The half moon shines down, bathing the world below in an ethereal otherworldly glow, far removed from the world during the day. And the moonlight illuminates a solitary wanderer, travelling through the forest. It shines off his silvery waist length hair and his pale skin, glinting off his armour and being absorbed by his long dark cloak. You can see from his armour and general disposition and most obviously the sword at his side, that he is a warrior of some sort. Perhaps a mercenary. Closer inspection, however, reveals the crest of a long dead king on his breastplate - perhaps he is a knight whose lord has died, and he now pledges allegiance to no one. These suppositions are mostly correct, but there is much more to this man than just that. For this man is Renaku, a fabled demon slayer. The sword by his side is no ordinary sword - it was forged 9000 years ago by a master elf swordsmith, made odder still by the fact that elves are not natural swordsmiths. In addition, Renaku is a vampire and has been for 30 years. However, in the transformation he kept his human personality and memories. He tries to never take a human life, instead he protects humans from the demons and evil creatures of the night that would prey on them. Despite this, humans who discover his nature still call him monster and drive him from their villages and towns. Given this treatment, it's amazing he hasn't become a manic angst-ridden depressive vampire who wears black all the time. -------------------------------------------------- VAMPIRE LEGEND R Episode 9 - Vampire’s Memories, Vampire’s Future By Steven Scougall VLR originally created by Ben Overmyer -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Warning! This is a HORROR story. Supposedly. That means there could be some blood, violence, and extreme trauma ahead. There is also at least one intricately described fight scene, and despite despite the fact this is a horror story there are still some attempts at humour ahead, which may or may not be bad. Consider yourself warned. ------------------------------------------------------------ It was shortly after the incident with the Blood Moon Society and Lady Diana. Seeing as he couldn't think of much else to do, Renaku had continued on with his quest to the Rylor Mountains to find the rare herb that might allow him to bear the light of the sun. A remarkably silly quest, he thought, but at least it gave him something to do. At least it was something he could aim towards. It was much better than just waking up at dusk and saying "Tonight I'll go kill another demon." He was passing through a forest. He passed through lots of forests, for he could usually find a dark burrow or hollow tree to settle down in as a bat during the day if he couldn't make it to a town or a farm before dawn. Admittedly, resting in a possibly inhabited burrow as a bat wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world, especially when the inhabitant showed up, but at least it was cover. He was currently aiming for Hryulle, an improbably named town that was the last major one on his route before the foot of the Rylor mountains. He hoped he'd be able to find some information in town about the lay of the mountains, and where he might find this herb. For the Rylor mountains were huge and expansive, and searching through them for a small herb was akin to trying to find a specific piece of hay in twenty haystacks. There might not be anyone in the town who knew where to look, but it couldn't hurt to ask around. He walked on in silence for a while, his thoughts his only companions. There was... ...shouting, roaring, the sounds of fighting, the splintering of wood, coming to him as a faint suggestion on the breeze... ...almost unconsciously he started running towards the battle, drawing his sword. He remembered a similar incident from years back that had led to an interesting time of life, but he quelled the memories. There was no time for that now. Maybe later... With still a way to go, if his hearing was any judge, he ran into a scene of devastation. Trees had been uprooted and were lying around like carelessly discarded chopsticks, most of the ground was charred smoking, and the forest animals that hadn't been able to get away were lying dead. A fine layer of ash covered everything. He stopped for a moment, staring in amazement, then ran on with renewed vigour. He hadn't gone much further when there was a bright flash of light from up ahead, and a red shape came flying through the air, off to his side, smashed through one of the few trees still standing, and dug a long furrow in the ground as it landed. More deja vu... The creature got to its feet, snarling, and Renaku could see that its skin was a violent reddish colour, its eyes were a glowing pupilless white, and it wore a cloak and a thin crown. On its demonic frame, these human affectations looked ridiculous. It fixed its eyes on him, and they flashed. "YOU!" it roared. "How ironic that I finally find you NOW!" Renaku stared. He'd be sure to remember encountering such a creature... ...though he had fought similar things before, with red skin and white glowing pupilless eyes. Odd, how all these happenings were reminding of the same memories... But he couldn't let himself get lost in the past, not now. He brought his sword to bear in a stance that would allow for