Oh So Savvy *OPEN*

[rayne]

Arra had been traveling for what seemed like an eternity. Yet it had only been a month or so. Sometimes she wondered if she really wanted to be a general any more, it always was so stressful. Yet she couldn't really complain, she had a remotely pleasant life, with nearly an eternity to live it in.

She was on her way back to Vampire Mountain. Traveling on foot was always a strenuous task, especially in these parts. Her joints seemed weak from exhaustion, her energy low from not consuming blood in at least a week, possibly more, maybe a few days less. Nevertheless, she was in need of it if she ever wanted to make it back in respectable time. It was as if she was on her last leg as she stalked through the dense, dark forest. She tugged at her long hair, searching out for one place in particular.

"There it is.." She said with a happy sigh. It was just what she was looking for-a way station. Inside she knew she would find supplies of blood, and a coffin for her to wait out the day in. Yet the cave in general would supply plenty enough preoccupation until night set in once more. She knew she wouldn't have to sit out in the shadows of the forest, and that was a welcome change.

She smiled as she stepped into the damp and dark atmosphere, welcoming everything it brought. She rummaged about until she found several vials of blood. With a selfish grin, she drank them with ease, much like a thirsty human would drink a glass of water. She wiped her mouth and crushed the glass under her foot, planning to sweep it out onto the forest floor before she went to rest inside the vacant coffins.

[Shendeth Evans]

The Cirque was, at this moment, passing through what seemed like the most absolute middle of nowhere. It seemed impossible that they would attract any visitors when even people to drink from were nowhere to be found. But somehow they did, and those visitors disappeared as suddenly as they had materialized. However even if the lack of people wasn't a problem for the Cirque, they had chosen to come to the edge of civilization after all, it was getting to be a problem for the young half-vampaneze who hadn't drank in ages. It was a curse.

Since the Cirque was parked for today Shendeth had gone out to explore the woods alone in an effort to escape duty for the day. He didn't expect to find anything, but the dark woods were his kind of place, reminiscent of home, and it made him feel better. Heaven knows he could do with feeling better. And so, not paying as much attention to where he was going as he should have, he wandered further and further. It was morning, and the sun was just starting to come up, so he wouldn't be missed yet.

He didn't know how far he had gone or how much time had passed when he heard footsteps. A woman was moving through the trees. Instinctively Shendeth seized the chance and followed her until she disappeared into a cave. He was tracking her to feed on but this aroused the boy's curiosity. It was with slow, silent footsteps that he eventually crept in the entrance after her. What he saw made him jump back and scrape against the wall of the cave.

He would have turned and ran, but now that he was already there and she knew it that would be pointless and in any case something held him in place. His sight flicked over the coffin, and then came to rest on the bottles of blood, one of which the vampiress had just finished emptying. He was thirsty. By the looks of this place she had to be a vampire. A detached part of his mind was curious about what this place was. He hadn't heard of caves set up like this before. But he hated vampires, and had good reason to fear them. Of course he hated the vampaneze for what they had turned him into almost as much. But.. he had just walked in on a vampire..

"Uh.. Hi. Sorry." he muttered, shrinking back against the wall a little.

[rayne]

She could feel the blood reviving all her dulled senses with each passing second. She closed her eyes to relish in the sweet taste left in her mouth. There was no doubt she would finish off another before she went to sleep, the opportunity was too delicious to miss anyway. Besides, she knew there weren't any humans for miles. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

Suddenly, her muscles tensed as she smelled something foul on the air. It wasn't the scent of a decaying animal, or the small drops of blood left on the crushed glass. No, this was a smell she was trained to hunt down and kill.

Hearing the voice, she whipped around and flitted over to the boy, gripping him tightly around his neck and emitting a slow, menacing hiss. She tightened her grip around his young neck and looked him over from head to toe. It wasn't until then that she noticed it was daylight. Whoever the boy was, he wasn't full blooded.

She released her tight grip on him and pushed him hard against the wall which he was already backed up against. She had just finished killing off a rogue vampire, so her normally creamy sleeves were dotted with blood from the awful scene. If anything, at least she would seem intimidating.

"You have exactly one minute to explain yourself before I murder you, Vampaneze dirt." She hissed, looking him over. He looked no older than 16, she would have to document that once she got back to Vampire Mountain. She couldn't understand why anyone, even the Vampaneze, would blood someone so young.

