Daye (complete)

The Watch

    LUCA walked at Decide's left, anxiously twiddling with his satchel. He knew the kinds of monsters that roamed the world at nightfall, as he was one of them. He did not however like to associate with them. Lycanthropes were considered beasts of the Darke, but they were an intelligent species, and mainly kept to themselves.

Vampyres, revenants, and the other kinds of undead- they only sought the destruction of the creatures of lyte.

Decide grumbled, "There should be a village around here somewhere," and hefted the coffin higher on her back.

Luca pulled off the hood that covered his head. "But what if there isn't?"

"Then we'll have to sleep in a tree. And keep watch."

Luca sighed sadly, his feet growing heavy. They'd been walking for hours and hours and it was so dark they could barely see five feet in front of them.

Finally Decide slowed to a stop. "Shall we make camp, then, Luca?".

"We don't really have a choice..." he groaned, exhausted.

A few yards away a small grove of oak trees stood, so the two companions headed there, hoping to find a suitable tree to sleep in. A tall, leafy one on the edge was found to have a couple low-hanging branches that were close enough to the ground that Luca and Decide were able to climb up into the foliage. With some effort, the large coffin was chained to a thick branch at the base of the tree, and Luca's bag tied to another branch near it.

A large branch in the middle of the tree was long and wide enough to accomodate both travellers, so they tied themselves to it and lay down as comfortably as they could manage. Decide offered to have first watch, and Luca gratefully fell into a deep slumber.

Decide had all the time in the world to think, and pondered over the things that had been troubling her for a while. The Darke was changing. Whether in a bad or a good way, she didn't know. But is was changing. It was affecting its creatures, making them more powerful- at least that's what Decide had gathered. The vampyres were faster, smarter, and always left that mysterious message. Now she'd learned that the werewolves were gaining better transformation abilities. What did that mean for the creatures of the lyte? Were they bound to change as well?

Humans were creatures of lyte. What would happen to them?

Something was going on with the balance of the powers in the world, and Decide knew something big was bound to happen- she hoped it had nothing to do with her. She'd had enough of a tough life already.

And this King of the Nyte intrigued her. He must be the king of the vampyres, then, maybe even king of the creatures of the Darke.

But the annual Moone Festival was approaching, and that's why Decide was going to Cyule- humans were out at all hours of the night during the week of the festival, frolicking, and partying. Large groups of people together always drew hordes of vampyres, and since there were thousands in the capital city, the royal family hired wandering mercenaries and hunters to help the soldiers protect it.

They paid a lot, but it was dangerous. Decide hadn't done it before, but had met others who had, and they told tales of the blood-craze the monsters went into, how difficult it was to kill them, and the sheer number of them altogether.

Decide needed more money, even with the amount she'd gotten from the mayor's widow. The pay from the festival would definitely help, and, well, honestly she was just sick of travelling from town to town. So much walking, it was exhausting, and boring.

Not every village had vampyre problems either.

Decide lapsed into a comfortable silence, thinking of her plans for the future, and listening to the not-so-scary sounds of the forest around her, the rustling of leaves in the wind, the very distant sounds of howling, and the gentle snoring of the sleeping wolf-boy.