Quest

Chapter 3 - A Past Revealed

It had been almost a week since moontime. Nearly too long, Llmalda reflected as she crouched on rocky ledge about a mile down the road from the Silver Candle. It was probably a bit too close, but she didn’t have time to get any further. She listened carefully to the approaching footsteps. One person, she sniffed the air, probably an ordinary Norn. Perfect. She dropped silently to the ground and leant against the rock face. The footsteps got louder and Llmalda readied herself. A Norn, average height, brown fur and breeches, came round the corner. Llmalda smiled and began to walk towards him. The Norn stared at her in mild shock. Llmalda knew she was beautiful, and this always worked to her advantage against male prey. The Norn's face was slightly contorted in a mixture of fear and awe, and he almost seemed paralyzed. Llmalda knew the reaction; causing it was a skill she'd learnt early in life. Vampires had an ability to confuse and disorientate ordinary Norns, reducing their resistance. She hadn't quite worked out how she did it, but it was very useful. Her gaze centered on the Norn's neck and she felt the bloodlust rise, a deep, pounding desire. Her lips curled back, exposing her fangs as she placed her hands on the sides of the Norn's slightly shaking head. She leaned forwards, and suddenly her gaze locked with the Norn's. She saw the terror in his eyes and suddenly an image of Aven flashed up in her mind, and suddenly a wave of confusion hit her. Her fingers slipped, the charm breaking as she let go. The Norn screamed and tore himself from her grip, fleeing down the lane.
Llmalda shivered as the bloodlust unwound, flooding her with an almost uncontrollable rage. She recognized the feeling and fought to control it. When the bloodlust broke, when the primal fury hit you, that was when a vampire could lose all control. Her vision spun and she struggled to stop the mist from rising around the edges. You had to take the blood, once the desire had risen you had to complete it, you had to quell the craving. She knew what would happen if she didn't, she had seen many of her kind succumb to the fire, taking to a blood-rage to fulfill their need. She couldn't afford to lose control, couldn't let herself slip for an instant. Once the bloodlust unwound it became nearly impossible to press down the fury without blood. Her fingers clenched, her breathing almost a snarl. Frantically her fading vision scanned the area for anything... For a second she saw it, then her head jerked round again, her stare hitting the corner the Norn had vanished round. She could probably catch him, but... No! Not like this, not this way, she had to... She tugged herself towards the side of the road, blinking away the mists, desperately trying to focus...

Aven closed the door to his room and leaned against it, sighing. He had had to leave the main inn; the constant stares were getting on his nerves. There weren't many elves around here, and the news of his encounter with the werewolves had spread. He flexed his arm, noting that even the stiffness was beginning to subside now. Elves healed fast anyway, and the doctor had made him up a tub of some sort of blue ointment. Aven had used half of it; the rest was lying at the bottom of his bag. It would probably be useful to have around.
He flopped backward on the bed and stared at the roof. He'd got to leave soon; this wasn't getting him anywhere. He wondered where Llmalda was, she hadn't turned up in the morning and it was a few hours since sundown. It had obviously been a relief to Jace Neal that she wasn't there; Aven could see the fear in his face when she was in the building. Briefly, he wondered if Jace had guessed what she was.
There was a dull, echoing thud from downstairs. Aven rolled over, that was probably the bar across the door. Bar, well, half a tree-trunk really. It was made to the same standards as the shutters and bars on the windows and looked to be able to stop a battering ram. Odd, he was almost certain it had been dropped for tonight.
He listened carefully, and was surprised to hear muffled shouting. He was about to head down again to find out what the hell was happening when heavy rattling at the window made him jump, and automatically reach towards his boot. He was about to withdraw the silver dagger that he kept there, when a familiar voice floated through the crack between the shutters.
"Aven! Aven, I know you're in there. Let me in!"
Aven hurried over to the window, unbarred it and carefully eased the shutters open. Llmalda was clinging to the frame outside. Aven stared at her.
"What..?"
"Grab your bag, you have to get out of here!"
"Why?"
"They know about me! What I am!"
Aven stared at her.
"How?" He hissed.
"I'll tell you, when we're away from here."
Aven hesitated.
"Why should I come with you?"
"Think about it elf! They know I'm a vampire, and that you're a friend of mine! I've seen mobs before, they very rarely care who they get, and if they can't find me I guarantee they'll start on you!"
Aven hesitated, then dodged back into the room. His gaze hit the heavy bar on the door and he darted across to it, slamming it down. He strapped his quiver across his back and swung the bag onto his shoulder. Llmalda beckoned to him.
"Come on!"
Aven pulled himself up and out onto the ledge outside the window. Llmalda started to run along the ledge, something only about the width of a hand. Aven hurried after her, one hand gripping the roof as he did so. There was the sound of someone shouting from below them, and Aven caught a glimpse of torches flaring in the darkness. Llmalda reached the end of the ledge and jumped down. Aven carefully lowered himself onto the roof of the shed Llmalda had dropped onto and jumped off. She grabbed his arm. "This way, they'll never follow us into the woods."
Aven stared at her in shock.
"I wouldn't blame them! This is werewolf country!"
"I know that. They'll be looking for me now, and probably you as well."
Aven was about to reply when there was a shout from behind them.
"There she is!"
Aven half-turned and saw a Norn outlined in the light of a doorway. He turned to Llmalda, and saw with horror the red smear around her mouth, her fangs protruding over her lips. She grabbed his arm, her grip like iron and dragged him after her as she fled towards the forest. Aven stumbled to keep up with her as they hurtled across the forest floor, his feet occasionally catching on sticking-out tree roots. Gradually, Llmalda slowed down, and leaned against a tree. She caught his gaze.
"What?"
Aven hesitantly motioned to her chin. Llmalda's hand flew up to her mouth and she wiped the blood away. It hit Aven that he was unconsciously reaching towards his bag and he forced his breathing to settle.
"You... You actually..?"
"A cow,"; Llmalda snapped and looked up at the sky.
"Moon's up, we should get higher."
"Higher?"
"Up. Wolves have less chance of chasing you through branches."
Aven hesitated for a second, then followed as Llmalda began to pull herself into the lower branches of a nearby tree. There didn’t seem to be a lot of choice.

