Supper in Ardon, much like most suppers in this area of Ritia, is fairly simple. You wash your hands, sit quitely, and eat. Dinner conversation isn't big here, unlike in Birk, where Mayle told me they always talked while eating. On the other hand, in Birk they don't have amazing deserts every meal. So. Here in Ardon, and most of the neighboring villages, sweets and cakes are an amazing thing. My mother in particular is known because she makes these fantastic little cakes, just enough for one person, and then she coates them in a thick icing made of sugar, flour, lemons and milk. Then she sprinkles more sugar over the top, and puts a piece of walnut perfectly centered on top. Bob doesn't like nuts though, so even though I usually share with her I still get it. I love nuts, they taste so... nutty.

Don't judge me, I'm ten.

Anyhow, we've finished desert, it was squares of soft bread with jam, honey, and nutmeg spread and sprinkled on it, and my father sent me out to play again. My father is tall and stocky, and his beard is starting to turn grey. They don't look like they belong together, my parents. My mother is soft, all gentle curves and nervous smiles, but my father is all stomping and rough voice. He still treats me gently, though, and lets me do whatever I want, but I think it's only because he's afraid of me too that he lets me play so much, or study, or go to the mage classes. I like the mages, even if I don't think I am one, so I always go. They're not scared of me. They can't see the things I can, but some of them can control fire like it was a toy, and some can speak with normal animals, so they accept the weird things I do, and don't fear me. My parents though, and most of the villaige, do, and Bob says that's actually good. She never tells me why, though.

I have about an hour to go until it's dark, and I decide to go visit the vampires.

It doesn't take long to reach the twin pools in the wood, and as I reach them I see a few daring vamps are already wading in and diving. Vampires are interesting creatures, I think, because most of the lore is true, but not true at the same time. It's like, each differant region had their own version, and they're all right, but the vampires in one area is a differant race then another, so not all the lore applies to all races in general. I mean, they don't all drink blood, either. Some eat it solely, others, like these, only drink it as a sort of side dish, and some don't even bother with it and eat other things, and some avoid it almost religiously, and still others feed off emotians instead. They're called cubi, though, and the ones that feed off dreams are called dream eaters, and the ones that live here are called Vamplettes.

Vamplettes look a lot like ordinary vampires, but they're greyer around the edges, somehow, and they all look slightly feminine, and their hair never stops growing, so some of them have hair that drags behind them on land and billows around them in the water. Both the cubi and the dream eaters have wings, but the most powerful cubi only have four pairs, and dream eaters always have at least six. Three big pairs at the shoulder blades, and another little pair that kind of sticks out in front of the other pairs, and two more pairs at the lower back, at the bottom of the waist, a bigger pair and then a smaller beneath them, and there's always at least one pair busy keeping them off the ground because being on the ground is frightening for dream eaters. And there are other differances, too, Bob says. Cubi are too controlled by emotion, but Dreameaters are really calm and rational she says, and cubi are always either pretty or ruggedly handsome, but then she told me that Dream eaters just kind of look like normal people, but creepier. Paler, with naturally spiky hair and sharp teeth. Tattered around the edges. You have to look hard to realize that they're beautiful, and you have to want to see it. And they and the vamplettes are scared of sunlight, but cubi are fine with it, and obviously Vamplettes are fine with running water, but Cubi don't like being wet, even if it doesn't really hurt them. None of them have any particular adversion to garlic, but dream eaters don't like crosses, because they had a run in with several differant religions centuries ago and still hold the grudge against them.

Anyhow, fact of the matter is, vampires are somewhat interesting, and the water is calling. I take off the fancy beaded sashes and my leggings, but leave the last sash around my waist, because it's long enough to pass of as a short skirt like the girls wear when they swim, and I don't want to swim naked with a bunch of vampires. It's called being smart.

Bob is thrumming in my veins as I starts walking in, and I can feel that she wants out. She's had plenty of rest and she likes to swim too, so I agree and this time bite the back of my wrist, lighter this time, so only a little blood seeps out. Even then, the vampires around me are staring lustfully at my body, like they want nothing more then to whisk me away and feed off of me for all eternity, so I mentally urge Bob to come out sooner.

