Chapter 2: Kindred Spirits

  Ana was the happiest she had ever been. She had met and been with the love of her life for about 10 years now. They had been married for a few years now and were finally having a child together! She would be a mother, and Murak would be the father. If it were a girl, they would name it Magdalene after Murak’s mother. If it were a boy, it would be named Sevagoth, after Ana’s grandfather Edingoth. The doctor assured her that the baby was due any day now. But the more she waited, the less she felt like she could wait to meet her child.

  Ana had been quite concerned that she would never have children. She had been told for decades that she was unmarriable, that she was cursed. She had a personality and past that made it hard for her to live like everyone else. As such, she was a shut-in. She would leave sometimes at night to enjoy the peace of the forest. She was originally born in Iridith, but her family moved to Thamar a few years after she was born. She enjoyed a fairly comfortable life, but nothing perfect. Her mother died of illness when Ana was about 20 years old. Her father fell ill due to grief, and followed a few years later. Ana was alone and had no one and nowhere to go. She wandered for a few years, taking odd jobs here and there as she could. Sometimes she used her magic to heal the sick, taking food and board as payment. Other times, she was protecting a merchant, taking the trip as her payment. It was far from a comfortable life, but it wasn’t awful. Afterall, at least she was alive and able to carry on.

  After almost 100 years, she had found a way to make a decent living. As an adventurer, healers were somewhat rare. Most healers worked at temples and clinics, which were much safer and more consistent than adventuring contracts. Since she could use both healing and offense spells, she quickly found her place as a freelance adventurer, joining parties when the offer and coin were good enough. After wandering the nations, she decided to settle down in a small town outside the capital of Typhon. The years flew by, and Ana enjoyed her ‘youth’. Until that day, that is. She got a request from the adventurers guild to help a young group of new adventurers with their promotion quest. Since it was a direct request from the guild, the money was good, and it wouldn’t hurt to get friendly with another party that she might need a favor from later on. So she accepted.

  A few days passed, and she met with the young party to go over the details of the quest. A small farming village had been reporting instances of crops and livestock being destroyed. The party was to go to the village, find out what was happening, and stop it if possible. If help was needed, the guild would be on standby. After a few days of travel, the party arrived at the village. With only 150 people living there, it was a cute and quaint place. Everyone was either a farmer or a rancher, and there were many more cattle and sheep than people. But something felt off to Ana. She didn’t know why, but for a village that had sent reports of livestock and crops being destroyed and stolen, they were relatively unbothered. As the party tried to gather information, most people were sharing the sentiment of not knowing what they were talking about. “No crops being trampled here” or “all the cattle are accounted for”. They were getting nowhere real fast, and Ana’s anxiety was only growing by the day. What’s wrong with these people? They sent a request for help, and yet they say they don’t need any? What is going on here?

  After a few days of nothing, the party was set to return to the guild and report their findings. Perhaps it was a test to see if they were willing to know when to turn back. Maybe it was a test to see if they were willing to keep asking even when getting turned down. Either way, they were wasting their time staying here any longer. The next morning, they would leave and report to the guild. But for tonight, they would rest and relax. As the night crept on, Ana felt something in the pit of her stomach. Maybe it was fear. Maybe it was anxiety. Maybe it was frustration at the guild; she could have done 1-2 other quests by now and made just as much gold. As she lay in bed mulling these thoughts over, she heard something. It sounded like footsteps; maybe one of the other party members was going for some water. Nothing to be worried about. After a few minutes, she heard an audible pop noise, followed by a thud. What are they doing? Don’t they know we are leaving first thing tomorrow morning? As she got up to go chastise the young adventurer, she stepped in something cold. Damn it, you couldn’t even wait to open the booze until you were in your own damn room? She flung the door open in a fit and turned towards the next room. The door was already wide open, and the young man was lying on the floor in his doorway. As Ana leaned down to yell at him, she froze. Where is his head? A chilling realization sank in. I’m not standing in booze, am I? Pooling around the young man was his own blood, and about 2 feet away was his head.

