So We Met In A Tavern.

Old Eyes

I never thought I'd find another like me....

I'd searched everywhere there was to look in Amantha. Every dive, every back alley turned upside down, but as always... inevitably, I turned up nothing.

I searched for rumors, and the best I could ever find were vampire stories. It seemed that I was of their kind on the surface, but I am very different.

For instance, and most importantly, I could walk in the sunlight. Secondly I was very aware of my appitites and the fact that I can control it...under most circumstances. Thankfully, I can not give my curse to others, that.. I.. am grateful beyond words.

Yes, to appease your curiosity, I do drink blood. Do I attack your children or innocent passer-bys?.. Absolutely not. Do I rid the world of common beggers, thieves, or drunkards that stumble into my path? Also, no, even for their inequities and poor judgment, they are in fact, still innocent. You would also be disgustingly amazed how many would willfully allow you to feed on them. Another reason to avoid friendships.

Have I taken the lifeblood of those who attempt to kill me? Yes....the first time sickened my soul....but quickened my strength. Like any other addiction, you try to wrestle it away, but in the end...when your conscience meets your will power...it breaks you.

Knowing a good butcher and the time a cow is killed keeps me tamed. I know it could be done, and they could, too.

Unlike vampire, I have a conscience I care if I murder. Could I be like them?

In short, yes, but that's not who I am. I see vampire as souless beings. They try to justify themselves by saying it's their natural place to do so... or starve to death. I can't say I dont know their insatiable hunger, the knotting in the pit of my stomach, the weak and feable exhaustion that takes me. I feel it. And in fact, I'm much more like them than I'd care to admit. But I hate them...I can not shake the feeling they in part have something to do with my existence.

I became excellent at killing them.... I was so much like them... but better. I have abilities they could only wish for. Walking in the light was by far the one thing they wanted me dead for.

I was easily mistaken by both. The citizens around me wanted me dead, but I'd not hurt them. The vampire also would seek to take my life,
Perhaps I am better than them. Perhaps they are jealous. But at any rate in all my searching....none like me were found.

Hundreds of years passed in my search, and even witches had not known of my kind.

My kind....an anomaly? A genetic mutation of evolution?

Perhaps.

Perhaps some of the older settlements knew of something like me. A people as old as I.

I started with the Elves, but they remained a mystery, their outward appearance of kindness, and they prided themselves on ancient knowledge. For all my efforts, they seem to hoard their knowledge while looking down pompous noses.

Perhaps the Dwarves would know. I traveled a great distance, and at last, I found myself in Haldiron. This is the last story of my search:

Once arriving, and once again, I uncovered nothing more than vampire stories. I heard of a lycan Vampire war to the west near the Moon Bridge just outside the ruins to an ancient elven city. But that was it. At my wits end, I saw a rather strange group of adventurers while sitting in a tavern. I had been pondering to give up finally and going over the places that I would live? Where should I settle? The beach? My pale skin? Definitely not a cave....too dreary.
An abandoned manor filled with antiques, paintings, and to dine on empty plates?.....Too cliche!