Blaze in the Darkness | ✔

Chapter Eight

My tail swished back and forth, a token of my barely contained excitement. I was getting out! After so long! I could howl at the moon like a wolf.

Thoysal walked over and picked up my bottle. 'Are you ready?'

'Yes!' I yelled with all the conviction that I could muster.

'Alright. Here goes.' He pulled the cork off. A cry escaped me as I was pulled out of the bottle by an invisible force. My entire body trembled. Scents attacked my nose. Damp earth, cold stone, wood smoke from the fire... Something floral? Then the sounds hit me. The scuttling of insects, the breathing and heartbeat of one person, the crackling and hissing of the flames.

The room seemed to get smaller, and soon, it was small enough that my head was at the same height as the waist of the vampire. I felt something rough and cold under my paws and looked down. It was... stone. I was no longer standing on the shiny, smooth glass surface that I had been on for so long. I was out.

"Zanixa?" Thoysal inquired.

I whined at the sound of his voice, then abruptly stopped. Both his voice and my whine were far too loud. I looked at him, trying to focus on him only, but all the sounds and smells and feelings were too much. A cold wind ruffled my fur, and I darted to the fire they made.

I hid in its center, carefully avoiding breaking apart the log structure. The flames engulfed me. I relished in the heat, letting the hissing of the flames fill my ears and the smoke fill my lungs.

After a long time, the fire slowly started to die. Most of the wood had turned to coals, covering my body. Now my vision was no longer blocked by the flames, I could see that Thoysal was alone, watching me. I watched him for a while.

'Are you alright?' he asked eventually. I was thankful that he used telepathy, as that didn't hurt my ears.

'It's getting cold,' I replied, getting up. I shook my fur, the coals sliding off my sides. The immediate cold made me shiver. And it was only about to get colder...

After a moment of hesitation, I huffed and shifted. My fur disappeared into my body as my snout became a short nose. My tail vanished completely, much to my dismay, but at least I gained long hair. Freezing air brushed past my bare skin, and the cold from the stone floor seeped into my feet. I hugged my arms against my body, trying to preserve some warmth.

Thoysal cleared his throat, though he didn't seem that bothered. "You are aware you aren't wearing clothing?"

"Yes? My momma didn't either," I said, moving my jaws around. After centuries, I wasn't used to my throat forming words.

"Don't you need some?" he asked. "You're cold and will get sick."

I walked over to the pile of logs and picked up some pieces of wood. My teeth were chattering by now. Although my tail was made of flames, my red hair was not, and it left my back feeling cold and exposed. "It's-s only f-for a moment-t-t."

I quickly walked back to what was left of the fire and started piling up the wood on the coals. When it was burning neatly, shifted back and crawled back in. I purred happily as the flames embraced me, warming me up again.

"Zanixa, I'm going hunting," the vampire announced. "I will be back in a while."

I yipped as answer, staying where I was. I'd stay here until the fire went out again. If that happened, I'd simply bring more wood over. I had no plans of going more than five metres away any time soon.

When my stomach rumbled, I munched on a coal in front of me. A happy tremor passed through me as the hot coal went into my stomach, warming me from the inside out. The combination of flames inside and outside me was one I hadn't felt in far too long. I was content.

I poked my head out of the fire as Thoysal returned. The strong, warm floral scent mixed with burning wood and damp stone. I asked, 'Why do you smell like an odd flower?'

"It's called vanilla. It's a plant that the goddess Ablait favored," he replied.

I inhaled sharply and looked at him with wide eyes. 'Ablait?! What do you have to do with her? You aren't close to her, are you?' I asked quickly. I wanted nothing to do with the goddess of insanity, pain, and war - not even indirectly.

"No, I am not. Vampires were originally created by her. Apparently, she didn't want her soldiers to smell bad..." The vampire shook his head. "No one will ever understand why she does the things she does - not even herself. Although I admit I'd rather smell like a nice, foreign spice than a corpse."

'I guess the scent isn't that awful,' I said. 'But if you're her soldier, what are you doing here?'

"You can count my race as one of her many failed experiments. The original vampires turned other beings into vampires, and so it spread, on and on. Ablait lost interest and just let it be, leaving the Moon God to exterminate us. As you can see, he still hasn't gotten around to do it, as there's still many vampires in the world."

I was silent for a moment, mulling over what he had said. For a creature created by Ablait, he didn't seem all that messed up. I looked at him. No, he didn't seem out to hurt me or others.

Eventually, I shrugged, coming to the conclusion that he wasn't going to hurt me, despite his race. The only ones that had hurt me were those mages, the Vesmai. I bared my fangs at the thought of them already.

I shook it off and ate another coal to calm down. I settled in the fire and napped.