In a small village nestled in a valley at the base of a huge mountain, people have grown up knowing a story about a terrible beast that lives in the mountain and every time there is a crimson moon a Dreamer arrives to make sure the beast remains asleep. For if it awakens it would destroy their beautiful home. This has been going on for centuries every time there is a full blood moon a stunning Dreamer arrives, he stands on the stone altar, throws his hands up to the sky and begins to speak, what can only be described as a lullaby. This is because the language he speaks is indecipherable.

The people listen and watch the tiny god in action, a strange pattern begins to glow around his feet hidden under his long robe. His long black hair as black as the night flows down his slender back in waves and every time he moves his slender heavily ringed hands you can hear the sound of metal bracelets clinking together under the long sleeves of his unusual light blue robe. When he finishes the lullaby, there is flash of light and poof he is gone. The people always wished he would stay for a cup of tea, but he never did. It would be nice to thank him for keeping the beast they all feared asleep.

Then the chief of the village decided the next time there was going to be a crimson moon she would make sure there was an offering for the god already in place. The chief's top astronomers predict the next blood moon would happen on the dawn of summer. This gave her enough time to make sure a stone table was placed near the altar which the villagers filled with offerings of the finest fruit. Then all they could do is wait until the moon rose high in the night sky and slowly began to turn red.

Once the moon is half covered the gathered people hear the soft rumble of thunder which told them the Dreamer had arrived. All eyes were on the edge of the forest waiting for the god to appear. Except this time it was someone else who emerged from the shadows of the trees, dressed in a light green half coat. It was obvious this was a different god. For he was considerably taller than a Dreamer nor did he have a full round chest. The people can see it clear he is a spell caster from the book dangling by his right thigh, along with what looks like some crystals. A strange medallion hangs over the centre of his chest, and he wears light blue gloves. This unknown god uses a hairpin to fasten back his long jet-black fringe, as he makes his way over to the table to pour himself a cup of tea.

This is when the chief walks over to him and asks in a soft voice, "Who are you my lord?"

The god's stunning blue eyes look down at her, but he does not say a word, he just sets the cup down and makes his way over to the altar.

The chief decides to leave him to it; she performs a slight bow before she walks away.

The people wait for this new god to begin saying the lullaby, throwing his hands into the air. However, he does nothing, and strange noises begin to come from the mountain.

"Why is he just standing there?" asks a man, pointing his hand towards the god.

"Give him a moment. He may do things differently," replies an older man.

The people around him nod in agreement, and they all continue to watch.

Then a woman screams, she points her hand at the mountain and shouts, "IT'S COMING!"

Some men rush over to the god begging him to speak the lullaby to put the beast asleep, but all he does is narrows his eyes at them and turns his head away.

The people start to move back in fear when they see a huge hand with long claws comes looming out of the mist to grip the side of the mountain and just when they think it is too late the god throws something into the air.

They all watch him throw out his left hand towards the beast and places the first two fingers of his other hand near his full pale pink lips. Again he does not say a ward, but the strange markings upon the ground begin to glow.

The object he threw into the air can be seen now orbiting around the god's body, his robes begin to flap as though a wind is coming up from underneath his feet. Then something comes flying out from under the flap of his half coat to stop inches from the beast's chest.

"No, it cannot be," says the creature, "you are going to finally set me free?"

The god seems to shrug his shoulders, and the beast responds, "I see even you do not know. All I can say is give it your best shot."

The god performs a slight bow and carries on.

The people watch in amazement the object near the beast appears to be stuck in something and it seems to take the god a moment to withdraw it, so he can send it again.

This carries on until all the moon has turned a stunning crimson red and the creature says with a voice full of excitement, "It is now or never Soul Drinker!"

All the people are shocked to have heard the creature speak of a god that is steeped in myths and legends. They are hardly ever seen, and their capabilities are unknown. It was clear he was a powerful god who did not have to utter a word in order to perform magic.

"Come on you can do it," encourages the beast.

However, he could clearly see the god is struggling, beads of sweat have begun to appear on his brow and it is looking like it is becoming hard for him to breath.

The god starts to cough making the beast demands, "Please someone help him!"

The chief rushes over she can hear the god is wheezing, he is gasping for air she looks at him all worried and asks, "Please tell me what can I do to help you?"

"In his bag you will find a herb bundle," replies the beast.

The young woman is a little unsure about going into someone else's bag as she considers it private. But this was no ordinary situation, she quickly flips up the flap of cloth to find it is filled with books, scrolls and crystals. Then she spots a small bundle and the moment she picks it up a strong blend of herbs fills her nostrils.

"This must be it," she whispers and goes on to place it near the god's handsome face.

"Give it a crush," suggests the beast, pretending to crush something between his large hands.

The chief nods and does what he has said and gives the cloth bundle a few crushes before placing it back in front of the god's mouth and nose. It is not long before he seems to be breathing better and he carries on sending the object into something they cannot see.

The creature begins to see cracks are forming across the barrier; he looks at the small shard to see it is beginning to break through, just one more hit should do it. He looks up at the moon to see a tiny strip of white is beginning to form along the right-hand edge. Soon the crimson moon will be over, and he will fall back to sleep until the next one arrives.

All of a sudden the shard is rushing towards him; he gently catches it between the first two fingers of his left hand and watches it begin to wobble. The moment he releases it, it shoots out through the hole to come shooting back to hit the barrier in another place which makes larger cracks begin to snake there way across the barrier.

"You're doing it lad. Just one more hit and it should fall."

The Soul Drinker's eyebrows rise, his head tilts slightly to his left and he appears to realise a soft, Mhm.

