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Chapter 3, The Hunt/Escape
Clara slid sideways a bit as the earth beneath them trembled. "How strong are these vampires then?" She asked her voice trembling almost as much as the floor beneath them. She made her way carefully down the stairs, pressing random bricks in to shut walls behind them as Ice passed them. Watching behind and in front of her was a little awkward for her, but she managed to make it to the ed of the path without falling on her butt. She tapped three rocks and the pathway opened into a cellar. As soon as Ice passed through the open doorway.
The explosions were very silent and seemed distant. "We have a special living area down here for something like this..." Clara began to walk towards a wall covered in racks of wine before she stopped and turned slightly to face him. "How do I know I can trust you?" She eyed him suspiciously. "How do I know that once I show you where I'm hiding and where my family will be that you won't go running out there to tell those vampires where we are?" She turned to look fully at him and her body seemed to mold into a crouch. Her green eyes went gold and her light brown hair went black as she readied herself to spring at him.
Ice was a bit shocked by the princess' sudden hostility. "Well, you simply don’t. You’ll have to trust my word, the word of vampire," He paused a bit, thinking of how thin ice he had just put himself out on, so he added, "but if you want some solid proof that I’m not those bastards ally, I guess this is the best I can show you." he said and turned around, back facing her, and lifted his robe, revealing his back.
His back was covered in deep and wide scars. There were actually few places of normal skin left there. Those few places were colored, as if there used to be a tattoo there, but there was no way to know what it had looked like due to all the scars. Only that it was been black, red and white.
Covering his back again, Ice turned to Clara. "That was proof I can give you; my biggest shame." He said and faced the floor below them, unwilling to talk more about the matter.
Blaze stopped throwing fireballs. Exhausted, he turned to his leader. "This ain’t gonna work. It’s fire proof!" he exclaimed in rage.
"Then stop throwing at the door, and start blasting a way under it!" Venom snapped at him, clearly impatient.
Blaze nodded and started throwing again, despite his exhaustion. The ground under the gate was easy to remove; it was a matter of seconds till they could get in.
Clara quickly shut-up once she saw the scars on Ice's back. She winced a bit thinking about how painful they looked before gently turning from him back to the wall covered in wine racks. She began to look through them trying to pick out which wine bottle triggered the door. She dusted a few of them off until she found a single bottle of white wine surrounded by red wine bottles. She pushed it in and the entire wall revolved opening into a separate room.
She looked shyly up at Ice and spoke quietly. "We should be safer in here for the time being. But I don't know how long we can hold out here. My family is down here...in a separate area of rooms...they'll be safe, no question about it, but I'm not sure about here. Kind of stupid to hide in the more vulnerable of the two areas, but I've always stayed here with my sister. We were the only two who can fight, besides our guards, but I won't risk their lives...they'll be ripped to pieces before they could even move. At least we would have a good chance."
Priest watched as Blaze dug through the ground. He swiftly passed them and gracefully ducked under the wall. His gold eyes scanned the entire barn. "Are you both positive you saw them enter here?" He turned to look at Venom and Blaze.
Ice was skeptic. "So that's it then? We stay down here and wait till they come for us, since we're the only ones who can fight? What do you have the guards for if they're so useless anyways?" walked around in the room, frustrated. He felt trapped down there in the deep, narrow underground.
"Of course I'm positive. You know better then to question my tracking skills, Priest." Venom said as he followed right after Priest. The barn was empty. Venom cursed. "Now that's just swell. After all that wait, we find an empty barn... There is no other doors, and all windows are barricaded. How did they escape?" The question was directed to both his men.
Blaze followed, confused by the empty room. "What the hell... How is this possible." he whispered to himself in anger.
"We have guards for human fighters. We never thought we'd need anyone else! We thought that the vampire had gone." She paced back and forth a tad bit. "Dammit we're stupid..." She looked from her feet to Ice's face.
"Do you have a plan?"
Priest chuckled. "It's very possible my friend." Priest began to examine the horses stalls. Ayesha snorted at him when he walked by. Priest glared at the horse before continuing his examination. Once he came to the far wall he began to tap random stones with his hand. One yielded to his touch. "Ah. That's where you've gone." He smiled as a small passage way opened up in the wall. "Follow this and we've got them cornered."
There was a scraping noise coming from the other side of the room they were now in. "Crap...They found the passageway...what do we do now." She sighed and leaned back against a wall.
Ice shook his head. "These are your underground chambers, Clara. I wouldn't know what to do in here." his lack of ideas disturbed him. Usually, he'd always had a plan B, but now; nothing. "Have followed this girl to my doom?" he thought to himself, while desperately trying to come up with anything productive. "I'll tell what I do know though; we're outnumbered. If there is another way out from here, I'd be glad to use it. However, if there is not, we might as well stand our ground right here. If there is no help to get from the outside by your guards or anyone else, it's pretty much useless to escape anyway."
