Philosophy Of Nothing Much

She threw the coat down on the slab. She knew she need to put it back on soon but a few minutes without it was not a bad thing. Her work day had recently ended and she had just arrived home. One of the big issues with being confined indoors for half the day was that work basically decided what you did with your outdoors half. Not that she would have done much outside if she had the option.

She had luckily had a entirely normal work day, though some of her co-workers had noticed the smell of forest on her. She had simply acted like she went hiking the day before and had no time to clean her coat. That statements wasn't 100 percent a lie after all, just a bit of an understatement. For now though she could relax until she felt ready for sleep. Most of this time would be consumed with removing pins from her coat, sure, but she could always do something else as she did.

Today as she did she had decided to do some brief research. Mainly into the dagger she had found the day before. She had never seen the symbol on it even if it was familiar. Unfortunately she could only really find the one she was familiar with. It very well might be a lost artifact, though she doubted anyone would think much of it.

She put the coat back on, it was time for bed now. She had 'borrowed' a trash bag from work that she laid on the floor now. She personally didn't want to lose anything and had forgotten her blanket last time. She could put this in a pocket after she woke up and hopefully nothing would get lost. She really didn't want to risk losing her home either, nor risk pulling a whole apartment through. She settled down quickly. The bag made a bit of noise at first but soon she was off to sleep.

* * *

She woke up as soon as she had fallen asleep. As she expected she woke up on the bag in the stone building again. She walked over to the door and peeked out. No one was coming as far as she could tell. She took a moment to assess where she was and choose a direction, packing the bag into her coat as she left. She figured all these villagers needed to be coming from somewhere and the direction she had not gone in was as good a guess as any.

She walked for what felt like an hour or two. No one passed her and as she went the path got cleared. New smells would catch her on occasion almost all of which smelt human in origin. No one was going back the way she had come from however, unlike the last few nights. The forest slowly faded, making way to fields, most of which had plants of some variety growing in them.

She walked a bit carefully now, ready to duck into the nearby fields if the situation asked for it. Honestly she was sure any peasant or person of any standing who saw her would freak out immediately just because she wasn't from around here. She had that dagger sure but that was only so useful... Not to forget she had no intent of stabbing anyone who couldn't just lick the wound away. She supposed she could lick the wound closed but that might end badly.

The fields made way for houses. They all looked like the ones she had been hiding in the last few days, though sizes varied unlike those. No one was out on the streets today, she smelt people though so she had to assume they were sleeping somewhere. She continued to wander coming to a few conclusions as she did.

For one no building here had anything readable written on it, at least to her. Some buildings had some form or writing scrawled on them, usually on what she assumed were signs, but it wasn't English and was not readable to her. Secondly most of these places had signs of some kind, suggesting this was a town square of sorts. Thirdly she heard chanting.

It was quiet at first and stopped on occasion. Whatever it was there was many humans chanting it and little distance between them. She tried to wander closer to it when she heard it, stopping occasionally to make sure no one saw her to the best of her abilities. Eventually however she found the exact building.

A mostly stone building, it was longer than most of the others. It had the occasional window through which she could see faint light escaping. Every minute or so chanting left it, occasionally spoken word. She approached it carefully now. She seemed to have approached from the back as she could see a door now, wide open and on the side opposite her. It was large and she only saw a bit of it.

She tried to look in through the windows, more holes in the wall than anything. They were just a bit too high up for her to look through but she could hear the chanting clearly now. It was in English, though the people chanting seemed to only barely grasp it. The speaking, more preaching as far as she could tell, came from a man near the end opposite the door from what she could tell. He seemed to know what he was saying perfectly when it came time to chant, though she couldn't grade his other language speech.

Another thing struck her at the same time: the smell of many people packed together. Let it be known that despite the fact vampires could exist in the modern world without harming a human the odds were stacked in their favor. Most humans were asleep at night so only a few would ever see her at a time, the most she had been in the same room with was five. Here were she had to guess fifty or so. Modern humans also tended to cover their natural scent with artificial scents. This meant those five smelt more like oddly bloody fruit than the humans they were. These fifty at best bathed with water on occasion.

