Prologue: Vezina

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Vezina stood in raptured silence with her sire, drinking in the significance of this sacred night. When Gyulu spoke of the Tzimisce as the truest nobles of all 'Cainites,' though she knew little of what that word itself meant, she easily believed him. So much romance and power entwined into one being, he was easily a kingly figure of legend standing before her. And now she was to be trained as a queen. One day she would have his grace, his air of understanding and control. Already she could envision herself with the grace borne of uncounted years walking the night as an empowered being.

The Omen of the Black Moon, the night of her rebirth.

Gyulu's howl echoed throughout the wilderness, a perfect mimicry of a wolf. A moment passed, then two wolves answered his call. They sped to meet the Cainites. These wolves were extremely large for their breed, reminding Vezina of the dread dire wolves of her homeland, who served Gyulu and the other dark masters of the night. So now she was to learn how to converse and bond with these creatures as well. Her eyes lit up in anticipatory delight.

Like a hawk focusing on its prey, Vezina studied Gyulu's every action, and when the first wolf and knelt at his feat, she turned to her own. Eye contact seemed important. Gyulu had never broken his gaze until the wolf was bound to him. Vezina did likewise.

She had always been good with animals. In hunting and trapping them all her life, it had been important for her father to teach her how the animals thought. Her instincts had already served her well in dealing with the Beast within her. Perhaps if she concentrated she could commune with the lesser beasts.

Gazing deep into the predator's eyes, she attempted to establish dominance. Wolves thought in terms of a pack. It was one of the first hunting lessons her father had taught her. Usually there was an alpha female who ran the pack and kept things in order. If she could communicate that she was the alpha female to this wolf in front of her, she felt certain she could make it kneel.

As she maintained eye contact, she sensed the own Beast within herself and without letting it control her, allowed it to guide her in a feral growl of communication. Animalistic communication did away with pleasantries. It was direct. It established an order. She spoke in a sound that came out as a low growl, but somehow she knew she was getting a meaning across to the wolf in front of her.

"I am your leader. Obey me."

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

The wolf stared back at her and she could sense the cunning of the lesser beast behind it's eyes. The cunning was accompanied by a hint of fear in the wolf's eyes and actions, the wolf must be able to sense the terrible beast inside of Vezina. It slowly began to walk towards Vezina though it didn't seem completely cowed by her. Stopping a mere foot before Vezina the wolf stared back into her eyes and growled out.

"What does bigger animal want?"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Craning her head slowly to the side, Vezina narrowed her yes and stepped closer to the wolf.

"Lie down before me. Submit to me. Then you will carry me, and we will hunt."

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

The wolf turns around once after hearing Vezina's request and after rubbing against her lies at her feet and looks up at her while growling. "Hunt good, master ride."

Gyulu nods his head slightly as a subtle means of saying he's pleased with her quick learning. Mounting his own wolf he indicates she should do the same and he says. "Now for the hunt, you choose the direction my bride. Focus your sense of smell and find the blood that is rightfully ours."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Indulging in her her heightened senses, Vezina inhaled the night air through her nose, picking up on the myriad scents that wafted through the moors. She smelled the wet stink of animals, and the bitter sap of trees, and the odor of eldritch decay in the air. There were telltale signs of humanity in the area - mostly that of the caravan herd, but those were loyal followers and it was likely that Gyulu wished to keep them mostly intact. The blood and sweat of Saxon and Normand men was a different substance than that of her former kin. There were wifts of it in the air, and she thought she knew the general direction from whence they came.

"This way, I think," she said indicating a direction that would take them through the woods towards an old road that the caravan had travelled down in search of this place of refuge.

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Goading the wolves forward Vezina and Gyulu take off at a frantic pace atop their wolf mounts. The wind blowing through her hair Vezina is hard pressed to hold on to the unusual mount. What little experience she has with horses is enough to keep her from falling off as long as it doesn't get to complicated. Beside her she can see Gyulu guide the wolf expertly toward the smell of civilization.