fast rapid movements. If this was anything like the ones before... The demon leaped at him with incredible speed, slashing with its talons. He just managed top dodge, but even so its talong cut shallow grazes in his skin. It easily pivoted, twisting to follow his movement, and sent a flurry of strikes at him once more. He desperately brought his sword up and around, with the intent to slash the thing's hand off. Faster than he could follow, it yanked its arm back, spun with the movement, and ended the spin with a flurry of hard hitting strikes that sent him sprawling into the mud. He staggered to his feet, black spots dancing before his eyes. This thing was unbelievably fast and strong, much more so than he could manage. He heard a sizzle, and looked up at the creature and saw its hands held in a triangular shape, white specks of energy collecting in the space between them. "And now you die," it gloated. And then there was a sudden bright beam of light, blasting forth from the trees almost behind him. The creature's eyes widened and it started to move out of the way, but not even it was fast enough to fully dodge; the blast clipped it, sending it staggering. The blast was followed a brief moment later by a blurred figure charging at the demon. As the figure charged, a familiar female voice shouted "He does NOT! YOU die!" Her? HER?!? Here? Now? Renaku quashed the memories that threatened to overwhelm him. He didn't need their distraction now. Maybe later... The two figures came together briefly, there was the sizzling sound of magic, and then the woman was knocked away. Renaku closed upon it a split second later, slashing it several times with his sword, dealing a few superficial cuts; the demon then dodged a stroke and counterattacked, and was again too fast for him to follow; and just as its punch was about to send him into next week the woman bounced up off the ground and charged it. The demon was alredy off balance, with all its momentum going in entirely the wrong direction, but it tried to hit her out of her charge with a weak backfist. She was however going with all the force of a comet, easily dodged the demon's weak attack, and laid into it with a high speed combination of attacks, finishing with a blast of magic force, knocking it into the air. "NOW!" she yelled, but Renaku was already moving. He used all his vampiric speed and strength, putting his all into one mighty slash that entered the demon's side and came out the other, neatly bisecting it. At least, that was the plan. He wasn't counting on the demon recovering in the middle of getting cut in half and slamming its hands down on the flat sides of the blade, stopping it in mid cut. Its flesh started to smoke where it came into contact with the sword, and it hissed with pain, but it slowly started to shove the sword back outside its body. Renaku used all his strength to resist, but it wasn't enough. He could feel the sword trying to suck out its life energy, but it was sluggish and slow, as if the demon was fighting that also. "You and your sword aren't so tough after all," it sneered. "Remember to be irrational," said a voice inside his head. Listening to the voice, Renaku let the sword go. Straining against a force that suddenly wasn't there, the demon's hands shot to the side and the sword went flying. His hearing faintly heard it thunk into a tree, but by then he was already in the middle of hitting the demon with all he had. The woman joined in a moment later, her strikes surrounded by a magical silvery glow. He knew it wasn't enough to kill the demon, but it would at least faze it. He had another wild idea. "Handle him for a moment!" he shouted to the woman, and kicking off from the demon's kneecap, he literally flew through the air to where his sword was stuck. He grabbed it and ripped it from the trunk of the tree, then flew back to the battle. The demon struck at him, but at the last moment he threw the sword to the woman then shifted to bat form and flitted upwards. Her eyes lit up in understanding. She grabbed the sword, and her bare hand started to smoke where it touched the sword. She gritted her teeth against the pain and a magical aura flashed into life around the sword as she started attacking the demon. It tried to get away, it tried to defend, but she was almost as fast as the demon. The magic of Renaku's sword, combined with the woman's own magic, was enough for her to slash the demon right through. And then, incredibly, it managed to keep on moving. As its top half flew through the air it brought its hands up into the same triangular shape, energy colletcing within its hands. In response, she slashed its arms off. Its arms started to regenerate. But not quickly enough - she kicked the extremely diminished demon away, then threw something - Renaku couldn't quite see what - at it. But its effects were obvious. When it hit the demon there was an almighty explosion of magic. When the smoke cleared the remains of the demon were on the ground, not even humanoid anymore, just a mound of demon flesh. Amazingly, it was still doggedly moving, slowly regenerating itself. "Good lord," said Renaku, "we never encountered one this hard to kill before..." "It's Makath", she said absently. "Strongest of the lot so he would be the hardest to kill." She looked down - she was still holding his sword and