"I see well come on we need to keep moving if we want to not get attacked by that snake up there." I jerked my thumb at it. They both gasped and stood up. "Calm yourselves if it smells fear it will attack. Night is not safe for humans." I repeated as we started moving again.
"Why is it safe for you?" John asked.
"I have no heartbeat, so my body is cold to animals that use thermals to see the world around them." I tell him. "And the snakes around here while deadly their venom is nothing compared to what runs through our veins." I sighed as I sniffed the smell of some of the smaller animals' cling to the air. "Be careful it smells like a gathering of animals are nearby."
"Why is that a bad thing?" John asked me.
"Well it all depends on what…" I stopped as I heard a small stampede and the smell of rats. "Up in the trees now!" I snap.
"What is it?" Hubart asked.
"Rats and there's a lot of them." I told them as we climbed a tree.
"But can't rats climb trees?"
"If they were smaller maybe. Now be quiet!" I tell them. As the rats the size of dogs start running under us. I watch hoping and praying none of them would turn to us rats are a bitch to fight. After five minutes the swarm moved on and I sagged against the tree.
"Those where fucking huge!" John said after another five minutes passed.
"Are those normal?" Hubart asked.
"Only on the outside parts of the forest we tend to kill swarms that come near our towns and castles." I tell them as I climb down the tree.
"Oh, my that was." John sighed.
"Yea rats are one of the things we have to be careful with." I tell them. Moving through the wood as quickly as we can. We come to the gate about two hours later. They went ahead of me to give the other humans a heads up.
"John, Hubart we weren't expecting you back until tomorrow." A male voice said.
"Well if it wasn't for Diana, we probably would have been dead." John sighed.
"Who?" The same voice asked.
"Come on out Diana." John called. I step up to the gate looking at them. "Come on Diana!" He said grabbing my hand to pull me with him, but I was planted. "Hey what's wrong?" He asked me.
"Do you not know your history? Any vampire who has ever passed these gates has never been seen again." I tell him. "Then again the last one was over 3000 years ago."
"But you saved us Diana, no one is going to hurt you."
"What's going on?" Another male voice called out. I look up at the ark of the door and freeze.
"Be quiet!" I hiss.
"What is it?" John asked, stepping back next to me.
"Do you see those plants." I pointed at them.
"Yea."
"If you startle them you are going to get a large amount of toxic gas pouring out of them." I explained. "And their poison tends to attract rats and crows."
"Then can we please take this conversation elsewhere?" John begs me. I sigh and steel my nerves as I let him drag me out of the gate.
"John, Hubart you were sent out to find edible food not another mouth to feed." The new speaker said. I raised my eyebrow as I drew myself up to full height taking on my lady persona.
"And who may I ask are you?" I asked him.
"I am Elder Thomas of the Snake clan." He snaps at me.
"And I am Lady Diana Arcarian Lady of the house of Arcarian and Queen of the Northern clan of Vampires!" I snap right back at him and make him step back. "Now you should have done better research before you came here. Humans should not be traveling in those woods at night. It is far too dangerous.
"Wait you're a queen?" John asked.
"Yes, but I prefer the term Lady." I tell them.
The Elder opened his mouth. "How about you close your mouth Elder Thomas." A female voice called out.
"But Lady Carniola."
"Enough." The woman leaning heavily on a cane spoke. "I greet you Lady Diana to our camp. I am Lady Carniola of the Dragons." Her faces had some nasty scars, but her eyes held wisdom beyond her years.
"Thank you, Lady Carniola, though I do have to ask why you are all here?" I asked. John opened his mouth. "John and Hubart said it was about a missing dragon but the only humanoids that live in these woods are vampires."
"I understand that Lady Diana but after so long I sensed my daughter just for a moment." She rubbed her face. "I do not care if my daughter was turned into a vampire, she is my daughter." She tells me I sigh looking up at the sky.
"I understand that but there are things about these woods you do not know." I tell her.
"No one know much about these woods. We figured the animals have evolved in the last 3000 years." She tells me.
"Yea like rats the size of fucking grey hounds." John shuddered.
I tap my thigh thinking as Lady Arcarian I would be able to offer them safety to the King more so as the First Lady now. "Alright but you must understand I can not take all of you with I count at least 50 heart beats in the camp and any animals can not come."
"You expect us to travel by foot?!" Elder Thomas shriek.
"Please be quiet if those flowers open then we are all dead!" I shush him.
That made him pale as Lady Carniola tilted her head. "What flowers?"
I sighed. "On the other side of the gate is covered in a deadly flower that if startled will start to let off a poison that will kill all of us." I rubbed my head. "As for traveling on foot, yes there are vampiric decaying bears that will eat anything it comes across, we have to be able to climb the trees."
"Why not kill them?" The male standing next to Hobart.
"Damn near impossible you have to cut its head off and then cut out the heart then burn the heart." I sighed. "It takes five fully trained knights to kill a bear." I pinch my nose.
"Oh, may I ask why you are here?" Lady Carniola asked.
"All females and males must all take the knight training. I am a knight before a Lady." I tell her. "I have a resistance to the sun where not many do and the trip to the End takes 15 hours to get here from our castle." I tell her. "If King Logan could have, he would have come himself."
"How many people would you say would be ok to come?" Lady Carniola.
I bit her lips tapping my thigh. "No more than ten." I tell her.
She hummed softly. "Very well that would make sense. A smaller group can move quicker."
"I also do not think my King would appreciate having 50 humans showing up on his doorstep." I sigh.
"Yes, that would be bad as well." She nods.
"Lady Carniola." Elder Thomas half whines.
"No Thomas and you will remain here with the others and the horses." She tells him.
"But." He starts.
"Please stop." I said rubbing my nose. "Please shut up." I glared at him. "I do not need a loud male who can not hold his tone in our forest as it's dangerous. The rats and bears are only the start of the danger that is in there. I mean I still must figure out how to get you all over the river. If the river beast is in the area, we could all be dead." I snap at him.
"I can make a bridge." Lady Carniola offers.
"That would be helpful but are you sure you should come?" I look at her cane. "Like I said we will need to climb trees."
"I will be fine as dragon air magic is my specialty." She smiled at me. "John, Hubart, Jason. You three please go pack. We will rest the night here and leave at first light."
"Oh right." I said pulling the glasses off my head and handing them back to John. "Thank you for letting me use them."
He looks at me before pushing them back at me. "You will need them tomorrow." I simply nod.
"May I ask why?" Lady Carniola asked.
"Vampires are nocturnal." I tell her.
"Do vampires need sleep?" She asked me as she asked wrapping her arm with mine.
"No but we do it to pass the time or simply to be able to skip out on meals or training or something to do during the day." I tell her.
"What do vampires eat?" She asked me.
"Blood Or raw meat." I tell her. "But raw meat is normally done for a ball or party."
"I see. Do you need any blood?" She asked me.
"No, I would not travel without. The animal's blood that we get we have to be careful as many have poison or something like that." I sighed as rubbed my neck. As she led me through the lines of tents as I pushed the heart beats back.