Mourning

Chapter 38:

Mourning

In a beautiful forest, far, far away from any outside influence, there stood many large trees all around, with wildlife frolicking all over it. It was a serene day and nothing out of ordinary was going on inside it.

Suddenly, this serenity was broken by the appearance of three bodies who came out of nowhere, with no warning whatsoever. The trio plopped onto the ground and cold sweat could be seen all over their faces.

Their bodies were shuddering all over, and they were panting in search of air. Lying on the green grass floor, staring into nothing in particular, and needing time to restart their brains. The events happened all too quickly and they could not yet believe what had transpired.

The young vampire was the first one to come to his senses, and he started murmuring. "I need to go back and look for my father." He told that to his body over and over and got louder each time.

At last, he screamed at his body to stand up, but alas, it was not listening and he was lying there completely exhausted.

Richard and Sniffy were in the same state and could not move. Their bodies were too exhausted from withstanding the pressure of the monster, and it was also an arduous battle.

The duo was coming to their senses when they heard Kyle screaming next to them and Richard answered in an exhausted tone.

"Kyle, we cannot go back, not like this. Look at us, we cannot even get up. Even if we could, what would you do? Faced with such a being, what could any of us do?"

His friend heard this but could not accept it. Tears were streaming down his face when he thought about his dad. "Damn, useless body."

Kyle said while he could only look at his powerless body lying around on the ground. "I need to do something. Maybe he is alive, somehow? I cannot be here if he needs me."

Richard could only think of what he could say to help his friend. However, he had seen the last explosion alongside the others and knew what this would mean. He said with a face full of sorrow. "You saw that last explosion. You should know what this should represent. We all were completely outclassed. This being was not something any of us could do anything against. This explosion should have been the doing of your dad. He had sacrificed himself to help us escape."

Hearing this, Kyle could only wail louder and was not accepting it. "Maybe he used some unknown artifact or something like that. He could still be alive."

Not wanting to destroy the last hope Kyle had, Richard said in a calm voice that was full of emotion. "Maybe, but it is much more likely that he sacrificed himself for us. We wouldn´t be here if the explosion hadn´t taken place. He gave it his all for us. This creature was much stronger than any of us could have ever imagined.

It's much more likely that it has survived this blast. We cannot go back to this place. It would just take a moment for us to get killed there. If your dad lives, he will surely come back home."

That was all that Richard could say. Kyle was understanding all of this, but could not accept it.

"I understand all of this, but I don´t want to accept it." Kyle said with deep feelings in his voice.

Richard and Sniffy knew that they wouldn´t be able to do any more than that. Both of them were lying on the floor and waiting to regain a bit of their strength.

Sleep crept over their exhausted bodies and claimed one after the other.

Time flew by and the sun was going down already. It was not until the first light of dawn was seen that some movements could be spotted. The first one to wake up was Sniffy. She needed a few moments to recollect where she was, but after remembering, she studied her body.

Her body had gradually recovered some energy, and she could now move around, albeit awkwardly. Putting her hands into her pouch, she took out 3 potion bottles and drank one of them.

While she was drinking the healing potion, her face was turned into disgust as she jugged it down. 'Disgusting these potions. I hate every time I drink any of them. The only good thing is that they help.' Was she thinking and then she stood up and went to her two friends who were sleeping soundlessly on the floor.

Sniffy stumbled forward and arrived next to Kyle, whose face was red from all the crying. Apparently, he even cried in his sleep. She got on her knees, took his head in her lap, and fed him a potion. Kyle was not awakening at this since he was far too exhausted to do anything else than sleep. His shoulder injury and the scratches all over his body didn´t help either.

After she had fed him the potion, she took a pillow out and put it under his head.

Richard was waking up and was looking at his two friends. Letting out a sigh, he said to Sniffy.

"Sign…..Morning. I hoped that all of yesterday's circumstances were a dream, but that would be too good to be true." Richard then looked at Kyle and said. "He surely doesn´t have it easy."

He then took the potion bottle that Sniffy was handing him and jugged it down. With a concerned look, she also observed Kyle and answered. "Yes, yesterday was quite the enormous blow to him. The only thing we can do now is to be there for him, I guess…..Sniff."

While she was saying this, her eyes watered after she remembered all the bad things that had happened to her dear friend.

Richard also swore that he would do everything he could to help his friend and then chatted a bit with Sniffy about the happenings of yesterday and what to do now.

