Teh Writings

More Bannerisms

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:32:49 GMT

I don't know what to say, really. I haven't been able to write or do much of anything for that matter all summer, and yet, now at the very end I'm making all sorts of banners. Yes, I have a new one.

I call this, the love triangle banner. It has to do with a sort of strained relationship that sort of popped into my head one day in an RPG I'm in on FMA Mania. Anyway, the game sprung up... a while ago, I really can't remember when right now, and focused on the fan paring of Fullmetal Alchemist's Ed Elric and Roy Mustang. My evilness threw Jean Havoc into the mix recently as well, and the couple (that would be RoyEd) are confronted with the past relationship between Roy and Jean, one that Roy doesn't seem to remember very clearly.

In any case, the banner represents Roy's confusion as relates to the awkwardness of the situation he's in, what with his former AND current lover both living with him in his house at the moment.

The banner

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:35:02 GMT

Well, here it is, the banner for Serpent's Cross and/or this live journal, whichever comes first. Images (c)the good folks at Solid&Etc.

Serpent's Cross

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:03:08 GMT

Chapter Thirteen

Hearing this, her say this, just as Jessica had only about a year before, took me completely by surprise. I started down at her, wondering if Murina had really just said that. Had I heard that, or was it just my imagination?

I couldn’t help it, couldn’t restrain myself. I had to know. Had that truly been what she meant?

“What?” I asked her, breathless.

She looked up at me, giving a wide-eyed grin, her eyes pleading, deep brown pools. Slowly, her face began to change from its happy tone. I almost instantly felt fear radiating off of her. She’d been so hopeful moments before, only to have it be squashed by a fear that she had done something she shouldn’t have, crossed some invisible boundary. Living with Leni, she perhaps knew exactly what it was our kind was capable of, what I was capable of. I hadn’t meant to frighten the little, oh-so-fragile human.

“What did you say?” I repeated, my voice softer this time. As I spoke, I lowered myself, crouching so I was at her eye level, my hands on her shoulders. They were so slight; it looked as if at any second I were liable to crush her. No doubt that was what was going through her mind then.

She gulped as she met my deep red eyes, her own quivering. I released one shoulder, hoping it would calm her as my hand fell to rest upon my knee, far from her body.

“Well? Go on, I’m not going to harm you.” I told her, giving a soft smile. I kept my fangs hidden, though I knew she knew what I was, hoping to be disarming. I really hadn’t meant to be off-putting there.

She still seemed reluctant to speak to me, though she smiled back in a very shy manner. I had really gotten off on the right foot with this relationship, I scoffed to myself. “What did you call me?” I prompted, my voice even softer still.

“Papa?” she repeated questioningly, and I couldn’t help the grin that grew wider on my face, a true one this time, not meant to disarm, but one of amusement.

Seeing that I wasn’t upset by her speech, her own grin grew more courageous and she came closer, threading her small arms around my neck. I could feel her little hands clasp behind the veil of hair I had neglected to bring back into its customary ponytail. Reflexively, my own came around her small body, holding her close to me.

Oh how I had missed contact like this. I’d craved it everyday since Jessica had been ripped away from me, far, far too early for it to ever seem real, for the ache to ever really go away. No one other than a parent would be able to understand what anguish I had felt at this, and what relief flooded me then. In essence, I had been given a second chance to do what I had never been able to do before. I could watch her grow up, as I hadn’t been able to do with my own flesh and blood. As I realized this, I felt a pang in my heart. Even though I had gotten a second chance – something that any parent would wish for, something that maybe I didn’t deserve - it wasn’t what I had really wanted.

I wanted to watch Jessica grow up.

Murina seemed to sense my hesitation, taking her chin from where she had momentarily rested it at the crook of my neck, she leaned back and looked deeply into my eyes again. “What’s wrong, Papa?” she asked.

I gave her a small sigh. “Maybe later,” I promised, before moving to stand, making sure my arms were tight around her little frame to keep her secure against me. I looked up at Leni, seeing her smiling appreciatively at me.

“You told Master about this already, I presume?” I asked her.

A sonorous laugh drifted down to me as I held the little one in my arms, a smile reaching even Leni’s eyes as she spoke. “Why no, Silly,” she told me, smirking, her long fangs visible through the distance that separated us. “I will leave that to you.”

“When he finds out this is what you wanted of me-“

“He’ll thank me, I’m sure,” she interrupted. “He wants you to find closure, Bastion, and I believe this will bring you one step closer, bring you that much nearer what he sees for you. He loves you dearly,” she told me. “You’re the first he’s ever turned, and the only one he’s been close to since the rest of us matured. He’s been alone for so long…”

Her words trailed off and lingered on the air for long moments at a time. Her eyes seemed far away before she focused back on me. “You’re the last hope, I fear, for him. This task, you see, isn’t only for Murina’s good, or yours, but for your Master and all the rest of us. Without him, we’d be lost.”

With this realization, I felt another weight bare down on me. Master he… needed me. I had been about to leave him just hours, not even, before, and… I owed Bojan an apology. He’d been completely right. I was a selfish bastard when we had conversed earlier. I could only hope that what I was going to do for Murina would fix what I had said, what I had been about to do to him.

“Go on, Bastion,” Leni’s words cracked through my thoughts, and my eyes, which had drifted down to the floor at some point, found her face again. “Even with your remarkable ability to withstand pain, all of this activity so soon after such a devastating injury, even your face looks drained. Besides, the sooner you explain all of this to your Master, the sooner you can get on with your task.”

Solemnly, I nodded, and, slowly turning from her presence, began to walk out of the room. On my shoulder, I could feel Murina lift one of her little hands and wave to Leni. “Bye bye,” she called in a small, timid voice, before dropping her hand again and snuggling her little chin against the soft fabric overlaying the tensed muscle at the base of my neck. She was quiet after that. I could feel her little heart beating in her chest, hear it in the soft pounding of the blood through the vessels in her ear, which was pressed up against mine in a comforted gesture.

“You’ll see them again, sooner than you think,” I told her in a gentle tone. She didn’t want to hear it, however, shaking her head as I walked along.

“I don’t want to. They’re mean,” she whispered, her voice so quiet that she had to have known only I could hear her. She knew us better than I thought that she had. How long had she been with them? The question burned through my mind as if it were a ravenous cancer, but I didn’t dare ask and ruin the rocky trust we seemed to have going between us already. “Not like you,” she said, her arms clenching around my neck more tightly.

By this time, I had reached my room. Resting her down on the bed, I crouched once again before her, this time looking up. “They are far more like me than you give them credit for,” I told her, my eyes soft. “We’re practically all cousins.”

“More like siblings, Bastion.”

My eyes widened as I heard that voice. Master had arrived faster than I had believed he would. This didn’t seem like it would end well. Swallowing hard, I nodded, looking at him over my shoulder.

“Very well, Master. I had no idea that that was how I was supposed to see things,” I managed. Though I was trying my very best to be calm in this situation, knowing that he probably wouldn’t approve of the girl in the least, nor the task that had been set before me, it sounded, even to me, horribly taxed and anxious.

“Distant, not the mention disowned half-siblings,” he elaborated, biting each word, the first with more emphasis than any of the others. He looked passed me then, to the human girl sitting on my bed. Murina, I could feel, was scared again. Sure she had witnessed some of the worst that our race could give, but, Ahab embodied both that and even more. He was the worst evil among us, and also the most feared, the most powerful. And at the moment, I couldn’t blame her for being affrighted of my Master, as even I was a bit fearful of his reproach. I could only imagine what was going on through his mind as his eyes narrowed in the direction of the human I had just adopted.

“What is that?” he growled.

I stood, blocking her from his heated vision, though I knew it wouldn’t do much good. If he meant to kill her, he could easily move me out of the way. Or her around me to his waiting wrath; it all depended upon how much energy he felt like expelling at the moment. By the look of him, he still hadn’t managed to get much sleep to make up for the day before. Having watched over me sure seemed to have taken a lot out of him.

“That thing that Lady Leni asked me to do for her,” I replied as calmly as I could, trying to match his stare.

He blinked, but surely it wasn’t from my bluff. “That is a human child, Bastion,” he stated, as if it weren’t already obvious, his voice a snap of condescension as he said this.

“I realize this,” I replied coolly, staring back at him.

“So then, I ask. What is it that you are planning on doing with that, thing?” he growled.

“Lady Leni asked me to raise her. The only family she has left, Master, is Bojan, that boy from earlier –“ I began to explain. It was an odd notion to have to explain something to Ahab, as he could usually sense everything and anything that I meant. He had always been in my head, but he wasn’t there now. It must have been his fatigue. He didn’t have in him the energy to peer into my mind as he would normally.

But he seemed to get the meaning of my words after my only having said this much. “So she means for you to raise her and then turn her.” He hung his head a bit, as if he had just partaken in a useless gesture, “And after I warned her to give her blood sparingly. Fool.”

I let out a sigh, shaking my head.

“It’s an act of compassion, Master. Bojan is the only family this girl has, and she his. Wouldn’t it be better for them to be together, living out their lives than for one to be separate from the other for eternity?”

Coming from my lips, her story sounded very familiar. It was one very much like mine. I could understand Bojan a bit better now. What he did, the things he had said, it wasn’t because he hadn’t understood me, but because he had understood all too well.

Ahab seemed to come to a similar conclusion as the one I had just made, and nodded. “Much like mine for you,” he said, before turning. “Very well.” And with that, he was simply gone.

To this day, I still cannot understand that moment in time. His voice had seemed reproachful, envious, and saddened all at the very same instant. I couldn’t get it. What was it that had sprung up all of these emotions within him? Within this man that was so very, very cold in more than one aspect? I suppose that I may never know the answer to that. But, I don’t very much care. I would prefer for Ahab, no matter how long I may stay at his side, to remain a mystery. If I were to know his every thought all of the time, his every reason for the things that he did, my life would be far more dull than I would ever like to claim it to be.

Oh... shit

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:59:53 GMT

Yeah, sorry about that. I've made all of my readers wait. Who am I really kidding, there's not very many people who read this, if there are any, at least not anymore. I'm thinking that pretty soon I'm going to create an image to be a link back here for my Myspace page. Yeah. I need to get on that.

Spiffy banner go! lol. Now that I realize I have Adobe Imageready on my computer. I've been making banners all week.

Anyway, I JUST literally JUST finished the new chapter of Serpent's Cross, so it will but up momentarily, I just wanted to apologize for making whomsoever might be reading this wait so long.

Serpent's Cross

Sun, 20 May 2007 02:06:50 GMT

Chapter Twelve

The very next night, I woke straight at sundown. Still weak, and tired besides from being half-awake and in pain all day, I stood one thing on my mind.

I would go, and give Master his peace. He seemed to want to be rid of me. Badly. His actions of the night before hand made that abundantly clear. He neither needed nor wanted me around, and since that was the case, I would do what it was he wanted, and leave him, free him of the burden of my presence. I’d learned enough to get by, of that I was abundantly sure, and even if it began to get too much for me, well, I could always bleed myself dry, or enjoy the sunrise one last time.

Stiffly, I walked over to the satchel that contained my clothing. Gently, I pulled on my day shirt around my shoulders, cringing as it came in contact with the still healing flesh of my back. I gave off a hiss, but bore the discomfort, tucking the tails of the garment into my soft pants.

I was pulling a long coat on over my shirt when the door opened behind me. I could feel a piercing gaze on my pained back, and felt as if they were boring into me. I tensed, expecting the long fingers of my Master to clench around the back of my neck, for his harsh, angered voice to hiss into my ear, to demand what it was that I was doing, or to goad me on, wondering what was taking me so long.

“What are you doing, getting dressed?” Instead, it wasn’t that bitter sound that I heard. No, this voice was kind, soft. Familiar. “I swear, I don’t know what Lord Ahab was thinking when he turned you. You have to be the most selfish of us out there, injured and walking around. With wounds that serious, you should be out of action for at least a week.”

It was the boy from before, the one who had treated my burns.

“I will be fine. You needn’t worry about me. I’ve survived worse.” I murmured, turning to face him.

A breath left me as I did. I was shocked to see what it was that was facing me. It was a young boy, a good foot shorter than I was. He had large, almond eyes, and short blond hair, the bangs of which stopped at his jaw. He was thin and wiry, the same as I, and looked almost helpless. Around his body hung the robes of a Persian, though he was as pale as any other nosferatu I’d ever seen. Which, really, other than myself and Master, hadn’t been many.

“What are you staring at?!” he questioned hotly. Apparently, he wasn’t very appreciative of the attention. He let out a small growl. “So not only are you inconsiderate and brash, but your rude as well! I don’t need this aggravation. I don’t care if you die, but Lord Ahab told me to watch over you, and I intend to respect that.”

“Ah… my apologies, I didn’t mean to offend you.” I explained hurriedly. “I just, wasn’t expecting to see one of us so young, that is all.”

“I’m older than you, you ungrateful worm.” The boy growled. I held up my hands in a sign of truce. He didn’t seem to appreciate it, though. At long last, after a few tense, very quiet moments, he let out a breath, his anger going along with it. “But that doesn’t matter. Here, Lord Ahab said you would probably need this. It’ll help you regain your strength.”

It was then that I noticed he’d been holding something in his hands, something that he now offered out to me. Between the slim, boyish fingers of the may was a silver goblet, simply decorated with grape vines and leaves dancing around its brim. It was filled practically to the top with a deep, dark liquid, red edges sticking to the inside where it has sloshed around as the boy had walked. I could smell the blood then.

“Are you going to just stare at it, or are you going to drink it?” The boy barked, startling me. “It’s for you.”

Unused to such abuse from one that looked so much younger than I, though apparently he was actually older, I tentatively reached out for the goblet, and grasped it, bringing it up to my lips.

I didn’t feel hungry at all, really. I actually felt a bit sick to my stomach, all of my overactive imagination getting the better of me.

“Drink it,” the boy demanded. “Lord Ahab went to great pains to get that for you.”

Master? Master had gone through the trouble of getting this for me, and yet, had delegated the duty of giving it to me to this boy? I didn’t know how to take that. It seemed to me to be a double-edged sword of a statement. On the one hand, there was the thought that went into getting the blood, and what Master must have done to do that, and the care that he must have felt to do such a thing. But then, there was the feeling of abandonment in the fact that he wasn’t the one here giving this to me. It actually made me feel kind of guilty. What if he’d had to go through some threatening process? And I was standing here bound on leaving him?

How could I be such a monster?

How could he be such a monster?

What in the nine rings of hell was I thinking?

Looking at the cup again, I began to drink down the blood that filled it. Within moments, it was emptied, and I was sitting on my bed again. The boy was in a chair facing me, his dark eyes boring into mine.

“You’re a strange one, you know?” he said, the same hard expression that had been on his face this entire time plastered there now. “You don’t act at all like your namesake, and yet… there is something different about you.”

I sighed at hearing this. Sebastos, a word that, in the tongue of the Greeks meant venerable, and that would later be changed to the name ‘Sebastian’, something my name would be confused with many a time, was something that, even then towered over me. Caesar Augustus had been given the Latin equivalent of the name, and it only made the crushing weight of the meaning even more of a burden. That didn’t mean I wasn’t trying to live up to the expectation, however.

“That wasn’t what my mother meant it to mean.” I murmured. I certainly didn’t need this now.

“But since you seem to know so much about me, I do believe it would be gracious to extend your own name.” I added, giving the boy a disinterested look.

“Bojan,” was the barked reply, “and I don’t need anyone like you, one that would turn his back on the one person who thought he would have any potential at all, coaching me on grace.”

With this, a growl rose in my throat, running a raw streak straight down its backing. I was being insulted by a child, and it was simply something I would not tolerate. Drawing myself up to my full height, I struck out, taking the blond Bojan up by the collar of his tunic and vest.

“How dare you,” I growled in his face, holding him the foot off of the ground that separated our heights, my red eyes glaring into his own chestnut ones. My lips pulled back over my long fangs in a snarl. “Have you even the slightest idea about what this has been for me? About how this past year even was, about what I endured? Do you know anything about me, you selfish little-“

“Bastion.”

Hearing my name, I turned to the door of the room again, wild expression plastered on my face, chest heaving from anger. Standing there, a calm look on his face, one in which read every understanding, and yet still the promise of slight confusion, was Ahab, part of his hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was wearing his usual trousers and a day shirt, forgoing a coat or vest, unlike usual. He looked tired, though, it was apparent in the light of his eyes. What was all of this about?

I began to feel the boy in my grasp shaking. Was he afraid, even of the very sight of my Master? This, nor the sudden appearance of Ahab did nothing to lessen my grip on the boy, nor soften the snarling, angered expression on my face. I wasn’t about to let this child get away with the insults he had lain down apon me. I had killed for less. For far less.

“Bastion, I understand your anger, but you must put Bojan down now. He did nothing that deserved your wrath.”

Disbelieving, my eyes widened as I watched Master approach. “Release Bojan.”

“No,” I growled. “You weren’t here, Master, you heard none of this.”

“Do not believe Bastion, that just because I was not in the room, that I did not hear what went on here, that I don’t know what you were planning,” he told me, his voice soft. He really was tired. I’d been around him enough to know that when he hadn’t slept well, that his voice didn’t exceed a certain volume.

My eyes narrowed, and begrudgingly, I placed Bojan back upon the entirety of his feet, hanging my head in a show of shame. So he’d known anyway. Out of the center of my attention, I heard the boy rush out of the room, and I sat down on my bed again.

“Bastion,” Master began, but I did not look up at her. I was just in the mood to be let alone at the moment. He gave a sigh. “Leni wishes to see you, she has something she would like you to do for her. I came to collect you, there are a few things that I have on my mind I need to talk to her about, things I think you should hear, but… you do not seem as if you are very pleased with my presence at the moment.”

He turned to leave then. Raising my head, I turned to gaze at him. “Master, wait,” I murmured, and watched as he stopped. His hair moved gently across his back as he turned slightly, looking over his shoulder at me, a silver-blond brow raised over a golden colored eye.

“I… I am sorry if I worried you…” I managed, my voice small, and causing him to turn the rest of the way. Looking down at my own sitting form, he crossed his arms over his chest, his expression interested, listening to my every word. “I don’t mean to be a burden to you. And… I am sorry for, for my behavior this morning.” I added.

Gently, he shook his head, though he didn’t move any nearer to me than where he was, by the door.

“Bastion, you are no burden. You’re a frustration, sometimes, that is true, but you most certainly aren’t a burden.” He told me. I felt my heart flutter at this, rising from where it had dropped to sometime earlier that day. I was very much relieved at hearing his words. Hopefully, someday all of what bothered him about me would change, but for now, we both just had to live with what we had.

“You said Mistress Leni had something to ask of me?” I asked, standing and walking over to join him near the door.

He nodded his head once, a very slow, deliberate motion. “Yes, she does, but first, I’m going to have to speak with her about her pets.” he said. There was a growl in his voice at this last juncture. So what I had heard was true. Master didn’t approve of the turning of humans into our kind. But, that was the exact thing he had done to me. Was he being hypocritical, or did he have a reason for disapproving of Leni’s methods?

