Ash licked his chapped lips. He sat by the inn's roaring fire, his fur coat with his Runner patches drying on the back of his chair. The motley shirt he was required to wear told all his position.Ash took another ship of his warm ale, troubld. Already he had a couple of coins for messeages men, women, and children alike paid for. The nearest Post was in the next village, and that was a day and a half journey's hike, a day that could be used working, or was safer spent indoors, especially on dreary winter nights as this one. He had only been stopping by to drop off a message to the inn keeper, but these people brought unsettling news. A young woman's disappearance, two dead this very week, their skin pale and blood drawn. Some said it was a disease, others a demon, but Ash knew something more sinister was at play.
Vampire.
Ash toyed with the fish hook around his neck. But how could he be sure it was the same one as before? The inn keeper's daughter approached him with his food, smoked ham and noodles. She looked fifteen with rosy cheeks. He beckoned her to lean in close. She blushed, but did as she was told.
"Yes?" she asked.
"I've a message for a straw haired and golden eyed man," Ash lied. "Tall and thin. Do you know him?"
The girl thought about it for a moment before her expression brightened.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. " I think he lives near Saiut. By the valley? He says he's a scholar and comes to learn about our culture. He's strange, but very rich and sometimes comes to trade. I think he came and went a few days ago."
She frowned.
"Are you alright, sir?" she asked, worried. "You look sick."
"No, that's alright. Thank you," Ash responded a little coldly.
The liquid in his mug quivered as his body shook with anger. It could be that this man was not his vampire, but Ash held no doubts of it. The only question was what to do about it? Hunt him, yes. There were some methods, but Ash knew he couldn't do it alone, not unaided.
