Chapter 2: The sun that never came

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          Chapter 2: The sun that never came

 

            Nicholas and I approached the exit of the tunnel leading to the village, we both walked in silence. We emerged with grim faces and even grimmer when we saw more bodies lying on the ground outside. It was the bodies of Elder Grand, and the elder mayor elf along with the people that were huddled together for protection inside his house. They must have run into another orc when they got through the tunnel. These people never even traveled outside the village before they didn’t stand a chance… I crouched down next to the bodies again reaching out then mentally stopping myself as I recalled how Elder Grand would want this. He wouldn’t want me to do this again, and I wasn’t sure if I had enough energy to. I examined the bodies one last time then clenched my fist forcing myself away from them. I realized that Lilith’s body was not among them and mentally sighed in relief, but it still didn’t mean she was safe and alive. Orcs sometimes brought back people alive to feed on their flesh later. Nicholas and I did not spend long grieving over the lost lives and continued to the spot I told Lilith to go to. It was a silent and depressing journey and by the time we made it there the full impact of the night’s events was hanging heavily on both Nicholas and my own shoulders.

 

            I shook off as much of the glooms as I could, starting to feel adrenaline rush through my veins once again, and took a step through the trees and into the clearing. Once through I immediately stopped in my tracks, I stood there stunned, mouth ajar, at what I saw. There underneath the old oak tree stood Lilith well and alive, but beside her on the ground was pool of blood. The blood was not her own, but a blood orcs, the orcs corps laid motionless no longer a threat. Lilith did not possess the strength to kill such a beast, so who, who killed it?

 

            I ran up to the shaking girl forgetting the mystery on who had killed the orc momentarily. I wrapped my arms around the girl like a loving mother would and held her tight allowing myself to collapse along with her onto the ground.

 

            “Oh, thank goodness you’re alright.” I exclaimed now starting to feel the exhaust of the bloody events. I gave her a good look over before releasing her and smiled in relief that she was unharmed.

 

            “He… he… he saved me.” Lilith muttered in a low barely audible voice.

 

            I stared puzzled, I knew she must be referring to whoever killed the blood orc, but who could have? All of the hunters where dead accept Nicholas and I and Nicholas was with me the whole time. I frowned being unable to solve the mystery in my mind and began to ask who when a familiar voice interrupted me.

 

            “Your, lucky I was still in the area… Tear,” Damien said coolly as he emerged from behind the old oak tree and into view.

 

            I was both astonished by his actions and somehow furious. I should have been the one to protect Lilith not him, not anyone. “Lucky? I could have protected Lilith just fine from that orc!” I shouted feeling the need to defend my honor.

 

            “Really?” He stated amused by my words, “And how would you have gotten here in time before the orc tore, Lilith is it, apart?” He stepped closer to Lilith now only inches away.

 

            “I…I…” He was right I wouldn’t have made it in time before the orc devoured Lilith and tore her to pieces.

 

            He grinned realizing my defeat and reached out to Lilith’s short red hair and began playing with it amused and fascinated with it. He didn’t seem to care that the petite red headed girl seemed obviously frightened by his cold touch, as he ran his blood stained fingers through the red hair of the girl in thought.

 

            “Tear! Who the hell is this guy?” Came a shout from a very angry Nicholas.

 

            Both Damien and I stopped and turned to the furious Nicholas who was forgotten during all this banter. Nicholas was standing beside me with fist balled up shaking with what could only be rage. He did not like the fact that Damien and not one of our own had saved Lilith and he really didn’t like how he casually played with her hair like he had the right to do whatever he wanted.

 

            Feeling the tension starting to build in the air between the two I quickly jumped in, I placed myself protectively between Damien and Nicholas unsure who I should be more worried about.

 

            “Nicholas, this is Damien, Damien, Nicholas.” I stated calmly as if it was an ordinary thing to do, “Damien is a vampire I met a few moons back.”

 

            “Pleasure to meet you…Nicholas.” Damien stated in a smooth cool manner, but I could hear the threat lying underneath, he was practically challenging Nicholas to start something.

