"The first thing is, I need blood.", I said.


"I know. I got you some." He held out a small blue vial.


I could smell the blood inside but it was off. Different.


It smelled musty and stale. I wrinkled my nose but still, it was blood.


"Rabbit's. I killed it this morning.", he said with a smile. I drowned the bottle, handed it back to him, and wiped my lips with the back of my sleeve.


It tasted awful but it was the best we could do at this state. "Okay start.", I say as I sat down with a teacup in front of me. He joined me at the table and began talking.


Minutes passed. Maybe even a couple of hours. I had started pacing back in forth with the new knowledge I had just been told. "Okay so you are a Guardian of this Astale World. There's vampires, mermaids, fairies, elves, and goblins. You are part human and part vampire, right?" I asked.


"Correct." He nodded then took another sip of the tea.


"Making you stronger than everyone else?"


"Uh-huh. My kind, who are guardians can be part anything. You just need to be two breeds. It gives you the best of both worlds... Still processing?" He asked.


I nod. "How many are there... of you I mean."


"Not very many, we don’t need much guardians when there’s no trouble. We only need them when humans start to invade or the creatures call war on each other. Then, either babies in their mother’s womb are tripled and their due dates are much earlier or special full blooded creatures are turned into guardians. It's pretty rare to be one of me."


"Cocky much?", I scoff.


"Very." He says with a smirk. I roll my eyes.

He stood up and put his leather jacket back on. "Ready?", he asked.


"For what?"


"Going on a journey to your new home." He responds like it was the most obvious thing.


I just gaped at him. "I can't leave! Not right now! I haven't said my good byes!", I cried out in protest. He lifted my chin with two fingers and looked me in the eyes.


"Listen, it'd be better if you left a clean break. If you tell them good bye, they won't let you leave and you'll be leaving behind strings that they could follow. This is very secretive stuff and if the humans learn about this it could be the end of Astale." He was right. My family wouldn’t miss me much anyways. They rarely kept contact with me over the years. They may be a little sad that I had disappeared but nothing major. I was also 18 so I could legally do whatever I wanted so I couldn’t be classified as a runaway.


"Alright.", I responded. "No good byes... where IS Astale?" He let go of my chin, smiled, looked away, and began pacing.


"It'll be about 2 days worth of traveling to get there. We're walking on foot and through woods. So if I were you, I wouldn't bring much. Also, wear comfortable shoes that offer protection. Same with the clothes. Bring any weapons you have; we'll be facing a lot of danger.", he responded.


I ran up the stairs to my room. I grabbed my black backpack that I carried to school and dumped the contents onto the floor. I ran my fingers through my hair and took deep breathes. I trotted over to my wardrobe and began slipping selective shirts and pants off of the hangers. I threw the armload onto my bed and fingered a long silk dress I owned. My mother had bought it for me last week during her monthly visits. It was beautiful; a long, strapless blood red dress with a slit that ran up my right leg and stopped mid thigh. It had a sweetheart neckline and fit perfectly over my body and exaggerated my curves. I threw it on my bed too as I thought, what the hell?


Once I had put the clothes in my bag, I packed some hair-bows, deodorant, a tooth brush, tooth paste, mints, and water bottles, a hair brush, my diary, a few working pens, I packed female necessities. Who knows?, I thought. It could happen anytime and I wonder if Astale sells them. What is their currency like? I’d have to ask Lance, I mused. Perhaps I can sell pints of it to vampires, I smirked to myself as I came down.


“You ready?”, he asks.


“Ready.”, I respond with a smile as I finished scribbling down a note for my parents who were bound to check on me once I stopped picking up the phone.

When I stepped outside, the wind and rain hit me, and I was glad I had put on a heavy jacket. Lance had to shout over the wind, “Over here!!” We walked into the woods in my backyard.


My parents had never let me go into them because they were afraid I would get malled by a bear or get lost. They did however, make me study different plants and trees and made me read a lot of survival things. Which was kind of ironic. I would actually need them now. We continued to tromp through the wet woods for hours.


