wait on the other side? The next day, the next year, next decade, century? How far away."
    He let out a sigh and looked over to her, watching as he began talking again.
    "What kind of normal life can I lead anymore? I was married, going to have a kid. I had a good farm, worked hard and honestly. What's waiting for me? What's the point of my existence? Beinv and Yuna are hardly a comfort when all the family and friends, and anyone I knew, are all dead, have been for so long. And I must hide, atleast mostly. I can't reveal my nature for fear that they'll come after me with silver, stakes, garlic, mirrors, whatever. Only two actually work but can't let people know what works, not for sure. We have to stay away, or be good at disguise."

    His grey eyes moved over her face, to her knees with a wince and twinge of guilt, to hands and arms wrapped around legs.
    And then he looked away, thinking of what to say next.
    "What about love for us? Many vampires don't get along for whatever reason, like we're all still human, or elven in some cases, enough that something tells us to..stay with the original species. But most things non-vampire are going to fear us, which includes the potential love interests. Everyone wants love and it's...near-impossible for something that's dead."
    The man paused again, a glance to her closed closed eyes and back down at his own outstretched legs.

    "I'm a parasite. Unless vampires can get accepted into everyday society, which would be difficult enough with the schedules, not counting how people would react, I'm going to stay that way. We have to atleast stop feeding off humanoids, or people will never accept. But most vampires are quite unwilling to go vegetarian. It's...a problem. One that will probably never get fixed. I can't contribute to society, except giving the occasional coin for a pint of alcohol. I'm killing others to live. Wandering around, too."
    Then he remembered with a flash the vials in Nevneni's pack, filled with red liquid.
    "I suppose...helping you with patients is one way of contributing. But it still feels...pointless. A few deaths while there are still so many alive, it's not...all that bad. For that person, but for the overall good of the species-"

    He stopped himself again and laughed. "That's not the issue, I know. Sorry...I want to be accepted. By everyone. I don't want to live in fear of someone getting scared or racist on me and having a sharp piece of wood around at the time...like you did, actually. But I'm glad you didn't try to kill me. You would have gotten hurt, you wouldn't have had my blood to heal anything, and we wouldn't be traveling together now. All bad things."
    Trailing off finally, he laid his head back against the rock too, hoping that was enough for her, atleast for now. He felt like he had nothing else to say. It felt like a burden had suddenly disappeared off his back. The effect of telling someone a bunch of your worries and fears? Not that he'd really told her too much. He had more.
    But for now, he was done talking. If she had a question, he could answer, but he was suddenly left feeling tired.
    Edited by Vor, Sep 21 2011, 11:51 AM.
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    Nevneni
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    Nevneni opened her eyes to watch him talking, the stress that wrote itself across his face. These words came tumbling out and she understood him- one event that made the course of her life go horribly askew, upset the balance she'd constructed for herself.
    She sighed, tried to figure out what to do to ease his strain.
    She thought that perhaps she could hold his hand, though such closeness, now that she was closer to her normal frame of mind, terrified her.
    "I'm sorry...for making you discuss it."
    She directed her gaze back at her feet. After a long pause, she took in a breath of air and spoke.
    "It happened to me too...one thing happened back home and I could not stay there. One night and I was thrown out of my life. Nothing can ever be the same now." Another sigh, biting her lip to hold back a sudden urge to cry again. "Though I guess that, in the end, I get to die."
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    "Don't," he said, his tone direct. "You didn't make me do anything. I did it myself, and it's just getting out what I feel already. And don't worry dear one, I'm sure death is better than life in the end."
    'Dear one'...a term of endearment, of comfort. He had no idea why that had surfaced in his speech, and wondered how she'd react to it. It had just come out, much like the rest of what he'd previously said, and he hadn't known the words until after he spoke them, until after he heard them with his own ears.

    Suddenly Vorkael's face set, hardened. His voice was level when he spoke.
    "And don't mistake me, I'll die too. If not by some vampire's fangs or the carved stake of a being with hate in their heart, then by my own hate. Eventually I won't be able to stand it, start going crazy. Don't know when that will be, but it will happen."
    He let out a sharp breath, looking away from the sky, away from the woman next to him, away from his past. Instead he stared into the trees, and found he could faintly smell the corpses.
    "We should go soon. The smell is getting stronger."

    The vampire assumed her mind had been on the bandits enough to figure out what he was referring to fairly easily, so he felt no need to elaborate on that.
    Getting up, he walked around to the other side of the boulder, looking further through the trees to try and spot rock.
    He picked up his belt and tied it around his waist again. Then he remembered what he had said about his shirt drying being the signal for them to leave. Going to check it, he found it still damp, but wearable. Putting it on, he went back and stood for a moment, completely still, looking at Nevneni.
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    Nevneni
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    "Yes, death would be a relief."
    It would stop her endlessly churning mind, that's for sure. Sometimes, she wondered why she lived anyways. She hadn't really noticed his exact wording- the sentences just flowed by her and she grasped on their meaning, so the use of the term "dear one" slipped by her. To her, nothing was amiss. She stood slowly, gingerly, and bent over to gather her things. They did have to leave, as much as she didn't want to. She waited for him, leaning against the rock and closing her eyes while he dressed. When he returned, she started to walk, heading for the path, but staggered as pain shot through her body. She cursed her weakness and reached out for Vorkael, hooking her arm through his. "Do you mind?"
    She leaned on him for support, which made walking a bit easier, though in her mind it made things uncomfortable.
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