Venom snorted. "Heh, you never seize to impress me, Priest." he said and calmly started to walk into the passage. "We got them cornered boys, let's not let that traitorous swine escape this time!" he announced, not stopping his phase.
Blaze simply followed. His eager to fight pressed him on even after he had used much of his energy on the door.
"I guess we could get ourselves out of here...I just feel bad leaving my family here..." She looked down at her feet. "Do you think if we leave...they'll try and follow us?" She looked back up at him. "How many are there? If we could lead them somewhere else could we possibly have a chance?"
"Thank you." Priest smirked as he followed the two of them inside the passageway.
"I think that would be the case, yes. We just have to believe that. Even if they don't follow us, your family has the guards to guard them, right? They'll be safe..." he said and paused a bit. "They're only three, unless they have hired any newbies, which isn't very likely. Only the best are hired to the Blood Pack..."
Venom walked swiftly, yet calmly, down the now enlightened passage. Soon, his way was blacked by a stone wall, like the one outside. "Damned royal grounds, always so well protected..." he said with a heavy sigh.
Blaze seized the opportunity when he saw the wall and started to grow a fireball within his to hands. He readied himself to throw it at the wall. "Move it, Venom, I'll blast this like it were made out of sand!" he said with a loud and exited voice. He never grew tired of playing with fire, ever.
Venom instinctively stepped aside, but grabbed Blaze's shoulder when he got behind him. "Blaze, you fool... you would bury us alive if you did so. Let Priest do his magic instead," he paused as he saw the disappointment in Blazes eyes. "You'll get you fun later on, I promise." he smiled slyly.
Blaze grinned, nodded and made the fireball shrink and disappear. "You're right. Do your thing, Priest." he said and turned to Priest.
"Blood Pack..." Clara whispered to herself, pondering it. She then shook her head clearing it and began to walk around the room looking over al the walls and furniture. "There has to be another way out of here! This castle is full of passageways." She turned to Ice. "Come on. Help me look."
Priest smiled as he moved in front of Blaze and Venom. Without saying anything he began to run his hands over the stones shutting his eyes in total concentration as he searched for the switch. He stopped when he found three stones that he saw were switches. "Now...which pattern." He concentrated more following the lines to the wall in front of him. Once he found the correct combination he pressed each stone in turn and the wall slowly began to open.
With no better suggestions at hand, Ice followed the order and began to search the room, stone by stone, object by object. There was nothing that caught his eye at first, other than the occasional jewelry, old belongings of the royal family no doubt.
Venom sighed. "This is way too easy. You'd think that the royals security system would be better developed than this..." he moved past Priest and simply walked onward, until he stumbled across yet anther wall. He didn't bother with an direct order, he just pointed towards it once, and leaned towards the wall beside him. "Something tells me this won't be the last wall before we reach them... how bothersome..." he thought to himself while he waited for Priest to do his "lock picking".
Blaze felt to urge to blast the wall again, but restrained himself. He stood beside Venom, arms crossed and legs solidly planted on the ground.
"Look at this?" Clara had been pulling books out of a book shelf and one of them seemed stuck to the back. "It feels like someone superglued it in here!" She began to yank on it, but instead of pulling it out she slipped backwards and stumbled catching herself on the wall. "Damn book." Clara crouched and transformed grabbing at the book with her teeth ripping it from the bookshelf. Behind it was a rusted trigger. "Yes!" She said as she pawed at the switch until it clicked opening a door in the bookcase. "Come on!" She bounded out, not bothering to change back into her clumsy human form.
"Damn walls." Priest mumbled as he...for the fifth time, found the correct combination in a few seconds. Finally he sensed that they had hit the last wall. "Finally!" He pushed a few stones in and the door opened into a wine room. And it was empty. "Of course. The little girl has to make it harder for us!"
Ice beheld as she transformed, but was more shocked by the princess choice of words than her shape shifting. "I didn't know the taught princess' how to swear..." he said with a low voice and a sly grin as he followed beast princess of Nion.
There was little time to waste now, he sensed that the other vampire were less than a few meters away from them. Only a few thick barriers of stone and earth separated him from them. "We better make a dash for it..." he said, hesitating a bit before running past the beast and into the dim-lighted passage ways. His vampire vision and reflexes kept him from tripping on the many rocks and other obstacles a normal person surely would have tripped over.
Blaze snorted angrily. No one to fight, nor anything worth taking his anger out on.
Venom simply walked into the room. "Why can't they just give up. It would make it easier for both us and them... but then again, what fun would that be?" he said and smiled with a hint of malice. "Priest, you know what you're suppose to do." he said, expecting that Priest understood that due to his talent, it was natural that he did this sort of work by himself. Venom sat down on a wooden chair and leaned back, watching.