 

            Nicholas stayed silent not feeling very welcoming to the new comer and strode up to Lilith taking her by the hand and pulling her him protectively. Damien did not fight the removal of his entertainment instead just looked a little disappointed, the disappointment did not last long on his face. His face turned more serious and unreadable in an instant when he turned to me.

 

            “Why did the blood orcs attack your village, they don’t usually travel this far north?” He asked in an unreadable voice. He had finally brought his full attention on me and was examining my body from head to toe as he spoke, “Are you three the only ones left?”

 

            “Yes, we are the only ones who survived sadly…and you are right it is strange for blood orcs to come this far north.” I paused giving thought to whom they would possibly be after, with defeat I explained, “And no, I can’t think of anyone the orcs would be after, everyone was killed…, but us three.”

 

             A spark of interest showed in his eyes as he stated coyly, “What about you? You are different from everyone at your village aren’t you?” He asked now examining my companions. He was right I was not like anyone at our village, but why would anyone be after me?

 

            “To my knowledge I have no enemies, I have never even gone anywhere past this forest before.” I replied lamely. I felt a little embarrassed that I had no real knowledge of other places, but also intrigued at his suggestion of the orcs being after me.

 

            “How do you know so much? How do we know you didn’t send those orcs? You’re a vampire; you have the power of compulsion. You could have sent them because you wanted to torcher Tear, to hurt her badly before you turned on her and drank her dry.” Shouted Nicholas accusingly.

 

            Nicholas had a point Damien could have very well sent those orcs, vampires where deceptive and have been known to torcher their victims by taking out their loved ones in the most tragic ways.

 

            “I have no reason to mess with your little village, and Tears differences are clearly visible anyone could see that.” He stated irritated with the claims had Nicholas stated.

 

            This time before Nicholas jumped in to say more I spoke up. “But you said before I left to be careful, Tear demonic creatures like to crush joyous moments in the lives of the living and good souled.” I recalled.

 

Damien flinched having his own words thrown back at him. He frowned “Those words were not meant in a sinister way I assure you...” He paused giving thought to his next set of words, “It was because I wanted you to be safe… I felt something was wrong tonight and that is why I came to this clearing in the first place. I had hopes I would find you hear so that I could warn you. I saw the blood orcs earlier and that’s what had made me worry, but I had no idea that they would attack your village.” He said earnestly.

 

            Releasing my anger some I sighed out loud. I believed him, I shouldn’t because he was a vampire after all, but something told me he was telling the truth. I looked back at Nicholas who appeared to be still fuming clearly not buying Damien’s story. I shook my head silently at Nicholas, he didn’t comply at first, but slowly relaxed a little. I looked back at Damien thoughtfully. Why would he be concerned about me? I was just about to say something when an arrow came wising by my face and struck the tree behind Damien.

 

            “S**t…”Damien muttered to himself so low that it was nearly inaudible.

 

I turned around to see where the source of the arrow had come from. A human boy emerged from behind the trees and into the clearing. The boy was wearing light green trench coat, tall leather boots, and a light green hat. He had dirty blond hair and carried a cross bow in his hand. I stared at the boy confused on who he was and then it hit me. I looked back at Damien knowingly; this was the boy from his story, the one who killed his own cousin because Damien had turned him into one of the damned. Damien seeing my realization nodded to confirm it.

 

“Damien, so sorry I’m afraid I missed.” The boy stated pausing taking notice of the three of us, “Ah, so you have been taking to eating elves now instead of humans? That’s unexpected, even from you.”

 

“Jasper, long time, I’ve grown to miss our little meetings like this, but I’m afraid this is poor timing.” Damien stated in a cool taunting manner.

 

“Oh, my apologize for interrupting your little dinner party” Jasper snickered, “However, I am afraid we have some unfinished business to attend I guess you will have to have elf blood later.”

           

“Elf, blood later huh, well, I’m afraid I am a man of little patience” Damien stated. Then out of nowhere Damien shot out a giant fire ball that created a wall between us and Jasper. He then grabbed my arm and began pulling me away from the area. Nicholas and Lilith followed suite unsure of what was going on.

