Fandom Castlevania: Night's Dirge [Closed]

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

Despite the fact the shack was in a clearing they were still surrounded by heavy forest on all sides so gathering fire wood wouldn't too hard, but once winter came it would be hard to find naturally falling wood that wasn't soaking wet with rain or snow. Luckily with Syphas magic there was probably a good chance they could dry off all the wood without too much trouble when the time came.

Aveline glanced at Alucard hearing his voice, " Theres enough in there that we can last a few more days before things get tight, at least vegetable wise." The meat Trevor brought would probably really come in hand for the others, but meat alone wasn't a good way to keep everyones energy up and it certainly wasn't the way to prepare for fighting Dracula." I'm not worried about me eating though, i'm more worried about the others."

If they ran out of vegetables she could grow more, but meat would be hard to come by once the snow came. She imagined even a good hunter like Trevor would struggle in a white blanket of snow, and unlike herself the others weren't used to eating only vegetables. Keeping everyone fed if they ran out of meat would be taxing on her as well, but they weren't at that point and hopefully they would never be.

While reaching down to collect some firewood Aveline gasped slightly and rooted around in the dirt for a second before letting out a happy hum. " Alucard look!" She chirped as she crouched down and pulled some radishes up out of the ground. " I noticed some of these radish sprouts already here," it went unsaid that she had sped up the process, with winter basically here there wouldn't be too many things other than root vegetables just waiting to be harvested, but these were already here so it wasn't like she was growing something from scratch.

Aveline piled the radishes on top of the firewood she had already gathered, these weren't much but they were still something, and smiled a bit as she turned a radish over in her hand. "My dad used to pull vegetables straight out of the ground and just eat them," she said in passing. It was silly how little things like this made her think of him, he was already in her thoughts every day, but it was nice to see things that reminded her of him.

" Basically everyone is a farmer so it's not very surprising, but he was farmers kids. I had no idea he could grow food when he finally settled down on the mountain with me, I thought I would be growing everything for us or tending the garden. But he had everything handled, he still let me help though." She stood up from the ground once she content with all the radishes she had, these would be good in a soup or chopped up fine. They were even pretty good raw, which was probably why her father ate them immediately all the time. "I thought it was pretty gross at the time, and I still do." She laughed. As much as she loved fresh fruit and vegetables she still liked to clean the dirt off first.

" Your mother was a doctor, did she ever grow her own ingredients for medicine?" She asked Alucard as they started to make their way back to the shack.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like Alucard Trevor paused, wondering if it really was OK to let Danica wake Lucia up by herself. He had seen , like everyone else, the way Lucia had reacted to Marius waking her up. She had stopped herself in time and he suppose that was what mattered, but it was still a bit concerning. Lucia was healing right now, she wasn't at her best so it was possible she would slip up. Danica seemed to have it handled though, she didn't look nervous, and that helped Trevor set his concerns aside. He was left wondering though just what had to happen to get to that point with Lucia, where you could wake her up and not worry about dying. It had to be a two way thing. She had to recognize you and know you meant her no harm, and you had to trust her to not hurt you.

" After you wake her up if she needs help getting to the shack let me know," He knew Danica could handle helping Lucia, but he wanted to offer. He was a bit transparent with his desire to help Lucia when she was recovering like this, and he was grateful that no one had teased him over his mother hen nature. " Of course, Trevor." Danica assured him before shooing him and Sypha off to get water. They couldn't really start dinner without it.

Luckily despite their location there was a stream near by, it was small but it was also most likely coming from the mountain tops. The fact it hadn't frozen over yet was a small miracle and probably one they wouldn't run into too often once the first snow storm hit, but at least when snow fell they would just need to scoop up a bucket of snow and melt it over the fire for fresh clean water.

Sypha shivered slightly as a biting breeze came through, reminding everyone that winter was here and would soon be snowing on their doorstep. " It's getting cold, are you still going to work on the pelts?" She asked him curiously.