She sort of pours out and hits the water with a plop, the rest of her bright blue hair dripping from my hand like a string of saliva. She's in the form of a boy, almost a man, but I think I'll still call her a she, because the form is still girlier then even the feminine creatures around us. I've never seen her not girly, I think. She's always pretty. She doesn't have any eyebrows, and her hair is swept back like it's already wet, leaving her forhead almost bare except for a small black stone inbedded just between and a bit above her small, sparkly black eyes. Her body is long and slim, like fat doesn't exist on her, and it's all tanned and lightly muscled, with a completely flat chest and a slightly tilted neck that lends her a gracious air. But mostly I notice the fact that she has a tail. It starts at her waist, and is sort of like a fish's, but no fish I've ever seen. It's black and blue, like her curly waist length hair, but it's overburdened with frills and fins, all looking sharp enough to cut and patterned like a blue swallowtail, and it's longer then my body twice. She grinning at me with pale lips and straight white teeth, and she offers me a spidery hand with see through webbing between the fingers.

"Emerald, come on." She says, and her voice is a rough watery lilt, and she offers the other so she looks like she's waiting for a hug. "I'll take you to the bottom, and we can look at the fish.

That's another reason the vampires come here. They like to hunt the fish. I think I'm the only Ritan that can see the fish too, because when I tried to bring one home for a pet my parents just looked at me like I was crazy, and I eventually let it go.

I nod, and let her take me, and she wriggles her tail, struggling a bit to get out of the shallows, but then she gets in deeper and is fine.

"Take a deep breath," She orders, and I do, and then she drags me underwater, heading straight down. The water in the twin pools is only slightly murky, so the reason you can't see deeper down is because it's too dark. But Bob's forhead and fins light up, the stone and the blue parts, making it bright enough to see. Several fish swim up immediately and one brushes my face. He's lavender colored and has jagged dark purple stripes all over his body, and two particularly long fins on his sides that looks sort of like imp horns but solid all the way though, wheras imp horns tend to dissapear, sort of drip off into nothing, and then continue on a few inches further. His eyes light up when he sees I'm paying attention to him, and if fish could smile I think he'd be doing it.

None of the fish here look quite alike, and a few more brush up close now. A blue female with a glowing rhombas on her face, two twin orange ones, and one with colorful streaks and flower eye patterns, but by then I need air, so Bob wriggles her tail and shoots up through the water, bursting out and splashing all the Vamplettes nearby. Some glare, but one laughs, and makes his way over to us. I recognise him, we've spoken before, and I think his name is Denil. He has black hair, and it's cut stranglely, as long as his knees in some places, but shoulder length at others. He says he ties the long parts back when he's out of the water, and I've seen him use bird feathers to hold it. Not many Vamplettes cut their hair, they take pride in it being long, but Denil's is too, just not all of it, so he gets away with it last I saw. He has pale skin, like they all do, but his is covered in blue tatoos that look like ripples in the water, and snake scales. I think they're awesome.

"Greetings Em, how are ye on this fine evening?" Vamplettes talk like they're from a whole differant time, and they are. They're one of the oldest races.

"I am well. And you?" He laughes then, and I smile along, and Bob still had her arms around me.

"I am well." He replies, brushing back a longer chunk of hair and grinning sagely at me. They don't really have fangs like some vampire races, but even vamplettes have fairly sharp canines. But the grin means he means it, and that makes my smile grow.

"You're too naive." Bob tells me, shifting her grip on me, and I feel her tail fins start to scratch against me as she moves in the water to keep us afloat. "Indeed." Denil agrees, looking charming like always. "But that's what makes him better then the other humans. The promise of breaking that naivity and seeing his surely fascinating reaction." Bob nods in agreement.

I'm not sure I know what they mean, but I laugh and nod anyway.

xXx

So, another chapter? Somewhat?

... Yeah, I know. There is yet to be any plot in this story. I'm sorry. It'll happen eventually.

Please review, and thank you for your time!