I do not own. Oh, and there is a (vague) reference to Steve being bisexual, so if the idea of a male Vampire/Vampeneze fighting over Steve disturbs you, relax, that is not exactly what is happening here. Otherwise, go find something else to read.
Kurda looked around at their faces.
"Geez, can no one take a joke?"
The horrified expressions eased into mollified ones, chuckling slightly. Their voices sounded strained, even to themselves.
"You must understand, even though I met the Witch, I never left this dimension. Everything was accomplished by others; I just floated along as some kind of ghost to them. But," Kurda stopped them as questions broke out, "this water is vital to us, she just said we would have to figure that out ourselves."
"Why can't we go there?" Darren's voice carried softly across the hall.
"Well, the first part is that we are dead. The second part is that Desmond is like a local landlord, and we can't move ourselves freely, there are very few who can actually move from one dimension to another. We, of course, are sorely lacking in that regard, Desmond seems very fond of keeping time travel to his own means."
"Oh."
Darren recalled Evanna once saying that there were monsters just waiting to break into their dimension. Why hadn't he thought that there were others in existence outside of this sphere? Darren slid out of his seat and headed off, tracking down Steve. Kurda watched him go, then with a sigh, turned around to the bombardment of queries. He knew he was going to be here for awhile, until Seba stepped in and demanded that he be taken away for rest and food, not to be disturbed for another twenty-four hours. No one argued with the sly old vampire. He had years of experience on all of them.
Larten cornered Kurda a few weeks later.
"There's something that's been bothering me. You said that the other dimension had dragons too."
"Aha, looks like you caught me." Kurda grinned, and shrugged. "There were a few other places I saw. In one, if you drank a dragons' lifeblood, you are unable to die."
Mr. Crepsley fixed Kurda with a hard glare. "O-of course, in this dimension, nothing of the sort happens. But there is one problem. That's all I was told. The rest is for us to figure out." Kurda then ducked under and around Larten, vanishing into a Vampeneze game of tag.
Larten did not feel that being tackled several times was how he wanted to spend his time searching for Kurda, and moved on to one of Darren's lectures.
In these lectures, Darren would patiently explain that if more Vampires would bother learning to read and write, the lectures would no longer be necessary. Steve and Darren were well known to pass notes, and the contents of the notes ranged from personal to deciding on what glade to hold the races in.
Right now, Darren was hard pressed to explain why one of Steve's notes had pink glitter and curly-q hearts on it. Steve maintained that the only paper available was that product, and to direct all other question to Arra Sails, she was the one arranging the theme for the Twelve Years bash, as Steve called it. Three days of getting away from your jobs. Of course it was a big deal.
After disentangling themselves, Steve and Darren walked off, meeting near a tree a few miles into the nearest forest. Not the strongest or the tallest, just one that reminded them of lazy summers gone, where all they wanted was to see who could climb highest.
"So, who are you asking to mate with?"
"Oh, gods, Darren. Do you want me to run a personalized add like last time to help people hook up?"
"The last one certainly was spectacular."
Steve cracked an eye opened. Darren was grinning hugely. "You only found that fiasco funny because you helped me organize and run the identity disclaimer. The only add you did not have time to write and I did was not supposed to indicate that I was searching for a special someone. I was fending people off even after the guy found someone and I crossed out the add!"
"Yes. I recall Gannen Harst having to actually beat one suitor off with a stick."
Steve lounged for Darren. "You knew those two had been fighting over me for weeks!" Wrestling in the ground, Darren gasped out "Yeah, and I think he's still convinced that you are just 'hard to get'."
Steve groaned, rolling off to one side. "What do I do?"
"Not hit me after the first suggestion."
Steve lifted questing eyes up to Darren.
Cliffhanger!
