Thrive... the word that he had promised never happened. Six months had passed and they were still living in hiding, like cavemen they had to live in a small hit sharing that small space with seven men.
It was not that bad but their necessities were growing by the day.
Raven shook him slightly. "Today is the day,"
"Ugh.. I don't wanna..." Nicolai rolled over and hugged the straw pillow.
"Come on, you loved going to towns."
"But I hate the procedure of it," Nico peeked back at him. "Can we skip the procedures?"
Raven regretfully shook his head. "' no,"
"Agh fine." he sat up.
The normal procedure was very simple but at the same time, it was fucking tedious.
Six months ago he had visited the nearby town and brought back the twins Kiran and Elijah. On the way, he left behind a scent trail.
So to escape being tracked by the werewolves, he had to soak in a flower-infused water.
"It's ready," raven took him over to the small poll of water. Beautiful magnolia flowers floated n top. "Elder, please do the honors,"
Sighing, Nicolai got in and started to scrub his whole body in with the flowers. "I really don't enjoy smelling like flowers,"
"But you end up looking and smelling good," raven smirked.
"Oh piss off," he splashed water on his face. "Go... I want some privacy when I'm bathing."
"you have to soak in there until that line hits nine.... am I saying that right..." he said pointing the stick on the ground.
These young vampires did not have a concept of time, so to teach them Nico had stuck a straight tree branch on the ground and made twelve hands. Each hand indicated an hour. When the sun's shadows fell on it they can definitely tell what hour it was.
The vampires here were still confused about the comes[pt but he was glad that they were trying to learn something.
"Nico Nico~" Kiran ran from inside the forest to him and handed him another flower. "I helped collect flower.. is it pretty?"
"Very pretty. It's gorgeous."
"It smells so good," he whispered sniffing the flower. "And it's edible. I like it very much,"
"Yes, magnolia is such a wonderful flower. I wonder how it got here. Magnolia actually doesn't belong to the north. It only grows in tropical regions... I guess the north is the tropical region now." he mumbled chewing on a flower petal.
The mild gingery taste was refreshing.
Kiran crawled into the small pool of water and sloshed around. "Nico, do you hate going into town?"
Nico silently gulped. "n-no.."
"You're lying.." he said, playing with a flower.
"Fine, I hate it. The last time I went there some men tried to harass me. Why me? Did they think I was a girl or something? I don't even look pretty,"
"Your very pretty," Kiran handed him another flower.
Nico took it and shoved it in his mouth. "I don't see it that way. My father was handsome you see, I didn't inherit his features. Even my mother was a pretty woman but here I am an ugly duckling."
"You're pretty," he repeated.
Nico sighed, leaving again the side of the pool. "You know I don't understand this world. So much has changed but so little has changed in humans. They are still haughty annoying and think they are in the top of the world."
"Am I like that?"
"Not you, I'm talking about humans in general. Back in my time, humans were not aware of our kind or about werewolves. They were ignorant. The facts were right in front of their faces but they refused to believe in them. Some of them did but the other human joined hands and called them crazy,"
Kiran silently chewed on the flower petals. "Nico sometimes you talk about things I don't understand,"
"Do I? Oh... sorry," Nico laid back down looking at his makeshift clock. He had to stay in this water for an hour to let the flower essence infuse into his skin.
The magnolia flowers had a very pleasant smell and easily masked his own scent. This way they had been trading in the nearby towns.
As per his previous plan, selling cured meat did not work out instead they found a very niche market.
Crocodile skin.
Nowadays they lived drinking crocodile blood. It had a negligible amount but it was enough to keep them all alive. They hunted down elks when they could but in six months their population dropped drastically.
Crocodiles on the other hand were very resilient. They were great in numbers and were easy to capture once they found out a method to trap them.
He peered at the crocodile skin they had hung on the tree branch.
These skins were highly sought after by hat merchants and bag merchants.
They were not Gucci or Prada but they were selling like hotcakes. It gave them a bit of income they highly needed.
They could buy a few house necessities with these. Bed sheets and other stuff.
They were not thriving but they were living now.
'That's all that matters.' He thought as he climbed out the bath.
"It's not an hour yet.. Kiran softly whispered.
Nico playfully pinched his cheeks. "Will you tell on me to brother raven?"
"No, I like Nico the best,"
"Or course. I like you too Kiran. Get out before you catch a cold." He swiftly wore his clothes and got ready for the day.
It was going to be eventful, he was sure of that.