her hand was smoking where it touched the hilt. She handed it to him. "I'm not sure this sword works properly when I wield it. So the final blow will be yours." He took it, and she sighed in relief as the contact with it ceased. She then smiled at him. "So go finish him." He walked over to the slowly moving demon's remains, and without a further word or ceremony plunged his sword through the thing. He felt the sword sucking out its energy, extremely quickly now, nothing like the sluggish rate before. The demonflesh writhed frantically, gave on final spasmodic jerk, and then was still. It was finally dead. He stood there shivering. That battle had been too close, several times. And it had taken less than thirty seconds. Absently, almost as an afterthought, he drew the energy in the sword into himself, 'feeding' on it, then turned and smiled at the woman. "Nice to see you again, Thiesra." She smiled back at him, and gave her customary greeting: "Please put that sword away, Ren-chan, you know it makes me nervous." * * * * * He thought back to when he first met her, several years ago. It was a gloomy night, with occasional breaks in the cloud cover allowing glimpses of the full moon. A violent storm was raging, with the usual thunder, lightning, and howling gale force winds. At the time, Renaku had been heading towards a particularly large town and in order to get there quicker was cutting through a large and reputably dangerous forest. It wasn't that there was any *need* to be in such a hurry, this storm couldn't hurt him significantly. He didn't want to think too hard about why he was hurrying and the sheer silliness of it. For then he would start to dwell on his lost humanity and he would get even more depressive and angst- ridden than usual. So ultimately, he hurried 'just because'. In human (well, humanoid) form he would be too slow, and in bat form he would never be able to fly through the howling wind. So he was for once in his wolf form, a dark shape loping through the trees. The rain soaked his fur something awful, but that was just a temporary inconvenience. A much bigger inconvenience was having to carry his pack by the strap with his teeth. If he wasn't careful he'd bite right through the thing and then there'd be nothing for it, he'd have to shift to humanoid form and complete the rest of this journey on two feet instead of four. And he'd have to find a dark burrow somewhere to sleep during the day, so as to avoid the lethal light of the sun. And then, in defiance of all sense, he picked up the faint sounds of a battle, and voices in the wind, and guttural roars that could only be made by a demonic throat. A demon against humans... it would be a slaughter. He sped up, now running at full speed towards the battle. As he approached, he shifted to humanoid form, and drew his fabled Demon Slayer sword. He prayed to whatever gods that might be listening to allow him to get there on time... When he had almost arrived a figure hurtled past and slid to a stop a short distance behind him, digging a long groove in the ground as it landed. It had been going too fast for him to make out any features, except a flash of blond hair, and he feared that he had been too late in arriving. But just to be sure, he quickly dashed over to where the figure had landed. It was a woman, dressed in torn and muddy travelling clothes, with short blond hair and oddly red eyes. In addition to the state of her clothing, she was covered in bruises and cuts, and she was in extremely bad shape. Despite this, she was already scrambling to her feet, and as he approached she looked up at him with a glance of amazement. "What's going on? Is it really a demon you're fighting?" he asked. "No time to talk," she said quickly and then her eyes widened and looked past him and she shoved him aside. Before he could even register amazement, the blast of magical energy smashed into them with incredible force. Renaku was only clipped in the side, so instead of being killed he was sent flying. He felt his body crash through trees and bushes and finally slide to a stop in the mud. He groped around, and then groaned. He'd dropped his sword and it was lying who knows where. Never mind the fact that it would be hell trying to find it in this storm, how was he going to fight this demon without it? Wondering what had happened to the woman and what he was going to do now, he scrambled to his feet, and was greeted by the horrible sight of her lying amidst the wreckage of several trees, her body a mangled ruin. She was quite clearly dead. So this rescue mission was now a mission of vengeance... There was a demonic roar of pain, and he looked around to see a huge redskinned demon trying to pull his sword from a nearby tree, its hand smoking. It turned its massive head, bringing its glowing pupilless eyes to bear on him. "I am surprised you are still alive," it rumbled. "But I can fix that." The next thing Renaku knew the demon was standing in front of him, swiping with a taloned hand. In desperation he shifted to wolf from, the blow going over his head, and he leaped towards where his sword was stuck, shifting back to humanoid form in mid-flight. He grabbed his sword, wrenched it free with vampiric strength, landed and slashed at the inrushing demon all in one wild movement. The demon casually stepped aside, easily