As Eleanora walks through the treacherous swampy terrain of the marsh and push her way through thick bushes and sticky goo caused by the city chemical dumps, she stop sensing some eyes watching her movements from behind the far bushes silently, a normal human wouldnt be able to tell though, its all thanks to her vampiric heightened senses.
Eleanora treads carefully, walking as if nothing happened nor did she notice the eyes in the dark seeking her, still, she kept half a mind tracking her sneaky stalker.
After some time, the shy stalker became more brave, decreasing the distance between them and their target, Eleanora, but sadly, the marsh treacherous nature didnt give them all the free access the wanted to peacefully reach her, because a group of Lizardmen decided to attack the well prepared creature of the night, as two blue Lizardmen jumped at her, she gracefully dodged their landing attack to the left side and slashed the close one knees from the back with her axe, making them fall with screams of pain, the unharmed lizard lunges with its spear for revenge of its kin, but alas, the spear was divided to pieces by a slash from Eleanora, then she pulls the wooden pole that the lizard was still holding, drawing it into her melee range and throwing of their balance, and with a swift merciless hack the head of the lizard bursted into pieces, letting the fresh soup of brain meat and blood sauce spill all over Eleanora, bathing her in a grotesque sight, but not too nasty for a vampire, especially her who have seen worse in her time as a human. As she stands there covered with lizard meat and blood, the blood splashes on her skin soon gets absorbed by her undying flesh, recovering but a small fragment of her new eternal hunger, she looks around casually in case more nearby lizard wanted to join the bloodbath, but no, she hangs her axe back on the belt around her hip, and keep walking deeper into the black marsh, as if she doesnt acknowledge the fact of her shy stalker hiding in the far back, giving them the space they need, Eleanora wasnt the brutal type even after all this bloodbath show, she will fight only in self defense or if she was ordered to do so by the council.
If her stalker didnt attack, she will just let them stalk as much as they want and pretend they are not even there.
After few more miles and bunch more dead lizards Eleanora encounters a fascinating sight, behind a thick cover of bushes there is a pile of skeletons scattered around what looks like a battle aftermath that happened few years ago for unknown reasons, probably some rebels slayed by Vampire scions, mostly the Oberon royal guards, or maybe a sagrava assassins ambush, perhaps they died in a blink by a well prepared magical trap casted by some Malakai magic casters or even test subjects for a new spell maybe, whatever it was, the surprising fact of a skeleton standing in the middle of this, wearing an eye patch and fixing the position of his cowboy-like hat as if they care about how do they look was indeed fascinating, this was not a mere undead skeleton we all know about, it was different, confused, Eleanora approaches the weird skeleton, noticing a big pile of junk near of it as well, from worn out equips to dirty and torn clothes, broken weapons too, a true pile of useless junk.
As she got nearby the skeleton notice the silent movement and turn to face her and then as his jaw moves and bones rattles, a voice magically can be heard coming out of it, it talked.
"Ah! Another noble creature of the night coming by my shop! How can I help you? Do you want to buy something of my treasures here? I have unbeatable prices! If you want to sell I can gladly buy from you too!"
Eleanora asks in doubt "you are saying you are a merchant?"
The skeleton laughs in a hollow voice.
"Not entirely, I am more of an explorer seeking hidden treasures left by others, you know what they say, a man's garbage is another man's treasure! Oh, forgive my bad social manners, I dont spend alot of time around other speaking and knowledgable creatures like yourself, name is Kevin! What is yours vampire lady?"
"I see, my name is Eleanora, I will gladly trade with you when I have the chance to, or the wares to do so Kevin."
The skeleton skull feels as if it was smiling.
"It will be my pleasure honorable Eleanora! And who is your friend there behind the bushes? Are they shy?"
The skeleton points with its finger bones at the bushes behind her.
Eleanora surprised by the skeleton awareness to her stalker presence but unaware of its nature answers him in faked confusion.
"Who do you mean? I am alone here, and there is no one there, its only some bushes, maybe some animal walking through them."
She pretend to be ignorant of the fact that even the sentient skeleton was aware of.