Add to this the fact she was current on a forced diet and this place smelt wonderful. She actively had to stop herself from trying to walk in through the front door out of fear of a mass stabbing. All the same she could freely stand here and take it in with no issue. Honestly if she could have seen through the window this would have looked like stalking.

On that note someone poked her shoulder. It shook her enough to yelp, an action met with someone coming around to her front side. A peasant, the large number inside had masked this one's scent. They looked like just a child, about half her height. The peasant looked curious, tilting what Iris assumed was her head.

Speaking quietly Iris asked, "Yes little one," before realizing that she very likely didn't speak English. The child however just smiled at her and grabbed her hand. Maybe not the best idea but Iris was honestly too shaken to really do anything dangerous. Consigned to whatever fate this child planned, as well as just being a bit out of it, she followed the child that tried to drag her.

And that child dragged her into the building. She must have thought Iris wanted to join in but was to shy. The peasants for the most part matched her expression, a collection of confused and shocked faces. The man at the front however had a different look. That man had met her on the road yesterday. Mentally she already had images of being tied up at dawn to a rock.

The child continued to drag her along to the front of the building, up to that man, who took the child aside and began whispering in that other language. Iris for her part was trying to take into account anything that might make her look particularly innocent. The only odd things she concluded where: her skin color, a deathly pale, and her b.a.r.e but none the worse for wear feet.

The man at the front, who she had decided to call the preacher if only to simplify matters in her head, got back to his podium and spoke to the people in that language. Every so often however the child would try to interrupt, usually getting a word or two out before stopping. Iris turned to see the crowd, gauging their responses. Most looked concerned, some grabbed their necks or pulled up any collars or similar attire they had.

She looked over at the table the preacher was standing at. She noticed on it a book and a carved out space for what looked like a knife or similar thing. The book from what she could see was in English, which confused her somewhat. It looked printed as well, at least from this distance. The child tried to speak again, saying something that caught the attention of the group and stopped the preacher for a moment.

He turned to her now and asked, in plain English, "Why did you come here foul being." It took a moment for her to respond, both to get over that statement and to figure out a reason.

"To bring this back," She replied, pulling the dagger from yesterday out and placing it, in as non-threatening a manner as possible, into the hole made for it. At first the congregation was whispering to each other, escalating quickly into a chant that sounded vaguely like "greater beings" though the heavy accentuation on it made her unsure.

The man at the front yelled something out to the crowd in his language before turning to her and stating, "Listen," He said an insult here but it wasn't in English, "If your a monster reading the great word will burn you," and he pointed to his book. He backed away from the table and pushed the child a bit closer to it. She approached the book now.

And she read, not in the chorus like tone from earlier but she read. She was sure her odd speaking patterns stood out but this crowd, who couldn't speak English anyway, were unable to hear it. As she read she mentally laughed a little. This section of the book was basically what her parents had made her read years ago, but from a different perspective. It was a story of the trickster god vampires in her day believed in but the things she was changing them into were given a different meaning. Vampires, at least the more traditional types, were depicted more as angels sent to keep the people in line and remove the sinful. Anyone who was killed was depicted as a heretic who spited the god. Their was even a bit about being able to catch the gods attention, if only one was notable enough.

The crowd reacted the same as earlier, every so often repeating back to her what she read aloud in their misspoken English. Occasionally the preacher would stop her to explain, she assumed, the words in their language. The people would talk to each other for a moment and she was told to continue. By the time she was done the people were speaking to each other in a almost deafening way. She was glad in that moment her ears were only at a human level.

They all began to leave now after the preacher spoke one last line, she assumed it was a prayer as they all bowed their heads a moment before leaving. She felt entirely safe now, though if she had to guess the preacher did not as he stood here with the child from earlier. He was silent even as that child spoke to him in a hyper tone.

Iris decided to break the silence, "So... is it safe to say I am not a monster," She tried to sound lightly mocking but some of that was lost through her fangs.

