Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe.
His front toes bumped up against the slightly elevated feel of packed dirt, signaling to him that he had successfully entered the village. All he could hear was the trill of pattering rain, there were no voices on the roads today.
Now what? He had no clue where to go.
Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe.
He could feel the heat of the sun against the back of his neck, slowly searing and burning against the pale pinkness of his skin. Fortunately, thanks to Nia’s crimson blood, he would heal quickly once inside.
If he ever reached the inside.
Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe.
When had the rain stopped? He only just noticed that they were no longer being soaked to the bone. All that was left were the remnants of freezing water clinging to their clothes and hair and eyelashes.
Nia was shivering in his arms.
Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe.
Ellis was nearly positive he heard the whisper of a friendly meow and the brush of a certain calico cat against his ankles.
Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe. Step. Breathe.
"Is…is that….Nia?" A sudden voice, slightly deep and very tired, called out, causing Ellis to jump.
He stumbled quite ungracefully and hesitated, flinching and concentrating on breathing.
Was he trembling?
"Why don't you come in?" The voice was closer now, right next to him, a tiny hand resting abruptly on Ellis's elbow. Ellis was sure it was a woman now.
Without a question, she guided him into a house and he found himself seated in a chair, Nia still in his arms.
"Let me just get the blinds." The unknown female said, and after a few moments a gentle creak nearby alerted Ellis to the fact that she had taken a seat in another chair, "Now then, Mister Vampire, would you mind telling me what you're doing with my granddaughter?"
"I'm not-" Ellis said uncomfortably, trying to deny all accusations. He didn’t want to be named responsible for killing the girl. She hadn’t moved in some time, after all.
The woman chuckled, "Don't try and deny it, I knew the moment I laid eyes on you that you were a vampire, dear. The bite mark on my granddaughter didn't help much either."
Ellis went silent, face tilted downwards towards the redhead barely shifting in his arms. The woman didn't seem terribly concerned however.
"You can call me Nana, Mister Vampire, everyone else does." She said, smile spreading the wrinkles of her cheeks.
Ellis nodded, pausing for just a moment, "You seem to know a bit about vampires."
"Indeed I do, which leads me to question why you were stumbling around like an old man while the sun was still out." She arched an eyebrow curiously.
Ellis gritted his teeth, turning his head away indignantly and refusing to answer.
The woman smiled briefly, "If you won't answer then I'll have to assume that daylight affects your vision greatly. Do you go blind in the sun, Mister Vampire?"
Ellis agitated at her correctness and whose vision was only just starting to return, glared at faint, hazy outline of the woman sitting in front of him. She was tiny, much like Nia, with gray hair and a chocolate stare that was so intense it made Ellis feel like he was about to be set on fire.
He didn't answer her question, mostly because he felt that he didn't need to. His stumbling had been answer enough.
It was so embarrassing, to go from a graceful, powerful vampire in the night to a stumbling, tense, cautious person in the day. He had about as much mobility in the light as century old geezer.
This was the answer George had been searching for, how exactly the light affected him.
The general populace had no idea that the sun had a range of varying effects on vampires, the most common and most known being easily burned. But each vampire tended to have a more serious effect from the sun as well, which varied with each vampire.
The General had probably been hoping that finding out how the light destroyed Ellis's senses would be the key to finding out how light affected other vampires so that he could kill them off more easily.
It was dangerous information to hold, but Ellis supposed it was safe enough with the old lady in front of him. He doubted the centurion would be much of a threat. It looked as though simply sitting in the chair before him was painful enough.
Ellis had gotten lucky simply going blind in the sun, he'd known other vampires who had their hair and nails fall out in the sun, and others who simply burned away into a crisp within seconds. He didn't even know the full spectrum of the effects the sun could have on a vampire.
"Nia's been missing for quite some time now, what've you two been up to?" The woman asked, interrupting Ellis's thoughts as she stood and peered down at the redhead. Her sage expression, which had been slightly cheerful, turned more serious and slightly accusing, "She doesn't look well."