Around the worlds 1 - A tale of vampires

The door from the World in Betweens closed behind them, as Neos joined back his hands. He actually hated moving from one world to another. He was soaked in that water-like air as always, and given from the new atmosphere they now joined, he'd probably catch a cold. He cursed under his breath, and looked at the vampire lady accompanying him. Now /she/ wouldn't catch a cold. He wasn't even sure the cold air around them even bothered her.
The magician sighed, and looked around them. Well, they weren't so unlucky. They had arrived into a kind of woods nearing a big city. A really big, and tall city. He barely saw some buildings going up to the sky from behind the tall walls surrounding it.
And speaking of the sky, it was pitch dark. Neos actually had no idea how late it was.
"I hope they'll let us in and that we'll find some place to sleep," he muttered under his breath, before he looked at Michela again. "By the way, d'you have some money on you ?"

Michela was busy observing her surroundings, in silence, her dark eyebrows furrowed in a somewhat displeased look, hands in her pockets.
Granted, she didn't care one bit about the coldness. Her body had stopped processing things such as 'I'm freezing my ass off' since quite a while. But not even that made the travelling less annoying. Still feeling somewhat damp, she looked distractly at the woods, her red eyes concentrating on the tall buildings not that far from them, and on the black sky upon them. Well, must be pretty late in the night.
Then she looked back at the magician. "I always have money with me", she answered, her voice sounding flat. "And I sure do hope they'll let us in. It feels ages since I've had proper rest."

"Yeah, same," the magician grunted. He tried to ran his hands through his red hair, then winced, and just gave up. He sighed and walked with her towards that big city. Thankfully, they were not far away from one of the big doors, and they soon could see a guard in sight. "I hope they'll at least have showers.

Michela grimaced as she felt her hair sticking to her neck and to her face. She could only imagine how annoying it would have been if she had had long hair... "Or baths. That would be just great", she sighed. Even though that sounded a bit too luxurious for her. She walked near Neon in silence, trying to straighten her back when the guard looked at them, her hands not moving from her pockets.

Neos walked to the guard and greeted him. He wasn't ready to see him instantly moving a spear their way.
"Stop. Vampire check," he instantly barked at them. Neos just raised his eyebrows, and looked at Michela. Thankfully for them, the guard seemed to be focused on the green-ish stone that was the blade of his spear. Since it didn't react, he straightened up, and looked at them.
"What brings strangers like you in a place like this, late at night ?"

Michela had frozen on her place at the mention of a 'vampire check'. What in the hell was that? Were people in this world hunting vampires? If yes, why was the guard so sure she wasn't one?
I mean, the last time she checked, she sure as hell was.
She breathed, and then mustered a tired, almost pitiful voice. "We've been travelling since a long time, and your city happens to be on our way. We would be very grateful if we could be allowed to rest here for a while, before taking or leave again."

The guard looked at them for a moment, then seemed to ease down. "You two fell into a swamp?" He asked, as he wrinkled his nose, by pure reflex. Because they didn't smell of anything, really.
"Exactly," sighed Neos. "Can we please come in, now ?"
The guard once again looked at the blade of his spear, and narrowed his eyes, but he finally nodded and went for the city's gate. "Gonna call a colleague first. You've got to be escorted."

"Thank you! We will be waiting here", she said, even smiling a little. Then she looked at her companion, rolling her eyes with a sneer as soon as the guard wasn't looking. "'Did you fall into a swamp?' Did you fall from the walls maybe?", she muttered under her breath.

Neos held back a smile. "Eh, we're soaken wet," he whispered to her. "At least the guard provided us with an excuse."
The guard seemed to talk a bit with another colleague, then called them. "Over here !"

"I suppose it is true", she whispered back, walking over to where the guard was calling them from. She refrained herself from asking what was up with that vampire check thing. Maybe in this world it was common to do that. It would've been suspicious if someone asked about it. She looked with mild interest at the weapons the guards were sporting, though.