The man lowered his head a bit, "Yes, but I have made a great mistake." She had no idea what sort of mistake this man could have made, honestly all his choices sounded reasonable if a bit paranoid.

"I don't see how you've made a mistake," and with her words he rose his head and mentioned another error. This exchange went on a good few minutes. Most of it was him saying something he felt wrong in doing followed by her seeing no issue with it. The only exception to this rule was him mentioning her teeth, or rather the size of her teeth reminding him of a 'Lesser One'. She had asked him to clarify and he had remarked that she should know, the ones with many large teeth.

She knew what he meant. Even she was not exactly a fan of that kind of vampire, no that was a misuse of the word. They were better described as ghouls or zombies. They fed on the flesh of people instead of the blood of them, usually entering fits of rage (not that she was in much of a position to talk) when starved for too long. They had a natural reflex that caused them to drool near anything that looked lightly edible and so in modern times wore face masks, often just simple things like dust masks, to hide it. Also they didn't need to eat nearly as much as she did, which made her just a bit jealous.

Deciding to change the subject she spoke again, "So who is this kid," she pointed now to the child who had dragged her in here.

"Ah yes she is in line for the pilgrimage, she has lessons today," Her face twitched a bit at the word pilgrimage. She had seen a man on a 'pilgrimage' and he had decided to drop himself down a hole.

"I may of told the last one you were a Lesser One... my mistake," He lowered his head again. She nodded for him to raise his head.

"So how long till she co... goes on the pilgrimage?" She couldn't very well act like she didn't know what they were about nor share any real feelings on it and so she tried to act in approval.

"ten years time, on her 16th birthday," Iris was relieved, they weren't sending a child to die at the age of six... just indoctrinating them into wanting to at the age of sixteen.

"I see where will the lessons take place?" She was genuinely curious what lessons you gave someone who was destined to die. He pointed to the a door near the table, on the wall behind it.

"May I come along, I am sure I know it already but," She paused as the man talked to the child in his native language. They spoke to each other for a minute or two, glancing over at her every so often.

"It should be fine, I hope I can ask for you to remain silent however," Iris nodded and the man grabbed his book, leading both her and the child into the room.

* * *

She had watched the lesson for a half an hour or so her phone told her, and she had in that time decided this room was entirely safe to sleep in if need be. It seemed to be some sort of watertight storage room. No light from the moon shined in and the two humans needed to teach their lesson by candlelight. She half considered using her phone's camera light but she didn't want to get in trouble for witchcraft or something similar.

Honestly she couldn't understand most of the lesson. It was given mostly in the native language of the people around here with the occasional English bit. It sounded like he was teaching her the letters of the English alphabet as he pointed to letters etched into the wall. The child seemed to get the lesson rather quickly however. So quick in fact that the man was about to let her go it seemed, then again that just might be the way they did things here.

The man put the book down near her as he lead the child to the door, he didn't seem all that concerned about it as went about what sounded like goodbyes. He walked over to Iris now as the door shut behind the child. He sat down across from her on some of the random containers lying about. He sounded a bit nervous as he began to speak, first what sounded like a prayer in his native language, followed by a sharp breath.

"So... why did you act like... that yesterday," So he had not forgotten. She was kind of hoping he had forgotten the rabid monster attack the prior day.

Thinking quickly she replied, "I was just testing you," she was making the assumption that these people expected her to do things like this.

"I... I haven't done anything wrong have I?" She guessed it worked. She nodded her head no, following by just saying no.

"Then it was a test of faith..." She agreed. Honestly she was glad this guy seemed to just accept what he saw, though she could go without the death training. She could also go without the need to repeatedly assure him that he had done nothing wrong.

He exclaimed in his native language then proceeded to say,"I am reminded of a small issue we are having, perhaps the reason you came here," She hoped whatever he said next was not something difficult and told him to go ahead.

"Someone has been sneaking in here at night after I leave, messing with things no doubt, I need someone to watch it."

Her reply was swift, "I can do it!"