  Ana froze, slowly processing the scene in front of her. He may have been new, but he was fairly skilled. Another set of footprints was in the blood, leading off towards the other rooms. More open doors, more dead adventurers. What the fuck is going on here? She began to panic and walk backwards out of the room until she bumped into something. As she turned around, she was face-to-face with one of the innkeepers.

  “Oh dear, what seems to be the problem, sweetie?” The older woman asked.

  “What’s the problem? My party members are all dead! How did this happen?!” Ana replied, voice cracking from panic. It was then that Ana saw the blood on the woman’s apron. The blood on her hands. The blood around and in her mouth.

  “That’s simple, sweetie. I was a little peckish. Figured I might as well have a midnight snack.” The women respond, mouth twisting wickedly. “And now I think I’ll enjoy you!” The old woman lunged towards Ana, mouth agape, and a horrid screech coming out as she started to swing her arms. Before Ana could react, a cold and calculated voice interrupted, “Kill yourself.” Suddenly, the woman stopped. She simply lifted her hands to her face and snapped her own neck. The woman fell lifeless in front of a paralyzed Ana, still reeling from what she had seen.

  “It’s been some time, hasn’t it, my love?” The cold voice called out again. A tall, thin man stepped around the corner into Ana’s view. As he stepped closer, Ana was able to catch a glimpse. Maybe 6’5”, extremely well dressed, with long platinum blonde hair down to his waist. Poking through the hair were elven ears, decorated with piercings.

  “Who are you? What have you done to them?!” Ana shouted, trying not to stay frozen in fear.

  “Oh, that hurts. You don’t recognize me? Has it truly been so long, my dear Sarah?” The man said, feigning offense and disappointment. “I would have come visit you sooner, but you truly are a hard soul to find. But fear not, I prefer to chase my prey.” Ana didn’t know how to respond. Who the fuck is this Sarah person??? Ana tried backing up to put distance between them, but the man only quickened his pace.

  “I don’t know who this Sarah is, or what she did to you, but I am not her!” Ana yelled, backing through an open doorway, stepping through the puddle of blood that pooled there.

  “Oh my dear, you misunderstand me. You aren’t Sarah, at least not yet. But you will be, when I get done with you.” The man said coldly.

  As the man spoke and approached Ana, the moon from the window lit up his face. Hollow eyes, pale skin, sunken cheeks. It only now dawned on Ana. This thing is a Vampire. That woman must have been a thrall.

  “Get away from me, you monster!” She screamed while igniting fire in her right hand, preparing to throw a spell. The man simply looked amused by this display, continuing to slowly saunter towards Ana.

  “Oh, love, petty tricks like that won't work on me. You should remember that.” The man said, waving his hand and countering the spell that Ana was preparing. Ana looked down, fear filling her heart. Even weak vampires are quite adept at magic, with the more powerful vampires being comparable to the archmages who taught magic to nobles. While she was strong, she didn’t stand a chance in a one-on-one fight. However, she didn’t need to fight this thing; she just had to run away and alert the guild as to what was happening. The standby team should be more than enough to handle this bastard! And then an idea hit her.

  Elves were a race closely connected to the realm itself. Often, elves were born with a high capacity for magic, as well as natural talents for controlling the magic in the world around them. The elves had several unique talents that were reserved for them, and all of them were magic-oriented. Ana was lucky enough to be born with 2 of those unique skills, false casting and dual casting. False casting allowed the caster to ‘cast’ one spell while materializing another. For example, Ana could visually ‘cast’ a healing spell, and a combat spell such as fireball would materialize instead. Dual casting allowed her to cast 2 spells from the same initial channel. That meant that for each cast of a fireball, 2 fireballs would be summoned. The 2 talents had an interesting synergy that she had been practising ever since becoming an adventurer. If she started a dual cast, both casts could become false. If she started to channel a dual fireball, one could become a lightning bolt, and the other could summon an elemental to fight for her. Her idea was simple, and yet there was no guarantee it would work. She would start a longer channel spell, such as a teleportation spell. Since the channel would be long, there would be no need for the vampire to counter it. She could then change it to be a dual false cast, one fireball to blow open the wall, and the other a sun flare to blind and daze the bastard. There was a low chance it would work; after all, the vampire could easily counter her channel, and she would be dead in the water. But if he is as arrogant as he seems, it might just work. She began to channel her ‘teleportation’ spell. The vampire simply laughed.