The scent gets stronger and more powerful as they reach the old road, a remnant of the times when the Romans had ruled the island. Food cooking, sweat, and all the myriad scents of the forest filled her nostrils but most importantly she could smell blood.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Vezina smelled the blood in the air. The tinny fragrance was pleasant and appealing to her new sensibilities, but having already fed tonight she was not at all ravenous as she had once been. She was here only to learn how to hunt in the old ways to which her master had alluded.

"There are mortals ahead," she said in the old tongue of her homeland. "How shall we approach them?"

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Up ahead they can see a lone cabin sitting along the edge of the forest a small curl of smoke rising from the chimney. Gyulu holds his head up as he uses his own senses before answering Vezina with a smile.

"Two women alone in a cabin preparing food. We shall enter the cabin as a true lord would and then we shall take what is rightfully ours. They will not come willingly as the herd would we will have to corner them much as you did before your rebirth as a queen of the night."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

"Of course, my lord," Vezina answered, though doubt crept through her mind.

Violence had never been her role in the caravan's efforts to keep her master fed. Trickery and deceit had been more her method. That and her keen ability to sense who might be the most gullible or easily misled target. She would would often lure those people into an unsafe place with some story or perhaps even a sultry look. Deep in the wintertime, a man deep in his cups could be persuaded with such simple plots. They would follow her into an ambush and men with strength would bring them down.

The wolves pulled up short of the cabin and Vezina and Gyulu dismounted. With a last look at her sire, Vezina squared her shoulders and stalked towards the cabin door. She relied on her heightened senses as she approached, listening and searching intently for any added information about their prey before she commited to such a direct assault. She trusted in her master's strength, and in her own as well, even if it was untested.

She tried the door to the cabin silently, wondering if it would be barred.

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Vezina can easily hear the women speaking in the tongue of her new homeland as she walks up to the door with Gyulu striding behind her. The scent of food, sweat, and blood is strong now that she is next ot the door. Her masters senses seem to be correct as she can smell 2 distinct people in the small one room cottage.

Opening the door one of the women jumps as she sees the two people standing there and yells something in her own language. The young woman staring back is roughly the same age as Vezina with pale red hair and a freckled though plain face. Another woman rushes forward of similar complexion though far older than the other as Gyulu intones in his own language.

"I Gyulu, master of the ways of water and earth, command you my newest subjects to be a feast for my new bride and I. Now Vezina feed."

Gyulu rushes through the door and has the old women in his grip before she can even scream. His fangs piercing her throat and causing her to melt into the ecstasy of being fed from.

The young girl screams hysterically and in her panic runs right into Vezina as she tries to get away from Gyulu. Tripping and falling into the dirt as she pushes past her she begins to crawl from the cabin.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Vezina's hand clamps down on the younger woman's back, holding her by a bunched up section of her simple dress. With a wrench she jerks the crawling, frightened girl to a halt and then falls upon her, pinning the girl down with her weight from above and then opening her mouth to bare her fangs.

With an exulting hiss, she grabs the girl's hair and tugs it to one side to show the bare skin of the red-headed girl's neck. Then, quickly so as to not miss her opportunity, she sinks her teeth into the girl's neck, drinking from her until the ecstasy of the dark kiss subsumes her and makes her docile.

Vezina was not extremely hungry, so after filling herself to what she thought was enough, she released the girl and fed no more from her. She did not know if she had taken too much or if the girl would live.

"Master... what shall we do with these when we are done?" she asked, indicating the humans.

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Her master had already finished feeding from the older woman, who now laid on the floor resting quietly. He turned as Vezina called out to him and stepped out of the door to look at the young girl after which he says.

"She will be fine but you must seal the wound with your own saliva. It will prevent infection and further blood loss to our subjects. You have done well in not feeding to much like others of the Tzimisce do. I find it disgraceful to slaughter subjects when you don't have to. Now bring her inside and they should be fine."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

"My own saliva?" Vezina murmured quizically, then turned back towards the young woman. With a shrug she lowered herself back to the girl's neck and ran her tongue across the two puncture holes still dripping with the girl's sweet blood. To her amazement, the wounds had closed themselves in the wake of her lick. Truly an amazing power of concealment.

Hefting the girl as well as she could, she dragged the young lass back into the cabin and laid her down beside the older woman.

