Author's Notes: Since I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving, having three different dinners in three different places, I felt like writing this. Sure, it's December now... but I wanted Raziel to have a little cultural education from a teenager's perspective. Heehee.... The rest of you who like Raziel in the Real World, you'll really like this one!

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Time passed. It mocked Raziel, ever reminding him of what he might have been doing in Nosgoth, past, present or future. There was plenty of leisure in which he could feed freely upon the souls wandering in the Spectral Realm and return, fully recharged, and consider the strangeness of this world into which he had fallen.

Amanda's work continued, tirelessly, until she fell unconscious some time early in the morning before the other vampires turned in for the day. Then, for awhile, Raziel was bitterly alone in the underground cavern. News of the outside world came to them in the form of a newspaper. Once he had figured out how to read it, with Amanda's aid, it had at first greatly fascinated him.

Now, losing all interest, Raziel had an idea that this world was somehow greatly larger than his own. His own limitations would not let him think just exactly how big. So he sat, cross-legged in the armchair in the sitting room, watching Amanda curled up in the couch in one corner, her hand bent ever so slightly underneath her chin as though guarding her throat.

The other evening Amanda had told him that soon would be a time called "Thanksgiving", or something to that effect. Giving thanks for having been able to thrive seemed almost ironic... the hard part was being able to remain so. But he was still curious. Amanda insisted that normally Thanksgiving had nothing to do with the Indians at all. ("After all," she said, "having a big celebration after taking away their land, slaughtering their people, and enslaving them, it's the least we could do.") It mostly had to do with food, and being thankful for what you had. It was endearing, at least.

Raziel wanted to see a Thanksgiving dinner for himself. Curiousity gripped him; what exactly did they eat? And what did turkeys look like? Did they look anything like pheasants or ptarmigans?

Amanda woke perhaps three hours before darkness fell. The fallen vampire asked her at once if it would be prudent to go outside and explore.

"Show me what these things are. I want to know," he insisted. "Besides, you're working too hard. You must be in great need of doing something else."

"I don't know," she murmured, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "Your disguises are a little awkward... it probably might be better if we went someplace with more people, maybe. Or less. I have no idea."

"Just take me somewhere where I can see what a Thanksgiving IS."

Amanda regarded him coolly. He seemed genuinely upset that she was being so difficult about it. Obviously she wasn't trusting him enough. But she didn't want anything terrible to happen that could cause them great disadvantage.

"Alright... Just... stay out of sight, mostly. I'll show you." She yawned, and turned to make her way into her living space and change.

* * * * *

It was chillier now than it was before. Raziel found it refreshing to walk in the physical realm. Keeping in touch with real, tangible things made him realize there was still hope. Amanda moved on ahead, turning left and moving around the backyards of people. She felt foolish, because it was still broad daylight and that she knew lots of people in her neighborhood loved to keep dogs chained in their backyards. They approached the house carefully. Raziel was a lovely stalker, adept at moving without any sound at all, as he approached the kitchen window with her.

She could smell the turkey. Apparently Raziel's senses were better, because he informed her of all sorts of things he could smell - by waving his hand in front of his nose and grinning with sharp teeth.

She peered into the window first, slowly inching up to peek inside. She saw an oak table, covered with the usual cornucopia, which surprised her. A cornucopia had always represented plentiful bounty, but somehow many Americans neglected to include it in the dining set-up. She also saw the turkey, steaming and juicy, sitting on the table surrounded by potatoes, sweet potatoes, pies...

She uttered a squeak and dropped down, covering her throat again and swallowing heavily. She was half-starved and her mouth was watering so hard it made her eyes water, too.

"I'm hungry," she mouthed desperately to poor Raziel, who understood. Without warning, he sped without sound across the back porch and opened the door, hearing no living footsteps inside at the moment.

"Raziel!" she breathed, scooting forward before stopping. She peered into the window again. No sign of Raziel. And then he came creeping like a theif in the night, picked up the tray of turkey, potatoes, and pie for good measure. And slipped away again, coming out shortly after and motioning for her to follow as he dashed for the trees.

They ran through the woods, her own voice unable to contain itself as she burst into laughter a safe distance away, dropping down onto the cold dry pine needles. "Oh my god... I can't believe you just did that! You cleaned them out!"

"I did what?" Raziel frowned, confused, but sat down to set out the stolen ensemble. Amanda, never quite one to deal with hunger intelligently, bent at once to the pie and started shoveling pieces into her mouth. There were two of them, apple and pumpkin, and thank god it wasn't spiced pumpkin because she couldn't stand that kind.

"Thank you!" she bubbled, crumbs trickling from the corners of her mouth. She clasped her arms around his neck, holding tightly and laughing again. The whole scene seemed outrageously funny to her, and her laughter was quite contagious. It was good to see her so happy... he started to laugh, too.

After awhile she had eaten all of the apple pie, some of the pumpkin, and bits of turkey. She would have to walk all the way back to the caves, and end up with a belly ache besides. But she stretched out on the pine needles and stared up at the sky through the pine boughs.

"This is what thanksgiving is... giving thanks for what you get, because normally, I would have to steal that myself. No, just kidding! Ahh... now I feel bad... those poor people!" Amanda giggled again sleepily, yawned, and turned her head to look at him. "I don't think they'll miss the turkey, hm?"

Raziel smirked back at her and shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head no. "I think I understand."

"How did you know what house to look for?"

The vampire huddled into a ball, his long legs drawn up to his chest as he stared through the trees, eyes glazed in memory. "I remember... long, elaborate feasts during my vampire days. It was a mock-feast, of course... every year. There was wild fowl of every kind, apples, anything that still thrived where there was sunlight. The strongest of us would venture out and get them, or get humans to do it for us under pain of death.

"We captured humans and brought them to the table, all littered with a feast fit for kings. We sat up with our lord Kain and watched them feed, terrified of our presence but too starved to care." Raziel laughed bitterly. "My brothers would sometimes play music for them, cheerful and annoying tunes that must have driven the mortals batty. But somehow or another, it was fun."

"What happened when they were done?" Amanda rolled over to watch him and gave a little swallow of nervousness. Vampire lords? She never heard any of these things from him before.

"We let most of them go. Those that refused to eat, Kain crucified them himself and hung their bodies from the turrets with the flags and let them hang there."

"Ew. How inconvenient. Why'd you have the feasts...?"

"In some way or another...to...remind the humans who 'allowed' them to live." Raziel found himself sneering. It was not out of hatred of humans, but of the slow loathing that grew for his brethren. He was glad he had killed them.

"I think it's time to go back," he whispered, standing up. "I suppose we should dispose of these?"

"No. They're still good if we can manage to steal a fridge to keep them cold and good."

"I don't think we should steal anything else today."