Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 10 | Day 24

In the end I don’t actually end up learning much from watching the process. The only thing that I can visibly tell with my level of magical senses is that the food and water is being converted somehow into miasma, which is then being used by the tissues and cells within my body as fuel instead of the regular nutrients. I can’t tell why this is happening, nor what the exact effects of it might be.

But at this point, I’m a little bit used to not knowing what’s happening in my own body. I’ll just have to figure it out as things go on.

After eating what must be months’ worth of food from the river, and even the fruits around the river, I make my way back to the cave, where I cover up the entrance almost entirely. Of course, not without having stashed a bunch more food in my storage before doing so. Since I’d rather not go back to starving again.

Then I make my way through the tunnel back to the house I claimed for my own, where I quickly set myself up on a bed to begin engineering spells.

This might take a while.

The city of New Hope

Year 2849 | Month 11 | Day 24

The sounds of daily activity echo throughout the city of New Hope – one of the few cities in the Kingdom of the Fallen that is not ruled by a magician. Amidst these sounds are the honking of an occasional car, the chatter of the people, and even a small band concert located at one small corner of the city.

Meanwhile, at the front gate, several soldiers of the city can be seen standing guard and checking the passes of the few visitors arriving at the city. Most of which are returnee traders who went to neighboring cities to trade their wares.

“So, hey!” one of the soldiers calls out to another after they direct a truck through the gate. The truck has a sturdy build, with wheels built especially for traveling on rough terrain – just like the majority of the vehicles used in the Kingdom of the Fallen, considering the lack of roads between most of the cities. The vegetation having overgrown across them in the many years of lack of maintenance.

A few other soldiers look towards the first one as the man continues, “What do you think about the rumors going around lately?”

The soldiers all share looks with each other in confusion until one of them speaks up – this one being a young woman wearing thin, older Kevlar military garb with long brown hair running down her back, “Do you mean the ones about the vampire in the woods up north?”

This sentence makes a look of realization dawn on the other soldiers faces, and even the driver of the approaching van who has his window down calls out from within his vehicle, “They’re just rumors! I’ve lived here my entire life and haven’t even so much as met a single vampire before!”

The man has an elderly appearance, with short gray hair, and an even shorter beard as he leans his head out over his window.

All of the soldiers turn to look at him before waving their hands in recognition of the old man who is wearing large overalls over a not-so-clean white shirt.

“Fredrick! You’re back!” the captain of the soldiers calls out while stepping out of the guardhouse stationed nearby for the soldier’s breaks. “What’s this I hear about vampires? Are you all talking about those rumors?”

Each of the soldiers nod their heads at that while still making sure to keep an eye on the woods north of the city for any undead that may have made it through the hunters.

“Yep!” Fredrick shouts while stopping his van and grabbing a clipboard one of the soldiers hands him.

“There must be some truth to it, even if whatever it is isn’t a vampire,” the soldier who originally brought up the topic adds in with a frown.

The captain nods his head at that and crosses his arms as he says, “Yeah, those’re my thoughts as well. Especially since I’ve seen the corpse.”

“The corpse?” the old man asks with a frown while turning to look at the captain and handing the clipboard back to the soldier. “You mean something really is out there?”

A look of fright fills the man’s eyes for a second at that thought, but it goes away just as quickly when the captain shakes his head and says, “No. Not anymore at least.”

Just to come right back when another soldier adds, “It could just be hiding somewhere.”

The other soldiers all glare at the guy who said that, and one of them even walks up to him and whispers, “Please don’t scare off one of the few merchants willing to leave the city walls,” in his ear.

This just has the guy shrugging and going silent.

The captain lets out a sigh at that before looking at the old man again, who is now beginning to pass through the gate, having been cleared for entry by the soldier in charge of verifying the paperwork.

“Just be sure to take a hunter with you and you’ll be fine,” the captain says while waving at the old man who is also waving back. He then turns to the one who had spoken and adds, “We already have the majority of our population hiding out inside of the walls. We don’t need more of them doing that. So please watch your mouth.”

‘Even if it is true,’ he thinks without speaking that part aloud before turning around and making his way back to the guardhouse.

After the man closes the door to the guardhouse, the other soldiers all turn to look at the woods across the clearing from them in silence as there are no other visitors at this moment.

Several minutes pass by with the silence extending in length until eventually, the first soldier to speak earlier breaks it by asking a question that has all of the others turning to stare at him.

“Right, the reason I brought up the rumor in the first place was to ask something. What’s a vampire again?”