Chapter 8: Chapter Eight – Waning Gibbous

CHAPTER 8

"Dann it, we didn't make it!" Lina shouts as I surface beneath her, choking and sputtering as I expel water from my lungs. 

I look out across the ocean to see the faint traces of sunlight just beginning to peak over the horizon. A small dot of a mountain in the distance is silhouetted against the faint pink eastern sky. 

"Is that Gibraltar?" I ask, holding my sore throat. My hands recoil slightly when they touch my scar. That's definitely going to take some getting used to…

Lina frustratingly takes a look at the distant rock. "Yup, and we shouldn't try to pass it in the daylight. Sorry, I'm not used to flying this slow. I thought we would be on the other side long before sunrise." 

"Slow?! I'm not slow!" I shout. "We were going like 130 kilometers an hour! There's not many water channelers who can reach those speeds with just a flimsy aquamarine pendant! Just how fast can you fly?" I ask. 

"About mach two point five if I can get up to around twenty thousand meters. Slightly slower down here." Lina replies. 

I don't have time to respond before Lina floats over my head. 

"C'mon, let's get out of the shipping lane. We can head back out to the Atlantic and find a quiet place on the Moroccan coast to sleep for the day." She says. 

I start protesting about my swimming speed but Lina ignores me as she dashes off back the way we came, forcing me to dive and follow her.

Half an hour of swimming later and I feel Lina's shadow come to a sudden halt above me. I break the surface of the water to the sight of a beautiful beach, just in front of us.

A small town in the distance to our left, and a few scattered farm houses to our right are the only signs of human life on the otherwise desolate coast. 

"This will have to do." Lina says. 

"It's beautiful!" I shout with a big leap out of the water. I crash back down behind Lina and swim towards the shore without checking if she is following. 

Once I fight my way through the crashing waves I awkwardly stand in the surf on my shaky legs. I can't help but feel slightly disappointed to have hard ground under my feet again. My disappointment is quickly dashed when I see Lina, sitting on the beach in front of me. She’s sitting in front of a small fire of neatly split firewood burning gently on top of the sand. 

"Umm…was that here already? I know you didn't fit that wood in your bag." I say, eying my vampire with suspicion. 

Lina glances over her shoulder towards the tall dunes behind her. "I took them from a farm about a kilometer that way while you were swimming ashore." 

I plop myself down on the sand next to her with a huff. "Show off." I tease as I elbow her in the ribs. 

"Hey, watch it!" Lina giggles. "You haven't eaten anything since yesterday. Do you want some food?" She starts pulling food and cooking utensils out of her bag. 

"I'll make soup!" I shout, excitedly as I see a small pot emerge from Lina's bag. "If that's what you want too." I add as I grin up at my friend. 

Lina frowns at me apologetically. "Aw, you know I love your soup Lua, but it's probably best if I leave the human food to you, to conserve supplies." She says, as she finishes laying out our food on the sand. 

"What will you eat then?" I ask. 

"Your blood of course!" Lina chuckles as she boops me on the nose. 

My eyes go wide as I feel blood rush to my face. 

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"From a bottle." Lina giggles, as she pulls a dark glass bottle from her bag. "Relax, the anti-aether in your body from the transformation should last a while, since you aren't using it for dark magic, and so should the blood I bottled. I won't bite you, until you're absolutely ready." Lina says with a squeeze of my hand. 

I quickly look down to avoid her eyes. "Oh o-ok…thanks." I stammer out. I can’t help but feel something as I look over the food laid out in front of me. 

Rice, garlic, four onions, four cans of tomatoes, a small bottle of olive oil, a dozen cubes of vegetable stock bouillon, what is it that I am feeling? Two carrots, two cans of chickpeas, a bag of lentils, four cans of beans, disappointment, a small collection of spices, a tube of tomato paste. Wait, disappointment? 

"I need something!" I shout as I suddenly jump up. I don't hear what Lina says as I quickly run to the water and dive back into the ocean. 

The sun is fully risen, and the light blue water is crystal clear as I swim out past the crashing waves. I quickly find what I'm looking for, a nice large outcropping of rocks not far from shore. 

I dive down and start poking around, looking under rocks and through the loose sand. 