avoiding the attack. Renaku had no idea what stance or form was supposed to be good against demons this fast or strong. He had no time to think it through, regardless, for the demon was upon him, slashing with its talons once again. It was attacking with such speed and ferocity he couldn't even bring his sword to bear, all he could do was desperately dodge. There was no way he could keep this up for long. "Why are you fighting me?" he asked in desperation. "You have no reason to!" "You associated with Thiesra," he spat out, continuing his relentless flurry. "That and I feel like killing you, vampire. Now stop squirming and die." Diplomacy clearly wasn't going to work. Renaku decided to forget about it and save his energy for thinking up another way out of this. They went on this fashion for what seemed like an age, the demon pressing a furious constant flurry of attacks, and Renaku dodging, desperately trying to fight back but finding it impossible against the thing's sheer speed. His movements became more and more sluggish, his desperation increasing - Then with incredible suddenness, a figure burst forth from the trees and charged into the side of the demon, striking at it viciously. It roared in anger, thrown momentarily off balance, then backfisted the figure away. It was all the distraction Renaku needed. His sword was a bright flash through the air, stabbing right through the thing's chest, passing through its body as if it provided no resistance. There was no blood, and the demon kept moving, albeit spasmodically. Renaku gaped in astonishment, but he could feel his sword feeding on something, so the demon had to be dead or dying. It hissed, reaching its hands out towards him, and then the sword drew out the last of its soul energy. The body gave a final convulsive jerk and then discorporated, becoming a fine red dust that fell to the forest floor. He breathed a sigh of relief and drew the soul energy in the sword into himself, feeding on it, and finally returned his attention to the rest of the world. First of all was to tend to the figure whose interference had saved him. He turned to where the person had fell, and gaped in new-found astonishment as he found himself facing the same woman from before, now quite whole and alive. She smiled nervously at him. "Um... hi." He levelled his sword at her. "You were quite clearly dead. Tell me what you are and how you survived and I might not kill you." "And here I just saved your life, too," she complained. "But if you must know, I'm of the same species of demon as the one that you just killed. And it was trying to kill me." She shivered. "He almost did, too. Lucky you came along." "You were quite clearly dead," he said again, but with less conviction than before. "Oh, that," she said dismissively. "My species is remarkably resilient and we're almost impossible to kill. It usually takes a significant amount of magic to completely destroy one of us. In comparison, that blast before was a light tap on the arm. So it's really quite strange to see a sword that can drop one of us like a stone. Can you put it away, please? It's making me nervous." She seemed sincere enough, and was remarkably more forthcoming than most. He sheathed his sword, but remained wary. "Thanks. I'm called Thiesra, by the way." "'Thees-rah'?" "Close enough," she said. Bemused, Renaku shook her hand. * * * * * The fight with the demon had taken longer than he'd expected, and Renaku realised there was no time for him to get to the town by dawn. So he was forced to search out a nice dark burrow somewhere that he could spend the day in. In doing so, he had to of course tell Thiesra he was a vampire, but she didn't mind all that much. "This is just a guess, mind you, but I don't think your bite would be all that deadly to me," she said. "I don't have blood, you see." "But you were definitely bleeding when you were thrown past me," he pointed out. "That's because I'm affecting a human body," she said. "'Affecting'?" "That is, I've formed my body into a human one. For personal reasons. In my natural state my makeup is much different and my natural magic keeps me going. Anyway, I'm guessing if you tried the bite I'd be able to regenerate any lost blood, and I'd be able to overcome the magic that would turn me into a vampire." "Good god... what does it take to kill one of you?" he asked. "Overwhelming us with enough magical power to overcome our natural magic that keeps us together, basically. It's remarkably difficult to kill one of us. Usually. Though that sword of yours works too." She was quite unlike any other type of demon he'd encountered. He said as much, and Thiesra laughed and started explaining. Her species was originally from a barren and dead place from outside this world, called quite unimaginatively the Otherworld. At some point in the distant past the Otherworld had died and they'd crossed over into this world permanently, and had merged in with all the supernatural creatures of the night. There had been some early cases of crossbreeding, with some truly strange results, but none were quite as hardy and unkillable as the original species, so they now mostly stayed in the background and kept to themselves. They were led by an ancient demon called Makath, who was driven by a mad quest to destroy everything. Most of his subjects accepted this goal