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Tabby regretted her words right away. Not only tracking this vampire was a nightmare, but traversing the terrain as a whole was even more unbearable and tiring. She was used to walking and running through rough terrains before, it was a must do on the line of work and if you couldn’t do it, well, you better pray to god that your fate isn’t as bad as it can get.
The vampire, thank goodness, did frequent breaks and stops, perching on tree branches to rest their wings, occasionally taking a look of their surroundings and taking note of what was around. Tabby always managed to hide before the vampire could have a chance of spotting her, always remaining calm even when the vampire lunged at an unfortunate animal and drained it completely of its blood.
This went along for quite a while, the iterated routine would have bored Tabby out of her patience if it wasn’t because she lost track of the vampire at one point. Tabby quickly whipped her body around, trying to find any signs that the vampire was looking over her like the helpless prey they thought she was. But no… that wasn’t the case. The case was that she completely lost the vampire and she didn’t even know how that happened!
“Fuck!” Tabby groaned out as she tried to orient herself. She knew that the vampire was sent to start a new coven. She already found the vampire and started to follow them until they landed on a very depressing looking wasteland. Tabby was… certainly flabbergasted when she arrived at the sight, not fully understanding if this was the vampire’s plan or if this was where the coven would be built upon.
Regardless of that, it seemed that the vampire had a change of plans because after surveying the land and deeming it inappropriate (which made sense) for use, they quickly turned into a bad and flew away from the land, batting their way towards… somewhere.
And that’s how Tabby ended up lost in the woods with no knowledge of where the hell did the vampire that she was supposed to follow go. 10 years of vampire hunting, slaying the cruelest and most vile of the kind, tracking and talking to them, and this is how her career would end?! Her parents would be dead sure disappointed in her for making such a beginner mistake, which she hasn’t done since 11!
Tabby sighed, frustrated, as she kept walking down the forest, hoping for the love of god not to encounter a wolf or a bear or worse, the vampire on her way. Chances are that she would find a set up camp where the vampire would start building the coven from now on. As she kept walking through the foliage, a twig snapped behind her. She quickly whipped around, hand on the hilt of her sword as the rustling of a nearby bush been shaken sounded off from–
A woman came out from the bush as she was walking by, not noticing Tabby at all until she took a few steps back and one long jump back, eyes widened in shock and fear as she tried to back away from Tabby upon seeing her and her hand on her sword.
“Wow wow wow!” The woman screamed out as she fell on the ground, raising her hands in surrender. “Wait, stop! I– I’m not here to hurt you or anything!” The woman managed to scramble out as she was clearly afraid.
The woman seemed to have been walking through the woods for a while given the dirt and the wear of her clothes. One thing that Tabby noticed about her was the overly bandaged arm that was wrapped from hand to almost the elbow. The woman’s hair was not kept or clean, tied into a messy bun with some strands covering the left side of her face.
Tabby sighed as she removed her hand from her sword and walked slowly to the woman. “Sorry. My bad.” The woman didn’t seem to be calming down. “Sorry for scaring you, but technically you did just come out from the bush.” The joke seemed to alleviate the woman as her face contorted into a barely noticeable smirk but faltered into worry and fear. “I’m Tabby, Tabby Fletcher. And you are?”
The woman seemed to hesitate as she didn’t respond to Tabby, not even after she pulled her up and helped her stand up. After a moment of silence, “Elle. Elle Hoffmann.” Tabby would have asked another question if it wasn’t because Elle interrupted her. “I–I have to go. I–I need to get to this place, like, immediately.” Elle walked past Tabby as she eyed her weirdly. Tabby could rule it out as Elle simply being too shocked, too timid, or in too much of a hurry to be talking to someone, even a stranger.
But something told her that she was hiding something. Something under those bandages wrapped around her arm. Tabby sighed as she decided to follow Elle, out of concern. “Hey, wait up! I’m also kind of lost and don’t know if I can go anywhere here!” Tabby called out as Elle stopped on her tracks. “Do you mind if I join you?” Elle seemed really worried and concerned about Tabby joining her, unconsciously massaging her bandaged arm but she relented. “S–Sure. I–I don’t mind the company.”
Tabby nodded as she and Elle walked down towards… wherever Elle was going to. A day later, Elle admitted that she was just wandering around, not really having anywhere to go to but neither to stay at. Tabby was anything but calmed as she belligerently reprimanded Elle for guiding her towards who knew where they were going. Elle laughed at the way Tabby shouted at her, something about her angry tone being too high pitched or not angry enough to be afraid or feeling small.
The two companions ended up falling down on a stream after a long time of playing “Chasing Elle”. Tabby noted that Elle seemed more relaxed and open now, maybe her time of solitude made her feel vulnerable… or something else. It seemed to be a sensitive topic to ask her about her bandaged arm, which she kept rubbing and massaging from time to time, so she wouldn’t ask her any of those questions. Elle didn’t talk a lot about herself either, keeping her childhood and her private life… well, private.
At one point during their journey, Elle mentioned someone named ‘Avid’. Tabby knew that was another sensitive topic after seeing Elle break into tears when she asked her who he was. A friend of hers who died right at their shared home, which gave Tabby enough details and facts of knowing what was going on with Elle. She also learned that Elle smell like pine when she tried to comfort her with a hug.
-0-0-0-
“Sun–... spire?” Tabby repeated the words as she read the name on the worn out spruce sign on the road. “Have you ever heard of it?” She turned to face Elle, who shook her head.
“Never,” Elle responded as she took a look ahead the road they had found and were taking. The road seemed to lead straight into a massive forest of some kind, one that Tabby was unfamiliar with. “But it seems like it's some kind of town.”
Tabby wasn’t confident that this Sunspire was safe or was even still around. From the sign alone she could guess it was abandoned and left behind. She was just about to tell Elle that they would look for another place to stay if it wasn’t because she caught a glimpse of something in the air.
A bat, black as ink, flying in the air with a suitcase on its feet.