This was like pure torture. We had walked for seven hours with breaks that were extremely short and it was pitch black. I imagined that I was supposed to have perfect vision and super fast speed but everything looked the same to me. Lance was walking a few paces ahead of me.
"What are you? Like some machine that doesn’t need a break?”, I asked tartly. He turns around and replies,


“Well if we keep walking, we’ll get there in no time... about another day. We’re making great progress.” I scowled and mocked him. He smiled, shook his head and started up again.


We continued to walk through the woods. Sticks and branches broke beneath our feet. It was a quiet night and the crickets were chirping. The moon was just a sliver in the sky and it seemed as if all the stars were out. Avon couldn't help staring at the sky. It was beautiful; gradually changing from a deep, dark blue, like Lance's eyes she thought, to a pitch black. She suddenly stumbled on a tree root. Lance was there to catch her.


"Be careful.", his breathed into her hair. They were against each other, his arms on her lower back. She looked up at him. His eyes were so beautiful and mesmerizing. She snapped out of the trance when he moved a hand to delicately brush a strand of her hair out of her face. "You know, your hair reminds me of my favorite tree. The bark has this most magnificent brown hue.", he muttered.


I snorted, "Thanks, girls love to be told that their hair looks like a tree." He just smiled and let me go.


"Come on.", he said and turned to continue walking. I shook my head, smiled at the ground when he wasn’t looking, and followed him. It wasn't long after that when the fireflies stopped buzzing around us. We continued to walk in this manner. I kept dozing off but would snap awake when I tripped and stumbled. Suddenly there was a rustle behind us. "I didn't think anyone would be out at this time.", said a rough, cruel, cold voice.


We both turn around to see a stocky, medium height guy with a gang of more guys behind him coming out of the bushes. They were all very muscular and tough looking. However the one in the middle who spoke seemed to be the leader. He had a scar right across his left face that ran through his eye and looked extremely dangerous. He had blonde hair with strands of brown that streaked through it. He wasn’t handsome but wasn’t ugly either. The sneer on his face right now made him look cruel. Great, I thought. I get turned, have to live a new life, move, and now I'm about to get killed.


"Didn't know we would be crossing paths with a pack. How interesting." Lance remarks, stepping in front of me and blocking their sight from me.


"Is that Ffion?" The guy asks, nodding at. Which made Lance tense up a bit. Lance glance towards me.


"No. This is Avon. She was turned not so long ago."


"Than why are you hiding that precious face of hers? I don't mind looking. I promise we won't bite." The leader remarks, making his pack laugh along.


"I think it's time for you to leave." Lance says pulling out a wicked sharp blade.


"You don't scare me, boy. If I remember correctly your uncle died because of me. Wasn't so strong but he managed to leave this mark," He says pointing to his ugly scar while turning his head so we could get a better look.


"I ripped that poor guy's heart out before the battle even started. Sad really; I didn't have my fun. But I guess I can have that now." He was smirking and I could see Lance’s muscles tense up.


Lance's jaw was set and he glared at them. His eyes were a much darker hue of blue. I stared at him for a moment, fear taking over.


"Lance... Maybe we should run.". I said shakily. In a blur and yell he was running at them. He was so fast it took a moment for the breeze to hit me from his run. He collided with the leader and had reopened the scar with his blade. Scarface cried out in pain and doubled over as blood spilled past his eye into his nose and mouth. Lance grabbed scarface's arm, rolled over on his back, and somehow managed to flip him through the air and make him crash onto the ground with a thud. He was still wheezing when Lance held him in a chokehold. He then placed the tip of his knife at Scarface's throat. "Don't make a move.", he warned the other men.


He looked very intimidating, standing there holding someone as hostage. I began to relax when suddenly someone grabbed me from behind, making me scream. Lance glanced back at me and his eyes widened. One of scarface's allies had me in the same position Lance had Scarface in.


"Game over.", my captor said. Lance opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.


