Friends I Met Upon My Travels 3

 While I could go on about the many different humans, mythical creatures, and on humans I have met during my travels. We'll end off with two more friends that I have met recently.

Nighttime is a great time if you are looking to meet or find a being that isn't human. It's the time humans tend to not like being out in the most, plus its harder for them to see and discern what they are seeing. For those that have supernatural eyes, nighttime, is the time you can see the wonders of spices and beings that hide from the human eye. 

    One evening, I happen to come across one such being. Now, being that I'm a vampire, and also searching for something I don't think I'll ever find, it's not uncommon for me to go out into the wilderness or just plain wild places, where people aren't likely to be, hoping to encounter someone that might have some clues.

I had been searching a particular area for a few weeks now. I knew enclaves and homes to mythical beings, can often be in deserted places or deep in wooded areas. While on such excursion, I happen to hear the sound of footsteps behind me. Upon noticing them, I decided to speed up. The footsteps seem to speed up as well. Without hesitation, upon noticing that, I decided to break out into a quick sprint, too fast for a human to catch up with.

But I could still hear it, I could hear the steps, matching my rhythm. They weren't human I thought. They couldn't catch my stride if they were. I decided, it was time to face whoever was following me. I stopped my sprint, and I stood my ground. I peer around the woods, trying to notice movement or life. And that's when I saw it, a spotted tail moved from side to side.

"I can see you! Come out before I come to you." I yelled out.

"Aw man, but it was just starting to get fun!" They responded.

"I don't think following someone in the wilderness is considered fun." I replied back.

"It is! You are so fast. It's rare to find someone who gave give me a good run." The voice called back.

Before I could say anything else, a figured had jumped out from among the trees and presented themself in front of me. 

A cheetah? A human? No, was a commination of both. It was a humanoid cheetah. They looked friendly and they were smiling as they stood up.

"I'm Kyrin. And, as you can tell, I'm a cheetah. Well...not a cheetah, cheetah, but like a humanoid cheetah." Kyrin replied. 

"I can see that. I don't think I've seen that before." I replied. "But why were you chasing me?"

"Chasing? No, we were racing!" Kyrin replied.

"Racing...?" I questioned.

Yea, I saw you when you entered the forest. I could tell you weren't human and figured maybe you could be a good racing partner...I didn't know how to ask so when you noticed my footsteps and started running, I took that as an opportunity to race!" Kyrin excited replied. "Although not to be rude or anything, I was only keeping up with your pace and not actually going my full pace."

I grinned. "Oh, you want to test out that theory?" 

"You bet I do!" Kyrin Grinned back.

And with that, we raced for quite some time that night. While Kyrin ended up winning most of the races, I did win a few as well, though I had to pull out all the stops. It was a fun time that evening. We ended up after racing sharing about ourselves and decided this place could be a hangout to race and have fun. For the time that I lived in that area, I would frequent that forest, meet my friend, we would race and have fun throughout the evening, uninterrupted by human eyes. 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+

Up until now, all of the encounters I have had were with those that were obviously supernatural and met through my vampire appearance. This next one though, is one of the few that happened while in my human for, and less subtle in its supernatural existence. As many know, Misa streams as a way to broadcast her existence in homes that it would reach her brother. So, during the day, when needing things related to streaming or while working, she assumes her human form. While living on the west coast of the country for a time, I had found a nice gaming shop to visit for both tech and game supplies. It was a busy shop, due to its size and its variety of both gaming, anime and computer selections, but served well when I needed to pick up a specific item.

I had noticed, after visiting this shop several times over, another patron I would often see there as well. They were often shopping for JRPGs. At first, I didn't think much of it, other than it was a popular shop and it's not uncommon to see the same shoppers there. But the more I saw the person at the shop the more my vampiric sense told me, that this person, although human in all appearance, wasn't as they seemed. 

I decided to talk to the shop owner and ask if they could let that patron know, one of their items they were waiting for would arrive right before the shop closed. I waited outside as they came in, got their game, and came out. I decided to follow them for a bit. It seemed they had noticed they were being followed and picked up their pace. I picked up my pace as well. I think this startled them a little as they ended up making a wrong turn and ended up in a dark alley. Just the perfect place for me to catch them.

When they realized it was a dead end, they turned around, only to see me, standing at the end of the dark ally.

"Why are you following me!?" They asked.

"Just wanted to ask you some questions." I replied.

"I don't think this is the proper way to ask questions." They replied back.

I changed my form and before they could continue to question anything, I was standing before them in my day walker vampire form.

"Look. I don't know what I did to anger a vampire, all I did was buy a game. Can we negotiate something here?" They asked, now quite concerned.

"I'd just like to know who...or what you are. You look human, but you can't fool me. So, your answer will decide if we negotiate or not." I replied. 

Now, I was expecting a back and forth or many an argument on how I was wrong, but to my surprise, I ended up getting quite the opposite.

"Look, my name is John and, it's quite a long story" John replied.

"I got all the time in the world. "I replied.

Before any vampire puns could be made, John ended up explaining how he was from another civilization, that he was unexpectedly brought to this world and that the only way he could return to his world, was by streaming a certain amount of game.

With a puzzled look on my face, I replied "You need to finish how many games to get home?"

Needless to say, I felt bad for stalking someone and ended up treating them to coffee. It was interesting to learn about their civilization and they even said if they ever returned, they'd see if there was a way to find lost people as a way to help. Barring, of course, if there was a way to transmit information since, for the moment, he was stuck here.

But all in all, these 5 encountered became friends. Friends that I used Vesper's Bar to visit when I could and enjoy the company when I wasn't spending my free time roaming and searching for Akio.