I just kept thinking about this as we moved through the castle, so much so that I can hardly remember the layout of the place, nor the decorative flare that Mistress Leni used. I barely even remembered half of the argument that Master had with her, or entering the room for that matter. I stood behind him and to his right a step, lost in thought until I heard her low, regal voice addressing Ahab. Her words caught my attention more than her tone, as I was sure she would have had to speak before this.

“Dearest Master, I don’t see where your argument holds merit in this situation,” her voice was almost as intoxicating as Ahab’s as it rolled from her throat toward us. “For what is standing beside you but the very thing you are chastising me for.”

A growl built up within my Master, and I could almost touch the anger that was radiating off of him. “How dare you assume that my reasons for doing this are the same as yours.” He snarled out, his eyes narrowing to angered slits up at her. He wasn’t just angry, he was outraged, and his pride had been hurt.

“I could sense the strength in Bastion even as he lay dying. I knew that he could do great things if he were allowed to live, if he were given our powers, so I gave them to him. I have him my blood.” He spat, moving close to the steps of the kiosk on which Leni’s throne sat. It was clear from where I stood that had he no better control over his emotions than what he possessed, he would have been ripping her throat out then for her insolence. “Where as you… you’re giving your blood away like a petty whore.” He hissed.

“You disgrace our bloodline, our people.”

“If it weren’t for what you accuse as promiscuity, oh great Ahab, then there would be no ‘our people’.” Leni told him, defiant to the last. She had a long, elegant face, her eyes a blazing fire, hair a brilliant bronze, skin a very much muted almond. It was the only sign here that I would see of the Persians that had once claimed this territory as their own.

“And if it weren’t for me raising you, you would not have lived to see this very argument, Regina.” Ahab hissed. “Be more selective in those you turn.” He added in a hasty rush of words. “That is my point, and all I wished to say.”

Upon her throne, the woman took a deep breath, the plates of gold around her neck and the rings in her ears creating a pleasant ringing sound as she moved about. I couldn’t help but smile at hearing it.

“Very well, Master. I shall keep that in mind.” Leni told Ahab, her voice much calmer than it had been moments before when she had spoken against him. Even Master seemed to relax a bit more, and nodded before turning. He walked past me and out of the room as I watched. He was probably off to rest, as it seemed he hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before. It hung off of him, invisible to everyone save me.

“So, you’re the fledgling that Lord Ahab holds in such high regard.” I heard the stately rumble now from behind me, and turned to look up. Leni was standing now, walking down the few short steps of her kiosk down to where I stood on a tiled floor. “I’m sorry our first meeting had to be under such unfavorable circumstances. You seem to be doing well, considering the wounds you sustained this morning.” She said, her voice soft and hospitable.

She curtsied to me, her long Roman dress moving around her eloquently. “I am very pleased to meet you, Lord Bastion. My name is Marika Ria Leni, but you may call me Regina, or just Leni, if you wish.”

I returned the gesture, bowing deeply to her, “the pleasure is mine, Lady Leni,” I told her. “Master tells me you have something to ask of me?”

“You’re quite a forward one, I’ll give you that.” Leni told me. “Yes Bastion, there is something I’d like for you to do for me. It will take a long time, but you seem the best qualified for something like this.” She circled around me as she spoke. “Lord Ahab told me that you were a father when you were yet a human.”

I nodded at hearing this. Jessica had been the source of much of my pride in those days. I would have given almost anything to have her back.

“And the memory of that is still fresh, I see.” Leni continued. “That is good. You’ll need that.”

I blinked. What could she possibly have for me to do that would require what I had needed to raise my daughter? I heard her clap, and one of her servants, a human turned vampire, stepped into the room through a doorway as his mistress took her seat once more in her thrown above the main floor. He was holding the hand of a young girl, just around Jessica’s age. She was dressed in a miniature version of what all the men around were wearing, but that didn’t take away from how cute she was. Her eyes, big and brown, like those of a doe, took in everything in her world around her. They settled on me, and she stared for long moments before smiling. Blond hair fell around her face, straight and long, pulled back behind her in a very loose ponytail.

What was this about now?

She waved to me, and I waved right back to her.

“Bastion, I’m sure you’ve met Bojan already.” Leni said, looking down at me, her tone that of a question, though her statement wasn’t worded that way. It drew my attention away from the little girl and back to her. I nodded.

“Y-yes, Lady Leni, I have.” I told her, a hesitation in my voice due to my uncertain footing in this area.

“This is his great niece, Murina. She’s an orphan, Bastion, he is her only living family.” Leni informed. She opened her mouth to go on, but I raised a hand.

“With all due respect, Lady Leni, what does this have to do with me?”

“I was getting there, Bastion. Hmn, you are indeed forward. I admire that.” She said, looking over at Murina before turning to myself again. “She’s very strong, Bastion, just as your Master said you were. I’ve sensed it in her, but I dare not turn one so young. Bojan’s youth nearly proved the death of me itself,” she added, shaking her head. “That is where you come in.”

I blinked still uncomprehending of what she wanted me to do.

“I want you to look after Murina until she is old enough.” She said. “Perhaps it will help bring closure to you about the death of your human family. Lord Ahab also said that you were having trouble without them.”

I sighed. So this woman knew that much about me. In this respect, I was a bit outraged. I didn’t care if she was one of Ahab’s siblings, she had no right knowing about Jessica and Catherine.

“I’ve gone and angered you. Oh Bastion, please. I didn’t mean to upset you. Please, just for a few years, watch over this little one, please? In the end it would bring her closer to her only family. Wouldn’t you like to help someone like that, Bastion?”

I frowned up at Leni, before looking over at Murina. She was staring at me with those doe eyes, had been this entire time, intrigued by me, curious. I couldn’t resist that face, just as I had never been able to resist Jessica. I was weak to their charms. “And what about-“

“She is already used to our hours, Bastion. She will sleep when you sleep, will wake when you wake. I’m sure she won’t be much of a burden.”

“If you’re sure of that, why don’t you raise her?” I asked, raising a brow.

“I am no mother, Bastion. I don’t have the heart for it. No one here does. She won’t get what she deserves here. But you, you already know what skills are needed to raise a little girl, you had one yourself.” Leni informed, her speech shifting radically to try and convince me, to appeal to my better nature, to get me to take the girl. “You’d only have her for a few years out of your life, Bastion, and then you’d just need to bring her back here and she would be out of your hands forever.”

I sighed, looking from the girl to Leni again and then back at Murina. This was a girl who needed a loving home. Leni was right, she wouldn’t get that here. She couldn’t. She needed to, she needed that, or she wouldn’t be able to survive. I knew that.

I sighed once more, making my mind up. I nodded, once, and looked over at the little girl. I didn’t even have time to open my mouth before she ran to me, entwining her arms around my waist. I raised a brow, looking down at her.

“Hello.” I said, smiling down at the little thing.

“…. Hello…” she managed in a small voice. “…papa…”

Serpent's Cross

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 23:01:49 GMT

Chapter Eleven

“So who is this then?”

“He came with Lord Ahab, didn’t he?”

“Mn.”

“Perhaps he is the Master’s new play thing…”

“No!”

“Couldn’t be…”

“What else could he be then?”

“He wreaks of human…”

“Did not the Master reprimand Mistress Leni for transferring her blood to humans?”

“Those ‘humans’ were us, you fool! And yes, he did.”

“But he cannot be a new pure-blood. They stopped being born a century ago.”

“If he were, the sun would have killed him. He must have Lord Ahab’s blood in him somewhere.”

Somewhere between the realm of waking and the world of darkness I had been in for some time now, I could hear a conversation going on about and above me. I was vaguely aware of laying on my stomach, and a stinging draft that was over my back.

“Are you sure he isn’t dead now?” one of the yet disembodied voices asked the others. All of them were male, some however, were lighter, younger, as if they had not yet reached that level of manhood in which the voice deepens and the body fully matures. That was such the case with the one whom had just spoken.

I groaned, opening my eyes a little as I began to come around.

“Does that answer your question, fool?”

My vision was blurred, forms barely comprehensible in and amongst each other, not that I could really see much of anything the way my head was resting. With a grunt, I started to slide my arms closer to my body so that I could put weight on them and attempt to get up. When I did though, an intense wave of stabbing pain began again down my back, reminding me that I was injured and couldn’t move – as if the voices hadn’t affirmed that fact enough for me already. I let out a loud, pained cry and fell back to my stomach, blood building up in my eyes.

‘Stay still, Bastion,’ there was the soothing tone of my Master, working to instantly begin calming my body.

‘Master?’ I asked, though I knew it was him. Even my inner voice was small and weak from pain.

‘Shh. I’ll be there in but a moment,’ he assured

“Ma….” I managed in a whimper, but even that was choked and hardly a sound that seemed worthy of my voice.

“Quiet!” one of the voices insisted. “Your wounds are serious, don’t strain yourself speaking or moving.”

“What are you doing?!” Another snapped at the first.

“Helping him,” the first answered the second. “He’s one of our brothers, it’s our obligation.”

I felt something cool on the burn over my back, wet and almost gel like. One of those disembodied voices was putting a salve on my wound. It stung at first, drawing a whimper from my aching lungs, but then began to sooth the burning a bit.

“Lord Ahab will not be pleased with this, he told us to watch over him, and to not touch him.”

“But did you see the look on his face? He most of all does not wish for this one to die.”

“So then he is Lord Ahab’s new-“ suddenly the voice was choked off.

“Talk of him that way again, and I will make you wish that your Mistress had never crossed you over, you filth,” and then, a harsh slam. This new voice – it wasn’t really all that new at all - it was that of my Master. I heard many of the others that had been there scurry away, save for the one who was gently caring for my burn and the commanding presence of Ahab.

“These are bad burns…” said that young voice, the one who had taken it upon itself to try and make me more comfortable. “The pain alone may yet claim him, my lord.

Though I could not see, I knew Master was shaking his head softly at this. “No. The wounds are serious, it is true, but he is far stronger than to let just this kill him. He has withstood pain much like this for months on end when he was just a mortal, this will not take him yet.” There was a sadness in that assurance that I could hear dripping from his royal tone. Was he doubting this? Did he truly think that this of all things would do me in? Did he doubt my strength that much?

“Ma-“ I tried to croak out again, though through the stinging in my back I could not mutter much past that.

“I thought I told you not to strain yourself…” The caring voice said in a sigh. “He’s a foolish one, isn’t he?”

I could almost see the pointed glare Ahab would have thrown at that comment, but he replied, in the same subdued assurance, “no more foolish than the rest of us.”

Then I felt the thin digits of his hand run into my hair, trying to assure more than his voice was, as if he had been able to tell that I had picked up on that little abnormality within it. “I am sorry, Bastion. I did not mean for this to happen.”

I somehow managed to shake my head at this sentiment, though I found myself hissing out a breath as I did. What could I do to tell him it wasn’t his fault?

“Stop, please,” the young voice pressed me. “You’re only going to make it worse if you keep on this way.”

But he didn’t understand. I couldn’t hold still, not when Master was blaming himself for this condition I had found myself in. No. My fault. Mine. Couldn’t go fast enough. Not his.

Before I knew it, I had my hands under me again. Master was only a foot or so away from me. I could see his shocked expression focusing in and out of my vision. He didn’t know where I had found this new strength in me. The one attending was shocked. I could hear it as he pleaded for me to stop. “You’ll kill yourself,” he hissed, trying to hold me back from Ahab and press me back down so I was lying still, but I kept batting him away.

“Ma---aster…” I choked on the word, crawling toward him with an agonizing lack of speed. With every motion I undertook, my back felt once again as if it were on fire, as if the sun were still beating down on it as it had when the wound had been given. And, with each jerky, slow crawling step, Master only looked more mournful. Stop, please. That look hurt me more than my movements did. Stop thinking I was going to die. Please?

“Bastion, stop,” he said in a soft voice, as if he knew he couldn’t dissuade me from coming toward him, though he wanted to stop me from causing myself so much pain.

I shook my head, and at long last, reached him. My elbows quaking beneath my pounding, throbbing, pained body, I collapsed forward, my chin finding a resting place in his shoulder as the rest of my body just slumped against him.

“Not….. your….. fault…,” I managed to whisper into his ear in a quivering voice.

I felt as well as heard him give a heavy sigh. “Don’t be so reckless with yourself, Bastion.”

“Have you…drank…yet?” I asked him. I could hear the pounding of his blood through his veins. I knew I was thirsty, and I also knew that getting new blood into my system would help my burn to heal more quickly.

“No,” he told me simply. He was far older than I, so he didn’t need to have something nearly as often as I did, though he did usually drink at least once a night. So far, he hadn’t, so I couldn’t find sustenance in his veins, I wouldn’t. “Are you thirsty?” he asked. His hands were gently resting at my sides, holding me lightly, giving yet more assurance that the pain would eventually pass, that I would be back to normal soon.

Weakly, I nodded against him. Even that little motion caused pain to shoot up my spine. So I had been reckless, but I could not let him keep on blaming himself for all of this. It had been my fault. Mine. No one else’s that I had ended up like this.

“Fetch Bastion something to drink,” he ordered the other still in the room with us, who, immediately and without question, went to go do such.

I lay uselessly at my Master’s side, feeling the skin at the small of my back in a most particular pain, as I was bent upward from that point. And yet, here, were I was, I felt as if no pain could really touch me, as if I were immune to it as long as I was in his arms. As long as Master was there, I was alright.

“Bastion…?” his voice questioned.

I could only manage to groan in return.

“Good,” he murmured. Apparently he had just been checking to see if I was still living. Satisfied that I was, we just went about waiting for the boy to return in silence. I could eat just about anything right then. It didn’t matter. I was just thirsty, and willing to sink my teeth into anything he happened to bring.

Anything – except for what he brought.

I could hear a woman struggling and trying to get free of the boy’s grasp. Her cries were enough to cause me to physically wince – a gesture that made me yet even more uncomfortable. Feeling this, I heard Ahab sigh at seeing the woman there. He was slightly disappointed, I could tell. Even though he’d released my power, had released me from Trajan and from death itself, I was still having an attack of morals. I could not do it, no matter how grotesque the woman might appear, because no matter what, all they would serve to do would be to remind me of Catherine. My dearest…

“Bring her here,” he muttered listlessly, bored of my habit, it seemed.

I closed my eyes, feeling that embrace that had held me so close and so gently a moment before let me go as I laid on the ground once more. I heard the woman continue to struggle in Master’s arms for a few long moments before he’d had enough, sinking his fangs deeply into her neck. She let out a few low moans, and a weak – “no, let me go… help…” before she quieted.

I could feel the tension in my Master as he drank. He didn’t want to, he wasn’t thirsty, but he knew that I would not drink from this woman, and wasn’t even going to try and suede me. I wanted no part in it, he knew, and so knew that he would have to feed me himself. But there was something else, something wrong about how quickly that boy had come and gone, how that woman struggled. She had known what was about to happen to her, but how.

My eyes widened. These vampires here, they were not as my Master and I. They hunted, but not in the same sense that we hunted. They had humans as pets, had to have. I had heard Master’s thought the second before he had driven his fangs into that soft neck of hers.

‘There are already marks here…’

She’d been fed from before.

The very thought made the innards of my stomach turn to sludge, made the bile in my throat rise. What little I had, I felt as if I needed it out just then.

How could ones such as us be so different? How could the Regina condone this?

Before I knew it, though, I heard Master toss her aside. “Get her out of here.” He growled, his voice gruff and angered. Apparently, there would be one more strike against ‘Mistress Leni’ once he was done with me. I felt those soft, skeletal hands come around me again and pull me up toward him, and soon I was resting rather awkwardly with his arms around my waist, holding me lightly to his body, my chin at his shoulder.

“Drink, Bastion.” He told me in as gentle of a voice as I had ever heard. He didn’t know what to do with me anymore. He’d tried all he could think of, and it had accomplished nothing, it seemed.

I wished only that I had had the strength of the piece of mind to read his thoughts then. But I had neither, opening my mouth, I had barely the strength required to sink my fangs into his neck and drink. Even through the blood, I picked up none of the usual clues as to how he was feeling.

Sighing, I merely drank what I felt I could, and began to drift off in his arms. I do believe I fell asleep with my teeth still sunk to the gums in his flesh.

Serpent's Cross

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 06:59:41 GMT

Chapter Ten

We went without extreme pleasantries this time. Or, at least, I did. Ahab assured me that by the time we returned to his castle in Rhaetia my armor, along with the horses I’d won by killing the gladiators upon them, would be back there as well.

I couldn’t have cared. I was just looking for my next meal at that point. After the spectacle in the Coliseum, I had become the bored one. I felt now as if this trip was indescribably necessary, as if one place was never going to be enough to make me happy again. With Trajan, I had left the last of what had tied me to the mortals behind.

Master seemed all the happier for this; that I had finally seemed to be on the right track. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling. In his mind, he’d finally gotten through to me. Personally, I didn’t see what the big deal had been about my staying close to what I had been.

Of course Master would have found problems with it; he had been born a Nosferatu. I had not. I had been born human. It was too late to go back now, however, and so I met my defeat on the subject with sullen grace.

The next night, we were to board a ship, once which would bring us over the Mare Internum around Italia, through the Strait of Messina and the Ionian Sea to land at the port of Olpae in Greece.

We spent what felt like weeks cooped up on that ship. I had always hated traveling by sea, and it didn’t help any that the captain had to stop at Sicily and a few more ports. Despite Master’s continued promptings that whenever we made port I should go off and give myself a few hours rest from the ever-bobbing vessel and get myself a bite to drink, I left neither the rotting hammock that was passing for a bed nor the presence of my equally ill at ease horse.

Though I knew it would be good for me to go and hunt, I feared being out too long and stranded somewhere in southern Italia and unable to find my way back to my Master until I had completely regained my strength, or even worse, that I wouldn’t be able to hold a meal down once I came back onto the ship. Despite the fact that Trajan knew what we were, and the suspicion that all of Rome had about us, I didn’t want to betray our secrecy.

I also didn’t need that foul captain thinking I was about to die and dumping my body overboard in the middle of the day. I’d be ash before I hit the water.

And so, despite the nagging cramps of my stomach, I resigned myself to waiting until we docked at Olpae, after getting assurances from Master that we’d take a more stable land route home. It would be faster that way, anyway, he said, giving his finest noble’s smile.

Little did I know that it was when we were to arrive in Greece that I would find out exactly where it was we were truly destined to go.

I had been in the middle of a meal, too. Master had gone with me, being hungry himself by this time, together we had finished off a rather large family. We’d done it slowly, one by one. There was still a teenaged boy in my arms that I was feeding from when he told me.

When I heard, I sputtered and coughed, nearly choking on the mouthful of blood I had been trying to swallow. Dropping the young man I continued on with my hacking until that last mouthful ended on the floor between my feet, and across my boots. As soon as I had regained my panting breath, I looked over at Ahab with wide red eyes.

