It's 4510. Human were forced to share everything they have with vampires--nightwalkers. Things used to be peaceful, but not now, things were messed up and drove human to come up with the terms dead slayer to protect themselves. That was the start li...
"Alright, forget it. What do you think happened to the village?" Bess follows the boys' step, taking the boiled potatoes, and eat it. Bess' eyes almost rolled back as a reaction to how good the taste of the warm food on her tongue. It's been too long since good food, or at least, edible food.
Brook lifts his shoulder, finish chewing his food before answering.
"Like you said, no signs of violence. That means, the villagers left the village together, or someone asked them out of the village, peacefully."
Bess shakes her head, thinking about the possibility for several times.
"No, not possible. When I came here--" Bess points to the table near the sink. She had put all the cold food she found there. Bess agreed that the chicken looked amazing, but she's not taking the chance of getting a stomachache. "The food was cold, and hard. I bet the humans here have been gone for at least before sun up."
Brook frowns.
"Then we have no choice but to examine this village thoroughly after dinner."
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Brook walks, with a torch in his right hand. After a heavy negotiation, Bess and Brook convinced Henryk to stay at the house alone. The kid was scared, obviously, but there's no room for fear if he wants to tag along with the Redhounds. Henryk didn't realize but nothing can hurt him with the Redhounds close by. They can sense it if someone is about to go through the gate.
"All the doors are open, Bess. That's the weirdest thing for me." Brook moves his torch around, to lit his view of the houses he passed on. Bess and Brook always start from the furthest part of anything they examine.
Redhound's rule, number two. Always find the closest spot to hide safely. Hide, not escape. Redhounds are not cowards. In this case, Bess and Brook agreed that the safest side of the village is the gate. If anything's about to attack them, they can run out of the gate and towards the market. It's late now, but Serbab's night market last to 3 in the morning. There's housing near the market too, if they scream they'll get everyone's attention.
"Yeah, that kinda bothers me too. Not only the doors to the house are open, but also all the doors inside." Bess walks slower, to point one of the houses with a lot of windows where they can see the open doors from outside.
"See?" Bess whispers. Brook squints his eyes and nods.
"Yeah, creepy." Brook shivered. Bess saw that, and chuckled.
"You're scared, big bro? Last time I checked, I think I'm the little sister, and you're the brother."
Brook rolls his eyes.
"Come on, Bess, as a Redhound I'm a hundred percent feminist. Getting a beat up from a Redhound woman? That's an honor for men." Brook whispers. The silence kinda made him uncomfortable.
"But that doesn't work if you're also a Redhound." Brook stopped when they reached the field. "Redhounds men should be stronger than Redhound's strongest woman."
"So you're like... sure you're mega-strong right now?" Bess throws a look towards the field. Her instinct--she's a Redhound, her instinct is absolute--said there's nothing in the field. Unless the 'thing' is on Savarah mountain, that's another story.
Brook sighed in disappointment, and turned around, followed by Bess not long after. "Let's talk about my strong power next time. There's something more important we have to talk about besides my mega power."
Bess nods and looks towards the house on her left. She pulled Brook towards the house with her, and he follows. The house has two stories, just like most of the houses in Tura. Most of Tura's families are big, Tura never accepts outsiders as their own, so they're demanded to have at least more than two children to keep the village going.
Bess steps on the veranda of the house, and walks in carefully. The first thing she saw after the open door is a simple living room, with a short table, cushions for sitting, and a radio. Electronics are luxurious in this era, only the riches live with technologies. Like those in Orro, for example. That town is so 'futuristic', while the others are stuck in stone-age. Ever want to experience time travel? Bess always feels like she does when she walks from Orro to Zoroezo. Living in Orro makes her feels like a princess, but walking in Zoroezo makes her feels like a ninja.
Like how she feels right now.
The house is empty, obviously. The house also doesn't seem like it belongs to the farmers, but more like the headman's house.
"I think that other one is also his." Brook broke the silence. Sometimes Bess swears Brook and her share the same mind, at the very same time.
Bess just nods, she knows Brook was referring to the house in front of this one, when she saw the portrait hung in the living room. In the portrait there's a man, with tanned skin, and a warm smile. Bess knows him as Mr. Turley. Beside him is a woman, simple in a beautiful beige dress, and four kids, two girls, two boys.
Brook walks out of the house, towards the other one beside it, they check the house one by one, slowly, until they reached the middle point of the village. At that time, Bess and Brook feel like they need to get to two teams to get the job done faster. They don't even know what they're looking for. Bess and Brook got out of the house almost at the same time, and they met in the middle.
"Should we... stop?" Bess sighed. Brook lift his left hand closer to his face, looking at his wrist, and Bess almost cursed at Brook. She has been wanting to know the time since they entered the village. There're clocks in the houses and she just realized that now, she should have checked on them.
Bess quickly pulls Brook's hand towards her to see the watch on him. 4.30.
"It's almost morning. Good."
"Since when did you go out of the house without a watch?" Brook lift his eyebrows. Bess admit, that's a very strange thing. Bess collected a lot of watches that she left at home, in Orro. Yes, the Redhounds' mansion is in Orro, the town of the riches. While now, the two of them--Bess dares to bet Brook is in the same situation as she is--traveling around with no money except coins in their pocket.
"I left my watch in the last motel I stayed in." Bess pushes Brook's hand back to where it was. Brook reached to his back pocket and pull out a white wristwatch and give it to Bess.
"This is for you, then. I got this when I had lunch in Serbab, a man insisted that I give him the raven I caught in the woods for this."
"A raven, for a white watch. Alright." Bess took it, and look at the watch. It's pretty, and whithappensen to be her favorite color.
"Thanks, brother." Bess puts it around her wrist, and she somehow feels like she can breaths more easily now.
"I guess we have to keep on doing our research." Brook's back to worrying about his surroundings.
"What it is exactly that we're looking for, Brook?" Honestly? Bess is starting to get desperate.
"I don't know, Bess. I just know there must be something."
Brook was about to go to another house, when that feeling came.
Brook froze in front of Bess, back facing her.
With that Bess was sure Brook felt what she felt too. There's someone... something near them.
