Vampire Nightlife

Lukas glared at Cervus from the distance–he had nearly hit Chaerin.

And for a moment, that dark look was enough to send a shiver down Cervus' spine. He didn't really get what was fearsome about Vampires in the past, but somehow, a random Vampire was able to do just that.

However, as much as Lukas wanted to stare down the 'Great Leader of the Forest'--it would go against his plan.

"Is everything working like you wanted to?" Rhea glanced at the arrows on the Dryad and at Cervus' group.

"Don't jinx it." Lukas hissed.

"Jinx what?" Theodore skidded across the ground and blurred past the Dryad.

"That…maybe Cervus and the rest aren't out to kill us?" Lukas offered, then paused. "Fuck, I just said it outloud."

A little to their right, Ursa groggily stood up from a hole in the ground–having transformed back to her human self. She looked positively dizzy, but quickly went to high alert.

Chaerin was still on the Dryad's back, but when she saw Lukas arrive, she hastily let go and dropped into the ground. Her shoulder ached hard, but she didn't hesitate and threw herself into his arms.

That nearly toppled Lukas off of Theodore who grunted and stepped away, avoiding a hug pile.

"Chaerin, are you okay–" Lukas smelled the blood instantly.

"Enough speculation and let's just go." Theodore said.

"What about the village?" Ursa frowned and narrowed her eyes at the Vampires.

"The sooner we get away, the sooner that we can evacuate them." Theodore said.

But he was already eyeing how much time it'd take for him and the rest of the group to get away in their van.

The chaos ensuing with the Dryad, the stalling with Cervus and his men seemed like enough time to get away.

"I think I forgot about something." Lukas gritted his teeth and looked at the small figure hidden beneath the trees.

Her blue watery self reflected just enough of the moonlight, and the mist condensed tightly around her.

It was the water nymph child.

"I… I can try to knock her out." Rhea uncertainly said.

It was still a powerful being, but it had taken the form of a child as opposed to an adult which seemed to indicate enough of its maturity.

It was younger than the Dryad.

The water nymph took one look at them and then shot towards Chaerin.

"No!" Lukas shouted.

It was a strange thing on how one simple event could take precedence over other things. But that was how it was when you were stuck in your own world.

The water nymph enveloped Chaerin and Lukas resummoned the dagger–willingly aiming at the nymph's core, but then the water nymph pulled away.

She had taken away the blood from Chaerin's shoulder and the wound was gone.

"That doesn't make any sense." Lukas blinked. The water nymph was supposed to be an unpredictable figure, someone who had ired the Dryad into the fight in the first place.

"There's a connection between the moon and the water." Drusilla suddenly spoke out of nowhere.

"What the hell?" Lukas wanted to shake the dagger for a moment. "Hello, Miss incredibly helpful–"

He paused right away but the others already noticed his strange behavior. Rather, Ursa and Theodore did while Chaerin herself was still looking at the water nymph in awe.

"Must leave." Ursa's eyes widened.

"What do you mean–" Lukas started but then realized what was happening.

While the three were distracted with the water nymph's intervention, Cervus had bravely walked across the ground by himself and approached the Dryad.

The nature being was furious at first, it had been bleeding and experienced pain for the first time–but it had stopped fuming when Cervus raised a hand.

There was a connection nestled between the two, and it was something of the Dryad's own doing.

Unlike when she had met the being of dreams and spirits or the foul blooded being tainted with opposing natures… the demihuman was someone who lived and breathed in the forest that she was a part of.

A line ran across them, something that had spanned in time and time.

Something that the water nymph claimed not to be present.

The Dryad did not come in wrath and fury, but it allowed a singular root to reach out to the deer demihuman's hands.

And soon it experienced the young man's grief and sadness.

She paused and stilled.

That should have been enough to make her stop and understand what had occurred in the forest of recent times… but that was not all of it.

Cervus touched the root and a fraction, yes, just a fraction of the Dryad's own pain, confusion and loneliness was read by the Great Leader of the Forest.

A title he soon realized was unfitting.

"Not good. Not good." Ursa stammered and she was ready to flee.

She knew of the past, and what terrible things occurred for Cervus to have a vendetta and now in her eyes–he was now connecting with the Dryad.

"I think we should leave," Chaerin didn't think it was possible, but she could sense the fear in the water nymph. And if the powerful being was fearful–what more of them?

"Enough words then." Theodore glared at them, frustrated at last.

He had perceptions of what an Atticus' child was capable of, knowing the legacy of her parents, but everyone else besides him seemed to not have their heads attached to their shoulders.

"Okay, okay, let's do that." Lukas already jinxed himself and it was a fifty-fifty kind of plan anyway.

The warriors of Cervus hesitated and had also drawn their weapons, fearing for their leader's life–nobody knew what could happen.

'The two might just end up destroying the entire forest in their own sorrow,' Lukas acknowledged that possibility.

He had no reason to believe in the good of the two of them.

Or hope for something positive to occur.

And yet a small part of it clung to him.

This human side of his.

Hope.