New Beginnings

14. Laura

"Wow so that was a thing." Laura said.

Amaya nodded beside her.

"Yeah for a second I wasn't sure we were going to get out of there."

The Satyr cocked her head and winked at her.

"Well at least not without you getting another dose of Spriggan seduction eyes."

"Wait," Laura's jaw dropped. "That was a Spriggan back there?"

The two were walking back to the house, short four satyr children, with one of them very much trying to pretend nothing of note had happened at all.

"Yes. She's the only one I know personally and boy did she want to get to know you personally. I knew she'd like you but damn, I thought you said the other one was the vampire seductress."

"Carm gets told none of this, I'm warning you hoofed lady... person. Not one word or Spriggan or not you'll be short one neighbour. Carm is not above burning down a forest, she'd probably quite enjoy it actually."

Amaya's eyes were twinkling.

"Oh, don't be so uptight. Verashma is real good looking for a thousand year old forest creature. Who would have thought forest living would result in such great skin?"

"She was lovely." Laura said through gritted teeth. "I was very flattered, but I happen to have a girlfriend I'm absolutely one hundred percent committed too. Like Frodo travelling to Mordor committed. And in regards to said girlfriend, I love her but let's just say she's not exactly stellar on the whole 'don't be possessive about your loved one's thing'. She's getting better, but yeah like I said, one word, one burnt down forest."

Amaya simply laughed and they kept hiking.

The morning clouds had given away to a midday shining sun and once again Laura found great pleasure in taking in her surroundings.

Out of a small forest that Laura now suspected probably wasn't a fully natural occurrence, they were back on the grassy fields. Behind them and beyond the forest the Apennines Mountains stood tall in the distance. They should come back when this was all over Laura decided to herself, the area was beautiful and varied, it would be a joy for her and Carmilla to explore it without being in the middle of a crisis. She smiled to herself as thoughts of the adventures they could have exploring the world filled her mind, Carmilla's promise of showing her everything there was to see ringing sweetly in her ears.

Despite the dangers of the past couple of days, a part of her reflected that it had done them both good to get out of their cottage and face the world again. She promised herself that once this was over she would make sure the cottage's cosy comfort never lulled them into turning it into a cushy prison of their own making.

"It's hard to blame her." Amaya said abruptly as the house became visible in the distance.

"Sorry?"

"Your girlfriend, you can't blame her for feeling a little defensive about you. It's hard not to notice the way she looks at you. If only the father of my children ever looked at me with even half as much love as that. A vampire or a former one of that age, the things she must have seen and done. That puts you in a dark place and the better you are deep down inside the worse it is. I don't claim to have experienced the darkness a centuries year old vampire would have gone through but I've lived awhile and I've had a taste of it, the kind of darkness where you lose hope, start to think that it might be better to give up on everything so it won't hurt as much. Luckily, I had my kids, they shined a light down for me to get out. I owe them so much for that."

She gestured towards Laura.

"I don't need to ask if you do that for her, those looks tell me everything I need to know. I don't claim to know you two well, but I think I can empathize with how precious you must be to her."