Years Later:
In the late hours of the night, high above a small farm, two young men, Kevin and Joseph, hid in the top of a large tree staring down at cattle grazing in a field. The youths were on a raiding exercise trying to hone their skills to be warriors of their clan. Earlier in the day another boy was with them and he had left their group and found a lone cow which he fed from before a group of hunters began chasing him. The others had no idea what became of him. They avoided the hunters and began a new hunt which led them here.
One of the boys had sharp vision and saw movement about a mile away. He tapped the other and he too saw the movement though he had not wanted to take his eyes off the feast at hand and let his mind stray from the sure to the unsure. He was the oldest, Kevin, and he gave the go-ahead to investigate. The two of them leaped from tree to tree and in no time they saw what the movement was: young girls. They were standing near a house of their clan, marked by a large crest on its roof. A bird moved in the trees ahead of them and must have startled the girls because they took off running.
Like a person who makes the mistake of running from a dog, they ran and enticed the boys to hunt them. Joseph was the first to take off after the new prey, then Kevin. As they found the scent of their prey their eyes darkened. Kevin had brown hair and green eyes, while Joseph, his younger cousin, had blond hair and blue eyes. Both were 16 and on their first unsupervised hunt. Their approved hunting region was elsewhere, but being children, they disobeyed and wanted the larger prey in the densest part of the forest. With their senses trained on the scent, they made noises to frighten their prey as they leaped from tree to tree.
They stayed high in the treetops as the girls ran and when they were within striking distance, Kevin stopped them, knowing where they were heading. He made the determination that they were Cavers, human aides, and not food. The other growled at him but accepted his dominance and they began their leap back to the cattle.
Joseph dropped down first beside a cow and the animal being fearful lunged forward. He ran behind it and leaped on its neck dragging it to the hard ground. His eyes darkened more as he opened his mouth to clamp long fangs into the neck of the animal. The cow jerked its neck to rid itself of the beast and sharp pain. After a few more erratic movements the cow succumbed and met its fate. It twitched no more and lay helpless while the youth fed.
Kevin dropped down and chose another cow. They drained the animals before a gunshot rang out and startled them. They looked up simultaneously and saw a farmer with a gun pointed at them. He fired again missing the closest youth, Joseph. The boys leaped high in the air to the trees and the man fired after them, chasing them through the forest shooting at them. After a while he gave up knowing they were gone out of his sight.
The farmer went back and called his friends. He had a hard time convincing some of them that it was young boys that had killed his animals, but when he showed them his cattle they judged him to be truthful. They divided into groups and met with others who were already hunting for a youth that killed a cow earlier that day. They went out with guns searching through the woods with flashlights for the youths.
Later that night, Malcolm, an older human loyal to the vampires, climbed to the top of a large tree with the agility of a man half his age. He reached the top without breaking a sweat and took out a pair of binoculars and began his search for the three youths. His mission was to find them and get them back to safety before discovery of their true nature. The woods were dark and he looked out in all directions but never saw them. He leaped from tree to tree and searched from all edges of the forest but never found what he was looking for. Toward the edge of the forest near a tall waterfall he saw a cave and inside a round object that he thought connected with the boys. It was cylindrical and white and well hidden by the falling water that surrounded the cave opening, only sharp well-trained eyes could have seen it. He put his binoculars away and began the leap toward the object.
Shots rang out and the tree next to him had fresh bullet holes appear in it. Malcolm looked down and farmers were running to his position firing in his direction. Some of them stayed behind and called on radios for reinforcements while the rest advanced. Malcolm thought quickly and then led them on a chase in the opposite direction from the cave and from their home. Even if caught and killed, he would be miles away from their home and would have fulfilled his duties as a Caver and protector.
Malcolm led the men into deep brush on the far side of the forest. He would stop every so often to allow them to catch up. Not afraid of them because of their bad aiming, he danced around the tops of the trees and gave credence to the stories told by the farmer. At the edge, he dipped down into a valley and before long his scent was gone. Having nowhere left to search, they gave up their hunt and returned to their homes. Malcolm slept briefly in a high tree while keeping an eye out for hunters. Seeing no sign of the men, in the morning he returned home to rest.
Chapter Three: The Chase
Vampires aRe ReaL Page 3
