one//two
Germany, as it turns out, is just as beautiful as France. Not in the same sense, obviously, but still. The buildings radiate history and the people seem modern, but quaint. Frankfurt had an entirely different feel to it than Paris did, and for the first day it was nearly impossible for her to sit still. She had to see everything, taste everything, speak to everyone. Anna had simply followed along, snapping pictures with a Muggle camera they picked up before they met with the others at the portkey. (“It’s for documentation purposes, Cady. If we’re going to be famous we’ve got to have proof of our journey.”) The first two days were bliss. It was that feeling again, the one that she had gotten when she first started this whole trip. A sense of adventure. It felt like she was finally doing something with her life.
Marcus showed them around the city for awhile, pointing out the major landmarks and telling them his own version of their history. It was rough trying to listen to him talk for extended periods of time, his Australian accent far too heavy for her to focus on, but she liked listening to him anyway. He had a nice voice and he seemed to really know his stuff. They broke on the second day and said their goodbyes. They had another group to meet up with, and Anna seemed determined to get the show on the road. Cadence was perfectly alright with letting her take the lead. She wasn’t entirely sure where they should start, or even how to go about everything. Anna has said, “Just leave everything to me!” and Cadence had. It was out of her hands.
Their third day in, Anna had showed up at lunch with a dozen maps under her arm and a few books in another. She told them she talked to a few locals and gotten a few things. “Any grand adventure starts with a brainstorming session,” she had said, laughing around the brim of her latte. “We’ve got to plan the trip before we begin it, yes?”
Cadence wanted to tell her that she hadn’t exactly planned her trip at the start of all this, but something about the way Anna said it made it seem like she already knew that. Instead she just smiled and nodded, putting her ham and swiss sandwich off to the side and dragging a map closer. It was of Germany, she saw, and the Black Forest was already circled with red pen.
They shared a smile and got to work.
--
Anna, as it turns out, was terrible at Apparating. When they had landed just outside of Gernsbach, Cadence had to take a moment after and calm her stomach. Anna kept apologizing, telling her that it had been a long time, but Cadence managed to laugh it off. “It’s alright,” she kept saying, keeping one hand pressed against her stomach in an attempt to keep it from rolling, “I’m fine. Really. But maybe let me handle it from here on out?”
The town, when they finally trekked into it, was beautiful. The buildings were gorgeous and there was so much greenery around that she almost got distracted. Anna kept her on track, though, and lead her towards an inn she had spoken to a local about. It seemed like she had everything all planned, because when they walked inside and Anna introduced herself, the woman behind the counter had acted like she was expecting them. Apparently she had called ahead to reserve a room, and when Cadence tried to at least pay half of the amount for the room, Anna had simply shook her head and told no. “It’s the least I can do,” she had said, and Cadence left it at that.
They had dinner on the the river and Anna began going over their plans. “I’m not aware of any wizarding folk around,” she had whispered, darting her eyes around the restaurant in a comical fashion that had Cadence laughing and Anna smacking her lightly on the arm, “but I imagine there are some close. Not a lot. The best I can gather is they do not like to live near the forest.”
“It’s for a good reason,” she finds herself saying. She picks at her food and dodges Anna’s gaze, turning instead to look out over the river. It’s beautiful, and she finds herself reaching over and plucking the camera from its spot on the table. She snaps a photo, pausing a moment to admire the view before setting it down on the table. “There’s a lot of things in the forest. Surely you remember what they said about it in school? It’s a very dangerous place, full of very dangerous things.”
“Ma chére, what isn’t dangerous lately?” She’s got a sad sort of look in her eye that Cadence feels herself dodging. She knows what Anna’s talking about. Of course she knows, but it doesn’t mean she likes to dwell on it. So she simply takes a sip of water and clears her throat.
“You said there’s a local? One who’ll take us into the forest? When will we meet them?” She’s grown quite good at avoiding uncomfortable things, she thinks. She’s not subtle about it, not at all, but her tactics work and soon Anna’s off again. Cadence tries to focus on what she’s saying, and about how they’ll be meeting early in the morning, but she’s distracted. She keeps looking off into the river, watching it and wondering about what’s going to happen. She’s never been this close before. The fact that in a few days she could be meeting a vampire seems surreal. What if I can convince one to come back with me, she wonders, chewing on her straw in thought. What if they can save my mum?
