The Rules of Blood-Volume Two ; Chapter 54 (270) - No Rest for The Wicked or The Kind
Blanc and his companions couldn’t linger for long, as night was falling fast, and they still needed to find a place to sleep. So, as gently as he could, he pulled the knife from the mare and offered it back to the man.
“Here,” said Blanc, “Your knife.”
But the man was still lost in his grief, not replying. Understanding the man’s pain, Blanc decided to let him grieve in peace. He placed the knife on the ground near him and got to his feet.
“Let’s go,” he said towards Lendros, Tahreni, and Velakia, who watched the events unfolding silently.
Velakia wanted to speak, hoping the man would offer them something, but seeing him as he was, made her give up, slowly beginning to descend into the valley.
There were a few trees near the end of this road, where Blanc thought they could hide and sleep. But the village was not that far away from there, the village the man probably was from, making him question if it was worth the risk.
However, in the distance, there was a small hill that Blanc thought they could hide behind for the night and sleep for a few hours there, only to start walking again before dawn.
It wasn’t much, but they hadn’t much either, so there wasn’t really much to complain about.
“We go towar-”
“WAIT!” the man from earlier yelled towards them, interrupting Blanc, “Can we talk?”
Luckily, Blanc and the rest didn’t make that much progress down into the valley, with only fifty feet or so between them and the man above.
Blanc turned, facing the man, “What is it?”
“I wanna thank you,” the man replied, still kneeling before his mare, “I cannot go to town without a horse, so I have to return home. Come with me, stay the night.”
Blanc was tempted, and surely, all of them were, but it was too risky.
“I’m sorry, but-” Blanc began, but Velakia placed a hand on his back, stopping him.
“We accept your invitation gratefully,” she smiled towards the man.
“That’s great,” the man smiled sadly, getting up on his feet.
“What are you doing, Velakia?” Blanc whispered, turning towards her, “It’s risky.”
“We are two days away from the edge of the Domain, the risk is behind us,” Velakia countered, her voice as low as Blanc’s.
“And if it catches up? Or if there are any challengers in the village, what then? If word comes out, we are fucked,” Blanc muttered, “We walked past everything for a reason, we cannot give in now.”
“Is everything okay?” the man asked, as he looked at Blanc and Velakia arguing in the distance.
“I don’t care, Blanc. I feel like I am going mad,” Velakia said in a whisper before turning to face the man, smiling as if her earlier words were but a lie, “Yes, all is well. Do you need our help with anything?”
“If it were up to me, I would bring her home and bury my girl there, but I can’t carry her alone,” the man sighed, wiping the tears from earlier. “Could I ask you to help me bury her here and bring the cart back with us? I don’t live far, just outside that village there.”
Blanc turned toward the village, and just as the man had said, a small house stood at its edge, with a vineyard stretching hundreds of feet behind it.
“The one with the vineyard?” Blanc asked, curious.
“Yep,” the man nodded, walking over to the cart and pulling back the cloth that covered the barrels of wine beneath it. “That’s my trade.”
“We will help you carry her home,” Velakia smiled, before turning to Lendros and Tehrani and whispering in their foreign language instructions on what to do.
Five minutes later, the horse was wrapped in the cart's cloth and tied on both sides by Lendros and Tahreni, who began carrying it down into the valley, walking in small and steady steps.
Next, Blanc, Velakia, and the man each took hold of the cart, turned it around, and began slowly guiding it downhill into the valley, careful with every step to keep it steady and prevent it from tipping or causing harm.
“Thanks,” the man muttered to the two, “You have done both of us a favor today.”
“And you are planning on repaying it,” Velakia replied.
“However, we did not do it for that,” Blanc shook his head, baffled by Velakia’s words, “But it is appreciated nonetheless.”
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“For your help with Silvia, anything,” The man attempted to smile.
Blanc could only respect the man for trying to repay them.
The truth, however, was that the man's heart was shattered, but he owed it to the ones who gave his beloved horse the peace she deserved. So, recalling Blanc’s words, he set aside his grief, his pain, if only for a night longer, for the strangers who offered her a final act of kindness.
This was the only thing he could think of doing in her honor.
Half an hour later, they descended the valley with no issues and were close to reaching the man’s house.
The village close by had no people outside as the sun was almost below the horizon, with most of the people there either having dinner or already asleep.
A good thing for Blanc and his companions.
“We’ll go behind the house, that’s where Silvia’s barn used to be,” the man began. “It’s the only place I can offer you to sleep, since the house isn’t that big and the rest of my family’s probably already asleep, is that fine?”
