The Sixth Trial

	I am too frazzled to tell this part of the tale at length. The time for words is swiftly draining...	

Trial by Hunt, they called it, and this one was where the Clan finally took a direct role in the event rather than as mere spectators. This time I was spared no tricks, no powers, and no advantages that they could call upon while they hunted me down in masse through the caverns, tunnels, and Halls. If they caught me within the twenty hour time limit they were allowed to do whatever they willed with me or to me, be it draining me dry, torture, rape, whatever their whimsy demanded. Moreover if I killed any more vampires during the Trials they would declare everything thus far void and tear me limb from limb. I survived because Masques are hunters, and I understood the Vampire's thoughts and tactics well enough to evade their pursuit. If they could sense my heat, hide somewhere warmer. Easy enough to do underground; find the nearest magma swell or iron bank. If they could smell my blood, disguise it with a massacre of orcs and other foul blooded creatures. Not to say that some Orcs are not fair and reasonable creatures, or appreciative of life and even kind in rarer cases, but *most* of the time they are considered savage vermin that would rape your wife, eat your children, steal your possesions, piss on your cat, get drunk off your beer, then finally kill you afterwards and laugh on their way past your burning dwelling. Besides, most of the tolerable ones live on the surface anyway, as the underground ones are far more primitive and less given to concepts like peace and altruism.

Madness in the tunnels, and blood along the paths. Gripping, groping, grasping hands and claws in the darkness... Eyes glowing red, and orange, and yellow, as they search for a simple shape, all with that terrible slit seeking me out... fangs growing and elongating as they RIPP into flesh they think is mine, but is merely a corpse I left... watching and running and hiding in the complete black, with fear as my only friend. I could not even kill them in self defense, so my only advantage other than my training was gone. Terrible music and their purring, cackling calls for me, their screams for me to come out and face them, their subtle sensual promises and their savage threats... but I resisted.

As for the Vampires- if they could hear my breath, I would stop breathing until they moved on, and if they used their powers to sense me or used echolocation to find me I would set up a diversion to attract their notice. Sparkers, thrown knives, small rodents, and bloody bodies slowly cooling with no one else to claim the meal work rather well to detract from their concentration non-lethally. So do meaningless puzzles and rubix cubes. I haven't met a Vampire yet that could resist Rubix or Sudoku, though I have never understood why. Maybe it's the need to be superior to mortals and the puzzles we create. Who knows? 

I did well enough... well enough in the end. I survived unscathed, and got rid of a few vermin on the way (both goblinkind and rodent inclined). To be honest, however, it was definitely not high on the list of experiances I have enjoyed and if I could work my will I would never experiance a harrowing Hunt again. The glee with which people I had slept beside and entrusted with my life tried to kill me was rattling and rather upsetting. I had nightmares of little blond "C" ripping my throat out for two days afterward before I admitted to myself that I had been afraid... and then the fear was gone, like that. Ah, "C"- the other Kim I befriended , the outcast Vampire and current Masque, simply because her firey spirit reminded me on a subconscious level of my own lost Kim'ika. MY LOVE. What have I become? Bad as I was, I am no more than a beast now. The nightmare was gone, but regret and anguish, mingled with guilt at my use of unsuspecting "C", now filled me. Funny how the mind works.