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Nikolas was watchful as the mare sank to the ground after his departure, turning his head away he stepped further into the trees, letting the dappled lighting flicker off his white coat making him seem more like a ghost then ever before. Stopping again he looked back toward where he had left the mare, the one that poured everything out on him. Her pain, her anger and he took it with a somewhat straight face. He felt for her, hoping her the best in her adventures in her life from here on out. He wouldn't darken her doorway again, that is...

His train of thoughts ended abruptly as he looked back again toward where he had left the mare. He noted her coming in the same direction he had come. Remaining in the stagnant shadows he watched, letting the wind shift the foliage over head giving away his hiding place, even if he hadn't really been 'hiding'. As she stood there, possibly thinking whether or not to follow him into the abyss he turned away and started walking again. Making small noises as he went, a snap of a twig or the rustle of the leave beneath his hooves. The night was waning away before him and he had yet to really find something to eat. These pressing matters were starting to make his poor head ache in a way it hadn't for a long time.

"Don't dwell in the past, what has happened can't be changed. No going back, only forward into the light and into the unknown." He muttered more to himself though his voice seemed to snake around the trees to the ears that were listening. "Wounds given, wounds healed. Pain given and pain suffered, life always finds away." He snorted, "Damn, I'm starting to sound like you Kristopher." He whispered to himself shaking his head.

Stepping into a smaller clearing then the valley he had left, leaving the mare within it, though had a feeling that she had followed him. Turning around in the small clearing, letting the moonlight sink into his coat again, giving that same luminous feeling to it, though his black mantel of hair said other wise. He wasn't exactly the most 'shiny' of stallions when he wanted to be. Looking back into the darkness, he watching the shadows loom and linger, stretch and reach out for what they couldn't grasp. Shaking his head, he stepped back toward the trees, watching them. Waiting. Waiting for something he had a feeling that wouldn't follow.

"If you wish to not be alone, you are welcomed to come with me." He called into the darkness, "It is your choice, who knows. Maybe we can turn a frown upside down?" he mused while shifting the scratch a shoulder against a tree.

Looking upwards and toward the moon shrouded skies, watching the starts twinkle and glitter in their own lights. Like small lightening bugs that got caught within a large web and weren't able to get themselves free no matter how much they struggled. He didn't wish on stars, he found it silly. Though his brother did it every 'morning' before setting off to do what ever it was he did, alone. Nik often worried about Kris, though knew his brother could fend for himself.

"At the very least, we could keep each other company until the day comes and I wander back to where I sleep." He added a while after, when he looked away from the stars.

He gave a leveled look to air as he was asked why he slept during the day, he wasn't used to the bright sun nor did he really think that he wanted to be. But could adapt he supposed... If he really had to. Though the comment after wards snapped something within him as he shrugged that off. He wasn't like many stallions, he rarely looked upon a mare in a 'certain' light. they were just what they were, mares. Another living creature to get used to in this land. All this came back to his sleeping through the day and waking at night and being active.

"I sleep during the day cause I'm not accustomed to living in the sunlight. True it doesn't 'hurt' me for what I am, a vampire, but still it's annoying. He admitted openly of what he was. "My brother is the same as I, though he loves walking around in the harshness of the sun. Too good for his own well being I tell him, but he merely shrugs. So I never mind him not sleeping with me during the day."

Stepping back a bit, his tail twitching over his flank as he listened to the clicking of the beads on her bracelets, even if he hadn't noticed them on their encounter back in the valley outside his and his brother's home. Then again, the moon didn't lighten her coat up too much, not like it had his. Still, darkness was always his mistress and she was as dark in color as he's ever seen. Losing himself in his own thoughts on things, Nikolas paced a little before standing back where he had started.

"I can't speak for any other stallion that 'messes' around in the night, but so you know. Besides the new fledgeling under mine and mine brother's wing. You are the first mare that I've seen since coming to these lands. So I don't see myself messing around at night, besides feasting on things no one really cares about."

Well that was something he gave her credit on, he wasn't a social butterfly as some put it so 'smashingly'. He rarely did see others, if he had, they were so often 'sleeping' and he never awakened the sleeping. No point in it all really, what would happen? The ones awakened would be cross and argue with him, he never really wanted an argument. Even if he's already been in one 'fight' with another stallion over a filly that was left on her own well after dark. That fight was all talk, never much action as it seemed the father didn't wish to show violence before his own kin.

"You could say that. Not many out here are awake at this hour of the night. When the moon sets and the sunrises is their time. When the sunsets and the moon rises, that's my time." he pointed out though moved not an inch from where he stood. "Also after what happened in my past, socialism isn't exactly my art, though I do host a bash now and again... Rather I did."

Watching the mare, he had nearly forgotten that she still hadn't given out her name. Though he wished she would, he wondered if perhaps not giving out her name would keep her further away from being, 'friendly' with him. He had quite openly said his name, as a token, but it was taken too lightly. Black eyes looked the mare over after she had come from he stood, looking her over for really the first time since their first meeting. He never really looked her over 'that' well and now was the time to he supposed. Stepping around her. looking her over with still softened black eyes, he stopped when he noted the sticks that might have been in her mane. He guessed it got tangled in a branch, stupid things had always reached out for things that weren't theirs.

Not really thinking of what he was doing, he started taking the sticks out of her mane. His ears flicked as he continued, though spoke somewhat in between pulls. "If you wonder what I 'feast' on, it's not like what these Kalona or pelt wearers eat." He tugged at a couple more small twigs, "I favor more of blood berries and blackberries." Again he stopped speaking as another twig was between his teeth and he pulled it free and spat it to the ground. Looking a bit uncaring that he was really too close for comfort, well, well in to her comfort zone as it were. He just couldn't see her having sticks in her mane to get it even more tangled that it might already have been...