without question. However, she was young, having been created in only the past 200 years, and she had spent a lot of time with humans. She had subsequently developed a soft spot for humans, had started to question Makath's objectives, and eventually turned rogue. "Which eventually explains why that demon was trying to kill me tonight," she said. "Makath doesn't like me interfering, and has sent several demons out to kill me already." "How long have you been living like this? How long have you been a rogue?" "About a week." If this wasn't a serious horror psychological drama, Renaku would have facefaulted. "Several demons in only a WEEK?" "Makath REALLY doesn't like people questioning his authority." "If he sends that many demons after you all the time, you'll be worn down extremely quickly and you'll be killed! In only a month!" "Ah, but I now have an ace up my sleeve." Renaku stared at her in confusion. "What do you mean?" She grinned at him. "I have a vampire friend who has a sword that can kill us in one stroke." Renaku stared. "You mean to travel with me?" "I don't see why not," she said. "At least for a while." * * * * * They travelled together for a time, coming to be close friends and an effective team. True to Thiesra's predictions, Makath had sent a constant stream of demons after her, making Renaku's life as a demonslayer even more interesting than usual. But working together, Renaku and Thiesra easily made short work of these 'enforcer' demons. Eventually the stream of attacking demons slowed, and then stopped. Thiesra was worried, wondering what Makath was up to, but Renaku was secretly relieved that the almost constant battles were over, at least for the immediate future. Life, or in their case existence, went on. Thiesra's loyalty to Renaku was shown time and time again. She stood watch over him as he slept during the day, often used her better senses to find all sorts of demons he'd never have found otherwise, and fought ferociously at his side when anyone else would have run long ago. And, extremely usefully, she got around another vampiric weakness by inviting him into buildings. And then one day... They'd been travelling together for several months now. It had been a remarkably peaceful time, which was good, but it also meant that it had been a particularly bad time on the demonslaying front. And this was bad, for without a regular supply of demons to kill Renaku couldn't feed in his preferred manner. His bloodlust was back, raging in full force. He was becoming increasingly panicked, for if this went on for much longer he would lose control and go mad, killing the next human to come his way, whether they were deserving of it or not. He stared dully at their campfire, the worry and panic raging through his mind. They were in the depths of another forest, not even in a clearing, in the hope that an unlucky traveller wouldn't stumble across them. But it wouldn't be enough to stop him actively seeking someone out. He'd have to rely on Thiesra to stop him. He hoped it would never come to that... Thiesra saw his desperation, and made up her mind. "Ren," she said. He looked up and saw adjusting her shirt to expose her neck, and his amazement grew. She couldn't seriously be - "You can't go on like this," she said. "So I offer my own blood." So she was. "But... you're still not sure my bite will not harm you," he protested. "It would be much better for it to happen to me than to an innocent human," she replied, and smiled at him. "And I'd much prefer to be killed by you than anybody else, Ren." There it was again, her nickname for him... Oh lord, she couldn't seriously - "I really really like you, Ren-chan," she said. "You've the been first person to ever really care for me at all. You've been really nice and the first true friend I've ever had. I'd give my life for you." She was. Damn. "I couldn't possibly -" he started, and stopped when he saw her expression. There was a heavy silence. "Do you WANT to die?" he yelled at her. "Because that's what you're asking!" "No. But I don't want to see you driven mad by the bloodlust and kill an innocent human. You don't want that to happen either. This is the only thing I can think of, Ren. I'm sorry. It's been a great time with you, if this does kill me I want you to know that. It shouldn't, that's the only assurance I can give." She paused. "And if the bloodlust does drive you mad we'll end up fighting and that demonslayer sword of yours will kill me anyway... This way, there's a chance..." He stared at her, unable to believe this was happening. There was another heavy silence. "Do you WANT to kill a human? Do you WANT to fight me?" she screamed at him. Unable to believe what he was about to do, he slowly inched forwards. His teeth sank into her neck. He felt her wince, and heard her gasp. Unable to stop himself, he greedily drank of her blood, taking it into his body, feeling it rejuvenate him, guiltily taking pleasure in the sensation. He could feel her body shuddering, and hear her breathing turn ragged. This was one of his only friends in the entire world and he was killing her, oh god... But he couldn't stop himself. And then her shuddering stopped, her breathing eased, and her arms wrapped around him in a warm embrace. His eyes widened. "It's working, Ren-chan," she whispered. "It's not killing me. I can