Sleepless Nights

[Veranda Kingsford]

Veranda sometimes had suffered bouts of insomnia when she was a human, days upon days where she couldn’t sleep, or if she did, only a few hours’ worth was granted in between tossing and turning and staring blankly at the walls. Sometimes these cycles lasted weeks. This hadn’t changed when she turned, she was sorry to see. The last few days she simply gazed up at the ceiling in utter boredom and exhaustion. Half a lifetime of dealing with such problems made it easy for her to hide it from her male companions she lived with, but it was quite annoying that such problems followed her into her new undead life. So it was no surprise that today she grew bored of laying in her bed pretending she would fall asleep any second now. She rose during the late afternoon, dressed, and snuck out of the house. If she wasn’t able to sleep and this bout of insomnia hadn’t yet robbed her of her energy, why simply lay there?

With that decision made she slipped into the woods and travelled with her liquid like vampire speed. In no time she made it to the edge of the city. She drew her hood and cowl up, hiding her face. Only her dark eyes sparkled out of the shadows. She understood she could draw attention if she walked into the city without being sly. She wore a short cloak, black in color, a hood and cowl to hide her face, short sword on her back, and the number one thing that would draw attention, her exposed legs. Since spring broke she sported her usual attire when warm weather broke onto the land. Though according to other women there was a great lack of clothing. Shorts, tank top styled shirts, sometimes belly exposed, sometimes cleavage. Veranda had dressed skimpy in her human life to help with speed. As a thief speed was imperative. Plus using her body as a distraction while robbing drunken men blind was nice. But today she was dressed rather modestly in comparison to her usual attire. The only skin showing was the pale, perfect flesh of her legs, and even then only from her thighs to her knees, since she wore high boots.

She strode into the plaza, attracting looks from a few men, but none dared approach. The air about her suggested she did not care to converse with the likes of them. Her eyes darted around, watching the people bustle and shout their wares. She paused before a jewelers cart, indulging her feminine side a bit as she admired some shiny jewelry, resisting the temptation to steal it all. She turned from the cart and continued on into the marketplace, looking for some entertainment among the masses as they prepared to close their shops, finish their purchases, and scurry home for the night.

[Hector Olith]

Hector had spotted her instantly among the throng of people. He had been in Avaleur only a couple days, staying at the inn, but he was liking the city so far. He had yet to see any nobility around, however, and that worried him. Did they ignore the city or was it perhaps a democratic state? He didn't really know right now, but he honestly didn't care. However, this undead walking through the streets like she owned the place worried him. Maybe she was slightly less bloodthirsty and maybe even kind? He planned to find out.

Frederic was near him, hiding in a side alley so as to not cause a panic. He was within ear and eyeshot of Hector while he made his way through the crowd pretending to be interested in wares. He stopped at a food stall and bought half a bread loaf, continuing on through the marketplace towards the woman. Her thighs were more pale than any he had ever seen, and that further solidified his suspicions. He passed the jewelry cart a second or so after she left, turning to follow her. He was in full armor, leaving only his head exposed. He had his ax on his back but had left his sword at the inn, not thinking he'd need it for what he had planned to be a sight seeing trip.

"So, sight seeing as well ma'am?" He asked the woman as he took large steps to catch up to her. She was abnormally quick and fast, too. Plus she wore very concealing clothing for the more... uncaring women he had found around this city. To him, she stood out like a sore thumb that needed tending to.

[Veranda Kingsford]

Veranda had noted the man following her a long time ago, but had continued her merry way like normal, curious to see how long the man would keep up and what his intentions were. It wasn’t hard to notice him following her, not with him keeping such a short distance between them and his armor clanking around so loudly to her sensitive ears. It was like he was trying to get her attention. But his presence would have got unnoticed to a human had he been following one, and perhaps he thought he was following just that, a human. But she’d keep her defenses up in any case, sense he was clearly interested in her for one reason or another.

She had altered her walking pattern a bit, to see if he’d follow, and he did. She sped up a bit as if she was to hurry to a cart before it closed for the night to see its wares, to see if he would as well. Mostly this was all done out of boredom. It was well established the man was following her, she was just curious how dedicated he was to his cause. She was also curious about his motives. She couldn’t glean much from his face from what she saw, and she saw much, having been able to snatch a lot of looks from him without him detecting. He didn’t look like the usual lot she hunted. He didn’t have the gleam in his eyes that suggested the horrible things he’d do to her once he’d caught her in an alley alone. Of course lately she started deviating from hunting those men, mostly because they were becoming scarce and she didn’t feel like starving. It wasn’t like she was a vampire with morals. Far from it. She just got personal satisfaction from ripping rapists apart was all, being a rape victim herself.

She ran through a list of why the man was following her. Murder, rape, thievery, flattery, curiosity, why? She felt a bit annoyed when she still didn’t know why and dismissed it altogether. If the reason didn’t present itself soon she’d step into an alleyway. Then either he would confront her or she’d confront him. End of story. For now she would keep an eye on him and enjoy her free night, even if she snuck out and was probably under the disapproving eye of Cori even this moment.

She paused at the mouth of an alley as a stray cat sat licking at a little kitten. The kitten shivered, mewling. It was old enough to walk and eat solid food but it had an injured paw. The mother cat hissed at Veranda. Veranda tilted her head, eying the pair a while before she turned, walked over to a meat vendor, took a scrap of meat without the vendor seeing and walked back, tossing the scrap to the pair and walking on. As she passed the vendor she pulled out a copper coin and tossed it in his jowly face, ignoring his surprised look. Thievery was a hard habit to break when to do it for ten years. But as an immortal it was an unnecessary skill now. But she still found herself doing it from time to time.

She turned and glanced to the side as the man following her decided to catch up and finally speak. She pushed aside any cloth and hair than might have been in her face, exposing her features to the light. She considered her answer carefully. By nature, Veranda was a bitch. A big one. But Coriander was creating a coven, and Veranda was expected to be a member, and as a member one must play nice. Veranda did not play nice. She supposed she could practice playing nice now. The only time she could ever play nice was for short periods of time when she was robbing a drunk person blind but it was better than nothing.

“Yes, actually. I never get out of the house and it is awfully boring.” She said, before looking around. “Not that there is much to see in a market but I was sick of being alone or around the same people I figured this would be the best cure.” It wasn’t like she was lying.