“Dacia?” I gasped out. “Dacia?!”

“That is what I said, yes,” he replied. An ear-splitting grin came to his face. “Why, is there something wrong?”

“Bringing me there would be like parading me in front of the sun.” I spat. “I’m as good as a wanted criminal there.”

“I doubt that after five years the Dacians would remember a single legionnaire out of tens of thousands. They probably don’t even care anymore. Besides, there are still legions posted there.” Then he chuckled. “Besides, what do you have to fear from any of them? Just remember what you did back in Rome. The blood would probably be harder to wash off this time.”

I gave a small sigh at hearing this, reaching up to wipe the blood that had rolled down my chin with the brim of my black cloak.

“So, why are we going to Dacia?” I asked. I knew I couldn’t win. Besides, he was right.

“Relatives,” the word rolled off of Ahab’s tongue as if it should have been obvious to me.

“Oh?” I murmured, watching with mild fascination as the boy I’d dropped spasmed on the floor, uselessly twitching as the last of his blood drained from his body. With a final, shuddering sigh he died, and I slowly looked up to face Master again. Being able to witness that last breath always calmed managed to somehow calm me, and just then was no exception.

“Yes.” He replied with a dignified nod. “One of my cousins, one who started converting humans long ago,” he informed, his lip quirking upward a bit in a look reminiscent of affection. “It seems she’s heard about you.” He added, looking me in the eye, as he’d chosen not to look in my direction for a few uncountable moments.

“Couldn’t keep the news about your new pet to yourself, could you?” I asked, more of a snarl in my voice than I’d meant there to be.

“Now there’s the feisty one I thought we’d left in Rome. I’d been wondering what had happened to you. I so enjoyed what you’d done back there…” he purred.

“Master…” I growled.

Raising a hand, he wagged a finger in my direction. Taking a step to close the gap between the two of us, he put his hand on my cheek and lightly slapped it a few times.

“I’ve told no one about you, and you know this,” he told me. The room was dark, but I could see his unnamable expression on his face, as well as the back-lit glow of his eyes. The golden shine was just as marvelous as ever that night. “My fledgling… there is much you still have yet to learn about the bonds between our kind.” He said, then shook his head, hair tousling a bit. “Maybe someday you will.”

A confused look came to my face then. “But it is not this night, nor the next, nor any of the next for many years to come,” he elaborated, but I just felt myself sinking deeper into confusion.

“Come, Bastion, if you’re full, now is a perfect time for us to rest before we continue north,” he said then. I could see in his eyes that he was pleased he’d managed turn me around enough that I hardly wanted to stand anymore. Nodding was all I could think of to do, aside from one last remark.

“No more boats.”

He laughed, placing an arm over my shoulders. “No, Bastion, no more boats.” He snickered out.

* * *

I have to admit that when we arrived in Dacia, or Dacia Trajana as it was now known, I was quite surprised. During the wars, I’d never really had the time to look around much, but it was rather stunning. The Carpates weren’t as rugged as the mountains back home, nor did they have the ample supply of water that the Alpi did. There was, however, oddly enough, more living here than seemed possible.

Or, at least, the creatures here were less fearful of humans than their relatives in the Alpi. Most notably, the deeper our progress into the craggy mountains, the more wolves we happened upon. I’d never seen so many; even though back during my mortal years there would often be a few members of a certain pack that would come down to pester my horses. They were usually chased off by Fang, of course, but they’d always been close by.

This, though… Not in my wildest dreams and I ever seen anything like this. They watched us lazily from under trees, thousands of golden yellow eyes framed by all manners of fur. Sable, grey, white, black, red, patterns of each running together in indescribable ways, all of which were incredibly unique.

As we went on, heading up a pass that was steeper than it had seemed, our horses generally tiring, their heads beginning to sag on their mighty necks, I looked up to see a group of five emboldened lupines staring straight ahead, toward us. This meant that they had been watching us for quite some time now. They were sitting right in our path, and looking particularly ravenous.

Seeing this, Master continued to sit tall and intimidating on his saddle. He brought his stallion to a halt, and I followed right behind him. He wasn’t bothered at all by these wolves, nor was he by the fact that the sky was generally getting a bit darker, a sign that I had come to recognize as one that preceded the all too soon rising of the sun.

Then, after a few moments of staring them down, he cleared his throat to speak. “We seek your Mistress, the Lupus Regina.” He told them in his strong, demanding boom.

The foremost of the wolves gave a low growl before turning, tail slightly between his legs as he did, head casted downward a bit, below a normal set on his shoulders. Apparently he’d gotten the hint that Ahab and I were not ones to be taken lightly. The others seemed to pick up on this as well, and began to follow their compatriot.

I let out a sigh at seeing this, and was quite surprised to see Ahab moving not only forward, but to follow the canines that had just passed over the ridge we were about to cross. “Master, we don’t have-“

“Neither do they, Bastion.” He told me, looking still forward. I don’t believe I’d seen him look behind him once this entire journey. I don’t know what, if any significance that would have had, but he somehow seemed as if he were more confident then I’d seen him up until that point, as if he’d ever been lacking in any of that.

In no time at all, the place to which the wolves were leading us became apparent, it’s stone walls beginning to steadily rise over the softened crags of the mountains around us. Unfortunately, before we could cross indoors and find refuge, I could smell the sun just on our heels; see its indirect light hitting the ground before us. As the light continued to bound toward us, I looked to Master for guidance. He looked, in the enhanced lighting, far paler than usual, his hair shimmering against his skin.

He showed, as usual, very little worry as he looked toward me. After his gaze had shifted to the ground in a moment of reverent thought, he tossed his eyes over his shoulder and frowned.

“I was hoping something like this wouldn’t happen until you were older…” he stated, almost to himself, though I knew he was speaking to me. “It will be painful, Bastion, but you’re going to have to try and bare with that.” His golden eyes were locked on mine when he spoke this time, warning me.

His eyes… they were muted. It was because of the light, I knew. And at that moment, I had hated the sun as no one could hate another thing. I wanted to obliterate it.

“Make sure, above all, that you stay on that horse, Bastion,” he told me sternly. “If you fall, you will die.”

That snapped my attention back to what was happening. The sun was rising on us – we had very little time, and here Ahab was worrying about myself more than he was him.

“Understand?”

I nodded, and he repeated the gesture back to me. In the same instant, the two of us dug our heels into the sides of our steeds as hard as we could, spurring them on with the last of their failing energy. I’d never been caught in the sun before, and I would be damned if I was going to be now.

And then, with the utmost feeling of dread, my stomach dropped deep within my body. I let out a hiss, feeling a very uncomfortable, warm, burning sensation rapidly spreading over my back. I inched forward on my saddle, trying to escape it, but found I could not.

If I leaned forward anymore, I’d for sure tumble over the neck of my racing stallion and be trampled between its hooves and the harsh, jagged rocks it was bounding over at the moment. Even with how much my back was burning, I vowed I wouldn’t let the ground be the end of me.

It seemed to take altogether too long to reach the stables of the castle we had reached. When we had, I let out the most pathetic sound I believe I had ever made. Somewhere between a squeak, hiss and groan, it only served to humiliate me into numbness.

I had not dismounted. I didn’t believe that at this point I could. It was too much. All of the nerves along my spine were shot, crying out, pained, agonizingly telling me they were somehow still there.

Ahab had, of course, and he came to my side, seeing that I seemed to need assistance. He’d been far enough ahead of me to have escaped without the burns I was feeling up and down my backside, but his eyes still looked pained. It was a look I could recognize from the blunder of the year before – he was afraid for me.

“Ma-,” I began, but he shook his head, silencing me as he reached up a hand to help me down from my mount. When my feet touched the ground the two of us found that I could not hold my weight due to the pain as I fell into him.

“I am sorry, Bastion,” he murmured, his voice abundant with softness and pleading for a forgiveness I could not give. He’d done nothing wrong. It had been my fault for not being able to urge more speed out of the horse. Never his. Never. Those soft words, his strong arms around me, they were the last thing I would feel and hear, as I slipped into unconsciousness.

Serpent's Cross

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 05:46:36 GMT

Chapter Nine

Throughout the rest of the day, I was restless. Just as before, I couldn’t sleep, though, unlike before the depths of my powers had been released, this wasn’t over guilt. I was thirsty. And not just for blood, for I kept refusing when Ahab offered me any of the servants that cared for his villa when he wasn’t in Rome. I even refused his wrist, the blood of my Master. I turned it away.

All of this caused worry and doubt to surface once again in my Master. For the second time that day, he began to wonder if he had taken the right course of action.

Sensing this, and being distracted from my thoughts by his worry and hesitation, I turned to him. Red eyes shining, my face had been focused into a set frame, a focused glare, yet, turning to him, it softened somewhat.

“Do not fear, Master.” I half-growled to him. Since he had unlocked whatever seal had been placed on my, my voice had become more grizzly, more animalistic. There was a throatiness about it that had never been there before.

He had stayed with me since I had refused to take his blood, feeling something must have been wrong. Hearing me speak, he turned to me, and I gave him a malevolent smile, one on par with his own.

“It isn’t for blood that I thirst this day.” I began to explain, having gained his attention now, and knowing that he would continue to keep that rapt scrutiny upon me as long as I spoke, at least. “Not blood alone.” I went on, looking away from him again, out of the villa’s arches at the splendid vision that was Rome in the late afternoon’s light. “I thirst for battle, Master. To hear the humans breath their last and then fall to dust.”

I could almost hear Ahab’s mirthful smile in his face when he spoke next. “Yes, that is the Bastion I’d pulled out of the rubble of that village a year ago. There is the Bastion that could survive.”

“The Bastion you saved, Master, was weak.” I told him. I felt betrayed by my own words. What was I saying? I was still me, was I not?”

The smile disappeared from Ahab’s face then. “Then he would not have survived the shock of losing his mortal family.” He growled. “Most humans wouldn’t have been able to do that. I’ve watched enough of them to know that much. And that is why I brought you over. I knew you were stronger than most humans, if not all of the rest of them out in the world now, I never doubted that for a second.”

With that, the two of us drifted into silence, watching as the sun continued to set somewhere west of us, and soon the time to head to the Coliseum was upon us.

Ahab left me before we had even arrived there. I was escorted away from the main gates and toward the gladiator’s entrance, where I was given my armor for the fights. It didn’t consist of much, merely a pair of arm-guards, and plates of armor that covered my shins. All of the clothing covering my upper body had to be removed, and I was only allowed to keep my own pants because they served no protection. I had to trade in my boots for scandals.

As I changed, I had to fight to control the urge to jump the nearest beating heart and suck it dry. It was one of the hardest things I’d had to do. I was so thirsty, ever so eager for that taste of blood and of combat that my heart was pounding heavily against my breastbone.

The noise of the beats was so overbearing that I could only hear one word above the maelstrom in mine own ears. It was the screams of the crowd. A chant. One word and only one. “Dhamphyrius!” Over and over they screamed, bringing a grin of the foulest origins and intents.

Trajan had obviously spread word that one of our kind was going to be participating in the games tonight. It was rather obvious, as Trajan wasn’t one to hold a gladiatorial festival this late, by torchlight in the arena. There had to be a special reason for this, and a Dhamphyrius, well, that was a rare enough occasion.

A dhamphyr for short, these were special warriors, usually ones trained to fight with limited light. As far as I knew, I was the first that would actually be a vampire. Later, I’d here this word a lot more used to describe those who would rise against us, trying to free humanity of us. Romanis would coin the phrase for those who were born of a vampire and human, though this is something that cannot easily happen, and most of their dhampyrs turn out to be false.

But that would be getting ahead of myself. I was simply thrilled where I sat waiting. There would be a formal parade in which all of the fighters would be introduced to Caesar and the crowd before any of the fighting would begin. I watched as the others were called, one by one, according to class.

I was the last to be announced, and as I made my way across the dusty bowl that was the floor of the Coliseum, my eyes shining like deadly rubies in the firelight, twinkling with the lust for destruction that had taken over my very being, I heard the crowd thunder into life. Most of the audience stood; once again shouting at the top of their lungs the praises of the new title I’d been given. Some of them were even shouting my name, compatriots from the days which had passed not long ago, from my time as a legionnaire.

But, what really drew my attention was the reaction of the other gladiators themselves. All of them had helms and most shields, some of them even had breastplates covering their chests, and yet, they were shaking as they watched me approach. They just couldn’t stop. Highly trained fighters, rippling with hardened muscles shields of metal and would, all armed with short swords, and yet – they were afraid of unarmed, unprotected, lithe little me.

And rightly so. They new I had an advantage like this. Unlike them, I had excellent night vision, and could quite easily pick them out in this fire light gloom. I was so enthused by this reaction that I almost forgot to face Trajan when I joined them. Master was there as well, in the Emperor’s private box, relaxed and watching with his keen golden eyes, eyes that I soon felt upon me.

Even at the great length that separated us, I could still see the thin smirk that graced his lips at seeing me there. I had no doubt that he could see the other fighters shaking just as clearly as I could standing next to them.

Lost in thought, I once again almost missed my cue. Along with the mortals I was standing amongst, I placed a tightly balled right fist over the left side of my chest, just above my cold beating heart. I had only just saved myself at hearing the metallic clanging of the armguards of the other fighters against the other metal plates they had on.

“Nos morituri te salutamus!” The line of us shouted up to Caesar and his most esteemed guest.

Little did they know, all of them were about to die. It would be like a cat toying with mice, and by the time it would be done there wouldn’t be an inch of that stadium’s floor not covered by the blood of these pitiful humans.

The others began to file back into the gladiator’s quarters, each trying to give me their most fearsome stare as they walked by. All I needed to was raise one corner of my lips in a smirk, and they were sent shaking away again. Oh how I loved smelling the fear that came off of them. Once they were gone, I turned, facing the crowd, hearing them roar as I stood alone.

I breathed in the air, feeding off of their excitement. Most of them had never seen a dhamphyr before, they were too young. They’d only heard of this rare kind of gladiator and what a spectacle it provided. And I was more than happy to give them what they were asking for.

Behind me, far up in his box, I heard Trajan stand, his toga’s whisper as he moved from his seat to the very edge of the balcony effectively silencing the shouts and thunderous applause of the crowd.

“Honorable citizens of Rome!” he shouted, making himself be heard to the highest tiers and farthest seats. Hearing his voice caused a chill to run up and down my spine with delight. Oh how I was looking forward to this moment. I could hear Master’s mirthful laughter from behind me, hiding under Trajan’s booming tones. “We have something special planned for you tonight, the second night of our grand festival. A dhamphyr!”

There was a huge burst of enthusiastic screams at this. I could see the fools, even behind the shrugging, flickering lights of the torches in their stone placements, jumping to their feet and applauding, screaming their little heads of.

Soon they’d be cheers of carnage. Imagining this, my heart swelled with pride.

“Enjoy tonight’s festivities, for who knows when we will next be graced with such a privilege. Let the Games begin!” He shouted before fading back to his seat, making it known with his silence about my performance that I’d be fighting throughout the night.

I stayed there, facing the crowd, drinking in their still growing excitement, even as I heard the thunderous hooves of an Essedari’s horse. I knew what’d be coming next, and so it was easy to avoid. I stepped forward slightly, hooking my arms around the shaft of the spear heading straight toward me, hoping to pierce my right side. Giving it a stiff jolt upward with my elbow, I dislodged it from the other gladiator’s hands, at the same time pulling him off of his horse. Letting the cool, broad side of the blade at the end of the spear graze over my back, I took the end in my other hand, looking over out of the corner of my eye as the man sailed through the air and hit the ground with a soft thud.

Watching him as he very, very slowly stood, feet wavering under him, I smiled. Hefting the spear from my left hand to my right again, I threw it with all my might, fangs showcased in a hideous grin as the tip pierced him at his very center, the shaft burying itself halfway through his body, bending him backward before the tip hit dirt, his blood oozing down it’s length before beginning to pool at the ground.

He twitched as I walked over to him, his body knowing he was dead before his brain could completely shut down. Reaching him before this happened, I sunk my fangs deep into his neck to get what I could out of him, which wasn’t much, considering he’d nearly bled out onto the sand at our feet by the time my slow, methodical steps had reached his limp body.

The cheers were once again drowned out in my mind. I heard them, but they didn’t register. I didn’t care what the humans were thinking. Right now all I was concerned about was feeding… and the steady clapping noises that reached my ears. Yes… as long as that slow, appreciative sound kept finding my ears, I could keep up with this vicious spree, for I knew it to be the sound of my Master’s praise.

There was no time to revel in the fact that I had pleased him, though. Just as Master had suggested, the fights I was in were to the death, and Trajan had made sure that the trainers of his gladiators knew that, and had sunken it into the brains of their money-making pawns.

It was them, or it was me, and it sure as hell was never going to be me.

That was the last one to come at me on his own. It was a blur, the rest of the night, I only remember the first and the last, and that rhythmic clapping that must have taken me through hours of this

The last alive was one I’d really enjoyed playing cat and mouse with. By that time, early into the morning hours, I had taken my fill and no longer cared to drink, and cared little about what the still cheering crowd wanted. I had taken a few hits from the weapon of the man I was now stalking around the large circle of the arena, but I didn’t care that I was bleeding. They were wounds that would have killed me had I not been a vampire, and still I paid them no mind.

I was out to make this last one suffer.

The next time he swung that sword at me, he sorely regretted it, for it signaled the beginning of the end for him. I grabbed his wrist as soon as I had leaned back out of the path of the blade, and twisted, listening to the joint in his shoulder separate, smiling animalistically at hearing him scream as I pulled.

Looking to the newly amputated limb hanging limply from my clutched hand as if it were a boring distraction from my goal, I nonchalantly tossed it over my shoulder, listening as the metal plating of the arm guard slammed against some discarded shield from another victim.

Free of the whimpering pile’s former arm, I reached down for him. Grabbing the collar of his shirt, I tossed him straight up into the air as if he were nothing more than a light-weight pebble, and watched him fall back toward the ground. At just the right moment, I reached out, grabbing him before his feet could touch the ground. Squeezing the new mass of flesh and bone that I found in my hand, I watched as his life was instantly ended in a flow of red and grey down my arm. Dropping what was left of the body, I turned my bloodied self back toward where Trajan and Ahab sat. Feeling my wounds sting as they began to heal, I kneeled, bowing to the two men that had and do rule over my very existence. After a moment or so of this, I stood again, and, my dark deed being done, Walked through the now empty gladiatorial chambers and back toward the villa, not stopping to reclaim my other clothing

* * *

The early dawn hours found me relaxing in the cool waters of an inlaid bath at the villa, washing off the endless procession of blood. The once clear liquid around me had long ago turned red, and it was now beginning to make it hard to get any of the rest off.

I wasn’t surprised when I heard Master’s footsteps entering the room. I’d calmed as soon as my heated muscles had hit the water, and had forgotten completely about my bloodlust long before then.