regenerate the blood, I can fight off the magic that would turn into a vampire..." He continued, but with less worry than before. After what seemed like an endless age, he finally drew away from her neck. Before he could do anything else she was kissing him on his bloodstained lips. He sat there in shocked surprise, and she giggled at his dumbfounded expression. With incredibly ironic timing, twenty of Makath's enforcer demons chose this moment to appear and attack. The moment shattered, the two flew into battle. And even though they were outnumbered ten-to-one, they still made short work of the squad. "If he's just going to send such wimpy demons I don't know why he bothers," complained Thiesra. And life went on. Now that he knew his bite wouldn't kill her, he didn't have to worry about his bloodlust anymore. Not that he drank her blood every night, for he still found the idea repellent, and he always put it off as much as possible. But at least the option was available and he could fend off his vampiric bloodlust until the next fight with demons. * * * * * But eventually all things end. Theirs came, not in fight, not in ruin, but rather ironically on a perfectly clear and idyllic day. The day was just dawning, and they had checked into an inn about an hour before. Renaku was getting ready to bed down for the day. Thiesra was sitting on a chair backwards, resting her crossed arms on its back, watching him. "Ren, I'm starting to get extremely worried about Makath," she said. "We haven't heard a single thing from him since Rythelok a couple of months ago." "That 'Rythelok' was more than enough, though," said Renaku, wincing from the memory. "He really was your old teacher?" "Yep. He taught me everything I know about fighting, and he's had a couple of millennia to gain experience. Which explains why he was so tough... But it wasn't just that, Makath is now trying to get at me in other ways. I really respected Rythelok, at least as much as I respected anyone back then. Having to fight him was difficult." She paused. Renaku filled in the silence. "You're worried about what Makath might try next?" "Yes..." she said. "He might try other people from my past. He might try and get at me through humans I've associated with." She paused slightly. "He might try to get at me through you." "Let him try. I'll gladly kill him." "Ren, he's the strongest demon of all of us. All he has to do is get your sword away from you and you wouldn't stand a chance." She looked pensive, and Renaku feared he knew what she'd say next - "I should probably leave, it's starting to get too dangerous for you." Just as he'd feared. She really was incredibly predictable and melodramatic at times. "That's ridiculous. We work much better together than we do alone. What could you achieve by yourself?" "Mainly, they wouldn't know where to start looking for you. To date, they've been finding us by tracking my natural magic. It's like a beacon that I can't turn off. You don't have such a beacon, and they'd have a hell of a time trying to find you." "But without me and my demonslayer sword you couldn't fight them nearly as well." "I know, but I have improved drastically. I'm sorry Ren-chan, my mind's made up." She took her necklace off from under her shirt and handed it to him. "Here... consider this a parting gift." He started to protest, but she placed a finger on his lips, and smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, but I have to leave now, Ren-chan. I hope I see you again sometime." And then she was gone, the door shutting with a soft click. Somehow, he knew he'd see her again someday. * * * * * Over the years, he did run into her several times. In the dark lands of Asurion and Melagan, the baking deserts of Kafkamakh, the ancient forest ruins of Mesa. Each time it was much the same - while she was amazed and delighted to see him, Makath and his demons were still a threat and she only stayed with him a short while before leaving again. At these times, he felt the most at ease he ever had since his transformation into a vampire. Sometimes, he could even forget that he was a vampire and she was an otherworldly demon, and it was just two old friends laughing and joking about old times... He wished that eventually, the time would come when she finished Makath and they could travel together again. And here she was again, and apart from some her hair being a bit longer she looked exactly as he remembered. He banished the memories and tried to concentrate on the present. He indicated the pieces of demon on the ground. "So this was Makath?" "Yes, Ren-chan, it was. He's finally dead." "So you finally got around to challenging him." She scratched her head nervously. "Well, no, actually. I was going to, that's why I was heading towards the Rylor Mountains. But he beat me to it and challenged me here." He started. "You mean... Makath was based in the Rylor Mountains?" "Um... yeah. They're scary and forbidding enough, apparently. Why, is something wrong with that?" "That's exactly where I'm headed," he sighed. "You ARE?" "Apparently there's this herb that grows somewhere in them, and I can use it to make a sunproof lotion that would allow me to walk in the sunlight..." he mumbled. "A silly quest, but at least it's something to do." "Considering I spent a lot of time there before turning rogue, I could probably