Some more canonical/lore works for Vulkhi, this taking place more towards the later parts of his life. And dabbling in some more writing as well, so hope you all enjoy the story included.
Also, gonna go ahead and upload this one full-res, as fine emotion details appear to have been lost in reduction.

Tears + Vulkhi Rant Version here

Art by  Monokurome
Story except by  Urthoc (Me ovo)

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Vulkhi snaps awake, his surroundings drastically different from where he was mere moments ago. Now on the shore, surrounded by sand as far as one can see in one direction, in the other, water. The ocean was quiet and peaceful, the waves never growing high enough to really go farther than a few inches past the coastline.

It took Vulkhi a few moments to notice this, but there was a grayscale look to everything. There was no real color, except himself, even the water and sand was gray. With some further looking, there was a shoddily built wooden shack in the distance. He trekked out to it, and saw the door was wide open. He knocked on the open door and walked straight inside, inside was an elderly sergal. A twisted wooden cane rested against the side of the dinner table where he sat by. There was nothing on the table however, just bare wood, not even a cloth to cover it.

Vulkhi had approached the strange man, as he almost shakily raised his arm and pointed to a closed door. Vulkhi had followed the strange man’s directions, and proceeded to the next room. He turned the knob and proceeded inside, a roughly assembled bedroom inside. His eyes immediately locked onto the bed in the corner, someone already inside of it. It took little time to notice that the sheets were deeply stained red, and whoever was beneath was completely motionless. However, Vulkhi could sense an erratic pulse. He approached it and cautiously pulled the covers back.

Underneath was most concerning, and he quickly realized it was his own mangled form. He was staring at his own unconscious body. He was practically in pieces, and in some places, quite literally was. However, given his vampiric nature, he was still alive. Or at least his heart still functioned, likely the only part of him that retained any sense of life. He had no recollection of what had happened, but whatever it was had done enough damage to his body and even brain that it rendered him more or less dead. However it didn’t take much observation to see that his body was slowly repairing itself from the practically boundless storage of blood he had fed on inside of him.

Vulkhi had seen enough, only left with assumptions as to what was happening. The only thing that was clear was he had died in some amount. He returned back to the main room, the elderly sergal still sitting there, seemingly unconcerned by what was in the next room over. “What is this, where am I,” Vulkhi had asked, his voice deep with concern. The concern mostly stemming from uncertainty, and less his own life. There was no verbal answer from the man, instead he reached his ragged robes and grabbed a pocket watch. He handed it to Vulkhi, as he glanced at it. The watch was moving in reverse, about 4 minutes to either noon or midnight. The answer likely did not matter, and was only a timer.

“I take it this is how much time until I can return? Is this the afterlife, purgatory? What the hell even killed me, I don’t remember anything.” Somewhat expectedly, the man had remained silent, practically staring blankly in front of him. Vulkhi attempted to get the man’s attention, placing his hand on his shoulder. Memories flooded back of his past experiences here, quickly realizing this was not his first time here. In fact, he had been here more than a mere handful of times. He took his hand off, before he sighed and pulled out a chair and sat next to the man. He knew now from remembering his past experiences that the man never spoke.

Vulkhi placed the watch in front of himself and simply slumped over the table, waiting for the inevitable time he could return. It wasn’t long before the bedroom door had begun to glow, and Vulkhi had noticed the stopwatch had stopped counting. The man had pointed to the door again, and Vulkhi had just stayed in place. “There’s no rush, I don’t need to go back yet. That world can wait, I’ve been there for what seems like ages. It’s quiet here, and frankly I like it. Besides, you have no company here do you. You may not talk for whatever reason, but I like something about you.”

The man had stopped pointing, and the two of them simply sat there together in complete silence. The only sound there was the gentle waves just outside the walls. Vulkhi would return to life, but it would be on his own terms. He was in no rush, after all, he wasn’t going anywhere. It wasn’t his time yet, and he knew that.