"No no, I am sure someone is in there, they are not simple animals walking by, its someone hiding almost perfectly, waiting for something, maybe to come and help you if it turned I was one of those mindless undead skeletons!"
Kevin blunt positive view makes Eleanora smile as she turns into the bushes where her uninvited follower hides, she was unable to come up with another fake answer, however it was not needed anyway, as the stalker finally reveal themselves, A woman with a silver sword in hand shining under Luna bright light, chest covered in thick leather padding, a spear, a quiver and a bow in her back, a woman of war truly, fully prepared for any type of encounter, but this silver blade and the unique leather armor along with that fierce frown leaves no room for doubt that this woman was not simply a prepared person, but a vampire hunter at that, she speaks before anyone else does as soon as she is fully out of the bushes.
"What are you smiling at you filthy vampire? All this time I was following you and you didnt even make a move to try and make me lose your trail or attack first, I would have said you were afraid of a fight if I didnt see how brutally and without mercy you fight against the marsh folk, those sly lizards, are you saying that you think I cant even harm your highness? Is that so?"
Her grip on the sword gets tighter, Kevin, the skeleton moves forward and blocks the way between the two.
"Hey now! No fighting in my shop okay? You can take your hatred outside my small land okay?"
Eleanora nods and starts to walk out to the bushes, the vampire huntress glare at kevin as she walks out.
"Dont dare and stand in my way skeleton, or I will break your bones and feed them to my wolf, get it?"
Kevin shakes his head in disappointment "And now I understand why my friend Amalgameleon always insist that I never send humans his way no matter how smart they looked... you humans have zero attitude really."
After both the huntress and Eleanora walk a decent distance from Kevin piece of land, the huntress stops, and yell at her.
"Why are you acting so calm and collected just as if I mean no danger to you? For your informations I am not a normal vampire hunter, I have killed three of your accursed, kind and you will be my fourth" she ends her last word with a proud smirk, but she as answered with a sad face looking side ways then she speaks with a calm but rather unhappy voice, a hint of pain in her voice.
"Listen, I ignored your presence for a long while, why didnt you take the chance to leave? Now since I have seen your face and hunter gear I can not let you leave unharmed, you, by taking arms against vampires are breaking the blood accords, and I as a honorable initiate under the wings of the blood court and a member of Malakai I can not afford to spare you... you do know the rules by now, do you not?"
The smirk of the huntress fades and her frown comes back again.
"You really think I will believe your sad act? You cursed creatures do not care who you kill or suck dry as long as you stay alive, friends, family or even your own children!! And that's why I have taken this dedication to kill every vampire I meet!"
Eleanora let a long sighs escapes from her libs, she opens her mouth again to talk but instead her expression transforms to shock.
STAB
The huntress have thrown her spear right at her stomach, few blood spills out but Eleanora swiftly draw out the spear and put her palm on the wound, the blood stops, with her fist tightening and her calm expression turns to a frown of annoyance, the wooden pole of the spear snaps and she throw it behind her back.
"So this is how my first human kill will be? At least you are helping me ignore the fact I was once a human as well thanks to your attitude." As she muttered those words which, the huntress, didnt give a mind to them preparing her sword and duel pose to engage, yelling at her as well. "C'mon stop the act already and lets start this fight!"
Eleanora draws her axe and say with a loud, clear voice filled with aura of authority.
"Hear my command my dear flesh, and mend, return to your previous state and show me your undying nature"
She removes her palm away from her stomach, to reveal hee fully healed flesh with no trace for wounds or scars. The huntress, unfazed, lungs at her sword first. Eleanora who is now giving no more chances strikes her sword down and making it stick to the soft and muddy ground, kicks the huntress with her unnatural strength far away and then rises her hand in the air.
"Use this moment to regret your actions in this sinful world... my source of undying power I command you to hear my words and strive more, rise and follow my gestures, crimson spear."
The small blood that have spilled out of Eleanora wound earlier have started to float and swirl in the air, rising above her open hand palm in the air and shaping into a fierce crimson red spear of fresh blood, it swirls in high speed and casts an air of danger, her hand moves down and stop pointing at the huntress who have stood up, and in a blink, the spear pierce through her neck, beheading her and making her shaking body fall down spilling a pool of blood that soon enough, rises and join the floating spear, and all of it flies back to in front of Eleanora who, gently open her libs as if she wants to kiss the huge swirling floating pool of blood infront her, the blood answers by swiftly flies into her mouth, then nothing but silence fills the place as she stares unto the beheaded body of the boastful huntress.
