On the internet, no one knows if you're a bird

He should have gone straight to the Castle, when he had seen the scorched ruins that had once been Oakhurst. But there had been voices, and he had been drawn in by them. That was how he ended up stuck socialising, blending in with a mismatched collection of strangers who had all arrived at the ruined town at the same time, for different purposes. An odd occurrence, certainly, but Legundo had more important things to concern himself with. So he smiled, and introduced himself, and answered questions, as all the others were doing. He withheld a grimace as a loud, young person just about threw a handful of garlic bulbs at him — he hadn't expected to have to deny the existence of vampires so suddenly upon arrival — and offered assistance to a quiet, also young noble who claimed to have been abandoned by his family. And the whole time, he waited. He just needed a moment to slip away, and get up to the Castle, and then he could be gone. But every time there was a break in conversation, every moment he thought he had an opportunity, someone else pulled him into their discussion and he was trapped once more.

(And he couldn't help but note that the young man in the butler uniform seemed to be in the background of every conversation Legundo was dragged into).

He thought he might finally have an opportunity, when he noticed the butler was being distracted by the garlic-thrower and the farmer, but just as he was about to slip away he heard a voice that would have made his heart stop if it had been beating at all.

"Well isn't this a sight for sore eyes?"

Venom filled Legundo's mouth. It took all of his centuries of practicing self control to stop the vicious snarl that wanted to rise in his throat.

He was supposed to be dead.

"Oh, do you two know each other?" another voice asked brightly, as Legundo turned slowly to face the approaching figures.

Beside the young girl with the too-big glasses, was the man who could have been Legundo's redemption, but had become his ruin.

Goldsmith was smiling ethereally, his eyes on Legundo filled with he same hunger he had always watched him with. His bright, teal eyes. Not red. And his hair, that had once been so devoid of colour it had glistened like starlight, was a shocking, unnatural blue. Every sign of Goldsmith's immense power was stripped away from him.

He wasn't dead.

But he wasn't fucking far from it.

Legundo wondered if the idiot with the garlic might have a stake.

"Stay the fuck away from me," he hissed, when Scott made to step towards him.

That certainly changed the mood amongst the others, who had begun to gather around when they heard the red headed girl's question. Legundo saw someone shift closer out the corner of his eye, and was not surprised to see it was the butler. (Though he wasn't sure why a butler would need so many concealed weapons).

His fury, as always, did not deter Scott. He smiled wider, and pressed a hand gratefully to his own chest, like Legundo had offered him a compliment.

"Missed me that much, did you, my dear?" he said sweetly.

Legundo was going to kill him.

"I'm leaving," he snapped back, and turned on his heel. Scott would try to stop him, he was sure, but if he didn't leave then, there would be bloodshed. So he strode out the ruins of the town gates, at a speed he didn't normally let himself reach in sight of humans.

Scott did not follow him.

It was only when Legundo all but slammed into an invisible wall deep in the forest that he realised why.

The furious scream he let out startled the crows from the trees around him.

He was trapped in Oakhurst.

closeups since i know jpeg compression ate details

and a bonus timelapse bc i rembered