“You left these at the arena.” He told me as soon as my eyes had met his, holding in his hands the rest of the clothing I’d worn there.

“I know.” I stated simply, rubbing hard against an area at my side where bloodied mud had saw fit to dry and wouldn’t let go of my skin.

“Are your wounds bothering you?” Ahab asked me. Of course he’d seen that I’d been injured. He had the best eyes in the crowd, and I’d definitely heard many of the people gasp at seeing me walk away after being impaled in the gut by that sword.

“No.” I muttered. “They itch a little, but nothing too serious.” I assured before submerging my head to try and get some of the blood out of my hair. I resurfaced a few moments later, and found Ahab still there.

“I’m fine, Master, there is nothing for you to worry about.” I assured him, though I was glad that he was worried for me. After last night, however, all of this seemed to be a bit overbearing. Had he always been this close and I’d just never noticed? I gave the question a mental shrug.

He nodded. “You’d best hurry up and rest then, we leave at dusk.”

I blinked at hearing this, that was sudden, even for Ahab. “But we just arrived last night. Can’t we rest and enjoy Rome, Master?” I asked.

“Your health had been all that was concerning me, Bastion. With you as healthy as you maintain, there is no need for us to stay.” He said, standing and beginning to move away.

“But what about you, Master? You haven’t fed since we’ve arrived.” I replied, pulling myself out of the bath, bloodied water working its way down my body as I hurriedly reached over for my pants and pulled them on before following him.

“How thoughtful of you to care, Bastion,” he muttered in a soft tone. “But I can assure you I am quite alright.”

I frowned. “Master, I…”

“Do you want to stay here? Was I wrong to sever your servitude to Trajan?” Ahab asked, turning to look at me. “Would you be more suited being a pet to the humans, or are you going to continue to learn our ways, Bastion?”

Taken aback by this question, I felt as if he’d just struck me. He was questioning my motives, my wanting to make sure he stayed in good health, and I was hurt by it.

“Well?” he pressed.

“Master, I just…” I muttered, “I wanted to…” I sighed.

He repeated the gesture. “Bastion, there isn’t room in your heart for our people and the humans. How many times must I remind you that this is not your world anymore?” he asked.

I nodded. He hadn’t really been reprimanding me at all, he’d seen past the smokescreen I’d put over my own feelings, one that even I had not been able to detect.

A soft smile graced him then. “Go on, you didn’t sleep at all yesterday, you must be very tired after all of your exploits. You’ll need your strength for tonight. Rest, Bastion.” He told me.

Once again, I nodded, going off to gather the clothing he’d left for me near the rim of the bath, and then went to my room to sleep soundly amongst the cushions of my bed.

Serpent's Cross

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 04:05:25 GMT

Chapter Eight

Soon, I found myself in the second grand palace that Ahab owned. In addition to his one in the northern mountains, which we had just come from, he had a palazzo in Rome that seemed to me to be twice the size. It rested in the area that is now St. Peters in Vatican City, though now it is, obviously, no longer there.

To think, an ancient home of a damned vampire is now a place where the holiest men in all of Catholicism are now buried.

That is what you would call irony.

Far more comfortable now than I had been, out of my heavy armor, I lounged on a plush bed of cushions in one of the spacious rooms. It was far larger, and many times brighter than my room back at the castle had been, and I had to say, I almost enjoyed this bed more than the last I’d had. It was one luxury after another.

I was tired from the journey, and hungry besides, and yet I could not sleep. Rome was once again buzzing in the daylight and here I slunk, hiding just out of reach of the sun. The room was warmed by it’s heat and afforded me more comfort on top of what I already had. I was laying shirtless, but didn’t care, coiled around the many soft cushions my bed was made of.

“You can’t sleep, can you?” Ahab’s voice brought me out of a thought which I can no longer remember. He appeared solemn faced, and came to me, sitting down amongst the lavish pillows that were all around me.

“You didn’t need to-“ I began.

“Bastion, do not presume to tell me what I can and cannot do, what I need and neednt do.” He told me, though his voice was calm, not snapping, just addressing.

“-snap at Trajan” I finished defiantly.

Ahab sighed at this, tossing his silvery locks over his shoulder. He’d bathed recently; there was a different scent about him just now. “Bastion… Trajan knows what we are, he knows what we need to survive, and he is a powerful friend, though he is but a human. He needs to sometimes be reminded of his place. He thinks being Emperor makes him a god, but it does not. He is still mortal like all the rest. And you will need to feed well tonight, you haven’t had enough the last few days. You’re more pale than usual.”

“Yes Master.” I replied, nuzzling into the pillow below my head more forcefully.

“You’re tired, and yet, you still cannot sleep after what I have told you, after I have rectified the problem that had been buzzing through your mind? What else troubles you, Bastion, aside from your stomach?”

“Nothing… I-“

“Ah, the conversation from earlier…” he mused.

“Master…” I growled, turning over so that my back was facing him. I didn’t want to hear this, not again.

“Why do you still let it bother you?” Ahab asked, I could feel the look of non-comprehending stoicism on my back from those keen eyes. “Why haven’t you let go yet?”

“You don’t understand…” I murmured, curling my body into a tight ball as I laid there.

“Then make me understand, Bastion.”

“They were my blood, Master. They were my mortal blood. I needed them.” I told him, feeling my chest tighten as it had before Trajan earlier. “Being without them meant death for me, just like being without blood means death for me now. I need them.” I hissed.

“No, you need blood. You’ve just said it.”

I shook my head. “No…”

“Then what is it then? What is it you want, Bastion? You’re insufferable when you’re like this, do you know that?” He growled at me, fuming, furious. I began to shake. How could I have made him so angry?

“What is it you want? You will have it by dusk, just tell me what it is. Blood, women… what?!”

I looked up at him with blood-filled eyes, shaking my head. “What I want, you can’t give back to me… Master…” I muttered. I wanted my family back, but there had been nothing…

But this did not calm Ahab’s rage, only serving to blind him more with it.

He grabbed me by the throat, not an issue as I had noticed long before I did not need to breath to keep life in my body, and held me down. “Emotion is your problem Bastion. You’re holding onto your despair instead of letting go.” He growled. “I’ll make you let go.”

There was a murderous glint in his eyes, the one I had seen him display earlier with Trajan when he had refused to let me feed off of the gladiators I killed, that frightened me, made me struggle against him. He had me pinned under his stronger, older frame within seconds, holding me immobile with his mind without even trying. I could no longer resist against him and stared unblinkingly up at the vaulted ceiling. He let go of my throat once he was sure I wouldn’t move, and I let oxygen flood back into my lungs. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see him hovering over the artifacts he had left in the room at some point before hand.

Fearing I had angered him enough to do something drastic, I tried to cry out to him, both physically and mentally, but he had blocked my mind from accessing his, and was holding my vocal chords hostage along with the rest of my body save my lungs, heart and eyes.

As if my thoughts were being answered without him being able to read them, when he came back, he held in his hand a dagger. I would have cringed as I thought of all of the bloody ways he could use that against me, if I could have moved. As it was I felt as if a prisoner in my own body, only able to watch, and not well at that.

But then, he did something surprising with that very dagger. Placing its tip deep into his skin between thumb and index finger, he ran the sharp edge through the bowl of his hand and only ended when he hand reached where the heel of the hand joined the sinews of his wrist. Tossing the blade aside with a clatter, he kneeled beside me, placing his now bloodied hand upon my forehead.

“No more despair, Bastion.” He growled down at me, and, as I looked up at him, I noticed something decidedly and eerily wrong with his eyes. They’d been taken over by the incredibly bold golden depths of his irises, no other color was there to speak of now, but, there was an inky, sickly darkness behind them, one that I could sense ran deep within him, one that he’d been hiding from me for the past year.

I opened my mouth to speak, but found that once again, sound betrayed me. I could make no motion to stop him, make no sound.

“No more pain for Bastion…” he murmured, placing more pressure now upon the hand at my head.

The air was almost electric with energy, even I, lying as prone and helpless and immobile as I was, could feel it. I blinked, not trusting my eyes, as for a moment there I could have sworn that I had seen lightning crackle up Ahab’s arm. But then, I saw it again, and at the same time felt what could only be described as a jolt of lightning – raw power – come into me through that physical connection with him. As if of there own accord, my eyelids propped themselves wide open, and I was unable to close them throughout the rest of the ritual he had been performing.

When next Master spoke, his usual voice had been replaced by something dark and feral, a demonic growl that seemed as if it was disembodied from the lips that were speaking his words.

“The seal that god placed on you can’t hold sway over one of my children…” he growled, the darkness I could see before in his eyes breaking through the golden rim, the entirety of his eyes soon black as pitch. The fangs, his long fangs seemed now to be far larger than they had ever been. I could almost feel claws against my skin where his hand was still holding me pinned. The fingers against my skull began to burn slightly with the energy that was passing through us, and I could feel the blood from his hand pulsating as the cut continued to ooze, the crimson liquid beginning to find its way free from under his fingers to make patters down my face. “You are mine, not his… and I will not have your full abilities sealed away any longer.”

He went rigid at this, looking as if at any second he would lunge down and finish me off.

“Sancti Spiritus et, Fillie et, Patres nominee il.”

My eyes widened when I heard those words. The prayer of the dead, recited backward… but, what did it have to do with me?

Suddenly, I felt as if something within me had opened up, as if some dam within me had burst, and energy just exploded outward from it. It counteracted what I had been receiving from Ahab’s channeling, and was even enough to force him off of me and break the hold he had over my body. As if I was being pulled by a string around my heart, I lifted my upper body from the comfort of my bed, arms trailing behind the rest of my forward motion.

Eyes wide, teeth bared in an opened-mouthed grin, I pulled myself to my feet in much the same way. I stared down at my Master as he righted himself, the wound on his hand once again healed.

Seeing me and my new attitude – one which, try as I might, I still cannot explain – he began to chuckle almost uncontrollably.

“There now!” he chortled, holding his arms out to his sides as he began to come over to me. “Isn’t that better Bastion? You can’t feel them anymore, can you? They aren’t holding you back anymore, are they?”

He had put an arm over my thin shoulders as he had spoke these words. I looked to him at my side, my grin having dropped in confusion, and gave a rather throaty, animalistic growl of the same emotion. From him, my newly hardened gaze went down to my hand.

Ahab was right, I couldn’t feel anything. There was instead, this odd emptiness about and through me that I could not escape, it seemed. There was nothing, I felt… hollow.

And all I could think was – what had he done?

Serpent's Cross

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 02:21:01 GMT

Chapter Seven

And so, time passed peacefully like that for us, my Master and I. I ventured out, I drank, and I grew strong as Master’s new tricks continued to help me improve upon my hunting. Though I still held an explicit fear of my specter and as such feeding off of women, I managed to not only get by on my meals, but thrive, powers growing with leaps and bounds.

In an endless procession of nights and days I grew content and satisfied with my new place, the new rules I was to abide by. But soon, that did not seem enough. There was a feeling of restlessness and an eagerness to move about invading my senses that I had never felt before. Blinking, I realized that this feeling was not in fact my own, it was a foreign body within my own, a different entity.

It wasn’t long after I had first perceived this feeling that my Master and I began traveling. Not just around the vast lands he lorded over either. We were going to Rome.

I remember it was very sudden of him, very random, something that you would never expect to come from a well rooted man such as my Master. One morning, after we had just come back from a hunt, barely being missed by the toxicity of the dawn’s light, he looked to me as we were reentering the castle, our home in all its glory.

His expression was surprising, and I was definitely awestruck by it. It was listless, his radiant golden eyes were drooped at their fine edges, lacking in most of their usual, radiant sparkle of fulfillment, the shine that usually accompanied him back from a hunt. They were horribly hazed, as if dissatisfied in some strange way. My poor Master, was bored to death.

“Bastion,” he said to me, his voice showcasing naught more but a heavy sigh, presenting with extreme displeasure that very boredom and restlessness which I could feel mounting in myself, and likewise could almost touch within the room we were sitting in now.

I blinked in acknowledgement of his voice, not wanting to interrupt the speech he was in the middle of. To me, everything that my Master said was important, even if it were only my name being spoken by him, and every aspect of it needed to be logged away, every word cherished as if it were the last he would ever speak to me.

“Have you ever wanted to see the world? Not just the insignificant sliver of it that the Romans confined you to in their campaigns, but all of it, as much of it as there is to see. Have you, Bastion?” He asked, voice ringing in its poetic rumble, even as ugly and tainted with listlessness as it was at the moment. I nodded, once again not opting to tell him my views on the question verbally.

“All of it?”

“As much as we can, Master, as much as you wish to see.” I told him, rubbing my eyes a little bit in fatigue. We had been about all night, Ahab helping me to perfect my skills before we had gone to hunt, and now the sun was up and I was exhausted.

“Am I keeping you awake, Bastion?” He asked, his voice turning a bit soft, though still very grainy in his lack of interest with his surroundings.

“No… Master….” I replied, giving off a bit of a yawn on accident.

“Yes I am. Do not lie to me; I will always sense it, young one.” He told me. “Go on now, go rest.”

I shook my head stubbornly. “No… Master…. I’m not tired.”

“Bastion, you lie horribly, it’s written all over your face, and besides, you keep yawning, go on.” He pressed, waving me away.

“Master…”

“Bastion, I will make you march up the stairs like the good little soldier you are if you do not do it yourself.”

“But I wanted to talk about where we were-“

“That can wait until you’ve slept.”

I shook my head.

Finally, Ahab let out a frustrated sigh. “If I went as well, would you go and sleep?”

I did not answer, but apparently that was all he needed as he stood long cloak drifting from the chair he had been occupying to the floor with all the grace one would expect from one of his garments, shaking his head, and went up the stairs before me. “You need to rest too, Bastion.” He called after me as I began to walk up them as well.

“Yes, Master.” I replied, covering my mouth with my hand as another yawn passed through my lips.

On the night in which we were to depart, a week later, after we had made all manner of preparations in which I held no great priority in my mind, was the first instance in months I felt I had seen my Master smile. He seemed almost giddy, near apprehensive with the idea of traveling, and seemed as if he would spare no grandeur in our appearance. He came personally to wake me, a ritual he had not taken part in for nearly a year now. It was hard to believe, even for myself, that I had already been nosferatu for a year. It seemed absolutely unreal to me.

But, so unused now to him physically being there to wake me, that I jumped straight up at feeling his regal fingers close around my shoulder. “You can’t be sleeping all night, Bastion,” he told me; pulling my reluctant out of bed once he had managed to calm me. “You have to get dressed.”

I nodded, going to my wardrobe, but he stopped me before I had even taken three steps toward it.

“We’re going in style, Bastion.” He told me, and I noticed that he was, in fact, in finer clothing than he had been wearing all this time. Had I found that possible after seeing the rest of his wardrobe, I would not have been as surprised as I was at that moment. Hugging his rigid legs were the finest pants I’d seen him in yet. Supple and tan, they were of water-cured horse leather, flexible with an extreme amount of effort and wear, though his did not hold the crease lines one would expect. They were either new or had only been worn on occasions few and far between, though he had not a single problem flowing around in them as was his usual way of moving. Eyes slowly trailing upward, I noticed what to me appeared to be the garb of a senator, to which I was completely surprised. My Master in senatorial robes was as picturing a wolf in sheep’s clothing, though; to some odd sense of aesthetics it all seemed to fit. Around his shoulders sat a regal half-toga, one that, if it had not been tucked under the waist of his pants probably would have only graced half length of his thighs. It was of a rich off-white hue that flowed wonderfully into the soft brown of the leather. Under the folded and regal ‘just so’ toga, he wore a slightly darker, crème tunic. I could not tell the length of this garment just by looking at him, but I’d say that it was roughly the same as the cloth which adorned his chest over that one. Atop the entire ensemble, he had tossed loosely about his shoulders, though at the time it was entirely behind him, a fine dark traveling cloak, one of which I now owned myself.

“We cannot very well see the one who held your utter allegiance before me in your normal garb, my child.” His tone was soft, airy, utterly and entirely godly, holding every confidence it had lacked in the past week.

It took a moment for that entire thought to sink its way into my mind, but once it finally had, I was stunned to my very core, more so than I had been at seeing his chosen attire.

“Trajan?”

“The very same.”

This caused my jaw line to drop a few inches. We were to see the great Emperor himself? The Grand Caesar that had held my very life in the balance constantly for the longest five years of my life, during that period known as the Dacian Wars? We were to see the man whose predecessors had given my family great prestige for the warhorses we had bred for the sake of the Empire? We were to walk up and bow at the feet of the man who would become known as one of the four great kings of Holy Rome?

Master was chuckling at the expression on my face as he placed clothing down on my bed. “Oh, yes, Bastion, all of that.” He said before coming over and slapping my cheek lightly to get my attention. Pointing behind me at the pile of clothing, he told me to get dressed before turning to leave the room and give me a moment to do so.

Looking down and inspecting the garments, I noticed that none of them were actually regular clothes, not even in the sense that my Master had been wearing, except for the cured pants. Pulling them on I sighed at realizing what exactly it was Ahab had in mind. He was going to present me to my former Master in all of my military glory; plate, scale, and armguard all along.

Shining bronze and blazing silver, I placed each piece on in its proper area, strapping and connecting them all in the proper places over my body. Blinking, I realized that unlike usual, my armor didn’t feel heavy, as if it was weighing me down. It was actually impossibly light. But then again, I could pull out a tree by its roots with my bare hands now, what difference would twenty or more pounds of metal make on my strengthened bones? Absolutely none was the only plausible answer.

I joined Master outside again, the plates making slight metallic sounds as they struck each other softly with every step I took. It sounded reminiscent of a change purse on tightened strings.

Ahab looked me over appraisingly with those sharpened golden eyes of his. Head to toe and back again, he circled me a few times, tightening straps for the armor here and there where he thought appropriate, even though it was altogether very comfortable on me the way it had been.

“The finest Equite I’d ever seen.”

Alright, so when I said I didn’t have class, I was lying through my teeth. I never really considered myself a noble in any way, shape, or form under Trajan. I was a soldier, just as everyone else beside me fighting in the wars was a soldier. I served my Empire, just as they did. I served my Emperor, just as they did. All that was different was that I bred warhorses. They were expensive, so I had money, but no villa. I gave all of my earnings back to the state. What did I need it for?

“Thank you, Master.” I replied with a bow, that same metal-on-metal chink following my movements as I did so, and as I straightened up.

“I’ve already prepared the horses.”

I shook my head at this. He’d been awake for a while then, apparently more eager to get under way than I had thought he would be.

“Master, I –,” I had begun, but he held off the progression of my speech with a hand.

“It’s done Bastion, now let’s go.”

From where we were in southern Rhaetia, what is now known as Switzerland, it was only a two night’s ride to Rome.

The air was hot with excitement when we arrived. Apparently, it was the beginning of a long-awaited festival showcasing the might of the Empire in its glorious capitol. The sun had set, but the night was ablaze with activity. Men drinking in the street, music everywhere, voices laughing, singing.