After a while, Eleanora emerges out of Kevin small shop, wearing the same armor of the vampire hunter she just slaughtered, and the silver sword in her hand as well, she sheath it and walks forward, Kevin waving back at her from his place rattling a "come back again!" As she leaves.
"Taking a vampire hunter personality may come in handy when coming across more humans, so I can avoid unneeded bloodshed..."
She walks around, trying to track the faint human steps and scent in the air, the smell of fresh and pumping high quality blood.
Then after some more lizard bodies in the road and some wolves too, Eleanora noticed a strange human smell, it was quite normal fresh and young and very alive, but what was strange is that it seemed... familiar somehow? Intrigued by this, she walks out to the open dirt path that have been cleared by the many travelers that go forth from lychway city and to the wilds outside, seeking faraway cities or simply seeking ingredients in the black marsh, dark forest south-west from it and the northern scarlet desert.
Soon enough, she -with her vampiric senses- notice a human running far ahead in the path, she walks normally as if she didnt notice, because humans cant see nor hear for that far. The human when he got close and noticed a fellow "human" in the road, rushed into Eleanora and fell down to his knees hugging her legs as he cried, he wasnt even a mature man, he was nothing more than a simple child in his teens, he had short blonde hair in a messy style, he was crying and tearing. He cried his next word to Eleanora as he clinched to her legs.
"Hunter Lady! Please hunter lady help!"
Eleanora gets down on one knee, feeling a mix of happiness and sadness for seeing a face she recognise from before her turning a small broken smile appears on her face, then she gently reaches to his face and pull it up making eye contact with him while maintaining her human disguise.
"What is it this time Chris? Did you get in trouble with a grown up again?"
Surprised to see her Chris face switched from the cries and sadness to a face of shock.
"Big sis R-Rory?? Y-you are back? But didnt that kind mysterious man took you away about couple years ago?"
She pats his head softly.
"I see you are still bad at math as ever, it is not even a year yet, a bit over half a year though... I bet you were mischievous all that time now didnt you? Moving from a problem to another just like always..."
He pouts and look the other way.
"Hey where did that come from! I am still do good things every now and then, you know... anyway, whats with this get up? You are one of those hunters now? Are you planing to join the order like the others? I tried to join but... they rejected me, saying I have no potential and some crap, can you believe it?"
she giggles.
"Well, no, I am not joining the order, I am just a huntress. lets talk less about me, what is that problem that got you crying in the first place?"
Chris face darkens a bit in sadness.
"Well, I tried to take some random man by my old trick buuut... he turned out to be a vampire... he did some weird magic on me and soon enough I found myself doing whatever he asks an-- Huh? Hey what are you doing?!"
The moment Eleanora heard about Chris mind being controlled or dominated or whatever by some weird magic as he stated, she quickly unbuttoned the top of his shirt and check the way around his neck for bite marks, she didnt found any.
"Nothing... good."
"What? Explain a bit sis Rory!"
"I just checked if they bit you or anything..."
"Oh thanks, anyway as I was saying, he made me talk about stuff I shouldnt and he knew about Julia's cave location, this might be a real problem Rory! Can you help me go check them real quick?"
She nods as her face turns serious, she gets up and pulls Chris up as well.
"Point me the direction and we will head there quick..."
Chris nods, and then they start moving...
Couple hours later, they arrive to in front of the cave, Eleanora stops Chris, and tell him to hide at the nearby bush, she didnt feel something wrong, she just smelled heavy blood stench in the air, not to mention sensing a faint vampire smell.
"Chris, stay hiding until I till you otherwise got it?"
Chris whispers back. "alright."