" Its because it's getting cold i'll be working on the pelt. I got the salt and proper tools from that first dug out. As long as you don't mind using a bit of magic to help me speed up the process we'll be using them soon enough." The pile of blankets Trevor had seen Danica bring into the shack had been reassuring, but when it really got cold those blankets wouldn't be enough for everyone. Even Dhampir Alucard liked to use a blanket to battle the chill, and despite how cold Chernihiv was Trevor doubted Danica and Johann had brought enough blankets to keep so many people warm. The pelts were needed so he could handle being out in the cold for a while.

" Just do me a favor and keep something warm on the fire for when i'm done outside." He'd settle for stew or even a bit of weak tea, but something warm for his hands would be great when everything was said and done. " If you promise me the best pelt we have a deal," Sypha teased as she nudged his side with her elbow.

" You're deplorable." He laughed and nudged her back.

Sypha laughed and gave him a bigger nudge, " And you'll be froze solid without me, so deal?"

Trevor laughed but didn't nudge her again, he didn't want to knock her and her bucket of water over. " Deal, you slippery speaker you."

 

[Lucyfer]

Danica brought back blankets for Johann, and the few pillows they had, before she went back to the carriage. The sun was nearly down, so it seemed as good a time as any to wake Lucia, though she wouldn’t encourage her out until it was fully night. She felt bad even waking her earlier than needed, but she didn’t want to wait until the others came back.

Lucia was indeed dead to the world as Johann stated, but looking better in the light of the carriage. Danica still hesitated a couple of seconds, before speaking lowly, taking to what Latin she had been taught, “Lucia, it’s time to wake up,” she knew the talking wasn’t going to wake her, she was fairly certain Lucia didn’t hear anything. Still, it seemed to help, “I know you’re not ready yet, but we don’t want to leave you out here all alone in the carriage.”

Lucia looked fairly nestled into the large cloak, but Danica reached out and still found her hand and pulled it free of the cloak. She was warm, unlike her usual chill. The burn was still there, however mild it seemed now, and offering that heat. The cloak probably helped with that.

She didn’t shake her though, just continued to talk and slowly apply pressure down on Lucia’s wrist. Lucia had told her before that shaking wasn’t necessary and really put someone far too close for their own safety. Eventually, her body would recognize the ‘danger’ of being forced awake through feeling, and it didn’t matter how that feeling registered.

Danica shifted when Lucia’s hand was suddenly yanked from her grip, and the other woman straightened up against the corner of the carriage. Danica offered her a small smile as she blinked and looked around, reassuring herself of her surroundings. “Sorry,” Danica said, “We didn’t want to leave you out in the carriage. We’re staying in shack.”

“Ah….”

“Are you still hurting?”

Lucia shook her head. It wasn’t painful now. More uncomfortable, like a fever. “Trevor wanted to help you. Maybe you should pretend anyway.” Lucia groaned and Danica chuckled, “Good to have you back,” sensible enough to understand the comment, not that it was likely to go over her head, no matter how groggy she was.

“Someone needs to stop him.” She complained, shifting to pull herself towards the door, before hesitating, “Is it dark enough?”

“One moment,” Danica wanted to double check, and she quickly moved the curtain and stuck her head out, “Mm – though now I’m worried about the others,” Danica moved out first, and Lucia followed, adjusting her cloaks on the way down, or rather, folding the red one over an arm while adjusting it so she was wearing Trevor’s. Night had certainly fallen, and she followed Danica back towards the shack, even if it was unpleasant in a way she couldn’t quite pinpoint. She likely should have just gone to sit down, but naturally, she started to walk around it to get a feel for it, and try to figure out what was bothering her.

It didn’t take too long before she found the Enochian ward, and decided to give it a wide berth. It sung with threat like holy water, even if it couldn’t hurt her – it was the same sort of thing. She didn’t want to risk even touching it.

