8. WOLF
They had been roaming the wilderness for several days and Sasha grew more and more weak. She had not fed since she had changed Vasilii. He complained of hunger as well but seemed to still be surviving off his last feast. Sasha had never gone this long between feedings and the hunger pains were almost unbearable.
The snow came down harder now and clung to the ground. The wind blew so hard that at times it seemed as if snow was falling up instead of down. During a hard gust of wind a scent hit Sasha that filled her with hope. It was a human. They moved close enough to see that it was a lone hunter. He was covered in an animal skin parka with a ruffle of fur around his dark face.
Vasilii saw the man and started to chase after him but Sasha stopped him. "Wait, Vasilii!"
"But I'm so hungry!" he complained.
"I know baby, but if we follow him to his home then there will be enough for us both to feed." As much as Sasha wanted to give in now and take the man, she knew that their patience would pay off.
They followed the man for another day and watched his failed attempts at hunting. Finally to speed up the process Sasha tracked down a small caribou and broke one of its legs and laid it in the hunter's path to find. When he found it he pulled out a knife and finished the animal off. Then Sasha watched as he struggled to carry the creature home. She wanted to carry it for him to move things along but knew that that would be too suspicious.
Finally, the scent of other humans fell upon them. The hunter had led them back to a sod hut with about five other people dwelling there. It was not an entire village as Sasha had hoped for but it would have to do. As the vampire pair drew closer to the hut a dog started barking viciously. The dog looked more like a wolf and its lips were pulled back over his teeth as he growled at the new visitors. It wanted to protect its masters. The people in the hut came out to see what was approaching.
Sasha heard a woman gasp "Ishagok!" These people were Inuit's; they resembled some Mongolians that Sasha had come across before. They must have migrated from Asia into Russia and found a way across the sea into this new land.
Before Sasha could get to them the dog attacked her. He bit at her but its teeth were not strong enough to penetrate her marble hard skin. She was so angry at the dumb animal that she bit into it. Her intention was to kill the beast but when its blood filtered into her mouth she couldn't stop drinking. While she fed off the wolf-dog, Vasilii moved onto the humans.
When Sasha had drained the animal of every last drop she was amazed at the renewed strength she felt. Was it possible to get the same nourishment from animals as you could from a human? It didn't taste nearly as good and Sasha chased down the last human before Vasilii had killed them all. The human blood was much sweeter and washed out the taste of dog in her mouth.
When they were finished feeding Vasilii was in a much better mood. He started playing around and toyed with the dead dog. Sasha processed the new information she had come across. If they continued to travel and humans were hard to come by, she could convince Vasilii to hunt animals with her. Her fears of starvation were nullified.
The two began to travel southward. After several days they came across a huge mountain. You almost had to look straight up into the sky to see the top of it. They found more natives here but they looked slightly different from the Inuits. These people were called Athabaskans and they had migrated from lands south of here. Instead of feeding off of them, Sasha convinced Vasilii to allow her to learn more about where they were from the Athabaskans.
When the natives saw these pale and beautiful beings, they bowed down to worship them, thinking that they were gods. There was a language barrier but Sasha began to pick up on some of the words. The great mountain, for instance, was called Denali meaning 'the high one'.
Vasilii did not enjoy feeding off the animals as Sasha was making him do. So one night he slipped away from her usually careful watch and slaughtered a family of Athabaskans. He never thought to hide his deeds and when the bodies were found in the morning the villagers were angry. They demanded that Sasha and Vasilii leave the place.
To avoid complications, Sasha took Vasilii up onto Denali. The higher elevation in what was now winter was inhospitable to humans but the vampires would be just fine. They survived off of moose, bears, caribou, and wolves. Vasilii would often beg for a chance to go back down to get some humans. Sasha loved her boy and wanted him to be happy, but the new lifestyle intrigued her. She had never wanted to be a monster. She hadn't known until now that there was any other choice. And she wanted Vasilii to maintain the innocence of a child, like the first time she saw him. Her only regret was that she couldn't share this with her daughters.
She pulled some bark off of a tree and began to write the girls a letter with the ink she had brought with her. When she was through, Sasha played with Vasilii. They made snow balls and chased each other all over the mountain. She had just caught up to him and was tickling him until he was giggling uncontrollably when the breeze carried a familiar scent to them. It was the smell of vampires.
