Pairing: J/Other, J/C

Rating: M

A/N: A very big thank you to my wonderful Beta KJaneway115 who helped me a lot with the language and the whole story!

Verdun

Prolog

Her heart was racing. Glawa was sneaking as silently as possible through the great hall. The stones of the floor were cold beneath her naked feet but the black shoes she held in her hand would have woken her parents. A shaft of sunlight fell through the big curtains and hurt her eyes for a few seconds. A floorboard above her creaked and Glawa froze. Her parents' ears were as good as her own, but nobody in the castle was more stealthy, except maybe her brother, but she'd heard him leave an hour earlier.

The steps from the first floor moved away from her and she had the nerve to breathe again. The big gate came into view and she smiled as she noticed that her brother had left the small door inside it open for her. She was more than happy that she could trust Dex so much. He knew about her little secret and she knew that he loved the adventure outside the castle.

The young ones, as her parents called them, weren't young anymore at 150 years old. They had other plans than just living in the castle and the forest around it. She slipped through the embedded door into the sunlight. Quickly she put on her shoes and black coat, placed the hood over her eyes and blinked a few times. The sunlight hurt her eyes and the small free spaces of her white skin. Her species wasn't made for a life in the sunlight but she was tired of her parents speech that it was too dangerous. As long as she wore the right clothes and stayed in shady places, the light was tolerable.

She walked into the woods, following a small path leading through the trees. She knew the way without looking and concentrated on the sounds of the animals. She knew every animal that came out at night, but the creatures that lived in the sunlight were new and exciting for her. A few hundred meters before the path exited the forest she made a turn to the right, heading to the small mountains.

It took her a little more than half an hour before she arrived at the cave systems she knew so well. Her shoes made a silent clicking noise on the uneven stone ground but she could already hear the steady breathing of the person standing in the main cave waiting for her.

She removed the hood and her long black hair fell over her shoulder. The man in the cave moved to face her and smiled. "Glawa!" he called and opened his arms.

She smiled back at him and hugged him. "It's good to see you Nikk," she pulled him even closer and kissed him passionately.