Welcome to Gaia! ::

The moon was full this night and the air about me was clear. I moved through the trees like a serpent, never making a sound. The previous night's attempt on my life had left five bodies behind me in the clearing. I did not stop to wonder why they had tried to kill me. I have that effect on people. Almost everyone I met wanted me dead for some reason. Those that did not, also did not know what was best for them. I shifted directions, turning due east. I had a rather far journey left to go. I was not worried though. I would simply find shelter when the sun rose with it's cursed killing rays. My hood was not covering my head this night, only because at the speed I was going, I had yet to figure out how to keep the damn thing up. I highly doubted I would run across any life tonight, though, and had decided not to worry about the hood. I kept a keen eye on the forest in front of me. Even though I was traveling too fast for a mere human to see, I knew there were villages close by and did not want to risk a confrontation with one.
Humans tended not to like vampires much. I had even had a run in with one, an elderly fellow, that had tried to stab me with a pitchfork. Bad for the human. It was always bad for others when they tried to hurt me. But the human had particularly unlucky that night because I had not fed before the confrontation and was just pissed off enough to feed from the old man. I had chided myself for doing such a wicked thing, but had long since forgotten about the whole ordeal.
A sound ahead made me stop. It had come from perhaps a path or a road. I did not venture to find out. I smelled them then. Humans. They had a mule with them. I figured them to be traders or merchants, moving supplied and goods from one town to the next. I waited the few precious minutes it took for them to pass me, then darted forward to get across the path. The humans did not happen to notice me, thankfully, as they kept jabbering on about their next stop on the path to being rich or something of that nature. Seeing these people, though, reminded me that I had not yet fed this night. Heaving a small sigh, I doubled back, stepping onto the path. My gaze easily found the group. There were three men and a rather large pack mule. Two were walking in front of the creature, the other had been chosen to take up the rear. From the way his shoulders were hunched forward, I decided he had not volunteered for this position. Better for me, I decided. With this in mind, I moved silently toward the group. I was hoping for a silent kill. My wish was not granted, however, when the mule let out a nervous noise and planted it's hooves.
"Ah', come on ye bloody animal!" shouted one of the lead men. I assumed the one to yell this was the one holding the lead-rope attached to the now braying animal. I moved in swiftly then. Things got quite noisy once I descended upon the group. The mule, figuring it best for itself to get away, did just that, galloping away into the trees. This made the men glance about, looking for whatever had terrified the mule. Then they spotted me coming after them and began to scream. I managed to catch all three, simply by rendering the first one I grabbed unconscious with the flat of my hand, then repeating this with the other two, all in record time. I did not worry about the mule. With any luck it would be caught and killed by one of the forest predators. Well, I could hope anyway. Lifting the first human male to me, I bent my head, letting my fangs lengthen. I sank them into the flesh of the man's neck and drank deeply.
It is an unwritten rule that vampires could not kill humans by feeding from them. If you did, you also died. At least, that was what the ancients told the people they turned. Whether or not this was actually true or not, I did not know as I have never bothered to give it a try. You know, just in case it is. I do not want to die finding out. I only drank enough to satisfy myself, the healed the would and set the man aside. I then debated on what to do with them. Should I just leave them to wake up on their own, knowing what happened? Or should I simply fiddle with their memories so they woke up not having a clue as to what the hell had happened? The second one sounded much better.
The last thing I needed was a bunch of vampire hunters killing vampires off until they thought they had the right one. Kneeling beside the man I had just drank from, I pressed a hand to his temple, pulling from his mind the memory of what happened away. I repeated this with the other two as well. The mule was not going to tell anyone anyway, so I gave the animal no thought. I then proceeded on my way, going more slowly this time. I needed the exercise now after feeding. I also stayed alert. A lazy vampire was often a dead one as well. I figured I was safe enough on the path though, and strode along it for quite some time. I moved off of it after sensing another's presence though and stuck to the trees after that.

Having already left the path, I only hesitated a moment before sweeping back onto it. I could sense that other being quite close now and was not looking forward to any sort of confrontation. These things often lead me to kill people. I thought about my options. First, I could draw the cursed sword at my side and wait for the being to reveal itself. That, of course, was not the wisest of moves since the sword would find the being a threat and more than likely try to force me into attacking it. This would only end up in my killing the being before I got to ask why the hell it was following me. So that left me with the second option, which was to just stand there and look intimidating until either the being got bored with me or showed itself. Either way, the other being might end up dead. Like it or not, the Hiratoshi did that sometimes.
Shifting my stance slightly, I put on my most bored expression and stood there in the pathway. Either the being that was so carefully following me would be smart and stay away from me, far , far away, or it would come close and try to talk to me. The second option was not stupid, but it wasn't exactly smart either. How often did I just go up to a stranger in the woods and strike up a conversation? Never. Of course, I could not credit everyone as having the same level of intelligence as me, either. That rarely happened. The only person I had ever had the honor of meeting that could keep up with me was a fellow vampire called Lucid. He was who I was on my way to see. Hopefully, with luck, I'd get there before the sun made an appearance. That was with luck though, and thus far, I hadn't had much luck.

I lifted my gaze skyward for the barest of moments, concentrating on the sound of the heartbeat that pumped loudly. Focusing, I drew the sound inward, letting my instinct tell me where the source was. My instinct was never wrong and it told me exactly what I needed to know. The trees to my left and back a bit. I shifted my gaze there and saw the outline first. I recognized it as female. My body shifted on it's own to face this woman, my hand lifting to the hilt of Hiratoshi as if on autopilot. This was the weapon's doing, not mine, and I allowed it because it was only sensible. I would not be caught unaware this night. My pale gaze bore into the female, finding her form easily, even in the darkness.
"The same can be asked of you, sitting there on the branch like a monkey." I said, careful to keep my tone in the bored state. Can't let on that I'm actually curious, now can I? My face hopefully held no expression that would be readable to this woman, though I figured it didn't matter much if I actually smiled at my remark since I still wore my hood up. I allowed a small, tiny in fact, smile to hint at the corners of my mouth. I also made sure it was gone in a hurry. Can't be too careful.