"Kill my boss, Writhe, and I'll kill your precious girl." The way he lingered on girl made me feel uncomfortable and his breath was ratchet. I mean seriously, anyone who smelled that stanky ass thing would've been knocked out. I gagged.


"What's that, Princess?", he asked smiling.


"Buy... some.... mentos... or brush... your.... teeth.", I managed to choke out. Then I brought my foot up and kicked him in the groin. He let go of me and doubled over. I spun around and grabbed his head. I kept kneeing him in the chest. Then when he could no longer breathe, I used my hand to hit him on the side of his neck the way I saw them do in the movies. He went out cold.


Everyone was still while I was over here panting. I turned to the men. "Listen here you ratchet breath homeless fucks. I have somewhere to go and if you don't give me your utmost cooperation and respect, this will go VERY badly.", I growled.


I looked at Lance who was shocked but still had Scarface in his arms. The rest of the pack backed up a bit. Whoo! This was great! Did I mention I felt amazing? You don't usually see a seventeen girl beating down smelly old guy these days.


"You are going to pay for what you have done to my uncle." I heard Lance say to Writhe. His eyes flashed with fear when I interrupted.


"Lance are we going?", I asked softly. He glance up at me. Something flickered in his eyes. It was hatred with something I didn't know what all directed at Writhe. It scared me. Lance looked at Writhe and slit his throat effortlessly. The other men began to protest. Lance shot them off with a glare, “I could’ve made him suffer. Which is what I would’ve done if I didn’t have something more important to do. He died painlessly and quickly. Which is more than he could’ve ever hoped for. As he finished talking he picked me up into his arms and ran.


The world whooshed around us in an array of grayish shades. We were going really fast and I wasn't sure if we would crash into something. All I know was that I was amazed and was holding on for dear life while laughing with joy. After a while, he set me down on my feet and was panting really hard. I reached into my backpack and gave him a water bottle.


"Thanks.", he said. I just nodded and watched in fascination as he drowned the whole thing. His throat would bob up and down. I looked away and heard a rustling to our left. I turned my head and there was a beautiful doe. It looked so perfect and innocent. I never saw anything so beautiful. It’s ears were flicking as if it knew I was here. I suddenly realized how hungry I was. I began to run towards it, at a speed I didn't know I could run. I leaped and it was as if though everything was happening in slow motion. I was soaring through the air, landed on top of it, pinned it to the ground and bit into it's neck. It struggled for a bit but after a while it held still. I don't know how long it was but I knew this was pleasure. The blood tasted warm and sweet. It sent prickling sensations all over my body. I got up, wiped my lips with the back of my hand and turned to see Lance watching me. "I was going to say, let's catch some late dinner but I guess you've already done us the honor." I smiled sweetly and picked up the deer and brought it to him. I never felt anything like this before. I felt powerful and amazing.


"So how much longer do we have left before we reach this Astale place?" I ask. He look around for a moment. "Not much. We can reach there tomorrow night if we finish our meal." He smiled. Not one of those cocky grins, or warm smiles. It was just a plain smile with no emotion. It flickered something inside of me. I sat down on a rock next to him.


"So... Your uncle -", I start.


"Don't say anything about what you saw or heard. It has completely nothing to do with you and you shouldn’t concern about it.", he says bluntly. I was a bit shocked but I knew it was coming.

"Come on. You know you want to talk about it." I stated scooting closer to him.


"I don't."


"Come on. Don't be stubborn and gobble every thing you feel. Sometime it's best if you let things out. It feels kinda nice." I say.


"How would you know? You gobble everything as well. So don't start saying that I do." I nod my head in understatement.


"True, but who says it's too late to start? The only reason why I do is because I know it hurts and when it hurts, it means it matters a lot. Even if it's the simplest thing. And people always say I’m too sensitive or that I need to get over it. So I never tell anyone anymore." I look up at him only to see him staring right back. Then I saw it. A light that just so happen to appear in his eyes. He's really going to tell me about himself and what just happened.