It was enough to nearly overload me, and I would have been plunged into the fervor of a drinking frenzy had it not been for Master’s calming presence at my side.

Like us, our steeds were decored in only the finest gear my Master could produce. From where he had pulled them, I have not the slightest idea, but they were be-speckled and covered in fine jewels the likes of which I had never seen. Even through their excitement, people stopped to watch the two of us parade our steeds down the street in high-stepping fashion.

It must have been quite a sight to behold, two robust, elegant horses being lead by a toga clad statesman and his shining legionnaire. Part of me to this day wishes I had been able to witness it myself, though I knew it wasn’t at all possible.

When at last we dismounted at the steps of the grand villa that was Trajan’s palace, the great man himself was there awaiting us at the top of the granite staircase. We walked up to him, stopping on the wide platform that was a step below him. In respect, I began to bend, placing myself down on one knee before him, my arms extended downward at both sides, back bent so that my chest plate was touching the cured pants over my knees.

I looked up for a moment and saw the queerest thing my eyes have ever seen fit to behold.

There, a step above me, the great Caesar Trajan, was on his knees before us, instead of what should have been the other way around. Master was the only one standing, and I looked up at him in confusion, but he gestured with his hand that I was safe where I was and to stay there. I blinked in slight confusion before turning my gaze to Trajan again. His crème toga was pooled around him as he bowed before us for long moments more.

“You may stand, Great Emperor.” Ahab told him in a commanding tone. And so Trajan did, as if he were on equal base with me, a servant under my Master like me. I do not know what I felt as I thought this, my thoughts suddenly turning to an unreadable amalgam of desperate longing to have my presence observed by either man.

“Lord Ahab, it is good to see you. But, what brings the great leader of the Nosferus Clan down to Rome?”

Though I was not looking up anymore, I was staring straight ahead of me in the rather submissive position I had put myself in, as if waiting for an axe to fall at my neck, I could tell my Master was smiling. “A rather simple matter, actually.” He told the toga clad man before us. He gestured to me, placing a soothing hand on my head, calming my worries. “It seems as if my ward here still holds loyalties to you, I wanted you to release him from the bondage you hold over him.”

I felt Trajan’s eyes on me then, but did not look up, nor move at all from my position.

“Bastion.” He said, recognizing me off the bat. I had served directly under him, even been counted as a friend, powerful ally from time to time. I had been honored greatly by him, it was only fitting he remembered my name.

“Yes, M’lord?” I replied, still staring straight ahead, rigid as ever.

“Meet my eyes.”

I looked up, and had to crane my neck slightly to do as he asked of me, as he was now standing on the platform before me, and I of course, was still on my knees.

He had on his face a decidedly gentle smile as he looked down at me. It was a smile he had used several times before, and its meaning was not lost upon me now. It was his way of saying goodbye. “Ah, Bastion, my fair Equite; your presence is still enough to bring me to my knees. How is your wife and child, Horse Master?”

I averted my eyes from him at the mention of this question. Despite my position, and Master’s assurances that there was nothing either of us could have done for them, I still felt horrible guilt override every fiber of my being. “They… have passed, M’lord, nigh on a year ago now…” I murmured.

“They have?” Trajan asked in his kind voice. He knew how much Catherine and Jessica had meant to me, and so understood the plight on my soul. With the renewed reminder that they were gone, I could feel the peace I had tried to build back up within me begin to crumble. “I am sorry Bastion.” He told me, but that seemed to be no consolation.

‘Bastion... it will be alright…’ Ahab tried to assure, though I could feel myself slipping toward a frazzled end now, eyes darting from side to side as my chest began to heave within its armor casing.

“But, seeing you here with Lord Ahab, however, brings me joy. If there was one that had to take hold of your life other than me, it should be him. He will take good care of you, Bastion, of that have no doubt.”

I looked up at him again; these words more soothing than his last, or even those spoken to me mentally by my Master. Yes, I could sense that. He was worried about me now. He’d been sensing the breakdown that seemed imminent and wondered if this, if taking me to Rome, had been the best course of action he could have employed.

Now though, he had sensed the change in my demeanor, and was at ease himself, it seemed to me. That was good. As long as my Master was happy, I could be happy, I felt.

“But, I must ask of you one thing before you pass into eternal life with your new Master-“ the grand Emperor began as he stood before me, actually beginning to bow to look at me on eye level.

“Anything, M’lord,” I pledged, bowing my head. At once I felt as if mortal again, and he were asking me, as he had had asked many times before in our working history together, for a favor dear to his heart.

I felt his hand come under my chin and lift it so that I was looking straight into his regal eyes. “Do me the honor of seeing you in battle once more, as great as you were. Allow your former people, those you had once sworn to protect, see you in all of your glory. Be a gladiator in my games, Bastion.”

Blinking, I looked up to Ahab, asking silent permission, and seeing what he would say.

A malevolent smile was upon his face. “He may fight in your games under two conditions, Trajan.” He said, looking down his nose at the Caesar who had once claimed my life as his own. “All of the fights he is in are to the death. Also, those other fighters he kills, he is allowed to drain the blood of.”

I was confused by this. In the past year, had he not engraved into my mind that we were to keep what we were a secret from the mortals around us? Did Trajan already know about the horrors… about what demonic beings we were? Did he not care?

“Fighters are expensive, Lord Ahab, do you know of what you ask?”

Unpleased golden eyes narrowed in the kneeling Emperor’s direction and I swallowed, feeling the wrath that gaze held within it. When Master spoke next, his voice was a feral growl I’d never heard before, dark and murderous. “Your slaves, or your people, Trajan, it is your choice, but Bastion will feed. He needs to.”

With a sigh, the defeated man stood, nodding, “Very well then.”

I swallowed as all eyes once again turned to me, and nodded

... bored, so i'm testing myself...

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 23:49:06 GMT

there was more to that... but whatever...

ok... yeah... enough of that... must get to the writings

Soon my pretties...

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:39:03 GMT

Okay, after much deliberation... and an extreme amount of homework, I can assure you that the seventh chapter of Serpent's Cross will be coming very very soon. I haven't had much time to write on it recently because... well, its getting published next month.

The first two chapters, and then after that the rest fo the book, are being serialized in AIC's Criterion, the literary magazine on campus. In addition to SC, I'm also doing alot... and I mean ALOT of drawings for it aswell, and even started a comic this week... so right now, I'm kind of exhuasted... yeaaaaah... but I can assure that SC Chapter VII will be done SOON.

Serpent's Cross - Chapter Six

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 02:43:23 GMT

(One thing before I start the new chapter - I'm sorry it took so long to put it up, it's been done since last week, but my computer wasn't hooked up to our school's internet, and it just got fixed today, so here I am and here it is - Chapter Six. Hope you enjoy... I know I enjoyed writing this one)

My nightmare returned again and again while I slept. But she no longer hurt me. While in my feverish sleep as my wounds healed, I didn’t understand why she just stood back. I could feel another presence near me, but I was so far gone that I couldn’t recognize it. I could feel myself being moved every once and a while, but I did not know by whom or where I was going. At one point I swore I could have even felt warm water across my body. It was so odd. There were times when I woke, but I didn’t realize it.

“Bastion, are you feeling better?”

“Mnph…” My eyes fluttered vision blurred for a moment as I looked over to the voice I was hearing. But the blurs soon righted themselves, and I could see the speaker very clearly, “Master?”

“Yes Bastion.” I was still in pain, and so sounded his voice. Could he feel what I was feeling? Was that how he had known to come to me; that I was in danger?”

“It… hurts.” I managed.

“I know it does, but you’re healing.” His golden eyes were soft and almost sad. “Come now, I’ve brought something that should help you feel better.” He helped me to sit up against the headboard of my bed. Turning, he stood and walked over to the table at the other corner of the room, coming back with a silver goblet. “Here, drink this up.” He told me, handing me the goblet. It looked to be full of blood.

I lifted the brim of the cup to my lips, my eyes traveling over to him. “What is it?”

“Blood wine,” he stated easily. “It should help you regain your strength a bit, as well as ease your suffering.”

Nodding, I sipped up the wine, indeed feeling the aching ease and my strength start to come back. After it was gone, I handed it back to Ahab.

“There now,” his voice was still very soft. “Rest, Bastion. After an ordeal such as yours, anyone would deserve it.”

I nodded, letting myself slide down the decorative board until I was resting amongst the pillows. This was the most I had been conscious since it had happened, but I was glad to have fallen into slumber again. At least now I knew what had been keeping the specter back now. It was him. My Master was there, keeping me safe as he could from something he couldn’t see. Oh how deeply I loved him for keeping her at bay. My dearest Master…

I felt myself drifting off again, and I was frightened. I didn’t want to be hurt, I didn’t want to wake up in excruciating pain again, and I certainly didn’t want to see that sorrowful look on my Master’s face.

“Sleep, Bastion,” calm, soothing voice. How could I disobey that? Without another thought of fussing, my red eyes closed.

I didn’t know how long it was that I had slept for, but, when I woke next, it was to the sound of my door opening. Looking downward, toward it, I saw Ahab walking toward me.

“You’re looking better.” He said, coming over to the chair that he had once again pulled up near my bed to keep an eye on me during my ordeal. “How do you feel?”

“Better.” I told him, forcing myself up on my elbows and then against the headboard to sit up.

“Good.” He told me, smiling a tad at seeing me move about. He had been worried, very much so it seemed. “You need to feed.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You lost a lot of blood, don’t put yourself in danger by not feeding. Besides, you’re still young.”

I sighed, nodding. “Alright.”

“Go on then.”

“You aren’t coming?” The thought of having to go out and hunt on my own was a startling prospect. Sure, I knew what I needed to know now, I could navigate myself around the areas we had been in the last hunt, but I didn’t want to be that far from him. I felt close to him now, and that I needed to repay him for all of the kindness he had shown toward me, even this far, how could I even think of leaving to go hunt on my own now?

His hair played across his shoulders as he shook his head once. “No, I believe you’ll be able to handle yourself. Nothing will be able to harm you like whatever was here the other night had, I swear to you.” He gave a small smile as he watched me get up and dress. Despite how heavily I had been bleeding, my skin and clothing was clean. So the water I had felt hadn’t been a dream. I’d been bathed. Giving a small sort of smile to him before I left, I made my way back down to the stables to tack up my horse and set out on my own.

* * *

When I returned, having not ventured far and only having fed twice, the castle seemed very much empty. I couldn’t explain it, but I had the feeling that Master was no longer there. Had he left me? Had his paternal nature subsided and had he grown sick of my presence? I didn’t know, but it startled me. Somehow, I had had the feeling that he would leave me if I had to go on my own. I knew it. I had been abandoned by the one person that I felt could restore my torn happiness, the one that meant anything to me anymore.

My heart began racing. What had I done to deserve abandonment by my Master? Had I been too weak? Had I been too frightened? too dependant upon him? Suddenly, I felt at the bottom of the barrel, and worthy of nothing. If I hadn’t have left…

‘Calm yourself, Bastion, I’m still here,’ his familiar voice in my mind soothed me. I could hear a chuckle in his voice and sighed in well-deserved relief. He had nearly given me a heart attack.

“Master?” I asked aloud, looking about. I did not yet know how to answer him mentally, though I knew he could probably sense that I wanted to say this to him and respond in kind to his reply to my feelings. “Where are you?”

‘You’re going to have to find that out for yourself, my fledgling. It is time for you to learn how to harness more of your extraordinary powers.’ He was laughing again. I could sense it in his voice, the slightly tense way it worked its way into my mind. I could just picture him smiling as he was thinking this out to me, but wished to see his face with all of my being. It was too bad that I could not do such. At this point, it had been so long since I had seen that smile, I would have done anything to watch it spark back to life. And now, I was hearing it, but I couldn’t see it.

“Master…” I was chuckling myself by now, beginning to use that marvelous sense of smell I now harnessed. At first, I couldn’t pick it up, his scent, which shocked me entirely. It was as if it weren’t there, as if he actually had left. As I kept up my continuously growing frantic search, my smile began to falter and then faded completely as I resigned myself to checking the entire castle for him.

‘Try harder, Bastion. You’re not going to get anywhere if you give up, and I’m not going to make it easier for you. There will be a time where I will no longer be there to guide you, and you will need to be at your peak strength when that happens.’

I nodded, giving up with my optical searching and going back to scenting for him. It was easier now, for some reason, more than likely because I didn’t want to fail my Master. I could actually catch the scent. Following the trail, I’d get close, and then the scent would fade a bit. I chuckled as I realized he was moving around now, trying to actually make it harder for me to find him, even crossing over his previous paths.

It was hours after I returned that I finally caught up with my Master, though it wasn’t entirely how I would have pictured him. No usual form, not in the guise of a man was my immortal Master, no, this was far different. Lying leisurely amongst the cushions of one of the dark wood sofas of the meeting hall on the main floor of the castle he was, long snouted head lying across large paws until his eyes caught the sight of my motion into the room. His golden eyes, showcasing that it was truly him amongst the sable-gray fur of his face and slighted, poofy mane around his neck, and a long, thick tail flicked up off of the cushions beside him, and I recognized him immediately, just as sure as if it had been his usual guise lying there and relaxing.

“Master…”

The wolf lying there seemed to smile sagely at me as he stood on this four thin, though rugged legs and hopped down off of the couch to sit before me in front of the fire that was going in the hearth behind him, backlighting him and causing his eyes to glow even more than they usually did. ‘It took you long enough to find me, Bastion. I hope it never takes this long again, or you could be in serious trouble.’ He warned.

“I’m sorry, Master.”

The wolf before me let out a snort, and shook its head in Ahab’s usual way. ‘There is no need for apology, you were weakened last night, terribly weakened. Your senses are off tonight as you try to recover, it is understandable.’ He rose a paw and made a gesture as if to wave off the previous subject of conversation. ‘But now isn’t the time for this. You’ll need to rest soon, and you must learn tonight. There are two more powers that you must master in a short amount of time, but I have faith that you will be able to do this, even as you are now.’ He elaborated.

I nodded, looking down at him and quirking my lips back into a smile. Most would be afraid to be this close to a wolf, let alone a wolf who also happened to be the King of the Vampires, but, I was so at ease that he could have fatally wounded me where I stood and I wouldn’t have cared one bit as I bled out onto the marble flooring I was standing upon.

‘Bastion!’ he barked, jumping up on his haunches for a moment to gain my attention, as I had inevitably zoned out on him, loosing myself in my thoughts. I looked down at the once more sitting wolf. ‘Pay attention!’

I blinked, then nodded, managing to give him a sheepish grin, and watched before me as, shaking his head, Master began to take his true form again, the snout of the wolf shortening and separating to reform his nose and mouth, the fur receding and cutting back until it matched his hairline around his face, lengthening down his back as the loose collar of his day shirt and the eloquent, high-collared, plush velvet coat he was wearing, as well as his tight trousers and leather knee-boots began to reacquaint themselves with their usual anatomic partners.

He sighed and shook his head as he saw the dumbfounded and completely awed look on my face. “Bastion, you can do it too, and you will, right now. We nosferatu, we can control the beasts of the night, the children that share our time with us, as well as use their natural forms at will. All you must do is picture yourself a rat, wolf or bat, and you will begin the transformation process. The first time will be somewhat painful, but you will soon get used to that, and by now, your sense of pain should be well muted, considering what you have been through.”

My brows knit with uncertainty. I had just come through the ordeals of a lifetime in less than a week, and now he wanted to put me in more pain? What was he trying to do to me, kill me now?

“Don’t think that way, Bastion.” Ahab told me, his voice soft and almost sad. He looked to me with half-lidded eyes, as if almost disappointed in me that I would think that of him. “I want nothing of the sort. If it were my intention to let you die, I could have let it happen many times by now. You are in no danger with me.”

“I know, Master.”

“If you know, then why prêt ell are you thinking that way?”

“I… I don’t want to be in any more pain, Master… I …”

His expression gained a softer appreciation then, lips curling partially in a smirk. “There is no need to fear pain, Bastion, it is life’s way of telling us that we are in fact, still living. Creatures like us need that certainty. If we don’t recognize the pain, we become complacent and begin to think of ourselves as gods. A vampire must never think that. Never. It’s dangerous for us, maybe even more so than it is for humans.”

I nodded, but didn’t feel convinced, my expression dropping even more. I felt my legs begin to shake, and I shook my head, totally contradicting myself.

“Bastion…” His voice was a hushed whisper, and I felt him approach. My powers were awakening more now, as he stepped forward. I felt him come close more than saw him, as my eyes were closed and my head was angled downward. “Bastion, stop… it’s alright,” he said, his voice a soft whisper, trying to sooth me before my mood dropped so drastically that I began to loose the supply of blood I had just reacquired. “Bastion… I’ll be here with you, if the pain gets to be too much, you can stop.”

I slowly, very slowly, opened an eye then, my head beginning to come up to look into the saddened face of my Master. I was more trouble than he expected, I remember myself thinking then. He was going to leave me for real next time, I just knew it. But then, I felt his arms wind around me, and felt almost instantly at ease.

“Calm, Bastion. I will not leave you.” He instructed, and I nodded against the strong shoulder I was nestled into, taking in his scent – blood, wine and dirt. I loved that smell. “Now, concentrate.” He instructed, not letting go of me, keeping his arms tight and strong against my frame as I continued to calm, closing my eyes once more, visualizing the creature I was to become, that Master wished me to transform into.

“Can you see it?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Concentrate now, my fledgling, be strong.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Go on, let your body shift.”

I nodded once more against that soft velvet and concentrated as hard as I could upon that image of that wolf as I possibly could, a sickening crackling coming straight to my ears almost instantaneously after I had reached that level. That sound I soon realized was coming from somewhere deep within me, as a pain came along with it as my entire physiology began moving from one form to another. Bones moved and lengthened or shortened according to the way they needed to fit within my shifting body. Hair lengthened to fur, and I closed my eyes as my fangs and the rest of my teeth began to reallocate and push backward and forward as my nose and mouth joined and elongated into the graceful, long snout of the wolf. I felt my body shake again against my Master before his arms tightened around my thinned form. My eyes were still closed tightly, and I let out a long, sharp whimper, and I felt his long, elegant fingers pass over the ears that were now on the top of my head and through my mane of fur.

“Shhh, Bastion, you can relax now, it’s over.” He told me, continuing to pet me reassuringly as I forced my tense muscles to in fact relax again. I hadn’t even realized how tense I had become as I sat there… Sat?

I opened my eyes, and could indeed see that we had become closer to the floor. He was kneeling and I… was…. Sitting? It felt odd, but I guess that was what I was doing. Before my eyes I could see my cold, somewhat wet black nose, as well as the tip of my snout, and I blinked at the new appearance of the appendage I had always known.

“See?” Master was saying as his arms began to slide down from around my shoulders and he leaned back to look at me as I turned my head to gaze at him. “That was not so bad, was it?”