[Shendeth Evans]

One second the other person was over by the coffin, and the next she had a hand around his throat. Yeah, not good. As only half vampaneze, he couldn't flit. And he'd never been properly trained to fight. He wasn't a coward but he wasn't a fighter. He was the type to use his mind to get out of things and get other people to do the dirty work. He knew he didn't stand a chance.

Immediately he stiffened and tried to pull back. Though his heart beat faster and his dark eyes widened in fear, he regained some of his usual cold calm when he'd gotten over the shock. The important thing was not to panic. His eyes flicked over the vampiress's face and the cavern again as he tried to think of a way out. The only problem was that there were none. The vampiress could kill him right then and there was nothing he could do about it. He flinched away, now struggling to breathe. Turning ghostly pale he hoped she would just get it over with.

But she didn't. Suddenly the hands around his neck were gone and he was being slammed into the wall. He took a few ragged gasps of air. There was blood on her arms. Ha.. vampaneze blood probably. Why did the vampires hate them so much? 'Vampaneze dirt' and the vampires thought they were the 'good' side. What a lie. He'd known nothing from vampires but murder and hate. And it was still more than likely there would be another murder here today. He swallowed nervously.

"I didn't know." he said in honest, glaring at her hatefully. Then it came to him that full-vampires couldn't go outside in the daytime. The sun had risen now. Maybe if he could just keep her talking long enough to get back outside she wouldn't follow. It wasn't much of a chance, not at all, but it was the only one there was.

[rayne]

Arra could sense the fear inside the half-blood. It was an overwhelming state, she had been afraid too, yet in this case, she was not. She knew that she had the upper hand, at least while they were in the darkness.

What troubled her, however, was the fact that he was Vampaneze, and normally where there was one there were many. Little halfbloods didn't go running around without their mentor. His mentor was what Arra would be afraid of, they put up a long fight, the scoundrels. She pressed her palms harder against him, waiting for an answer. She was a general, and she did not appreciate being surprised by the likes of him.

She inhaled his scent again. He had another smell to him other than vampaneze, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She glared at him. "Who sent you here? Who are you with? Why did you follow me here?" She was going to get some answers out of this boy.

[Shendeth Evans]

Answers he would give without a fight. The only question was which answers to give. She was suspicious of his presence. He could scare her and say that he was part of a vampaneze army that had sent him there. But then she would probably kill him or take him hostage. It might be better to tell the truth. Vampires were supposed to be honorable, and there was no honor in killing an innocent. It would mean admitting that he was alone, a weakness, and he didn't doubt she'd try to kill him just for being vampaneze.

But it was also the only way she might let him go. There were vampires at the Cirque too, so being from there meant he wasn't an enemy. Hopefully she'd heard of it and would believe him. Shendeth had heard that it was the way of the vampaneze to never lie. Pfft, he lied all the time and was good at it. But she didn't know that, and the answers he was giving really were the true ones.

"Nobody sent me here. I'm with the Cirque Du Freak." She had no grown vampaneze to fear. He didn't know any and didn't have a mentor. That was thanks to the vampires. Admittedly it really was thanks; he had been treated more like a slave than a proper assistant and would have done the job on his own eventually. But that didn't make it right, or any better than it would have been if he'd been sorry. Vampires were dangerous killers too, thats what it had taught him.

[rayne]

She looked him over, removing some of the pressure she had on him. She used her hand to grip his shirt and she pulled him along with her as she walked farther back in the cave, occasionally glancing over into the wilderness behind her. She walked quickly, not willing to let the boy go easily. She had heard vaguely of the Cirque Du Freak, something of it, possibly. There weren't shows on Vampire Mountain, so it wasn't like she had seen it or anything of the like. She wanted more answers out of him, so she guessed she had to ask even more questions.

"What is your name? Why are you with the Cirque, and why are they out here in the middle of nowhere?" She continued with her never ending torrent of questions. She wouldn't let him leave until she was satisfied with what she had. All Arra wanted was to have a relaxing day before flitting as far as she could to get back to Vampire Mountain, she had a long way to go still. She didn't like having the interruption, and she would make sure he knew that before he left.

She pushed him lightly against the side of the cave and examined him once more. She scowled slightly and turned to the side, sniffing the cool, damp cave air mixed with blood. She wanted more of that delicious substance, but she was unsure if she should do so in his presence. "I'll ask again, why did you follow me in here?" She added, realizing that he had yet to answer that part of the question as well.

[Shendeth Evans]

He had no choice but to follow as she dragged him deeper into the cave. No, the other way! Shendeth struggled a little but his initial fear was under control now that she was no longer acting as threatening. "My name is Shendeth Carroway. I'm with the Cirque because I want to be.. and I have nowhere else to go. I don't know why we're here, we're just passing through." He didn't really want to tell her that much but he had to now.