Anna keeps talking. Cadence half listens. The River Murg keeps flowing, and somewhere in the big, impending Black Forest there’s finally a cure for her mother.
To say she’s anxious would be an understatement.
--
They’re advised to dress warmly, and when Cadence finally steps her first foot into the Black Forest proper, she’s thankful she opted to go with the second jumper. The air is much cooler under the canopy of trees, and it’s still early in the morning. There’s a fog that seems to blanket the area and give it an ominous sort of feeling and their only ten minutes into their admittedly very long trek that Cadence starts to voice her doubts.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this,” she says aloud, trying not to shiver at the chill that’s seeping in through her bones. She’s thankful she didn’t simply just jump into this all, because she’s sure that the walking would do her in instantly. If not, then the heavy weight of a well-stocked and heavily charmed backpack surely would. Anna keeps her gaze alternating between reading the map and watching where they’re going. She lifts one hand to wave off Cadence’s words before almost misstepping. Cadence laughs and Anna shoots her an unimpressed glare.
“Look, I understand if you have cold feet. But we are doing this. This is a life dream of yours, yes? And hikes are good! It’s exercise.” Anna says before tripping over a large root sticking out of the ground and almost falling to the ground. She catches herself on the bark of a tree and Cadence cracks up, having to stop for a moment to catch her breath from laughing so hard. “And see! You are already having fun. We are meant to do this, Cady. I can feel it.”
She says it with so much conviction that Cadence agrees. She shuts up for the most part, following along silently before Anna gets tired of holding the map and has her take over. They walk for hours before taking a break to rest and eat a quick lunch. They talk for a little, sharing stories of home and their pasts before continuing on. They don’t stop again until it’s well into night time and they’re both too tired to continue. They make camp, and both girls fall asleep quickly despite the cold and hard ground beneath them.
--
One thing that Cadence had learned very, very quickly was that the beauty of nature wasn’t only so beautiful for the first two hours. Then it was just cold, harsh, and messy. There were insects and all forms of creatures everywhere, and so much dirt that she was nearly covered in it. It didn’t matter that it was well under 21oC because with the amount of walking they were doing, and as far off the path as they were, it didn’t take them very long to be covered in sweat. It took a lot of convincing for Cadence to get Anna to keep her jumpers on, and the other girl only stopped threatening to disrobe when Cadence huffed out, “I’m not carrying your frostbitten arse all the way back into town, Miss Leon. I will take your gear and your maps and leave you here to die”
It was a joke, especially because she was panting as she said it, but Anna just laughed at her and promised that she’d give it up. They remained mostly in silence until they stopped to rest and eat, but even then they only spoke about the maps.
--
It was nearing the end of day three when they finally caught signs of life. They’d run into various forest animals and plenty of insects on their trip, but it didn’t take a very close look to see that something humanoid had made the tracks. Footprints lead off uphill and when they followed them, they started finding little signs that someone had been there. An hour later and they were drastically of course and standing in the middle of an old camp site. It was clear it had been recently vacated, but Anna didn’t want to stay around. “It’s late,” Cadence found herself saying as she rested against a tree. Before she knew it she was sitting on the ground and Anna was suddenly much, much taller. “We can make camp here. It’ll be fine.”
“And what if they come back?” Anna had hissed, worried that whoever made camp was still close by. Cadence waved her off and could feel herself starting to doze. Anna sighed, and Cadence listened as she placed her own backpack on the ground and got comfortable, poking at the remains of what once was a fire. “Fine. But if we get killed that is on you. And I will haunt you.”
“Like the Fat Frair?” She asked, grinning cheekily at Anna. The other girl whipped around and stared at her, making a strangled sort of sound before throwing the stick she was using to mess with the fire with at Cadence.
“I am not fat!”
Cadence laughed, and laughed, and found herself feeling genuinely happy, even if she was covered in about six layers of sweat and exhausted down to her bones.
--
“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you.”
“Be quiet.”
“Didn’t we come from that way--”
“I said, be quiet.”
“Maybe it’s upside down--”
“Pour l'amour de Dieu”
“Fine! I’ll be quiet.” A pause. “We’re lost aren’t we.”
“You’re insufferable!” Anna sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose before neatly folding the map. She turned slowly to look at Cadence who was leaning up against the tree, picking at the label of her water bottle. Cadence raised an eyebrow at her, waiting, before Anna sighed again. “Yes. We’re lost.”
