One night, after some moons had passed, as he was making his nightly journey, he heard the faintest sound of stifled sobs. Alarmed, he ran into the clearing. He looked around in shock at the sight of the flowers trampled to the stems beneath brutish stomping of metal boots.
Scarred and furred half feline, half humanoid beasts surrounded the perimeter. Catching sight of him, they closed their ranks so that all retreat routes were closed off. "Don't come any closer, leech," a burly lizard warrior snarled at him. The war party yipped in agreement. A catamount woman stepped out of the ranks, holding a flashing blade of Damascus steel that flashed a bolt of light over the crisscrossing scars on her face. "Or you can join her," she purred, claws extended and curved so lightly so that only a single prick of blood fell from their cowering prisoner`s neck.
He bared his teeth. "I have appointed myself her guardian. I will not stand by while this happens," Layel said. The vampire stepped into the open and looked at their captive.
The panther woman shrugged. "She's a useful person, and it's so convenient to get a rare find like this all on their lonesome in the big scary woods," she said.
"Why so violent?" he asked. "If you want to take a child as a pawn, I see no reason to hold her at knife point," Layel said.
"Why, you ask," the panther woman twittered. The rest of the shifters laughed along. "It's really an intermediate stage. We do this, upset whole kingdoms, and work towards a greater cause. We really have no great grudge against this one girl," she said, while the rattlesnake pressed the knife closer to the girl's throat. "Arlec here is just showing you we mean business. Although we have no grudge against this girl, we may harm her if you keep moving forward," she said. Layel hissed at them, but he moved back a few feet. That said, the nymphs have tortured us for centuries, spurned and mocked all of us, and there's no love lost between us."
Priscilla shook her head. "The nymphs don't like me at all; I ran away from them. They hate me and my sister," she protested.
Arlec shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Ortek was telling the truth; we still don't have anything in particular against you, just your friends in high places," the rattlesnake man said.
The puma woman nodded her agreement. "We have friends as well, and we are willing to kidnap a little girl and fight a pitiful young vamp for them. It's a small price to pay for loyalty from those who will support you at all costs," Ortek said. She and the rest in this group had not been considered important enough to be in the conclave that took place the week before, and their faith in their allies was unshaken. "Even if it didn't help our friends, we're still happy to scare the pants of those darn nymphs. They're so damn peaceful, and their little princey poos are just sooo happy," she said.
"I hate those freakin` dragons," an iguana man grumbled. The others growled their assent.
"And the girl?" Layel asked.
"Well," the mountain lion woman said. "Those sisters work for one of them, you know?"
"It's that dratted Aeron," a voice in the crowd chipped in. "I hate that guy." There were dark mutters in response.
"Anyways," the woman said, obviously aggravated the others had interrupted her, "we want to annoy them somehow, and this stood out as an easy way to do that," Ortek answered.
"I just want the bounty from that wizard bloke," the iguana chimed in. "It's nice to help out the shifter alliance, but I have bigger priorities than politics at stake," he added.
"Silence!" Ortek called out to them all. "Now we must act, and not argue!" There were murmurs of assent, and it was clear that they all agreed that it was time to do something. Nonetheless, they continued to argue how, precisely, they should act. Should they capture the girl and bring her in live for the bounty, or to their people? Should they kill the vampire and be done with it? The vampire, of course, posed new problems. Should they ransom him to his kinsmen, or skip the bother and possibility of retribution by killing him then and there? The idea that retribution might still come from his kinsmen more fiercely than ever before if they killed the man never seemed to enter their heated debate.
Layel simply ignored it all and walked across to the girl that had been dropped on the ground in the heat of debate. "Name is?" he asked, gently helping the wounded girl to her feet.
"Umm," she whispered, voice cracked. "Priscilla, of the Nymph race, a nyad," she continued. She was still shivering in fear. He dug around in his pocket, eventually revealing a crumpled scarf. She received it gratefully, wrapping it up like a shawl and tucking herself into it as well as she could. "The flowers are gone," she observed. "They had voices. And now they are gone." A single tear fell down her check. "They're all dead, and it's all my fault for
