Never Leave

"So what was that thing that took the kid?" Lavia said in a soft tone.

"I'm pretty sure a skin walker, now that I think about it." Gawain responded without looking at her, his golden gaze out into the barely lit road. The only illumination from a lamp sitting besides Lavia. He could see through the darkness of the dense forest but the horse couldn't.

"A skin walker? Like a shifter?" She said as she gently rubbed a rag across her hammer, she hasn't been able to use it but she's kept up with her weapons rather often.

"Shifters are humans who are born with a specific magic. Skin walkers are creatures of dark, so their either born of a mistake, curse, or the dark gods." He explained, not surprised she didn't know. To most of the world they were just things to kill or fear.

"How do you claim them different from chaos beings?" Lavia had been a lot more peaceful lately Gawain has noticed, no attempts on him and less aggression. It was welcomed and needed, he didn't like being on edge all the time.

"Beings of chaos, don't reproduce, they are existing things corrupted beyond reason by the winds of magic. I, was made of another vampire, hence a reproduced." He said distantly, he was coming to terms with himself though it still felt weird out loud.

"I've heard they take women for breeding" Her tone sounded stronger, it seemed important to her.

"Brianna told me that women who have their baby in the chaos land. The baby is corrupted while still in the womb creating a new fiend." It was cruel, the baby being twisted by the magics before it could even grow the will to resist it.

Lavia didn't speak right away she only looked off into the darkness of the forest, she looked saddened by his revelation.

"Do they survive?" Lavia asked like a whisper.

Gawain finally turned his gaze to her, she didn't look back as if trying to find a way to hide her pain.

"No."

Lavia closed her eyes, her lip quivered slightly before she shifted her whole body to have her legs hang off the side of the carriage. She didn't ask anything else, which disappointed him. He had hoped to bond with her through a bit of story telling, the exchange of informtion put her off.

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The cold breeze that rushed through the bundle of trees that surrounded and attempted to conceal Gawain's vision pressed against his unaffected skin, just another advantage of his undeath. He barely tired, he knew that body could go days without rest now a feat that would leave him weakened and insane in life. There were tons of trees surrounding this barely existent path he forced his steed to follow. Overgrowth where the road obviously use to sit, even the signs of previous travelers taking same course appeared weeks old. Not a single track lead the opposite direction.

A small light indicating life was now visible to Gawain, it appears to be a small town in the distance. He could see crude walls surrounding it, stranding tall to keep all manner of beasts out however from even this distance point he could tell that the gate was left wide open. "That's odd, usually towns this late will screen travelers... Especially when so deep in the woods" Gawain said out loud to no one since Lavia had gone inside the carriage to rest.

The horse snorted out and attempted to stop, only to have Gawain urge it forward but it still fought him, to think a horse raised by the vampires would be freaked out by anything was absurd. He reached his hand out towards the creature, his manipulation wasn't strong enough to really control the intelligent but a simple horse was easy enough. The creature seized it's resistance and pulled the cart calmly towards the town once more.

Gawain was now more on guard, the instincts of an animal shouldn't be so easily played off and even his own blood urged him forward. The two events obviously meant danger, though as long as no one threw silver at him there was very little for him to fear. That thought calmed him, though it did not last for long.

The moment he passed through the open gates of the town he felt a shift in his body, as if he had jumped into a pool of water. He was still himself, the world was all the same but something felt different.

The town's buildings were made of grey stone, standing rather firmly in place though the streets seemed almost run down. Every window he could see were boarded up from the inside, the only homes that didn't had shattered glaas and doors. It was obvious that something was breaking into the people's homes, the heartfires he could hear all beated rapidly from within the boarded houses.

"Where are we?" Lavia asked, opening the door on the side of the carriage.

She must have stirred awake when they went through the gates thought Gawain, which only confirmed his suspicion that there was something wrong going on.

"I don't know, some town. It's not abandoned I believe" He said stopping the carriage by a well.

"Could have fooled me." She looked around, still not stepping out of the carriage. "Are we gonna stay here long?"

"I don't think that'd be a good idea" He said softly slowly stepping off the carriage, his leather boots resounding a soft thud with his landing. Gawain walked over to the well, looking down at its depth with his vision that excelled at night.

At the bottom floating on top of the waters were skeletons, human skeletons from the looks of it. They were scattered, however Gawain could count at least thirty heads that weren't submerged. There wasn't a single scrap of meat left on the white bones, which was the part that disturbed him the most.

He gazed at the bones with disbelief, why weren't they buried, how long have they been sitting at the bottom of this well to have had all the flesh dissolve already? Could that even happen within the span of months without rats eating away at it? He stepped back cautiously from the well, looking over at Lavia who was looking around like a hiding animal.

"I think we should go" His voice sounded slightly panicked.

"I think that should be best." She agreed.

Gawain jumped back up onto the carriage and urged his horse to move quickly through the town, despite how much he didn't wish to be within it's dingy walls he wasn't about to backtrack and lose valuable time in getting to Lavia's homeland. The further in they traveled into the town the stronger the sense of wrongness filled them both, and to Gawain the scent of blood became stronger. It came from the homes that had broken down doors, at the end of some alleys and at times the streets. The presence of death was obvious, but there was a bit of hope at the end of this. The east gate was opened, he wanted to get out quickly.

To get away from the urges of his body, there was a bliss in being in a state of danger that Gawain was not use to; it felt so unnatural. The horse pulled carriage went through the gates, Gawain letting out a sigh of relief relaxed. This moment of peace was short lived the moment he was now again in the village and could see the well in the distance.

"Lavia" He said softly looking up at the sky, there weren't any stars for some reason however there was a bird flying across the sky. He watched it, seeing it fly over the walls only to disappear. The instant it passed a certain boundary it's shape faded, the pretty red and black bird disappeared from view.

"What?" She said as she opened the door "Wait why are we still here?"

"I'm not sure" He said his eyes still on the sky, confused by the lack of stars. Then something caught his gaze, a red and black bird flying over the walls. As before it nearly instantly disappeared, it appeared and disappeared. Each time it happened Gawain realized it wasn't a different bird but the same one. Caught in a loop, he did end up back at the beginning of the village. He was trapped too.

"I think we might be stuck." He said finally looking away from the repeat fail escapee.

"What do you mean stuck?" She growled at him, finally exiting the carriage.

"That you cannot leave, we are all stuck here. We've been cursed by a witch." A unfamiliar voice spoke.