Another Day, Another Settlement

[Andrew Reyes]

Andrew walked into the village, and was distressed by what he saw. The entire place had been destroyed already, he was too late to warn these people. He wanted to leave, to find another village to warn, and to help protect, but he had been walking for days, and hadn't eaten for almost as long. He walked into a building, and looked around. There was no sign of life, and rubble covered most of the floor, but it felt vaguely safe. He looked around for what could have once served as a kitchen, but the amount of rubble blocking some of the doorways made the task almost impossible.

He spent almost an hour searching the house, trying to find anything to eat, but found nothing. He lay down, desperate to at least rest a bit before heading off out, when he got a craving, one he had only experienced once before. He hated it, and the last time it had almost killed him, he needed blood, and when he refused it before he became very weak, he had barely been able to move. When he had finally given in to it, he was chased out of the village for being the monster he was.

He closed his eyes, there was no one here, so there was no point in trying to feed. He was almost asleep, when he felt something crawling over him. He opened his eyes, and raised his head to see a rat crawling up his stomach. Well, it's a start. He thought, then grabbed it. He looked at it for a moment, then snapped it's neck, before sinking his teeth into the flesh and draining the blood from it. That was the craving sorted, now he just needed some wood to sort out his hunger. He stood up and walked over to the nearest pile of rubble, grabbed some old support beams, then started rubbing them together to make a fire. It was difficult work, but he was fresh out of matches.

After about 20 minutes, he finally had a half decent fire going, and had cooked the rat. It wasn't much of a meal, but he had spent a year of not eating much, so it was enough to sustain him, at least for a few hours anyway. He walked back around the house to a broken staircase he had found earlier. The upper floors had been destroyed, but the staircase provided some cover for him while he slept. He curled up under them, gun by his head in case it was needed, and went to sleep, hoping the world would still be there when he awoke.

[Korrine Anders]

Kori entered Hogsmeade. She hadn't been here since before all this destruction had happened, and the site of the village brought a few tears to her eyes. She quickly blinked them away as she looked around some more. She saw places that she used to visit often. Everything was deserted.

Korrine walked through the village, she needed time to think. Spotting a bench still intact, she sat down and leaned back some. She closed her eyes for a bit and memories and images came rushing back to her. Mainly ones of her and her brother. They had gotten separated from their parents and he had told her to stay put for one second, that he would be right back. But he hadn't come back.

She quickly reopened her eyes, not wanting the images of that horrible day in her head any longer. Then she spotted something. Smoke. Was someone else here? She stood and walked to where the smoke was coming from. After a couple minutes of walking she reached the smoke. It was coming from a destroyed house. Entering it she looked around and saw no one but the small fire.

She took a few more steps into the house, "Hello?" Kori called out. Someone had to be here, or had just left. She then realized that she may just have put herself in danger. What if it were a witch hunter or a death eater that now occupied this place? She mentally slapped herself, why did she never think before doing something?

[Andrew Reyes]

Andrew had barely got to sleep, when he was awakened by someone entering the building. His senses were better than most peoples, a fact that had saved his life on many occasions. He heard the footsteps approaching, coming from near the entrance. He grabbed his gun, and rolled out from his hiding place. "Hello?" He quickly backed against a wall, peering round what had once been a doorway, and saw a girl stood just inside the entrance. She looked a bit younger than him, but could still have been dangerous. These were dark times, and no one could be trusted.

"Who are you?" He called out, remaining fairly hidden, gun in hand but out of sight. "Not meaning any offense, but I have little reason to trust you. Given the state of the village, you would be either very lucky, one of the attackers, or a traveler like myself. Which is it? Speak quickly, for I have no wish to take chances." He cocked the trigger, and took a deep breath. She was between him and the only exit, well, apart from the gaping hole in the roof, but he really didn't want to climb. If she wasn't friendly, then he would have to fight his way past her.

He didn't like taking people's lives, even in self defense. He could kill other vampires, that was easy, but he looked at that as saving them, rather than killing them. He hated what he had become, and would willingly take his life, if it weren't for the new purpose he had found, using his abilities to help others, fighting off vampire assaults and Death Eater attacks. He had heard there name during one of the attacks, where he had learned of wizards, and how some were good, others were evil. It was common sense, but it meant that he had to be careful. If he ended the life of someone who was good, and innocent, then he would take his own. He could not live with a thing like that on his conscience. He looked back over to the girl, she looked innocent enough, but looks were always deceiving. He really hoped she was on his side, he was too hungry to put up a decent fight.

[Korrine Anders]

After Korrine had spoke, no one replied. She let out a small sigh. She had gotten lucky this time. She brushed her blonde hair behind her ears and started to turn around and leave. Then someone spoke and she cursed under her breath. She turned back and didn't see anyone. They had asked who she was. Should she say her name? Was that safe? She shrugged, why not.

Kori was about to answer but he explained why he had asked. He didn't seem like someone she couldn't say her name to. Then she heard something else. A gun being cocked. Her eyes grew a bit larger. This guy had a gun, and right now he didn't know her, didn't trust her. She couldn't find her voice to introduce herself.

Come on, Kori. Just say something, anything. She thought to herself. She blinked and shook her head to snap back into reality and away from the thoughts of the gun. "I'm Korrine. And I'm not really any of those. I was just coming to the village to visit. Not that there's much to visit, but you know what I mean."

"Who are you?" Kori asked.

[Andrew Reyes]

"I was just coming to the village to visit. Not that there's much to visit, but you know what I mean." Her voice showed no trace of a lie, and Andrew breathed a sigh of relief. He slowly lowered the hammer back into position, so as not to fire the bullet, and replaced it in the holster hanging from his waist. He was glad he didn't have to fight, not only was he in no fit state, but ammunition was hard to come by, and he was starting to run low. He stepped around the corner and into plain view, then said "I'm Andrew, sorry if I scared you, but I can't afford to take any risks."

He looked out through the hole where the front door had once been, there didn't seem to be anyone else there, which was slightly more reassuring. He then turned back towards the girl, and looked her over, she didn't have any weapons in plain view, and she didn't look to be that strong either. He shrugged, she had managed to survive this long, so she could probably take care of herself, either that or knew somewhere safe that kept her hidden. "Have you come from far, or is there another settlement nearby?" He asked her, desperately hoping that she would know where to get some food, "Only it's been almost a week since I had anything decent to eat, and these ruins aren't the safest place in the world for sleeping in."

His eyes scanned the room, in case there was any potential meals he had missed earlier. There wasn't, but he did spot the fire, still burning nicely, and giving off a lot of smoke. "Idiot!" He muttered under his breath, walking over to it. He stamped on the flames several times, the soles of his feet burning through his severely worn walking boots, until the fire went out. He closed his eyes, and listened out into the surrounding area. He couldn't hear much, just his breath, and Korrine's. He opened his eyes again, they were safe, for the moment, but he needed to get moving by the end of the day, unless there was somewhere else to help. Every minute he spent resting, meant more time for the enemies to plan another assault somewhere, and less warning for the next village he found.