A Vampire's Night : New Beginnings

Chapter 1 - Festival Day

The sun was just rising above the horizon as I made sure that my dress clean and that my boots were tied properly so that I wouldn't trip over the laces while I was in town this day. After making sure that I was presentable, I headed out the front door and began heading to the nearest home to mine... There werent many homes between my own and the village, but the one nearest me belonged to the closest thing to a second family for me.

"Amelia! Come on, you're running slower than Lizzy, and she's only started to stand." A boy who was almost two years older than myself calls out to me as i get closer to the house, and still run along the road.

"I don't want to hear that coming from you Thadford Williams, you took the longest time to get up and to get ready." The young man's mother laughs as she playfully smacks the young man's arm.

"That's only because I knew that I'd still have time to get ready because of Amelia's running." Thadford replies with a wink in my direction as I slowed to join then.

"That sounds like you're saying your faster than me, Thad." I challenge him carefully with a huge smile upon my face, "Didn't I beat you in yesterdays race we had?"

"That was yesterday, I'm much faster today." Thad acknowledges my challenge with a raise of his brow.

"Please excuse me Mrs. Williams, but I must defend my running abilities. May I race your son?" I ask his mother in an overly flourished way and his younger siblings laughed as he gave me a playful glare.

"You didn't have to bring my mother into this." He poorly mocked anger because he was trying not to laugh himself at how I had asked his mother for permission to race him.

"Now Amelia, you know better than to ask me such a question... Of course I'm going to let you race him sweetheart." She laughed as she passed me the baby Elizabeth, Lizzy as she had become nicked named soon after birth, and got up onto the drivers bench of her small wagon, "Just try not to beat him to badly."

"I thought you were supposed to be my mother." Thad complains lightly as he helps his younger siblings into the back of the wagon and I lend a helping hand to his sister Millie, who was my age, up into the seat next her mother and then handed her her baby sister.

"I am, but us women need to stick together, and though I know Amelia can hold her own against you, I can still cheer for you both." His mother teases him and I smile at Thad at the same time he looks over at me.

"So are we really going to race all the way there?" I ask Thad as i wave to his family as they rode ahead of us and then turned my head to look in his direction as we started behind them at a walking pace.

"I think we'll save that task for a day that isn't a festival day. I don't want you to have to leave the festival activities because you're tired from trying to keep with me." He jokes as he gives me his this smile that shows just how confident he really is when he isn't around his family.

"Thank you kind sir for being so concerned about the well fare of the fun I should have today." I reply as I curtsy to him without having to stop or even tripping over my own skirts, "I am curious as to why the kingdom holds this festival each year... The disappearance of three royal members should not be something to celebrate."

"Just don't let any officials hear you say that... The king may still be grieving over the loss of his daughter, but it also makes him turn a blind eye to what his sons are doing in her absence." Thad replies somberly as he glances at me from the corners of his eyes, my gaze directed to the dirt road as I was thoughtful, and then I looked up to the blue sky above as I realized not for the first time that I didn't even know what the princess, her husband and their only child had looked like when they had gone missing.

"Its not right... I wish I knew what they looked like, it would make it easier for me to understand why her brothers might not have liked her as much." I reply softly as we kept our pace even though our thoughts wanted us to walk a little slower, "But to do something to the child? That seems even more wrong to me."

"If you had your way, everyone would be friends with everyone... Including with the creatures of the night that attack us." Thad comments as he pats my head gently with a kind smile on his face.

"Why shouldn't we try and make friends with them? If there are people who are willing enough to stay human and donate their blood to the Vampires and if Werewolves were given food rations that matched their appitites, there would be no reason for us to not live in harmony with the creatures of the night... and the other creatures if they're still out there." I protest gently, still not wanting to scare Thad away with my ideas... he and his family were the only ones who would believe me about these beings, and talk to me about them for that matter.

Thad listened to me though, and even though he didn't agree with some of my ideas, it was good to have someone atleast listen to them... and he didn't mind talking about it with me. It's why I liked spending time with him the most. I had to work my own land in order to grow my own food most years, but I usually had help from Thad and his family. Whatever they couldn't grow in their soil, they grew in mine and what my soil couldn't grow, they grew in theirs... once the harvesting was done, we made sure both houses were well stocked, mine as stocked as theirs even though I was the only one living in it. We never ran out of food durring the winter times. Thad's mom had started making it her personal mission to make sure that I came over for dinner everyday to make sure that I was getting at least on decent meal everyday.

Thinking back on the fields, I remembered the year when I had decided to bring Thad's family more food because their mother had tried to keep it a secret from me that they were running low because of them constantly having me over for dinner each night... so when I had shown up at their house and had everything on the shelves by the time they had returned home, I had merely declared that I wasn't putting a single thing back on my horse because it was to tired to carry it all back. Thad's mother had taken one look at my fake stubborn expression and nearly broke down in tears right in front of her own children from the relief. It was also on that day I turned my old bedroom (which was closer to where my parents had kept our food) into a second pantry and had ordered Thad's family to use for storing extra food, because I wasn't going to let my adoptive family nearly starve like that a second time.

"Amelia, look! It's the festival grounds!" Thad's voice cut through my thoughts and I looked up and saw the different colored flags waving high in the air above the many vendors stands, sporting areas and even the village square... which had been left completely open for any who wished to dance to the music played by the many who volunteered to play or sing for the crowd.

"It certainly looks like its going to be a great Festival Day!" I tell him before taking off at a sprint for the village gate, vibrant with the many different colored streamers that the children had tied onto it.