The moment that Elaina had said that she wanted to become a slayer like Gavril, he was absolutely ecstatic. Without any hesitation, he had said that they could start as soon as tomorrow. Or in this case, that would be today. Elaina woke up with the rising sun and had it down to the courtyard of the fortress. She took a glance around, it had seemed as though she was one of the few to have made it first. Elaina sat down on the edge of a waterfall in the middle of the courtyard as she waited for others to come down.
The first two people to arrive were a boy and girl around her age. Both of them seemed to be in deep conversation. They seemed to look almost identical as well, Siblings perhaps? Maybe even twins? It was all speculation, however. Both of them had medium ash hair with brown eyes. Even their facial features were similar.
When both of them had come across Elaina, the female was the first of them to speak. "Oh, Hi there!" She said, "You're new around her, aren't you?"
Elaina simply nodded quietly. At least, if by new, she meant came here fairly recently within the past month or so, then yes. As far as she knew, no one else came after her. Everyone seemed to be familiar with everyone within this fortress. Elaina on the other hand was only somewhat familiar with Gavril but even then he was mostly a stranger to her still. She didn't nor could she blame anyone but herself. She secluded and kept to herself when she got here and she had only spoken to Gavril and Viorel on a few occasions. Most of those were when she had first got here in the first place. Elaina needed that time to herself to accept the reality of what had happened. She didn't want to believe that her family was gone at first.
"Well, My name is Kalyn, and this is my twin brother, Silviu." The female spoke once more. When she had mentioned her brother, she pointed to the male that stood beside her.
"Hello." Silviu said as a small smile crossed his lips. He seemed to be more reserved like Elaina. However when it came to his sister, he was much more talkative and came to life. The two were obviously close.
"Elaina." Since the twins had offered her their names, she figured that the respectful thing to do was to let them know hers. Even if she wasn't much interested in any conversations at the current moment in time, she still talked to the twins.
As the three talked, well, mostly the twins talking and Elaina listening with little to no input on the topic, seven others crowded around the fountain in the courtyard. All of them being fairly close to Elaina in age. They started their own conversations with their breaths until they were disrupted by someone loudly clearing their throats.
The last to arrive was a man who Elaina had heard Gavril call Viorel. Once the crowd had grown quiet, he spoke up. "Good morning, everyone. I want you all to meet the newest trainee of our order." He nodded over towards Elaina. "Why don't you introduce yourself?"
She was singled out and she hated it. All eyes were on her and if she could, she would have turned invisible. Elaina stood up from the fountain, "Hi, I am Elaina Van Angeline." She said,
Even if the introduction was short, time seemed to drag by until everyone had turned away from the young girl. Their attention was back on Viorel as he spoke up.
"Since Elaina is new, who can tell me the five basic rules of being a vampire slayer?" Viorel asked.
"First rule is to never hesitate. Second rule is that vampires are dangerous. Third rule is those that have turned, must be killed. Fourth rule is to raid a nest when the sun rises. The fifth and final basic rule is to never hunt alone." Kalyn said immediately. She was able to recall all the rules without hesitation. It was as though they were deeply embedded in her brain.
"Very good, Kalyn. Can anyone elaborate on the first rule she mentioned?" Viorel said.
"A vampire will never hesitate to either kill or feed off you if it gets the chance. It only takes a second of hesitation to be killed by a vampire." Silviu was the one to speak up this time.
"Why are vampires dangerous?" Viorel asked his students.
"They're technically dead, so they have no souls and they have no morals. They don't need to be hungry to kill. Vampires are fast and they are deadly even to a master slayer." Kalyn was the one to answer.
Viorel nodded in satisfaction to her answer. "What about those who have turned, why must they be killed?"
"Once someone has been turned into a vampire, they are no longer the person you knew. The person who you knew is dead and In their place is a creature that is driven by nothing more than its own lust for blood." Silviu said.
Viorel nodded once more, "Why must a slayer never hunt alone?"
"It is always better that someone has your back. Even a master hunter can easily be outnumbered and killed by a vampire. One vampire is dangerous enough, but a nest of them can be deadly, especially for a slayer to take on solo no matter their skill" Another student said.
One of the first things that Viorel decided to teach were the rules to being a hunter. Elaina listened closely to everything that was said. She could easily understand the reasoning behind each of these rules, well, except for the one about raiding when the sun rises and Viorel had seemed to skip over that one. There had to be a reason behind it. Elaina thought of speaking up but decided against it. This was only the first day anyway, she was sure that she would understand why once she had learned more about vampires and being a slayer.
Once Viorel had gone over the rules of being a slayer, the second thing he taught was about vampires and their weaknesses. "There are two types of vampires, lesser and higher vampires. Who can tell me what the difference is between the two and how to identify them?"