Eleanora heads into the cave to met an unpleasant scene, the place have been a battle scene, there where three human bodies and a dead wolf, the first man had his jaw almost teared apart due a hit probably and it seemed he died via bleeding out and feeling immense pain all along, another got his knees broken and he was sucked dry out of his blood, both have marks of slashes of an almost sharp object through their leather armors, the wolf was laying down with a crushed skull, probably due a heavy solid object hitting the top of his head perfectly accurately in unnatural high speed, no doubt they all fell to some vampire came by here, mostly the one who got the informations out of Chris, unlike the two men the woman body was in almost good shape, no marks for physical attacks, except for her neck, it seemed someone strangled her to death, her fingers show that she tried to break free and her face is filled with tears marks, while she didnt seem to had went through as much pain as the other men it seems something worst happened to her counting her body position and... well, its nakedness.
A simple neutral face is all what Eleanora have now as she thinks to herself...
"At least I dont have to be the one killing them now... they may have been taking care of Chris, but still, they have been working with the 'Order' which means they raised weapons against vampire lords and by doing so they have broking the Blood accords... at least they didnt get Chris mixed up in this gruesome scene... I should take him with me back to the city before something happen to him... anyway I should leave and go back to him."
She gets out of the cave, and she approaches the bush Chris is hiding at, right then he whispers to her.
"okay? are they alright? did you beat the bad vampire guy?"
She shakes her head.
"No, no one where there, lets just move away, and since I am here now you dont have to stay with them anyway right? Lets go, follow me."
"I guess yes but... you are acting kind of strange big sis Rory..."
She helps him out of the bush, holding his hand they start walking away from the cave.
"If they arent there, shouldnt we go look for them?"
"No, they are mature and they can take care of their own Chris, and we have to think about ourselves for now, just follow me for now I have a place to go but I cant just leave you behind all alone Chr-- !!"
He pulls his arm away from her gentle grip suddenly, she didnt expect that, when she turned around he was frowning.
"Rory wouldnt have said that!"
As he yelled those words she stared in surprise before she answered confused.
"What? I am thinking about your safety and thats how you react? I am serious lets go Chris"
She extend her arm to hold his hand again, but he slaps it away angrily.
"Shut up!!"
His eyes start to tear up.
"I am not a child anymore, so I am not as stupid as before... They... they are all dead already arent they?"
Eleanora shocked by his words are unable to talk back.
"You would never just leave like that if they didnt, you would try to go search for them or wait at this place because the vampire guy only know about this cave I have said, then you would go and fight him when he comes..."
An awkward silence fills the area for a moment before he speaks again.
"Listen Rory, I have always been an idiot kid who just dive head first, I know, but even I have matured a bit after all of this stuff, I dont know how I didnt realise this before but... most humans are always in the hide here, we have always been hiding from one spot to another back then too, it doesnt take a geniuses to guess, vampires do rule over us and we just happened to be some kids in the wrong side of the map right? You always kept most informations to yourself and just told us what to do specifically and didnt bore us with long details I appreciate that but you dont have to keep doing that. Let me take the big guess and say that all those battles against vampires ended up in loses right? The grown ups always came back as they have seen ghosts, and they always came back less than the last, and in the end we have to move to another spot and it all starts over. Soon enough we kids have all ended in a big group hiding in a small abandoned shack and its basement, Samantha, Roderick, Timothy, Xavier and Kyle all went one by one with grown ups to fight, and they never came back, you too left but you left alone saying you will bring us help, when you came back with that weird man he promised to help and he did bring us food for couple months after you left again with him, then he stopped, and we had to deal with it, and after time we all scattered around, I bet me and you are the only one alive now right?"
Eleanora is unable to hide her sadness.
"I... I dont even know... I thought you all were gone after... well, that weird man as you call him have been assassinated one day, and so thats why he stopped coming to you I guess, his name was Mirals, its a complicated story and I dont plan on hiding things any longer but I cant just say it all right now, maybe after we get back to a safe place, deal? I am just glad I got to see you alive and I dont want to let you leave now or I may not be able to ever see you at all..."
Chris crosses his arms as he sniffs sadly.
"I understand, after all I dont want to leave you neither big sis, alright where do we have to go now?"
"I am actually on a mission to... well, kill someone. I cant afford to go back without this mission completed, I will just keep seeking for the target while you stick close to me, its gonna be tricky but its better than leaving you behind me, just do as I say and you will be fine like always."