"How can we ensure the loyalty of these new subjects? Will they not recoil in horror from us? Or has feeding on them somehow affected the way they view us?"

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Gyulu looks around the small room quizzically as Vezina drags the passed out body of the young girl back in. He seems to be puzzling out what many of the items do, which seems strange to Vezina as they are all fairly common items. Finally he stops looking around and answers Vezina's question.

"The act of being fed from does something to the kine. The intense euphoric feeling that you felt as you fed is multiplied in them. Oftentimes they won't even remember what happened during the attack. It can be also be quite addicting, which is a good way to begin a herd, since they will seek it out.

These won't be part of the herd proper as of yet, we are not strong enough to protect them from the predations of others of our kind. After we have been in this land for a longer period though they will come to learn of us as their masters. You will have to learn the ways of the people here: their customs, their language, their way of life. It is difficult for me as even your customs are new and strange to one as old as I.

What for example do you make of this my bride?"

As he asks the last question he holds up a small basket filled with some unusual items. Inside are a bundle of wild rose, wolfsbane, and garlic together with wood shavings which remind Vezina of the mountain ash tree which grows in your homeland. Taken together with the line of salt she now notices at the door, Vezina recognizes the common protections against vampire predation. Though for some reason it doesn't seem to have worked.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

"Interesting," Vezina said as she took the basket from her sire and named the stored items one by one. "They are elements of a peasant's spell, designed to ward away demons and presumably lords of the night such as ourselves. They do not appear to have had any affect on us. Either the spell was faulty, or it was not designed for us."

Vezina put the ingredients back and laid the basket down on the table.

"If I am to learn their customs and language I will need ones such as these to teach me the basics and accompany me on journeys into their villages. Can I not take this one here?" She indicated the red head she had just fed upon with a nod and a point of her chin.

"Or perhaps I should ingratiate myself with a more naive sort? Perhaps a young man who might take pity on a lost foreign girl?" Vezina offered a sly smile to her master, though if he showed no appreciative emotion she would let the mirth melt from her face quickly and show proper obeisance to the master's mood.

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Gyulu nods, an amused smile on his face she replaces the basket on the table. Pointing to it he says.

"Ah the silly lore of peasant folk, so often it is pure nonsense. To think flowers and salt could stop one of Caine's Get."

He listens to her request though the smile on his face fades to impassiveness as she mirthfully asks her questions, shaking his head he points to the door and leads the way from the cabin.

"Tarbus is already arranging for such matters. His skills at language and ingratiation should serve well in the matter of gathering suitable tutors for your education. You are still too young of the blood to be taking your first ghoul though I'm sure one day. For now though let us explore our lands on this night of revelry."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

"As you wish, master." Vezina walked with him to where their wolf mounts awaited and then clung her body against the wolf's pelt and urged it to follow along wherever Gyulu led them.

"If my education in local customs is to wait, what must I task myself with? What would you have of me?"

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

"Simply to watch and learn my bride. One day you may have to rule in my stead and you must know more than the customs and language of the lesser creatures such as man."

Gyulu says as the take off riding through the night to search out the secrets of their new homeland before retiring back to their haven in the caves. Retiring to the earth of her new homeland as the sun rises outside of the caves, she has mere moments to reflect upon her first night.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

The rest of the night had been a blur, but it had also been exhilarating. Despite the obvious irony, she had never felt more alive. Now, as the sun outside the caves began to rise over the horizon, Gyulu and Vezina had retreated to the safety of the dark interior of the catacombs.

She was tired and could feel an unnatural urge to rest come upon her.

"Where am I to sleep master? Am I to go to my grave?"

 

[dmronny]

Re: Prologue: Vezina

Gyulu leads Vezina back to one of the newer caves, pointing inside he intones.

"Tonight my bride you sleep in a chamber I have had set up to teach you a valuable lesson. You understand why the dirt of grave is important that I am sure but to truly understand it you must spend a night without it. Till tomorrow my bride."

He heads through the caverns to where he sleeps leaving her to discover the room she is to rest in her first day as one of the kindred. The room itself doesn't look all that much different from the one she had dug her grave in though the soil of the floor seems different. Soon she begins to feel tired as the sun rises outside of the cavern as if she can't help but rest.