  “Didn’t you already learn this? Magic is of no use to you in my domain. Especially one that takes so long to channel. Do you think I’d just let you—” His words were cut off as Ana suddenly activated her false cast. The sun flare pulsed from her hand, causing the vampire to scream out in pain as his flesh began to sizzle in the presence of sunlight. Ana quickly threw the fireball at the outside wall, blowing a massive hole in it.

  The recoil sent the vampire into the opposite wall, still screaming in pain as the sunlight and fire ate at his flesh. Ana had part of her gown burnt off by the blast, but rushed and jumped through the hole in the wall. She fell to ground level, trying to soften the impact by rolling. She sprained her wrist when landing, but she was otherwise fine. She quickly oriented herself and rushed off to the north, where the standby team would be waiting about a mile outside the village.

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  “GET THAT BITCH!” The vampire screamed from within the building. Several of the villagers were waiting in the shadows, lashing out at her as she ran. One of them grabbed Ana and tore into her neck with her wicked fangs. As Ana screamed in pain, she quickly cast another spell, blue light swirling around her fist. She punched into the stomach of the thrall, sending it flying with a hole in its chest the size of a watermelon. The thrall's fangs ripped a chunk out of Ana’s neck as it flew, making Ana scream in pain once more. She took a few more steps before sending 2 more fireballs into the alley, one in front and one behind her. The thralls screamed in pain and writhed on the ground as she ran out of the village and down the road.

  The vampire screamed in anger, his words and cries ringing in Ana’s ears as she ran as fast as she could. Within a few minutes, the standby team came into view. A team of 20 highly skilled adventurers stood at attention as they heard her calling for help. They quickly ran to meet her, got a grasp of the situation at hand, and quickly rushed towards the village to put the monster down. Ana began to faint from exhaustion and the adrenaline crash, all on top of the wound leaking blood down her neck. She heard the medic’s voice as she blacked out and hit the floor.

  A few days later, Ana woke up in a haze, her head screaming in pain. She slowly sat up, muscles and bones screaming in protest. She was in a room she had been in before, the medical ward at the guild. As she sat and tried to remember what had transpired, she heard voices coming down the hall. There was a soft knock on the door, followed by the doctor entering her room. After rounds of questions and answers, the doctor broke the news.

  “You are quite lucky, miss. When someone is bitten by a vampire's thrall, one of two things happens. One, the person feasts on blood and becomes a thrall, controlled completely by the vampire. Or two, the person resists and is killed by the vampire or their thralls as being unworthy. You, however, got the third option. You were bitten, got away, and didn’t feast on blood for 3 days. Oh, and you are still alive.” The doctor said, trying to establish a silver lining.

  “How is that good news? What happens then?” She yelled, slowly recovering from her daze at the news.

  “Oh, right! When that happens, the person bitten becomes a lesser vampire. Some call it minor vampirism, some call it dhampirism. Either way, you are no one's thrall.” The doctor rushed to answer, hands raised to calm her. Ana stared at the doctor in complete shock. Lesser vampirism? The fuck does that mean? Seeing her confusion, the doctor continued, “Essentially, you have a weakened form of vampirism. You will be faster and stronger than a normal human, but not to the extent of a true vampire. Your magic capacity will increase, but again to a lesser extent. But the biggest difference is that you don’t require or even crave blood. You also don’t have to worry about going outside in the sun; you won’t burn away like a true vampire. You heal faster, you recover your magic faster, and you may even be able to walk on walls and ceilings. On a technicality, you are a vampire. But in every other way, you are still a normal elf. You got lucky, very, very lucky.”

