Welcome to Gaia! ::

The man pulled a big iron key from a ring at his belt, and with hands slippery from rainwater slotted it into the big lock. It turned. The man pulled open the big, stone trapdoor with a grinding noise. Below were the lighted streets of an underground village. "Number eighteen," he panted to the vampire. "Top floor."

The room was small and dark, the only strong light being the one streaming into the room from the lantern in the street. Two men, half dressed, sat on the bed, struggling with another figure, a woman, who was trying desperately to rise. At the sound of the window breaking, the older of the two men looked up, and screamed, releasing the struggling woman as he staggered for the door and down the stairs.

At this, the woman brought her arm up and hit the other man hard in the face. Blood spattered his white shirt, and he fell, clutching his nose. The woman turned to the vampire in the window and turned her head on one side, as if studying her. She was dressed in a torn nightgown, which somehow fluttered in an ethereal wind. There was an aura eminating from the girl, which was as anethema to the vampire. She looked keenly at the vampire, with eyes as dark as midnight, and full of stars.

Then the girl fell to her knees, and screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

She figured this was the woman she seeked, "Do not scream, I will protect you for these men." She looked towards the men, mostly towards the man with the blood on his shirt. She wandered over to them and looked sharply into their eyes, "You chose the wrong girl to mess with, she has connections with powerful undead beings that you didn't even know existed." She turned one of their heads and bite down hard on the jugular after drinking some of the blood she left him to bleed profusly and eventually die. "You'd better get in some help..." She turned to the girl, "One of my friends will die if i do not get to her, either you come now willingly or I will take you by force, you do not have a choice you will leave with me today." She stretched out a hand to her waiting for her to take it.

At the sight of the blood, the girl screamed again, and fell on the floor, her eyes rolling in her head, flecs of spittle flying from her lips. And for a second it seemed as if there were two screams mingling in the girl's own. She was writhing and thrashing on the ground, her eyes now white and shot with red veins, bulging from her head.

The girl's brother clambered down the iron ladder into the village, to a scene of uproar. There were people standing around his house, in a wide semicircle, the bravest at the front, the less brave behind them, or peering at the scene through their windows. At the front of the crowd stood the village doctor, a look of terror on his face, his nightshirt flapping around his legs. He shouted to the brother as he ran towards the sound of his sister's screams.

"It's up there with her, Johan! For gthe gods' sakes, it's up there with her and Gurgis!"

*hits the bottom of the icy river, her lungs filled with water. it hurt...it hurt...! she couldn't breathe!! why didn't it end!? was this what dying felt like? did it really feel like it took eternity? or was she somehow still clinging onto life? she shivered in the cold water. she just wanted it to end. why wasn't it ending?

She whispered to the girl in her arms, "Please stop flailing I'm here to help you, not hurt you. I'm bringing you to the Healer. You will not die or suffer much longer if you just try to stop flailing and I will not drop you. However, when we are down I will give you the choice to come with me to the Healer or not. I don't help people if they do not accept my help. There are few creatures in this world I will help. You should be proud you are one of them." After her speech she was now at the bottom of the ladder. She turned to the people who surrounded her. "I will not eat her or him. I simply wish to help. I see you already know that vampires do not help. However, I only help those I like even if it is a little. I mean I do have some human in me still. She is just silenced most of the time. I trust you will let us go in peace now? If the girl wishes to come. I have other things to attend to." She looked to the shoulder with the girl. "Decided quickly.."

The doctor shook his head. Now that he had recovered from the shock of seing the vampire, he spoke quite calmly.

"You don't understand," he said, his voice hardly trembling at all, as the vampire reached the foot of the stairs. "She doesn't know what she wants. She's been getting worse for the past hour. She doesn't know who she is half the time. She is quite delerious, and it is beyond my humble skill to discover the ailment behind her..."

His voice was drowned by the girl's scream. For a moment she seemed to be red hot in Nienna's arms. And then she went limp, her eyes staring glassily at the roof of the tunnel-street, and her mouth was slightly open as if with surprise. Her breathing was very shallow, her limbs trembled, but she no longer resisted.

The brother looked anxiously into her eyes. "She's going fast," he said, desperation in his eyes. "Please," he said to Nienna. "I don't know you, I don't have anything to give you, but please, I beg you, do one thing for my sake. Take my sister to the Dojo, as fast as you can, and then search for your friend. Please, for the love of all the gods!" He stared into her crimson eyes, searching for the spark of humanity she had said she possessed.