Sol’s POV

The sun was on the verge of setting once again, and it seemed to me that I had already adjusted to this new life in the wilderness - the human mind’s ability to adapt was truly amazing. Even in the mines, I had been able to adapt to the laborious life within a few days of living there - it was no different now. My stomach was growling louder than it had ever before while Nephthys looked as if she wouldn’t be able to last much longer without some source of blood. Contemplating what I would do, Nephthys told me she was going into the woods to take care of some business and I just nodded my head - I didn’t want to interfere with the nature of bodily functions.

When she left, I decided to start building camp before the sun completely set for the night. It'd take me a while to do alone so I would have to get things prepared so that Nephthys could help me when she got back. The woods were silent except for the noisy beasts scattering around, looking for food - no different from our own situation. Building a fire was a bad idea so I decided against it, especially because it was dark and we would be easy to spot from a distance - we would become easy targets for anyone trying to find us. Going to sleep and waking up as the sun rose was a better plan that I had decided on; this would give us the most time to travel while the sun was out - as long as we weren't killed first.

I dragged over pieces of sticks, logs, leaves - anything that could be used to form a makeshift “home” for the night. The skies had already turned a deep crimson red and I had barely finished gathering materials we would need to sleep on for tonight. A gentle wind blew - nothing like the cold from days past - and I relaxed instinctively, but as I let go of the tension, I was overwhelmed by everything else wrong with my body: from my feet to arms to my stomach that felt like it was eating itself alive. For the past few days, I had managed to keep myself going by distracting the natural responses of my body, but it seemed that it would no longer work.

“I’m back!”

Right on the verge of collapsing from physical and mental strain, I heard a soothing voice that resonated in my ears - I was relieved to hear that voice.

“Where were you Nephthys?”

“I caught some food for you!... You’re not doing so well are you…”

It seemed that she had gone to catch some meat and here I was feeling stupid for thinking that she had been taking a while doing her business. She carried with her several beasts, different from the one she had caught before, and they were dripping in blood. Even though I had tried my best to hide it when I heard her, she had still quickly figured out that I wasn’t holding up so well on my own. After leaving the bloody beasts on some rocks that I had gathered, she came over to me and helped me quickly set up our base for the night.

“You should… no… you will go rest now until I finish cooking these beasts!”

She demanded that I go take a rest and I wasn’t going to argue with her. I was getting nauseous and exhausted from simply standing and walking on my two legs. I laid myself against a tree and slid down it to get into a sitting position. Fire started crackling near me and I realized that she had already begun cooking the meat. It seemed that she already knew not to start a fire because she only kept the fire conjured in her hand while holding the beasts to get cooked. The fire still let off some light to the surrounding, but we couldn’t just refuse to eat - we would simply die then.

It became clear to me that Nephthys knew a lot more than I ever realized. She could catch beasts on her own, use a dagger, conjure fire and use other magic, and she was aware of our situation. Thinking back on it, it was a blessing that she even stayed with me - especially after all I had done to her. Within a few moments, the meat was cooked and Nephthys quickly killed her flame. I received the meat graciously and ate it regardless of how it tasted or smelled - what did it matter when I was going to die without it? The meat I held in my hands disappeared in a matter of moments and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nephthys smiling as I ate - I got nervous for some reason and slowed down the rate I was eating.

It seemed that Nephthys had already taken her necessary meal of blood by the color of her skin - it was no longer ghostly pale. On the other hand, my stomach hurt from eating too much at once, which in my world was not a bad thing in any way. The sun had all but disappeared now and I could barely see Nephthy even though she was right in front of me. I grabbed Nephthys’s hand and slowly walked over to the base we had made in a hurry. It looked similar to where we slept the other night, but this time, we added some layers with leaves on the bottom for a softer foundation and sticks to prevent any dirt from pouring back into the divot.

The pit was a tight fit, but it was necessary to prevent our bodies from getting extremely cold - it would probably lead to death. I had already laid down getting ready to sleep, but Nephthys was still wide awake as if she didn’t experience any sleepiness.

“I don’t think you need to watch out for anything tonight… we’re pretty deep in the woods… probably”

“... Vampires don’t need too much sleep - if at all. I can stay alive as long as I don’t run out of blood to drink. Also, I forgot to tell you because it is commonly taught by humans as a scary story, but vampires are strongest at night and can’t function as well when the sun comes out.”

“...”

I had thought it was weird that Nephthys always looked paler in the mornings than at night when the sun had set - I had chalked it up to the way the sun shined on her skin. But it turns out that vampires were just superior in so many ways compared to humans. It made me wonder how the world was not already overrun by the vampiric race or the demonic race in general. Vampires didn’t need to sleep and were strongest at night which was perhaps one of humanity’s two greatest weaknesses that existed - yet they had still prevailed all over the world from what I’ve heard and been told by various beastmen in the caves… even Rosa and Nor.

