Me and Rosie continue watching over Selshruuk and Felnor, in silence since we left the northern part of the Dragonoid's continent until Rosie clears her throat to break the silence.
"I wanted to tell you back there about what happened to me, but I felt I couldn't do it."
I ask.
"are you talking about the time you spent at the prison labour camp?"
she nods and says.
"I remember waking up in the middle of a very dense forest with others, who also woke with no memory on how they ended up there."
I get closer to her and say.
"do you really want to talk about it? if your not ready you don't need to."
she looks me in the eyes and says.
"I need to, because it's like you said to Leonard, what if things don't turn out good for us, like one of us dying or even the both us, so I want to tell you while I still can."
I reply.
"okay, then I'm listening."
she continues.
"we woke up with no memories of who we were and with no articles of clothing."
I chuckle.
"you were all nude?"
she rests her head on my shoulder and answers trying to hide her smile from me.
"yeah we were nude."
she resumes.
"besides being nude, we all took notice that we had red eyes, which led us to believe that we were all somehow connected with each other and so we stuck together and did our best to survive in the wilderness of the strange place we woke up in."
she sighs and asks.
" do you know what what was strange but we didn't find strange?"
I shake my head.
"what was it?"
she answers.
"when we would hunt animals for food, we used out bȧrė hands instead of making weapons and when we would need wood from trees, we just used our bȧrė hands to chop down the tress with ease."
I smile.
"makes sense, the vampire lords and apprentices
were pretty strong physically."
she then asks.
"what was I?"
"didn't Lady Mengshee dig into your memories of being a vampire."
she shakes her head.
"she couldn't do it for some reason."
I sigh and answer her question.
"you were an apprentice, Lord Vernon turned you into a vampire after you died, but I never got to witness that happen, so it must have happened after your parents buried you."
she looks down at the metal floor and asks.
"did I hurt innocent people while I was a vampire?"
I shake my head.
"no, I don't think so."
"but you were obsessed with drinking my blood."
her face turns red with embarrassment and ignores what I said and just continues with her story.
"anyways, we built a small community with basic
shelters, and we lived an relative peace for a time."
I ask.
"so it wasn't all that bad even if you guys lost your memories."
she smiles.
"yeah, there was this man I met named Marcus, he was real sweet on me."
she looks at me and says with a voice filled with guilt.
"I loved him."
it feels like a sharp arrow went through my heart upon hearing that she loved someone else, but I knew full well that I had no right to feel this way especially since I moved on with life my when she died, I then shift my body closer to her and wrap my arms around her and ask.
"is this why you think I would hate you? because you fell in love with another man?"
she nods.
"at the time I didn't even remember who you were or that you existed."
I sigh and lean my head ob the top of her head and reply.
"even though I feel hurt knowing this, I don't hate you at all."
I then add on.
"if anything I should be asking for your forgiveness, because I moved on after I thought you died."
she replies.
"I'm happy to hear that you don't hate me for it and you don't need to ask for forgiveness because I don't blame you for moving on."
she sighs.
"I really wanted to hate you, but."
she smiles with tears in her eyes.
"I'll always love you forever."
I respond.
"and me as well."
she then takes a moment to compose herself and continues with the story.
"Marcus, decided to explore beyond what we have ever explored in the wilderness, and he came back wounded and with many Dragonoid Warriors marching towards our little settlement."
I ask.
"so he brought them back to you guys?"
she replies.
"he didn't intend to, when he encountered them, they were hostile and attacked him on sight, and when he got injured, he came straight back to us so that he can warn us about them, but they followed him back."
I ask.
"so what happened after they arrived your settlement?"
she answers.
"we fought back, but we lost and those who were not killed during the battle, were taken to different prison labour camps."
I asked.
"what was it like there?"
she replies it cold dead stare in her eyes.
"it was a daily struggle to survive on the little water and food the Dragonoids provided us."
she continues.
"they did this to keep prisoners weak, so that they wouldn't have enough energy to fight back."
she sighs.
"there were many of us who gave up because of the hopeless situation we were stuck in, and some gave in to the despair and killed themselves."
I respond.
"but you didn't give up."
she nods.
"yeah I didn't, but that was because I remembered my mom and dad one night when I was asleep, my memories of them gave me the strength to keep on living."
I then ask.
"so how did you escape?"
she replies.
"Marcus managed to unite everyone in our camp from different races and planned an all out attack, that worked."
I reply.
"sounds like he did good, it's not easy to get different races to come together to fight for a common goal."
she looks down on the ground and says with a somber voice.
"he didn't make it out, when we were well outside of the prison camp, we got surrounded and outnumbered quickly, but he sacrificed himself to make sure that the rest of us could escape."
I then ask.
"so what happened after all of you got away ron the prison camp?"
she replies.
"we made it to a small fishing village, and stole their boats at night and went our separate ways when we set sail on the ocean."
I sigh and ask.
"do you know if there are other former vampires still alive out there?"
she shrugs.
"I have no idea, but they could still be out there."
I respond.
"alright, I'll make sure to tell King Dave about that, so to prevent the public from thinking that they are still vampires."
Rosie doesn't respond, so then I slightly look down and see that she had fallen asleep, I sigh and think to myself.
"she really has been through a lot."
I kiss her on the forehead and whisper.
"get some rest, things are going to be really hectic when we arrive."
I gently lay her head down on my ŀȧp, so that she can sleep more comfortably and continue watching over Felnor and Selshruuk.