Nikolas stepped back as she pulled away from him, much as he would expect. He never really realized what he was doing, he had a thing for beauty. And with sticks in one's hair wasn't too glamorous, but with most of the litter pulled from the strands it looked better and moved more freely when the wind blew through it. If there had been shock on his face when she pulled away, he quickly covered it and spat the stick that had been in his mouth to the ground as she came about to names being pathetic for the berries he ate. What did she expect him to eat? Meat like those lower then himself? Please, he wasn't that blood thirsty.

"They exists, and there is such a thing as blackberries. Much like Raspberries, though black in color and more bitter to the taste. Blood berries.." He had to think a moment, "I guess you have a different name for them, but they are red like blood and are very sweet. Cherries I think they are called in these parts. Very rare to be found in this season. But Blackberries are as ripe as ever." He nodded.

Looking around the clearing that he had lead them to, he knew this clearing always had something for him to eat. Just had to find the bush, get past the thorns and get at the berries it hid. Stepping away from the mare, he walked around the edge of the clearing until he came to the thorned bush. Ah! There it was, pawing at the branches, he knocked down some of the more thorned ones to get to the berries that were further in back, being he had cleaned the front branches a few nights back.

"Here I'll show what I mean by blackberries... If you've never seen them before." Nik looked back before reaching forward the n** a couple thorn covered branches from where they laid and pulled back.

The thorns cut into his lips, but the blood from them would only be licked away in due time. Stopping back over to the mare, he placed them on the ground, where she could inspect the berries for herself. His tongue escaped his muzzle and licked over the small scrapes and cuts to his lips. Taking in the blood with a slight amused look on his face. Giving a small shudder as he let the warm liquid roll over his tongue and down his throat, his eyes closed to hide the slight red that came to them before it vanished back to blackness.

"Do try one, though I'm sure you know to mind the thorns. They can be a bit of a pain." Nikolas grinned as his tongue again rolled over his slowly bleeding lips, though the blood was easing to where it wouldn't run anymore and he would pout to himself. "But I do warn, they are bitter."

"Eh, it's just their color as they are as red as the blood that flows through us all." He shrugged as his eyes watched her.

His black eyes had focused themselves on the mare's throat, watching the blood being pulsed just beneath the skin. Watching the flesh move as she breathed, shifted and turned. If only it were the old days, his lips would have been at her throat and the sweet nectar of her blood quenching his thirst. There was a lust in his eyes as she looked away from the mare to hide what was in his eyes. He wasn't that way anymore, he had adapted, or at least he thought, to the ways of his new life. He wasn't exactly the blood drinker anymore, even if the lust burned him almost every time he looked at someone.

"Please, try them, I'll be..." He paused as his eyes locked onto her throat again, before he shook his head turning away. "Over here." He finished stepping back back over toward the bush he had pulled the berries from.

Stopping at the bush his head lowering to nose at the thorned branches before pulling back and trying at another angle, his mind swam a bit. He was trying not to think of how things were at one time. In a time when his brother and himself were the worst of their kind, drinking the blood from the same host as a mirrored reflection. Shaking his head again he sighed, those days were gone now and he had to make due with what he had and berries were the closest thing he had to the real thing.

'Keep it together Nikolas' he thought to himself nipping at the berries. 'those days are gone. That life is gone. Furthermore Kristopher would hang you out to dry if you hurt someone... Again.' The last thought made him shudder.

Ah yes, Kristopher, he would be the one to lash out at his brother if he were to learn that he had hurt someone. That was one wrath he wouldn't want to face, again. Too many times had he messed up and Kristopher had to do something to fix it. Well not this time, he wasn't going to make the same mistakes... Hopefully not... Finally getting a mouthful of the bitter sweet berries, he chewed slowly. Letting the juice from them seep down his throat, letting his mind drift away from the thoughts and get back to the present...

An ear turned as he heard steps moving away from him, away from the clearing that he had been standing in and where he had brought the mare. Without really lifting his head or turning around to watch her leave, Nikolas just kept eating. Did he really care if she had left him, alone? Perhaps, but it didn't really mean much, he didn't know her name even if he had spouted his so willingly. Did he think hat maybe something might happen to her? Of course, but he had his feeling that maybe this was all out of his reach. He had never really known true love, being the 'truest' of love, in his own. Pulling his head from the brambles and shaking the small twigs from his head, small scratches appearing on his face from the thorns. His own black tail flicked over his white rump and down over the rose brand that stood out against the field of white. Head turning toward the darkness over head, he sighed a bit before finally looking back toward where she had once stood.

His tongue seeped from his muzzle and over his lips, the razor tips of his hidden fangs tickling just a little in their own way. He stepped over to where the air was still vaguely warm, his head low and sniffing at the grass that had been about her hooves. It was time to hunt, or so it came across in his head. A black luck came to his eyes, his coat almost seemed to dim to where it shone not but a little from the moon over head. Slinking off to one side, his head lowered, predatory like, he stepped near soundlessly into the shadows. His pace was easy and light, though he gained ground quick, having given her quite the head start, her scent wafted through the trees and was an easy trail to follow. Picking a more off path way he wove through the trees and past small openings. When he came close, Nikolas slowed, dark eyes watching her dark form before him. For now, he waited... Followed and watched, he would have a chance. A chance for what? Only he knew...