Passing time (part 3)

I would like to say that I wasn't nervous, but I was.

I wasn't afraid of them. If things got bad, I could try to outrun them, hoping the shock of seeing me take off in a blur would give me a good head start.

And if they caught up to me, I would fight. But against eight vampires, there was only one possible outcome: me being torn into a million pieces.

I had dreamed of my first encounter with vampires—anything from them trying to kill me to just seeing them from a distance.

But now I had two vampires from the movies in front of me. And not just some random vampires.

But Amun and Kebi, two of the oldest vampires in the Twilight movies.

For a few moments, they examined the different pelts, from wolf to tiger, lion, zebra, and many more.

Kebi turned to Amun and in a soft voice said, "What do you think of them, my love?"

Her voice was soft and soothing, like pure honey.

"I like them, especially this one," Amun said as he rubbed a Bengal tiger pelt.

"How much for it?" Amun asked, not looking up.

I decided to leave a good impression on them, so I said, "Please take them as a gift."

Now Amun looked up at me, looking me right in the eyes, as if he was trying to look into my soul, searching for any bad intentions I might have.

But over my one thousand five hundred years of being a trader, I have developed a very impressive poker face.

After a few moments, Amun started to smile, showing off his perfect teeth and slightly longer canines.

But not in a threatening way.

"I like you," Amun said, not losing his smile.

"What is your name?" he asked me, looking back at the tiger pelt.

"Adam. Adam Gray," I replied.

"Adam…hmm, strange name. Where are you from, Adam?" Amun asked.

"Everywhere and nowhere," I said simply.

"So you are a traveler," Kebi asked.

"I am. That is how I get my pelts," I said, pointing to some Bengal tiger pelts, then the wolf furs.

"These animals only live in certain areas and are hard to kill, so they are hard to come by, and I have to travel sometimes for years just to find one."

"And you are just giving them to us. Why?" Kebi asked.

Lifting my hands, I removed the cloth covering my face, making sure that they got a good look at me so they would remember me in the future.

"It never hurts to make new friends," I said with a small smile.

They seemed awestruck by my looks. My pale skin, untanned by the sun, and my sharp jawline gave me quite the attractive look.

They seemed stunned by this and both stared at me in wonderment.

After a few seconds, they both snapped out of it and looked at each other.

All the while, I grabbed one of the tiger and wolf pelts, rolled them up, and tied a leather strap around the middle.

Once I was done, I set the rolled pelts in front of them.

"And here you are," I said, tying the cloth back over my face.

"Thank you very much," Kebi said, picking up the rolled pelts. Both of them were still looking at me with curiosity as they walked away, whispering to each other.

As they were leaving, one of the guards stared me down. And I knew that look. I have seen it more times than I would have liked over the years.

It was a look of murder. And lust.

Then it connected. He wanted my blood.

So once they were out of sight, I began packing my furs like a madman possessed, picking up whole stacks of furs and throwing them into one of my carts.

Getting everything in only minutes.

Once packed, I hauled ass out of Dodge.

Looking over my shoulder for any signs that I was being followed. But there were too many people in the streets to tell.

Finally, making it a few miles out of the city, I looked around again.

Nothing.

The moon was thankfully full, giving me enough light to see a good distance. But nothing.

Closing my eyes, I let out a sigh of relief.

Regular people are easy to fight, but a vampire is as strong and as fast as me—not that I would really know; I only met my first ones less than an hour ago.

And I don't know the first thing about actually fighting.

Of course, I have fought, but I have only fought regular people.

That's like a bear against a deer.

There isn't a fight, just a slaughter.

As I opened my eyes again, I saw something in the distance, and I felt a sinking feeling in my gut.

It was him, running right at me—or I think it was. All I could see from my current location was a small, fast-moving sand cloud.

Thinking fast, I dove into my cart, grabbing the first thing that could be a weapon for me.

And what was that thing?

A wooden mallet.

Leaping out of the cart, I used my speed and ran to a small sand hill a hundred feet from the cart.

Once on the other side of the hill, I laid down in the sand, letting just my eyes peek over.

It only took a handful of seconds for the man to appear by my cart, sending a cloud of sand up as he skidded to a halt.

Being used to my sudden appearances around him, the donkey that was pulling the cart didn't react to the sudden appearance of the man, only silently blinking at him.

The man didn't seem to like the fact that I wasn't with my cart and started searching for me.

But me being me, I forgot it's impossible to not leave tracks in the sand.

He saw them.

As soon as he saw them, I decided my best bet was to attack first.

I zoomed right at him.

It took the vampire by surprise to see me running at vampire speed right at him.

He froze, but only for a moment, before he too zoomed right at me.

As I got into range, I swung my wooden mallet right for his head.

But the vampire dodged my swing by leaning to the side just enough for the mallet to miss him.

As soon as I missed, the vampire went on the attack.

Swinging his hand right at my throat.

To my amazement, I seemed to be faster than him. Not by much, but enough to give me an advantage—a small one, yes, but one all the same.

I dodged his hand by going under, grabbing the outstretched right arm while moving under.

I jumped into the air, still holding his arm. Using my legs and hips, I managed a hard spin midair, and when I hit the zenith of my jump, I heard a loud crack and a crunch. Then the man let out a terrible scream as I landed awkwardly, tumbling head over feet into the sand.

Quickly standing back up, I looked at the man who was on a knee, looking at the stump that used to be his right arm but was now just a stump of crystal.

Looking down, I realized I was still holding the arm. So without a second thought, I attacked.

Swinging the arm at his head, the man jumped backward, yelling, "What are you? Your heart still beats, but you have the same abilities as me!" the man yelled in a panicked, gruff voice.

"I'm just a man," I chuckled while swinging the arm around me like nunchucks.

This only seemed to piss him off even more, making him rush me out of rage.

I was a little excited now.

For a long time, I was nervous about fighting a real life-and-death battle against a vampire.

But now, with it being so easy, I was getting cocky.

My guess is I had better control over myself from the over thousand years of using my abilities.

Because I might know next to nothing about fighting, but I could tell this guy used a lot of useless movements.

Wasting nanoseconds on a pointless shift of a body part or shift in weight.

And those nanoseconds that he wasted gave me the openings I needed to do some damage.

He came in low for a one-arm tackle, but that just left his head open for attack.

Using his own severed arm, I swung down, hitting him hard, shattering the arm into dust and sending him face-first into the sand.

Wasting no time, I went for the kill. Blurring onto his back, I grabbed his head before he could regain his footing and pulled hard, breaking his head off of his neck.

Once I decapitated him, I fell backward, hitting the sand and looking up at the night sky.

Slowly letting the adrenaline wash away.

I need to learn how to better control my abilities. For too long, I was naive to think I would never fight another vampire.

And I got lucky to beat this vampire, just using my better control over my ability to win.

Yes, I won, but what would happen when I meet another vampire with just as much control and actual fighting experience?

I'll tell you. I will be screwed with a capital S.

So I decided to start a new branch in my life.

Goodbye, fur trader; hello, martial arts.