“More than fine,” Blanc nodded, “We’ll leave by dawn, so as not to disturb your family.”
“Please stay for breakfast at least,” the man requested, “I want my kids to meet you.”
Blanc bit his lips lightly, “It would also be in your interest to have us gone by then, believe me.”
“I see…” the man muttered, but gave up, not wanting to ask more than he should, “Okay then.”
Tahreni and Lendros placed Silvia down at the side of the house at the man’s request before helping push the carriage behind the house.
The man sighed, exhausted and heartbroken, but he pushed as much aside in order to guide his guests.
“Follow me,” he said to the four as they went towards one of the three small barns he had behind his house.
He opened one of the doors, and inside was an opening where Silvia used to live and a wooden ladder.
Up the ladder was a wide loft filled with tightly packed bales of hay.
The man took the knife, still stained with Silviva's blood, and cut through the ropes of a few, letting the hay spill outward as it relaxed without the bindings.
“Take as much of this hay and place it wherever you wish to sleep,” the man muttered, “I will go inside my house for a bit, see if I have anything to bring you as a gift. Anything you might want?”
“Food,” Velakia replied the next moment.
“I’ll see what I can do,” the man nodded before going down the ladder, letting the four in the loft above.
They moved silently for minutes, taking some of the hay to make as bedding. With Blanc at his rational limit, making it separated from the others, hidden behind bales of hay.
But just as he was about to lie down, the man returned.
“There was no food left,” the man sighed as he walked up the ladder with one hand. “But at least have these.”
On his other hand, there were two bottles of red wine.
The thought of alcohol at this moment made Blanc shiver.
“I don’t think we shou-” he wanted to deny the man’s gift.
But the man interrupted his words by opening one of the bottles.
“For Silvia,” he said as he put the bottle to his lips and drank some of the wine before offering it to the four watching.
Fuck…
Blanc thought to himself as he saw Velakia walk towards the man, accepting the bottle and putting it to her lips, chugging it down.
“You next,” she said, pointing the bottle towards Blanc.
“We should sleep,” Blanc muttered, trying to calm her down.
“We sleep after you drink,” Velakia replied, her eyes serious.
It seemed she was beyond the limit of reason, instinct taking over her mind fully. But he was none the wiser, as his mind told him to just drink and not create a scene here. So he drank the wine straight from the bottle, mouthful after mouthful.
Tahreni and Lendros came to join the wine tasting as well. And by the time they were done, the bottle was empty.
Velakia took the second bottle straight from the man’s hand, opening it.
“For Silvia,” she said before they repeated the process of emptying the second bottle.
The man smiled warmly before heading towards the ladder, “Rest well, and thanks again for everything.”
“Mm,” Blanc muttered, holding himself by a bale as the man left the barn.
In less than five minutes, the four of them drank two bottles of wine. With an empty stomach and an even emptier reasoning, it was no wonder the wine had a potent effect beyond what Blanc thought was possible.
And he found himself drunk.
The hunger dissipated slightly because of the wine, the need for sleep vanished for a moment, but it was not the same for the whispers in Blanc’s ears.
He looked around, trying to ignore them.
Lendros was on a patch of hay on the other side of the loft, eyes closed.
Tahreni had just now tried to settle a foot or two away from Lendros, the wine making her sway slightly as she lowered herself on the patch of hay she had prepared for herself.
Velakia, meanwhile, was looking at her two protectors as they began falling asleep within the next minute.
Blanc’s eyes checked Velakia’s body, his mouth dry from the alcohol as he swallowed air. For a moment, he felt his body heading towards her, but when Velakia turned and looked at him, her pink colored eye almost shining in the dark, it made him stop and regain his reason.
Regain it long enough to sigh, turn around, and walk towards the patch of hay he prepared earlier.
He moved his bag out of the way and lowered himself onto the hay. But a hand grabbed his, making him fall back straight on the hay below.
It was Velakia, sitting on top of him, her fingers tightly placed on his chest.
“Velakia, no,” he whispered.
But all hopes for reason were gone for Velakia, and the last strand of reason in Blanc made him try to get up and speak again, but that only made Velakia push down harder as she began removing her tunic with one hand.
That was all it took.
Any hopes he may have had to control himself were gone.
And as the last strand of reason vanished from Blanc, as the clothes on his and Velakia’s bodies vanished one by one, as their lips connected, as their bodies connected, and as the beasts took over their bodies and minds, he could only apologize to Celine and Miyanna for what he was about to do.
.
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Volume Two ; Chapter 54 (270) - No Rest for The Wicked or The Kind
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