Priest smiled. "Gladly my friend." Priest stepped to the wine rack and placed his hand through to the wall. He stepped back a moment later. "Blaze, I do believe you have been waiting for your moment? Go ahead. Their behind this wall. I can hear them as well." It was true he heard the last mumbles of Frost's voice clearly through his vampire ears. "Quick now, they're escaping." Priest stepped clear out of the way behind Blaze letting him have his fun.
Clara grinned as the vampire sped in front of her. "You're fast." Her voice sounded to him as if they were right next to each other and not running like crazy. "But I'm not as clumsy in this form." She growled playfully as she suddenly picked up speed leaping past him in a few strides of her black legs. She whistled and the horse came to greet them as they passed out of the passage way into the dim light of the moon.
Ayesha was fast and she easily kept up with them even with the bags on her back. "We'll head for the woods. There is a clearing up ahead where will we be able to make our stand and behind that is an area where we can set up camp if we need to stay out here for longer." She winked back at him. "I had one guard pack up Ayesha. We can last for weeks out here." She smiled and began to slow her pace slightly so she began to drop back towards him.
Ice struggled to keep up with the noble she-beast, even though he was twice as fast as any human, she still had twice as many legs as he did when she was in that form. After he had exited the dark passage, he caught up with her, mainly because she slowed down no doubt, he was shocked to see that the same horse they had left behind a few minutes ago had already been packed for a week-long trip. “It’s amazing how well you’re able to communicate with your guards without actually talking to them.” He commented, impressed. “However, I can’t say I like the idea of leaving for the woods like this. I sort of have unfinished business to attend to back in town, the reason I came here in the first place…”
Blaze grinned; “At last!” he exclaimed and charged a ball of fire to the size of a head before throwing it at the wall, destroying it completely. “That should do the trick!” he said smiling widely, until he felt a medium-sized rock land hard on his head. “Ouch!” he yelled with rage.
Venom chuckled a bit at first when the rock hit Blaze, but stopped once one landed right beside him; this one double the others size. “Oh, great! The roof is collapsing. We better get out of here.” He said with clear sarcasm, and he suddenly dashed through the newly-blown hole and beyond.
Blaze shook off his rage and followed Venom, running equally fast as him.
Clara tapped her necklace with her claw, the gem was now a brilliant yellow/gold color. "Complete and total communication." She smiled before stopping and turning to face him. Clara opened her mouth to speak, but it took her a second to find the right words. "Well...what do you supposed we do then? We can't just stand here like idiots."
Priest growled as the ceiling began to fall around him. He sighed at Venom's sarcasm before sprinting after them through the hole. He paused for a moment in front of the open book case before he darted through it finally glad to be in the open air instead of in the castle that's left wall was crumbling slightly. He laughed to himself as he watched the last few chunks of rock hit with a loud thud against the ground.
Ice sighed. "Well, of course we can't stand around here. Still, leaving like this..." Ice said frustrated, but since he could not think of any better idea, he submitted to the princess' will. "Fine, we ride then." he said, not really that comfortable about the choice that had been made almost for him. He approached the horse, but the animal backed off with a loud neigh, clearly scared by the cold, demon-like aura the vampire emitted. "Stand still, you blasted horse!" Ice exclaimed, irritated. He suddenly froze where he stood. "They are getting close, real close. We have to go. Now."
Clara growled as Ayesha backed away from Ice. "Here, let me." She transformed back into her human form and she grabbed Ayesha's reins. "Get on." She stepped in front of Ayesha's face and began to pet her, distracting the horse from Ice.
"Thank you." Ice said as he mounted the horse. He could feel how the other vampires had stopped running. "They are probably looking for clues they can track us with.". This made him clam down a bit.
The horse stomped her feet as she felt Ice mount her back. Clara patted the horse on the neck gently. "Good girl." She said as she jumped up on the front of the saddle she whistled and Ayesha started off at a canter. "You might want to hold on." Clara smiled as they shot into the forest along a path until they made a sharp turn off the path and rode on for a while until Ayesha slowed to a fast trot. Clara turned to Ice, "Do you think we need to go farther?"
Ice had some experience when it came to ride beasts, so even though he had none with horses, he was able to keep himself on the saddle with little to no effort.
"Stopping now won't help us much." he replied short, pausing a bit before asking; "Is there any places out here we can seek refuge? Any near villages to the Nion capital? In a vast forest like this, we'll just riding around in circles if we do not have a specific goal to reach."
Clara stopped Ayesha for a moment to think. "A mile or so to the east we should hit a small village." Clara pulled Ayesha's reins and redirected the horse towards the east. Clara whistled and the horse took off into a canter again, deftly avoiding trees and branches as they made their way towards the village.
 Ice of the North · Fri Sep 12, 2008 @ 01:12am · 0 Comments |
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