“Good night Nephthys”

“...Good night Sol”

I quickly tried to fall asleep before I was overwhelmed with thoughts of Rosa and Nor who I had completely forgotten about in the chaos that was the last few days. But it was too late and my head was spinning with thoughts about what may have happened to them. I had already had these thoughts once in the past, and this time they were even darker than before. What if they had been captured and tortured? What if they had died looking for me? Were they put back into those caves? W-what if they had died alone in the middle of nowhere? I hated that my mind always went to the worst possible situation in any given scenario instead of trying to find a way to make things better. My body was tensing up and I couldn’t fall asleep even though I had been exhausted moments before.

At that moment, someone’s hand stroked my hair softly. It was a soft touch that relaxed my entire body until sleepiness took over again. The last thing I heard was Nephthys singing in words that I did not understand, but it felt like a soft, melancholic tone that resonated beautifully in my ears. I imagined that an angel's voice sounded somewhat similar to Nephthys’s voice and I drifted into a comfortable sleep without any chaos in my mind.

Nephthys's POV

I didn’t want to leave Sol alone, but the sun was about to start setting and I needed to make sure Sol had something to eat for tonight - he was starving enough already. I told him that I was going to take care of some business which even he seemed to understand the meaning to - it was not a complete lie because I really would take care of business. I lurked around in the shadows to prevent myself from alerting nearby prey and spotted some smaller beasts grazing on the ground. Approaching them swiftly, I threw a dagger at two of them just below their heads - which seemed to be the most vital spot - and they fell onto the ground with a soft thud. As I went to pick them up, I realized that it was harder to kill other people because they were able to reason… but at the same time, if fear overtook their bodies, they would be no different from the beasts I had killed just now. That would be the key to us surviving in the future.

After hunting a few smaller beasts, I retrieved my daggers and had my own meal for the time being - I didn’t want to show myself drinking blood like a beast in front of Sol. As I ripped open the skins of the beasts, the scent of blood quickly drifted into my nose and my instinct was on the verge of running wild. While practicing to hold back my instincts, I carefully bit into the beast with my fangs and sucked the blood out of it. Unfortunately, there was no stopping until I ran out and I hated myself for it - it made me feel no different from the beasts that I had killed today.

After having sucked all the blood out of the beasts, I felt much more alive. Before I started heading back, I closed my eyes and picked up the scent of Sol. I had already become accustomed to his scent and could find my way back by figuring out in which direction he was in as long as he was within my range of smell. The trip back did not last long and I greeted him as I reappeared before him. He looked worse than when I had gone out without him. I helped him set up our bed for the night and demanded that he take a rest while I got his “meal” ready - I quickly cooked the meat. After making sure that my fire wouldn’t cause unwanted attention, I quickly heated the meat and cooked it thoroughly; Sol ate it just as quickly which was something I got extremely happy about - although he did look a little red while eating, perhaps I hadn’t let it cool off enough.

Afterward, I told him more about myself that I had mistakenly thought he had already known because it was common sense to the majority of people in the world. I talked to him a little more that night and before I knew it, he had already told me good night. Although I was slightly disappointed, he was right next to me and I could just enjoy looking at him throughout the night while he slept. But I sensed that something was wrong with him when he didn’t fall asleep after some time. It seemed like he was having a nightmare in real life, so I comforted him like I had done before - caressing his hair. Within moments, his body relaxed… so I decided to sing him a song to allow him to go to bed worry-free.

Thinking back to the moments that my parents had sung to me, I chose one that I had heard many times over to the point that it annoyed me at times - nonetheless, it was a beautiful song. Mother had never told me why or for whom this song was written, but it had always been passed down from the parents to the kids by everyone in the vampiric race… at least that was what I was told. It was a song about a vampiric woman who was on the verge of death. If she had been the usual vampire, she would have caused minimal casualties and passed on, but this woman had been filled to the brink with overwhelming dark grief and ravaged the continent of Atora and Toruna for not just several days or months, but seven years. Many stories of the demonic continent Atora originated in some way from this catastrophic event and to this day, inhabitants of Toruna, especially humans, continue to discriminate against demons for it.

But none of that pointless history mattered to me… only the boy who I had sworn to protect mattered in my eyes. No matter what people thought of me, as long as Sol did not renounce me, I would continue to live my life alongside him. As I thought these thoughts, I quietly sang this heart-breaking song even after Sol had fallen asleep. I looked up to the skies to see that it was not completely clear, but the stars still shined through the gaps, as if to prove their existence to the world.