“I knew it.” Cadence grinned.
“Will you shut up!”
--
Day five had Cadence wondering if this was all a wild goose hunt. They haven’t seen anyone else, or even seen tracks of another person since before and they were simply getting deeper and deeper into the forest. She figured that was a good thing. The deeper in they went, the more hidden everything was. It was the perfect place to have a secret society of vampires, but getting there seemed to be impossible.
They had no idea where they were going. Now it was simply just a guessing game. Cadence knew that if things got back that they could apparate out, but anytime she thought to bring it up, Anna would shake her head. “No. We can’t go back. Not yet.”
Cadence wondered if there was something Anna was running from too, but they had a mutual understanding. Keep the topics light. They had to stay positive. Still, the further they went, the harder it seemed to be. The darkness around them didn’t just seem like normal darkness. It was an odd sort of feeling. Oppressing, sort of. Like something dangerous was lurking just around the corner. It made Cadence think of home, of what was waiting for her back there. Ultimately that’s what kept her going. She had to find them. She had to convince one of them to come home with her, to save her mum. She wasn’t going to stop until she did that.
Still, pressing on seemed a lot harder than simply turning around and going home.
--
They had made camp for the night in a tiny little area that was really only big enough for a meager fire. They didn’t bother with setting up a tent, figuring it would be a wasted effort. Easier to simply lay out their bedroll and sleep on the floor than worry about finding the room for the tent. It was well into the night when they started winding down, silence falling between the two as they laid out. The fire crackling was the best soundtrack to looking out at the stars, she thought, and it didn’t take her long to start drifting off.
She wasn’t out for long before a noise startled her awake. She found Anna’s eyes in the dark, wide with worry, before she raised a finger to her lip and sat up slowly. The fire had died down some, so she was only lit up just a fraction. The tree she had claimed as her bed for the night did well to hide her. She sat still as she listened for the sound, and when she started to relax thinking that it was a nocturnal animal, she heard it again.
Distinct footsteps. Heavy, too, by the sounds of it. And more than one person. Cadence groped around for her wand in the dark, holding it tightly against her chest and looking around carefully. The footsteps were coming closer and seemed to be heading right for them. She pointed at the small fire and muttered augamenti quietly, watching as the fire burnt out and sizzled. The footsteps seemed to stop and Cadence wished she was closer to Anna. In the dark, she couldn’t see a thing.
It was quiet for a long while, but before Cadence could dare speak up she heard Anna scream. She quickly cast nox and grabbed for Anna’s arm, pulling her close. “Something grabbed me,” Anna said, the words getting lost in the middle of everything. She was rambling in French, saying only a few words Cadence could pick up. Most of them being swear words. “A man. I’m sure of it. He grabbed me. We need to leave.”
Cadence quieted Anna, keeping an arm wrapped firmly around her while holding up her wand. She moved it around carefully, taking in the status of their campsite. It didn’t look like anything changed, but Anna was trembling. Someone was here, she was sure of it.
“Whoever you are, show yourself.” She willed her voice to remain steady. She wasn’t an intimidating person in her normal life, she knew that, but out here she could be. She had to be. She was roughened up by spending nearly a week in the woods and even if she was rubbish at dueling, whoever was messing them certainly didn’t know that. “I mean it. It’s not funny sneaking up on people in the middle of the night. Who are you.”
She saw a shift in the shadows and quickly pointed her wand at it, trying desperately to see whoever it was. She was terrified, more so than she had ever been before, but she knew showing that fear could be dangerous. She tried to keep her hand steady as she searched, but when she took a half step forward Anna yanked her back. “It is too dangerous,” she hissed, her fingers like a vice grip on Cadence’s arm.
She shouldn’t have turned to look and reassure Anna because as soon as she did she saw the figure move out of the corner of her eye. She quickly raised her arm, readying a spell at the tip of her tongue before freezing. The light from her wand illuminated the man. His skin was pale and covered in grime. It looked like he had been in the forest for at least as long as they had, but when she lifted her wand to get a better look at his face, his eyes gleamed unnaturally. He seemed to flinch, too, at the sudden light in his eyes, but Cadence was frozen in place.