  Decades had passed after that incident. She had slowly come to terms with the new reality of things. Granted, she had tried to take her own life several times before she got to that point. But now, she was okay. She was her, and that was fine. Nothing could change that, and nothing needed to change that. She lived a secluded lifestyle, only emerging to take on quests when she needed money for food or rent. She would cover her face to hide the fangs, and she wore clothes to hide the large scar on her neck. She was fine with this way of life. She would sometimes go into the forest at night to get away from it all. She would simply climb a tree and listen to the ambient noise. This is fine, I’m happy like this. This is all I need and all I want. She would tell herself this every single day. And she shed tears while saying it almost every single day. She had come to terms with the fact that nothing was going to change, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. She had tried everything to cure herself, but nothing worked. Even holy water from the capital had done nothing. What a waste of 100g that was. As she sat in her tree, crying about the lot she had been given, her pity party was suddenly interrupted.

  “Damn bitch, can’t you give a guy some peace? I’m trying to sleep here.” A gruff voice called out from the darkness beneath her. The words stung her skin more than the cold wind against her tear-stained face.

  “Well, excuse me, I didn’t realize I was in the presence of someone else. I’ll take myself elsewhere.” Ana replied sharply. The nerve!

  “Don’t get yourself all worked up on my account. I didn’t realize my tree was so popular. You can stay, just try to keep the self-pity on the inside for now. In like 15 minutes, I’ll be asleep, and you can be as loud as you want. I sleep like a rock.” The voice called back with a bit of a chuckle.

  “Very well. Thank you, and I’ll keep it down.” Ana didn’t actually know how else to respond. First, I’m chastised. And then I’m told I can stay?

  “No worries, kid.” The voice laughed once more. The night passed on in silence, leaving Ana without any more tears.

  It had been about a week since she had heard that voice in the forest that night. She had gone back to that tree every day since, at about the same time. She wasn’t there to cry anymore. Instead, curiosity was eating her alive. Just who is this man, and why did he call it his tree? How long has he been here listening? Or was this actually the first? Every night, she would go back to her tree. And every night, she would talk to the strange man who slept there. At first, the voice sounded rather annoyed by her presence. Things such as “Shut the fuck up and let me sleep, dammit!” and “If I wanted to hear someone’s life story, I probably wouldn’t be sleeping in the fucking forest. So SHUT UP!” were very, very common. However, as the nights moved by, the voice slowly started to be less of an ass. A couple more weeks passed by, and some nights she would be on quests. Other nights, the man would be gone. But finally, she learned the name of the voice in the darkness.

  “UUUUGH, fine, my name is Murak. And what’s yours?” The man said, finally giving in to Ana’s nagging.

  “Ana. It’s a pleasure to officially meet you, Murak.” Ana said as she walked around the tree stump. She didn’t find what she expected, instead she saw a broad-shouldered dwarf leaning up against the trunk of the tree they had shared so many nights around.

  “AAAAAAHHHH!!!! FUCK ME!!!” Murak yelled as he all but fell off the root he had nestled into. “TRY TO GIVE A GUY SOME WARNING BEFORE SNEAKING UP ON HIM IN THE MIDDLE OF A DARK FOREST!” Ana simply laughed, plopping herself down next to the man who had grown to be her friend over the last few months.

  “What, don’t tell me that the mighty Murak is afraid of women? Or maybe it's dark?” She teased, failing to hide the sarcasm or laughter that oozed out with every word.

  “I’m not afraid of women or the dark, thank you very much. I am, however, startled by the sudden appearance of someone who has only existed IN A TREE up until this point. FUCK!” Ana couldn’t help herself. She simply kept laughing at the overreaction she had gotten out of Murak. After a few minutes of Murak cussing her out and yelling, things finally calmed down. “Why did you decide that tonight of all nights is when you descend from your damn tower? Trying to give me a heart attack?” Murak asked, obviously still annoyed by Ana’s sudden appearance.

