"Please try to understand. I do not own you, you're not a hobby to me, you're not my pet. You're my friend. First one I've had in a very long time. I do not invite you to join me because I do not know if you could endure this life, and I only wish for your happiness."
@internutter/challenge-04176-k158-safe-in-a-dangerous-place -- Anon Guest
Vampires, even vampire spawn, can technically live forever. It's understandable that they exist in lonely circumstances. Every vampire is a competitor for food, resources, and the admiration of their thralls. The strongest will or the most vicious fighter would rise to the top.
Vampires are only social creatures when the other creatures are their lessers. The spawn are little better, in that they can contain their instincts.
Lothaire taught me all of that. Ze insisted that ze had worked on being humble, but ze was also the most humble bloodsucker in all of Alfarell. The most mild-mannered monster to ever exist. Vampires and their spawn simply have to be the best at anything.
I didn't mind. Lothaire set hir mind to being the best host, and ze was very good at it. Ze even helped me find my name - Rossol.
The true difference between Vampires and their spawn was that Vampires can create thralls. Spawn could not. Well, not without extended effort and maintenance. Lothaire resisted the temptation easily, preferring to stay "on the wagon" as it were.
The other avenue of power was turning a mortal into their own Spawn. Something Lothaire offered to me, once I was well enough to choose my own path.
"You don't have to die," ze began. "You could join me in the life immortal. It's a relatively simple process. Painful, true, but simple. When it's over, you will be... preserved. Kept as hale and hearty as the day you turned. Even the little flaws would mend in the process. Then? We could keep each other company. Forever."
I understood that Lothaire was lonely, but I also understood how Vampires worked. "I'd be your lesser. Forever."
"You could be my spouse?" risked Lothaire. "Spawn can do that."
I said, "Spouse or not, I would still be less. I would rather stay free. Even if I am ageing and will die."
Lothaire hung hir head. "As you wish," ze said.
Lothaire was clearly heartbroken, and I felt for hir. It was a bad thing to be lonely. I thought it over for weeks. Months. Finally, in a trip to the village down the hill, I had the answer.
Lothaire didn't have to be alone. There was a whole village of company... facing troubles in the night.
That dinnertime, I gifted Lothaire with my plan. "You could guard and protect the little town downhill. They have troubles that a Vampire - or a Spawn - could easily deal with. You could be their hero, and they wouldn't have to pay much in reward." There was the carrot, metaphorically speaking. Now for the potential downside. "And... I've met someone down there. Someone who wants to share my remaining days with me. Thanks to you, they'll be many more than I expected. There's been talk of making a family."
Lothaire had grown terrifyingly still. Not even breathing. Staring into infinity with an expression of blank mourning on hir pallid face. Finally, ze took a breath. "As you wish," ze said. "I will remain your friend until the end of your days, and stand watch over your descendants, and keep them safe from the menaces in the night. I will watch over the town and keep it safe. And for the love of you, I will do my utmost to resist becoming a plague on that land. Thus I swear to you, for the lifetime of my memory of you."
Which, knowing Vampires and their spawn, may as well be forever.
"I will visit," I told him, "as long as I'm able."
"Thank you," said Lothaire.
[Photo by Ben Berwers on Unsplash]
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