Clarion was irritated, and found it rather annoying that she didn't know why. She was supposed to be happy, preoccupied with the All Hallows' Eve ball, but this was something the fairy could feel boiling in her stomach. After finally getting a moment to herself, Clarion decided to confront the Keeper with her problem.

Upon making her way to the border and zipping up towards the mountain, she was noticed by a sparrowman, who then called up to her. Clarion flew down to him. He had silver hair and an eye color that was somewhere in between brown and grey. The sparrowman signed a checklist and handed it to one of the winter fairies. "Clarion!" Milori stated, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you being planning the ball tonight."

"Of course, but I just wanted to have a word with the Keeper, ask him a few questions." She didn't want to hint him that there was something wrong.

"Clarion, is something going on?"

Failure.

Milori continued as her approached her, "You seem different."

As he came closer her irritation festered even further. Clarion thought to herself, "He smells like decay, disgusting!" Wait a moment, since when did he smell of decay. How did she know what that even smelt like? Since when could she smell anything this well? Clarion took a whiff of the air. The scent of pines filled her nose, along with the scent of a bird roosting on a tree branch somewhere nearby. Was that even something you could smell?

"Clarion!" Milori shouted suddenly causing her to lose her train of thought. His hands were gripped tightly around her shoulders.

"I'm alright." Somehow she was feeling utterly annoyed by him touching her. Clarion even felt the urge to bark at him.

"What were you doing? Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine!" she yelled.

Milori was absolutely amazed, Clarion never raised her voice at him and definitely not at her fairies. Something was wrong. He removed his hands from her shoulders, "Uh, I think I'll walk with you to the Keeper, alright?"

There was no sense in saying no, he would insist on going with her, but now that he wasn't touching her she felt less agitated. As long as he didn't touch her everything would be fine. Clarion was surprised when she yelled at him. She would never do that to him or the rest of the fairies. So it was best to keep it safe.

A few moments later they arrived at the library, but they didn't immediately go in. Milori made sure of that as he stepped in front of her. "Clarion, what's wrong? Are you sick? Are you hurt? Is everything alright? Please tell me."

She let out a sigh, "Look, it's none of your business."

"It is my business if it has to do with you. We promised we would never keep secrets from each other."

"You keep secrets from me all the time! In fact I can smell the nectar you've been drinking. Forgot to mention that did you!" She weaved past him and went inside.

Milori stood there stunned a moment before following her. How could she smell that?

"Hey! I'm not done talking to you!"

As usual the Keeper was writing away at his pedestal, but he glanced up a moment when he saw Queen Clarion enter. "Hello, Queen Clarion."

He received no reply and assumed she hadn't heard him. Suddenly Milori stormed in hollering at her. Dewey glanced up from his book to see what was going on. Clarion proceeded to argue back at him. Okay, all couples had spats like this, but there was something odd about this one. The two rulers were in fact speaking full blown, fluent Romanian! Dewey got up and approached them.

"Clarion, how did you know about the nectar!"

"I'm the Queen, I'm supposed to know everything, right?"

He let out a sigh, "Then why are you so uptight with me!"

"Ugh, just get away from me. I can't deal with you right now!"

Obviously the Keeper had no idea what they were saying, but things seemed pretty heated. Although, neither of them seemed to notice that he was even there. Then again, what were they doing here? They wouldn't have come here just to quarrel.

"Me! You can't deal with me! I'm not the one that's an emotional time bomb! One second you're happy, and next thing you know you're treating me like a hawk for crying out!"

Clarion took deep breaths, but they became growls as she listened to him. Her eyes grew dark and out of nowhere she attacked him by scratching his face. Milori stumbled backwards into a pile of books. She stared down at him, panting. The sparrowman lightly touched his cheek and felt cold, wet blood of his fingertips.

The Keeper gasped and Clarion's eyes became blue sapphires once more. She glanced to the claw marks on the side of his face. Milori was looking at her hands. Clarion did the same, she saw that her nails had become black claws. Blood dripped from them onto the floor. Her eyes then locked with Milori's. She inched forward slightly, but to her surprise Milori hissed at her. In doing so he exposed his canines which had now become fangs. Her face weakened and tears began to well in her eyes. After a moment she ran out of the library crying.

Milori got up to go after her, but the Keeper stood in his way. "We need to talk!"

He frowned at him, and his stomach grumbled. A smirk came across Milori's face. "Oh, could it hold on a moment? I'm feeling quite hungry, as if I haven't eaten in days." The sparrowman began to advance on him.

"Now, Lord Milori..." Dewey trailed off as he began to quiver with fear.

"Don't be afraid, it'll only take a moment," Milori glided his tongue across his fangs, and chuckled, "but it'll hurt a lot!"

"What are you?" The Keeper glanced to the half open doors and then back. It was his only way to escape.

"Well, if you haven't noticed already," Milori's fangs elongated, "I'm a vampire." The sparrowman lunged at the shorter one as he tried to make a run for it.

Outside you could hear the screams of pain and terror, but they weren't loud enough for any of the winter fairies to notice.