"She is someone very dear to me." The barkeeper said in a solemn voice.

"Oh? I didn't know that old Jack had any family members." Ron said with a chuckle.

"I wouldn't say family, let's just say that I owe it to her parents." Jack the barkeeper said as he looked lovingly at Phoebe from the side.

Ron picked up on this movement and also looked to Phoebe, seeing the bow that was in the making he chuckled even more coming to a conclusion.

"So you want me to teach her?" Ron said as he pointed at Phoebe.

"Yes, if you would do this for me I can call us even." Jack said, hinting at something.

Long ago Jack had taken Ron in, that time he was laying on his doorstep bleeding. He had blood all over his face, if Jack hadn't helped he would surely have gone blind or worse.

Ron never talked much about what happened but he did say that he came from a city that went from one moment to another in an instance. Apparently their city was overrun by the undead, he managed to leave the city with a hand full of people through a secret exit that he only knew of because he knew a priest. He never said what relationship they had but he did say that he managed to save the daughter of that priest... or at least he thought so. Jack wouldn't probe further into the past of a stranger that was bleeding at his doorstep so he tock him in. Later he learned that Ron was rather gifted with the bow and let him earn his money by supplying him with fresh meat from the forest. Ron also sold bows and arrows and fresh meat on the market, but since this was a remote place and not many knew how to use a bow he didn't earn much. Jack thus let him get his booze on credit.

"So you leave me no other choice, huh?" Ron said and gave a small nod to Jack.

"Young lady what is your name?" Ron said as he knelt next to Phoebe.

"Phoebe, nice to meet you." Phoebe was very polite with this stranger, she knew that Jack trusted him so she trusted him too.

"So Phoebe, do you wish to learn how to handle a bow?" Ron said as he pointed at the "bow" that was slowly taking shape inside the water.

"Yes! Can you show me how?" Phoebe looked up to Ron and then to Jack, who had a radiant smile on his face. He was happy that he could finally do something for Phoebe even if it was just this much.

"Indeed I can, the only question is are you willing to learn?" Ron said and looked Phoebe in the eyes. His gaze was firm and Phoebe was scared, but she forced herself to endure and didn't look away.

"Good, you have passed the first test. There is no point in teaching you if you get scared from this much. A bow is a weapon and needs respect for that, but respect and fear are two different things altogether." Ron said and stood up.

"When will you start to teach me?" Phoebe asked full of hope.

"Soon, come to my shop when you finished crafting your bow." Ron said and went back to his place, continuing to drink.

"Don't mind him, he has his odd habits." Jack said as he comforted Phoebe as good as he could.

"Jack? Can you keep a promise?" Phoebe asked full of innocence.

"A promise? What promise?" Jack asked in return.

"Never leave me and never change!" Phoebe said as she cuddled herself against Jack.

"Haha! What a promise, I will never leave you! And never change!" Jack promised the little one that was tightly hugging his belly.

Farsian was meanwhile preparing for his embarkment, he would travel north to where the zombies had come from.

Going on a long journey in a cold storm of ice and snow.

Michelle, a young vampire that was of the same line as Farsian, was currently standing outside a small cave.

In Fact it was Farsian himself that created her, although he never really took care of her. She still looked as pristine as as she did back then. The only difference was that her hair was now blonde, they dye that colored her hair brown had washed off.

"Michelle, is that you?" A heroic voice sounded from inside the cave, right after which the sound of bone rattling could be heard.

"Yes it is me, did you miss me?" Michelle said and smiled. She slowly walked down the path towards the cave, at the entrace there were many high ranking zombies and other undead creatures. As she walked down the path she nodded towards the ocasional vampire, they weren't many but they were powerfull. Michelle was their master and also the strongest vampire in the area.

"Oh how I have missed you Michelle!" A skelettal being said from a high throne.

"Markus, how many time must I tell you to get down here when you greet me!" Michelle said fierce as she stared at the Lich that was on the throne. Many of the undead in the area took that as an insult and drew their swords. But for every zombie or skelett that drew their sword one vampire also stepped out of the shadow and flashed their teath. A ley man would see it as a draw but everyone that had fought a vampire before knew that it wasn't.

"Ah, don't be like this Michelle. We both know that I love you!" Markus said as he slowly decendet from his throne, arcane energy flashing about him. Two blue flames flickered where his eyes should be and orbs of dark energy danced in his rib cage. Michelle was only slightly impressed as he did this every time she came to visit him, she knew he was a very powerfull spell caster. This was also one of the only reasons why she didn't retort him when he said he loved her, although he was a skeleton he had his charms.

"So why did you come this time?" Markus said, the lights in his eyes dancing full of anticipation.

"The same reason as I always do, how is the war effort going?" Michelle said rather flat, but her hands still played along his bones.

"Oh Michelle, I don't know how I should say this but..."

"But?" Michelle asked and stopped playing around.

"Don't stop! I'll say it so please don't stop!" Markus begged.

"We have suffered a set back, one of the elder corpses that I have send to that village have been destroyed." Markus said with a sigh.

"That is impossible, didn't you say that your forces outnumbered them 2:1 ?" Michelle said with a frown that still looked beautifull on her face.

"Well, there was this one guy that managed to survive." Markus trailed off, talking about a zombey that through sheer wonder managed to survive and bring back the news.

"So what happened in that village?" Michelle was growing impatient.

"It appears that someone of your kind has interfered. He is most likely allready on his way here." Markus said and ducked his head out of the way as a fist came flying.

"WHAT?! That is not possible! All vampires in this area are under my rule!" Michelle exploded.

"Relax, I know. It's just that this is the only way when you think about it, everyone else would have long since been infected and we would have taken over the village." Markus said, trying to bring her to understand. They had done this to many other villages in the past month, and they were doing rapid progress at it. Usually, they would send a small group of zombies and one or two vampire to start the attack. This time however they didn't have enough vampires for the job and instead send an elder corpse, in theory it shouldn't have made much of a difference since the village had no protection but somehow it happened otherwise.

"So what do we do about this?" Markus said, small beads of sweat appeared like magic on his skull.

"Well, what else can we do?" Michelle said and threw herself on the couch that was conveniently standing in the room. They had taken all sorts of things from the different villages and even towns that they had raided, a small mountain of gold was piling itself up in the corner of the room.

"Are we just going to wait it out?" Markus asked, slowly relaxing.

"No offcourse not!" Michelle said, giving him a stern look.

"YOU are going to fix this." Michelle said, waving her hand at Markus.

"And if you manage it in time, I might be willing to go to your room tonight." She added sheepishly with a slight chuckle.

"Ohhh! Michelle, I will personaly take action right this minute!" Markus said and struck a grand and imposing pose.

"Good, that is what I wanted to hear." Michelle said and waved to a vampire that was standing near by, who immediately fetched some grapes to feed her. If Farsian was here he would probably laugh and claim leadership over the entire cave in a heartbeat. After all he was the master of Michelle and she could not say no to what ever he wanted, and none of the vampires in this cave could say no to Michelle either.