Fifteen minutes of searching and I'm swimming back to shore with a handful of clams and mussels. 

I find Lina lying in the sand, bathing in the sun in a white bikini. 

"Seriously?! You wouldn't let me bring my sundresses, but you packed a bikini?!" I shout with my hands on my hips in front of her. 

Lina opens her eyes and slowly rises to her elbows as she lazily sips blood from her bottle. "What? I need to work on my tan." Lina smiles as she flexes a toned bicep at me.

Lina continues as I stare at her arm. "Besides, I did let you bring sundresses, two of them, and I carried all our food, I brought less clothes than you. Just this and one extra outfit if we have to go inland." 

"I thought vampires were supposed to hate the sun?" I say as I plop myself down next to her with a pout. 

"Not me!" Lina giggles as she lays back down. "I chopped up some garlic and onions for you, and flew back to the farm to steal some peppers for your spicy shellfish soup." Lina says with a pointing arm outstretched towards the fire. 

The salt neutralizing plate is sitting in the sand with a pile of finely minced garlic and onions on top. A handful of red chili peppers and a small knife sit next to it. 

"Oh wow, thanks!" I shout with a big grin as I bounce over to the fire. "Wait, how did you know I was going to make my spicy shellfish soup?"

"I felt you craving it." Lina replies. 

"Wait, can you feel all of my emotions?!" I ask with a panicked rise of tone. 

Lina shifts nervously in the sand. "Yea, that's what I said the other night. Sorry, I know it's really invasive. The first thing my friend needs to teach us is how to control the connection to only send the emotions we want to send to the other. Can't you feel all of my emotions too?" 

"Uh, no I don't think so. I haven't felt anything so far from you." 

Lina sits up and looks at me with a frown. "Hmm, that can’t be right. Do you think maybe you are feeling my emotions, but just confusing them for your own?”

“Maybe, but how would I be able to tell?”

Lina thinks for a moment. “Well, when I feel yours it feels similar to feeling my own, but not quite the same. If you focus on it, you can tell it’s coming from an outside source. I think it helps to be very in touch with your own emotions, that way you know if you are feeling something you normally wouldn’t, then it must be coming from outside. For example, you are really passionate about soup. I love your spicy shellfish soup, but wow, the craving, desire, anticipation, excitement, joy, and so much more you were feeling when looking for these clams was…not something I was prepared for.” Lina laughs.

I look down at the sand in embarrassment. “I just really love soup… It’s cheap, it’s warm, it’s filling, it's versatile, it can be spicy, sweet, savory, sour, hearty, light, anything you want it to be! Every culture has their own version of it. Soup can tell you so much about a people's history, values, and beliefs. It’s a real community food too! It doesn’t take much more effort to cook soup for ten people than it does to cook for one. It’s a food that brings people together. What’s better than that?” I smile at my friend.

Lina grins back at me. “Yea, I guess it is pretty great. Let’s try something then. I’ll focus on a very strong emotion, and you just sit there with a clear mind, that way when you know it’s coming, you can tell it’s not yours.”

I take a deep breath, and take a moment to clear my mind. “Ok, I’m ready.”

Lina slides closer to me, and looks into my eyes. She glances down at my neck, then back into my eyes. I see a very distant look appear on her face. Then I’m struck with an onslaught of emotion. I nearly double over as all the air rushes out of my lungs. I feel fear, sadness, pain, desperation, sorrow, grief, and guilt. It’s overwhelming. It feels like I’ve been hit by a truck. My eyes fill with tears. I look back up at Lina, and back into her own tear filled eyes. As I look back into her eyes a second time, I feel joy, happiness, compassion, a small pang of guilt, and under it all, love.

I break down into tears, and collapse into Lina’s arms. She holds me as I cry. “Wha-what was that? What were you thinking of?” I ask through my sniffles.

Lina squeezes me tight. “I was thinking of the other night, when I found you outside the pastelaria, when you died, and then when I brought you back.”

I open my eyes, and turn towards my vampire as I lay in her lap. A single tear runs down her cheek, and falls onto my face. 

"That's how you felt?" I ask. 

Lina nods at me with a warm but sad smile.

“I’m cooking you soup.” I sniffle.

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