He remembered how the skin of the fruit glimmered in the setting sun. Hanging loosely from a branch, the crimson fruit swung, becoming loose with the strengthening wind. It taunted him with its potent freshness. It begged him to go pick it, enticing him with its desirable aroma.
He could no longer resist the urge and ran out from the safety of the trees, inching his way closer to his fate. Why should he continue to hide? His parents had died and he was now all alone so for what purpose did he have to live? He knew fully that entering the immortals castle and stealing the Queen’s apples would sentence him to death. He longed for death and the dim light within his heart that wished to be extinguished.
Looking around, darting his eyes in opposite directions, he focused on the sacred tree. His appetite growled with hunger, seeing the final meal approaching. The skin on his body grew cold and the adrenaline made his fingers shake with the end so near in sight.
Reaching out, his trembling fingers plucked the ripe fruit from the frail stem. The skin of the apple grew cold, its form of life slowly being drained, as it was taken away from its supportive organism. He twirled it around in his palm feeling the authority to end its life, just like the sick beings that killed his father resulting in his mother hanging herself. They were able to take life, why couldn’t he? This mere fruit, from the Queen’s garden warranted death, a death he coveted. He moved his hand up, running the smooth skin of the fruit on his lips, biting its juicy meat. He crunched into it, ending its existence.
“What are you doing?!” A voice yelled sharply. It shocked him so greatly that he dropped the now dying fruit, knowing he would follow the same fate.
Vincent looked up at her, the apple coming to the end of its final roll. His vampire fangs dripped with the apples nectar. He now knew the end was near but as he darted his eyes towards the apple, he saw that although bitter and bruised, it was still red with life. The light within his heart flashed with a spark of revelation. He did not want to die. He had been spared and his parents would be ashamed if he took the life they had broken the decree to make.
His mother had been a werewolf, a species that was deemed evil and vile and were killed on sight in this kingdom. His father, however, was a prized vampire and together, they made a son, naming him Vincent. Vincent was a vampire on the outside and a werewolf on the inside. Every full moon however, the beast side of him would take over. He had to escape during those nights for protection from the immortals that wished to kill his race.
As he looked at the princess of the immortals, Miro, he couldn’t help but wonder why they thought themselves to be superior to not only the vampires and werewolves but countless other species as well.
“What are you doing here?!” The woman yelled, “You know what you’re doing is a crime, don’t you?!”
Vincent had to make a choice now. Would he attack this woman and try to flee from the Queen’s garden? Or would it be easier to stay and explain? Then again, what pity would an immortal have on a vampire?
“It is not what you think,” Vincent started. “I wanted to die.”
The young princess looked at him strangely and surprised Vincent when she replied to him,
“Why would you want to die?”
Vincent knew from that day forward he had found an immortal, a person of royal blood, to be different from the others. She was concerned about her people, cared about why they would do such a thing as to want to end their own life. She had sat with him until nightfall, talking to him about why he would wish upon such a thing as death. He had told her about his parents, how his mother had killed herself once she found out her husband had been killed.
As Vincent walked along the dark pathway, he could remember the day of their first meeting, up until this very moment. The kingdom has now fallen, the Queen and King were dead and Miro had been slaughtered by her own brother who wished to take over the kingdom and yield the throne he thought he deserved, instead of his sister.
As he continued to tread along the dark forest floor, he could see the dead trees reach out as if to grab him away from his feelings. The thoughts that went through his head were still far too strong. Everything had happened so quickly. How did the kingdom itself get betrayed? Why would the immortals own son kill his parents and his own sister?
The Queen and King had three children, which for an ancient race was very uncommon. It was effortlessly known that the reasoning behind not having more than two children was because they would fight and ultimately kill their kin in order to rule the kingdom of Lechtenbrink. He wished her parents would have listened and only had two children, but that would also mean the true heir to the throne, Miro would have never existed. The throne was decided by who was the most skilled in magic; ultimately the person who would keep the kingdom the safest and the people happy.
Vincent had remembered when Miro had told him about her brothers. She had said her eldest brother did not have any real magical ability but his loyalty to his parents proved to be respected by most of the residents upon the planets that the royal family reigned over. Her second brother had a very uncommon talent, which deemed him the name, “The Dream Prince”. In reality he was very frail and delicate; he slept most of the day away and needed constant special care. His dreams however, were extraordinary. He was able to wander the lands of Lechtenbrink in an out-of-body form of himself. He was able to interact with the townspeople, even fight with enemies. His ghost-like form however could not be killed—at the most he would just be awakened from his dream. Aside from such a peculiar ability, he was quite useless when it came to defending and ruling a kingdom. He cared more about the young women in the nearby villages instead of being a contender for the next successor of the throne.
