Project Shadefall - Chapter II
#2 of Project Shadefall
Disclaimer: If you will be offended while or after reading this text just don't. You are also prohibited to read this text if you don't enjoy and/or like: (hopefully) well written stories, furries in general, blood, depictions of sexual acts, vampires, words and your Parents (... what? It's important to have healthy family relationships) or even are offended by them. (If your mother or father offends you, please seek help.)
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Chapter 2
Feel how the journey begins
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He smiled as she opened her eyes. "Good morning, Nova."
After lazy blink, the outlines of what she saw began to sharpen slowly.
He was lying next to her, his arm placed on her hip, his red eyes mere inches away from hers. Blinking again, this time more with surprise than with a sleepy dizzyness, she made out that the bat was fully dressed. She could not help but express her relief about this in a small sigh, which made an amused smile appear on the albino's face.
"Before you say anything, remember what I taught you yesterday, will you?" there was no menace in his voice, just care. Shadefall began to think and after a few seconds she replied something like: "mrng mlord". Endless chuckled, then sat up on the bed and laid a hand on her head. The Wagon noticed how fragile it seemed, with it's very long fingers and caressing claws. When she finally moved and her chest hurt a bit, everything came back to her, though and she wondered how she could ever have forgotten everything that happened in the first place.
She was dead, murdered by the man who held his paw on her skull right now, the one who made her call him "Lord". Worse yet, he doomed her, cursing her with a "life" which could not be lived. And on top of that, he ... slapped the back of her head! Just a little, though strong enough to make her rub it with a small "ow!".
She turned her Wolf-like muzzle towards her captor and asked, slightly confused: "Why did you do that? I have the right to hate you, jerk!" As a response, the bat only rolled his eyes. "Dear God, when will she finally remember to adress me correctly?" then his gaze set on the wounded person in front of him again.
"I did it because you approach things the wrong way, Nova. Instead of seeing what a GIFT I gave you, you bitch about the slight troubles an eternal life unfortunatly brings...."
Suddenly Shadefall interrupted him, her right eye ignited with red hatred. "Slight troubles? Okay, you said I could meet my friends and walk in sunlight, but... my life will be painful..." she fought for her words. She wouldn't give up so easily... "and... sad! And..."
The bats' bemusedly pinched brow made her stop mid sentence. "Yeah, Nova... and you will be... emo... and whine... just for.... the not fun... of it...", he mocked her. "Now listen, I already said..."
"STOP! What about slaughtering people to drink their blood? What about killing innocents?"
Shadefalls' head raised triumphantly, her voice confident of her victory, but it quickly changed into the most bewildered face a Wagon can have. The bat didn't stop smiling, wasn't hurt or admitted she had a point there. In fact he just giggled and... blushed. He really blushed.
"What?" the Wagon continued. "Are you ASHAMED of the people you have slain just to fulfill your needs?" Yes, this had to be it, right? He remembered all those poor people and had to feel bad for what he did. She swore she would NEVER do that. With a face gleaming with victorious anger once again, she announced: "I will rather DIE than do such a thing! ...WHAT?" By now the bat had burst into laughter, only fueling Shadefalls' anger and even worse, her bewilderment. So she just pouted and looked away.
After he calmed down, though still chuckling every once in a while, he said: "You're so cute!" Cutting off an irate response with a gesture of his hand, he went on: "You don't have to kill anyone. Have you ever heard of blood donors? And besides, you don't even have to drink blood to survive, for me, it doesn't taste that bad, but I like tortelloni far better. No, there is another way, you see?"
Again there was a slight blush on his cheeks, a blush that made the half-dragon inquire: "What?" He cleared his throat and finally losened the lock of their eyes, to look over her shoulder. "Um... sex, actually."
That was _so_ clear. It had to be. It was obvious. How could she have _not_ thought about this possibility?
"Pervert!" she nearly spit out this word, though she was blushing, too. She wanted to live. And she didn't want to drink blood...
There was an awkward moment where both looked for words to say, only to find them not fitting the situation. Shade thought about asking the following:
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Things to say Shade thought about:
-"Does Sex with yourself count?" (She wouldn't even consider this for a second. There is no way to admit she masturbated to her self proclaimed "Master")
-"So how many people have you killed? There is no way anybody would sleep with YOU!" (She wasn't feeling very suicadal at the moment. She already died once mere days ago and it didn't feel good enough to go for another round, yet. Besides, she found she liked living a lot more than being dead.)