They concluded it would be best to get back into the Everlasting City and hope that Rodolfo had somehow survived this ordeal. They could not go back and look for any clues as they would just throw their lives away. The being would just kill them and be done with it.

Not wanting to hurl their lives away, they decided against it.

It took Kyle another few hours to wake up and both of them could persuade him to get back home after regaining their strength.

Another day went by and the trio was now ready. Richard took out a flower, which was a portkey and all of them touched it and they vanished after Richard said Popsicle.

All of them were sucked into the flower and the feeling was akin to being swallowed by something and hurled along at top speed.

It took them an unknown amount of time, but they pummeled out and fell into a forest. Richard was shouting in an angry tone. "Damn, I hate portkeys. This was way worse than apparating."

The three of them were now standing in the forest in Italy where Richard had trained quite a lot of time before they met Kyle. He had this portkey made for emergencies.

His two friends had the same opinion, and they all needed a bit to get back up onto their feet.

Remembering where they were, Kyle looked at his friends with eagerness and was taking their hands. He was preparing to teleport to his home, but heard Richard's shout and waited for an explanation.

"Stop"

"Sorry, but we cannot go like this. It would be more than reckless." With faces full of surprise, both of them looked at Richard and waited for an explanation.

"I mean, we need to disguise ourselves. It's more than a possibility that Kellam has lived through all of that and is already back into the city. If your father is alive and well, it wouldn´t matter, but if he is not, then we better be prepared. I don´t want to go into the city only to be captured."

Hearing his explanation, Sniffy and Kyle were stunned for quite a while, but could only nod at his conclusion.

Letting their clothes transform into black robes that covered everything along with a hood so that nobody could see their faces, they went on and Sniffy chanted an illusion on all three of them.

The spell changed their faces, along with their height. Right after that was done, they got together and Kyle blood-teleported them into the city, as the other two didn´t know how to go there yet.

Appearing outside of the city gates, they walked in hastily. In the city, they walked by a few people and houses. As they got deeper into the city, they felt some differences from the usual lively place.

Some kind of dark mood was hanging around in the surrounding area. It felt like something bad had happened recently.

Wanting to find out about this, as it should have something to do with their adventure, the trio went to the spot where most people usually gathered.

They soon stood in the middle of the city in a big plaza. All three of them were shocked still when they looked at the big wooden structure that was not there usually.

／(^ x ^)＼

On it could be found bold letters:

In memories of our loved City Lord and his son.

They died a heroic death while fighting the dark wizard Nefarion.

After fighting the worst battle, the City Lord could defeat his old nemesis and later succumbed to his injuries. Our all-loved prince died in a surprise attack of the dark wizard's companions and I was too late to do anything about it. Losing a hand in battle and getting seriously injured, I tried my best to kill all of them, but was not fast enough.

It will forever be my deepest regret that I could not save my brother and nephew.

We can only mourn their heroic deaths.

Kellam Night

／(^ x ^)＼

Reading this, their faces grew heavier and darker as they read on. Sorrow was seen on them, as that killed the last hope of Rodolfo's survival. If he lived through that ordeal, he would be back by now. The chances were slim to none before, but now they were nonexistent.

Kyle fell on his knees and sobbed at this. The sobbing soon turned into ice-cold fury. Sniffy could feel his emotions getting out of control and she placed a silencing spell around them.

"That this traitor had the gall and spin such a story. Let's see how he will look when I explain what really happened. I want his head on a pike."

Kyle was bellowing out and clenched his fists in anger. He could not wait to expose this piece of shit.

"Sigh.....Kyle, I can understand how you feel right now but think for a moment. Don´t let your emotions get the better of you. I can only guess that it would not end in the way you want it to.

If you show yourself right now, then Kellam will surely embrace you with a smile on his face. He would just spin some tale that it is a miracle that you live or something like that.

He could just say that you were under a spell of Nefarion and do not know what really happened. It would be this easy to discredit you. He would just put you under house arrest and will monitor you all the time. He surely made some preparations for such a possibility.

Earlier, Kellam had the guards already under control. They should only have been under the control of your dad, which shows how long has must have prepared for this coup."

Richard explained his reasoning in a calm tone, but if someone would look at his face right now, then they would see cold fury emanating out of his eyes.

Sniffy was already expecting something like this. Therefore, she put the silencing spell around them to not arouse any unwanted attention.