She pat his shoulder and she start moving again, he follow her with a smile. "Just like how I am used to it!" He adds.
After hours of walking in the tricky marsh, they stop by a small tree that is surrounded by plants called "bloody tears", she takes some and put into her pouch, along with other herbs growing around, the small pound of water looks clean enough, she fills a small waterskin and pass it to Chris who seems to be pretty tired. She tell him to stay here and she will look if she can find a small game to hunt around here, after some time she indeed comes back with some small animals, they share the work skinning them and cooking them, Chris already started a fire while she was hunting them. They decided to rest her and call it a day.
Far in the night, Chris wales up looking around he notices Eleanora sitting crossed legged with her back facing him, she didnt seem in a lookout or something, she was simply staring down at the dirt, nothing more or less.
"Whats wrong?" Chris asked her.
"Oh, did I woke you up? Dont worry, nothing is happening at the moment, you can go back to sleep, you will need that rest for tomorrow." Her voice was neutral and bland as always, but something gave it to Chris...
"Are you thinking About him? You did look sad back then when you had to leave him along with us and leave with... what was his name? Oh right, Mirals." Chris sat next to her.
"Its Master Mirals, he is not just any man like the other grown ups Chris, he... he was different."
"S-sorry... by the way, can you tell me more about him? I still dont understand why did you have to leave with him and all..."
A long heavy sigh filled with the pain of the past escapes her libs before she turn and answer his question.
"Master Mirals... this strange man found me when I was searching for some help, he was a vampire, he didnt attack me to suck me dry or anythink like how we all thought vampires do, he just walked to me and said with pure curiosity 'what are you doing around these parts young lady? Its quite dangerous here for a young human in this area, would you like me to help take you back home?' he was quite the gentleman I would say, and after I told him about all of you he agreed to help us all and bring food and somehow protect the area around the shack you all were hiding at, but it wasnt just like that, it was his side of a deal, a deal he offered to me after he heard about our issue, my part was... rather simple, to agree to be his 'child' and the new Mirals family member, and of course that would mean I have to agree to let him turn me into a vampire and live as his daughter, surprisingly he wanted that because he... well, he was the last member of his family alive, he didnt get in detail how did they die but it didnt actually matter to me, I felt related and agreed to his deal, he just wanted a happy family, just like me and you and all of the rest of us... but he was killed by some assassins of the Order, and thats how we ended up here."
Chris shocked by what actaully happened had also started to feel bad.
"Man... he was the best vampire I ever heard about, and I was calling him weirdo all this time, huh... but what happens now after he died? Dont you like, supposed to get all of what he had since you are officially his daughter and all?"
"Yes and no, in the long run, I would get all what he have and it does legally belong to me, but at the moment I am still not all the way through my vampire trial, in simple words, I am officially his daughter and all but to be considered a legal heir to vampire family I have to be legally counted as vampire and go through all the trials and trainings, he did start to train me but he never got the chance to finish it and now I have to take care of it by myself."
Chris puts a hand on her shoulder.
"You are smart and I bet those vampire stuff have alot of more details I wouldnt understand but you do, but I will guess this mission you are doing now kind of related yes? I am probably just slowing you down *sigh* I dont even know how to fight... I will try my best and follow whatever you tell me so I dont get in the way okay? After that we can get back into the city and then I wont be holding you back! I am all rested now, lets start walking already, the faster we are done with this the faster we get back right?"
She smiles.
"Thats true, but are you really full rested now? We would be walking alot searching for this target."
He shows a big cheerful smile as he answers.
"Its not like I can sleep anymore anyway, I am all excited to go and see the city actually!"
They both laugh, then she gets up and offer a hand for Chris, they both head out through the black marsh, looking for the rebels hideout, where "The Duke" is hiding, coming across a bunch of aggressive lizard men along the way, but they are no match for Eleanora. The long trip had surely started to get Eleanora thirsty for some blood, but luckily the blood tears she got earlier can state her hunger for now.
Walking around in the black marsh is one thing, but having someone to protect while looking around is a whole another thing, will Eleanora manage to succeed at both tasks at hand? Next: a matter of tactics (yes I didnt simply change the title, I delayed the idea).