Chapter 35 (1/2)
As their flight took off, Vivian and Lily pretty much swapped personalities.
Normally, Lily was the lively one at home. She was always up and about, so driven by curiosity that she would stare at something for hours on end to learn about it. Chances are that she might just chew on pebbles to test their hardness if no one was around.
Vivian on the other hand, was the mature, collected one. Though she was stricken by a streak of misfortune, she still maintain a certain dignity characteristic of the vampire nobles. At least in comparison to Lily.
But now, the roles seemed to be reversed. Lily was lounging about waiting for meal services while looking up the inflight entertainment for something interesting. Vivian however, was having a ball! She was looking out the window in excitement, gaping as she saw the clouds passing her by. “Wow, it really does fly… and at such heights!” Vivian exclaimed.
It was Hao Ren’s first time flying as well, and he could understand Vivian’s excitement to a certain extent, but he couldn’t help but wonder aloud “I thought you could fly? What’s the surprise?’
“It’s so different compared to when I’m flying myself” Vivian sneered. “Also, I don’t usually fly this high, too easy a target for stray thunderbolts. Besides, at such high altitude, the cold is no joke. There was once when I wanted to see the stars and flew a wee bit too high, I literally fell from the sky as a block of ice and almost got caught by the demon hunters. Rarely fly that high ever since.”
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows “Then… you were flying low when you were travelling around the world last time? Weren’t you afraid of getting shot down by bows and whatnots?”
“When I was travelling the world? I flew and walked since I’m much stronger than humans, and time was not an issue. It wouldn’t be a problem for me to walk from Europe to Asia and back again.” Vivian said with a giggle. “Though at times I would still fly high, especially when hiding from those pesky hunters. They can’t do much when I’m that high up.”
“Speaking of bows, those are child’s play, nothing to be afraid of. Even those Welsh longbowmen can’t reach me. How far do you think arrows can fly anyway? That said… I did get shot down by an anti-aircraft gun once during World War Two…”
Hao Ren gawked at the revelation. Vivian sheepishly said “You humans are sure good at building this sort of murderous contraptions. Not too long ago your lots were fighting each other with rocks and sticks and were praying to gods to cure headaches. Didn’t took you guys long to be shooting tonnes of steel up into the air. At that time I thought it was a new fancy catapult and almost took a shell right in the face. Luckily I managed to disperse with my bat form, otherwise I’d probably be the vampire who died the most hilarious death.”
The experience of flying in a plane might have gotten the penniless Vivian a tad bit more excited than usual that she was revealing her embarrassing past one after another. At first, he was rather engaged by the conversation but half way through, he was gawking at Vivian’s tales. Some of it was so outlandish that Hao Ren wasn’t sure how to react.
When Vivian came to the part where some old chap she knew in North America got killed by a meteorite, Hao Ren decided it was time to change topic and turned to Lily. “You seem like a seasoned flyer.”
Lily looked up lazily and grinned “I had only been on those early Stinson models.”
Hao Ren looked puzzled. “What are those?”
Vivian was readjusting herself on her seat when she heard, “That was during the era of the republic… How rich were you back then?”
“Those days I couldn’t afford air tickets as well.” Lily waved her hand “But I would sneak into aircrafts, hiding in the cargo hold, or just hanging outside the aircraft. Back then, security systems weren’t as advanced as they are now, and there were lots of place that were not checked. With my agility, avoiding a normal human’s sight is very easy. The only difficulty was landing, I did try jumping off once, it wasn’t fatal but it was pretty scary.”
Hao Ren immediately retorted “Nonsense, most people would be dead trying to pull that stunt of yours”
Lily stuck her tongue out in defiance, “Well, at least I learned and adapted from experience. That’s why I said, that that bat is too stiff. Plus, she is not at as smart as me at times. She just don’t know how to properly utilise her body.”
Vivian shrugged “I don’t think hanging outside an airplane to avoid paying fare is something to be proud off.”