Chapter XIX

I stood there for a moment, glad I had caught her, before gently setting Ariel down. Shaking her arms gently failed to wake her, so I stood and looked around.

A fox stood in the trees to my right. I stood still, facing straight, not able to see the fox but to hear it. It was trotting through the woods at a normal pace, fortunately not on the run.

It was only a few minutes before I leaped onto the fox, snapping its neck. There was a dead chicken its mouth, so I gladly threw it into my bag- Kill two birds with one stone.

Then I dragged the fox back to Ariel. With my sharp nails, I cut a whole into one of the animal's veins, causing blood to trickle from the cut.

Ariel and I wouldn't drink human blood, but animal blood was okay. I sat her into an upright position and opened her mouth, then had the fox's blood dribble down her throat.

It wasn't very long until her eyelids fluttered open. She took hold of the animal in her own hands and began to suck blood from the wound. After a minute or so, Ariel raised her head and nodded, passing the fox to me.

She watched as I drank blood from the same cut as she did. There was still that taste in Ariel's throat.. That salty, metallic.. Most heavenly taste..

Ariel shook the thought out of her head.

But the blood. She knew it was delicious

Her thirst for blood shamed her. She was frightened of becoming vampire, but becoming she was.

When I was finished with the fox, I threw it into Ariel's bag and stood.

"Hey, I finally found you two!" Evra called from behind us, waving.

I turned around and smiled, while Ariel got off of her knees and waved back.

"I think we're done, we ca-"

Someone who had been standing in the trees grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. I must have tripped over something when this happened, because the next thing I knew I was falling backwards.

Thankfully Ariel had been standing behind me and was able to catch me. I nodded my thanks to her and stood, now able to see the person who had snuck up on me. He was a man, with a long beard, hair seemingly everywhere.

"Oh, sorry man, I didn't mean to do that. Are you all right?"

"Er.. Yeah." I blinked.

"I can get you something if you want, you know, herbs or anything- Oh, duh," He smacked himself in the forehead. "Names R.V.," He shook my hand.

"Hey R.V," I nodded and smiled. "I'm Darren."

"I'm Ariel." Ariel said.

"I'm Evra." Evra added. "What's R.V. stand for?"

"Well, the kids in school used to call me Reggie Veggie 'cause I don't eat any meat.." He frowned. "You can call me that if you want.."

We told him R.V. was fine with us.

"Cool." He smiled. "Are you guys with that traveling circus? I wanted to check it out, it seems pretty neat."

"Yeah." Ariel replied. "You must be with the NOP?"

"Yep. We won't be here too long though. Just have to stop them from building a road through here, 'cause I mean, come on- This used to be a burial ground, it's a piece of history."

R.V. shook his head sadly, and then was quiet for a moment with a faraway look in his eyes.

"Oh, hey, you wanna come see our camp?" He asked suddenly.

We happily agreed to come with him, and on the way there, he talked about the environment the whole time. Air pollution, animal extinction, Mother Nature, etcetera.

Half way there Valinty met up with us. The child waved happily and grabbed Ariel's hand.

Ariel shifted her bag to another hand and took hold of Valinty's hand, then smiled at R.V.

"This is my friend, Valinty."

When we finally arrived at the camp, which was when R.V stopped talking about environmental problems, all of us were a lot more open minded about how others were destroying the earth.

R.V. showed us around the camp, Valinty clinging to the back of Ariel's shirt, as we asked questions. He invited us to stay for lunch, and the food wasn't all that good, but we ate anyway.

Ariel sat on her own rock like everyone else, quietly poking a fork at her rice. She was looking down at her food, but her eyes were attached to R.V.

He was quite the funny character. Stunk, but was kind ever the same. There was something about him though.. Ariel.. She just, couldn't place her finger on it.

Soon they waved goodbye and left. R.V let them know they could come back anytime they wanted, although NOP wouldn't be staying long.

As Evra and Darren discussed being an eco warrior, and Valinty held her hand, Ariel couldn't help but think of how funny R.V. seemed to her.

If only she knew. She would run back now and personally squeeze the living hell out of him.

But, for the moment, she dropped the thought and returned to camp with them, where they fed the little people.