~***~

Alucard was worried about everyone eating, in truth. In some ways, he and Lucia had it better than the others. If need be, he could resort to animal blood for a while to make sure he didn’t eat the meat or other foods. It would sustain him at least a day without anything else, though he did prefer to pair it with other foods to keep his energy up. That, and he just liked food.

Lucia didn’t need to eat their food at all, and he knew for certain she’d go hunt hours from camp to make sure she got enough.

He picked up wood as they walked along, frowning a bit as it seemed the vegetables wouldn’t last as long as he had hoped. However, the frown shifted to confusion as Aveline suddenly cried out, and then pulled up radishes. He couldn’t say they were his favorite vegetables. He didn’t have much of an opinion on them, in truth, finding them fairly bland, unlike beets. He preferred beets. He preferred potatoes, and plenty of other root vegetables, to radishes – but he could eat it.

“I’ll pass on eating it from the ground,” he noted with a slight chuckle, trying to imagine someone just chomping into one, not washed off, nor cooked. It definitely wasn’t appetizing, though he supposed plenty of people must have.

He was surprised that she hadn’t realized her father’s talent until she came to live with him full-time. How did she imagine he survived until that point? He supposed the man could have gone into town, he had been working until then if he recalled, bringing in an income from his mercenary work. “Some knowledge of farming seems necessary in this day. My mother had a garden…it was more of an herb and flower garden, though. Ingredients, as you say. She would buy most of our food otherwise,” before Dracula. After Dracula, such things were generally not a concern, so far as money went.

Alucard wasn’t even sure if his mother continued to charge people for her craft.

“I remember there was a lot of lavender – the scent of it was everywhere,” he said with a shake of his head, “there wasn’t much we could eat, but some of it would add to meals. The basil in particular,” he was never certain the medicinal qualities of it, or why one basil was ‘holy’ and the other wasn’t, but he knew it was particularly good in vinegary foods.

As they came back to the camp, he noticed the door to the shack slightly ajar, and he could hear Lucia’s voice among the others. So she was awake then – and apparently no issues had been caused.

Marius snorted, and he glanced towards the horse, before seeing him and Sulla walk off. “Apparently they think we can handle things,” he wasn’t sure if he should be pleased the nightmares trusted him and Aveline, but he’d take it. He didn’t see Trevor or Sypha back yet, though he could imagine the stream might be a bit further away, and Sypha wasn’t…well, as strong. She might walk slower with a bucket full of water.

He walked into the shack on the words, “…afraid of angels, Lucia?” as a tease from Johann.

“If they’re real, yes.” Creatures holy incarnate? Yeah, she’d take demons any day. Alucard arched a brow.

Danica noted, “Lucia found the wards. Seems she doesn’t like them,” Danica chuckled a bit, “They don’t bother you, Alucard?”

“No,” he shook his head. “Most holy things do not bother me much,” he could feel it, as he felt the ward, and there was a slight unease, but nothing that he would call bothersome. “Though I won’t be drinking holy water any day soon,” he noted, as he came to set the wood near the fireplace.

Johann sat up a bit straighter, noticing things on top of the wood that Aveline had brought, “What do you have?”

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

The way Alucard spoke of his mother it was clear that he loved and respected her, she was an educated woman who had sought out knowledge regardless of the risks and was very capable. " Not everyone has a green thumb, and Lavender can be very tricky. It sounds like you're mother was the whole package." Lisa honestly sounded too good for this world sometimes, a loving mother and wife, a skilled doctor, a kind heart, and now a green thumb. Aveline thought this surprisingly often but she wished she could have met Lisa, the woman sounded like a wonder.

Returning to the cabin Aveline smiled seeing Lucia, relieved to see her up and about. She had been wrapped up in Trevors cloak earlier just sleeping away in the carriage like she was dead to everything, so seeing her walking and talking helped set aside her worries. She didn't want to see another person she cared about dead, not when her fathers dead had been so hard to deal with despite it being years ago. " You're looking great, Lucia." She complimented. Of course there was more that needed healing before she was back to her normal self, but this was defiantly an improvement.

