Red Rivers and Nightmares

11. Regret

We spend so long in that direction in the burdensome silence that I only feel relief when we see buildings in the distance. My feet feel like one massive hurt after such a long distance of walking, I have no idea how I will repeat it tomorrow. I try not to think on it, instead I find myself nearly giddy finally imagining myself off them and resting.

I feel a strange combination of relieved and worried when we make it close enough to Erranson to see two people standing at the edge of it. The relief grows when upon seeing us they wave.

I somehow find it within me and my aching feet to pick up my pace. The moment I do Iien and Rion follow. For that split second I cannot help but to think it was me all along that was holding us back. Then, my other foot stomps on the ground and the physical pain shoves away the guilt.

I am more on the breathless side when we stand in front of them. The pitchforks they have held across their bodies speaks of crude weapons. I wonder what they are going to do but as their gazes stop on my waist their stances relax more. I wonder what they could possibly be looking at but then Iien pulls slightly on my sheathed sword and it hits me that they are probably looking for the family crest. I grip my sword by the sheath and loosen two of the three loops to pull the whole thing out of the frog attachment. I hesitate from handing my blade over, instead I face the crest towards them.

Their reactions are near immediate upon seeing the eclipsed moon etched into the metal. They lower their pitchforks and themselves to the ground in a kneel. I am usually used to such behavior, have even come to expect it, but I nearly groan as their bodies drop. Half of my sudden dislike of the behavior has to do with me wanting to rest as quickly as possible. The other half is because I just – I just do not see why it is so important now when they die so much easier than my family.

"Greetings, me lord and me lady, we welcome you to Erranson," one says as they step forward from the other.

Iien steps forward then and bows his head to them, "Thank you for the warm greeting villagers of Erranson. I ask of you if you have knowledge of my younger brother coming onto your land?"

The other one takes a step forward to be in line with the first, "A lil lord called by Akun came. He asked us of help an' we need some ourselfs."

Rion then whispers something to Iien that I cannot hear. I worry about whatever it is as I see Iien flex his left hand. My brother does not ponder over whatever it is as he speaks clearly to the two individuals in front of us, "What favor would you ask of a child?"

Now, do I see one of the individuals show something akin to scorn. At the shift of their emotions the other one hits them with an elbow and they are the ones to speak up, "Its not a big thing for a ... vampire, 'ven though he's a kid." I frown as I know the word he was likely going to use, demonic spawn. Both of them flinch when my expression changes. As even Iien glowers at them the speaker continues, "We've just been running into a mad animal lately."

I hear Iien's jaw click. I gulp wondering what he is going to do, what we can do at this point as Akun is not here to greet us must mean he has already gone hunting.

After some deep breathing, Iien motions to Rion who stands on the other side of Iien. Then, he looks at the two in front of us. This posture and tone changes to resemble those we teased for being the height of noble snobbery, "One of you will take Rion and Lady Shizua of Kinza to where the deceased are to be buried. The other will take me to where you had left the young Lord Akun."

The two do not seem to take even a second to disagree as they move according to Iien's will immediately. I would be lying if I did not say it was just a bit impressive. Rion takes Snow spots lead from Iien but we continue to head in the same direction for what feels like quite some time. In fact, Iien and his villager do not split until we can clearly see a large stone carving made in Eta's image in the not so far distance. I do not wave to my brother but I definitely feel more anxiety as his back disappears from view.