Lonely One

Chapter 3 - Searching for Blood

××Stormy××

"Fallow, stop breathing on me," I groaned, rolling onto my side in an attempt to escape, trapping my own arm under me as I did so. The breathing only followed me as I moved. I flailed my free arm out and seemed to miss each time, hitting only air and then the wet, grassy ground.

I cracked my eyes open a tad to try and find where I needed to aim my hand; what I saw instead had my eyes snapping open in panic. I sleepily grabbed for the knife on my belt and swung it upwards, my movements slower than I wished due to just waking up.

"Hey, no need for violence," The tall man said casually as he jumped back with a grace I did not possess. He seemed to brush off the fact that I was blatantly threatening him with a sharp object.

"Who are you?" I screeched as I pushed backwards, attempting to stand up. My feet slipped on the damp grass and I fell backwards, landing on my side and hitting Fallow with my body. He grunted in surprise and stood, letting me fall once again. Fallow grunted in annoyance as I used him to haul myself up. My pride was broken but I still held up my weapon.

"My name is Niton," The man said, holding in a laugh. I could see the amusement clear on his face. His dark clothes stuck out against green leaves and he almost looked uncomfortable. Niton held a pale hand out towards me in greeting.

I glared harshly at the hand extended before moving the glare to his still amused face. He dropped his hand with a shrug.

"What is yours?" He prompted after I only continued to glare. My mind was still trying to catch up and anger was the only emotion I could exert.

"That information is none of your business," I barked, pushing back against Fallow. He brought his head up and gently let his head land on my shoulder, watching the scene unfold. I briefly sent my glare his way. He hadn't warned me that someone was approaching and he didn't seem at all concerned with the current situation. What a traitor.

"Quite rude to ask my name and not offer your own," Niton said, stepping closer. I growled in warning and tightened my grip on my knife causing a smirk to appear.

I allowed my eyes to stray from the strange man as I looked at my surroundings. I wasn't trapped. I could bolt in any direction but backwards if I needed to. Niton's smirk widened and just as I readied to take off, he stepped back, disappearing to the other side of the wall of leaves.

I followed behind him carefully, watching in silence as he pulled a black, intricately designed knife from the air. He flipped it around his fingers a few times before his head snapped upwards, his eyes watching my startled jump. My hand holding my knife shot up again, ready to defend myself.

He looked back down, a satisfied look set on his face after seeing my fright. He crouched down, running his fingers across the moist grass, pressing them into the soft dirt. He brought his fingers up to his nose and breathed in deeply. Just the action brought the smell of fresh soil to my own.

Niton brushed the bits of dirt off the ends of his fingers with little care. He seemed to shrug slightly before stabbing the knife downwards, into the ground, before repeating the action once more, taking in the scent on the blade of the knife.

"What are you doing?" I questioned carefully. I reached my hand back to pull my backpack around my body, needing to get something to drink but came up empty. I sighed internally; it was still sitting under the tree.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Niton chuckled, his dark eyes side-glancing at me. His gaze made me extremely uncomfortable, but he was doing something strange. Something strange near the forest I lived in. The forest my family and friends lived in.

I couldn't just let it go and forget about it. At least not with a good conscience.

"I would," I challenged, placing my hands on my hips.

"What?" Niton's eyes met mine, surprise written across his face.

"I would like to know." I wasn't going to back down.

Niton raised a brow before standing, letting the knife in his hand disappear like ash in the wind.

"I'm looking for blood." As Niton spoke, he turned his back to me and looked up at the sun just beginning to show over the dense trees.

"Blood?" My eyes glanced at the ground and to the scenery around me. There was no sign of a fight, no sign of blood anywhere. The footprints on the ground all looked to be from calm walking. No scrapes across the ground, no sign of a struggle. The low hanging branches on the trees were intact, no sign of breakage.

"Demon blood." My eyes snapped to meet his, already boring into my own and seeming to look right through me.

My mind flashed back to the stories Mom and Dad had told me and my siblings. Stories of evil and darkness and demons. Specifically a red demon that had escaped into the middle realm and attacked Fae Isle. It had leveled an entire acre in one fiery breath before attempting to cross the sea.

I remembered the look in my mom's eyes as she described the devastation that befell the creatures living in the forest at the time. I wasn't alive when it happened and I'm glad of it.

"You are looking for demon blood?" My voice wavered at the word demon and I mentally cursed at showing weakness. I knew I wasn't safe with this man but now I was unsure if I should even be near him. The crack in my confidence seemed to spur him on.

"That is what I said." Niton's tone was harsh. He had turned away, hiding his expression from me but I doubted it was anything I wanted to see.

With Niton's back turned, it wasn't hard to mount Fallow. I lifted myself onto Fallows back silently and Fallow positioned himself in the best way possible to take off.

It was only when Fallow started moving did Niton turn back to us, the sounds of Fallows hooves altering him to our departure. Niton merely looked on with a stoic expression as we climbed higher in the sky and away from him.

"That was weird," I said softly. Fallow grunted in response, understanding the word weird and being able to place it with the tension surrounding the conversation on the ground.

"Hopefully that's the last we'll see of him."

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Blatant foreshadowinggggg
This was written like a year ago. Wrote the book in 2 different years cuz procrastination so if stuff doesn't fit together, let me know