" You're looking great too, Johann." She added, happy to see him up and already settled in the shack. It looked like Danica had been busy, waking up their wounded and getting them comfortable in the shack for the night, but everyone was looking so much better that it felt like a real morale boost for her. " Oh-" she added when Johann caught sight of her harvest for the night, " I found some wild radishes when gathering wood. They're not much but i'm not going to turn my nose up at something that we can use." She sat the wood down with Alucards pile, then grabbed the radishes and put them on top of one of the slightly less damaged tables that was still standing.

" They're a big help, good job Aveline." Danica assured her, she had worked with less before so her mind was already whirling as she thought up something to do with the radishes, honestly they were probably going to end up with the potatoes in a soup. " After Johann and Lucia are back on their feet i can restock our supplies as best as I can, i'll just be kind of useless for a day or so after."

Since they were two of their fighters it would have to be put off for now, but if their food supply really got that bad then Aveline had no problems blowing all her energy on producing a variety of fruits and vegetables, she'd probably need a nap after and maybe a day to get back to her feet but she certainly wasn't going to let the group starve on her watch.

Danica tsked slightly at that, it wouldn't do the group any good to waste Avelines energy like that, " We're not going to ask you to push yourself that hard," She assured her. It seemed a trait of too many people in this group was pushing themselves too hard for the sake of others. That kind of ' i'll take the hit so others don't' mentality would end up seriously hurting someone one day. " But if you want to help why don't we go and get dinner started?" Though without the water there wasn't too much they could do.

The door to the shack opened and Trevor came walking in, both buckets of water in his possession while Sypha was empty handed. " Sypha you were supposed to help Trevor," Danica pointed out, to her it looked like Trevor had gotten the short end of the stick here. " I did until Trevor stole my bucket from me." Sypha defended. "I filled my bucket and carried it half way here before Trevor had to stick his nose into my business-"

Trevor snorted as he sat the buckets down near the fireplace, " You were leaning to one side because of how heavy the bucket was and you were slowing us down, we'd still be out there if i didn't take the bucket from you."

" I am perfectly capable of fetching water, the stream was just kind of far. Not all of us have muscles the size of infants that can carry around a deer like nothing!"

Trevor turned, ready to sass Sypha, when he saw Lucia was awake and in the shack. " You're up," he hadn't expected Danica to get Lucia up that quickly, but maybe Sypha had really slowed them down that much. Regardless she was here, standing on her own and looking a lot more aware than last time. She didn't look like she was hurting too badly, she was at least walking around without groaning in pain, even if she was kind of red. It was weird, he knew that for her the red was because her burns hadn't finished healing all the way but she looked oddly alive. " and you're looking better than the last time I saw you,"

She was also still wearing his cloak, which did funny things to his heart. It kind of sped up and he felt a little lighter. She looked good in his cloak.

Trevor looking away from Lucia with a small cough, he didn't want to stare at her too long. " You're awake too Johann, looks like Danica was busy while we were gone. Told you that you were taking too long Sypha." he teased.

Sypha had moved to the fireplace and was in the process of preparing the logs for a fire, " Do you really want to tease me with fire on my finger tips?" She asked him with an arched eyebrow. " If you were wearing your cloak i'd set the corner of it on fire." she added with a snicker.

" That's really no way to talk to the man about to go outside and slave over pelts in the cold for your sake."

Sypha gasped and played an insincere hand over heart, " The pelts aren't just for my sake, they're for everyone. I'd say that's worth your tush getting a little cold."

Trevor crossed his arms with a small huff when he remembered the crossbow in the carriage for Johann, he felt oddly excited to show him. It was like giving a gift honestly. " Hang on Johann, we got something for you that we think you'll like." He said before disappearing outside. He returned a moment later with the crossbow in hand, and Johanns eyes went wide.

