Meldau

Meldau was a small town that nestled in a bay and lived mainly from fishing. When the group entered the large main street that ran through the village, the sun was just going out. The sea shone in every imaginable color, the little fishing boats looked so dreamy at this moment that Mimiko and Evolet couldn't suppress a dreamy sigh.
"That's really beautiful." Yuna mumbled softly and completely forgot that Shun was standing next to her. "Indeed." also confirmed Cassius.
"Still, we should look for a restaurant now. I'm tired of sleeping in the cold." Shizore tore the others out of their thoughts. "You are right, we should also hurry, once it is dark it will be difficult to find shelter. Evolet and Cassius you unfortunately have to look for another place. I don't think the innkeeper has two vampires in his house accepted."
"And why is the dog allowed to come along?" asked Evolet, her amber eyes sparkling gold in the sun. "Because you can't tell his race from him." Yuna explained and stomped off, confused the others looked after her.
Did she really defend me right now?, Shun wondered and hurried after her,strange girl. The others followed her too and thanks to her ferret Ferid they quickly found a restaurant.

When the group entered the inn it was almost completely empty, only in the back corner an old man sat hunched over his almost empty glass. "What can I do for you?" asked a chubby woman standing behind the counter. Meldau was doing really well economically and the dark power of Lord Avadoor hadn't touched this small town either. Ketsoki managed a smile from the back of his mind.
"Good afternoon. We are hungry hikers who want to have a snack here and sleep in beds for one night." The woman smiled back. "Of course, sit down, I'll go into the kitchen. We still have a good potato soup on the stove, I'll just warm it up quickly." The woman disappeared through a small wooden door. The group sat at the table. “I'm so looking forward to a really good meal.” Aruna's eyes shone. Mimiko sighed too and licked her lips. "Finally something decent in the stomach again. You feel much better." Shun just grinned.
Less than ten minutes later, there was a huge pot of soup in front of them. When everyone had scooped the food out of the pot, they began to talk about it as if she hadn't eaten in years. Shortly before it got dark, Shun disappeared into his room, he would transform himself and wait there for his roommate Arunas and Ketsoki.

"So folks and how are you going now?" Asked Yuna, who had got up with the ferret on her arms and was running back and forth, she had to stretch her legs again. "First we should make a plan, or at least have a direction in which we want to go."Shizore followed Yuna's movements with tired eyes." Great, and where should we look for this stone? "Arunas asked irritably, slowly one noticed the tiredness in the group.
Ketsoki sighed heavily. "We have to ask the population first before we know a direction. The stone of light is known, but only from old legends. It could be that they will think we are crazy."

“You are definitely not going to be a boy.” The hoarse voice that made her drive around belonged to the old man. He sat up a bit and pointed to the chairs around his table. “Come here.” Confused, Yuna and the others looked at the old man. Only when Mimiko got up did the others move too. When the group had finally gathered at the back table, it was pitch dark outside and the landlady locked the door for good. "You are looking for the stone of light. The stone that is shrouded in legend and yet it exists, it is visible and invisible below us." The rough voice captivated everyone.
In the silence that spread, the man lifted his gaze. His gaze met Mimiko's, and she got goose bumps. One eye was such a light blue that it looked white. The other eye was closed, a puffy scar ran over it. "My child," one eye seemed to be able to see into her soul, "revenge is not what makes someone strong." Then he looked away from her. "Why are you looking for the Stone of Light?" he asked, his voice sounded clearer now. Ketsoki looked at him. He was looking for something evil in his eyes and only found an eerie silence that seized him and tore him away. He quickly lowered his eyes.
“We're looking for the stone to come up against the Lord of Darkness.” The old man nodded and ran a hand over his face. “So it's all about victory.” No question, a statement.
Still, Ketsoki shook his head. "I don't know what each individual has as a drive to find the stone. But we don't want a victory, we just want to drive away the dark, we want that there are no more soul eaters from which people have to flee. We want the Kuromizu back in Light shines. "The old man nodded knowingly. "Well then I want to tell you why I know the Stone of Light. It was about fifty years ago."
His gaze seemed to see through her, into another world, another time. "I was a young lad back then, just out of childhood, and adventurous. I was never the type for a fisherman or a farmer, I wanted to see the world, wanted to finally be free. I wandered the world for a long time." hotter laughs shook his body. “I was very naive then. Anyway, one day I ran into an old man.” Another laugh shook him. Yuna grimaced in disgust as a putrid smell hit. The shirt was slipped revealing a rotting wound on his arm."Anyway, he told me about a stone that has infinite power. I went looking for it. And I found it." A murmur went through the row. "As I said, I found him, but I couldn't get to him." He pointed with his finger at the scar that ran over his other eye. "A wild animal, it is also called the Artio, it is a bear-like monster that cannot be killed. It can only be immobilized for a certain period of time." The old man looked down.