“Are you--You’re--”
“Die Engländer, so laut.” The man said. Anna was insistently tugging on her arm, saying things that Cadence only half heard. She was far too focused on the man in front of her though. She couldn’t see that well, and the light from her wand washed him out, but she was sure that he would be pale. If only she could get a look at his teeth--
“Cadence!” Anna shouted, clearly startled when the man stepped forward. He looked bored, as if running into strays in the forest was an everyday occurrence, but it didn’t do anything to minimize how intimidating he was. “He’s not human. Cadence, we have to go--”
“No,” she found herself saying. She swallowed past the fear and stood up straighter, doing her best to meet his eyes. “You’re right. He’s not human. But that’s why we’re out here, remember? We found one.” She breathed the last part, the realisation of what was happening finally dawning on her. Excitement rushed through her system and she found herself stepping closer, leaving Anna to stand on her own. Before she could get too close the man hissed, baring his fangs at her. It reminded her of a cat, standing up for its territory. “You’re a vampire, aren’t you?”
“Das lächerliche Mädchen, of course. This is territory.” Cadence wanted to step closer, to get a better look at him, but Anna was begging for her to stay away. It’s not safe, she kept saying, but Cadence didn’t care.
“We’re invading your territory?” She asked, pressing closer. When he didn’t immediately step back or make a move to harm or threaten her, she lifted her wand again to get a better look. Shaggy hair, clearly hadn’t been combed in what looked like weeks. Dirty, too, as if he had been walking for days. Or running quickly. She figured it was the latter. Vampires had sensitive hearing, so they probably heard them coming from a mile away. She couldn’t suppress her grin. “I’m sorry. We’re sorry. It’s just--Are there more of you?”
The vampire said something in German, what she wasn’t sure, but his tone was clearly exasperated. She’s pretty sure he called her foolish, and under any other circumstances she would fight him on that, but she couldn’t deny it. Stepping up to a vampire, getting in it’s face. It was foolish. But she didn’t care. She had to get a good look at him. To talk to him.
To convince him to leave with her.
“Where are they others?” She asked, stepping back and reaching to grab onto Anna. She gave her a reassuring hug before putting out her wand and restarting the fire. It was a much softer light source, and she waved him closer to it before sitting down herself. It was risky being so casual around a vampire, but Cadence was confident he wouldn’t hurt them. If he wanted to, he would have already, she reasoned. “I imagine their close. Did just you come? Are you a guard or something?”
“Du redest zu viel. Yes. There are others. They live here. Der Schwarzwald.” He didn’t sit, but he did get closer. Cadence smiled at him, one of her more reserved ones. She found herself wanting to make him trust her, to not see her as a pesky intruder, but she wasn’t sure how to go about it. She poked at the fire with a stick before waving Anna over. Anna seemed to be shaking herself of her fear once she realised he wasn’t physically posing a threat to them, so she sat close to Cadence. A quick glance showed that she was gripping tightly onto her own wand, but keeping it hidden. Cadence made a show of putting her own down on the ground, close enough to her hand that she could grab it if the need arose, but still down and not pointing at him. She smiled again.
“I’m sorry. We’re not--I have so many questions--You’re--” She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down and think rationally. It wouldn’t do to scare him off by rambling on for an hour. She had to remain calm. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this. I want to talk more, if that’s okay? Ask questions?” She paused, trying to get a read on him before exhaling loudly. “I’m sorry. Will you stay?”
He sits, hesitantly, and Cadence grins. Her smile is bright even in the dark, and there’s not much she can do to stop it.
--
She managed to convince the vampire to stay well into the early morning, and she interviewed him until the sun began to rise. Anna had quickly fallen asleep, still close to Cadence just in case but exhausted from the events of the night. Cadence herself was far too excited to sleep, so she made good use of it.
She filled page after page of her journal with things she asked him and his answers. His English was broken, and hard to understand, but over the hours she had grown accustomed to it and even began correcting it. He told her about the Forest and the inhabitants; that there was a very large faction of vampires that called it their home but refused to give her exact numbers; that there had been a lot of English in the forest lately, and he was growing tired of it. Cadence had pressed him on that, but the things he mentioned had her hair standing on edge. “Dark wizards,” she had muttered, and he had nodded. She asked personal questions, too, but he dodged them with an expert hand. She learned his name, too, but it was nearly impossible for her to say, no matter how many times she tried.
When the sun finally started shining bleakly through the trees, he stood. Cadence stood with him, groaning and grimacing when her knees and back popped from being still for so long. She gave him a weak smile, but stopped when she caught the look on his face. He looked almost… amused.
