Falls to Dust
vanilla #14 - around a campfire
Cyris was traveling with a vampire. To most people this would have seem like suicide but this vampire was different. He was kind and devoted; sometimes he seemed more human than most of the people she knew. They were traveling from the city of Adrian to the Forest of the Dead where this vampire would escort her to the village of Frenio. Before she got the letter from the people of Frenio stating that her grandmother had died protecting the village Cyris had no intension of returning to that place. There was something in that letter though, some sort of lingering fear that these people felt and that she could not ignore. So here she was, on her to way to Frenio, so she could protect it just like her grandmother.
Even for a vampire Alcander was strangely quiet as they walked along the Endless Plains. Horses were out of the question, they got too spooked by his presence, and they became more a nuitance than a help so they let them go. After traveling on foot for many hours they were now near the final boarder they would pass. After this they would stop for the night as the sun was going down and she knew he could sense that she was tired. That was the true downside to traveling with a vampire; feeling weak. A living, breathing mortal cannot compete with something that does not feel pain of exhaustion. He could have ran the entire way and not even broken a sweat but he did not. In fact, when she offered to just travel alone, he waved her off and insisted that they were going to the same place so they might as well go together.
"How is that fire coming?" He asked after they stopped. Cyris looked up and gave him a small smile.
"Give me one moment," she said placing her hands over the wood and closing her eyes. Picturing the roaring fire in her mind and she felt the heat flow form her fingers and to the wood. When she opened them the fire going quite nicely and she smiled to herself.
"That really is impressive." Alcander said sitting down folding his hands in his lap. She could see the mark on his hand burned into skin, the mark of the Mistress of the Night, the mark of her protectors, the mark of the Dark Knights. It was his job to keep the outside world away from the forest and soon it would be her job to keep the forest away from the outside world. With the stone of Niger Mortis gone things seemed less stable and she knew she was needed in Frenio as soon as possible. The desperation of the people was all over that letter. "What did the letter say that made you want to leave so quickly? I thought you had no intension of returning to Frenio."
"Well..." Cyris began, "The truth is you're right; I didn't want to go back when they wrote me that letter it seemed like they were so scared. I don't blame them either. All they have is the final barrier Elizabella put up and word of the Mistress that things are under control. And now there's only you..." She trailed off when she realized that losing the person he so obviously loved and his good friend at the same time must have been hard.
"They will be back when they're ready," he replied, "I know they won't leave me with all the work forever. They just need some time." Cyris nodded and looked at the fire in front of her. In her mind she pictured sitting around with fire with everyone. Luna talking about Earth and Trent filling in details; Mayonaka and Wind sitting silently together suddenly looking so alike in her own mind; and Sen would be hanging on their every word wanting nothing more than to see it all for herself. It was a painful sting to think about her lost sister but she knew she died defending someone, a good way to die, even if she was defending someone who did not deserve to die. Karayan later told her it was all Joseph's doing saying that someone had to die to break their spirits. In a way, Cyris knew he got what he wanted. She was alone now, all alone in the world, with no family left.
"You know, my mom used to tell me that no matter where I was in the world I would never be alone yet here I am with no family left. How is that not alone?" She was not sure if asking Alcander this was a wise thing to do but it weighed heavily on her heart and it needed to be said.
"You aren't alone," he replied easily, "Your family is not related to you but you have plenty of people who care about you. Lady Luna, Trent, Wind, Mayonaka and myself. Luna is just as alone but she knows she can depend on her friends to be her family as you must as well. The people of Frenio will become your family much like they were to Elizabella." Staring at this creature, this man that was once alive and now walked the world as a living dead, openly telling her to have feelings, to depend on people, to live and love and lose.
"Isn't it hard though? Watching the people and things you love turn to dust?" She asked and he shrugged as if it was not a big deal.
"All things turn to dust. You, me, this world, it all falls away eventually. It just takes some of us longer than others," he replied.
"So if we fall to dust what's the point? Why get close to people when you just end up hurt in the end?" She said and he watched her very carefully.
"I have been a vampire for over 700 years and I am one of the oldest creatures in this world. Yet I still care for Mayonaka and Wind when I know they have another fifty or so years before they die. With the way we live our lives it will be sooner but all that heartache is worth it when I think of all the times they made living like this worth it. Every smile, every laugh, all the good that comes with the bad. It falls to dust, we all fall to dust but it is our connection that make us live forever in a way that time completely ignores," he paused, "At least, that's what my mother told me." Cyris smiled and looked down at the fire. It popped and she found herself feeling better. Laying down near the warmth of the flame she told Alcander "goodnight" and closed her eyes realizing now that Sen's connections and how she effected people made her immortal, that her memory lives on, forever.