A hint of annoyance showed through in his voice. Why all the questions? What did she care? The Cirque went almost everywhere. It was impossible to know where they'd be at any time. Mr. Tall made all the decisions about their plans and didn't tell anyone, if it even was planned and not just going wherever the wind took them. There was no 'why', he just was part of the Cirque. He liked it there and had no intention of leaving.

The vampiress's repeated examining of him did not escape his notice, and that was something he didn't like. He was dressed in a black band t-shirt, ripped black jeans and old sneakers; a bit ragged, and with his black hair now grown very long, but otherwise he looked exactly like any other human kid his age. The answer to the last question was one he didn't want to admit in full; saying that he had mistakenly wanted to drink her blood dry wouldn't go well. Shendeth shrugged.

"I saw you in the woods. I didn't know you were a vampire." he said the last word with some contempt and disgust. If he had known he wouldn't have been so careless. It had also for the most part been simple curiosity. He eyed her warily.

[rayne]

She nodded as she held him against the wall. She was one of the very few female vampires, and as far as she knew, the only female general. In her opinion, it was her right to question someone who came upon her like that. At least know who it was she planned on killing, if she had to. Yet Arra had a feeling that she wasn't going to have to kill the halfblood. In a way, she regretted threatening to kill the scared boy. She had to view the situation from his point of view, he was being, basically, held hostage by a vampire. She shook her head and examined him again.

"I'm Arra Sails, vampire general." She said, it was only respectable to tell him her name.

She thought about what he said for a moment. He didn't know she was a vampire, that gave most of it away as to why he followed her. Vampaneze had a way of dealing with humans, and it wasn't pleasant. That was a reason she had to kill things like him, it was awful to kill others, at least in her perspective. The only exception was the trials. If you were killed there, you were meant to die.

"Why would this Cirque willingly accept a half-Vampaneze, sir? I expect that you will know the answer, and I would like to have this information. Who voted for your residence?" Now she was asking questions merely out of curiosity.

[Shendeth Evans]

Shendeth nodded very slightly when she introduced herself. A vampire General. Great. Though if she had bothered to say that it might mean she wasn't going to kill him. He didn't know much about the vampire hierarchy but her title was pretty self-explanatory. The fact that they had no leaders like that was something that made the idea of vampaneze better. He didn't like rules. The teenager narrowed his eyes a little as he listened to Arra Sails's next round of questions, but overall he was getting calmer as she was.

"Why not? There are vampires at the Cirque." he answered indignantly. He expected she knew that much already. It wouldn't be fair to let in one race of the night and not the other. The Cirque was a neutral place. He saw it as a safe haven for anyone who belonged there and needed one. Most of the time it didn't matter what someone was, if they could pull their own weight and make themselves useful without being disruptive, and didn't belong somewhere else then they were free to join.

Mr. Tall rarely turned people away. And the half-vampaneze wasn't disruptive. He couldn't kill anyone at the Cirque, just like the vampires there couldn't kill him, no matter how much they itched to. "Mr. Tall, the owner of the Cirque offered to let me in. He doesn't take sides." Most of the Cirque people were humans who had nothing to do with the conflict.

Still.. "Most people there don't know." he added. For his safety he didn't tell anyone, and nobody who did know could break that. As far as he knew the only people who did know what he was were Mr. Tall, who knew everything, and the vampires. Apparently all vampaneze smelled to vampires. They had so rudely told him such, and it was the only way Arra couldv'e known what he was. Not that it should matter to anyone. But for some reason it did.

[rayne]

She looked him over and nodded. Mr. Tall, she had to think for a moment, wasn't he related to Desmond? Either way, she didn't care much for him. When he mentioned vampires were in the Cirque, she masked her surprise. She didn't really think that a vampire would want to be part of a freak show, as the title Cirque Du Freak suggested. Yet who was she to decide that? Others could frown that she was a general, doing the duties of the princes. She couldn't complain though, she had a good, long life. Besides the constant danger of dying.

Arra's eyes narrowed slightly, thinking about a way to find out more of the vampires in the Cirque. She liked to know the whereabouts of vampires, in case she ever need to find them. If she was just slightly more cruel, she would have forced Shendeth to take her to the Cirque so she could investigate and question Mr. Tall. However, it was daylight, and she didn't want to risk the burns, that wasn't something she would like to explain to the Princes.

