The road he followed was a long one. It was an unbeaten path grown over with the green of the earth's new grass or brambles. Sometimes it was dry dusty sand or soft treacherous peat of a marsh, but no matter the type it was, it was still the same to D. The end of it was somewhere ahead, lost in a long dark future. Along the path are the obstacles created for him by the vampire kind, those he had sworn to hunt until the end. To his end or theirs, time and his efforts could only tell.
The sun above was hot and blazing, making this section of the journey miserable for him and the horse bearing him. His cloak lay slack and wrapped around him to protection his pale complexion. The air seemed hard to breathe.
A mysterious voice sounded from near the reins. "You should have stayed low in the last town."
D ignored the comment and did not so much as open an eye from underneath the long brim of his dark hat. But it was a swift, warm sandy breeze that did stir him. He opened his eyes and tilted his head in its direction. A sandstorm was approaching.
"There are some small rock outcroppings a mile or so west of here," the voice mentioned.
Luck was on his side for this day, for the sandstorm was a haze approaching from the east. He gently nudged the automated beast of burden with a tap from his heels and turned to the west.
Within the next hour, he and his transportation were protected between two of larger three stones from the hot sandy winds that howled around them. D sat with his back against the rock and his hat brim hung low over his eyes. The roaring winds assailed his ears with many strange howls and whistles that kept him from slumbering.
His ears twitched, however, when one noise among all of it stood out. It was the slight scrapping of stone against stone, something odd for stone to do upon sand that should have swallowed in sandstorms of past. Something beside sand, stone, and wind was nearby.
"We have a guest D," the voice sounded surprised, which in turn roused D's curiosity.
Ears that could make out the faintest of human breathing on the other side of large cities failed to alert him to the silent footfalls of the shadow approaching in front of him. His hand had long since gone to the hilt of his exquisite sword on his back. He would not strike just yet.
A small, white robed and cloaked figure stepped forth into the shelter of ring of stones. The head of the stranger was wrapped in white scarves, and the eyes were hidden by the dark shades of protective goggles.
A voice, soft as velvet, came from underneath the wrappings. "Oh my. You are not human, are you, my friend?"
His countenance was that of an ageless youth, a still white winter night preserved for all time. His beauty was peerless and made any woman, human or mixture otherwise, lose her senses unwilling. An eldritch aura thickly hung about the dhampir and his eyes were demon-haunted. But the air the stranger carried about him or her seemed even more eldritch steeped in a way he had not felt before.Something in D's memory clicked at the sound of that voice, but he could not place his finger on it, and it bothered him greatly. No being has stirred such a reaction from him for long time. His hand did not remove his hand from the hilt. His eyes followed every minute movement of this stranger.
He replied quietly, "No."
The stranger flicked back a portion of the long cloak around him or her. D's sword slid out of his sheath without so much as a hiss and too quick for the human eye. Apparently this stranger's eyes were not human either, for he or she had taken a quick step back with hands raised.
"I have no weapon upon me, stranger. Please lower your weapon."
He did so, but kept it unsheathed. "What do you want?"
From the opening of the cloak, he could see the soft, supple curves the cloth made around the figure. The stranger was female.
"I mistook you for something else. I am sorry." A milk white arm reached out from underneath the billowing folds of her robes with a small water skin in hand. "But might you still need this, I wonder?"
D glanced at the leather water skin in her hand and then tried to see behind the dark tint of her goggles. A voice from around the region of his waist spoke. "She's harmless, this one. She…arpmh." D clenched his left hand into a fist and silenced the voice. It was not suppose to be vocal in the presence of strangers. Normally it was more cautious than this.
"He is right." She tilted her head. "Well, partially. If you truly wish to harm me, then I cannot promise I will not resist."
He glanced once again into the depths of her cloak looking for something to betray her words. She tossed the skin and he caught it in one swift movement. It contents sloshed and no strange scent rose from it. It truly was water.
His lips barely moved. "Thank you."
The strange woman pulled tight the cloak and retreated once more into the howling sandstorm. "It was nice to meet you…" the silky voice became distant "…again."
D's iris widened ever so slightly in surprise. It took quite a bit of control to keep every muscle in his legs to stay still and not follow her into the haze of hot wind and sand.
"Your father was rather fond of her for good reasons," the voice near his waist let slip out.