“Are these edible?” Tony ran after Louie and showed him a handful of small, yellowish berries.
They had stayed on the road and had driven half a day, but the number of police cars had increased and being wanted men, they had decided it was better to continue on foot.
After leaving the road they had traveled further North towards their friends in the big city.
The journey had taken them through fields, plains and marshes. Rich nature and a big diversity of trees amazed them and the wounds Tony had, had healed at a good rate.
They had walked for two days and nights. Only stopping for a quick nap where the density of trees and tall grass had allowed them to remain unseen by curious eyes.
A lake lay to the left of them and reflected the setting sun in it, casting a comforting orange glow that made them feel at ease. Reeds kept them covered and hidden as they made their way to the village of Erdin, near the hills that separated the southern and the northern lands like a natural border. “They are edible, but they also work as a laxative so suit yourself.” Louie said casually as he wondered how Thomas, Yakira and the others were doing. If they were still alive at all.
“That shouldn't make much difference from the food I had in the prison.” Tony said, but after a short moment of consideration he threw the handful of berries aside.
His stomach growled in protest, deprived of the good meals it had been used to.
Apart from a decent meal he could use a warm bed and a fresh pair of clothes. His escape had given him strength however and the vampire was good company to have around on trips in the wild. He seemed to have a lot of knowledge of the outside world and climbed through the grass with the experience of a hunter and the grace of a thief.
He had not been much of a talker however and the majority of the past two days they had spent in silence, walking and enjoying their solitude, relative safety and the beauty of the flora and fauna. Two tiny, blue birds fluttered through the sky singing one of their songs in their high pitched calls before they came to rest on the bank of the water.
Rather suddenly the lush overgrowth ended and they stood in a clear open circle of short, yellow grass that looked like it had been dead for years.
Louie stood still and called to his senses. He had the strange feeling they were being watched.
His nose picked up the scent of the flowers and animals that roamed the land.
His eyes moved over the flat countryside, clear sparkling rivers and colourful overgrowth.
His taste picked up the sweet taste of the cadaver of a small animal several feet away from them and the bitter of the edible moss on the bank of the water.
The air was unnaturally thick here and unusually warm as was picked up by his touch, thousands of nerves that ran like freeways through his body and ended in a dead end just underneath his skin. Something else was different about the air here as well, it was intoxicating and pleasant to be in. Like the temporary buzz after a glass of sweet,red wine with which you end a pleasant meal on a hot summer evening.
“Let us give our feet some rest here.” Louie sat down and looked at the sun that seemed to sink into the earth on the horizon. Tony enjoyed the feeling of the cool, grass against his painful body.
The dew on the grass seemed strange when he took into account the warmth in the air, but it could not bother him for long. The small, green blades of grass kissed his skin and he felt relieved. As if an itch he had felt for all of his life was finally scratched at.
“This moss is edible and high if protein and vitamins.” Louie plucked a handful of moss out of the sticky and wet, brown patch next to the river and handed it to Tony.
Tiny fibers crawled in Tonys hand as he accepted it, like little worms trying to escape from his grasp and dripped through the cracks between his fingers and onto his filthy and torn jeans.
The smell it gave off was as horrible as the prospect of this being his lunch was.
“Are you sure this is not (-)?” Tony looked at Louie with suspicion in his eyes.
“Quiet sure.”
“Don't tell anyone about this or I will stake you.”
The brown and crawly good rested in the cup of his hand as he brought it towards his mouth.
It slithered through his troath and begun its journey to his empty stomach. It tasted surprisingly pleasant, like the bean soup his mother used to make for him. Even if a bit more spicy.
The atmosphere and the hunger set his initial inhibitions aside and he scooped up more fists full of the brown moss.
“You know, it actually is (-), technically.” Louie sounded apologetic and Tony, his mouth covered in what he believed to be crap looked up at him. Fire lit up in his heart. “I'm going to kill you.”
Louie started laughing, a chuckle at first but the small stream of laughter soon turned into a waterfall of pleasure and tears of joy sprang in his eyes.
The relief he felt was so intense that it filled him up with joy. Tony realised it had been a joke and after flinging a handful of brown goo at the vampire's head. He joined in and soon they were both holding their sides and the sound of joy rolled across the land.

What should have been a short break had turned into a long rest.
Tony Waterbeck and Louie Greenthorpe had talked for hours and had found out they had many things in common. For hours they talked about theater and poetry and Louie enjoyed listening to Tony and his wonderful tales of life on Technoir. Often amazed at the technological advancements made there and how long it took for a neighbouring planet to see the benefits.
Tony in turn was treated to stories about the history of this planet and the wonderful account of the parties that took place in the mansions of the rich and famous. Louie described everything with such attention to detail that it felt as if Tony was there with him.
There was something in the air they said jokingly, that made them feel as if they had drank several bottles of liquor and they started singing songs around a fire they had made as the evening had set in. Underneath the stars they sang a drunk mans song.

“The turtle gave the hare, quiet a scare
as they walked down the old road
Never and no more would it feel like before
when he met his mother, the toad
Her green and spotted skin
her body fair and slim
In the eyes of a rabbit in love.
He married her and never again
would he walk down the old road.”