Calming down somewhat, after hearing Richard's words, Kyle was perplexed at what he should do now. His friend's words made sense in every kind of way, and he could not refute them after some thinking.

"Then what can we do right now? I cannot let this go." He said in a confused manner.

"To be true, we cannot do much right now. We are far too weak. If we show ourselves in this city, Kellam surely would find out and he would tail our every move. As he cannot do anything to us inside the city, he would definitely follow us out and make us disappear.

It's not bad that he thinks we are dead right now. We can use that in our favor. Now we have time to get stronger and a day will come that you will be able to kill him with your own hands. Till then we can only be patient. I cannot think of any other way."

He explained this to Kyle. Richard had thought about the last days, of what they could do if Kellam lived till now and came to this conclusion.

"Damn… This feels so wrong. We really are not able to do anything at this moment." Kyle shouted at no one in particular and looked towards the sky. He understood the situation they were in, after listening to Richard's words, and could not come to another result for the time being.

A hand appeared on his shoulder and he looked back to see Richard looking at him calmly while saying. "You will get your revenge. But now is not the time. Do you want to come with us? You can live and train with us? The day will definitely come when we kill this traitor."

Sniffy also went forward and put her fair hand on Kyle's other shoulder to show her support.

Feeling the hands on his shoulder and seeing that they were supporting him on this path. He turned around and thanked them for their support.

"Thanks, guys and yes, I would gladly live with you two. I swear I will kill this traitor with my own hands one day. Let's go."

Kyle said to them and a small smile could be seen on his face when he felt the assistance of his friends.

Richard and Sniffy knew that more words were unwanted and walked alongside Kyle towards the city gate in silence. They all knew that they were way too weak to change anything right now and could only postpone any actions.

Standing in front of the city gate, the trio turned around and all of them said goodbye to it. They would not be coming back for the foreseeable future. On Kyle's face could be seen some tears falling down, as he also said goodbye to his father and his home. Wiping away the tears, his expression changed into that of determination, and he turned around and faced his friends.

"So where do the two of you live, exactly?" Kyle asked his friends and Sniffy took out another portkey. After taking the hands of Richard and Kyle, she just said." You will see it in a second." And they vanished into the surroundings.

This portkey was sold to them ages ago from the goblins and directly led into their own garden in front of their house.

Another long-distance portkey later, the trio arrived on green grass, surrounded by trees and flowers. The distance they traveled was much shorter this time, and they arrived more steadily than the last time.

Cursing a bit at this art of traveling, the trio got their senses back soon, and they looked around. Sniffy and Richard were away for quite some time, and they were now thrilled to be back.

So many things had happened, good things and bad things alike.

"So, this is where you guys live." Kyle looked around and saw the two-story building standing in front of them.

"Yes, this is our home. It feels like we left ages ago. Let's show you around." Richard and Sniffy were more than happy to be back home after such a long time. Sniffy was enthusiastically grabbing Kyle's hand and was forcing him along to show him everything.

Richard saw this and could only grin as he saw Sniffy practically shoving Kyle along. He joined them and they showed him their little home.

"It may not be too much by your standards, but you will definitely love it here." Richard said to him when they went through the kitchen.

Kyle was completely overwhelmed by all the things he saw. It was his first time seeing a TV or lights hanging around the ceiling, which could be activated by a switch on the wall. Richard and Sniffy had completely forgotten that these things were things that muggles had invented and the vampire community had also ignored.

They were not that behind the moon, but it was another civilization. They had magical lights in their houses and many enchanted things, but a muggle home was something thoroughly new to Kyle and he was happy to view all these things.

The fridge fascinated him the most. He stood in front of it and was opening and closing it the whole time. Feeling the cold air wafting out of it. He just loved it. He never had given much thought about where vampires stored their food and he was eating out every time he wanted something.

At home, he just needed to go into the kitchen and grab something from there and be done with it. They had some enchantments put in place there, where freshly cooked food was put inside it to not spoil and to be at their ideal temperature.

The tour through the house took the trio about 2 hours, as they needed to explain every little detail to Kyle and they were happy about it. With this, they could distract him from the death of his dad.

The last stop was in the room next to Richards, as it was the only free space they had. "This is yours from now on. You can decorate it however you like." Said Richard to Kyle. All three of them stood in the room together and they then helped him to get it ready and put furniture in it.