 

            I had heard that some vampires could use magic, but only the ones who were born and not created. Only pure blooded vampires could be born, and the magic they are born with was always the type of magic that was considered dark magic, fire, death bringing, ice, life draining, control of the dead and so on. Clearly Damien had to be born a vampire and he had the power of fire. I was a little surprised, by this, I had the knowledge of some vampires being able to use magic it always seemed so, so, unreal since I had always thought of magic being something connected by life.  Then again vampires were neither dead nor alive so I suppose they could be an acceptation to that.

 

            I snapped out of my thoughts when I realized we were well beyond the forest, beyond home, beyond the places I know. I tried to stop, but Damien was too strong and I only caused myself to fall forward. I braced myself for the fall that would come, but it didn’t. I felt a cold arm wrap around my waist supporting me. I looked up to see Damien frowning down at me. I was stunned that he had caught me and now even seemed concerned.

 

            “We have to keep moving, Jasper won’t be held back by that fire for long.” He stated frowning deeper and all of that concern was gone in an instant as the other two caught up to us.

 

            “Hey! If you think we are going to just let you run off with Tear for a snack your sadly mistaken buddy!” Yelled Nicholas defiantly. He looked ready to pounce on Damien and fight with everything he had in order to rescue me.

 

            “I do not attend to eat Tear I assure you,” He said frowning again, “but we must keep moving or that guy, Jasper will catch up to us and believe me you do not want that. He will try to kill not only me, but all of you as well, since you were seen with me. He will assume I have bitten you or was going to bite you and there for he will kill you thinking that you are a potential threat.”

 

            It was obvious Nicholas didn’t like the thought of joining sides with a vampire, but he understood the reasoning. I stared at Nicholas pleadingly, Damien knew this guy better than any of us and if he thinks he would try and kill us too I believed him. Nicholas eventually gave in to my silent please. “Fine, lead the way, but at least tell us where we are going.” Nicholas stated defeated.

 

            A small smile of victory rose on Damien’s face seeing his win over Nicholas. “We will be returning to my manner of course,” Damien stated in a matter of fact way as if it were not even a question in the first place. “Once there we can rest and talk further on what has happened tonight, it is safe there.” He stated plainly.

 

            Nicholas nodded and both him and Lilith followed suite as Damien began to take off again this time slowing down a bit for the rest of us. He still had a hold of my arm as we crossed the rough terrain. We were passing through what I thought was Whistle field, hear the land was only covered in tall grass; it was a bare plain that not much lived in. Most of the grass was dead or dying, and it all felt very lifeless. Elves did not come here, because it was like a fauna graveyard. Nothing here lived, or at least not for long, the only thing that would grow was the tall grass and even that died shortly after it reached maturity.

 

            “Where do you live?” I asked curiously, breaking the silence that fell upon our group.

           

            Damien looked back at me still keeping pace, “I live just outside Crimson City, in Thorn Valley.”

 

            “Crimson City?” I heard that Crimson city was a city filled with vampires, werewolves, witches, and even some dark elves of course it also had its fair share of human residence too. I shouldn’t have been shocked that he would live in such a place he after all was a vampire.

 

            He simply nodded at my shock and began to pick up pace a little assuming the conversation was over. We were almost out of the Whistle field now and we could see the start of the tall pointed pillars of Thorn Valley. The place was named Thorn Valley because of the Thorn like similarity that the pillars had. We took caution as we began the journey through the valley. The valley was known for its brutal thugs that stocked the roads leading to the city.

 

            “Can we slow down yet?” Huffed an exhausted Lilith.

 

            Our group stopped and looked back at the red faced red haired girl. Lilith unlike Nicholas and I wasn’t used to this much exercise. Though its true elves have better stamina then most, any elf that was her age and wasn’t used to such a long none stop journey at such a fast pace would be tired. I could see Lilith was at the end of her ropes and couldn’t keep this fast pace any more. I looked back at Damien with a pleading expression.

 

“We have made it very far, that man is only human it would take him much longer to make the kind of ground we have, plus we are almost to the city.” I said with hopes.

 

            Damien studied me and then Lilith, he clearly didn’t seem pleased with this new revelation, but sir came to our request any way. With a sigh he nodded and began to head toward the city again, he still didn’t walk exactly, but he did slow down a lot from the pace we were going.