They laughed as the wounds caused by Tonys captors healed up at an unusual speed.
When the evening fell the two men slumbered away and had the deepest and longest sleep they had in a long time.

The morning came and brought with it several oddities.
“Can you hear that? Is that bell chiming?” The floor shook every time a bell chimed.
Its hollow sound could be heard coming from below the surface and Louie put his ear against the ground. Tony was feeling slightly intoxicated still and dreamily look at the ripples the chiming of the bell caused on the surface of the water.
“It is probably carried over from the next village by the wind.” Tony took a small twig and started scribbling in the sand. Louie could not believe the young mans casually attitude towards this oddity. His drunken state of the night before had vanished rapidly and he moved through the grass. The chiming was getting louder as he crawled deeper into the grass.
In the mud a face formed as lines were dragged into it. An amateuristic portrayal of a young mans longing to be with the girl he missed. “Where are you.” He jumped up when he heard a scream from Louie. The fields were empty save for the young man who now followed the prints in the ground his friend had left with a steady pace.
He took a few more steps, the chiming grew louder.
Three more steps, the sound of the bells entered his body and started pounding small hammers against his brain.
Two more steps, it formed a spectral fist and closed it around his heart.
The ground shook terribly and his first thought was running away from this place, back to the safety of the river bank, but before he had the chance to run away the ground opened up and swallowed him whole, dragging him down into the depths and nearer to the chiming of the bells.

The overnight stay was predestined and they had both felt it. Had they taken a different path they could have been in the next town already.
Sometimes fate had a different plan however and the vampire rushed through the thick blackness of the ground at high speed. Burrowing himself into the heart of Carrotus like an oversized mole.
The bell still chimed through every inch of his being and he felt he was getting closer. Before long the ground opened up beneath him and spat him out into a pitch black cavern.
He landed on the earth and the force that he felt slamming against his back made him cough.
Cold blood trickled from his left elbow, but the damage could have been bigger. He slowly pushed himself up and with much effort he had managed to get on his feet just as Tony fell from through the hole in the ground and slammed into Louie.
“Oh, damn. I think I broke something.” The young fighter pilot said. He did not feel any pain, only a slight shaving on his right knee.
“I think you broke my leg.” Louie replied as he pushed Tony off of him and rolled around.
“Are you alright.”
“I think I will be alright, it will heal itself in a moment. I think we should sit still and not touch anything until my leg has mended.”
“That sounds like a good plan. I can't see a hand in front of my eyes.”
And as if by magic, the last word that had left Tonys mouth seemed to be accompanied by a very small light the size of a firefly. It floated towards the ceiling of the cave and hang there quietly.
“Thats impossible.” Tony stared at it with his mouth wide open.
The flesh of Louie's leg was mending itself and he stared at the spec of light, just as lost for words as Tony had been. Well, a little more perhaps.
The light gradually grew in strength and fell over the walls lighting up the cave very slowly, like the sun rising behind a line of trees.
“We were drawn here, weren't we. I mean, as if by, by magic?” Tony hesitated while speaking out the last word, but he was sure that something unusual had happened to them. And this cave lay at center of it. The light crept further down the walls and was reflected off of several large, glass windows depicting unusual scenes that were hard to make out with the amount of dust and sand on them, gentle cracks were heard, a symphony of glass and rotting wood as it groaned under the pressure of the sand that tried to push its way through them.
Wooden benches lay on their side, the fine brown wood with which they had been build had turned a charcoal black over the ages and gave them a haunting feel. In the middle of the large room lay a crystal chandelier that must have fallen from the roof and lay in ruin. Crystal shards shattered and half hidden under a mixture of sand and dust that formed a natural carpet.
Against both the Western and Eastern wall stood large, rusted candle stands. Thick red candle stumps in them and their wax dripped over the holder. Like wax stalactites they hung there forever. Towards the north lay a marble altar on its side, missing a large chunk at the base and overgrown with dirty, dark green weeds.
“It's an ancient cathedral. I can't believe it, an ancient cathedral covered in the sands of time.”
Louie was astonished over the magnificence of the building.
Small rabbit-like and angelic creatures were carved into the walls. Beautiful beings with faces as delicate as the first morning of spring in the northern lands that brought an end to the long period of darkness.
“The joy never ends with you, does it?” Tony was just as astonished, he took a small golden broach in his hand. It was a depiction of the goddess Carrotus. Her beauty far surpassed anything he had ever seen before, her golden hair lay over her bare bosom and her hands lay folded in her lap. Her eyes were small sapphires of the most enchanting green. This object was an archaeological discovery of incredible proportions and it just lay here, like ripe fruit for the picking.
From behind one of the benches that lay on his side a man rose slowly. The light grew stronger yet and they could see him, a very thin figure clad in dusty robes that smelled of mold and which seemed several sizes to large for his frail body.
A thick white beard hid a face with skin, yellowed like parchment and cracked and grey teeth stood in his mouth like old and mossy tombstones.
His eyes were dark as the night and lay deep in their sockets. He spoke slowly and deeply and a terrible shiver rolled down the spines of the men that listened. “Would you care for a cup of tea?”