Something shone brightly in my eyes and I realized that the sun had already risen high into the sky. Squinting as I got up, I looked around to see that Nephthys was still sound asleep on my chest. I used my hand to push myself up a little out of the divot and scout out the surroundings. Although I was extremely tired, hungry, and on the verge of collapsing, I was overcome with relief that the extreme cold from the previous night had disappeared without a trace - it seemed that some magic was only temporary, although I did not know the rhyme or reason behind such a thing. After taking a look around, I sunk back into the divot and carefully nudged Nephthys awake - we could not stay in one place forever. Today, I decided to get to know Nephthys so that I would be able to understand her behaviors in the past, present, and future.

It was a struggle to get Nephthys awake, but eventually, she awoke from her deep slumber and yawned while rubbing her eyes. At that moment, I remembered what I had done to her the previous night when I looked at the giant hole in the cloth that I had created with the magic I had conjured in a panic. Miraculously, the injury seemed to have mostly disappeared even though there was still a gaping hole in her cloth - although she seemed a bit more pale and colorless than usual.

“Didn’t I injure you yesterday? What happened?!”

I was not scared, rather I was simply shocked and relieved that she had been able to heal so quickly - perhaps this had something to do with who she was. Afterward, she stared at me for a bit as if she was surprised to see me in front of her.

“Y-you aren’t scared of me… or am I hallucinating”

“I’m just as real as you”

She continued to stare at me before her face lit up in delight, and at that moment, she looked no different from any human being in the world. She got out of the divot first and pulled me up by my outstretched hands. We were extremely dirty from having slept in the dirt, but we had survived two days after many tribulations. I looked at Nephthys who’s mood had completely turned around from the previous night. She was humming as we got prepared to keep on moving as long as the sun was shining in the sky.

* * *

We were now heading out towards a random direction we had chosen on a whim. Nephthys said that she had a better feeling about a certain direction and I decided to trust her instinct. On the way, I wavered in my courage to ask her about her past, but eventually, I just spit it out because the silence between us was just too overbearing for me.

“What… What exactly are you”

Her eyes changed from glamorous to ominous in the short time I uttered the question. She looked like she wanted to avoid answering the question, but after some time, she looked at me and opened her mouth.

“I… Do you promise not to abandon me?”

“... I promise… you’ve already saved me many times.”

She looked satisfied and latched tightly onto my arms as if she was still afraid I’d abandon her anyway. She glanced my way before finally telling me the truth about her.

“I… I’m from the Continent of Atora where my family eventually sold me off into slavery… I guess I got sent to another continent… I’m from the race of vampires in that country”

She seemed to look at me as if to gauge my reaction, but I was secluded in the slums, so I knew almost nothing about the real world. The only things I knew were about humans, beastmen, and their respective empires - now I had added vampires to my list. I looked back at her to show that I had not been affected by what she had told me. She continued to talk about her life leading up to the day we escaped as we continued forward in our journey. She seemed to leave out certain aspects of her life which was clear by how she would skip around in the story she told - she skipped over the majority of her time in the caves; I guessed that it wasn’t much of a fond memory for her.

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I remembered how she had been badly beaten by the guards, and to this day, there were scars all over her body, but I paid no mind to it - after all, I was also covered in scars that were hideous to look at. She had suffered through similar things that I had and from that, a strange bond between us had formed - something that forms between two very broken people. Most of all, I had learned about the tendencies and instincts that came along with being a vampire.

Nephthys told me that she had somehow created those ethereal dreams and was able to form a connection in that way. Furthermore, a dream can apparently impact money people at once and not just one person, so perhaps other slaves in the caves had the same dream - although I’d never find out now. Her instinct to bite me had been from the urge to drink blood that was so close to while she was starving - her vampiric instincts were also heightened when the moon rose to its highest point and I could’ve died if I had not stopped her. This fact terrified me for the next night we would have to face a luminous moon - it seemed that her instinct’s intensity was related to the intensity of the moon shining down below. I also discovered that vampires in general had a much higher ability to survive than humans who were extremely fragile in the face of any other race. This included the ability to heal which explained why she had been able to recover so quickly - but the caveat was that it was done through the compensation of her own blood. I felt guilty for being the reason why she looked so weak and tried to think of a way to relieve the guilt.

During the conversation, Nephthys was extremely tense and it felt like my only arm would break off, but she instantly released her tense grip when she saw me grimace - she was considerate in her own ways. It seemed to me that she was not a bad person, but rather had tendencies and instincts that she couldn’t go against. But if that was the case, how had she survived in the caves where hunger was a given? I pondered upon this question for a little before concluding that she had somehow borne it through with her willpower. I didn’t want to question her and create a chasm between us when she was the only companion I had at the moment - without her I wouldn’t last another day at most.

We drifted away from talking about her past to talking about my past. I didn’t want to garner pity, so I just told her I lived a worse-than-average life up to my capture which was probably not a total lie. Quickly changing the subject, I asked if she had any training with the dagger and if she could teach me to protect myself at the very least in cases of emergencies.

“I’ll always be there to protect you, so there's no need to strain yourself.”

“I want… I need to know how to protect myself even if you are around me. You can’t protect both of us at all times”

She looked at me with a frown as worry crept up and was etched into her eyes. I told her it’d be fine if I learned the bare minimum, so she reluctantly agreed to help me with some exercises whenever they had the time. Although we were starving and on the verge of collapsing at any given moment, we continued our journey as we focused on each other’s stories.

By the time we had finished, the sun had started to set once again, as if it was leaving and coming back at a later time. In the meantime, I had thought of a way to help Nephthys physically - I would let her drink my blood. As long as she had a supply of blood, she would feel and look better physically. I told her this but she looked at me angrily.

“I don’t want to go drink blood from someone who’s already on the verge of death… but your blood did taste decent”

She spoke angrily for the first part of the sentence but commented on the taste of my blood afterward. It was off-putting to see someone who enjoyed the taste of your blood, but I reminded myself that for vampires, blood was food; just like how for humans, meat was a necessity. I had wanted to give her some of my blood, but it seemed that she would not take it no matter what. She also reminded me of my state of being which made me realize the reality of the situation - if we did not eat, regardless of what I wanted, we would die. We would have to settle down for the day and find something to eat nearby, but by a few days, if not tomorrow, we would both collapse from malnutrition. Our chances of survival were slim from here on out and it would take a lot of luck and willpower to survive.