" You guys found a new crossbow?" After his had been destroyed by the inquisition he had expected to have to suffer without one for a while.

Trevor handed over the crossbow to Johann, who eagerly started to look it over. " It's nothing much. Found it in one of my families dugouts. Back about 20 years ago that was probably one of the best crossbows you could get, but it might need some repairs. It has just been sitting around for 20 years." Trevor didn't know a lot about crossbows or the maintenance they required. For all he knew the crossbow needed a new string or some parts needed oiled, but he was sure Johann could fix it up. " Hope you don't mind the Belmont sigil in the wood either."

That sigil in Johanns hands was the equivalent of telling the world ' yes i'm close to the Belmont family, what of it?'. In the past that would of been a good thing, but now it was as good as a curse. That sigil embedded in the wood, despite how beautifully it was carved, was as good as a death wish in some places. " If you want to get rid of it i'd understand." Trevor assured him.

The people of this country had tried to get rid of his family, someone getting rid of any trace of the Belmont family on yet another thing wouldn't surprise him.

 

[Lucyfer]

Lucia wondered how much she had worried the others to get comments on her health immediately, but supposed it must have been a bit. Then again, she supposed she would have been quite stressed had a friend done something so foolish as that. At least now she had all her fingers again, and wasn’t at risk of just floating away as ash.

The blood certainly helped. She hadn’t expected to heal so soon, but then the last time she’d made such an error she’d been nearly starved and exhausted from using her newfound talents. Well, that, and the burn was much worse. She could still see her arm just floating away to ashes in front of her, as clear as that sunrise.

That she only felt uncomfortably feverish was far better than that. “Yes, apparently it’s going to take a bit more than some sun to keep me down,” Lucia noted, attention shifting to Sypha as she went to prepare the fire, missing Trevor’s awkward look and his readjustment to focus on Johann – and Sypha.

Johann remained an afterthought, and he pouted a bit as both Trevor, and Aveline, addressed Lucia first. It was a half-hearted pout, given how worried he’d been over her, too. And soon he was no longer an afterthought, as after Sypha and Trevor returned, the man left, and then returned with a crossbow, while Sypha busied herself with the fire, and Danica started to prepare food.

She decided to use some of what was either deer, or wolf – and a rabbit for Johann who wouldn’t eat the wolf. Best to make sure not to even risk getting that confused. She would be making sure to watch his dietary concerns like Aveline’s.

When Trevor returned, though, proving Johann not a mere afterthought, it did bring smiles all around the room. The crossbow drew Lucia over to examine it as Johann turned it eagerly over, and nearly cackled when Trevor suggested he might want to remove the family’s crest. “Are you mad? It’s staying,” he stated firmly, “you realize I travel with a vampire, right? I’m not a shining paragon of good morality. I have her crest on clothing, too.” Back in Chernihiv. He made a point not to wear it on these ventures.

Most wouldn’t know it for a vampire’s seal, but they didn’t need to attract hunters. “If anything, I’ll find a way to make it more obvious,” maybe find a way to put silver into the grooves. He’d figure it out later. First things first – it definitely needed lubricated, and the string likely needed waxed.

He started to get up, but Lucia clicked her tongue when he did. “Oil and wax?” She could guess as well, familiar enough with the weapons by now.

“Mm…should be under the bench,” he kept those close at hand.

“I’ll get them.”

“You’re hurt, too.” Johann protested her volunteering.

“Not so much as you. And Danica’s busy.” Not that they could have Danica do everything. All this was, was fetching a couple things from the carriage, and she knew where they were, so she turned to get them.

“Thank you – and thank you, Trevor! I’ll try not to break this one,” he hadn’t intended to break the other, but…well, he wasn’t just going without a fight.

“You’re just going to collect fancy weapons and sigils, aren’t you?” Alucard teased lightly as Johann seemed still excited to work the crossbow.

