Vaesen Empires smp au

Chapter 2: Meeting

Quick note: there's gore and blood descriptions in the third paragraph (the one that starts with "Well it had certainly once been a person"), so try to skip that one if you're sensitive to that

The dark forest west of the Crystal Cliffs only let a sliver of moonlight through to light the path for Sausage and his horse Dandelion. Any normal person would barely be able to see in this weak light, a vampire would be able to see as if it was bright sunlight, and Sausage saw it as a dimly lit forest full of shadows that moved and twisted around the trees. The power to see things for whatever they truly were had it's downsides, for example it wasn't always fun to lock eyes with what might once have been a deer, or to be stared down by something pretending to be a tall birch. But Sausage had grown used to it, and Dandelion saw nothing out of the ordinary.

There was a sudden rustling in the bushes that made him pull on the reins to his horse to make her stop walking. That had sounded like leather boots on the frozen ground. He climbed off Dandelion, drew his dagger and approached the frosted bushes, pulling the leaves aside to reveal-

Well, it had certainly once been a person. But that was also all that Sausage could tell from the mangled remains, that had once been a human being, nothing else was discernible. The guts and flesh that had been spread over the ground had been covered in a fine sheet of frost and no footsteps could be seen in the layer of frost and snow on the ground. Sausage looked up, but there was nobody to be seen. Maybe he had imagined the sound of leather boots and it may just have been an animal feeding on the corpse that had been scared when he approached. Either way, he decided that it was better to leave it there and pretend he saw nothing.

He had ridden in silence for twenty minutes when he heard the sound of feet on the ground again, though this time whoever it was didn't seem to be in a hurry and was somewhere behind him.

"Who's there?" he shouted, turning Dandelion to face whoever was there, drawing his dagger again and pointing it to the darkness behind him.

"Well, there's no need to be rude," said the... person? Behind him. Sausage could feel that there was something wrong about them, but for some reason he couldn't see what, other than that there was a deer skull on top of his head. Other than that, he looked like a travelling noble, but for some reason had dressed for late spring rather than early winter. His hair was blue and slightly damp, his eyes made Sausage think of dark lakes and rivers in winter. He hesitantly lowered his dagger and Dandelion sniffed the stranger's hands curiously.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, I'm just headed this way too," he said and stroked the palomino horse's head calmly. This if anything confirmed more to Sausage that whoever this was wasn't normal, because he knew that Dandelion hated strangers and would never have let anyone other than Sausage and Fwhip pet her.

"What's your name?" he asked uncertainly.

"I'm Scott, nice to meet you," he said and smiled. There was something wrong with his smile, but Sausage couldn't determine what. Amid all his suspicion and confusion, he started to realise that Scott was as beautiful as he was strange and off-putting, kind of like a lake that refuses to freeze even in mid winter or a flower that blooms in january. Then he realised that he had been staring at him without saying anything for almost a whole minute. He went red and hastily told him that he may hear his name, but not have it.

"You've had run-ins with the fae I see," Scott laughed and continued walking. Sausage was meant to go to the inn in the Grimmlands, and that was the same way that Scott was going. Dandelion was already following Scott, once she got close enough she put her snout in his hair and ruffled it curiously and he laughed. Oh goodness that laugh-

Sausage shook his head violently. It was an okay laugh, he told himself firmly.

"So, where are you going? If you're headed the same way as me?" Scott asked abruptly. Sausage wondered for a moment if he really should answer, if Scott was an incubus or something like that then he might kill him before he got there. Sausage eventually decided that no, he wouldn't kill him if he knew that there were two vampires living around. That would be too risky, even for an incubus.