After several hours had passed his newly keen hearing picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. He could make out two sets. Hopefully it was Lon and Lavasida returning. He looked over and after a few moments saw the pair step out of the forest and climb to the crest of the hill. Lavasida was carrying something in his arms. As they approached the fire he saw that it was a human boy.

"What happened?" asked Brianna.

Lon looked embarrassed, or as embarrassed as a wolfman could look. Aidan got the feeling that if he hadn't been covered in fur he would have been beet red. "I'm sorry. The moon just... I had to run!"

“Your beloved cleric has yet again distinguished himself, Brianna," said Lavasida. "He has managed to scare this child nearly to death. By the time I caught up with him he’d knocked the boy down. To give him credit I doubt he intended any harm, but the child was so terrified he fainted on the spot.”

“Well, what’s done is done. I suppose we’ll just have to deal with it. Lavasida, put the boy down over here. We’ll see if Lon can redeem himself a bit and revive the child. And perhaps…” she looked around for a moment before her gaze settled on Flame Song, who’d been woken by all the commotion. “Perhaps a more normal-looking person than myself should be the one to speak to the boy when he awakes.”

Flame Song nodded and went over to the boy. He was perhaps twelve or thirteen, with dark hair and dusky brown skin. Lon, still looking somewhat sheepish, knelt down next to him and put his large, furry hands on the boy’s head. He closed his eyes, summoning his clerical power. A few moments later the boy’s eyes fluttered. Lon quickly backed away from the boy. When his eyes opened all the way, all he saw at first was Flame. She smiled at him. “Are you all right?”

The boy nodded hesitantly. Then he looked around, and let out a little sound of fear at seeing the others, his eyes going wide.

"It's all right," said Flame. "Nobody will hurt you, I promise."

He made a gesture, muttering something in another language that might have been a prayer, or might have been a spell to ward off evil. Aidan realized that even from where he sat a few yards away he could hear the boy's heartbeat racing. "You... you are people, from elsewhere? Who only look like monsters but are not monsters in truth?"

Flame blinked, a little surprised. "Yes..."

The boy took a deep breath, and his heart rate slowed slightly. "Then you are the ones I was sent to find."

The group exchanged surprised glances. He had been sent to find them?

"My grandmother wants to speak to you. She says she knows why you are here, and wants to help you. She is our wise woman, she knows everything. She told me where to go, and that I would be safe in the forest, even though it would be night before I reached here."

"I see." Brianna looked a little bemused. "Well... I suppose it's as good a place to start as any. Very well. We'll go see your grandmother."

With no reason to hesitate further, they gathered themselves together and set out. The boy led the way down the hill and through the forest.

"How far is it?" asked Brianna.

"I left at first light," said the boy. "So it will be a full day and a few hours more."

They continued on, threading their way among the trees. Aidan was continually surprised as how much better his senses were. He could hear well enough to track the invisible Belak by his footsteps, and could smell things he'd never smelled before. And though they kept up a brisk pace, and with his short legs he ended up taking nearly two steps to every one of Brianna's or Lon's, he wasn't winded at all. I guess there are a few benefits to this whole mess, he thought to himself. Strength, speed, inhumanly keen senses, that’s all good. But there’s plenty of downside to go with it. I really wouldn’t like to be stuck this way. Drinking blood isn’t going to be pleasant for one thing, and what about when morning comes? Do I have to find a coffin to crawl into? I really ought to talk to Lavasida, find out how this all works. He’s been out in daylight lots, but then he’s a very, very old and powerful vampire. Me, I’ve been one for a couple of hours. In some of the stories that makes a big difference. I hope all that about crosses and garlic doesn’t turn out to be true either, but with my luck it will. He looked up at the sky, where the first faint hints of dawn were showing, when the horizon could be glimpsed between the trees. Looks like I’m going to be finding out about the sunlight thing pretty soon.

The sun was not yet anywhere near showing itself, really, but Aidan realized he could actually sense it. He could tell exactly how far it was from the horizon. A little while later they came out into a meadow, and he could see the horizon clearly, the light seeming impossibly bright even though the sun itself had not yet risen. But then it did, the barest sliver edging above the distant trees. Immediately he felt it, like a blow. It was as if a giant, scalding weight were pressing against every inch of him. He could feel his skin burning everywhere the sunlight touched.

He let out a shocked cry, dropping to his knees in the grass. Flame realized what had happened almost instantly, and she took his arm, pulling him to his feet and half dragging him towards the shelter of the forest. Something supported him on the other side and he dimly realized, through the pain, that the invisible Belak was helping as well. Thankfully the far side of the meadow was close, and soon merciful shade closed around him. He dropped to the ground again next to a tree trunk, where the shade was unbroken. He looked down at his hands, expecting them to be burned and blistered, but the skin was unmarked.

Freed from the immediacy of his own problems he was suddenly aware of the stream of inventive cursing coming from just a few yards away. When he looked over he saw Lavasida likewise sheltering in the shadow of a tree trunk. Lon, looking a little less wolfish and more human now that the moon had set, was crouched next to him with a concerned expression on his face. “I thought your amulet protected you from sunlight?” asked the cleric.

“It used to,” snarled the Dark Lord. “Apparently it doesn’t work on this insane world.”

“Maybe I can…” Lon reached out toward the vampire.

“Don’t touch me!” snapped Lavasida. “Idiot. You’re a cleric, I’m a vampire. You couldn’t heal me if you tried. You’d just hurt me more.”

“Oh. Sorry, I forgot.”

Brianna looked from Lavasida to Aidan and back again. “I guess we’re not going to go any further today,” said Brianna with a sigh. “We’ll just have to wait until sundown.”

Sundown was a long time coming. The shade offered by the trees was infinitely better than direct sunlight, but Aidan could still feel the hot hammering of the sun, even indirect as it was. He squinted against the intolerable brightness, almost totally blinded, and tried to wait with patience. He tried to rest, but couldn’t do more than doze fitfully. The worst came at noon. With the sun directly overhead there were no more solid shadows. Bits of direct sunlight filtered down among the leaves and shone down on the huddled vampire. However much he tried to protect himself, folding his wings around him and curling up as tightly as he could, some little bit of sun still managed to find bare skin. When at last a patch of deeper shadow appeared on the opposite side of the tree he moved into it with a little sigh of relief.

Aidan heaved a much bigger sigh when at last the sun went down. He heard a matching sound from Lavasida and looked over to find the Dark Lord looking back with a wry smile. “Being a vampire isn’t always a bad thing, Aidan. But it’s not always an easy thing either." He got slowly to his feet and stretched.

Aidan nodded. "So I'm learning."

“Well,” said Brianna, “now that we can all move again, let’s get going.”