I shook my head, unsure of how else to respond before I felt his hand upon my head again, and it traced around my furred, elongated cheeks and my fuzzy ears. My mouth opened, and I began to pant and whine in appreciation like the dog I had so recently become, nuzzling against his arm as it passed by me. “You’re so beautiful, Bastion, if only you could see yourself like this.”

I barked at him, feeling myself sort of smile, passing off as much of one as I could manage at that moment.

He blinked, as if having suspected me to answer him in some other fashion, but then opened his mouth in a thoughtful ‘ah’ as he remembered that he had not yet taught me how to respond in the way he was thinking.

“Just think heavily about what you want to say and who you want to say it to. Over time it will take less concentration, but for right now it might be difficult for you, young one.” He said, continuing to run his hand from the top of my head down over to the base of my neck, and I reveled in the attention, my fluffy tail thumping lightly against the marble. Feeling incredibly at ease, I allowed myself to lie down on the soft fur rug that covered the cold flooring that the two of us had been sitting over. I looked up at him with sated eyes as he continued to scratch and stroke my ears, head and neck. After a few minutes I got sick of holding my head up and rested it against his thigh, completely relaxed each and every moment that those fingers were coursing through my fur and over my ears.

Long, comfortable silence passed between us before he spoke again.

“Bastion, you can try speaking at any time.”

I looked up at him again, having rested my head over my black paws by this time, utterly enjoying the attention. I now knew how Fang had felt all the days of his life after we had nursed him to health. My eyes were half lidded with laziness and appreciation as I did, and I could see that he was a bit worried, not knowing if I had tried to speak with him or not, not knowing if I was able to master the skill or not, or if I were too weak to do so on my own just then.

‘I know…’ I thought out to him, focusing just as much energy as I could which at the moment wasn’t much at all, and I saw his worry ease, and even smelt the change in him. Oh my Master.

“Good, I’m glad you know that.” He told me, brushing his hand against my ear once more.

‘I’m tired, Master…’

He nodded. “As am I, the sun rose long ago, while you were in the throws of your transformation…”

‘While I was…’

“It takes hours generally, the first time one of our kind undergoes this change. Do not fear, next time it will take you less time and effort, and soon, you’ll be able to do it at the drop of a hat, within seconds, rather than hours.”

I nodded lazily, resting my head down against my paws again.

“Don’t fall asleep here, Bastion. Even with your fur, and the fire, this castle is drafty. You’ll catch something.”

I snorted, just knowing he was kidding. We couldn’t get sick. There was no way…

Meh...

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 03:39:33 GMT

Sorry I haven't been posting anything up in the past couple of... what days, weeks? Anyway, I had this whole thing a few weeks ago that happened that was bothering me that actually allowed me to finish writing and start writing two chapters, but I'm not going to post the one I got to start right yet.

Why?

It's not done.

Why?

My father was on vacation, and my sister was still on summer break for school, so I had two rather large distractions. But my sister's back in school, and my dad's going back to work tomorrow, so after I get a few things done around the house and town I'll get to finishing up that chapter and post it ASAP.

The next few days, my wonderful readers, aren't going to be a big pleasure cruise. I won't be around much to get a second chapter started, finished and up...

Why?

Tomorrow night I'm staying over my grandparent's (yayness!), then Friday I'm going shopping with Uncle Jack and my Gramma, then Saturday we have a bbq at my Uncle Jack's, then Sunday I move into my Dorm, Monday and Tuesday are orientation stuff and Wednesday is first day of classes. I'm going to be getting used to everything for the rest of the week, so hopefully the stuff will start rolling out again.

Serpent's Cross

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 03:13:30 GMT

Chapter Five

The rest of the night was rather uneventful compared to that first hunt. Master kept my small quirk in mind as he picked the rest of my targets, choosing men so that I would in no way be reminded of my family. I loved him for that, the deep consideration that the act imbued. I had realized that he had probably never encountered a problem like mine in any of the others of our kind, and so he had to keep reminding himself of it. It took a few more bodies before I began to feel satisfied and sluggish.

By then, we had moved around quite a bit, and in my euphoric state, I only knew where I was by knowing I was near Ahab. He was all in my world that mattered, which was just as well, as I was dozing off and zoning everything aside from his scent and leading my steed in the direction it was traveling in.

“Bastion, wake,” his voice was alive with a chuckle, more than likely at seeing me ride more than half asleep, and I blinked myself out of the doze I’d been in, raising my head to look up at him. “One more Bastion, and then we’ll go back to the castle and you can sleep to your heart’s content.”

“Master, I don’t think I can drink anymore…” I murmured, my voice a hush of fatigue. I was full up to my ears with blood. Never in my wildest imaginings had I been able to believe that I would have ever been able to get this full off of the liquid. It was amazing.

“Nonsense. Yes you can.” He told me with a slight, biting growl. “Besides, you have much yet to learn, and we cannot possibly cover any more of it tonight. We have to feed you enough to keep you fit for part of tomorrow night as well.”

“Why can’t we just do that in the morning?”

“Because that is what it will soon be, young one. You need rest, and so do I. Our kind cannot walk in daylight, and so that is when we sleep.”

“I don’t think I have room for more blood in me, Master.”

“Bastion.”

“I’m tired.”

“Don’t make me make you do it,” there was a definite growl of disapproval in his voice at this. Was he truly angry at me for resisting him on this point, or was it something else? Did he just not want to control me? I couldn’t tell what was running through his head. I had the feeling that if I put my mind to it, I could enter his head the way he had entered mine and could read his thoughts. But, I had no mind to put that theory into practice. I was far too tired just then, and though now I held more strength than I had at the beginning of this night, my first as a Child of Darkness, I did not have what it took to do such a thing, to violate my Master’s mind. At least, not yet.

Letting these thoughts slide, I sighed, giving him a nod. I didn’t want to be forced into anything, but I especially didn’t want to be controlled and forced at the same time. So I let my instincts kick in. I was a soldier, after all, and an order was an order. He told me to feed, so I would feed. With a small yawn, I took in our surroundings, as I hadn’t been paying much attention for long moments before this. We had come upon a tavern in a small village on our way back to the castle, having ventured pretty far out, moving with each change of meal venue. I dismounted from the back of the stallion, and handed him the reins, as he seemed to want to stay right where he was. He wasn’t coming with me.

“Inside, there is a woma-“

“Master, I can’t feed off of women.”

“You have to at least try it again, Bastion.”

“But, I-“

“You’re going to try again, whether it’s under your own power or not.”

I looked up at him with disappointment in my eyes. I really didn’t want to have to do this, but I would do it anyway, making sure to repeat my mantra. I was a soldier, and it was an order. Besides, he had given me new life, above pain and above everything else, I was bound to serve him, and if following every order that came from those thin, pale lips meant I could do that to the best of my ability, then I would do whatever he asked of me, no matter my personal qualms about the subject.

“Now. In the tavern is a woman, promiscuous, and in no way like your former lover, and she will no doubt approach a man such as you. You will feed from her. Make it look as if you’re in the same mood she is. Don’t take enough to kill her. Don’t take anywhere near that amount.”

I blinked at this. There was a way to feed without killing my victims? Maybe this would be able to solve my problem. I doubted it though. Taming my fears, one of the only ones I had ever carried, no less, would be more difficult than this, surely. I said nothing of this thought, though, and only moved toward the entrance of the tavern.

It was an older place, built out of stone by the Romans when they had first built their magnificent Empire to the north. That was a few generations ago, and the Northern Frontier was hardly dealt with by the Senate anymore, save for when the legionaries were called for. It was nearly a ruin, and smelled of mold and fermented liquor, other such intoxicating smells wafting around in the horrid mix. Tired as I was, and hit face first with the fumes as I entered by the shoddy, termite-ridden door, I nearly let go of my stored meals. Finding somewhere in me the strength to keep the blood down, I staggered over to a table out of the shine of the candle lights, and sat, looking around.

As soon as I did, I felt sorry. Even with all my strength, the men in the bar with me looked intimidating. Thick, probably well over twice my size, not in height, but in sheer build. I was around six foot, but thin, my body more equipped for speed and skill than sure strength. Though, that was before my transformation. I could have easily taken any of the burly drunkards with hardly a worry.

My intended target, a harlot at least ten years older than I, almost at her deathbed it looked like, was a meandering waitress. She looked drunk as well, stumbling around from table to table with a tray of ale for whosoever had ordered it.

She was larger than I as well, very thick. It made me wonder about how healthy her blood would be for me. There had to be something in it that was sure to make me ill, I thought, grimacing as she came over.

“Oh, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you around here, darling.” She said, putting a meaty hand down on the table and leaning far over it, so that she was looking me straight in the face. Her intention, however, was not to have me look her in the eye, but to have my gaze travel downward, to where her rather large breasts had been pressed up to her chin by her leaning over.

I was instantly disgusted, and felt my stomach lurch, my throat burn with bile as she came closer. Oh I hated this.

“What’s a strapping man like you want?” She asked in a small squeak of a voice, making me want to laugh. If she honestly thought this would drive me to my knees and whisk her off to her bed, she had another thing coming.

'Hurry, Bastion.' Master was sounding impatient, which meant we probably had little time to get back to the castle. I frowned mentally. It was looking as if I’d have to play at her game until she’d get close enough for me to do my work and leave. Oh how tired I was, how much I wished for my bed back in the castle just then. And the smell of this place was really getting to me. Yes, definitely had to work fast.

I swallowed my pride and the rising bile in my throat, in order to allow myself to speak. “Well, I was looking for some prime ale, to maybe, wake myself up a bit. I’ve been traveling, and… well, it’s been a long time since I’ve had something to drink, or any rest for that matter.”

A broad smile came to her face then, crooked and full of wanting. She sat down beside me, forgetting about the other men at the tables, and began tracing a finger around my chest through my shirt. I could feel her long, sharpened nails creating ruts in my skin that healed over as soon as her fingers had moved an inch or so away. “Well now, we could put you up for the rest of the night, actually, as long as you want.” She told me in a low voice, probably the one she used to seduce all the drunks. It wasn’t working on me, though. It only made my stomach feel worse.

“It’s not that I want to be put up.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s your problem…” She told me in that same low, lusting voice. Her other hand dipped below the table, and I could feel it begin to caress my thigh. She leaned close, “You need to be put up, darlin’”

“Well, maybe, just… maybe…” I whispered, getting her closer. I placed a hand on her cheek, pulling her closer to me, or at least, pulling her neck closer to me. I flinched as I realized this was what she wanted, and that, it didn’t matter if she didn’t look like Catherine, or acted like Catherine… she was still a woman, still like her. But in order to make Ahab happy, I’d have to do this. “I could stand to be put up.”

I leaned forward, kissing her neck, feeling her relax herself against me as she nearly climbed into my lap. Making my touches light and feathering, I kissed her again, though, this time, I used my fangs, and began drinking once they had plunged into her soft throat.

She stiffened a bit when it happened, but let out a light moan, working her hand up my thigh. I twitched as her hand worked her way across my lap, halting between my legs. I couldn’t take that. Besides, I was full. So, I withdrew, lapping at the small wounds on her neck to close them. Once they were, I got up and left without another word, even as she called after me.

“She was only trying to show you a good time.” Ahab told me as I came up to reclaim my place in my saddle. I felt embarrassed and exposed, and I hated it. I may haven never had held status in my life, I may never had any ‘class’, but I did have my pride, and now it had burst I felt so low it wasn’t funny. That wasn’t feeding, not by a long shot. Public humiliation was what that had been. “Bastion.”

“The sun is coming, isn’t it? You wanted me to hurry.” I grumbled, looking down at the strong shoulders of the stallion that was supporting me. “Can we go back now?”

I couldn’t see his face, but his voice sounded hurt when he spoke to me next. “Yes, we can. Come, we have a lot of ground to cover and a very small time in which to do so.”

* * *

We got back to the castle just in time, slowing our horses at the stables just as the sun was rising. I dismounted, taking the reigns of my stallion and leading him into his stall so that I could remove his gear. I had the feeling that Ahab was trying to speak with me, but I wasn’t listening. I felt horrible, no longer tired and sluggish, but unsteady on my feet and entirely disorientated. I wanted nothing more than to be left to myself and get to my bed.

Ahab had already finished with his own stallion and had left me to what I was doing. I was grateful for it as I brushed out the mane of the stallion I was standing beside. I leaned against him for a moment, feeling woozy and unsteady. The stallion turned his head and whinnied to me, bobbing his head a bit.

“I’m alright.” I told him, an obvious lie that the animal seemed to sense, as I came up beside his head, he reached over and bit down on my sleeve. I turned and gave him a reassuring pat and stroke on the head. “I get it. I’ll be better soon. You need some rest too, go on.” I exited the stall on the most wobbling legs I think I’d ever had the misfortune to walk upon.

Once I had found my way back to my room, I felt as if my entire body had melted. I was walking goop and I felt as if I hardly had the energy to make it over to my bed. Somehow, I managed, collapsing into a pile on the mattress. My eyes began to flutter closed, and soon I was in a deep sleep. It wasn’t a great one, in a sense, as soon my dreamless nothingness was turned into a perpetual nightmare that would haunt me for long days to come.

‘Bastion…’ It was a heavenly ethereal voice surrounding me, cradling my frazzled brain and seeking to soothe. I opened my eyes, or at the very least, the eyes of my dream-self, and looked around. Darkness was spreading into every eternity, below, above, to my left and right, before and behind me. And yet, I felt myself familiar, at home in this ever-expanding darkness. Was this where I had been just the night before, the realm somewhere between life and death?

‘Bastion…’ I recognized the voice now, and my heart stopped. I looked around everywhere in that endless black.

“Catherine?”

There she was, ghostly white and transparent, red hair flowing around her shoulders in her most impressive bounce and curl. Her lips were as full and as red as they had been before she had gotten sick, and her eyes were flashing and pure with energy and grace. She stood in the nightgown she had died in the morning I held her in my arms. She came over to me, not so much walking in the darkness, but floating. I brought my hand up and touched her face, and I was able to, caressing her soft cheek with my thumb.

“Catherine…”

Her hands wound around my back, pulling me close to her. ‘Bastion, you left us…’

“Ca-“ I found myself unable to go on. There was a sudden, sharp pain in my back, and I let out a growl at it. I could feel fingers, her fingers, fishing around in my insides, pulling and pushing at my organs, moving them all around and out of place. It was excruciating, and at the same time, paralyzing. I couldn’t move against it to push her away. My hand fell from her cheek and my eyes widened, fangs gnashing together in pain as I sputtered for breath and the ability to cry out for help. But my throat constricted against my wishes, and it was almost as if she had her hand around it, squeezing the breath from my lungs.

‘You left us, Bastion. You left us there to die! Your wife and daughter, the ones you said you’d give your life for, and here you are, living still while we suffer without you!’

But what did you mean, Catherine? Did you not know that I could not have been with you, even if I had died? My love for you and Jessica did not hold my redemption as you had thought it would have, as you had told me it would have since the very day I knew we were going to die, since the very day that I knew I would be separated from you forever. Why were you doing this? Trying to kill me in my dreams? Why?

The hand that had forced its way through my shoulders had found its target, and I could feel her nails digging pits into my stomach. The hand around my throat eased, and plunged its way into my chest as I began to sputter and choke on blood. My vision becoming hazy, I felt as if my knees would surely give out as my heart and stomach were toyed with by the vision of my most beloved. Blood oozed from my lips as I coughed it up, and was cried out my eyes from the sorrow of this. Truly, she was trying to do me in; she wanted me to suffer in eternal hellfire. Why? I had done nothing to her, I had wronged her in no way.

‘You said you would always be faithful to me. You said you would never even so much as look at another woman, for all eternity. And yet, in your damned ways, you’ve not only been looking, you’ve been feeding off of them. You’re no better than that whore you drank from tonight. No better!”

“BASTION!”

My knees finally collapsed under me, and I felt myself held in strong arms as blood flowed freely from the wounds in my chest and back, from my sputtering mouth and watering eyes.

My vision bleary, I could no longer feel the hands of my one time lover in my body, and I felt relieved at this prospect. I was lifted off of the floor by those strong arms that surrounded me, and brought over to my bed. I was weak, but I knew, I knew by the weak scent that I gathered around the smell of my ever flowing blood, that Ahab was there, holding me. He was frightened, I could sense it. He was afraid for me, my safety. My wounds were bad, deep. I had lost a lot of blood in the attack by the specter, and it scared him.

He didn’t want to loose me.

He wanted me to stay.

“Ma-Master…”

“Shhh, Bastion.” His voice was soft as his eyes searched my bloodied body. He held be close to him, my head resting against his shoulder. He reached down for the corner of my already ruined silk sheets and began at least cleaning my face as he leaned against him.

“I… sorry for… d-oubting you…” I muttered as he finished up the long process, having remained silent throughout its entirety.

“Quiet Bastion, rest,” he told me in a voice that, though still gentle and caring, held more of its razor’s edge from earlier that night.

“C-catherine….”

He shook his head with a small sigh. Through my still lingering pain I felt his long fingers brush through my hair. My eyes closing from fatigue and weakness, I only had time to hear him speak once more to me.

“Do not fear. She can hurt you no longer, Bastion.”

Wooooooooooooow

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:56:04 GMT

Yay!

I got sleep last night!

Hmn. My mom read this thing when we were at my Gramma's yesturday that said calming cool colors (AH TONGUE TWISTER!) like green and blue helped people fall asleep. I just happen to have a big, furry blue and green pillow that I bought for my dorm a few weeks ago. Well, brought it upstairs last night and... OH MY GOD... it actually worked!

I feel so much better now!!! ahhhh....

taking a break

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:53:54 GMT

Because of a severe case of writer's block, I'm taking a break from postiong SC. I haven't been able to think of how to start the fifth chapter. Well, I lied. I have SOME idea, but I don't really think it's very good.

Besides, I'm tired. I haven't been sleeping well the past couple of nights. Last night was no better, even with the reknewed stock of melatonin mom bought me last night. The only type at the store she bought was 1/3 the strength of the ones I had last time, so I had to take 3x as much. I ended up taking six of them.

But that should have put me out like a light... instead I found myself up until 4AM last night. Why?

My "darling" little sister woke me up. A few times. After that, couldn't get back to sleep no matter what I tried. And, I had already taken 6 midol tablets during the course of the day, I wasn't about to take more than 6 melatonin.

So here I am... ZOMBIE!

Serpent's Cross

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:07:47 GMT

Chapter Four

When I next woke, it was amazing. My body felt as if it were on fire, but not in a bad way. I was high, newly awakened to powers I could not yet comprehend. The first thing I had noticed, though, was that my Master, Ahab, the silver-haired aristocrat, was not in the chair he had been sitting in earlier. This startled and confused me. I didn’t know why he was not there, but I also didn’t know why he would be. He probably had other things to attend to, other than see that I was safe and sane.

