His fingers pressed to his wearied temple, the Sarafan warrior Zephon might have wept for frustration. "We have swept this nest twice already. Twice! Why do they keep returning?"

His brother in arms, Raziel, the most skilled of them all, and de facto commander was watching their foot soldiers raise the vampires they had found there onto spears. "Easy pickings from the village below, I shouldn't wonder," he murmured, only partially listening to his comrade. Raziel cared little for musing on what passed as strategy among the pestilence, his only thoughts running to how best to exterminate them. He glanced at the man arranging what remained of the human bodies they had found on a pyre, there were still bodies to be brought out, and if Zephon's men were as thorough as they had been during their last raids, no doubt more than a few vampires lurked within too.

"If you require me I shall be in the cave," Raziel announced, sensing Zephon was about to bore him further with pointless speculation.

Zephon called after him, "But we've already cleared it-" he broke off, aware that he had left himself open for the remark before Raziel had uttered it.

"As you have done twice before, yet still they elude you," he called back, all but feeling Zephon recoil from his impatience.

He found the caves empty, as he had expected them to be. For all Raziel might hint at incompetence, he knew that Zephon's unit was as thorough as they were efficient, it was not for lack of effort on their part that the plague kept finding their way back here. He idly considered that they might block the caves somehow, but such things were best left to Dumah, who had a penchant for demolition. Raziel's means of rooting out nests were far more subtle than those of his brethren, yet Zephon had spoken truly and there was indeed no sign of life or unlife within. He frowned, maybe there was a system of caves connecting to these somewhere. He gave it a final sweep, if there was a way in it would not be him to discover it, that's what subordinates were for.

He was leaving when he heard it; a distinct shuffling which dislodged some pebbles, the sound echoing around the vacant chambers. Raziel glanced back, his eyes narrowed against the darkness, but he could see nothing. Yet he had heard something. The sound of steel leaving its sheath rasped into the silence as he drew his sword and stepped back into the cave.

His eyes darted around the many open spaces in which someone could hide, but he would surely have noticed a vampire, and it was unlike them to hide in the darkness when such obvious prey had wandered into a nest. The shuffling when it came again sounded behind him and he turned quickly on his heel, though not in time to fend off the lunge from what he momentarily thought was the scrawniest beast he had ever encountered. The childish, "die!" caught him off guard, as did the inconsequential blow from a lump of firewood. After the initial surprise quickly wore off, Raziel reached down and forced back his attacker, if they could be called that, with a slight push. The child looked up at him and gasped, "Oh...I thought you were a vampire."

Raziel took in the ragged child; her clothes hanging off her, her face dirty, her hair matted and filthy. No doubt it had been easy to elude the creatures that lived here, hiding beneath bodies by the look of the stains on her shirt. She was but a slip of a thing, yet there was a fire there in her eyes that endeared her to him. And her attempt to hold off a vampire with a charred stick belied a bravery that bordered on recklessness causing Raziel to laugh, long and hard. "Do you have a name child?" he asked, blinking back the tears that his amusement had summoned.

She stood up tall, a feat which still didn't bring her past Raziel's hip, "Megara," she said, proudly, "and I'm going to kill vampires."

"Yes," he chuckled, "I do believe you will. But there are no more here, my brothers have seen to that. Perhaps you should come with me and we will seek others to destroy, and maybe find some food as well."

He saw her eyes widen at the thought of food and when he offered his hand, she took it without hesitation. When they emerged from the darkness of the cave, she threw her arm up to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness. Raziel heard her gasp, no doubt the sight of the warriors with their armour gleaming in the sunlight was not one she had seen before. Instinctively his hand pressed hers, reassuringly.

Zephon came to them at a jog, his face a picture of mortification, embarrassed that Raziel had indeed found something within the caves. "Did you-" he began but Raziel cut him off.

"Only this runt," he said, pleasantly, "your men have indeed cleared out the plague."

Zephon looked down at the child, "well I'm sure we can find somewhere for her in one of the villages. No doubt someone will take her in."

The child looked from Raziel to Zephon, her hand curling tightly around the commander's. Raziel caught her eye and rather uncharacteristically smiled, "perhaps. For now I have promised her something to eat."