That brought his mind back to Miro, who was the youngest of her once happy family. It was made known to her at an early age that her eldest brother would be the ultimate successor to the throne once her parents had decided to step down. Yet, Miro surprised them when she managed to revive a dead animal. Bringing something dead back to life intrigued the townspeople and they quickly decided and fought for her to be the successor.
Vincent cursed to himself as he tripped over a large root that was sticking out of the ground. The sky around him was growing darker with the sinister energy filling the now crumbling empire. He had to find Miro. After being killed by her brother, her soul had been teleported somewhere else, so it was now his mission to find her. He had to find her, otherwise he feared of what would happen to this realm.
He shook his head. He had to get his mind off what was happening now. He remembered back to the past when Miro had approached him. He distinctively recalled her confessing that she did not revive or cure the animal but instead possessed necromantic abilities. He knew she was scared because no one had suspected that she could only give life to the dead in a zombie-like way, where they would only be able to stay awake for a short period of time. All the people roared in acknowledgement of her because they wanted so badly to believe that she possessed a gift of bringing back the dead.
Vincent sighed, remembering that is where it all went downhill. Quickly thereafter making her abilities known, she was made the successor of the throne, but the shame griped tightly to her and she was only able to tell Vincent what her true power really lacked.
Since her eldest brother had not been picked to be the successor he so longed to be, he was sent to their uncle on a faraway planet, while their parents were about to go on a voyage away from their home realm. Vincent raised his hand and rubbed his head anxiously. It hurt him to remember such a horrible turn of events but this was the only thing that kept his body sane to keep walking into this death-filled plantation.
Miro’s parents were found dead within their chambers and all the clues had fatefully pointed to Vincent, who of course, was not guilty. Since he lived in the castle, not many knowing his full back story except for Miro, he was examined and found to be a werewolf. Miro was at a loss of words, she did not know however that he was a werewolf at all and she truly thought that her teenage lover and friend had been the one to murder her beloved parents. After everything they had been through she had believed him to be the killer. She wasted no time in throwing him into prison. As her guards locked him up, he could recall hearing her tearful cries ring down the hall as she walked away. She figured that he had killed her parents because they were the ones fighting so hard to make his fellow kin, the werewolves, become extinct.
He remembered not knowing what to do, or what to think. He recalled his anger mounting towards Miro for not believing him. This lead to Vincent suspecting Miro’s eldest brother, whom he had always had a strange inkling towards. Her brother had never been truly supportive to her sister or younger brother and once his chance at the throne was put at rest, he had a motive for wanting to destroy what Miro held dear.
Vincent knew he had to tell Miro of the truth, so he ultimately broke free from the prison. Sneaking to her room he noted that Miro had, naively, sent away all her guards to be left alone to mourn. Unknowingly to Miro still, her brother showed up to take his revenge and killed her gruesomely.
Once her brother had killed Miro, he had fled back to his uncle, who had always favored him, to gather forces to attack and take over the Lechtenbrink kingdom.
Vincent reminisced about being lost as of what to do, holding her dead body within his hands until she had teleported straight out of them. A guard that had rushed in and witnessed the slaughter told him because she was an ancient, her soul was transferred randomly to another place.
That was how he ended up within this forsaken forest. He needed to find her so she could avenge her parents and bring back peace to their kingdom. He also wanted to change her mind and try to put a stop to the werewolf killing, knowing that they could perhaps take her side in this battle. He knew it was far-fetched but anything that would help keep this kingdom alive is what he was willing to do. Although he was livid with her for not trusting him, he could feel his blood turn colder, signaling that his being was becoming more of a true vampire.
The ground, on which he walked, cracked under his feet. The animals around him growled at his presence, being able to sense the vampire in him. He was so angry at the fact that Miro had betrayed their trust. To think that he would contemplate for a second to kill the parents that she held so close to her made him shake with anger. What would possess her to think that he would ever do that to her? Everything that they had been through, the feelings that they had for each other, he loved her to the point of anger. He wondered if he could even get his feelings back for her after such a betrayal on her part. He still loved her, but he knew it would never be the same.
The misty mountains closed him in, sucking all the oxygen he could get from the trees. As he walked faster, he kept his mind off the fact of her betrayal. Right now he had to focus on the fact that she had to overthrow her brother who was taking over the kingdom and the real murderer behind her parents’ deaths.
