Dangerous Journey (Tori/Erika/Arra/Brittany/Rurik)

[Larten Crepsley]

Larten led the way from the Cirque. Erika had requested to make a pitstop at the cemetary where her mother and father were buried and he had allowed it. The Vampire opened the gate to the cemetary. "Hurry. The night guard may not be out for long." He counted quickly within his head and said, "You have 15 minutes. After that we must be on our way." He smiled at the girl and then stepped to the side to let her through. He turned to Tori and Rurik, "Can you stand guard?" He did a quick lookover of the two. He sensed that they were more than friends, but he had no proof of it. "Its just for 15 minutes. We'll be back soon."

Larten turned back to where Erika had vanished. He soon caught up with her and said, "I know 15 minutes is not a long time, but something could happen in that short amount of time." The Vampire looked around, "Which ones are your parents' graves?" Larten wanted to say a few words to the graves of Erika's parents. He didn't feel right having just taken Erika's humanity from her and he wanted to let her parents know that it was his fault they had died. After all if he hadn't checked to see if Murlough had been killed probably then Erika would still have her parents.

The Vampire walked with the girl through the cemetary. He wouldn't deny her the chance to say goodbye to her parents one last time. He would allow her the chance to return every once in awhile during her time as a Vampire and of course when she became a full Vampire she could come and go as she pleased. He hoped that Erika learned a lot when she got to Vampire Mountain. Larten would help her on the way, but for the Trials he would need to find a trainer for the girl to help her through them. He had one in mind, but Larten would need to get the female Vampire to agree. For now he just wanted to see Erika's parents' graves.

[tori]

It's a bit like a trip, but you hit it with a slip of a tongue like a whip, and we're sinking. 
It ain't cool to be cool, though you may think it a laudable tool of self evaluation, of ego cultivation.
And I'm rolling my eyes like the stones for the lies.
Is it really all about the size, or just a simple vice...

I feel the fire flare alight inside me.

[/color][/I][/font][/center]

She knew it wasn't going to be an easy trip. 

Tori may not have been the brightest mind in the Cirque, but she knew that when you needed two "freaks" - one a vampire and one an animal-man - then the journey ahead was going to be a long a difficult one. She wasn't delusional enough to believe that this would be like traveling to a new city, or going to grab supplies. This would be dangerous. 

She was prepared, too. Her bag contained no medical supplies, as Tori's ability did not require them, but it did have a change and a half of clothes, a thin jacket, and a bit of food. Unlike Crepsley and Fox, who could hunt for their food, Tori couldn't do that. She had a feeling that Erika couldn't, either, and had provided for her, as well. However, she had a feeling that Crepsley would take care of her needs. 

He seemed to love the half-vampire already. 

She walked beside Fox, her hands aching to play the same game as earlier. Tori managed to resist for a while, but, right when Crepsley told them to stop, she couldn't help but reach over and touch Fox's hand gently with the very tips of her fingers. An odd sort of warmth rushed to her stomach. Tori had to fight back the urge to smile, and so she looked up at the old vampire. 

She hesitated at his request, but then nodded. She and Fox were needed here, and so here they would stay. That was all there was too it. Tori adjusted the bag on her shoulder, nodded once to show her agreement. 

"We can keep watch, Mr. Crepsley," she said quietly, eyes at his face, but never quite meeting his eyes. "You two go ahead and..." She trailed off, looked over to Fox. Within a few seconds, the two were gone, and Tori was left alone with fox-man. 

And she had never felt safer. 

[brianalunsford]

Once so hard to speak; now, so easy to play around,
Catching your eye, you know.
Catching that eye that slaps you in your face and calls you a puppy...
Well, how do you say, I was hypnotized? Hypnotized...

My words, they pour like children to the playground,
Children to the playground,
You make me smile...

Fox hadn't packed much.

If you could really call it packing.

He had with him three bags of beef jerky, two journals with a large packet of mechanical pencils to go with them (he had a habit of losing pencils), a Russian book, and his faithful, beat-up English-Russian dictionary, all stored in the overly large inside pocket of his worn down coat, not even enough to make a noticeable lump in the clothing. He didn't think he would need too much, and he could hunt, after all, if he got hungry. The jerky was just a bit of an "addiction" of his.

He hadn't brought alcohol; he hadn't thought Crepsley would let him get away with it, not around his new apprentice, and... Well, Tori didn't exactly know about his troubles with booze. Or his troubles with women. And he didn't plan on letting her in on either of them.