He stuck his tongue out at Alucard, before, “So what does it take to get a sigil of your family, anyway?”

Alucard couldn’t help but bark a laugh at that, Johann playing along with the thought of collecting seals, “You have to admit, it’d be badass to have the Tepes seal and the Belmont one.” He might actually look like a proper hunter then. Or a very lucky kid.

“We’ll talk later. I’m sure there will be spare armor and weapons,” Alucard shook his head a bit. His father had an army, after all. That meant making his army’s allegiance clear.

“Yes!” Johann threw up a fist, as Lucia returned with the oil and the wax, which he accepted from her immediately. He didn’t bother with a cloth, never needing one, but carefully put a couple of drops on the rails for the bolt, before using his finger to move the oil along them and get them well coated. He’d certainly be learning the ins and outs of the crossbow as much as he could that night, without firing it.

He’d save that for another time.

By then, the fire was lit, and Danica was starting to prepare the potato soup to put over the fire to start heating up, making sure this version would not be creamy so that Aveline wouldn’t lose all her senses. As amusing as it had been, it was not what they needed right then.

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

The easy acceptance from Johann only made sense, like Johann said he traveled with a vampire so he wasn't worried about what other people thought, but it was still unexpected. People wanting him around despite his family was still new to Trevor. He had been kicked out of inns, pulled into fist fights, and even run out of towns because someone noticed his sigil. He had lived decades with his head down and his family crest hidden, like a defeated man trying to live on the fringes of society. He didn't think he'd live long enough to see someone accept his families sigil, let along want to high light it.

To distract from how much Johanns acceptance meant to him Trevor chuckled and leaned back against the wall behind him, " Keep the sigil on if you like, just don't say I didn't warn you. My house crest has gotten me into at least 20 bar fights over the years." he warned.

" Are we supposed to assume you didn't do something to start the fight?" Sypha teased as she warmed her hands in front of the fire, just being outside for a few minutes had already started to chill her.

" I didn't always start the fights." Trevor insisted, " Hell last bar fight i got into was because when I was paying my tab some inbred goat fucker saw the sigil on my shirt and had the balls to blame my family for Draculas hoards attacking." He threw his hands up in confusion because honestly he still didn't understand how that bastard came to that conclusion. " I just wanted a tankard to keep me warm for the night," He grumbled. He was still angry over how often he'd be kicked in the balls during that fight.

But seeing the immediate amount of care johann was putting into the crossbow, carefully oiling it and checking everything as he learned about the bow, left Trevor smiling just a bit to himself. " Your welcome, Johann. Although-" He said as he pushed himself away from the wall, " I figured if I'm going to train you like a Belmont you might as well have a Belmont grade weapon. Fair warning though, crossbows aren't really my area of expertise. Not sure i can help you much there."

There was a reason why he didn't carry a crossbow or any type of bow, they were tricky to maintain and easily broken. Plus with how fast vampires were the arrows or bolts never seemed to move fast enough in his experience, but a sword was an extension of oneself and the same could be said of his whip. The fact neither needed as much maintenance was a bonus.

" I'm going to be outside dealing with the pelts, let me know when dinner is ready ," He announced before slipping out into the cold night again. He had to get the pelts down off of the carriage, peel them a bit closer now that they had been drying for hours, and add salt to them. Maybe he could tighten the tension of them if everything went well, he did want the pelts to be as big as possible so this was the stage where that needed to happen.

Trevor had just barely taken the tanning racks down from the top of the carriage when he felt like he was being watched, with a hand on his whip he turned quickly to see what it was, only to find Veidr watching him with something hanging from his mouth. " Christ, thought you were a monster." He had expected something that wanted to kill him, and while Veidr could kill him he felt a bit closer to the hell hound after they hunted together.

