It doesn't take long for us to reach Strendorrs Mine, the sun just touching the horizon as we arrive at the outskirts.

"I've got to be honest," Morgan says, interrupting our silent walk. Somehow, there wasn't much to talk about but that's probably just because Morgan wanted to go back to Lily as quickly as possible and she seems to need a lot of concentration just to continue walking. "I didn't think you'd be the ones to save me. I was prepared to blow the whole place into the ravine to escape."

Raising an eyebrow in disbelief, I ask "Why wouldn't we save you? Wait, They didn't seriously give you enough explosives for that, did they?" No ones that stupid.

"Not exactly," she says, "but they did give me enough to make my own explosives even if they confiscated anything remotely dangerous looking." I doubt that would have stopped her, after all, she could have put the explosives on a timer that detonates during the night. "First of all, I expected you to be a lot more vengeful and try to kill all of them or something stupid like that-"

"I will."

She sighs, easily admitting defeat but pointing towards Kara "Alright. I also thought that she might reason with you to take a more cautious approach or leave me."

"How do you know I didn’t?" Kara challenges Morgan. Oh boy…

Morgan just rolls her eyes before patting Kara on the shoulder and answering "I assume you did, there is no way that he wouldn't have gone in there guns blazing if you hadn't talked to him beforehand." I wouldn’t have run in there.

Before I can protest the alleged suicidal nature of mine, Kara answers "I wouldn't have left you there as practically a slave! What do you think of me?"

"You're a Vampire!" Morgan yells out, almost stumbling over her feet as she gesticulates wildly.

"A what?" Kara asks, just as confused as me at the outburst.

"A vampire," Morgan repeats but quickly explains further upon noticing our unknowing looks, "Creatures of the night, they prey on humans and drink their blood! I can't believe you'd travel around with one!"

I turn to Kara and say "That'd explain why you are always so tired during the day."

"No, I am tired because I stand watch way longer than you during the night," she objects. She always insists on taking the longer shift and at this point, I stopped arguing but of course, she'd think it was my laziness.

"Why do you not care?" Morgan asks mortified, "She is a monster and you are trusting her to guard you when you sleep."

Oh well, that's just rude. She doesn't know her nearly as well as I do. "Why do you think she is a monster? What did she do?"

"Vampires destroy lives," Morgan insists stubbornly, "they turn others into more of their own with no regard for their families just to sate their hunger and wreak havoc wherever they go!" Her voice grows steadily in volume as she rants. I can't help but feel like this is something personal as I haven't seen her get this emotional when talking about anything else.

They do sound like monsters if put like that and if they look as human as Kara, I can understand the hate for them somewhat. A Dragon is terrifying but easily recognisable as such but Vampires can apparently hide in plain sight and multiply until they strike which understandably makes them more horrifying than a Dragon for most people.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

That's still no reason to blame Kara, she hasn't done any of that.

I think…

We pass through the gate in complete silence, the Guards recognise us and let us through undisturbed. I'd rather not have everyone hear us shouting about Vampires so I keep quiet, leaving it to Kara or Morgan to pick the conversation back up.

Kara refuses to do so for the entire way to the shop, seemingly not at all offended by the accusations, and Morgan has said her piece.

Seeing the broken door frame with the door just leaning against the frame, Morgan rushes inside and into the backroom, out of view. She must be worried sick because of Lily and we did break off the front door so it looks like it has been looted again.

We did leave her all alone in a ransacked building…

I close the door as best as I can and sit down behind the counter. "You good?" I simply ask Kara.

"Yeah," she lies but I drop it nonetheless. It's her choice if she wants to tell me about it or not as long as it doesn't hinder us.

We wait for a while, time passing only sluggishly as my scarce attempts at small talk get warded off or completely ignored. I stop after a few tries and resolve myself to make schematics with [Mental schematics] for a rifle so complex that I'll probably never have the time or resources to build it unless I manage to go to Lurn.

I mean I’d love to build something like that but cables out of conductive material, like gemstones or glass, are difficult to make and build into the frame of a rifle. If I could manage to make them into sort of loading studs, one for each element, and use them to infuse the bullet before retracting it away so it doesn’t impede the trajectory of the bullet. It’d drastically increase loading times if I want to use it to its full capacity.

At least twenty minutes later, Morgan enters the room with an asleep Lily in her arms. Lily must have passed out from exhaustion after that emotional rollercoaster of a day and Morgan doesn't seem to be faring much better. Her eyes are red from crying and her hands are sinking into Lily's clothes as if she was afraid that Lily might disappear if she let go.

“I’ll grab the rest of the food while you two talk,” Kara excuses herself quickly and walks into the back.

“So…” I say awkwardly, “Why do you hate Vampires this much?”

Morgan strokes Lily's hair in an attempt to keep her asleep or calm herself down. Probably the latter as Lily seems to be in a deep slumber. “It’s something personal and I’d prefer it if you didn’t bring it up again,” she explains curtly. She waits a few seconds, giving me time to protest -I do not- before continuing, “What’s your plan after this? I assume you aren’t planning to go in there and blow them into the ravine like you said.”

“That was my plan,” I say. “It’s basically clean-up at this point with how unorganised they are. Do you have a grenade?”

"They ransacked my place.”, she deflects. “You don't have to kill all of them, I'll leave Strendorrs mine either way."

I raise an eyebrow, unsure if she thinks that that’s something I’d actually believe. “So you want to tell me that you don’t have anything hidden away?”

She sighs in defeat and points to the corner next to the counter, kneeling down and putting Lily's head on her lap. “Third board from the wall, don’t take everything.”

I walk over and struggle with the board for a while before finally prying it open.

I flinch as someone whistles directly behind me. “That’s impressive, Morgan,” Kara says.

It is indeed very impressive, with grenades, handguns and a few knifes hidden inside a hollowed-out space, it's enough equipment to take on the entire base if I knew about this earlier.

I grab two of the grenades and fasten them to my belt, purposefully not saying anything about her surprising me.

"It was meant to be for emergencies but I never got to it once they trashed the place," Morgan explains. "You can keep the grenades but please don't get yourself killed out there, you are like a big brother to Lily."

I nod to her and turn to leave, Kara trailing after me.