Aven re-arranged himself in the forked gap between two upward-jutting branches, wedging himself into a secure, if slightly uncomfortable position. They'd been moving for several hours now, until Llmalda had decided they were far enough away from the inn to be safe. Aven was glad of the chance to sleep, but he found he was unable to keep his eyes closed. It wasn't the strange position he was lying in, he'd been in worse before, but a single thought that had been going round and round in his mind. He had to know.
Llmalda was sitting slightly hunched on the other end of the wide branch, staring up into the sky. Aven took a deep breath.
"Llmalda?"
"Yes?"
"Before we left... At the inn? There was some sort of panic downstairs and I was wondering if... Did you... Well... Bite someone?"
Llmalda slowly turned to face him. She was silent for a second.
"I... I meant to."
Aven blinked, feeling a shot of revulsion hit him.
"You bit someone?"
"I'm a vampire Aven, it's what I do! But no, I didn't bite him. I meant to but..." Llmalda trailed off. She seemed to be struggling with something internally.
"Something stopped me. Don't ask me what happened because I don't know."
"So you bit a cow?"
Llmalda's gaze pinned him to the spot, suddenly fierce.
"Of course I did! I had to do something!" Seeing the confusion on his face, her expression softened. "You don't really know much about vampires do you?"
"What do you mean?"
"If... If we start to feed, but... Well, don't break the skin, the bloodlust unwinds. It's a terrible thing for a vampire to do, lose a quarry, but worse than that... If the bloodlust breaks we fly into a kind of rage, an unstoppable fury. We need to quell the fury, sate the desire, or we can lose control. That's why we need blood, not exclusively for food but to keep the bloodlust down. A werewolf may be a vicious beast at moontime, but that's nothing compared to the monster any vampire can become if the bloodlust breaks. Even me."
There was silence for a second. Aven stared at her.
"What is bloodlust?"
Llmalda hesitated.
"Well, you know when you're really thirsty? Not just slightly, absolutely dry. You know the anticipation you get, just before the liquid passes your lips?"
"Yeah...";
"Increase the intensity by a thousand, add some deeply buried murderous intent, soak in the mad fury of battle and you'll still only have a slight idea of what bloodlust is."

Llmalda watched the expression of shock spread across Aven's face, and wondered if it would have been a better idea not to tell him. Then again, he did deserve an explanation, coming face-to-face with a bloodstained vampire would be enough to scare the hell out of anyone. She glanced at the reddish stains on her fingers. She'd been lucky that cow had been there, otherwise... She didn't like to think what could have happened to her. When the bloodlust unwound, she needed almost twice the amount of blood she'd normally take simply to quell the fury. Too little and the rage would leave her totally drained, but taking too little was never the problem. In a fury, a vampire couldn't tell how much they were taking, and it was too easy to leave a victim empty. Her family had never bothered about that sort of thing, but Llmalda had found that it was stupid to kill the prey. Deaths made other Norns even more nervous than a slight attack, and while terror was often useful, it easily changed to anger with time. That was what caused the mobs, and even a vampire could be hard pressed to deal with a large number of furious Norns.
"Llmalda?"
Llmalda blinked away her thoughts at Aven's voice.
"Yes?"
"Do..." He hesitated, then continued, "Have you ever heard of a place called Ferngrove?"
Llmalda frowned, tossing the name around in her mind for a second.
"No. Where is it?"
"Was... Was," Aven's voice took on a pained note, "It was a small settlement up near Brellin. Norns and a few elves."
An idea hit Llmalda.
"Your home?"
Aven swallowed hard and nodded.
"It was. I grew up there. My father was huntsman for the village, he taught me how to use my bow. He was a brilliant shot, could split a willow wand from 400 feet." Aven trailed off, and Llmalda was surprised to see a tear glisten in his eye. He swallowed again.
"It was nearly a year ago now. I was out on a hunting expedition, and when I got back" There was nothing left. Hardly even rubble, just a pile of smoking ash and rock. My family, my friends, my home, everyone I'd ever known, just... Gone."
Llmalda placed a hand on Aven's shoulder, trying to think of something to say. Vampires tended not to be good at empathy. Aven looked up at her, his eyes burning.
"I swore revenge that day. That's why I'm here, I want to find whoever was responsible for the destruction of my life."
Llmalda held his gaze.
";I... I'm sorry..." She knew the words were empty. Aven shrugged.
"Don't be. It's nothing to do with you."
"It could be. Where are you headed?"
Aven clenched his fists.
"I don't know, I don't know what I'm doing! After I left, the only idea I had was find the bastard responsible, avenge my family. But I don't know what to do! You saw what happened with the pack, if you hadn't been there..."
"But I was. I... I can continue to be if you like."
Aven stared up at her, surprise flashing across his face.
"You want to come with me?"
Llmalda smiled.
"I wasn't lying when I said I had no friends. What is there for me here? I'm a lone vampire; you saw what happened at the inn when they found out what I was. And I know much more about this part of the world than you. Will you accept my help?"
Aven hesitated again, then matched her gaze and grinned.
"Sure."

Chapter 2

Chapter 4