The children were sitting as though
separated by an invisible barrier. On one side, they played with crumbling sand
castles and sent little dirt figures walking through their constructed towns. A
boy stood off on his own, drawing flowers and other plants up from the ground
and into full bloom within seconds, some of the plants looking more like hybrid
versions of others. On the other side, they were preoccupied with buckets of
water, drawing the liquid up into fountains and sculpting them into obscure
shapes before freezing them in place. One girl in their group was experimenting
wrapping water about herself in an elegant ball gown of shifting design.
There was a splashing sound
accompanied by the sight of water falling and dirt crumbling around the two
groups—to the detriment of their clothes—at the sight of Drei. From their
reaction, I assumed they rarely saw him, but knew it was important to give
their attention fully to him when he was present. If I wasn’t mistaken, some of
the youngest in the group were afraid of him. But that didn’t seem plausible. Unless,
perhaps, they found ways to regularly anger him.
“It is not even an hour after
breakfast and you already have made a mess,” Drei said; the attempt at a
playful tone failed. None of them offered anything except steady gazes locked
on him for dear life. A few thought it fairly brave to sneak peeks in my direction,
the wonderment in their eyes leading me to feel important, possibly even
special. When they remained silent, Drei continued; “Children, this is Abriel.”
A sweeping hand found its way toward me, drawing their obedient eyes in my direction.
“She is different from all of you, but you will discover that soon enough. You
will be polite and respectful to her, because she will be watching over you
during the day."
They nodded, peeling their eyes from
me.
He turned to me, saying, “Eventually
you will meet the others, but not today.”
I nodded in much the same fashion as
the children, but it was obvious the way he spoke to me was very different from
the way he spoke to them, and none of them failed to notice.
Drei whispered, “You will be fine,” just
above my ear before walking away toward a group of the tall, dark figures I
presumed to be the other vampires; the very same others I would meet some other day.
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