The strange dream faded and Smoke found himself once again surrounded by the arid desert. Feeling a warmth slither down his face he touched his fingertip to his upper lip and looked to see it dyed crimson. Wiping the blood away with his wrist he looked to Nightwolf who also had a dribble of blood coming down from his nose.
"You should have warned me..." The shaman clutched his chest and stood up wearily. Turning away from Smoke he let out a hacking and wet cough into his hand.
"Warn you? What happened?" Smoke moved closer noticing Nightwolf's hand, blood dripping from it.
"When we shamans read an aura we are essentially taking a piece of the other participant's soul within ourselves, for a short time. When I tried this with you, your soul reacted on it's own. Something inside you cut the ritual short, and could have very well killed me." Letting out another cough Nightwolf spit onto the ground clearing the excess blood from his mouth.
"It was just the word of an old swordsman, I was never even sure if I could fully believe his tales..." Smoke looked down to the ground grasping his amulet tightly.
"It doesn't matter now, if you truly are here to kill Lamia... I suppose I could use your help." Nightwolf kneeled down next to the oasis and lowered his hand into the crystal blue water. He cupped his hand and splashed his face before walking back over to the fire which still burned brightly.
"So... what exactly is this 'Lamia', And how is it you know her?" He leaned up against the cave, crossing his arms as Nightwolf finished cooking the snake over the campfire.
"There really is no simple answer to what she is... as for how I know her... she is a killer, she and her 'queen' took everything from me." Cutting the piece of meat in two he tossed one half over to Smoke. They ate quickly as the sun began to rise, flooding the desert with light.
Wiping his hands against eachother Nightwolf walked into the cave entrance signalling Smoke to follow him. The pure darkness of the cave was illuminated by a small green flame that floated behind Nightwolf.
"It's about time I told you what exactly were going to be dealing with here... Lamia is from a land known as Vaeternus, and a member of the clan called the Moroi. The Moroi are undead creatures, feeding off the blood of humans to survive." They reached an empty stone chamber at the end of the cave, the walls engraved with the motif of a dragon and a clawed hand of stone rising from the middle of the floor.
"Undead creatures? Feeding off human blood to survive..." Smoke spoke to himself, staring at the stone hand which appeared to have once clutched something tightly.
"Sounds familiar, yes? The Moroi were the inspiration for what the people of this realm call 'vampires'. They rely on the greed of men to invite them into this realm by creating imitation Portal Stones with their own blood and sending them to this realm with black magic. When the humans then try to pry the stone free, the Moroi who's blood was used is released onto Earthrealm." Nightwolf spoke coldly, seriously, and turned his back to Smoke to run his fingers across the engravings on the wall. Although Smoke found his words hard to believe, deep down he knew the shaman spoke the truth.
"So, say I believe you... do you have any plans to tell me how you know all this?" Nightwolf looked over his shoulder staring at Smoke momentarily before his gaze drifted to the bloodstains scattered across the ground.
"Vaeternus was home to more than just the Moroi. There was once a tribe of warriors that would assume the form of beasts to do battle with the Moroi, they were their mortal enemies, they were called the Vilkol. Although most of this tribe could assume the form of their inner beast, some were born with the influence of the beast being so powerful inside themselves that they were forbidden from transforming, and they were instead trained to harness their powers through magic. These members of the Vilkol became known as Shamans. Are the pieces starting to fit together?" Nightwolf bit into his thumb piercing the skin to let blood flow from it's end, and began to paint some strange symbols over each of the engraved walls.
"I guess I should have expected an answer like that from you. Just tell me how to find this vampire." Smoke said as Nightwolf gathered his energy forming an orb and placing it in the palm of the disembodied hand.
"Say you find her, what then? She is stronger, faster, and harder to kill than any mortal could hope to be." The orb pulses, crystallizing itself in the clutches of the stone. Nightwolf made his exit from the cave, Smoke lingered for a moment taking one final look at the chamber before following the Vilkol into the sunlight.
Smoke stepped out onto the sand using his hand to shield his eyes from the sun for a moment. His eyes readjusted to the light to see Nightwolf reaching in the saddle bags of his horse and pulling out an off white t-shirt which was worn and stained.
"Listen shaman, I've wasted too much time talking with you. I don't know if I can believe your tales ancient clans, but if you are telling the truth I need to know one thing. How do I find this creature, and how do I kill it?" Nightwolf glanced over his shoulder to silently acknowledge Smoke and then reached back into his bag pulling out a holster that he fastened to his hip.
"The answer to that is simpler than you'd think, cut off contact between the brain and heart by any means. When the Vilkol did battle against the Moroi the only way to survive was to be faster, to be stronger, but when mortals fought against them they only survived by exploiting a weakness that all Moroi and Vilkol were born with." He pulled a revolver from his holster removing one bullet from the chamber. "Silver. It slows the regeneration process to a crawl once it enters the bloodstream, it is how humans survived on Vaeternus before they were completely enslaved." The bullet was replaced and the handgun was reholstered as Nightwolf finished. "Get some rest Lin Kuei, we hunt at dusk." Tomas decided to listen to the shaman, and made himself as comfortable as possible leaning up against a wall of rock. His eyelids were quite heavy after the sleepless night he'd just had and he felt himself drift off quickly. He stared up at the Vilkol who held a tattered headband tight in his hand, a creature of the night, a wolf among sheep, a monster cursed with compassion. The Enenra smiled as his eyes closed fully, welcoming the nightmares that were ever so familiar to him.