#elbasanluis

Fenrik would never live anywhere else. He intended to raise his family in Bloodhearth. However, that didn’t mean there weren’t drawbacks to the territory. One of them was that it was rampant with crime and in the middle of the night one of his cars had been taken. Not that it was taken by intelligent criminals. Fenrik had already worked out they had come from Carynthia and if they were as stupid as they seemed, he knew they wouldn’t have even thought to switch the plates. 

Before heading out, though, Astoria had recommended he take Elba with him. He had stopped listening, but he thought she might have mentioned something about her being useful. Not just because of her heightened sense of smell, but that he might gain some trust with any local werewolves to have one with him. 

Although he had kept up training Elba at her request, they were still far from best friends, and he had begrudgingly agreed to take her with him. “So, what? Can you pick up any scents?” he asked her.

Tristan sat on the floor of a bookstore. It was actually one of the few that seemed to be left as he was folded in a corner. His legs were bent, using them as a sort of shelf that he propped the book on to read. He had several books on photography that surrounded him. Currently, he was specifically reading a book that dealt with the actual development of photographs. He might actually purchase this one, in part, because he’d already highlighted and made notes for himself in the book and it seemed wrong to simply not purchase it at this point. 

Tristan had been so deep into reading about the process and what was involved, he hadn’t noticed someone else was in his vicinity until they were blocking the light he had been using to read. They were tall if they were able to capture both the lamp and the sun. “Hey,” he grunted from his corner, “you’re kind of fucking blocking my light.” 

Despite the ongoing heatwave that seemed to have taken over the whole island, Xireli looked as comfortable as could be. This might be due to the fact she was lucky enough to have consistent and stable air conditioning in her own home in Old Elysia. It was no bother to her to be out when she wanted, and yes she had decided on Bloodhearth. 

Although, she sneered at most who lived here, their existence exuding the poor territory they resided in, she rather enjoyed the likes of the fight club, watching the way those who participated would beat one another. Sometimes she offered tips to see just how bloody it could get. Afterward, she had decided to take an evening walk only to see a familiar face. “Well, well, well who do we have here? A little wolf out to enjoy the moonlight? Rather cliche, wouldn’t you say?”

The journey from where he had been in Carynthia back to Bloodhearth had been a long one, especially considering he didn't have any sort of vehicle. He had been able to clean up some, though, finding a small pond of water running through the forest so that he at least wouldn't look so drenched in blood before finding himself on the train.

Even though there was a sense of urgency to get back (after all, aside from any injuries that still weren't healed, he'd officially been MIA for over two weeks at this point), he couldn't help but stop for a twenty-four ounce cup of coffee before he found himself back at the compound.

Despite the amount of time, he'd been gone, given that he had a plan in place, he had left something of a note before he left, implying he'd be gone for a bit so no one should worry or look for him, but had never given a specific time frame. He wasn't entirely surprised when he walked in and saw that the compound wasn't empty. He raised his cup of coffee up, "Hey," he said as casually as if he'd just gone out to run some errands and was just arriving back. He limped towards the nearest couch and collapsed. "You wanna come help me out here?"

Today it was quiet. It was an unnerving sort of silence, the kind that very rarely existed on an island where gunshots, car engines, and angry yells were the usual way of things. Fenrik didn’t like it. He had always found comfort in the loud and raucous noise. It was why he sat on the couch now and turned on the television, moving through the channels. He didn’t usually opt for tv, and chose music when he was working. However, Fenrik didn’t feel much like working. 

He could hear someone entering the compound as he landed on some movie. He didn’t have heightened senses like Elba or Hilda, but he knew based on the footsteps and walk who it was. Thankfully so, because in the days since their last interaction, he had gone back to working on the car (he still wanted to fix it, after all), and had realized something had been left behind. 

Fenrik wasn’t sure he would call it anxiety, but he had certainly been nervous when Elba had announced she was going to travel with her father. He was sure it had to do with the recent incident with her mother. He was also wasn’t entirely sure he trusted her father, given who her mother was but Fenrik hadn’t said a word. He hadn’t tried to stop her nor had he voiced his concerns to anyone else. Instead, he had kept it all to himself and busied himself over these past couple of weeks since Elba had left. 

He had thrown himself into his work. he had thrown himself into his hobbies. He had thrown himself into his vengeance. He had made sure he was too busy to let his thoughts stray to her and resisted the urge to message her, even to check in. 

Now, though, he waited at the train station for when Elba would arrive. He checked the time on his phone, fidgeting with it in his hands. He flipped it open and flipped it closed. He spun it around in his fingers as he waited. He wondered if he shouldn’t have confirmed with her, but his pride in avoiding messaging her unnecessarily had prevented him from doing so and, anyway, she would have messaged if plans had changed. Still, his eyes scanned the crowd of people who boarded and deboarded the train, waiting. 

Fenrik’s wife had taken the girls out. It was their birthday in two days and so they had gone out to have a cake picked out, likely. He had the house to himself. it had been quite a while since that had been the case and he took full advantage, firing up the forge out back so that he could work on some new blades, imbuing them with ethereum during the forging process. It was a process that would take several hours and now that the girls were gone he could focus on his work. 

It was only after he had the bare basics of his blade that he wandered inside, into the kitchen. Sweating, he sat down at the kitchen table so he could refine some of the edges. He’d done most of the sharpening with the power tools, but the real refinement was done slowly and meticulously. Besides, he could stand to be indoors for a while after standing by a forge that was heated to hundreds of degrees. 

As he began to work away any imperfections, he suddenly realized he wasn’t as alone as he thought, a second person wandering into the kitchen. He had almost forgotten about the stray his wife had brought in not so long ago. He had assumed she might have gone with the girls. “Ah, shit,” he said, “you’re still here?” 

The books all looked on the verge of falling apart if you looked at just the spines alone. However, as with anything in Bloodhearth, the books were as sturdy as ever, holding together despite the delicate state of most, if not all, the books that could be found here. Fenrik hadn’t wanted to go all the way to Obsidian City for this endeavor, instead thinking they might find some true hidden gems right in their territory.

He closed a book and held it up. “Some madman has gone ahead and added some helpful tips to this one.” The book was about the basic of explosives. In the margins, there had been plenty of scribbling either modifying or clarifying certain steps that were meant to make the process easier. He wondered if this had been a hobby for the previous owner, or if maybe they had done their damage at one time or another. The book itself was on the older side, but the scribblings indicated someone of a more modern era making modifications to older technology and techniques.