"How do we find it?" Ketsoki asked curiously, his eyes shining. "You can't find the Stone of Light. You just stumble over it. So I can only tell you that you have to go east from here." Before anyone could argue, the old man got up and walked towards the kitchen around the inn leaving the back door.
"Great and what has that brought us now?" asked Arunas, pushing himself up. "Well at least we have a direction and we know which monster was waiting for us." Yuna smiled adventurously. Shizore nodded. "You're right, we have a direction. And that gives us the chance to find him, even if I don't trust the old one." Shizore stood up. “I think we should all go to sleep now.” Mimiko nodded and followed her. "Well then I wish you a good night's sleep." Seconds later the table was empty.

"Man ey you won again!" roared a man's voice through the night. "And what are we doing now?" asked Cassius. The sun had set some time ago and most of the people were in their homes. Evolet shrugged. “It's not really busy here.” They had explored the area all evening, but now they were bored. “Now how about a meal, madam.” Cassius grimaced in a seductive smile.
Evolet laughed. “We haven't had anything for a long time.” Her voice was now as soft as a down pillow. The red-brown-eyed grinned. "I'll let you go first. If you bring death they'll be delighted." Evolet's golden eyes flash. It slipped off a roof and landed softly like a feather on the stone floor.
Then she approached the four men with an innocent look on her face. They sat on wooden boxes in a small alley and played a game of cards. “Hello.” The vampire's voice was bright and friendly, it had an innocent tone. The men looked up as soon as they saw them, a lustful smile appeared on their lips. "Hello little one. What are you still doing out here in the dark. That's dangerous." "Oh really?" Evolet asked innocently.
Cassius listened to their play, the smile on his lips growing with each sentence. "Yes, very dangerous, there are some evil figures hanging around here." His voice was full of arrogance. "Oh, are you guys designing those too?" asked Evolet, pretended to be afraid. "No of course not."One of the men stepped up to her, so close that she could smell his alcoholic smell.

Disgusted Evolet gave a horrific nose and ended the game. She reached up and struck her fangs in the hollow between her shoulder and neck. Cassius heard the scream, immediately he jumped up, crossed the roof and landed on the other side in the little alley. With murderous swiftness he grabbed one of the men and punched his teeth into it too. In the meantime, Evolet turned to the second. The fourth looked back and forth between the two vampires in panic. Then Cassius stepped up to him and he let out a low scream. The blue-black-haired man's arrogant smile was the last thing he saw.
Cassius and Evolet dragged the four men out of town for less than five minutes. "If we didn't have to clean them up." Evolet sighed as she dug up earth with her bare hand, nobody would discover the two bodies here in the middle of the forest. “Yes, that would be a nice life.” Cassius threw one of the guys into the hole, followed immediately by the other three. They quickly threw earth on it again. “Let's go somewhere and play a game of cards.” Evolet nodded and started off.
The howl of a lone wolf broke the silence.

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So that was the chapter "Meldau". Probably the most exhausting so far, I had no idea what to write ... I hope it worked out anyway!
Well, as you can see, this story has a very medieval touch ...
Artio is a bear goddess from Norse mythology.
And cards are played quite often here, but in the Middle Ages this was also played very often.

So and now I'm looking forward to your clerks!
LG coca
PS: Did you think it took a long time for this chapter to come up?