The Russian stood next to her, then, listening intently to Crepsley and nodding at his request, giving him a "Da," after Tori made her statement. They could stand watch, and while the other two were gone...

He looked to Tori, giving her a crooked, bright smile, his ears relaxing against his skull, his tail swishing and brushing against her thigh. She really was something. Something new. In the years since Evelina's death, he hadn't felt much more the physical attraction to a woman, physical attraction he normally acted on nearly immediately. But Tori... She gave him knots in his stomach, made his fur ruffle in delight with every random touch. And he loved it; he thrived in it. For the first time in a long time, he didn't need a drink or five to get him to sleep at night. He only needed a conversation with her.

He had noticed the way she acted around the Vampire, though, and felt the need to comfort her about it. "Crepsley is just teddy bear, you are knowing, ptichka," he said, voice and eyes gentle. "May look like grizzly, but would not be laying a finger on you."

---

"Da" means "Yes" and "ptichka" means "little bird" for anyone who's not Ali who is curious.

[brittney]

Erika followed the others as they headed towards the cemetary she had requested to stop at so that she could say goodbye to her parents' graves before setting off on their journey. She wasn't sure if she could trust Rurik, the fox-man, but if Tori and Larten thought he could protect her and Tori, then he must be a good person, right?

Soon, they arrived at the front gate that led into the cemetary and she listened to what Larten said. She nodded as she quickly passed the others and began to head towards the graves. She had visited them many times over the years and practically had their location etched in her memory. As she walked, she soon heard Larten catch up to her and continued to speak. "I know. Their graves are over there." As she said the second sentence, she pointed to two graves that were close by.

As she approached them, she felt the familiar sadness pull at her like a ghost's head, urging her to come and break down in front of the graves. She pushed this feeling away as she knelt down in front of the tombstones. "Hey, Mom. Hi, Dad. I would like you to meet someone. This is Larten and he is kind of my new adoptive father. I won't bore you with the details, because I don't have much time. I won't be able to visit you for a while, because I'm going on a trip, but I will be back as soon as I can. I love you both so much. G-g-goodbye." As she uttered that last word, she began to cry. Not waiting for Larten, she began to head back towards where the gate was at and where Tori and Rurik were waiting for them.

As she walked towards the gate, she felt like she had been punched in the chest and that her parents had died all over again. God, why do I have to feel this way? she wondered as she cried quietly. When will this end? When will I return to the girl I was before Murlough ripped the innocence from me? I was too young, too vulnerable, and he didn't care. He just saw them as food. I should have died with them, but instead I hid and he never found me.

Suddenly, fury raged through her body at Murlough. She wanted to kill something, anything, or at least hurt something the way Murlough hurt her. This emotion was so foreign to her that she didn't know how to deal with it or what she should do to calm herself down. Curling her hands slighlty, she looked over at a nearby tree and, without thinking, she attacked it the way most vampires do. Her fingernails connected with the tree's bark and she felt slight pain, but she didn't care if she felt physical pain. It was better than emotional pain. When she withdrew her fingernails from the bark, she saw that it appeared that a grizzly bear or some kind of large cat had scratched the tree. It looked to be a few inches deep and almost looked clean-cut in an animalistic way.

[Larten Crepsley]

Erika said her piece and started to walk away. Once she was far enough away he knelt beside the graves and said, "Look. Its kind of my fault the two of you died. Had I made sure Murlough was dead then the two of you and Erika would still be together. I know I can't bring you back to her, but here's what I can do. I will keep Erika safe and teach her the ways of the Vampire and help her get past her fears. I will also help her stand up to Murlough when the time comes." The Vampire took a deep breath and said one final thing, "I hope the two of you are in Paradise. That's a Vampire's version of heaven. I will make sure that Erika leads a good life so she can join you when she dies." With that Larten stood and turned towards the gate and saw Erika attack the tree.

Larten let Erika take her anger out on the tree. When she was done he stood by her side and asked softly, "Are you better now?" He didn't try to hold her in case she didn't want his touch right now. The Vampire loved the girl and would keep her safe at all costs. He looked at his three companions and said, "Ready?" It was time to push on and he wanted to be far from here when the night guard came around. The Vampire would make sure that Erika reunited with her parents after she died in the far future. He knew that it would be impossible to bring Erika's parents back.

The Vampire quickly fed Madam Octa who devoured her "lunch," and then covered her cage again. He wondered what the Princes would say when he brought in a 17 year old girl. He hadn't properly "killed" her, but Erika had said that her adoptive parents won't care what happened to her. And yes he did know she lied about her age and was no older than 17, but Larten hadn't said a word about it. He heard noises in the distance and hissed, "Time's up. We need to move." He started out hoping that Erika, Tori, and Rurik were following.

