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"My fault! All my fault!"
"I should have never walked into the lines of righteousness and kindness and picked him up from those wetlands...
Only to be bitten back in the future, tarnishing our family's name and the generations to come..."
Rafael cursed out as he and his family marched back to their small dwelling.
Cynthira was the last one in their line and could not help but wonder back in time, not very far, but this very morning, when she saw him walking away holding the cattle stick.
Who could have known that he was actually leaving everything behind at that very moment?
She had only thought that he would be back by the time of the wedding. Might have needed a few moments alone to clear out his head.
She saw the lambs in the shed. The person to rare them was gone, not to be known when he would return or would he at all?
As the family gathered in their small living room, she turned around to leave, only to be stopped by her mother.
"Where are you off to now?"
"The cattle...there is no grass for them to feed upon!"
After a moment of silence, she finally spoke out as an excuse to go out and look out for him.
Who knew maybe he was waiting for someone to come looking for him.
After all, it was what they would have been doing if the circumstance was different.
As she headed out towards the valley where he would take the cattle to graze, on the way, the glares and gossip from the passerby did not go unnoticed by her.
They would need to get used to it by then. It was going to be a common thing that she and her family must adapt to because nobody knew how long it was going to last.
As she marched up the valley, holding the edges of her skirt up, panting by the time she reached the top and came face to face with a levitating figurine...only the back visible to her, the red cloak covering the entire foreign body.
And it was then he saw her...his sister behind the vampiress as he was lying underneath her mercy.
When all of it had made him motionless and static, unable to move against the scrutinizing fiery gaze of the Princess, the sudden appearance of his sister had made him rise up right away.
The fear that she would get hurt had him waking up from the ground and running past the vampire, destabilizing her balance and aim, colliding against her shoulder, to stop his sister from coming any close.
And as the sting of fire set the snowy cap of the mountain, on the other side, ablaze, Cynthira screamed out for her brother.
He was quick to engulf her in a tight hug, pressing her face against his chest, withholding her from seeing any more of that destructive sight.
Her heart was beating as fast as he was. He was not expecting to have her here, or anyone from the village at all as no one ever visited the peak of the valley ever.
When his first thought was to escape from there with his sister, he did not want the untamed vampiress to trap Cynthira in her vicious web for revenge.
But then she turned around and their eyes interlocked. He thought that she would attack at any moment then, but she did not.
"Cynthira...no!"
He tried to stop his sister from breaking away from his hold and walking up to the most powerful and wild vampiress he had ever come across in his life.
"Don't...she is not safe!"
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"Stop staring out the window and come back inside...do not make any more fool of the family name!"
Rafael snapped at his wife, who had been constantly, from time to time looking out for her daughter, who had not been back since she got to collect some grass for the cattle.
"It's been so long...Cynthira is not back yet...should we not send the boys to look after her?"
She came forward to her husband, her voice lashed in her concerned tone.
She had already lost one of her sons today, and her Ruqui, and she was not ready to lose her daughter too, only daughter at that.
Rafael did not respond and resumed drinking away the cheap alcohol. As the man aged, the more alcoholic he became and it got on her nerves.
"Why are you so ill-concerned about our children?
Are you, not their father?"
She threw away his glass and it made him look up at her. He stood up, angry, towering over the small figurine of the poor woman.
But as usual, she would cower away, she did not this time. When the question came to the safety of her children, she was not going to go down without a fight. After all, she was a mother.
"That was no son of ours...he was an outsider, whom we fed, gave a shelter over his head, gave him a family, and look at the way he repays us all?"
Rafael hit back at his wife. Her tearful face stopped her from saying anything anymore when both of them heard the commotion outside and upon turning around, found their daughter.
Cynthira did not even get the chance to breathe when her mother came and engulfed her in for a hug.
She had thought that something might have happened to her daughter but then having her, alright in her arms gave her the peace of her heart.
"Where were you? It had been so long?"
"You scared us so much Cynthira...so much!"
Both her parents spoke out at the same time. Her mother said it after pulling away from the hug.
"Mother and Father were about to send us to look out for you..."
One of her four brothers told from the back. The silence from her resonated all too well and it was only her mother, who could understand it.
"You met him... didn't you?"
And Cynthira nodded, a line of tears rolled down her cheeks as she peeked at her mother's eyes.
"And he is not coming back...ever."