help you look." She grinned at him. "But it'd be like walking into the lion's den!" he protested. "Full of demons that are angry at us because we just killed their leader!" "Ah, but we have an ace up our sleeves." "We do?" "We just killed their leader. The strongest of all of them." "Just barely, and with extreme luck." "But we don't need to tell them that," she said. "And they'll be good and scared." The two became aware of a disgusting stench, coming from something at their feet. They looked down, and saw that Makath's remains had turned into human remains, and blood was beginning to flow. As they watched, the human flesh quickly rotted and decomposed, leaving only bones behind. And then the bones themselves turned into dust and blew away in the breeze. "Makath... was human?" asked Thiesra. "I guess so. That's what that little display seemed to indicate." "He's been Lord of the demons for millennia... Not even the oldest demons can remember a time when he wasn't there... Maybe it explains why he was such a bastard..." "Maybe," was his only response. Thiesra's uncertainty disappeared. "Even so, it doesn't excuse him at all," she said with conviction. "He's dead and gone, and I'm happy. I don't even care to know why he was human in the first place." There was a pause. "Okay, maybe just a bit," she amended. "So, what now? Shall we head into the mountains together, just like old times? And perhaps kill a few demons while we're there?" "I'd love to," she said. * * * * * There were still several hours left in the night, and Renaku judged they could make it to Hryulle easily before dawn. So instead of stopping in the forest, as he'd feared he would have to, they started briskly towards the frontier town. A short while later, where they were only a couple of hours or so from the town, they could see bright flashes far off, in the air above the distant parts of the Rylor Mountains. Renaku looked at the flashes quizzically. While there were such phenomena as lights in the sky, this was neither the usual time of the year or the place for them. They were probably something else. He said as such. Thiesra nodded grimly. "True. Probably caused by demons, either those of my race or the others that live in the mountains. Though why or what they're doing I have no idea..." They walked on, uneasy. They made it to Hryulle with plenty of time to spare, and started searching for an inn that was open in these early hours. Despite the fact Hryulle was a border frontier town, far away from the major centers, it got a lot of the travellers heading into the Rylor Mountains, or coming from them. Thus there was some bustle and activity, and they could quite easily find an open inn. It wasn't all that great and was in a sleazy area, but they didn't complain. There was still some time to go to dawn, so Renaku stayed awake and the two talked for a while, catching up on past history. Thus he was still awake when the first wave of wild-eyed refugees arrived... They had been minding their own business in the little villages and countries that dotted the Rylor Mountains. They hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, and could barely bother anybody with the hard rugged lifestyle the mountains demanded of them. So it had been a complete surprise when a huge wave of the mountain demons had attacked in the middle of the night. ...the flashes of light he and Thiesra had seen, thought Renaku grimly. Some had stayed and fought the demons. They had died quite quickly and horribly. Everybody else ran in a blind panic, too scared. Many of them had died too, but some had survived, making it out of the mountains and to the frontier towns of Hryulle. More refugess, from villages all over the mountains, kept on arriving. Everywhere the story was the same - the demons attacked in the middle of the night, killing indiscriminately. Judging from the stories, every single village in the mountains had been attacked at about the same moment. Worst of all had been the demons' laughter... Thiesra quietly mentioned that even though the Otherworld Demons lived in the Rylor Mountains, there were nowhere near as many as the villagers were describing. She gently pressed a few of them, and found out that yes, there had been some redskinned demons with white glowing eyes, but lots of other types too. This was worrying. For she said that they were traditionally isolationist, and never allied themselves with anyone, either demon or human. Dawn was now, quite literally, just over the horizon. Renaku was fuming with anger at the news of the mass demon attack, and wanted to start moving as quickly as possible. However, he realised he couldn't do anything until dusk came once more. With bad grace, Renaku bedded down for the day in their inn room and drifted into an uneasy sleep. And just like she had done before when they first travelled together, Thiesra sat by and watched over him. She didn't really see the world in the typical fashion. True, she did have human eyes and human ears, that functioned perfectly. But the view they provided of the world was vastly inferior to the demonic awareness sense that gave her a full 360 degree view of her surroundings. Similarly, this body was inferior to her normal demonic one. Its range of movements was drastically limited, and it was a lot harder to regenerate, and it sprung a