"You should not doubt yourself son. You can do it."

The chief notices the god's lips form into a small smile, his eyes look to her and he shakes his head. This makes her wonder what he was trying to tell her and wishes he would speak.

"My dear, he is a Soul Drinker, it is rare, very rare to hear them speak, for they only use their minds to talk. They often do not do it to mortals because it has been known to frighten your kind. In a way it is an understandable reaction to hearing a voice suddenly appear inside your mind."

"I see, so he is doing all of this with his mind?"

"Yes. They are the most powerful gods. He is even more powerful than a Dreamer."

They are shocked to hear the Soul Drinker laugh out loud and he says in a soft voice, "No, I think we are evenly matched. Although I am here because only I can set you free with the Qīng jiàn[1]." [1]Light sword

The very name makes the creature's eyes open wide and he gasps, "That's what it is!"

"Yes. The Qīng jiàn is the only thing that can shatter this kind of barrier. Hmm... However, it is taking too long. What did I miss?"

They see the book by his right thigh rise up, the cover opens and the pages are flicked through until they stop at one that has been marked with a stunning drawing of a shard covered in gems and silver.

"Ah I see," he says.

The shard flies over to the god, a gem is removed and is replaced with one that is as blue as his eyes. Then it floats back over to the beast, as the Soul Drinker takes a deep breath and says, "Kundaaa!"

A blinding white light shines out of the shard as it seems to move back a bit before lunging hard into the barrier causing it to shatter into nothing but a glittering dust that gets carried away on the breeze.

"Well done. You have finally set me free. I cannot thank you enough Soul Drinker," says the beast, performing a shallow bow.

"You're welcome, because you should never have been trapped in the first place. Who did this to you?"

The creature gets down on one knee, he runs the fingers of his left-hand through his long hair and replies, "I believe it was one of your kind, a Dark One perhaps."

"You are correct. I take it he gave you no explanation, he just did it?"

The beast emits a soft laugh and replies, "You could say that. He just appeared right where you are standing, said nothing and before I knew it I was behind a barrier and he had vanished."

"Typical," says the Soul Drinker, with a slight shake of his head.

The chief clears her throat and asks, "Dark One? I guess from the name they are bad people?"

The god takes hold of the herb bundle as he turns to face her and replies, "Yes. However, not all of them are bad. Some Dark Ones became masters in the Dark and Forbidden arts to stop what their own families had unleashed into this realm. That dark time is often referred to by us as either The Dark Chapter or Battles of the Paranoid Pixies. This happened centuries ago and even now we are still undoing what they did. Take our friend here; he is a mountain god, completely harmless, he is here to keep this very mountain from falling on your village. Someone must have angered the Soul Drinker who was living here and as a result he trapped him so that you mortals would one day be wiped out."

The lady places her hand to her chest and gasps, "Why would we anger a god?"

"No idea why suddenly you mortals turned against us. You accused us of lying, to thinking we were creating the problem in order to get free lodgings and food. You accused us of black magic and stopped believing in us. It is no wonder they started to punish you. I believe you mortals have learned from your mistakes and I along with a handful of others are trying to put things right, before history repeats itself... Well not exactly. This time around the dark cloud on the horizon is a creature known as an Eíen no, Eternal Vampire. Why he will be turning, not only against us but you mortals as well, is a complete mystery."

The beast looks at him all confused and asks, "A Vampire is going rogue?"

The Soul Drinker nods and replies, "That is what we have foreseen."

"Will you be able to stop him?"

"Ah it will not be us stopping him. What that is? Is for the time being unknown. Anyway, I am done, completed my task, so I bid you all good day."

Before the chief of the beast can stop him, the god vanishes.

They look at each others shocked expressions and start to laugh.

The young lady calms herself down and asks, "Tell me, did you have any idea who that was?"

"None. All I can tell you my dear is he was an ancient, an incredibly powerful one. The shard he used to break the barrier was something I thought I would never get to see. It was made by them from the purest crystals that can only be found on an island owned by the White Dragons. Come to think of it, it was clear he was not a Dark One. He was a Master of light. They are incredibly rare to see."

"Oh you are really making me hope he returns one day."

The beast nods and replies, "Come the next blood moon he well be back to make sure I am still free and watching over your village."

The chief performs a deep bow and says, "Thank you. Please help yourself to food."

"Bless you my dear."

The people watch the mist form around the creature and a moment later he emerges from it transformed into an incredibly handsome man, with long light blue hair, with horns protruding from his forehead. The bottom of his long robe is covered in mountains reaching up to a clear blue sky that has birds flying across it.

Some of the men notice the scene on the god's robe is the same as what they were seeing in front of them.

"Amazing," whispers one of them.

"Incredible," whispers another.

A third man points his hand towards the outer side of the robe and asks, "What is that?"

The other men along with the chief all take a look to see it is some kind of small structure, that lies at the base of the valley.

The mountain god sticks out his leg as he looks down and says, "That is the shrine dedicated to me. It was built by a Soul Drinker, centuries ago and as you can see it is in poor state."

The men look up at him with large smiles upon their faces and one of them replies all excited, "We can fix it."

"Bless you my sons. Now there is no need to go overboard, for I am not that kind of god."

The men all perform shallow bows before they turn around and head off down the hill.

The chief makes sure the god has everything he needs, then she gets the rest of her people to leave to give him some space and she too returns to her home.

Crimson moon, the unexpected god is © by Barabara Boot 2020 Published by DR21 Publishing. All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means without prior permission in writing from the publisher.