Late Fall, 1001 A.D. Unknown Continent
Looking back at the small cabin, Isaac paused in place as he took a moment to think. He was a vampire, and yet he went into a land that was supposed to be owned uninvited. As per the rules of his tribe, the moment he died, no matter where he was, all his possessions would be passed to his family. That is unless he had none.
And according to his knowledge of the future, that just wasn't possible. His sister had a son who would, one day, grow to have his own children, and at some point in the following centuries, one of the said nephew's offspring would move to Bulgaria and change their family name. His sister in this life, after all, was none other than Tatia, the first known Petrova doppelganger, and the ancestor of Katherine Pierce and Elena Gilbert.
In his opinion, It was highly unlikely for his nephew to have died prematurely; the nature's spirits just wouldn't let such a thing happen, and that meant the land should still be privately owned. This left only one more variable in this equation—him.
Now fully clothed, Isaac ran back towards the village, reaching it in mere minutes, though he didn't make himself known, sticking to the shadows instead. The villagers and him didn't really get along, and he was pretty sure that if they saw him suddenly showing his face for the first time in months just a night after half their village was massacred, they wouldn't really greet him with a smile.
Passing by in the shadow of wooden houses and some tents, he could hear the cries of agony from all around him. The villagers, who just woke up, were terrified at the sight of the ripped bodies of their friends that could be found anywhere from their houses to the top of a tree.
At the center of the village, the crowd started gathering around one person, who was one of the last remaining werewolves alive. The place where they stood was where he killed the four men, right in front of the chief's house. The man in the center was very old for the time, seemingly over sixty years old, with no hair on his head, and he wore bear fur clothes, typical for the tribe's hunters in the winter.
Isaac knew the man; his name was Elto. He was at one point the leader of the pack but was overthrown by his son, the former chief, around twenty years ago. The man was very powerful, and it was said he only lost since he was injured in a prior fight, but his pride didn't allow him to call for another fight, as he simply chose to live quietly at the far end of the village, right next to the river.
Ignoring the crowd, Isaac ran at an incredible pace and stopped in front of a slightly larger wooden house at the northernmost part of the village. The house was built in a very Nordic way, with its walls made of whole logs and the roof made of thatch. There were only a few such houses in the whole village. Knocking on the door three times, Isaac took a step back and waited silently.
Only a few moments later, the wooden door creaked open loudly, and an old, dark-skinned woman peeked at him for only a moment through the door before she fell back, looking at Isaac with wide eyes.
"You... you...you are supposed to be dead!" Ayana looked at him as if he were some sort of demon that came to take her life.
Looking at Ayana with a mix of interest and confusion, Isaac was about to ask her what she meant when he suddenly heard another set of footsteps nearing from behind her. A young woman, probably around his age, walked over towards Ayana in a hurry.
"Mom! What happened?!" She helped Ayana to her feet, not even giving Isaac a single glance. Ayana, on the other hand, never took her eyes off him. Her behavior indicated clearly at how surprised she was by his presence.
"I'm very much alive, thank you. And I have got no idea why you might think otherwise." Looking at the old woman, Isaac was starting to speculate how she could have known that he died. As per her words, she was clearly not talking about him being a vampire. But he didn't let it show on his face, keeping his cards close to his chest.
"No, I ki...You died...I'm sure of it!" She mumbled as she looked at him stumped, the young woman who just helped her stand up, looked at Ayana with eyes full of pity before she too turned to look at Isaac. "He was dead... I killed...No...He saw...Esther...The wine... He must have—"
"Forgive her...She just lost her best friend and—" the young woman who just helped her stand up looked at Ayana with eyes full of pity before she too turned and spoke to Isaac when suddenly, her words were cut off by Ayana whose mumbling suddenly turned into a decisive, yet panicked, command.
"Don't invite him In!" Ayana quickly positioned herself between Isaac and her daughter, shielding the young woman with her body. "I won't invite you in!"
By now, with his enhanced senses, Isaac had already heard all of Ayana's mumblings and had a pretty good idea about what happened that night when he saw the bodies of the Mikaelson siblings. Ayana or Esther must have seen him, and Ayana planted a spell that was supposed to, and probably did, kill him.
If his guess was correct, the spell was probably anchored to his transformation and was the real reason he died on the night of the full moon. And he probably would have stayed dead if he hadn't drank from the leftovers of the wine embedded with the spell of immortality.
Taking a step forward, Isaac stood right at the entrance of the house and looked straight into Ayana's eyes, who shook slightly under his apathetic gaze. He wasn't exactly angry; to tell the truth, he truly wasn't sure how he felt about the whole ordeal.
He didn't really die after all, and he and Ayana weren't on friendly terms to begin with. No matter how he thought about it, his issue wasn't really with her but with Esther, who from his familiarity with her, was probably the one to order the kill. But the daughter had just confirmed Esther's death. So Isaac was already rid of that problem.
"You aren't invited in... You aren't invited in...You aren't invited in..." Ayana spoke repeatedly with determination, seemingly making up her mind.