[tori]

The touch against her thigh was a welcomed one, and Tori couldn't help but smile back. Though she quickly looked away, her timid nature getting the best of her, she wasn't going to deny the fluttering feeling in her stomach, or the way her heart leapt when he had smiled back. She wasn't going to deny that he was handsome, or that he had been kind to her. 

But what she could deny was that he thought anything decent about her. 

She didn't know the workings of his mind, and previous encounters had taught her that men only planned to own her and use her. They had no real feelings for her. Hell, even her own husband had taken to reminding her constantly that she was his, and he could do whatever he wanted to her under God's Law. The thought always brought a disgusting sort of feeling to her stomach. Even now it made her a little queasy, but Tori wasn't willing to let those thoughts get the better of her. 

So far, Fox had been nothing but kind to her. She wasn't going to let him think that she was ungrateful by flinching from him. Besides, they were only playing a few harmless games; she could enjoy herself for a bit, right?

When Fox spoke, Tori glanced over at him and had to fight back another smile. Her eyes fell to the ground. "I, um... I don't..." She hesitated. What was she supposed to say? She knew Crepsley was a teddy bear? Because, really, she didn't. She had only met him a few times before then, and Tori had always been quick to dart in, give him whatever he needed, then dart out. 

Luckily, Crepsley and Erika arrived right then, and Tori quickly wiped the question from her mind. She smiled warmly at Erika, nodding her head gently, then averted her eyes from Crepsley. The young woman nodded. 

"Lead the way."

[brianalunsford]

Crepsley and Erika returned quicker then he had anticipated, and Fox was quick to straighten his posture, nodding to the Vampire and half-Vampire in turn. His tail, however, brushed against Tori's thigh again, in a reassuring manner. He didn't want her to be afraid, or nervous.

He would protect her if she needed it.

He waited for both Crespley and Erika to pass before waving an arm in front of him, telling Tori to go ahead. "After you," he said, warmly, his head tilting a bit and his ear giving a flick. His father had taught him to always be a gentleman.

He just couldn't help but wonder what exactly was in store for this little trip of theirs. He knew they'd be traveling through the wilderness at some point, so... he'd be a bit at home, or at least half of him would be, and hopefully that half would be able to tell him what to do. He'd camped before, but never something like this.

He just hoped they didn't run into any bears.

God, he hated bears.

[brittney]

A few minutes passed before she heard Larten’s voice and she nodded, not wanting to speak in fear of crying once again. The anger was slowly going away, but there was still a lot of it left along with the sadness. She couldn’t break down right now, not when the night guard could come back at any moment and catch them hanging around the graveyard. She could let out her anger and sadness some more later.

Suddenly, she heard some noise in the distance and her heart quickened as she looked towards the sound. She thought she saw a figure or two in the distance, but she couldn’t be sure who it was. When Larten said that it was time to move, she nodded and quickly fell into step beside him. Behind her, she sensed Tori and Rurik fall into step beside one another and wondered if they had feelings for one another. She had noticed the looks they had given one another, the way they acted when they were around one another, and she couldn’t help, but be reminded of how her parents had acted when they were alive and had thought they had been alone together. She smiled at the memory, but the smile quickly vanished when she thought she saw someone step into their line of view. She saw that it was a security guard and she thought, Oh, man, what are we gonna do now?

[Larten Crepsley]

Larten acted quickly. He flitted forward and as he did so breathed the knock out gas into the guard's face. He caught the falling guard and gently laid him to the ground. "Lets get out of here before anyone else shows up." Larten said grimly. He turned and walked away. He knew that the other three were behind him and would continue to follow. He wondered how the Council would feel about Tori and Rurik. Of course Erika would be ok since she was half Vampire, but Larten would explain why Tori and Rurik had come along when normally it was only Vampires and their assistants that made the long and dangerous journey. Larten couldn't wait to see the Clan again. He hoped that his assistant would be accepted into the Clan. Of course she would need to have her strengths and skills tested to the highest level, but he was sure she would get through.

Larten beckoned to Erika. He needed to tell her about the Trials so she could be prepared for them. He didn't want her to go in without knowing anything and embarrassing herself. Larten cared too much for the girl to let anything happen to her. "Erika I need to discuss something with you if you want to hear it." He looked over at Rurik and Tori and gave an unsilent message to keep watch. He hoped the two understood what he was saying with his eyes. Even a Vampire could be caught unawares if they were in an uncompromising position.