He couldn’t understand how it could have come to this. The nights he spent sneaking into her bed at night, cuddling her close, to being thrown into prison by her. He knew he shouldn’t care so much about her. She had changed from what she really used to be, but he still held that hope that the old her was still concealed within her being.
He heard a loud crash and crouched close to the ground. He swiftly moved his head around and saw the large castle many miles away from his current position. He could see fires being set ablaze on the outskirts of the castle. He knew fully that the towns that were part of this kingdom were growing frantic and frenzied by the fact that they had no ruler currently warming the throne.
He still couldn’t understand the state the kingdom was already in since Miro had been murdered. He had to find her quickly before the whole empire fell. So, he swiftly picked up his pace, kicking the dead leaves out from under his feet, the dry soil giving him a better grip on the ground.
“You should leave her be, she betrayed you and our race.” A voice bellowed into his ear.
Vincent halted, skidding across the dead ground. Looking towards his right he saw a large man, his muscles protruding from his biceps. He was surprised to see a fellow werewolf so close to this kingdom as he had feared all the ones around this domain had been murdered.
“What do you mean?” Vincent asked.
The man walked closer to him, making Vincent spread out his legs, ready for an attack.
“Calm down,” the man uttered softly, “Your vampire presence is taking over your werewolf side. Can you sense it within yourself?”
Vincent clicked his sharp teeth together, “I am quite aware of that. I have to find
Miro, so if you would let me go.” He finished, walking forward but the fellow werewolf blocked his path.
“Why would you rush to save a woman that thought it okay to kill our own race and that betrayed you so hastily?”
Vincent tapped his foot on the ground, trying to control the anger mounting within him.
“She is the only one that can take down her brother and bring peace back to the kingdom. As much as she has hurt me, she has to be found and informed of the true culprit of her parent’s killer.”
“Of course she knows it is her eldest brother,” the man started. “He was the one that killed her. There is no need to save her, once her soul finishing teleporting she will make her way back to the kingdom with or without your help.”
“I am aware of that,” Vincent said. “You need to step aside please. I know she has not been nice to our kind but it was her parents which placed the commands.” Vincent then walked forward but the man pushed him down, catching him off-guard causing him to fall backwards onto the dead soil.
Vincent clicked his vampire fangs together, trying to hold down his anger. There was no use in the matter as his ferocity took over and he jolted himself off the ground and tackled the man to the forest floor. The man growled, flipping Vincent around, causing them to twist and turn on top of each other. Vincent slammed the man to the ground, straddling on top of him, grabbing his shirt and banging him into the hard forest floor.
“Let me go to her!” he growled at the man, continuing to slam his head into the ground.
The blood was beginning to escape out of the man’s head. Vincent began to notice this and stopped smashing his skull and just watched the man. His foe’s eyes were turning black; the werewolf being starting to come out.
Vincent quickly grabbed the hidden knife from his jacket and pressed it up to the throat of his adversary. The hunger to kill and slice grew within him, but he just stared into the eyes of the fellow werewolf, letting him know that he could end his life at any time. Vincent got off of the man, concealed the knife back within his jacket and spoke out to the man, “If you follow me, next time I won’t have mercy.”
The man just lay back, emotionless, in shock that Vincent had pity on him.
Vincent sprinted back deeper into the forest, running as far as he could, deeply and swiftly. He needed to find Miro, the kingdom depended upon it. That was when he saw a bright light illuminate the area. He stopped, skidding to a halt as a bright silver mist floated in the air. He smiled, knowing that this entity was Miro. He ran towards it, ready to help the falling kingdom.
Chapter 2 is being edited, so expect that most likely tomorrow QAQ <333
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
Thank you! I'm happy you enjoyed it more! ;A; <333
I really enjoyed this! I confess, I got a little confused at first when I thought the whole narrative was linear--but I sorted it out quick and on rereading, realized it was me, not the writing (and the fact I read it late at night...
Anyway, the writing in this really sparkles, and is full of movement! I love details like how the ground cracks underfoot, and the well-placed references to the path, so we know what is going on in the now...The backstory of the Queen, King, Miro and her brothers, all were very well told--I could totally imagine their feelings and qualifications (or lack of them!) for the throne.... I am very impressed with the depth of this continued story, and am glad you are getting these
It's no problem ;A;
Sorry for the late reply!!! I'm so happy you enjoyed it so much ;A;
I'm happy too XD
Thank you! I'm happy you enjoyed it!
EEEEEE. Your comments are always so sweet ;A;