I got up, taking my time, but not feeling any disorientation at all. I had been given knew life, and it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I looked around the room that I had woken to the day before, having really not had a good look around then. Stone walls, stone flooring, smooth and polished, elegant and decadent. … When I looked to my feet, I could see that it was in fact a finely cared for marble. Expensive. Ahab had to be a noble, or else had stumbled upon this place completely furnished, which I doubted highly. Though, it did occur to me that he could have killed the former Masters of this place and taken it for his own.

One look back at the bed I had been in exposed it as a lush, dark wooded four poster with its down mattress and pillows, expansive beyond belief. The sheets, I could see now, were silk from the east, matched with white and blood crimson. I snorted at the appropriateness of this, and then gazed over at the shades of the bed. They were thick; probably to help ease the exposure the occupants of the castle would have to the sun. As far as I knew, it was myself and my newly acquainted Master, and no one else. The long curtains in the room were of the same thick fabric, covering the windows and cutting off most of the light, soft, velvet. However, just now they were drawn open, letting light from the moon and stars into the room. Candles in wall sconces helped illuminate the room, which was wide, though sparsely furnished with a few chairs, the bed, a table which the other chairs had been gathered around, and hanging tapestries. Other than that, the bed, and the other chair that my Master had been sitting in, it was bare.

I made my way over to one of the windows. It was thin, but tall. I leaned against it, peering out. I was in an upper level of what looked like an exquisite and quite expansive old castle. The air outside was fresh and still a bit warm from the sun. By the look of the sky, it had only set recently. I took in a deep breath, letting it go with a sigh.

“Enjoying the scent of the world?” The question posed from behind me caused me to turn quickly. Ahab stood there, smiling at me. “Soon, my young Bastion, you will be able to sense when there is someone drawing near to you, and you will no longer be startled.”

I looked from my Master to the door, raising a brow at seeing it still closed. It was made wood, bolted with heavy iron. Surely I would have heard that open, and yet I had not. Had I been so lost in thought in the moments preceding his entrance that my new gift of hearing had escaped on the wind?

“No.” He was reading my thoughts again. I could feel it as surely as if there were tangent fingers pricking into my brain. “Not so much as you would think. There was nothing going through your head. You were simply enjoying the weather.”

“Then how-“

“I did not enter by the doorway, young fledgling.”

I blinked. “How then, what skill did you employ so easily that you were able to catch me unguarded?”

Ahab laughed. “We children of the night, we immortals, we can employ many different tricks.” He told me. “One of them is the art of teleportation. We can disappear from view in one area, to move swiftly to another at a whim. It makes our movements imperceptible to other immortals, just as our unnatural speed does to mortals.” He explained.

I nodded in understanding.

“You need only picture the place you wish to be, and then take a step backward, and you will be stepping into your new placement.” He added. “Try.”

Taking the command as gracefully as I had taken the others he had given me so far, I closed my eyes, picturing myself by his side. Opening my eyes with that thought still wringing through my mind, I took a cautious, barefooted step backward. I felt my body begin to dissipate, as if each cell of my were being torn apart, which startled me at first, but then, just as quickly, I felt myself coming together again, and blinked. I was behind Ahab, just half a step behind, and to his left.

He turned, looking at me with appeased honey gold eyes and a thin smile. “You learn quickly.” He said, managing to keep that smile. “But come, you must be hungry. I can see it written in your eyes.”

I was about to tell him that no, I wasn’t in fact hungry, when I felt my stomach begin to cramp, making with it as it did an almost audible growl. I felt blood beginning to rush to my face.

“Nothing to be embarrassed about, young Bastion. Your body needs blood in order to grow stronger. And you must always follow your hunger. Feed often and everyday until you grow to be a hundred, when you need a bit less to fuel your powers. As you grow older, you will need less blood, but you will always need it. If you don’t gather it, the cramping of hunger may eventually become too much for you. I’d hate to think of what will happen then.”

I frowned. “What would happen?”

“I don’t know. There has never been anything like that even spoken about amongst our kind. We are too few in number and too young to know what would happen.”

“How old are you, Master?”

“Over four hundred years, now. The appointed Master of our race.”

“There are others?”

“You are the first I have turned. I was born this way, as were a few others, but I am the oldest and by far the strongest. They have all scattered to other continents by now, but I rule over us all.”

I nodded.

“But that is enough on our history for now, Bastion. Come, you must feed.” He handed me fresh clothing, and waited patiently while I dressed before we disembarked.

* * *

Instead of using my new trick to find a suitable place to hunt, we rode. Ahab had justified his actions by telling me that you had to know a place before you were able to shift yourself there. It was a necessity that I know my new territory before I was able to move anywhere in it, otherwise I could find myself hopelessly lost.

I couldn’t fight against that logic, not at all. In the end, I had conceded. Besides, at least we weren’t walking. I would rather ride the horse, especially since I was starting to feel a bit weak again. Ahab seemed to notice this and urged his steed on quickly; forcing me to do the same so that I could keep up and again, not find myself hopelessly lost, though I’d be able to track his scent. I had grown used to it already, and my sense of smell was as highly attuned as a dog’s now. I could follow him anywhere, I figured.

Under me, the horse snorted. It was a broad black stallion, its mane and tail long and flowing. Its powerful hooves thundered against the ground as I urged it onward, following the path that Ahab’s white stallion of similar stamina and build carried him upon. It wasn’t long at this pace before we found a village.

It was small, and reminded me of home, communal flocks of chickens and their chicks settling down for the night, a corral of horses at rest, but roused by the scent and sound of our powerful stallions. They whinnied across the space, calling out and receiving not an answer aside from a snort and grunt from our now resting steeds. The two of us dismounted, taking a quick, measured look around. This troubled me, and I knew he could sense it, for he turned to me. “Nothing to fear, Bastion. We shall make our business quick and be gone from this place before anyone is the wiser and everything is disturbed. But, my friend, you must remember – you are no longer a part of this world. You walk in it, but you much be attached. Humans are our food source; they are prey to our predator. Do you understand?”

“Yes Master… I am dead to the world; I did die, and was born anew.”

He nodded, pleased by my answer, and I felt satisfied that I had caused such a reaction in him. I followed as he led us through the village, looking at every house, his eyes scrutinizing them, trying to find the perfect target for me to cut my teeth on. Literally. Aside from cutting my own tongue many times by now, and drinking from his wrist as he had prompted me to in that first night, I hadn’t used my teeth at all.

After long last, he stopped, looking to a small hut, hardly even worthy the title of home. “There,” he told me, “An old mother and her grown daughter. Both of them are deeply asleep, they won’t even feel you approach.” I nodded, and moved to go forward, but he caught my shoulder to stop my progress. “Go for the vein in the neck, it is where you get the most blood with the least effort. And be gentle until the last possible moment, that way, they don’t wake up and scream, as unlikely as that is to be.”

Once more, I nodded, and this time, he let me go. I crossed over to the house indicated, opening the door with care before slipping in. The house was even smaller inside than out. One room, two thatch beds, both women, and very little more than that. I could hear their heartbeats, thumping in time. It was intoxicating, still is in my memories. It has been so long since that day, and yet I remember it all. The creak of the floorboards under my feet, the smell of the hay under the two women, my reaction to the fact that it was women I would be feeding off of.

My head was spinning as I looked from one bed to the other, trying to decide which to feed from first. I didn’t enjoy the feeling, but I thought it was probably a normal reaction to actually hunting instead of having Master feed me. The ‘Old Mother’, as Master had described her, really wasn’t all that old, only about twice my age (I was only twenty-three at the time of my mortal death), but in those times, she was quiet ancient. I decided, however, to dine first on her daughter, and then carry over to her. It was just practical, that way. If the mother screamed and woke her daughter, the lass would either try and fight me off, or scream herself and awaken the entire village to our presence. I couldn’t have that, it would put Ahab and I in danger.

This being decided, turned my attention to the younger woman, walking to her bedside and bending over her. There was nothing remarkable about her. Fair of face, long of hair, slender of body, as most women from this age had been; just as Catherine had been. I stopped in my advance, taking in a deem breath. Just like Catherine. I couldn’t do this. The wound was too fresh, far too fresh. Instead, I sat on the side of the bed, just staring down at her, with a mournful expression. How could I live on without her? How could I feed from a woman and not picture her? This was going to be far harder than I had thought originally.

'Bastion, what is it that you’re doing?'

I was taken aback by hearing Ahab’s voice in my head. How?

'Feed Bastion. You need to, other wise you will grow weak.'

I blinked, shaking my head. I couldn’t do this.

'Yes, you very well can! Now do it before I force you to.'

With a sigh, I frowned, leaning down, and did what I had been told to by my Master. I went slow, gently positioning my fangs over the pulsating artery in her neck just before plunging them in. She let out small moans as I fed on her, but didn’t wake. I spent a few moments feeding off of each, until I felt their last breaths coming, and then withdrew.

I exited the house just as quietly as I had entered, my head hung in mourning at the thought of what I had just committed, though there was no reason to. I could no longer wake those who lay inside. They were gone, just as my family was gone. I looked up in time to see that Master was exiting another cottage, and coming toward me. He looked very satisfied, and held a euphoric smile. I was also feeling a bit high, but not nearly as much as I had feeding off of him. The blood of those women had not been as rich as his, and I was being haunted by them, even this soon. With them following me, I couldn’t enjoy the blood I had just been drinking, or the strength I had gained from them

“Look at you.” He said in a whispered voice, so that only I could hear. “You’re so clean about the way you kill. You didn’t spill a drop.” He was inspecting my face as he said it. “You will be a great one.”

“How can you tell?” my voice sounded so despondent. I felt dead. How ironic that I was undead and yet I felt so much worse in doing the one thing I should have felt better in doing.

“Bastion, what is this now?” He asked, coming close to me. I felt his hand against my cheek, his thumb brush away a tear I hadn’t any idea I had shed.

“I… didn’t want to feed on them, Master.” I sputtered, looking to the stain of crimson on his hand. In a later time, I’d remember that touch, even though I wouldn’t be able to feel it. He’d start to wear gloves of the finest leather, separating his soft skin from mine for what would feel like eternities.

“And why is that, Bastion?”

“They-“

He cut me off, his voice a sad sigh. “Reminded you of her, did they?” I nodded. “Bastion, what have I told you? There is no way to bring her back, you need to move on. Your ties to this world have been severed, there is nothing for you to hold onto anymore. Stop dwelling your thoughts on them, it will do nothing but hurt you.”

I nodded, but he didn’t seem convinced by this. He took my face into his hands and forced me to gaze straight into his eyes. “Bastion. Stop.” He ordered. I could feel the warm tears still spilling down my cheeks, though I wished it to stop so badly my heart began to physically ache. His gentle hands kept wiping them away as soon as they were coming from my eyes. “You’re going to loose all your blood, stop.”

When I found my eyes still unwilling to end their shedding, he pulled me close against him. “I did not know you would react this strongly. Usually the first feeding goes easier if it’s done on a member of the opposing sex. I didn’t know your bond with her was this strong and would cause such a – a – I did not know it would lead to this. Had I, I would have picked a different target for your first. Forgive me.”

“There is nothing to forgive, Master…” I murmured against his strong shoulder. “But… I’m still hungry.”

He gave a small laugh, taking me away from his shoulder to look down at me, and smiled. “Then that, we shall have to remedy the proper way.”

Serpent's Cross

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:59:24 GMT

Chapter Three

I didn’t know how long I had been out the next time I had awoken. All I knew was that I felt more comfortable then I had lying on the ground. The pain, that horrible, killer pain was gone, completely gone. I was relaxed, more so than I felt I had been in years. Surely, Hell would not be this relaxing. Surely that was where I was at this juncture. It had to be.

I was afraid to open my eyes.

I could feel my body beginning to shake at the thought of having to do such. Surely, surely I would open them and my now nonexistent pain would be driven up ten fold from the weapons of torture belonging to the fallen angels that were unquestionably waiting to exact my punishment in their fiery chasms.

But then, a voice, low, silky smooth and soothing reached my ears, “Bastion, you need not fear punishment. Open your eyes.”

For a long few moments I kept my eyes closed, not trusting that voice. It was almost too comforting. Though, after a moment, there was a feeling of control and confidence that leaked in and made me question that.

“Come now, there is nothing to be frightened about, young one.” The voice said again, with almost a purring quality, the tongue rolling with an anamorphic accent. It belonged to no country and yet every one I had ever been to. There was no and yet every familiarity to it, the tone was warm and even paternal. Ever so slowly, I opened my eyes. Any sort of focus was lacking for the first few seconds, the orbs soar and itchy. After a few moments though, everything came into startling clarity. I could see definition I never had before, colors that had been unmentionable to me before I had passed out.

It seemed that the opening of my eyes had brought about the awakening of my other senses. My hearing went beyond the voice that had come to me. I could hear my own breath, even as silent as it usually was, in addition to my heartbeat… and the one that belonged to the voice. A steady, comforting double thumping rhythm of the two muscles calmed my frazzled nerves, though just then I couldn’t remember why exactly my nerves had been run so raw. I was too shocked.

I could hear my heart. My heart was beating… I was alive. How was this possible?

Touch began to awaken then, and everything started snapping together. I was lying on a bed, on my side. Soft sheets enveloped me, feeling of some sort of fabric my skin had never experienced against it. The mattress supporting me felt to be of down, as did the pillow under my head. The linen against my chest, the shirt draped across it, was new. I could not feel in the sleeves the tears I knew to be there, or the stitching that had mended them.

“Red.”

It was at this point that I became aware of the form who had been addressing me this entire time; the one that belonged to that voice. He sat before me, in a chair next to the bed. The chair was straight backed, made of pure dark wood and the backing, which was covered in pure leather, was so plush it was almost overstuffed. I didn’t care much about the chair so much though – what had caught my rapt attention was its occupant. He had bent at the waist to be closer to me, his face mere inches from mine. He appeared young, but held himself in the manner of one of the Roman statesman, old and aristocratic and full of pride and self confidence. He had eyes of a rich golden exposure, and hair of the finest silver. It was long, pooled around his shoulders, but drifted beyond that, probably to the middle of his back. He held an appraising expression, sizing me with those tempting orbs of his. Had I been a thief I might have been bold enough to try and run away with them. But I wasn’t, and as it was, though I was far more comfortable than I had been before, I felt horribly weak, even sick to my stomach.

As this new face went about turning his eyes over me, I did the same to him. Even his clothing suggested highest nobility. He wore a linen day shirt, much in the style of mine, but of a rich crème color, where mine was pure white (one of my arms was extended out before me). His pants were dark blue, rivaling even the deepest abysmal black, and tightly fitting, hugging him about the waist and thigh. They ended just below the knee, I supposed, which was where his high boots began, sliding down his graceful calves.

He drew my attention back to his face, which I was now recognizing to be very pale, almost as much as to rival his fine muted locks. This scrutiny drew my curiosity, as well as a bit of nervousness, though that was soon quelled as the confident feeling willed itself again to take over my mind and heart. I didn’t want to be confident though, which further aroused my suspicions. Was I being prompted?

Then his comment earlier sunk in.

“What is?”

He had straightened by now, and looked down to me, arching a long, thin, well rounded brow. “Excuse me?”

“What’s red?”

“Your eyes,” he stated matter-of-factly, as if it should have been obvious to me what he had been addressing with his statement, but then again, I couldn’t see my own eyes.

“They’re brown.” I told him. I knew they were. Catherine had always told me that my eyes were so brown that they rivaled any and every color in their depth. With a thud, I remembered why it had been that my nerves had been so frayed when I had first woke.

“No, they are quite positively red, my friend.” He said, and then he frowned, his eyes seeming to turn sympathetic. Or annoyed; it was hard to tell which. “Don’t let your thoughts dwell upon them, Bastion. They are positively dead. Nothing can bring them back.”

These words were like a slap in the face, seemingly made even more cruel by some odd connection I felt to this stranger, this man who was apparently rich and had been watching over me and had clothed me and taken me in in my time of need; a man who had saved my life. I didn’t want to hear it. My expression went dead, I could feel it. It didn’t even seem of any consequence to me then that this stranger knew me, knew my name, knew of Catherine and Jessica and knew of what had happened to them.

“Bastion…”

I looked over at him, my now red eyes glaring.

“There was nothing I could have done. By the time I had arrived their essence, their souls, had ascended to their rightful places. You were the only one with any life in you. The village was a sea of corpses, and I could save but one. Even if I could have saved them, I probably wouldn’t have.”

“How do you know my name?”

“You told me.”

“I don’t recall-“

“It wasn’t by conventional means.”

I blinked, my brows furrowing in confusion. How then? But I did not ask him this next. “Who are you? You saved me, but how?”

He gave a small laugh then, pulling his thin lips upward into a smile. The skin moved slightly from his teeth, his incisors I noticed were long, longer than most, and appeared razor sharp, as if filed down to an incredibly sharp edge and tip.

“That is simple.” He said, his voice that low, prideful aristocratic tone. The drone of it was comforting, again paternal in the sense as it had been earlier. “My name is Ahab. Ahab Jacques Tussand. I am a noble, by nature, as you have already thought so boldly.”

He paused, but I knew already that Ahab had more he had to say. I remained silent, allowing him to finish explaining himself to me.

“I am an immortal,” he stated, as if there were not a problem at all with it. I was beginning to feel fear creeping within me. If he was… then what was stopping him? But he went on. “A nosferatu, a vampire, as you mortals so… expertly coined.” He frowned again, my mood distressing him. “Bastion, calm yourself. I have already told you that there is nothing to fear, have I not?”

He had assured me of that much. I still felt ill at ease in his presence, however. I couldn’t help it. How could I not be afraid?

“Besides, the damage I could do has already been done.”

My face paled at this, and my eyes grew wider. “What?” I let out the accusation in a breath. I could scarcely believe what was being told to me.

“You’re an immortal, Bastion. It was the only way to save you, and you seemed too strong to die there in that place.” Ahab shook his head. “You’re destined for far greater things, far more spectacular battles.”

“But…”

“No.” He said firmly. “I’ve told you, there was nothing anyone could have done to save them. They were destined to die, and you to live on as something greater.”

I felt my shoulders begin to shudder. How? How could I live on without them? How could I? There were all I had ever had, my one ray of happiness. They were everything to me.

“Bastion. Stop this now.”

I felt my shoulders stop. He was controlling me. Ahab had been making me feel at ease, he had forced me to stop my round of self-pity before it could even begin. He had one hand in my mind and was quite easily bending me to his will.

“You are yet too weak to be loosing blood through the act of mourning for your human family. You were at the verge of death when I turned you, your blood was so thick from dehydration it was barely a drink at all.” He snapped. “Don’t threaten your life now for them when there is no bringing them back.”