-"Are there any other guys in this castle?" (Then she imagined having Sex with the castle's "Igor" and hastily went on)
-"Are there any other Girls in this castle?" (*There is no way a female being would volunteerly live in a 1000 yard radius of HIM. Just because he's so... so...* She refused to think that thought to an end other than *...SO!*)
-"So you only want to get into my pants?" (She feared he would say "Yes" and then just go for it, in this very second.)
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Endless had only one thing on his mind.
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The thing Endless thought about:
"Can I say it right now? Can I say it? I have to say it, I just hope she understands..."
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However, before he could, Shadefall broke the silence with the least awkward question she could come up with, that was at the same time slightly insulting, just insulting enough to not make him kill her.
For her, in this moment, it was the perfect question to ask. Later she would regret asking this question, but when you think someone killed you, just to rape you and you are having a conversation with this someone, sitting in his bed and looking into his smiling face, you don't tend to think about the future. Really. Go ahead and try it, if you don't believe me. I bet you would ask the same question as Shadefall did, before she felt a tear roll over her cheek:
"Why me, then? There are so many beautiful vixens you could have fucked, why ME?"
Silence.
Trying to find out if she went too far, the half-dragon watched Endless' face.
His face was like a forest, obviously calm on the outside, unpredictable on the inside.
Quietly he stood up and quietly he walked towards her bed. Quietly the Wagon watched him coming closer and quietly she shunned away. Quietly his shaking hand rose towards her body.
And quietly he wiped her tear away.
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Things Endless thought about:
"I can't do it, I can't say it, but don't have to say it right now. She wouldn't understand. Not yet."
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So his response, spoken calmly and quietly, was:
"Because you were going to die, soon, anyways, Nova." he pointed at the place where her heart had been, until he took it from her chest. "You had a disease consuming your heart, you see?
Maybe two or three months, maybe a year, but then you would have died. You heart needed more energy than you could ever have given when you were still alive. It would have grown weaker and weaker and eventually it would have succumbed. And you with it.
I didn't want to see that happen. I saw you had something that would allow you to live on, that would give you strength, something you hid from everyones gaze, even from yourself. But I needed time, you needed time. So I gave to you what we nee..."
"What? I didn't hide ANYTHING, so what would it be only a _master_ can see?" her voice, rudely tearing the fabric of silence like a loud sword, nearly _swam_ in sarcasm.
"Your emotions."
The loud sword vanished in it's sheath.
He know it would be drawn again, this was a truce, not a surrender.
She knew she would surrender some day, it became clear to her in this moment, it was one of those thoughts that just jump in your face. But it surely wouldn't be an unconditional surrender.
She swore this to herself, as the bat stood up and turned towards the massive wooden door that marked the only visible entrance of the room.
Before he actually went outside, he turned around another time, just to look at her face.
Her face was a forest, too. A forest of ice. Beatiful to look at, but dead inside.
Dead except for a small light that was in there somewhere, just waiting to be found and nurtured. But in the ice, the light fractured too much.
He would have to go inside this cold tundra and search for it. It would take a lot of time, hardship and preparation.
It was just a brief moment, but it felt like an eternity. You all know those moments, right? Moments which contain more meaning than some days. Like everything else, though, this moment had to fadeas well. And when it did, the bat faced the door and began moving.
Shadefall was about to hope he wouldn't lock the door (like that's going to happen) as she saw that his index finger was red.
"Um, did you cut yourself, there?" she asked, half because she liked to be polite, half curious why he didn't heal himself. "No, Nova." he looked at his hand, not turning around.
"These are your tears."
The Wagon's hands rushed into her face, then she held them in front of her eyes. They were soaked with red.
"Vampires", the bat continued, "cry blood. The so-called "sages" hold that this is because we can't have genuine emotions, that the Gods punished us for wanting to live forever." he snorted and opened the door, still facing away from the bed.
"Do you feel like you _want_ to live forever? Do you feel like you have no true emotions? Do you?" he stepped outside and closed the door behind him, allowing Shade to catch a brief glimpse of the red trails that ran down his cheeks.
She was so busy fighting the thoughts this odd sight evoked, she didn't even notice there was no sound of the door being locked. And when she did, in her sleep and woke up suddenly, another dawn greeted her through the window already.
She didn't need to open her eyes to know her murderer was in the room and watched her.
Then sleep overwhelmed her again. A fact Endless was rather happy for, because it made her miss her chance to see him cry another time.