"Tell me, Shendeth, who are these vampires? How old are they? Do you know if they have went through the trials yet?" She wanted him to be able answer all of those questions, but some would have to had him actually converse with the vampires and find about their date of change, age, and things of the like. Her eyes flicked back to the glistening bottles of blood. She couldn't deny, she needed more blood.

[Shendeth Evans]

It looked as though he had assumed wrong. He had given the vampire general new information. Oh well, he didn't really care. Things between the vampires were none of his concern. He thought back to the vampires at the Cirque. The only question he could answer first, their names. "Larten Crepsley. And.." he tried to remember the name of the other vampire. "Reaver."

The latter he didn't see as much as the former, though he made it a point not to see either of them. "I don't know how old they are. Old." Vampires lived for hundreds of years, and there was no way to tell. They could be 30 and blooded as recently as he was or centuries old and look no different. Which one was the case, the half-vampaneze neither knew nor cared. It wasn't like he had friendly conversation with them.

He knew Mr. Crepsley didn't trust him, from a remark about 'stinking vampaneze' or something like that when he first joined and the way the vampire looked at him when they crossed paths. Maybe they weren't so bad but he wasn't going to try to find out. He made it a habit to disappear or go the other way when he saw a vampire approaching.

"What are the trials?" Most likely just a vampire thing, but there was some genuine curiosity behind the question. He'd never heard of the trials before.

[rayne]

She blinked. Larten? Larten Crepsley? The ex-general? She shook her head in disbelief. "Larten? He has joined a circus? Of all the things he said he wanted to do when he..." She paused and looked out into the sunshine, it hurt her eyes if she looked into it for too long. But god, did she miss that warm sunlight or what. Looking back to Shendeth, her eyes narrowed.

"And Larten willingly accepted you as a member of that Cirque Du Freak?" she thought of what an awful embarrassment that must be to Larten, being labeled as a freak, traveling around and performing for humans. She felt sorry for the people there, no one should be showcased as a freak. One day she would have to ask Larten about all of this.

She shrugged, it wouldn't Hurt anything if he knew. "They're the Trials of Initation, they're normally taken by generals-to-be or games masters. If they fail the five trials, they are killed, that is if they can survive the trials themselves." She paused to smirk, remembering her trials. "You should ask Larten about his experience with them, it's quite the tale, or so I've heard." He had finally got one of his questions answered.

[Shendeth Evans]

Apparently the two vampires were old friends. Yes, Larten Crepsley was part of the Cirque. After all how many vampires named that could there be? He didn't know how many vampires there were in the world but it couldn't be a very big number, not compared to humans at least. It wasn't a bad thing to be part of the Cirque. Everyone was there because they wanted to. Shendeth wasn't a performer but it seemed like they didn't mind being 'freaks'. Better to be safe there than live as a vampaneze. He didn't want a new mentor or have anything to do with them. If only he could go home now that his mentor was dead. But he'd been pronounced dead as well two years ago.

"It's not his place to decide who is a member." He answered with a bit of a twisted sneer. If willingly was the key word then the answer was no. Shendeth knew Mr. Crepsley didn't like his being at the Cirque. But Mr. Tall was the owner, not him. He understood that the two were friends but if Mr. Tall was willing to let him stay than there was nothing Larten Crepsley could do about it. If he didn't like it he could always leave. Shendeth wasn't leaving. He put up with the vampires and they had to do the same for him.

He listened as Arra described the concept of the Trials of Initiation. Vampires were killed if they failed? That sounded harsh. Shendeth almost said so but didn't. Life as a creature of the night was harsh, he reminded himself. He knew that all too well. That was why he wanted to stay with the Cirque Du Freak. His year and a half as a vampaneze's 'assistant' hadn't been pleasant. He knew someday he would outlive everyone at the Cirque, but there was no point worrying about that until then. Vampire life wouldn't be any different. There was no point denying it. But at least some of them had had a choice to be blooded. Shendeth never did. He nodded at what she said about asking Larten to tell the story but doubted he'd ask the vampire anything.

[rayne]

She look at him with an awful grin. "It's not your place to talk to me like that." She paused to look to the side, flitting to grab a vial of blood and then back to grab him by the collar. She bit off the top of it, glass and all.

She licked her finger and wiped it on her cut, healing the wounds. She spat out the shards of glass and drank down the blood, smacking her lips and smirking. "Tell me, how does Larten feel about you murdering people just so you can be satisfied? I know I'd never stand for that." She added, pulling him away from the wall and walking around him, eyeing him cautiously.