User blog:Redknight910/WWYD Vampire Jtol5

Prompt: Intrusion in the Manor.



Answer:

I stare at him for several minutes. The girl, was her name Emily? He nods, not flinching as my mistress comes in for another attack.

Did she have brown hair and green eyes? Pale skin? He grunts as he throws my mistress back again.

"Well, I wouldn't call her pale. She had a fair tan when she found me." I couldn't believe it. It was her. She was alive. I look at my mistress, who's starting to look tired. I her if I may leave. This takes her by surprise, her face showing shock. The man makes a quick glance at me.

"Are you seriously asking her for permission?" He growls. But I'm looking at my mistress, all but begging as she slowly comes to the ground. As she lands, her wings fold up and she breathes a heavy sigh, before nodding.

"Very well. One less servant won't harm. Though there is something I wish to give you, if you must be leaving." She begins to climb the stairs again. "Wait here for me. Both of you." She glares at the armoured man.

<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">With a sigh he sheathes his sword and removes his helmet, revealing a weathered face and grizzled hair. He looks at the helmet, and smiles. "Thanks for that." I look at him, confused, as he didn't appear to be talking to me, and the chuckle he gives is a clear response to something.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">The mistress didn't take long, and returns a few minutes later, carrying something in her hands. She approaches us, wary of the visitor, and presents the item to me. It's a key, and I look up at her, confused. She chuckles lightly.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"You may not wear a collar or shackles, but you are a slave. And this key is yours, so now you are not." She presses the key into my hands, and I look at it in awe. It's only small, with my name engraved along the neck of it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">I look back up and ask if I may have something to put my possessions in. She nods. "There are plenty of sacks in the pantry. Take one of the empty ones, it should be large enough." I run off to gather the sack, and then my things, taking care with my fathers ashes. As I walk back I can hear arguing, but not fighting.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"...You do something like that?!" The man shouted.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"It was an accident. His years among the slavers were harder than I thought, and he..." I knew what they were talking about. I'd never heard her speak with that kind of emotion though. She almost sounded... sad.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"The girl won't be pleased. I'll do what I can, but she might just come here after you." Mistress huffed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"I doubt she would hold up as well as you two did under my attacks." I re-enter the room, still only seeing the two of them.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"And that's what I fear." He said, accusation clear in his voice.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"As I already explained, it was an accident, one that has not been repeated since. I would not allow others to witness such a lack of control again." With a sigh the man spots me, and motions for me to follow.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Come on boy. Your sis isn't far." I take another moment to bid farewell to my mistress.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"I am not your mistress any longer. I am Lady Vaenia. And farewell." With that she makes her way back up to her rooms. I quickly fall in behind the man.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"We're probably going to need to get you some new clothes. I guess we're lucky you have any to begin with." He smiled at me. I didn't understand what he meant, but I didn't bother thinking about it, I was finally going to see my sister again.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">We arrived in town a day later, the man having brought me some nicer clothes. Lady Vaenia had never let us wear rags or clothes with holes in them, but at the same time they'd never exactly been comfortable either. These new clothes were a soft cotton, and felt better than I thought clothes could.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">We entered the inn, and all eyes were drawn to us thanks to the man. A woman in leather armour stood, looking at the two of us. "Dreis, that you?" The man smiled, waving to her, and as she walked over I started to recognise her. Those green eyes bright and hopeful, the soft lips and short nose with a small flick. The scar under one eye from a slavers glove. She stood and looked at me for several minutes, not moving, inches from me, just looking at me. Without a word she burst into tears and embraced me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"It's you. It's really you." She whimpered as she cried into my new clothes. She looked up at the man, smile bright on her face.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Where's my father?" At the dark look that came over his face her smile faded. "No. No he can't be!" I got her attention again, holding out our father’s urn. She took it and stared, before falling to her knees, crying again. I put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"I'll kill her." I heard her whisper. "I'll kill her, and anyone who gets it my way!" A heavy hand thumped her shoulder, and she turned to look at the man.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Remember why I had to go do this. You wouldn't last five seconds, and then your brother would be in the same position you were." She opened her mouth to argue, but his grip tightened. "You can't help him by getting yourself trapped. Live with what you have, the dead have nothing, and need only be remembered." She looked at him for several long seconds, before taking a deep breath.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Right. Right." She looked back at me. "Well, at least I have you now. Thanks Dreis. I don't know how I'll repay you for this, but I'm at your call." He nodded.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Damn right you are. But take some time with your brother. He's gonna need some help adjusting." He started walking away, before turning around again. "And Syla wants you to polish her sometime. Apparently you do it better than me." Emily laughed and nodded.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Right. Right, okay." She looked back at me, and embraced me again. "Come on, we'll go put father to rest."

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">We went to the graveyard, placing the urn on the ground and opening it. I told her he'd enjoyed spending time in the garden, and we scattered the ashes around a small garden in the graveyard. After that we went back to the in and sat in my sisters room, talking.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">She was a hunter, since she'd learned how to hunt and forage after escaping the slavers during the ambush. Most of her armour was even made of her own kills.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"This one almost got me, but I managed to get my knife into his maw before he could bite down on me." She tapped her left leg with a proud smile. Her life had been no shortage of excitement, compared to my dull life of routine. I tell her of the things I learned under Lady Vaenia, how to care for the gardens, what plants needed what care, how to cook and prepare the meals.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">"You might be able to get a job here." She said with a smile, I looked at her, not comprehending what she meant. "If you get a job, then they'll pay you to work for them, then you can rent a room, maybe even buy a house eventually. That's what I want. A house of my own..." She drifted off, thinking of the future she wanted. A job. I guess I could try, I'd done work all my life, now that I was free I could get paid for it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">I decided to take my sisters advice and try to get a job in the inn. Apparently she was quite well known, and they offered to give me a shot in return for a favour they owed her. In the end I was more than able to do the work on my own skill, and some of the meals I prepared became a specialty.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Of course most of the ingredients came from my sister, and the innkeeper occasionally joked that when he and his wife were too old to manage the inn we could take over. It always got a laugh out of us, but sometimes his smile was more than just amused.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dreis regularly visited, and I soon found out his armour was actually alive, a strange kind of monster who'd been born from his connection to the armour. My sister would occasionally go and sit with it in her room, polishing it to a shine.

<span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have good friends, a soft bed, and a nice job. I couldn't thank Lady Vaenia enough for letting me go that day, and still keep the key she gave me with me at all times.