Once Upon A Very Strange Time

16

I shook flames from my hand, my fists were covered in embers.
How long has it been since I used my fire?
The thought made me feel weak, like the peasant farmer I had pretended to be. I stepped over the corpse of a charred Fur, it reminded me of Viktor, which gave me more pleasure as I was engulfing the poor thing in flames.

The road to Crokir was silent.
Yvette was distant, the look on her face made me scared to talk. So, we walked, the sky was gray and rain was bound to come down soon.
My heart sort of ached. With the loss of Telling Stones and Esbern hunting me down seemed to be catching up to me as I dragged my feet down the cobblestone road.

It had started sprinkling, but neither Yvette nor I said anything about stopping our journey.
"Almost there," Yvette suddenly said aloud.
The way she said it made me think that she was just talking to herself, her tone seemed foggy and she didn't make amy hints in her body language that it was directed to me.
I was worried about Yvette.

Crokir came into view and by then the rain had begun to pour.
Yvette and I were glad to finally enter the village, but our joy was cut short.
Do you remember how there were slaves here?
Remember how the Count was now going to enslave any Furs that entered Crokir?
Yeah, I remember.
Two guards that were dressed in shiny armor walked up to us.
"Ma'am," the taller one began. "Your Fur here has to come with us."
My eyes widened and Yvette scoffed.
"Why's that?" She asked bitterly.
"Count's orders." The shorter guard replied with the same bitterness.
"I'm not giving you my friend, that's that."
I glanced at Yvette with a worried look.
Didn't she care how her attitude would affect us?
"Then we will forcefully take her," The taller guard barked, grabbing my arm.
I opened my mouth in a silent scream and Yvette gasped.
"Unhand her!" She screamed, drawing attention from nearby villagers.
The shorter guard had to hold Yvette back. She fought back pretty hard though, and so she was shoved down on the muddy ground.
As I was dragged away, Yvette watched from the ground with a defeated look that simply broke my heart.
She looked like a dog whose owner had left suddenly.
"Yvette!" I tried to call, but my throat choked up with tears.

I was dragged to an ugly looking shack sitting at the far side of the village. The guard shoved me inside and slammed the door behind me.
I whimpered and got up to examine the dimly lit home.
There were skins on the ground that seemed to act like a bed and pairs of Furs turned around to look at me.
I meet their gaze with unsteady eyes, my worried expression probably giving away the amount of stress and nervousness I was feeling at the moment.
"Who are you?" A black furred one spoke up in a raspy voice.
"V-viktor," I stumbled.
Two Furs sitting aside immediately began to whisper.
"You're new?" The Fur asked again.
"Yeah," I whimpered.
She stepped out into the candlelight, her fur was matted and she had battlescars across her muzzle.
"I'm not sure if you could even lift a rock," She added. "You're just as small as a twig."
That wasn't true, this shirt was just oversized.
"Empty her pockets," A calm voice spoke up.
The battlescared Fur turned to glare at the calm voice.
"You ain't fun anymore," She scoffed, walking back to sit on a pile of hay.
The calm voiced Fur walked forward with a gentle look.
"I need you to empty your pockets," He spoke, holding out a paw.
He had tan fur and tufts of hair sticking from his ears.
I stuck my hand in my pocket and gave him everything I had.
He gave me a pity smile, "Life gets easier here," He said.
I shrugged. "Okay,"
"My name is Erig, and you were Viktor right?"
I nodded.
Erig pointed to the black furred Fur, "That's Byat, she's a little cranky."
He then nodded to the yellow spotted Fur Byat was sitting by, "F'ania, she's kind so you'll like her."
F'ania glanced over and so did Byat, they both seemed to glare rather than look.
The last Fur was a ginger furred one with lots of earrings, his name was T'ok.
I felt comfortable with Erig already, he invited me to sit by him and chat with T'ok.
My good mood went away when I remembered poor Yvette.

I was walking to the skin bed at the end of the house but was pulled back by Byat.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
She pulled me close to her.
"The vampire," she rasped. "She's back there."
My eyes widened and I looked back at the end of the shack.
I then noticed just how shadowy it was, and I noticed the eyes.
Two glowing yellow eyes stared at us and I felt my heart stop for a moment.

"The Fur she came with here was beheaded not too long ago," Erig said, all of the Furs were gathered around a candlelight. "Poor thing," F'ania murmured. Byat shook her head, "So many were beheaded that day.."
I stared at her, the image of Kira's headless body flashed in my mind.
"How do you know if she's a vampire?" I suddenly asked.
"The brother was," T'ok answered.
"We don't know for sure if they were siblings," Erig broke in.
"They looked exactly the same!" Byat spat. Erig just shrugged and cast a glance at that shadowy corner where the 'vampire' sat.

It was time for bed and I already felt really welcome here, but Yvette being all alone was bothering me and Kira kept coming up too.
I sat up and sighed, wondering how these Furs were able to sleep so soundly.
Shuffling of feet from the end of the shack caused me to freeze up.
I stared and saw as the two glowing eyes got closer in the darkness of the night.
The 'vampire' then stepped out into a patch of moonlight, she had brown stripes and curly brown hair with two earrings on each ear. She blinked, her unnatural yellow eyes sparkling in the moonlight.
She continued to walk down the row of skin beds but froze as she saw that I was watching her.

Slits formed in her once round pupils.
"H-hi," I muttered.
She blinked, "Hi," she responded in a accented voice.
"I'm Viktor, what's your name?"
She hesitated, as if her name was the hardest thing she ever had to say.
"Vadia," She responded slowly. "My name is Vadia."