" What's this?" He asked as Veidr dropped his head and left what ever he had caught on the ground. " Is that a goose?" Trevor walked over and found that yes, Veidr had brought a goose back with him. " Bring yourself a midnight snack?" He chuckled, but Veidr pushed the meat closer to him with his nose and Trevors eyes widened softly. " Did you catch this for us?" This felt ridiculous, having a huge supernatural dog bring back food like he was the head of the pack that needed to provide.

" Well....Thank you. I'll dress this and i'll tell Aveline what you did, i'm sure she'll love having another reason to sing your praises." Johann would probably be happy to know there was yet another form of meat he could eat instead of wolf once all the rabbit was gone.


After being shooed away from the cooking stew by Danica Aveline settled down near Johann to watch him work on his crossbow, she had little experience with them so she was curious. " How interesting," She hummed. Just thinking about how a crossbow was made let alone maintained was so interesting to her, she imagined there was a lot of dealing with taunt strings and wood pulled to its absolute limit. It was certainly more complex than the dual headed spear she and her father favored.

" Did your last crossbow have your families sigil on it, Johann?" She asked as she caught sight of the Belmont sigil in this new bow. " Wait did your family have a sigil?" she tilted her head curiously to the side. " I must confess that the whole concept of Sigils Is foreign to me. I do not think the Haltija had them,"

A lot of things in the human world were foreign to her because there was only so much her father had taught her and what he had taught her was through experience or her own questions. He had never sat her down to give her official lessons on being human, she just had his stories and answers to go off of so her idea of 'normal' or 'common' amongst humans was a bit...biased. She had been learning during her travels of course but she didn't see many sigil during her travels, at least she didn't think she did. She had a hard time with the whole concept honestly. What made a sigil different from just a pretty picture?

 

[Lucyfer]

Alucard and Lucia both bore expressions of utter confusion as Trevor expressed how his last bar fight began. Alucard looked to Lucia, “Are the people really that stupid?” Was the rumor that the Belmonts had done it, and not the church?

Lucia shrugged, “I’m not from here,” in Chernihiv, of course, there was some talk and fear of demons, but they hadn’t reached there. People didn’t really know what happened out here. When he looked to Sypha, she shook her head. The Speakers, obviously, weren’t spreading that lie.

Trevor was soon out, though, to tend to the hides. Apparently there were hides? She gave a look to Johann, who shrugged. He’d been sleeping, too. When she looked to Alucard, he offered, “Trevor killed a few wolves. We picked up salt in Belmont dugouts,” she was already aware that this was one, given the Enochian. He didn’t know how to help Trevor with that, and while he could go out and assist…well, it was cold.

He’d been out in the cold long enough, and his coat wasn’t that thick. “Feels like everything happens when I sleep,” Lucia sighed, but supposed that wasn’t an unusual feeling to her. She was used to not sleeping, so of course when she did, she noticed all the things that happened. Still, they hadn’t been stopping at Belmont dugouts before.

They weren’t so close to the estate before, either.

They saw Aveline shooed away from Danica, and Lucia chuckled a bit at how Danica seemed to be protective over the stew this time, likely trying to keep things focused since she had to consider two dietary restrictions this time around. She went to bother Johann, and Alucard leaned towards them, as Lucia noticed too obviously. “Oh – no, it didn’t have any sign on it,” he said. If it would have, it would have been the Belune.

He did settle the crossbow in his lap, and he turned the ring on his middle finger, and then pulled it off and offered it to Aveline, “It’s mostly a thing of noble families, I don’t think most commoners have a seal, but that’s the Abelwerth crest…small,” he couldn’t really make the ring larger, and perhaps it missed some details. He knew the colors were absent, the blue of the crossed ribbons, the silver of the knight’s helmet atop the crest, the way the decorative framing resembled wind or breath, and the blazing silver sun at the center of it, over those crossed ribbons.

“We didn’t have them back in Rome – they’re fairly new,” Lucia noted, “patricians – nobles – had other ways of showing their status.”

“Oh?”

