Hidden Truths - Ethan

13 - The Mountain

"You might be right but even then I would know that somebody's missing here," he murmurs before he nods lightly. "I won't tell my people as long as it's not necessary," he then says.

"Warlow wasn't here that often lately, was he?" I ask curiously. It's not that I doubt that he was good at his job, but he was more into pleasure hunting than hard work.

"No he wasn't, but we normally didn't meet each other if there was nothing to talk about. After the Great Battle, I kept the peace between my people and yours and there weren't a lot of things to argue about."

"Hm," I can't hold back a bit of a disappointment though. I thought that there would have been at least a bit more information about the human companion of Warlow or that he was chitchatting a bit here. There are little other pieces of evidence left that I can follow.

I have some memories of the Great Battle coming up but try to not let that shine through. It could be interpreted wrong when I start smiling now. "I'm not Warlow," I point out instead.

"I figured that. So, what do you suggest?" Lyall wants to know with another grin.

"I'm taking this pretty serious," my eye twitches as I try to buy myself some time to think.

"I will not pretend to understand you and your way of living, but I need to learn if I want to find my way into this position. I will make sure that our and your interests are taken into account equally. Leaving that one murder aside, I never want that there are incidents just because we did not talk to each other. I will visit at least once a month to share information. Both ways," I lick my lips.

"I suggest that you be pretty careful who to trust. This time it was one of ours, but if it wasn't you - who could tell that it's not one of yours next? After all, we are all vampires."

"Don't think I don't take it seriously either. I'm aware of the burden I carry. I'm not a fool," He nods. "Sure, it seems to be worrisome for both of our kinds. If you also doubt that a human is responsible for that - the only answer is that it was either one of my kind, but not belonging to my tribe... or it was one of your kind... Maybe someone wanted to get rid of Warlow? But well..." his grin grows.

"You seem to be the one taking profit by getting his post... and I don't want to impute that to you."

Now I have to smile too. As if I would have expected to land on that spot. "Seems like you got me straight away..." I jokingly say but become serious again.

"Lord Blackwood takes this very personally. As an attack of our kind as vampires - no matter how we've chosen to live. I know I'm new and you owe me nothing, but I would like to ask you to do me a favor and make sure to look out and inform me, as soon as anything changes. May it be the tiniest thing," I realize my commanding tone in the end but can't change it anymore.

Lyall's grin disappears. "Of course I would report any treacherous thing that comes to me, but I can assure you, that none of my people here is responsible for this. Anyway, I will tell them to keep their eyes and ears open - if anything happens within this forest, we will know it and tell you about it." He smiles again at the end of his sentence.

I think we found a common ground pretty quickly and I hope that this is not just talking but that those actions discussed will follow. With that, my duties are fulfilled and the official part is done for today, but I would like to find out more about this man, with whom I will have to deal with. How to find out if what he says can be trusted?

"That's good. I'm happy we can come up with that kind of arrangement without any bad blood." At some point, the simplicity of how they live and are arranged is refreshingly new. I consider a few moments but finally ask, "Lyall, do you allow me a personal question?"