Out of the Woods

chapter 003

chapter 003

The forest was deadly quiet except for the bunny that quietly nibbled on grass in front of Hope. She had been forced to pull a Stefan as she had been living off of bunnies during her time in Folks.

When she had first gotten here, she had feed on a human. She was so hungry, she couldn't think straight. The whole traveling universes really took it out of a girl. She had of course erased his memory, but after learning about Rowan and his family's vegetarian way of life, the Mikaelson figured it was best to follow suite and make herself seem less of a potential threat.

The rabbit continued to munch on some grass as the Mikaelson pounced. She wouldn't lie human blood was much better, but food was food.

Suddenly the Mikaelson heard the slight sound of movement behind her. She used her vampire speed to shove the person against the tree in a chokehold.

Hope chuckled when she saw who it was, "We really have to stop meeting like this."

Rowan smirked, "I see this is how you've been living."

Hope glared. She didn't appreciate the judgement.

"I didn't mean it like that," Rowan held his hands up, "I just meant to ask you a question. How would you like to actually hunt?"

"What do you mean?"

"I need some food, and cougars taste much better than rabbits."

"So you and your family hunt out here?"

Rowan nodded, "There isn't anyone out here for miles. It's hard for us to control our hunger."

"You guys are rippers?"

Rowan gave her a confused look, "Rippers are vampires that can't control their feeding," Hope explained, "One taste of human blood makes them desperate. They can't control it."

"Well, I suppose in that case, every vampire here is a ripper."

So maybe she pegged this world wrong. Every vampire as a ripper was horrifying.

"Do most vampire follow this vegetarian diet?"

"No, we wish more did."

"How are there still humans left?"

"There aren't too many of us."

Hope nodded along. Every new piece of supernatural information she received made this world all the more interesting. She was still laughing about the whole glittering in the sunlight thing.

The two reached a comfortable silence as they made their way to wherever Rowan was bring them, giving the tribrid time to take in Rowan once more. He had ditched his large black coat and instead was wearing a simple button down with black slacks.

His posture was the same as when she first met the vampire, he walked as if he owned the woods. As if there was no creature strong enough to destroy him. His quiet confidence interested Hope. Two-hundred wasn't that old - but maybe that was quite old here? So many questions filled her mind that she hadn't even realized they had gotten to the spot.

The tribrid and vampire stood at the edge of a cliff and that's when Hope realized he actually intended to hunt in that, "You're hunting? In that button up shirt?"

"Says the girl in jeans," Rowan remarked.

"Hey, I fought a god in this outfit!"

"God?" Rowan asked curiosity once again filling his eyes

"Lower case G. And a god adjacent could really just be classified as a very powerful supernatural."

Rowan hummed in response. Hope wanting to move on from the subject of home took a step forward, "So why are we on the edge of a cliff?"

"We're jumping."

"You're insane."

"Hope—"

"Don't Hope me. You might be able to survive this, but I won't."

"You're a vampire-witch hybrid. You'll be just fine."

Hope stared at the bottom, could she really survive that? Well obviously, but it still seemed pretty painful having to reset every bone that would break.

Rowan noting her hesitation, grabbed her hand and swung her into his back, and without a word jumped into the cavern below.

Rowan landed as cleanly as he jumped. The tribrid let out a sigh of relief as her feet touched the ground, but not before she punched Rowan across the face.

Hope was quite proud she had made enough of a dent on this immortal that he let out a few curse words, "That actually hurt," he hissed, but there was a hit of humor in his voice, "This will be fun. Follow me . . . If you can keep up," with that he was gone.

"Asshat," the tribrid muttered knowing full well Rowan could hear her. And then sped up with him.

He ran them all around the forest until he sped to a stop in front of a deer. Hope's mouth watered. Deer was so much better than rabbit, but then she heard it: the growl of a cougar. Fear filled the deer's eyes as hunger ignited in Hope's.

The cougar took a giant jump towards the deer but Hope intercepted it. She caught the deer midair, tackling it to the ground. It struggled under her grip and was cutting into her flesh with its claws but it couldn't do any real damage because soon enough Hope had sunk her teeth into the cougar's neck. She was careful to keep her face hidden, however, not wanting to show her yellow eyes. Unknown to the tribrid, Rowan looked on with pride.

Hope and Rowan lay in the green mere inches from one another. Hope felt high from that blood. She had forgotten what it felt like to feel full.

"I told you it was better than rabbit."

"And I told you wearing that shirt was a horrible idea," the tribrid retorted.

It was true, of course, his white button up shirt was covered with cougar blood. Rowan looked down as if he just noticed it.

Rowan shrugged, "I should probably get rid of this before my family sees," he started to unbutton it revealing strong muscle beneath, "My family will be jealous that I didn't invite them."

Hope's eyebrows rose as he threw his shirt off to the side. The vampire slowly rose to a standing position, "You'll probably want to get rid of that shirt too."

He turned away and eyed the lake a few feet to their left. "Rowan-" Hope started, but it was too late.

The vampire grabbed Hope and threw her into the water. She gasped as she came up, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

The vampire sped up to her, so they were only inches apart and shrugged at her comment, "You don't want all those humans wondering why you smell like blood do you?"

"So this was your solution?"

"It was effective," he said without a hint of remorse. He grinned mischievously when he saw her scowl and met it with a splash of water.

"Seriously?"

Rowan only smirked in response.

Some fun delena vibes this chapter. Rewatched the scene where he pushes Elena into the water and knew I had to write my own version ;)