The Fallen Vampire

And now, she believed she might\'ve gotten some kind of answer.

\'Show me a triumph of the human spirit.\'

Vermeil didn\'t know if she was the best person to ask to fulfill such a task.

To her, the human spirit meant predation, exploitation, bigotry, and prejudice.

She had felt like that long before she came to Tayar and learned of the atrocities ravaging this world, but fighting the heroes had only emboldened those feelings.

She was the absolute last person who someone should expect to see engaging in acts of good will with humans.

Life had already ensured that she had none left to spare.

But a moment\'s reflection made her stop and look deeply into herself.

If she walked away from these people and let them all die, would she not be acting prejudiced herself?

She had immediately judged them and presumed that because she knew these people from the past that they were the same kind of monsters that she was fighting against in this world; when in reality there was a massive difference.

Because of her preconceived notions, she had nearly condemned twenty people to death.

"Babe... Have I told you how much I hate introspective thought?" Vermeil slumped her shoulders and rested her head on Taira in defeat.

"Not recently... I suppose it means you have changed your mind about something?"

"Unfortunately..."

"It will be alright. Whatever you decide to do, we will do together."

"Thanks, hon." Vermeil kissed Taira on the cheek and the two of them turned their heads backwards to stare at Vaal.

"...No."

""We didn\'t even say anything yet.""

"It matters not, because I already know the contents of what you wish to say, and I will not hear it." Vaal folded his arms stubbornly and turned his head away from the pair.

Vermeil: "Mr. Vaal-"

"Don\'t want to hear it."

Taira: "You\'re remarkably stubborn for an asanbosam ... No, never mind, you are all like this."

"Was that supposed to help plead your case?"

Taira shrugged his shoulders and didn\'t add anything else.

"Come on, Mr. Vaal, just let us take some off your hands." Enyo suddenly chimed in. "After all, you were going to offer some to us anyway, right?"

"He was!?" Vermeil cried incredulously.

Keran / Enyo / Taira: "He was."

"Well, not him specifically, but the Youn Wouj." Enyo clarified.

"Eh? What\'s that?"

"It means \'Red One\'. It\'s the title of their leader." Taira explained.

"I thought Vaal was the leader?!" Vermeil spun in confusion.

"""No.""" the three answered in unison.

"Tsk." Vaal rolled his eyes in mild annoyance. "And what makes you think that I can\'t be the greatest among us?"

The group pointed towards his long black dreadlocks that hung freely around his waist.

"...You are more familiar with our customs than I thought." He grumbled.

Traditionally, the Youn Wouj shaves all of their hair after ascending to the status of tribe leader.

For Asanbosam, their long hair is a symbol of the amount of enemies they have felled in battle.

Youn Wouj cut their hair as a symbol of reaching a higher realm of combatant.

They no longer have any enemies in the past, or present; there is only food.

And their savagery is nothing short of appalling.

"Okay... but why would this person give us these guys?" Vermeil asked in confusion.

"It\'s like an offering of friendship. When two families dine together for the first time, the hosting party offers their guests something similar to… a cheese plate." Enyo explained.

"You all seem to know us very well indeed." A new voice said quietly.

Everyone the shed jolted in alarm from hearing a new person in their surroundings.

Taira in particular was the most panicked out of everyone here.

\'So close... but I didn\'t sense a thing!?\'

In the rafters above the human pit, a single figure lie on one of the wood beams.

From down here, all that the group could see was a pair of crossed legs with clawed feet.

"Ah, there you are, Big Sister. Where were you when a tornado of flame struck our home?" Vaal asked accusingly.

"You had it handled, ubhuti." (Brother)

From up on the rafters, the group could see a hand waiving away dismissively.

It was clawed like her feet, but covered in fresh blood.

"One of the night-kin has returned. Though he claims to be the last of his kind." Vaal continued.

"So I\'ve heard. He also has become life mates with a human, and carries around beast blood in his veins. Now I believe I have heard just about everything..."

Finally, the hidden woman slipped down from the rafters and landed among the panicked humans; who screamed within their gags at the sight of the decapitated creature in her hand.

"Snacking before dinner again? Has staring at the food in the pantry made you hungry?" Vaal cackled.