  “Well, it was a big day. I finally got you to introduce yourself, and I felt like that was an occasion worth celebrating. Here, I brought snacks, so quit being such a bitch.” Ana retorted as she passed some fresh pastries and dried meats to Murak. “Oh, and don’t worry, I brought cheese too.” She added, pulling out a small block of cheese.

  “Well, if you brought food, I guess I can’t just shoo you away. Pull up a root, stay a bit.” The unlikely pair shared stories and food until the sun started to rise. They had both smiled more in the last few months than in the decades prior. Maybe sharing the tree wasn't so bad after all. As Ana got up to leave, Murak quickly asked, “So, same time tomorrow? I’ll bring the food this time. Ya know, as a thank you.”

  “It’s a date!” Ana said with a wide smile.

  Months passed, and the two became gradually closer. Murak was an adventurer as well, focusing on his overwhelming physical prowess. The two started questing together and quickly became quite the powerful team. They began dating in earnest and moved in together. They frequently returned to their tree, spending countless nights just enjoying not being alone. They bore it all to each other, Ana her dhampirism and Murak his lycanthropy. And still they stayed together. Two cursed people brought together by one coincidental meeting. A fateful night at a random tree that they both decided was theirs. The same tree that Murak proposed under a few years later. The same tree that they held their wedding at a few years later. The same tree that Murak carved their rings out of. The same tree that Ana used to make a new pipe for Murak when his got broken. That same tree that they said goodbye to when Ana got pregnant and they moved back to Murak’s hometown of Whitemane. The same tree that they planted the seed of in front of their new home. It was all because of that tree that Ana didn't have to be alone anymore.

  That night was over 10 years ago now. Ana was now sitting in their small cottage, holding her newborn son, while Murak was cussing under his breath while trying to find the squeak in the baby's bed.

  “Dear, what did I say about cursing in front of my son?” Ana asked teasingly from the chair.

  “And what did I say about trusting that bastard Logan with building the damn bed? If I can’t find the damn squeaky nail, I’m going to kill that bastard. He did this on purpose, I know he did. He’s still mad I got the bigger boar, jealous brat!” Murak said as he frantically searched the frame of the bed. “AHA. Fina–” Murak started as he got hit over the head with a cup.

  “I told you not to yell and wake up Sev, do I need to repeat myself, dear?” Ana said, giving him an arrogant stare.

  “You’re damn lucky I love you, An, I’ve killed people over less!” Murak responded. His words may have sounded confident, but he had the disposition of a dog with its tail between its legs as he pushed the nail back into place. He tested the bed once again, and there were no more squeaks. Sigh. “Finally, now the boy can sleep without waking himself with that damned nail.”

  Ana couldn’t help but laugh at her husband. The baby had been sleeping just fine. Murak heard the squeak and insisted it needed to be fixed this instant. To think, my man with the power to kill an elk with his bare hands is now found panicking over the bed his newborn will sleep in. Ana gently passed Sevagoth over to Murak, allowing him to tuck his son into bed.

  Murak gently put his hand on the boy’s head and whispered, “I love you, boy. Don’t ever forget it.” Ana leaned down and kissed Sevagoth’s head, the child shifting slightly as a light smile poked the corner of his mouth. Murak placed his hand gently on Ana’s hand and whispered, “Thank you for this, An. I never knew I could be this happy.” Tears were brimming in Murak’s eyes as he said this. Ana quietly pulled her husband into a long hug.

  After a few moments, she simply said, “And thank you. I love you, dear.” The house went quiet as the two went to bed, the baby’s bed right next to theirs.

  Weeks passed, and Murak returned to his responsibilities as a hunting team Captain. Ana and Sev saw him off as he disappeared up the trail to their hunting grounds. It’s only 7 days, Ana. You can make it. Be brave. As Ana held back tears. There was a nagging in the back of her head, one that Murak had shared the night before. They assumed it was just anxiety; a newborn baby added a lot of stress to a job like Murak’s. But they agreed that if they didn’t start now, Murak would never be able to return to work. He would be too attached and wouldn’t be able to leave anymore. But his team relied on his leadership; they needed him. And so he went. And Ana stayed, knowing that she would see her husband again.