They would fly together, over the dim night's landscape, in search of anything of interest. Food, well, neither needed too much food, they had access to a whole farm of animals nearby and hardly starved. But attention? Certainly they liked that. Cities glowed in their vision like gems on velvet. Ruby gems, blood red. As though the cities themselves were alive.

Together Basanar and Sorophan landed on a rooftop. This was a strange little town, Wonder it was known as, not on any map but known to certain magical personages. They had their share of vampires, were-creatures, unicorns and dragons here. Here, in modern day Twoarth. Well, what wasn't found here in modern times?

They weren't even glanced at more than a couple times before someone cheerfully handed off a bag of candies to them. "You don't even have a pillowcase or anything? Here, take this one, it's just a grocery bag anyway." The teen sprinted off to join his friends and left the pair of vampiric dragons standing wondering what exactly they'd found tonight...

It was Halloween, children and adults went from door to door and bagged goodies. While the candies and such smelled ... different... the pair of Vayamir were pretty sure that no one was handing out small furry mammals to munch on.

Oh wait: they were. A werewolf sprinted by on all fours, followed by two of her friends, laughing and shrieking. "It's mine! I got the squirrel! I got the squirrel!" It was obviously hard for the wolf-girl to speak with the furry tail sticking in her mouth like that, but Basanar laughed and tucked her wings back and watched this unfold like it was a dream come true.

The night lasted quite a long while. But as all nights did, this one ended as well. They had to find shelter, and found it in the form of an abandoned warehouse. Others obviously were living there too, but the place was spacious, there were no illegal activities going on, the police weren't about to bother those who had to remain inside during the day.

The mayor's neice was a vampire, they were working on some kind of day-time arrangements... But the dragons didn't know that. They would, however, eventually benefit from it. Now if only they could find a job or two to keep them occupied...

** 2024 **

"I know they had something like that at school," the one mage said, "you could pick up a little snack or sacrificial tidbit on your way to class. It was pretty cool."

Those classes were not here in Wonder's school - they had been a student down toward the coast, at Carramba High. And the 'something like that' they mentioned in passing, was a kiosk that sold live or recently-killed prey for those obligate carnivores or students who needed a little something for a class that they'd forgotten to pick up before school, for their magic classes. While this pair of vampiric dragons had not actively visited Crescent City for the bulk of their stay here in the hills, there was a day not very long ago that they decided to do so.

"They have night classes too," someone commented, when they expressed their interest in a map leading toward that selfsame school. They both realized that it would be easier and quicker if they just ... asked directions rather than wandering around getting distracted by the towns and freeways between Wonder and Crescent. Or better still, hitched a ride with one of the families that had students down there?

In the years that they'd been roosting in that empty warehouse, Basanar and Sorophan had attracted just enough attention for people to know that it was their place, and not enough to cause any trouble. And they had found work - night shift and security patrols and even some amount of pest control here and there!

It just wasn't ... enough. They wanted to participate! And as they heard more from former students, staff that lived up here, or even just the suggestions that got batted around at any given town meeting, they realized that there was a niche and they intended to fill it.

And tummies. They could fill their own as well as supply things to the town.

Now they needed a business licence and maybe some refrigerators...

**

They needed a little more than that, but in the end, their warehouse home became the distribution point for their new shops. Turned out, rather a number of people in Wonder were more night-centric and bored out of their minds - and didn't want to keep forcing themselves to work day jobs when they really didn't tolerate sunlight very well.

So now, scattered around town were their outlets, with one actual true storefront in the mall! And while it would be true that there were some permit issues at first, turned out that having the mayor's daughter on your side got things done... After all, having both live animals for food and sacrifices and on-site candy and donuts would normally be strictly health-code-restricted... With enough magical and technological preparation, they could coexist in one rather odd shop.

Midnight Snacks, when you need a sugar rush or a sanguine infusion, they've got it covered! In sprinkles!

Name: Basanar
Gender: Female
Height: 6’9” at head
Color: White
Marking: Black Dorsal Stripe
Face Marking: Blaze - Gold

Abilities: Shapeshifting: True Bat
See invisible; Turn Invisible
Blood Vision
Fast Healing
Moon Magic

Personality: clever, sneaky, often a prankster but would rather watch chaotic activities than be part of them

Name: Sorophan
Gender: male
Height: 6'7" at head
Color: White
Marking: Dorsal Stripe - Gold
Face Marking: Mask - Gold

Abilities: Shapeshifting: True Bat
See invisible; Turn Invisible
Blood Vision
Fast Healing
Telepathy (Hypnosis/Control)
Functional Immortality
Limited Teleportation
Shadow Magic

Personality: sly, slick, a ladie's man in draconic vampire form, but upon finding Basanar he is extremely protective of her