"Can you blame me? These ones have just the right amount of fat on them... And once the fear has properly marinated within their bodies, I am certain that the flavor will be transcendent."

The woman who dropped down from the rafters was inexplicably animalistic.

But this wasn\'t because of her appearance.

In fact, her appearance posed quite the contrast to what the others were sensing.

She had dark Nubian skin that was similar to Inadu\'s due to it\'s flawless glossiness.

Her body, while slender, was in great shape, though her muscles were not overly defined and her thighs and breasts still boasted an unexpected plump-ness.

She wore a furry black skirt that looked like it was apart of the pelt of some noteworthy creature, but nothing but waist beads and a bone necklace along her torso.

Her chest was exposed not because she was attempting to seduce or out of an attempt to solicit gazes, but because she, like many women in the tribe, do not see the need to hide themselves.

Beginning at her belly button on the left side of her body, a pattern of scarification designed similarly to tattoos ran all the way up to her collarbone.

Her face was so beautiful that it was about as far from savage or animalistic as one could get.

Sharp features, full and luscious black lips, and long eyelashes that fluttered like the wings of a butterfly every time that she blinked.

In her ears hung two earrings that looked like large ceremonial disks bearing some sort of unknown significance.

Her eyes were as bright as the morning sun, and as red as an ocean of blood.

True to tradition, her head was shaved entirely, but the loss of hair seemed not to hamper her attractiveness in any way.

And yet, it was the way that she moved that betrayed the identity of the monster hiding underneath the surface.

Her every step was confident, her every movement contained purpose and strength, and just watching her up close felt equally cathartic and dangerous.

She looked at Taira with unveiled disinterest before inevitably turning her eyes to Vermeil.

"You want to take these morsels with you, food? You dream of acting as their shepard?"

"I-I, of course not-" Vermeil stuttered.

The Youn Wouj dismissed her immediately with a wave of her hand and a click of her teeth; finding the mere sound of her words too exasperating to even listen to.

Instead, she looked up at Taira and stared directly into his eyes as she licked the blood running down her wrist.

"You see, I worry about this little... dynamic of yours. Who in fact holds the reins? Does a proud night-kin stand before me, or a sniveling little bat being drug around by the whims of his food?

Do you have the slightest sense of pride in your identity?

If you do, I fail to understand how you can so casually heed the whims of mere food. It is appalling and unsettling to say the very least."

"..." Taira said nothing, but his entire body was subtly on guard in the event that this mysterious woman decided to act.

He didn\'t know how strong she was exactly, but he knew she was stronger than him.

That fact alone was enough to put him on edge.

However, he did eventually gather his wits enough to cough out a response.

"There are no reigns, no one of us above the other. All of the women you see are my wives, my family. Their wants are my wants, just as mine are theirs.

If my wife wants to obtain these humans, then I want them. Nothing else should be of any consequence to you."

The Youn Wouj smiled imperceptibly as if she found something that she heard funny.

"What a good life mate you are... But I\'m afraid today you will only be disappointed... Do you know the full extent of our customs surrounding a feast?"

Like a cat, she carried herself through the bodies and encircled Taira and Vermeil.

"The portion of food we give our guest is directly proportional to their strength, not their wishes or appetite."

Taira admittedly didnt know that, but it made sense.

The more food that the asanbosam give a relative, the more impressed they are with their power and status.

"So... It is a fight you want then?" Taira began shrugging off his kimono and left only his hakama pants.

Inadvertently, this gesture caused a few of the human girls to faint and blush.

\'Vermeil should totally let these bitches die...\' Aveena thought to herself.

The Youn Wouj clicked her teeth in disapproval. "How crude. This is an assessment... Though you are not the focus."

"What...?"

Underneath the moonlight, the Youn Wouj\'s sharp teeth glittered like fallen stars as she smiled widely.

"I can smell... all of you all over each other. You are all linked; flowing in perfect harmony like an ecosystem, and keeping each other in balance like a chain... but chains are only as strong as their weakest lengths."

Taira finally understood where this mysterious woman was going with this, and he was immediately horrified.

"Don\'t you dar-"

Turning around, he found her standing in front of his wives curiously.

"I. Choose. You."