Moonlight Dance: A Vampire's Tale

Chapter 6

When she opened her eyes again, the Bloodmist Forest was already shrouded in the embrace of the deep night. In just a few short hours, Ilsa's fate had taken a drastic turn—she had gone from being the master of the forest to a mere prisoner. Her warm cave had been replaced by this tiny wooden cage, so cramped that she could only kneel, with no space to turn. Shackles and oiled hemp ropes bound her tightly, without a single flaw for her to exploit. The iron bit gagging her mouth caused sharp pain.

With difficulty, she turned her head to survey her surroundings. The cage was mounted on wheels, two wooden poles connecting it to Sir Thrinn's black horse, which seemed on the verge of collapse. Not far away, Sir Thrinn, Bun, and Tom sat around a campfire, their drunken conversation carried by the evening wind. Ilsa, concentrating, tried to catch the faint traces of their words.

"I never would've thought," Sir Thrinn took a swig of watered-down wine, "that it'd be a vampire. I didn't even believe in such creatures before today."

"I didn't either, my lord," Tom shook his head, accepting the piece of jerky Sir Thrinn passed him. "Luckily, she didn't take me seriously. If I hadn't agreed to be her slave and supply her with blood, you'd be gathering up pieces of my corpse right now."

"She took an arrow..." Bun glanced at the cage, "but she doesn't seem injured at all. A normal person would've been dead long ago..."

"That's because you haven't seen what she's capable of, Bun," Tom struggled to chew on the leathery beef jerky. "She just needs to say her name, and she transforms into a vampire, with leathery wings and a stench that fills the air. The fact I didn't faint from fear is nothing short of a miracle."

"I can't even imagine it," Sir Thrinn sighed. "A girl who looks so beautiful... turning into something that foul." He gazed up at the sky, vile thoughts beginning to grow in his mind. If only she weren't a vampire... such a pretty face, a soft body... what a waste, such a waste!

He couldn't stop himself from laughing, a lecherous chuckle that echoed through the camp, infecting Tom. After looking at Sir Thrinn for a moment, Tom broke into a grin and joined in. The knight's laughter grew wilder, his bony shoulders shaking rapidly as if they were thin ice atop a swirling current. Bun, unsure of what they were laughing about, hesitated, but when their eyes landed on him, he laughed too—an innocent, confused laugh. The three of them chuckled for a while.

"But in the end, a monster's still a monster." Sir Thrinn sighed, lifting the fox-skin wine pouch to his lips. His tone was filled with such deep disappointment, as if he had just lost a bag of gold. "Are you sure she won't cause trouble if we keep her from speaking? No need to cut out her tongue?"

"I'm sure." Tom vowed. "She didn't see me as a threat at all and fully showed me her transformation process. Saying her name is the key to it all. Afterward, she drank my blood and was drunk on it. I took my chance and escaped to find you." Every word of Tom's hinted at his suffering, his cleverness in escaping.

"Cutting out her tongue wouldn't help with the interrogation anyway."

Sir Thrinn smirked, yellowed teeth flashing. Tom returned the smile.

"So it seems," Sir Thrinn said, "even vampires can be careless?"

Tom's smile faltered. "Yes," he realized there was more to the knight's words, "vampires can be careless. Just like humans. Or more precisely," Tom said, pointedly, "just like us."

Bun continued shoveling chunks of black bread into his mouth. Though he no longer had to carry the cage, assembling it had drained his energy. He didn't fully grasp what Tom was implying, so he raised his bread-filled cheeks and looked at them.