All guards had weapons with that weird, green stone as the blade. The one they had met at the gate showed them to his colleague, who nodded and brought them closer to the gates. "I'll take you to the nearest inn. You'd better not walk alone at night. Understood?"

Michela just shrugged. "Why should we go around at night at all?", she said. Well, she had the looks of someone who seldom saw the sunlight, but that was just how she was. "Thank you. We really want to rest."

The guard nodded, and took them to the nearest inn, which was just one street away from the city walls. Just as he gestured them to rush in, they heard a bit of commotion, and a unhuman noise coming from further away, as well as the sound of blades being taken out. He looked towards the noise, then reached for his own sword, whose blade was now glowing faintly. "Lock it from inside, and tell the inn owner to not open until dawn," he commanded, as he rushed towards the noise.
Neos wasn't the kind to be asked twice. He rushed inside the inn with Michela, and was almost immediately greeted by a massive man wearing a moustache, who had rushed to the door. He looked at both of them with a bit of fear, as if he was wondering if he should urge them inside, or push them back out.

Michela didn't even have the time to ask something - or to even actually say anything besides "HEY-", since she was quite curious of what was happening with all that commotion -. She almost bumped in that huge man (huge for her, since she was quite small); she looked at him studying them, before managing to say: "The guard sent us in and... told to lock the door and not to open it until dawn."

It took just another second for the man to nod, before he urged them to the side, and secured the door, on which there were many locks. He took a look out of the window and cursed under his breath about "damned vampires", before he turned to them. "... You're not from here, are you?"

Michela snorted. "How did you guess? Is it so clear?" Then she nodded slightly. "We just arrived a minute ago. We wanted to stay for the night and rest, but seems we ran into a commotion."

The caretaker looked at both of them, then nodded. "You're pretty lucky if you walked that far at night, without meeting with any beasts in the forest. But, well. That doesn't concern me. D'ye want a room for two?" He asked as he walked to his counter, grabbing his register.

"Yeah, lucky", Michela murmured, looking at her companion, then at the caretaker. "If you have one with separate beds, yes." That way it would've costed less than taking two rooms. Hey, she wasn't rich.

The caretaker looked at both of them. "Oh. Alright. I do have that." He took their names, then gave them the key to their room. "It's on the second floor, you'll find it easily. Now if you don't mind me, I'll go back to bed," he said with a yawn. "Breakfast is until half past ten."
Neos nodded and grabbed the key. "Alright. See you tomorrow," he said, as he started to climb the stairs. He waited for Michela on the first floor though, so they would climb the rest of stairs together.

"Alright." Michela followed Neos, climbing the stairs. "I wonder what all of that was about", she mused in a low voice. "Vampire check... scared people... this world sure isn't boring."

Neos held back a laugh. "You're weird," he said, as he opened the door to their room. It was small, but seemed cosy enough, with two bed and a private bathroom. "By the way, I didn't even ask. Are you the kind of vampire who can get out during daytime, or..?" after all, he had met her just a few hours before, when he was getting ready for his own travel.

Michela offered him a small smile as she entered the room with him, her eyes slowly shifting back to their natural, red colour. "I've been called that." Then she sighed a bit. "I can go out in daytime. But I have to be very well covered. I could get some serious sunburns, and trust me, it doesn't look nice."

Neos nodded. "Oh, well. I'll try to get you a hat or something done by tomorrow, otherwise you'll arise suspicions." He let his bag fall onto the ground by his bed, and stretched. "Alright. Wanna go to the bathroom first ?"

"That's a nice idea." Michela hummed as she stretched too, letting her backpack on her bed. "Oh, if you don't mind, I'll accept the offer." She walked to the bathroom. "I promise I'll be fast", she added then.

Neos just shrugged, and smiled at her. "Don't forget to lock the door, so I won't be tempted to barge in," he joked.