Red Rivers and Nightmares

5. Presumptions

As I break down our tent I am watching my brothers. Yesterday was much of the same for us but we somehow managed to fit in more bickering, although I am proud to say most of it was between Iien and Akun. I clutch the slim poles in my hands when Iien stalks off in the direction of a copse of trees. I know we designated an area in that for our latrine but the tautness of his back shows me just how upset he is. Akun is not looking in my direction for me to see his face.

"G'morning to ya, little waterer." Dana's voice has me looking at her wide-eyed as my heart speeds up at her surprise greeting. She looks where I am and chuckles, "Ah. Don't worry bout that, little waterer, brothers fight all the time at that age."

I attempt a smile but that weird feeling from the day before stirs in my gut again, "To be fair, I would say the arguments lie within all three of us. We are... figuring things out."

She nods with a softer smile, "We have bout two hours left of our route. Then, ya three can figure out the rest alone."

"Oh!" I look down a little in embarrassment before meeting her eyes again, "I am sorry if our arguments have been bothering your people."

She waves her hand behind her shoulder nonchalantly, "Tis not a thought to my mind. Just seeing that ya'll be ready soonish."

I bend down to wrap the tarp around the poles, "We should."

She nods and then with a small squeeze of my shoulder she takes her leave. It is as I am watching her leave I hear a commotion from one of the wagons. I cannot see what happened but I can hear one of them call out that another is bleeding. At that I feel an urge to look at Akun and see him pinching his nose closed firmly.

My eyes widen as I finish tying up the tarp quickly and head towards him. He does not appear to notice me until I drop the tent by his feet. Then, he quickly drops his hand and smooths out his expression.

"Akun..." I trail off as he now looks at me with slightly narrowed eyes.

"What?," his tone is curt.

I feel frustrated but I attempt to breathe slowly so that I can have an actual conversation with him instead of it devolving into just another argument, "Do you need to feed?"

"Why are checking on me? I am not a child," he says as he speaks almost petulantly.

I swallow the laughter that immediately wants to come out because I know that he will hate that. Instead I jerk my head in the direction of the ongoing commotion.

At that Akun frowns a little and looks at the ground. He speaks quieter now, "I am not hungry. I fed before we left."

I purse my lips as I look at the sunshine all around us and think about the fact that he has fed from Karri at home plus, at just ten years old he already has two full time donors. I look at him closer then to see if he looks worse but he looks fine. Even in these very early morning hours his eyes are his normal green to brown and he has a slight flush to his cheeks that only young vampires who are well fed have. It is then that I think I understand, "Oh."

"Oh?" Now he turns to me.

At that I give him a dry look, "As you keep pointing out I am a mortal but I was raised surrounded by vampires. I know just as well as you what vampires are like." I cannot help my concern now, "I just had no idea that your bloodlust was so strong."

Akun crosses his arms but he does try to speak to me firmly, "I have been working on having control over it and the sunlight does not bother me so much anymore since I have been feeding off of Karri for the past year."