 

            Damien stopped our group abruptly just as the city gates came into view. He held out his arm to halt us as he spoke, “Hold on, were not alone…”

 

Crack! A sudden noise startled our little group, well all of us, but Damien. He stayed calm and collected as a tall less slender man emerged from behind a pillar. He laughed to himself in a deep gruntful way “Still as perceptive as ever Crow…” crackled the man.

 

“And I’m still stronger than you ever will be.” Stated Damien in a deep eerie warning tone that made me shiver.

 

With that the man backed down with a scowl on his face. “One day, one day I will catch you when you’re off guard, and when that day comes we will see who is stronger then.”

 

            We hurried past the man and reached the city with no further incidents thankfully. I feel we had had enough of them for the day any way. I felt strange in the city since Lilith, Nicholas and I did look a bit different, we had longer ears than humans, not incredibly longer but long enough to notice, not to mention our clothing. I could feel people staring as we walked in, Damien seemed to notice that there were a lot of eyes on us as well. He quickly brought us into a clothing store. He handed us some human money and told us to find something to wear, and to make sure to find a hat of sorts to cover our ears. Nicholas wasn’t thrilled with shopping, but he obliged, on the opposite Lilith seemed more than delighted. She ran through the aisle looking at each rack. She grabbed tons of cloths and followed a woman to where she could try them on at. I felt a little over whelmed, I had no idea what to get. I began very uncertainly fingering through some cloths.

 

            “Hi, do you need any assistance?” A perky blond sales woman asked me.

 

            “Umm, well…” I felt a little embarrassed I had no idea what I was exactly looking for so decided to take the women’s help and nodded. “I’m trying to finds some new cloths, however, I’m not exactly sure what to get..”

 

            The women smiled at me and seemed a little too excited to help, she quickly began running here and there through the store grabbing various items off shelves and racks. She came back to me with an arm full of outfits and suggested I try them on. I nodded in agreement heading toward the dressing room with her following behind.

 

            The first outfit was a very flashy one, it was a shiny golden dress that had a V cut neck line that showed off my breasts, the dress came down to my ankles and had a slit on one side exposing my feminine legs. It wasn’t something I would have normally picked for myself, but I had to admit it did look good. The dress showed off my unusual curvy body shape for an elf, the dress did in deed do my figure good, but it might be a little too flashy to wear around town.

 

            “How’s the first one?” Came the sales women from outside.

 

            A little reluctantly I stepped outside of the changing area to where she was standing to show off the dress. She seemed to approve of it and nodded as I turned for her. She gave me a grin and a thumbs up.

 

            “It looks astounding on you!” She cheered.

 

            “Astounding indeed.” Came a cool voice from behind her. Damien walked up beside the sales women checking me from head to toe and nodding with approvement. He couldn’t seem to let his eyes linger a bit too long, and I quickly began to feel embarrassed. I hurried back to the dressing room and tried on the next outfit being careful to set the dress aside, who knows I might want it for later on…

 

 The next outfit was more professional, it was black pencil skirt with a blue blouse and black jacket. I looked nice in the outfit but the professionalness of it didn’t quite suit me. Again like I did before I walked outside and modeled the outfit again I received smiles, but I could tell this one wasn’t as impressive as the last. Darien didn’t comment on this one either he only nodded.

 

I tried on the third and final outfit she gave me it was more casual, still not as casual as I would like, but better than the rest of what was given to me. It was a pair of blue jeans that did great for showing off my butt and a red corset that fit snugly to my frame. I wouldn’t normally pick something like this out, but I liked the edge it seemed to give me, I still needed to find a hat to match though. I walked out to show the outfit I was wearing and got approving smiles once more and this time Damien looked a little stunned at the outfit not like the first one, but in a different way, not a bad way though. I decided right then and there that would be the outfit I got along with the dress. Damien quickly gained back his cool composure and nodded at the outfit like he did the other one.

 

“Now all you need is a hat.” Damien stated in a matter of fact way. I changed out of the cloths and back into my own, by the time I got out of the changing room the girl who had been assisting me was already, ready with a hat to match perfectly with the outfit. It was black hat that was flat on the top and slightly rounded, similar to the hats worn by human military personnel.  I smiled at the girl and took the hat and began toward the check out. The others had already bought their things and had changed into them by the time I got through the line. Lilith was in a white fluffy shirt that floated away from her body and a pink skirt with black leggings underneath. She completed the outfit with a pink berre to match the skirt. Nicholas had on some plain blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt. He had on a black baseball cap with some sort of team logo on it to complete the look.

