((Poor Ty.))

Afanasiy stared at the human. So it was information that possessed him to stick around. 

He hesitated a moment, contemplating how he should go about answering the bleeding one's many questions (if he decided he wanted to answer at all.)

He wondered why the creature cared about his eye colour. It seemed almost a silly thing to ask. Anyway, Afanasiy had always been under the impression that humans tended to like to plot. That is to say, most humans would try to use an opportunity such as this to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of vampires, strategies for defeating them in battle, and so forth. What he hadn't been expecting was to be questioned about his origins, which quite frankly seemed unim[injection]portant at the moment.  

Afanasiy really did make an effort to follow the human's ranting, but he still found the blood distracting, despite having already fed twice today. Concentrating proved difficult, and he found himself zoning in and out of the rather one-sided conversation. Just when there had been a pause and he had been about to attempt to formulate an answer, the human began speaking again. This part Afanasiy heard quite clearly, although he still didn't quite understand why it was im[injection]portant. Perhaps, though, the only reason the bleeding one was asking such insignificant questions was to put lull Afanasiy into a false sense of security. At any rate, he didn't see any harm in telling the human what he wanted to know. It didn't look like he would live long anyway. He certainly wouldn't if Afanasiy stayed this close to him for too much longer.

"I was made this way by a very dear friend, long ago." He answered finally, gazing calmly at the human despite the way his mind roiled with all of the thoughts that threatened to spill forth.

Anticipating that the bleeding one would ask him to elaborate, he quickly added "And before you ask, I have no memory of the process. I was very young when it... happened."

Although it was true that Afanasiy had been young, he was lying about not being able to remember how it happened. He did in fact have a very clear recollection of the day he was changed. Among other things that had happened during the changing, the itching and burning of his gums as his canines elongated were actually among the most vivid memories he possessed.

The changing process was something that every vampire was aware of, seeing as it was their primary form of reproduction (the human way was the only alternative, but it took so much longer and was much less convenient.)

Afanasiy strove to ignore all the memories of his own changing that suddenly rushed forward.

~

 He had once been human, something which he was not at all proud of. When Afanasiy had been a young boy, he had spent a great deal of time in the forest behind his house. Local legends had told of a horrible beast lurking there, but he never payed any attention to them. He had been so confident that if he ever did run into the monster, he would valiantly slay it and become a hero to his town. Perhaps he would have wrestled it into submission, or killed it with a sword (branch). He had always pictured the beast to be a large and furry thing, with many eyes and jagged fangs. Imagine his surprise, then, when he found Culpa. Afanasiy, who had at that time been known as 'Nathan', was minding his own business and playing in the forest. The first time he met Culpa, the elder vampire had been calmly sitting on a rock. Nathan wasn't used to seeing animals in the forest, let alone people. It was especially rare to find someone this far in. So of course, being young and fearless, he had approached and struck up a conversation. It was good that Nathan had the common sense not to tell anyone else of the strange man in the woods, or he would likely have been forbidden by his parents from returning. Since he never told anybody, and the human loving Culpa vowed not to harm the naive boy, Nathan continued his visits for months. 

Having never had a very good relationship with his parents, and being fascinated with the idea of a vampire, Nathan begged Culpa to be allowed to travel with him. Initially, the vampire refused, stating that to do that Nathan would need to be 'changed', and that he wasn't prepared to do that to such a young child. Culpa did promise, however, that if Nathan came back to him in a few years' time, he would reconsider. A 'few years' didn't sound very appealing to Nathan, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. 

In the time that he had known Culpa, the vampire had told him many things about vampires. One was that the cliche so often seen in movies of a vampire transforming a human into one of their own via venom to the neck was actually more or less true. However, not all vampires produced the venom naturally, which was the primary reason vampires formed alliances with each other (a vampire with venom might help one without for a price). Culpa himself could not produce venom, however he did possess some from a time when he had purchased it off of another vampire. He stored it in a vile which he kept on his person at all times. 

Thinking back, Afanasiy could still remember the first time Culpa had shown him the vile. The liquid within looked nonde: translucent with a slight yellowish tinge to it, and very viscous. For a long time, Nathan/ Afanasiy had thought Culpa showed the venom to him in the hopes that he might use it on himself. Years of reflection on the matter made him realize that in fact Culpa had merely been careless and overly trusting of him. That had always been a problem with Culpa: he put way too much stock in those that he barely knew. He was always going on about things like 'goodness inside everybody' and 'forgiveness is im[injection]portant' and 'innocent until proven guilty'. Afanasiy believed that it had been Culpa's trusting attitude that had gotten him killed by that vampire. He had to have known that they were entering his territory, weak though he was. Culpa never missed those things. But he was so stubborn and reckless, and he so believed that the vampire wouldn't attack that he decided to risk it anyway. Without warning Afanasiy or consulting him in any way.

Old fool, Afanasiy thought, with equal parts fondness and anger. 

Without Culpa, though, perhaps Afanasiy might dead. Culpa had never directly saved his life, but no human could survive as long as Afanasiy already had. He wouldn't be Afanasiy without Culpa. He would just be Nathan, rotting in the ground somewhere. The thought was unnerving. 

Of course, it had ultimately been Nathan who had injected himself with the venom in the middle of the day while Culpa slept, it had been him who suffered through the changing, changed his name to Afanasiy and then chose to stay with Culpa. But it had been Culpa who had enabled him to do so, and for that he was both furious and grateful. For there were many pros and cons to being a vampire. Now Afanasiy would live forever (provided he did not starve or get killed), but he would always need to choose between only coming out at night and the utter agony he would feel if sunlight touched his skin. Afanasiy was stronger, smarter, faster, better in every way to a human. At the same time, he would forever be shunned and scorned by humans now. All humans, it seemed, except for the one that sat before him.

~

Afanasiy took a moment to stare at the bleeding one. He said that he was still there because he wanted answers, but it just seemed so strange that he would risk his life just for some trivial knowledge. Afanasiy was nothing short of fascinated by this strange human. He had many questions of his own to ask (about the runes, about the human himself, etc.), but he forced himself to wait. It was his experience that conversations were always more... beneficial to him, if he maintained the upper hand. One way to do this was to feign disinterest. Intense curiosity did, however, cause Afanasiy to make adecision to find out (on way or another) more about the strange human.

One question occurred to Afanasiy, which he expected wouldn't do much harm. It was a common thing to ask of anyone, so he decided to go for it. 

"What name do you go by?" he asked cautiously, purple eyes locked on the bleeding one.