Excerpt: A Quest Unspoken

~~~~~~~
11/22/09
~~~~~~~

Job called out a rebuke to his brother, but Anton was on the larger hunter immediately. Faster than any of them could register, the vampire had thrown his hat and cloak aside and was at Taggert’s side with his hand around the big man’s throat.
Anton’s red eyes were glowing dark with bloodlust and he opened his mouth wide in a hissing snarl, revealing a sharp set of bright white fangs. Job scrambled for his sword, but Anton saw the motion and heaved the larger man off his feet throwing him into his brother. The vampire stalked toward the hunters. Job lay on the ground, dazed from Taggert landing on him, but the big man scrambled off his brother. He tried to scurry away but didn’t stand a chance. Anton reached him, grabbed the long hair on the back of his head and lifted him up. Taggert let out a scream as Anton leaned over and sank his fangs into the large man’s throat.

~~~~~~~
11/15/09
~~~~~~~
Stephano didn’t relish the thought of determining why the bear came after them. They had no food and if the animal had done as poorly as them at foraging in the sparse land, there was a good chance it was looking at them as its next meal. Stephano slowly stepped backwards, retreating closer to the campfire as the bear approached. It ignored his threatening waves of the torch and when Jagger launched one of his stone’s at its huge flank, it merely grunted and kept walking near them. When it was in full view in the light of the fire, they saw that it had something clenched in its jaw. Sidestepping the two of them the animal approached the campfire and leaning its head close to the flames, opened its mouth dropping a large wet trout sizzling into the blaze. It sat back on its rear haunches and yawned, regarding the stunned travelers casually.
“Umm, thank you?” Stephano replied looking from the bear to the cooking fish.
The bear nodded its big head once.

~~~~~~~~
11/08/09
~~~~~~~~
Lyanna and Corene took seats on an intricately carved stone bench by the door, but Erik remained on his feet, watching suspiciously as the stranger entered the house and closed the door.
“Something’s strange about all this,” Erik said. “I don’t know that we should trust him.”
“Trust the man with the crazy mother who trapped us in an invisible pit?” laughed Corene. “I didn’t plan on it, but we’re going to need some food if we plan on traveling any farther. Hopefully he can point us toward the next town even if it is several days’ travel from here, but no one said anything about trusting him.”
“Plus, he’s a vampire,” stated Lyanna simply.
~~~~~~~~
11/01/09
~~~~~~~~
The young man slid his chair away from the wall and leaned back, balancing precariously on the rear two legs of the chair. Teachers hated it when students sat like that – something about damage to the chairs, a likely cover for fear of skull fractures from falls – which is probably how, and why, he had perfected the balancing act. He adjusted his blue Cubs baseball cap – another broken school rule – rotating it brim backwards over his unruly curls and loudly snapped his chewing gum. Everything about his posture and attitude broadcast that he cared little to nothing about the school and its rules, but since the boy was seated outside the principal’s office, eavesdropping on the details of his expulsion from the school, rules were the last thing on his mind.