lot of surprises on her. But the further she distanced herself from her demonic origins, the better. She shivered. She hated her kind, hated them for their approach to the world, for their callousness towards everything else. For everything she'd gone through in the past several years, and everything she'd done before that. To avenge all the humans that had died... ...especially the ones that had been attacked this past night. She grew increasingly worried. What she had told Renaku was true, the Otherworld Demons had been traditionally isolationist. They never allied with anyone, usually because they never needed to. Even so, they were respected as lords of the mountains by all the other demonic creatures that inhabited them. Not only were they allied with other demons, they were probably behind this latest attack. Even more amazing was that they had been able to organise something like this. Makath had been dead only a few hours when it had started... A voice came to her, speaking directly to her awareness. It spoke in the language of the Otherworld demons, a harsh guttural tounge that gave her headaches. "Little Thiesra," it sneered. "Litte demon girl, so proud of 'her'self for defeating the mighty Makath. Thank you for getting rid of him for me, by the way." It laughed. "Did you like hearing about the little demonstration I gave to the humans of the mountains?" It was Zeorx, an ages-old demon who had been second only to Makath. He was probably filling Makath’s position by now. She sighed and, to spite him, spoke in the floweriest human language she knew. "I shall be coming for you, Zeorx. Count on it." "Oh, I'm so scared," he responded, still in the demon language. "Remember that I defeated Makath, Zeorx. He was strongest of all of us." "Oh yes, you did, but only with the help of that vampire friend of yours." Her eyes widened in surprise. They knew he was there? "Oh yes," Zeorx responded. "We know he's there, and that you also required the help of him, his sword, and a magic-bomb or two, and it was still a close fight. And how many of those bombs do you have left? How well would you have done without the fabled demonslayer sword?" Despite the fact that he was miles away in the depths of the mountains, she got the impression he was smirking. "So come if you dare, little Thiesra. Our number is many. Even more so, now that we are allied with other demons and," his voice turned sarcastic, "other 'creatures of the night'." "Since when do the Otherworld Demons ally themselves with others?" she demanded. "Why the sudden change of a policy several millenia old?" "That little Renaku of yours is the subject of a prophecy. It seems he'll either become Lord of the Dark or Saviour of Humanity. And most demons we know of aren't happy with either prospect and would rather die than be subjugated under his rule. So we ally ourselves against an unpalatable future. Just thought you'd like to know that little tidbit about your vampire loverboy." Her cheeks flushed hotly. "He's not my - " He sniggered nastily. "Becoming quite the little human, aren't you Thiesra? Just remember where humans belong in this world. At the bottom. So come along. Come on over to the Rylor Mountains if you dare." His voice then faded out to the sound of mocking laughter. * * * * * Renaku had been awake all of two seconds when Thiesra said "Renaku, we have a problem." He quickly sat him, rubbing his eyes out of habit. "A problem?" "While you were sleeping, Zeorx, the demon who's now Lord, spoke to me." "What did he have to say?" "He knows you're here. He knows just how difficult it was for us to defeat Makath. He definitely is allying his forces with other types of demon and other creatures of the Dark, and the Rylor Mountains will be crawling with demons, all with orders to attack us on sight." Renaku was too stunned for words. "He knows about the prophecy. He said that he doesn't particularly care for you being either Saviour of Humanity or Lord of the Dark, and most other demons in the mountains don't either." He paused, a thought striking him. "Remember how I said Kanouseiko appeared to me in a vision? And how she said I would face a choice that would lead me to the Light or Dark?" "You think this could be that choice?" "I've no idea," he responded, then stood up and started putting on his armour. "But I'm not going to turn tail and run. I'm going to do what I think is Right. I'm going to head into the mountains, and I'm going to take the fight to these demons." "And along the way we can look for this herb of yours," she said, grinning at him. "That too," he said, grinning back. He adjusted the last strap and fixed his sword in place on his hip. "So let's get going." (To be continued) * * * * * Typical Author's Afterwood section ---------------------------------- Wai! That was a blast. I finally managed to bring Thiesra out from the depths of unfinished stories and into some action. However, whether she actually has much of an impact on the story relies on future authors, but I'm optimistic. ^_^ Big big thanks must go to the following people for their ideas and prereading: Jonatan Streith (J_Streith@telebot.net) Aaron Peori (tzubi@ns.sympatico.ca) Dan Mastriani (powerofqi@aol.com) Lady Chaos (cdrmoon@uniserve.com) Coyote (coyote@tomserver.phys.ttu.edu) And thanks must go to Ben Overmyer for creating VLR.