“Menschen,” he said, looking over the pair of them. “So weak.”
She opened her mouth to retort, finding herself at a loss of words before she laughed and shook her head. “You’re not wrong,” she muttered, dusting herself off this time before stepping closer. She held out a hand for him to shake and smiled brightly. “Thank you. For speaking with me. If it’s alright, can we do it again? Tonight or, or whenever. Oh! You should come into town. We’re in Gernsbach.” He didn’t take her hand, but she wasn’t offended. She let it fall to her side before reaching up to fidget with her hair. “I’d really like it if we could talk more. There’s something I want to ask you.”
He said something else in German, the words getting lost in the air. He didn’t seem to care much that she didn’t understand him, but exhaustion was weighing heavily on her shoulders. She said thank you again, just in case he didn’t hear it, and she watched him walk off into the treeline for a moment before sighing and lowering herself to the ground. The minute her head hit her bedroll she fell asleep and she slept until Anna shook her awake, questioning if the night before was real.
It was, and she had the words to prove it.
--
The stay in the same spot for another night, and Anna shakes her head when she sees how excited Cadence gets the closer it got to night time. “He probably wont come again, you know. Vampires are not normal people. They are different.”
Cadence waves her off and waits up anyway. She’s not sad when he doesn’t show again, but she’s not exactly happy, either. She sleeps, restlessly, and in the morning they pack up camp and set out. Before she leaves, she writes a note and pins it to the tree. It’s got the inn they’re staying at in Gernsbach, and when she thinks on it again, she leaves her address back in London there too. She wants to speak with him, she tells Anna, any way she can. And if it’s by letter, then that works too.
--
When they get back to their room, Cadence is the first to crash. She opts out of the shower and goes straight to bed, promising herself that she’ll take a nice, long, proper hot shower in the morning. She sleeps for 12 hours and wakes ravenous. She showers, eats, and shakes Anna awake so they can spend the remainder of the day in the town. They visit a few tourist shops and Anna convinces her to stop in one of the spas. They both get massages and leave feeling more human and less like just one giant ball of muscle, and they take dinner back in their room.
Cadence tries not to get too hung up on not seeing the vampire again, or hearing anything from him, but it’s obvious she’s disappointed. When ever she starts thinking back on it, Anna pats her on the knee and tells her it’s alright. “You should be happy, yeah? You met one! And he didn’t eat you. That is probably the best thing that could have happened.”
Cadence definitely does not pout.
--
She finds a note left for them at the front desk when they check out. The scrawling on the front is nearly illegible, but Cadence still gets excited and nearly rips the note from the nice lady. The words on the front are in German, but when she sounds them out they sound familiar. She holds it out of Anna’s reach before the girl can take it and rushes up ahead, ripping open the seal and quickly reading the insides. She’s smiling so hard it hurts when Anna finally catches up to her again, and she shoves the note in her face.
“He wants to keep talking to me. He says we can write. Write! He wants to keep talking to me, Anna!” She’s nearly shouting, she’s so excited, and even Anna seems happy about it. She hugs Cadence (though, in reality, it’s more of Cadence crushing her) before she’s passing the note back to her and linking their arms again.
“See? It all worked out. You have a vampire boyfriend now. You should tell him that he is creepy. And that I do not like that he grabbed me.” Anna sniffed, feigning perturbed. “It was very rude.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Cadence replies, rolling her eyes at her friend and looking at the words on the paper once more. She tucks it into one of the many pockets in her backpack and leads them out to a more secluded area. They’re going back to Paris for a few days, and she thinks she might be ready to go home soon. “And I’ll tell him. If I don’t forget. I have so many questions.”
“I know, I know. You are full of questions. This is not news.“ Anna teases, and Cadence shoves her half-heartedly. “Let’s go. I could kill for some coffee right now.” They get ready and Cadence stops her before Anna can lead them off. She sighs before waving Cadence to continue. “Fine, fine. You do it. But if I get splinched--”
“I’ll buy you a coffee, don’t worry.” Cadence says, and she’s smiling widely. Before Anna can roll her eyes, the world is shifting and turning, melding into a blur of colors, and before they know it they’re back in Paris, just around the corner from the hostel. They’re barely on solid ground before Cadence is leading them off to her new favorite coffee shop, muttering about pastries.
She’ll think about home later. For now, there are more pressing matters to attend to.