Only Isaac took another step forward, his lips curving upwards into a bright smile as he passed the threshold. He kept walking leisurely until he stopped right next to her and looked directly towards the daughter.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" He decided to keep the act for now. Ayana clearly knew about the limitations of vampires, probably learning about them from Esther while she was still alive. And as he guessed, the old witch stopped talking and looked at him with confusion, absolutely lost in her own thoughts.
"It's fine, thank you for the kind offer." The young woman escorted her mother back into the main hall, where a fire burnt in the firepit at the center of the room. She helped Ayana into a wooden chair and covered her with a blanket before she turned to look at Isaac again. "Would you like a warm drink? It's kind of cold outside."
"Yeah, thanks. I'm Isaac, by the way." Isaac nodded, though as a dead person, the cold didn't really bother him.
"I'm Layla, sorry for my mother; she hasn't been well for the last month, and her friend's death just made things worse... Anyway, why did you come here? You don't seem hurt..." Layla took a ladle made of stone and filled it with water, before putting it over the fire, waiting for it to boil. She looked slightly depressed as she sneaked a glance at Ayana, who was staring at thin air.
"I'm here for some plants; they used to grow around the large tree at the center of the village, but I looked around and I can't seem to find any... I wasn't really around in a while, but I just came back, and the whole tree disappeared..." Maintaining his gaze at a single spot, just like he was taught to do when selling a lie during counter-investigation training, he looked at the fire with actual interest.
The color of the flames seemed to be more vibrant than ever, like a mesmerizing whirlpool of orange, yellow, and gold. He kept staring at it for a few moments when a strong scent assaulted his nostrils. Turning his head a bit to the left, he saw Layla pouring the hot water into a clay cup with some essence of flowers in it. Seeing the light purple mixed within, he recognized it immediately - Vervain.
"I'm sorry, I'm not really familiar with the village... My mother never let me out until just recently, and now I can't really leave; she needs me." Layla indicated towards Ayana with her head before handing the cup over to Isaac, before she made another cup and took it in both hands.
Standing up, she indicated for Isaac to follow her as she entered a smaller room at the back. The room was the same size as the main hall, only it was more furnished, with a wooden table standing at the center, right next to another firepit with a burning fire.
The room was surrounded by two levels of shelves across all its walls, carrying many containers mostly made of clay, but Isaac actually spotted a few that were made of glass. Each container was marked in Nordic letters, symbolizing the name of the plant. Layla set down in one of the chairs next to the table, indicating towards the other one with her hand, telling Isaac to take a seat.
Sitting down, Isaac took a whiff of the infusion in his cup, a weak burning feeling, like that of a hot chili pepper, spread up his nose. Nodding, he noted that he was indeed allergic to Vervain, just like all other vampires. He took a deep breath through his mouth before he took a sip of the hot liquid, letting it roll down his throat.
It was just a small amount, but the burning feeling down his neck was like he drank a chaser of medical alcohol, far from a nice feeling, but he could withstand it. Pain wasn't foreign to any werewolf, and after two years of training, he was actually the only one in the pack to ever transform without giving in to the pain. He was so skilled that he had once actually held control under the full moon in wolf form, even if it was just briefly.
Sipping it in slowly, he looked at the containers all around him until he actually found the two he was looking for, Vervain and wolfsbane. Pointing at the two, Layla stood up and took a little from each one.
"Here, take it..." She handed it to him, only the moment they touched, she took a step back. "Wolf... You are a werewolf! But-"
"Yeah, so what?" Isaac cut her off as he pocketed the leaves, his hands slightly burnt by their touch.
Layla looked at him in wonder; when they touched, she had a vision of a wolf, but wasn't what surprised her. But what she saw next did, with the sun at the center of the sky, the wolf turned to man, and back to wolf, unbound by the full moon.
"Never mind... You need anything else?" She questioned, slightly too fast, indicating she was nervous.
"No, thank you for the hospitality..." Nodding at her, Isaac left the house in a slight hurry. He didn't know what she saw when she touched him, but he knew better than to mess with witches for no reason. Especially so when he doesn't even know his strengths and limits. Thinking for a few moments he already had a much clearer plan of action for the future.
Walking away from the house, he sniffed the air shortly before he turned in a certain direction. He had one more test to run before he could start testing his limits.
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VOTE and and give me some POWER STONES if you like the story so far...A REVIEW will also be much appreciated if you want to.
As I wrote in the synopsis, and the last chap, this is just the result of a writing blockage regarding other stories, But as of right now, I'm thinking that might change... I see a lot of positive review and I at least for now, enjoy writing it... So I'm gonna continue, though I can't really promise an update schedule. I'm quite busy and have only limited time to write when I don't have any other plans...
I will not answer any questions regarding where the story is going behind that, as it not only bothers me, but I also don't want to tell you something that isn't decided yet. I might change my mind regarding anything unless I said otherwise.
The story vibe will be that of time skips for now... Might still have a change of heart, but this is the current decision,I feel like flashbacks wouldn't really allow proper romance development, and I also have a few important things I want to implement into the story that will change the course of the original plot by a lot...