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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Funeris" data-source="post: 2833293" data-attributes="member: 22792">Chapter 7: Interludes (Concluded)Rhynos stepped over the cooling corpse of the infantryman.  The human had been easy prey.  He had allowed the man to wear himself out; not that he would have been difficult prey had he not been exhausted.  The chase was the fun bit he knew.  Everything after the chase was disappointing, anticlimactic even.  Even feeling—not as a mortal would acknowledge a cooling breeze through their crude tactile senses but something beyond just feeling, beyond sense, something beyond reason, something more akin to becoming—Death grasp its sickly claws upon the man’s body and invade his spirit was not enjoyable anymore.There was a time, decades prior but a time nonetheless, when he had enjoyed gifting others with eternity.Perhaps it changed when he had been given a more real version of eternity.Perhaps not.Perhaps Rhynos had just lost the thrill of the kill.  Whatever the case, the vampire had easily dispatched his victim without much thought.  He had enjoyed watching the man urinate all over himself and then had quickly ended the game.  He had drawn out the last of the man’s life through his neck, listening to the heart tick, tick, tick into oblivion.And now he moved past the corpse which had nearly cleared the edge of the forest.  He was a mere dozen or so paces away from a path, an old road it looked, long overgrown with weeds and grasses.He froze in place, his head cocked to the side.  His preternatural senses kicked on, calculating at a deific rate.  There.His head whirled to a soft glimmer of crimson across the road.  Two eyes stared unblinkingly toward his position.  The creature, whatever it was for it was outside of the range of even his vision, did not move nor flinch.  A moment passed where they observed each other.  Rhynos knew what it was.  He had seen similar sets of eyes watching his every move for the past week.They never drew close, the other members of his race.  For their own good, he thought.  The eyes were unnerving in a way; he had never seen quite so many of his own kin.  The vampire was certain the set of eyes he saw now was not the same pair that he had seen two hours prior, nor two days prior.  This was a different beast altogether.  None of the other bloodlines moved with the speed or acuity Rhynos’ blood imbued him with.  These were slower brutes.  What they lacked in speed they apparently made up for in sheer numbers, he noted.The crimson eyes continued to stare unblinkingly.Another pair flickered into existence.  Rhynos just caught it within his peripheral vision.  It was in his half of the wood, a hundred paces to the east.  That pair blinked out shortly thereafter.He smirked, fangs bared in an inaudible hiss.A third pair erupted in the west.  This set held a cerulean hue.  For a moment, Rhynos doubted it was another vampire but his intelligent mind rapidly destroyed that foolish notion.  It was one of his kin.  He did not know their proper blood-name, but kin it was.  One of the dabblers, no doubt.  It was a species of vampire whose sheer arcane powers were doubled or tripled by their unholy existence.  He had only heard of their brood and specifically the tale-tell blue eyes once.Outnumbered.Rhynos shuddered and stepped out of the canopy onto the fading road.  “Well come then.  Let’s get this over with,” he barked, his hands outstretched.  The skin of his fingers split, allowing an opening for the bony talons hidden within his humanoid hands.  The pain was sweet.Not one of the sets of eyes moved.  Not one of the other creatures came near.Rhynos glowered.  Cowards.  He waited.  One-by-one the other sets of eyes vanished back into the wood, leaving the warlock alone.  “Cowards,” he reaffirmed.  His talons retracted.He glanced down at the surrounding weeds.  Crouching, the vampire easily found marks where heavy boots had smashed the flora and imprinted the muck below.  A rough count set the number of travelers at somewhere between five and ten, heavily armored or heavily burdened humanoids.  Soldiers, no doubt.The warlock turned to the east and began the new hunt.-----------------------------------------------------------------The three individuals huddled in front of the Lady Llewyllyn.  They had never before been in the grand bedroom.  That, coupled with her mood, made each of the three huddle inwards as if they were afraid to touch anything.“Do you understand?”  She queried while twirling a golden curl around her long finger.“Yes, milady,” Spinum replied.  “I am to escort these two back to Mialee’s home.  Once safely delivered, I am to return posthaste.”“Precisely.”“And what have we done to invoke your wrath?” spit Mialee.  “I have only heard good rumor of your estate.  Never have I heard it said that the Ladies Llewyllyn have a mood as changeable as the weather!”Gold’s finger shot out, pointing its perfectly manicured nail at Mialee’s chest.  “Like it or not, child, before yesterday our gracious natures have never been betrayed by welcomed guests.”“I had nothing to do with that,” she murmured.“No, you did not.  But, if you would like to stay and incur the same punishment as the others, be my guest.”  The elf pulled her lips together, silencing her dissent.  “Good.“Now, the child is to accompany you because there are no human lands where she will be safe.  Spinum will travel with you, to assure your safety.”“Humans are not allowed in our village,” Mialee blurted.Gold’s eyebrow arched.  “You will welcome him as my Emissary.  And that is even if he wishes to sleep in those so-called homes of yours, those silly little huts hidden amongst the boughs of the trees!”  Mialee cowered, her face contorted into a look of shock that the Lady had been to her home.  A human!“Spinum may prefer to sleep amongst the dwarves,” Lady Llewyllyn added.  “Stubborn though they may be, they probably have a firmer grasp on reality than you elves!”Silence spread across the gathering as moods both simmered and cooled.“Preferably,” Gold added as she turned back to the mage, “You will not stay in the village.  I need you back here immediately.”“Yes, milady.”“To begin your apprenticeship.”Spinum’s eyes opened wide.  He felt his cheeks flush.  Respectfully, he bowed his head.“Now go.”  The three stood and left the Lady’s room.  As her door shut, Gold removed the cloth that covered the mirror.  “And how did I do, mother?”“Magnificently.”-----------------------------------------------------------------Rhynos leaned the man against a nearby tree without as much as a sound.  The soldiers had stationed only one guard on duty at a time.  And as always, Rhynos had been the better of his prey.  The difficulty, in this instance, was to kill and position the soldier without his heavy armor waking the others.When they did awake, they would see only a companion that fell asleep and did not survive the trip to the world of the wakeful.  Rhynos had taken extra precaution, leaving no mark upon the fellow.In the morning, they would continue on, all the slower if they decided to salvage any gear.  The following night, Rhynos would catch up.  One by one, they would all die.The last few would know true terror.And Rhynos would finally meet the man he had tried to hunt down more than two decades before.-----------------------------------------------------------------General Note:  Okay, this finishes the brief Interlude chapter.  I’m taking the rest of the week off from writing SHs (I’ve got homework to catch up on).  Next Monday, you’ll see me in the Valus:  Heroes of Marchford SH again.~Fune</blockquote>

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