“Why should I not mourn? They were –“

“All you had in that world. But you will have so much more now.” He said, his voice turning soft with pity. He pitied me, but would not allow me to wallow in it myself. He sighed, drifting over to the bed and sitting down on its side. With little effort, he began to pull me up, until he held me close to him in his arms. Though I hadn’t wished for it, due to my weakness, my head lolled on my neck until it found comfort against his chest. He smelled of blood and soil, and even the aroma of odd wine, and somehow it was very appealing to my new sense of smell. I felt like the newborn that essentially I was, in a sense, getting used to my new gifts and my new body. “You’re still so weak…” he said to me, his voice a whisper, lulling me, prompting my eyes to close, though I do not believe this was his intended reaction for me.

“Don’t.” He ordered, and my eyes opened again. I didn’t like being controlled like this, not one bit. I did, however, like being held against him. Though I knew Ahab now to be undead, there was a strange warmth about his body. Despite the fear that I had harbored moments before, I felt comfortable here.

I looked up at him, honestly wanting to rest, my eyes feeling heavy and my mind weak against them. He smiled; realizing then that my fatigue wasn’t brought about by him, but my own weakness. As he had stated, I was very much lacking in strength still.

“No, my fledgling.” He told me. “Not just yet.”

I raised a black brow as if in question, and he laughed.

“You must feed, then you may sleep.” I watched as he took the cuff of his shirt sleeve in his teeth, as his other hand was preoccupied in holding me up against him, and rolled it up about his elbow. He reached forward, offering me his wrist.

With it so close, I found I could hear the beating of the arteries traveling up his arm. My mouth began to water at the proposition, and I was almost repulsed by the new attraction, though I knew there was no way around it. I was nosferatu now; I had to drink to survive. As I was wrestling with this new, strange dilemma, my tongue darted out of my mouth, wetting my lips. As it did, I felt something sharp dig into it. A long fang, my fang – I had just cut my tongue on its tip. Ahab gave a soft smile down at me at my waiting, prompting me again by moving his wrist closer.

“Go on, bite down, drink. It is the only way you will grow strong.” He instructed me. I blinked, and nodded, turning to the prone wrist before me. I leaned forward, doing as he instructed. His skin was surprisingly easy to break through. I thought for some reason that it would be harder, due to his status. It wasn’t, though, and I drank greedily, feeling the blood fill me, floating through my stomach and into the rest of my body, reservoiring behind my eyes and in my brain. I felt my spirits lift, and knowledge come into me from his years of wandering, thoughts coming with the blood. I embraced them, and drank till I was told no more for now. Sated and full, I reluctantly gave up my place in his arms as he laid me back on the pillows, the blankets coming to cover me.

I let my eyes begin to drift close, watching as I did Ahab’s torn wrist healing over the areas where I had bitten down. I was fast turning my consciousness into sleep, but could not rest just yet. There was one last thing I had to say to him before I fell into the lap of slumber.

“Thank you, my Master.”

Serpent's Cross

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:55:32 GMT

Chapter Two

“Bastion… Bastion… My love, wake…”

Small voice, soft, barely above a whisper; frail, shaking, pained.

Usual, expected, the one I had been waking too for years now, but at the same time, not usual – different somehow.

Early morning sun shone in my eyes. I didn’t want to wake, for I knew waking would surely draw me into the pain of another day. I had been a soldier, a warrior of great acclaim and skill, but I had never once in my years of battle been through a pain like this. Not this great, not this horrid. Never.

The disease had brought it, that foul demon we had not a name for, this blistering heat and throbbing body, the entirety of every bone, joint, and muscle feeling as if it were slowly being pulled past its limits and burned, constantly. Constant, waking pain.

What little sleep was attainable was the only refuge. It was either that or death, but I could not choose death. I had faced far worse and had never chosen it, not even thought about it. Why do so now?

Because, my friend, I could not stand the waking, and the pain that came with it. Yes, the agony of my body was great, but not as great as that tormenting my very soul. Every morning I would wake, the pain would come, and I would be forced to turn to the face I loved the most, and see it sunken and pale, just as sick if not sicker than I, weaker than I, hoping for a release or any comfort I could give, something that by no means I would ever ask of her.

Knowing that there was no solace I could give her only made it worse. Oh my poor Catharine. How I loved you so. I loved you so much that I wished I was dead. I could not bear to see you suffer any more, my dear, nor could I give you the rest you so sorely deserved by killing you. My love.
Even worse than Catherine’s pain was that of Jessica. My little darling, if only I could have saved you, if only you had been able to hold a few more hours. Oh my lovely, lovely girls.

“Bastion, dear… please…” I couldn’t stand hearing her plead with my body anymore. I lay awake, but my eyes were closed. She was crying, her tears pouring from her the last of her body’s moisture. I could feel it on the shoulder of my thin linen day shirt. I had fallen asleep in it, and so I wore it then.
I opened my eyes, clear and brown, but faded with weariness. I could now also hear Jessica’s muffled sobs. She was lying with us, as she always did when she was frightened. She was huddled against me, my shirt already soaked by her tears, as well as her mother’s, as she held on as tight as her little hands could.

“Papa! Papa!”

She could not see that my eyes were opened from where her head lay between her hands. Balled against my chest, she could not look up and see me watching her with the most pained look I think I had ever worn in my entire existence, human or immortal together.

“Shhh… shhh my little one…” I spoke soothingly to her. “Papa hasn’t given up yet.” She quieted against me, looking up and into my eyes as I moved my head so she could indeed see me. Her own were too clouded, almost lifeless, amid the mob of thick red curls which she had inherited from her mother. It pained me greatly to see that, like I had already seen in many of those who lived in the same village as we did. I knew what would be coming. Any day now, death would be coming for her. “Go on now.”

She scampered off, giving off little whimpers of pain as she went, to where I did not know just then. I didn’t care. In my heart I knew it didn’t matter. She would die, just as all the others had died, just as Catherine and I were fated to die. It was unpleasant, it was hurtful, but it was true. My poor little girl, barely even four years, would die.

I was young, but I understood more than I let others believe. Catherine knew, she knew my secret, knew how intelligent I really was. She also knew I knew we were all destined to part ways, and it would be soon.

Back then, I had held a very strong religious belief, as everyone had. I knew that my girls, my wife and daughter, would be going to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Lord and be forever saved. My fate would not be the same as theirs. I had killed… even though it had been secretly in His name I had killed, and I would be residing with devils, horrible monstrosities sent to guard the pits of the most terrifying of hells.

Some days I think I really am there, bound to the earth to live out countless mortal lives, without ever being able to see either of them, the sources of the only happiness I had ever known, again. And how did I know I’d be going there, had this been before the inevitable rise of Christianity. Plain and simple – we were far enough out of the way that the Romans didn’t bother us for our beliefs. We had been visited by Christ in my father’s lifetime, before I had been born, and apparently saved, no doubt.

Or, they had, at least. Not me. Not the warrior, the Holy Murderer, the killer.

“Bastion, it hurts.” Catherine was telling me as I turned my attention back from the trail Jessica had made to her mother. Beautiful, even on her deathbed; long, red hair that curled around her head and jaw, framing her thin, even in life, face, half the time covering her brilliant green eyes. Elegant and thinly arched brows that would make even the most primped of nobility cry out in jealousy. Her skin had always been fair, but now it was paled with sickness, almost transparent in appearance. I hated it. What had it done to her? Sunken her cheeks, her eyes, created long, darkened bags under them. “Help me, Bastion…” Her hands clawed for mine; making me think that she had gone blind with pain.

“I know. I would help you if only I could, my dearest Catherine. You know that,” Oh how little I knew. She really had gone blind, and I was the one who could not see it. Her pain escalated, and when I finally met her touch, she squeezed her frustrations into my thinning, bony hand as hard as she could, drawing from it thickened blood, almost black in its appearance.

“Bastion!” in her agony she cried my name, sounding as if she was cursing me. I didn’t care, I did what I could do for her, brought her into my arms, fighting tears, hating myself for not being able to do more. I had said I loved her, and could do nothing to release her from the pain. Oh if only I could take it as my own, be a vessel for her pain while harboring my own. I’d do it in a heart beat. Till my dying breath I would love her, and I still do.

“Bastion…..” she breathed into my shoulder, into the looseness of my black locks brought into a weak show of a pony tail. She found her sanctuary there. She had always loved my hair. I don’t know why. But then, just then, it calmed her, calmed her in a way that I could not. It made me feel useless, I am ashamed to say.

“Bastion….?” her voice, it was weak, even against my ear - weaker than it had ever been in my memories. I felt rage well within me, knowing, just knowing. With all of my soul, I mentally plead and undying curse. Oh God, you had to start my eternal damnation before my death, didn’t you? Forsook me before the Time of Forsaking. And men call me Beast… It is you, on your eternally high pedestal, looking down at us, your servants who you loved more than the angels! You are the beast, not I.

“Yes, love?”

“Jessica…”

“Shhh… I know…”

“Take care…”

“Don’t speak, love.” My voice was breaking at this point. I was pleading with her. I needed her to live, her daughter needed her. Foul, foul Beast on high! Thou art the devil, nay not the God thou pose as! Clear your throne, I call you out. Face me… It would never happen, I knew, but I wished for it with all of my falsely blackened soul.

“Bastion?”

“Aye?” A thousand curses upon you, Lord of Sinners!

“I… I …. Lo-love…. Yo-u…”

I felt the last of her breath leave her, the last beat her heart would make against the rhythm of my own weakening pulse as I held her. I could not cry. Not now. Not with Jessica still alive. No. I had to be a strong Papa for her. For as long as she lived, I needed to be strong. Hopefully the strength would find me before I found her, for this half of the ordeal had already drained a good bit of what
I had left. Foul, foul devil-God. Pose as you may, I know what you are.

I laid Catherine down on our bed for the last time; closed her eyes with my fingers. Gently, gently, I placed the blankets over her peaceful face, and crossed myself, mumbling words of prayer for her soul. My belief was shaken, horribly, and had been for weeks now as I slowly watched them die.

“Il nominee Patres, et Filie, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.”

Ha, how old is that prayer and yet it still lives on for you pitiful creatures? Yes, I used it. I wasn’t above it yet. Even though I had cursed the God I had believed in for so long, even though I knew He was torturing me by taking my family away, I had yet to let go, though I knew, oh yes, even then, I knew of my place.

I rose from the bed, putting pained feet to the cold wooden floor. Winter? The floor was cold, it had to be… Colder than usual, anyway. No, wasn’t the case. Dying, dying, dead. I looked back to the covered body as I moved muscle after aching muscle, heading out the door, exiting our cottage with its thatched roof.

Dead. Gone. Cold. Nothing I could do, anyone could do.

I let out a shuddering sigh, looking around. Bodies, everywhere, the ground was littered with them. You couldn’t take a step without tripping on your neighbors decayed form. The whole village reeked of the smell of them, their death, decay, and their excrement. There would be no way to get that smell out of the land.

And not only was it people. The horses I had kept were dead, mates lying together in a tangled mess of liquidating flesh in the corral. I wondered, should I share that same fate with Catherine? Forget all about Jessica and rush with the last of my strength back to the bed where my wife lay, and play out the last few moments of my life, my arms entwined with hers, holding her close, lovers as we had been? I shook my head. Must be strong for Jessica. No more would my stallion carry me off to battle, no more would I be rearing foals and colts.

Even the lonely wolf that had descended from the highlands, a faithful pet since we had nursed it back to health. He too, lay dead.

That was where I found Jessica, sitting near his body, cradling his large sable head in her little lap, in fact.

She heard me approach, and looked at me. “Papa… look.”

I did. He was still living, barely, his breathing slow, labored, the whimpering that had been loud and constant the day before light and whining. He looked up at us with deeply clouded eyes, just like ours. I watched, kneeling down beside Jessica as his eyes lost their sparkle and died. The last breath left him, and his body went limp.

“Papa?” She seemed beyond tears. Too many friends dead, mother dead too, father dying, soon to join them. Poor thing.

“Aye?” She buried herself in my arms. Tears had dried since this morning, more likely. She could cry no more.

“Where has Fang gone?” She asked. Innocence of a child. I didn’t know, but I wished to calm her fears. I pulled her back, sitting her in my lap, and kissed her forehead. I leaned over, closing the lids of the pet. So much death, too much.

“He’s gone to Heaven, my little one. My angel.”

“Is Mama…”

“Mama’s gone to Heaven too.” I told her. It saddened me to say it.

“Oh.”

Nothing more. We sat there, simply enjoying each other’s company. No one else around to talk with. Just us. We watched the clouds play over the sky, watched the sun rise and then began to sink. Then… she began to shake in my arms.

I blinked, looking down to her. Was she trembling, was it fear, or was this with cold?

“Papa?” her voice weak, as Catherine’s had been that morning. Too weak. No. I knew what it was, what was coming. No. Not in the same day.

You are a cruel bastard of a God, aren’t you? You were laughing as you took your children back, weren’t you? You couldn’t have waited a day.

“Yes, my little one?” My voice, too, was quiet. I hated it. Weak, tired, quiet. No.

“Am… I going to Heaven too?” She asked, all innocence.

I could feel the tears coming, those that I had been holding back for her sake. Those that I had meant to shed with Catherine, but that I had held onto. A cold finger caressed my cheek, taking the tear away. I nodded.

“Papa… don’t cry… I’ll see you in Heaven.” She said.

Oh God. Why? She was so young, so innocent…

“No, my little one, you won’t. Papa can’t go.”

That broke her heart. Still tearless.

“Why, Papa?”

I sighed, and gathered myself to explain, but when I opened my mouth, she let her final breath fly. Gone. Instantaneous. Nothing more, her spirit was soaring away from my arms. I was alone. Gone. Both of them were out of my reach now for all eternity.

That was when I let go, that’s when I rose above it. Even in my weakened state, I stood, running ruin to the already totally dead place that had once been my home. The only happiness I had ever known was gone, and for that, I cursed Him. In every foul word I knew, in every string of despicable syllable I could muster in my failing voice I shouted into the heavens, until my voice gave out, and my strength cut itself immensely. No more adrenaline to feed me, I collapsed to the sound of slowing hooves. I saw boots before me, my lips raving in whispers I couldn’t understand, I passed out.

Serpent's Cross

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:46:38 GMT

Chapter One

Humans – the ruling beings on the planet, created by an all-knowing entity. They kill off themselves and each other for no other reason than looking at each other the wrong way. The self proclaimed dominant species.

Stupid creatures, headstrong in their ability to withstand pain and live through disasters; they don’t even comprehend the fragility of the bodies they have been given by their God. It’s astounding.

Of course, when you are one, you really don’t perceive that notion. You’re above your own stupidity. You thrive on it, but you don’t really understand how much of a complete idiot you really are.

But the truth remains. You, the reader, the All Important, the Interested, are one.

Not that I mean to be rude, but it is true - for example, the belief every human holds in them that they are unstoppable, an invincible force of nature. Well, the belief that most humans hold. I do believe the new diseases the species are unearthing upon itself makes up for that. Those that have them simply don’t think that way anymore. They are faced everyday with their own mortality, and they cope with it. It’s hard for them to do, stare death in the face in every waking hour, but they do it.

Every single human on the face of this earth will die eventually. It is just a matter of where, when, and how. Will it be the bus coming down the street that doesn’t see the pedestrian, or the seemingly inevitable drive-by that seems to be occurring in so many of the major cities that humans are so impeccably proud of? No one knows until it’s that time, and it frustrates them.

But, getting back to the mortal diseases that force this peak of intelligence and revelation upon the people as a whole… It isn’t fun to be dying of one of these diseases. Especially in the days when there was no medicine to give to the patient for the pain, no vaccine to provide an immunity before it spread. These diseases killed millions before humanity finally developed its own cure for them, wiping out whole families and clans. Whole cities even.

How do I know?

I lived through it. Thousands of years of just watching humanity, watching those families get ripped apart, entire countries ravaged. Hell, when the situation had allowed, I even helped. Of course, I never got any credit for my kills that just added to death tolls, but that was for the good of all, I do suppose.

But, I can say this sincerely - I never felt better than I had in those days. Never.
Back then, however, back when I could have been considered an idiot by all written and hereto explained standards of the word, I could have never seen myself as I do now. Had I been told I would become what I am today, I would have never believed the fool who told me.

Back then, I was as carefree as any human. Young, alive, filled with love and lust, and all the other emotions humans depend upon to live and continue to look forward, even in the dark times. I had a wife, and a child – a young daughter – and it was all I had needed. All I had ever wanted really. All that any self respecting man of the time could ever desire, unless of course you were even more foolish, and of the noble class. I was loved, and I could give love in return.

And I was reckless. Or as reckless as a human could get in those days, back before England had a king and all of Europe still bowed under the oppression of the Great Roman Empire. Before the Vatican, as it is now known as, held sway over us all, and we did nothing against it.

I remember those days like they were yesterday, though I’d prefer not to. I’ve even lied and said I couldn’t on some occasions just to avoid the thinking. My wife’s voice still rings in my ears some nights, waking me from dreams of her. “Where is my brave warrior? Where is my Bastion?”

Where is my fair Catherine? Where is my lovely girl? Where has little Jessica gone?

Lost from me, lost to the winds of time, never to return to me again, that is where. Lost from me forever, stolen away. Gone for all of eternity.

I am still here though, my love… though I can no longer frolic with you in the high grasses, nor play with Jessica in the stream that runs through the woods behind out cottage on the outskirts of a village that is no longer there. I cannot ride with you over the endless fields, nor sleep beside you in the comfort of our bed that has been gone now for centuries.

My heart aches in remembrance of them. So full of life.

Until that monster came into our lives, until that disease tore through our village. It wasted everything and everyone in its path. Not a thing was left standing. We had no name for it, and neither did the others. None. No survivors. I alone. Me.

When I said that I had lived through it, did you think I was kidding?

I am sorry. I have been rude to you. Forgive me. I often get wrapped up in these thoughts and forget my place. I do not mean to stray from the point of this, but you must understand that it was an ordeal, watching my life slip from me as the only two people I ever cared about slowly wasted away.

As I have stated earlier, though not in so many words, I am an immortal, but I am also your guide. A guide to a world of fact that you have been lead to believe is purely fiction. Let me lead you into my world, and show you the error of your ways. Yes, throwing us off as nothing but monsters of your imagination was a mistake you shall probably pay dearly for.

Let me start from the beginning… my beginning.

Serpent's Cross

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:37:44 GMT

I've started a new book. For a while I was posting pieces of it up on my Myspace, but, yeah... kinda got sick of doing that, so there will be whole chapters being posted up here. Feedback is definitely welcome, because I love hearing stuff like that, and I will need it from time to time.

Anyway, Bastion, oh my wonderful little narrator, yea. He's mine. I don't want to hear about anyone stealing him away from me, because I will track you people down and possibly do something violent. He's mine. Okay?

Anyway, so my next post will be the completed first chapter, because I'm cool like that. From time to time I may take a break from posting that to post fan fics or whatever the hell else I want, so don't be expecting wall-to-wall SC, because it may not happen, unless I get a lot of comments and have been writing nonstop for a few days.

Basically, that's all I wanted to say. So I'll get to posting what I have of SC ASAP. Right now I'm not feeling so hot, so it may not happen right away.