 

“What did you buy Tear?” Asked Lilith curiously, before I could stop her she snatched my bag of goods from my hands. She pulled out the golden dress and smiled “Ooo, fancy.” She grinned. I snatched it away from her quickly.

 

“T-t-that’s for if I need it later…” I stated lamely as I began to feel my face flush. I rushed off to the changing room to change into my more casual outfit. When I emerged the others seemed shocked and pleased at the same time with my outfit choice. We began to exit the store together now that we all had on our new outfits.

 

“It does look stunning on you that dress,” Whispered Damien coyly in my ear as we exited the clothing store, “I hope you will need to wear it soon.”

 

I felt my face begin to illuminate with embarrassment once more and tried to calm myself, after all what does he care? He is a vampire after all, they didn’t care about anyone or anything…or did they?

 

Our group didn’t receive as many gawking eyes now due to our now fashionable wardrobe and we proceeded through the bustling city in peace. The city was large and surprisingly not as gloomy or noticeably violent as I had thought it would be. There were lots of people strolling through the streets and loud cars roaming the roads, I had never once seen a car up to this point. They amazed me, the vehicles did not possess a heartbeat and yet they were alive.

 

I was fascinated by the strange mechanical creations. I watched them as they whizzed by us with ease. I couldn’t help, but be in awe of them, to elves these were things of fairy tale. I wanted to ride in one, to touch one, I wanted to know they were real. It was amazing how the rest of the group did not seem to find them so fascinating. Had they seen a vehicle before? Surely only Damien has, but the others? No.

 

I was snapped out of my daze when Damien tapped me on the shoulder. “You guys must be hungry right?” He asked looking back at the rest of the group.

 

We all shared a moment’s glance with each other then nodded in agreement. It had been a long day and none of us got to eat any of the food gathered for the festival. I didn’t realize myself just how hungry I was until Damien mentioned it.

 

“There is a place not too far from here.” Stated Damien in a laze fair attitude, “A lot of different races go there to eat, humans don’t really know about it.” He paused and looked around and then took an abrupt left leading us down an ally. “Just when we go in there try not to start anything... some people tend to be a bit touchy.” With that final warning he pressed a brick in on a side of an old building. It took only a few moments for the bricks beside it to shift. The bricks sunk down into the building and shifted slowly to the right side. It was like something you would here about in old castles, secret tunnels and passage ways. Once the door fully opened Damien looked back at our group and becond us into the building. All of us being dumb founded by what we saw simply nodded and obliged.

 

“Hey Tear, how do you know he isn’t just taking us down to his vampire layer to butter us up and serve us to his friends on a silver platter?” Whispered Nicholas in to my ear being careful so that Damien did not over hear him. Nicholas still did not trust Damien and I didn’t blame him for that either. We were raised to be wary of vampires and other non-holy creatures. Damien being a vampire was no exception to that. It went against everything we were taught by following him here to the city. Our people were to never leave the forest; we were also never to talk or even associate with such dark creatures. However to Nicholas’s dismay we were here, and we had no other choice, but to trust what Damien said was true. We had to trust that he wasn’t leading us to our doom.

 

I tried to hide my own doubt from my voice, “He hasn’t betrayed us thus far right?” I said as convincing as I could. I trusted Damien for the most part, but Nicholas did have a point. Damien was still a vampire and vampires were well known for their deception.

 

We decinded cautiously down into the dark unknown. Our group except for the exception of Damien had no idea what lied ahead of us. This could very well be our grave, or then again Damien could be telling the truth…He wouldn’t betray us now right? Then again he did say Elf, blood later huh, well, I’m afraid I am a man of little patience did he really mean he was going to snack on us later? He was only joking right?

 

The brick entrance crept close with a thud behind us as the little light we had vanished. What little hope of escape we had now was gone if Damien was leading us to our doom, we would have no escape and no hope for survival.

Author's Note

Raw, unedited like all of this book on here let me know what you think