Sorry for the long wait and the short chapter. You can skip it if you want to, it's nothing important.

Chapter VII: Fire

Kurin stood in the background as the victims of the vampires got burned to ashes. He and Tar, they had managed to convince the majority of the people to give the bodies to the fire, so they might stay dead for eternity. In the end it hadn't been hard.

And yet he stayed in the shadows, behind the back of the people staring at the hungry flames in silence. Away from their looks, though he could not see why anyone would look at him. It wasn't his fault after all. Kurin knew that as well as everyone else, and yet he felt guilty.

Meriah stood in the line closest to the fire, staring at it with blank eyes as it took away the body of her little girl. She hadn't spoken since that fateful night, two days ago, and Kurin had stayed close to her, worried, though he never gained the courage to try and talk to her. Hanna stood next to her, occasionally glancing at her face, and Kurin knew that she and Tar would take care of the broken woman as long as necessary.

The other ones, the vampires they had managed to get and kill had been burned the day before, with only a few men present, Tar and Kurin among them, and old Hane to say a few prayers. The rest of the people shouldn't know that one of them had once lived in this village, a friend to many here. Looking at Meriah's back this moment, at her plain black dress and the long hair moving in the soft breeze, Kurin hoped that she would never find out.

Raziel was nowhere to be seen. Kurin had not seen much of him at all in the past two days and he had known better than to look for him. If that boy wanted to be alone now maybe they should let him, the man decided. After all he had a lot to deal with these days, and though Kurin knew that Meriah's son probably needed more than the mountains and his mothers silence to comfort him he wouldn't have known what to say.

Aukrug was a small village in the mountains, it's few fields on both sides surrounded by rocks and walls of stone. It was easy to climb up there if one knew how to do it and Raziel had often come here, to his favourite spot, to look at the village from above. It had been hard to keep Analie from following him whenever she caught him going. In the end he had promised her to take her with him once she turned ten years old.

She would have loved it. They had a fantastic view from here, over the village, the river, the fields. Even the stars seemed brighter here.

She would have loved it.

It was easy to make out the fire below. The people around it where little more than small spots in the darkness, but Raziel knew which of the spots his mother was, and he had also made out Kurin after a while, though he had not looked for him. Kurin was gone now. Raziel hadn't bothered to see where he went.

The ceremony seemed to go on for years. The boy knew that he should be down there now, on his mother's site, to say goodbye to his sister, but he couldn't bring himself to get down, and his mum probably wouldn't even notice – or care – weather he was there, or not.

In the end he could say goodbye to Analie from here as well. Better even that down there. Here he was closer to heaven.

The skin over his knuckles broke as his fist hit the rock in front of him. It was all he could do to keep himself from screaming.

The world blurred as hot tears filled his eyes, for the first time since that night, making him wonder – Did he even have the right to cry for his sister, after he had so badly failed to protect her? After all he had known, had known, that this creature wasn't their father anymore, could have been, and still he had done nothing to stop her from running to him. Not for the first time he wished the creature that looked like his father and moved liked his father and had once been his father had killed him as well. But instead he had killed it, and now he couldn't help thinking if, perhaps, it somehow still had been his dad that fell victim to his blind rage.

Stupid thoughts, but he couldn't chase them away. In the end he swallowed and blinked his tears away.

The stars shimmered above the village, looking down sadly from the underside of heaven.

"Goodbye, Anie", he whispered. 'Goodbye, Dad', he wanted to add, but the words died on his tongue. He had said goodbye to his father five years ago; he didn't want to do it again.

Suddenly, footsteps behind him. He turned his head and saw Kurin coming down the narrow path that lead to his small plateau. His father's old friend said nothing but his face showed that he had expected to find him here. If this was the reason he came up here or if it was something else, Raziel couldn't tell, and didn't want to know.

For a moment Kurin's eyes stayed on the broken skin of his hands and for the first time Raziel felt the pain. But still Kurin said nothing, just sat down on a rock a few meters away, looking at him in silence.

The silence unnerved him. When he couldn't bear it anymore, the boy, who only wanted to be alone, asked quietly: "Why aren't you down there?"

It took some time for the man to answer. "Why aren't you?"

'Because it's my fault Anie is dead', Raziel thought. 'Because I can't stand everyone staring at me. Because I killed my dad and mum will hate me if she ever find's out, even more than she already does.' He wanted to say it. The words lay on his tongue, but second after second ran away in silence. Suddenly all he wanted was someone to take him in their arms, some comfort. He was a child after all. He couldn't take it.

He couldn't take it.

But the words remained unsaid and Kurin didn't ask again. If he had maybe the boy could have found the voice to say it. But now they both remained silent and in the end Raziel just hung his head to look at the blood that ran over his injured fingers, dripping onto the cold stone below, drop by drop.

-tbc-

March 08, 2004

After two chapters with nothing happening the next one will hopefully have a plot again….