The vampire smiled, giving a bow to Norbert as he continued inside.

Delga and Nassan both jump out of their chairs. Delga, with a knife in hand, takes a step forward, and Nassan hides behind his mother.

Both parents stayed in their chairs, breathing calmly as they waited. Cossan looked towards Helga, only paying attention to the vampire out of the corner of his eye. He figured that if his wife had been calm with the vampire, for whatever reason, she would have interacted more, and for the moment, there wasn’t a threat. Helga looked at Norbert, one hand draped over a chair, holding her fingers out as she waited for any sudden movements.

Norbert assumed she had a spell lined up, not wanting to know what the woman could be cooking up to protect her family. Now, on the same level, Norbert stepped forward, standing between the family and the vampire. Leaning on the wall, Norbert asked the question in everyone’s mind, “What did you do today?”

Count von Count was stunned for a moment, not having expected that question to come out, anticipating the other one of why he was standing here being menacing. Taking a moment to compose himself, Count von Count uttered, “Stayed inside a tavern, brooding in a corner until the sun fell.”

“But you're all wrapped up?” Norbert asked, pointing to Count von Count’s multiple colours the vampire was swathed in.

Count von Count shrugged, “It's not fun to terrorise an entire town that’s already been terrorised with nearly hundreds of kids from a completely different place being shuttled for a day with no food or water. I might be annoying, but I’m not a monster.” He defended himself at the end.

Obsius chirped in response to the last sentence that the vampire spoke.

“Good point Obsius, depending where you are from a vampire is a monster. But enough semantics.” Norbert talked aloud to the bird as he walked over, plucking it up and placing it on his shoulder.

Turning to the family, Norbert spoke up. “It's best that I head off and take this one back with me,” Norbert said, pointing to the vampire behind him. Nassan waved to Norbert, still standing behind his mum, not wanting it to go any further, even though Norbert was in front of him.

Giving them a wave, Norbert shouted out, "I’ll try and come back here when possible!" as he walked out the front door with Count von Count in tow.

The door closed behind them as Nassan smiled, Helga gave a slight wave, and Delga turned his back to the two leaving the home. Obsius moved to Norbert’s head, where the bird started whistling about. Norbert turned to the vampire. "So what were you actually doing today?" he asked him.

"You had quite a stupid fight today with the half-dwarves." Count von Count replied, starting to whistle as he walked ahead.

Norbert stopped, surprised at the response, "Hey, how did you know about that?" Norbert asked, taking several quick steps to catch up with the vampire.

“Oh, so it's fine when you have your secrets, but not when I have mine?” Count von Count questioned Norbert, increasing his pace as he started to jog down the road heading towards the portal.

Norbert ran to catch up. “But that’s not a secret, you’ve told me. It isn’t normal to lurk around the place. What happened to staying at an inn?”

Just as Norbert was about to catch up to Count von Count, the vampire added a burst of speed, “But following you around was way more fun. And having a buddy watching your back is always helpful!” The vampire shouted back to Norbert.

Sending energy into his body, Norbert powered into his legs, making sure not to tear up the road they were now running on. I do not want to be more of a nuisance to anyone tomorrow who might want to move a cart for moving items.

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Catching up once again to the vampire, now the wind whipped past Norbert’s face, needing to squint his eyes to stop the water from running out of them. “Then why didn’t you help me?” Norbert shouted, needing to spend energy into his voice to project it forward as the vampire continued going faster and faster.

The vampire did not stop as their leaps grew longer. Norbert saw shadows start to cling to them, deep and rich red shadows as they pulled the vampire forward.

Not seeing that the vampire was playing fair at all, Norbert pushed on the speed, coming up as he saw two people standing around a structure. Slowing himself down, Norbert, his feet skidding and jumping, slowed down as quickly as possible without damaging the environment around him.

Count von Count in front of him stopped almost immediately, taking a single step to slow down to a casual walking speed.

“Because Norbert, you didn’t need it.” The vampire told him, walking through the already lit-up portal and stepping through.

Norbert turns. The other turns are just standing; who are you there? Martitia and the Traveller are standing them to go and get you. He was busy moping in a tavern, wondering where you went.”

Norbert just looked between them, fazed momentarily, not knowing who to believe anymore. “But, the men over there?”

“The half-dwarves, they’ve been known to operate in the area. You’ll need to debrief what happened when you were on the Highlands Plateau.” Martitia told him as she, too, walked through the portal.

Norbert shook his head and sighed as he waved to the Traveller by the portal, the man taking him by the shoulder. “Still have the letter?” He asked Norbert.

Nodding his head and patting his coin pouch, Norbert walked to the portal, about to step through. He let the Traveller know, “That I do, and I will give it to them … eventually.” Norbert added as he quickly stepped through the portal, feeling his body elongate again before popping out the other side.

Quickly stepping through, Norbert looked around, seeing it wasn’t that busy compared to what he was expecting with the streams of people.

Turning to Martitia, the woman standing just before him, “Wait, in the same bar as before?” Norbert asked, nodding to the waiting room with the bar the first time he had to debrief with the entire squad, remembering the packed room he had been in.

“That’s the one. Keep an eye on this one; I’m heading off to get some sleep.” The scout leader told Norbert and Count von Count, walking away with a wave of her hand.

Norbert walked over to the place he indicated, Count von Count following after him, stepping in. Norbert saw it mostly empty. But even though it was primarily empty, a bartender stood at attention, waiting for people to come forward and enter.

“Two orders of whatever is on tap. Surprise us.” Norbert said as he waved towards the handles where the beer on tap came out.

Receiving a nod in return, the man did not say a word as Norbert found a table and sat down. Leaning backwards in his chair, he rocked slightly. Count von Count took the chair opposite him, leaving another two chairs empty on the small round table.

“And now we wait, drink, and talk,” Norbert said to the vampire, pursing his lips as the scout whistled.

Feeling the ire of the other patrons behind him, they scattered about the place as they looked towards him, disturbing their peace and stopping the mood they had made with their secret conversations, crowding the place in whispers.

Count von Count looked behind Norbert as he joined in with the whistling. Obsius popped out of Norbert’s coat, landed on the table and joined in as well; the three of them did not make a single tune in cohesion but three that clashed into one another.

After finishing the first tune and moving to the second, the two beers appeared on the table. Nodding to the bartender who served them, Norbert stopped his whistling as he raised the drink to his lip, carefully sipping the bubbly liquid.

He kept it on his tongue, tasting the barely changed liquid to this golden liquid or whatever grain equivalent they would have over here. Swallowing it down, Norbert took a larger gulp as he finished a quarter of the drink.

He placed it down with a slam, feeling the liquid go over his hands from the force of his slam. He looked towards Count von Count, “Ahhhh, not my cup of tea.”

Count von Count shook his head as he took a sip of the drink. Gently placing the pint down on the table, he asked Norbert the question on his mind: “How long do you reckon until someone comes to ask you questions?”

Norbert pulled up the sleeve on his left wrist, looking at the watch that wasn’t there, not even a tan on his wrist, indicating that the man never wore a watch. “Looking at my time, it seems five seconds from now. The most annoying time.”

Rolling his sleeve back down again, Norbert lifted the pint to his lips and took another sip as a man stood at the doorway to the bar.

“May Norbert and his guest please come with me.”

Norbert held up his hand as he started to down the drink, not wanting to waste even a drop of the liquid he hadn’t paid for with coin.