"A lesser vampire is more animalistic and less intelligent. They also tend to act more animal-like and are incapable of speaking. They can be identified by their claws, fangs, glowing eyes and pale complexion. They look like a walking corpse covered in blood that dried. Lesser vampires are also known as ferals. Most vampires who have been turned end up feral. The further their sire is from being a pureblood, the more likely they are to become feral." Kalyn explained. Elaina couldn't help but think back to the vampire that Viorel slayed back in the forest. It acted like a rabid animal and fit the description that Kalyn just mentioned. That must have been a lesser vampire.
"A higher vampire is harder, almost impossible to identify. They look like normal humans most of the time and have normal human intelligence. However, they also tend to have glowing eyes and fangs whenever they are hungry or feeding. All purebloods and some turned vampires are considered higher vampires." Kalyn's twin, Silviu explained. When he talked about higher vampires, Elaina was taken back to the vampire who killed her family. Again the tragedy was played back in her mind. She fought back the tears from the memories she wished she could forget. Elaina knew she would never be able to do so, however. She hoped that no one was really paying attention to her, and thankfully, they weren't.
Viorel continued to go on and on about vampires and their characteristics and some of their weaknesses. There had seemed to be a lot of information that the order knew about them. Elaina wondered how they had come to know all they did about them when most people didn't even know something like them existed. Until recently, Elaina didn't know either. She wondered how many people have even seen an attack and lived to see another day. Was everyone here like her? Someone who had seen an attack first hand? Eventually, it was time for dinner to be served.
Elaina had made it to the dining hall to see what was being served tonight. Turned out to be some type of venison stew. Whatever it smelled was absolutely delicious and she was hungry. As she ate her dinner, Kalyn and Silviu sat down across from her.
"So, What do you think?" Kalyn, the more talkative of the two, smiled.
Elaina looked back up from her dinner just as she was about to take another bite. She paused for a moment in confusion. "Think about what?"
"About what we were taught today of course!"
"It was…. A lot… A lot of information." Elaina said in response.
"Don't worry, you will eventually know everything by heart. My brother and I can help if you ever need it." It was Kalyn who spoke, but Silviu nodded in agreement to what his sister said.
"Thanks.. I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Elaina smiled at Kalyn softly. Once she had finished eating dinner, she went her own way and separated from the twins. Her destination was the Library and searched for books written on vampires. As they were mostly unknown to most, there were very few books that she could find. However, some books were better than none. Elaina had spent the remainder of the night reading until she had fallen asleep there in the library.
Gavril had spotted Elaina asleep in the library and was the one to wake her up. The sun had come up and it was a new day. All he had said was, "Training starts shortly."
Elaina was still a bit tired by the time she made it to the courtyard, and most people were already there. Today, it was Gavril and Viorel who joined them.
"What are your greatest weapons against a vampire?" Viorel asked.
"Sunlight, Silver swords, and a stake to the heart." Kalyn said.
"What about your defenses?"
"Stealth and cunning." Silviu said.
Elaina was still thinking about what Kalyn said about sunlight. Maybe that is why there is that rule about raiding a nest when the sun rises. Vampires were weak to sunlight, a slayer would be at an advantage when raiding during the day. If things got too hairy, they could also flee out into the sunlight. It would be dumb for a vampire to follow them.
"Today we will be learning how to fight. I want everyone to pair up! One of you will act as the vampire, and the other the slayer. Afterwards, you will switch roles" Gavril was the one to speak up this time. Until now, he had been quiet since he arrived this morning.
Everyone paired up on Gavril's orders. Elaina almost felt lost. She had never fought in her life, nor did she ever have to. Since the twins paired up together, Elaina ended up getting paired with someone else. Being her first time fighting, Elaina wasn't all that great. It wasn't very difficult for her partner to beat her in the spar. Afterwards, they switched places as the vampire and slayer. Again, she had lost the spar against her partner. Elaina just brushed it off, she kept in mind that she was still new at this and that with time, she would get better.
Weeks, months, even years passed by. Elaina threw herself into becoming a better vampire slayer. By day, she trained and by night she studied about vampires until she knew everything she possibly could. The more she trained as a slayer, she got better and rather quickly. Eventually, she was one of the best that the order had. Elaina found she was stronger and faster than the average slayer that Gavril had but never really understood why. It wasn't until she got older and had an unexplainable thirst, small retractable fangs and gray eyes that turned a glowing white when that unexplainable thirst set in. She couldn't understand what was happening and it terrified her. Eventually, she did. Elaina wasn't entirely human, whoever her biological father was, he was a vampire and she had inherited that as well. While studying about vampires, she learned that what she was called was a Dhampir. They were part human, part vampire. Elaina became scared of what those in the order would think, So she hid that part of her from everyone. That included Gavril, who over the years had become like a father to Elaina. Aside from her asshole of a stepfather, she never had a true father figure in her life. Well, one who cared about her and she cared about in the same way, at least. She knew that Gavril saw her as his own daughter as well. If she told him that she was part vampire, Elaina thought that she would lose him along with the others in the order she was close to.