“Ridiculously long names,” Lucia chuckled, “Nothing says power like having three or four names.”

“And how many names did you have?” Alucard teased, and watched Lucia’s expression dull.

“Four.” Her name had been a mouthful, but it came with being from a prominent family – one prominent enough to earn the ire of the 2nd Triumvirate, even if one of her family was in it. The family of those related didn’t really do well. “I’m going to go make sure Trevor doesn’t freeze to death.” He didn’t have his cloak, and it let her escape before Alucard could ask for that.

He didn’t, but she heard him shift the topic, “My mother, Lisa, didn’t have any sigils or seals. She was…common.” Strange to think of, given she’d seemed anything but common with all her knowledge. She’d been so tenacious, though.

“My mother came from a prominent family, but she had to adopt the trappings of the Abelwerths when she married in.” Johann noted. It was common, of course – women were still more or less property to their husbands. He imagined Lisa took on the trappings of Tepes, especially given she was common. Not all commoners even adopted surnames. Another trapping of nobility – perhaps that came more from the Romans. “I guess your father didn’t have any seals or sigils then, huh?"

Being a mercenary…probably not. “The haltija don’t practice it, either?” It seemed strange to him, given the prominence of runes.

Alucard noted the curiosity in his question, and the same thing dawned on him – the runes could almost seem like pictures, did they not have an association with something like that, but he didn’t interject exactly that, just finally drew closer and took a seat with them at last.

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

Letting out an interested and amazed 'ahh' sound Aveline took Johanns ring and turned it around in her fingers. She had no idea that under his ring was this little secret, but she took in the information eagerly. She had seen Trevors sigil since it was such a big part of his outfit but Johanns was new and so different. " It sounds like something every civilization and people have in common is finding a way to distinguish themselves from one another." she pointed out.

Even the romans found a way to stand apart from their common man, to make it clear they had a statue that others didn't. That trait clearly carried over into modern times where the nobles had these sigils, and despite the Haltija not having something exactly the same something did come to mind.

" If my father had an sigils then he never showed them to me, but you said commoners did not have them, right?" Johann nodded his head, there might be some commoners who had come from a noble rank once but generally the sigils were for distinguished or noble families, " I told Alucard this outside but my father was from a farmers family, so he most likely didn't have any."

She shrugged slightly, she wasn't worried about it. Her father didn't need any sigils or signs to make him special to her, and honestly since these sigils were still very foreign to her any importance they were supposed to carry were lost to her. She would treat a commoner with no sigil the same as a noble with one.

Aveline handed Johann his ring back then rested her chin in the palm of her hand, " We do not use sigils or long family names to introduce ourselves, physical things like your sigils would not stand the test of time and since we're immortal the names would get too long to recite. Though we do have something called 'Vallaslin'. When a Haltija comes of age they get a special tattoo shared by everyone in their family. It's probably the equivalent of getting your family sigil tattooed on you."

Johann sat up a bit straighter hearing that, it just seemed very odd. " A tattoo? Seriously?"

" Well it's more of a magical tattoo, with special ink and a ceremony, the more proud of your family or prominent your family the more visible you want the tattoo. A lot of influencial families have their tattoos on their faces. In general though the Haltija don't see any taboo with tattoos, a lot of the make-ups are even meant to give semi-permanent tattoo effects."

" Do you have tattoo?" Johann was almost afraid to ask, Avelines fae heritage had proven to be a sore subject for her after all. If her words rang true then her tattoo would be somewhere ever hidden and he could only imagine where.

Aveline pulled her chin out of her hand and sat up with a laugh, " Oh no, i'm a bastard so I don't get anything like that." She waved her hands to dismiss the idea, then started to fiddle with the end of a strand of her hair. " Vallaslin is a sign your family acknowledges you, so it's not weird for bastards like me to not get it. But there have been times bastards have gotten their vallaslin years after they came of age for doing something amazing. Sometimes they even make their own and start their own family line new."

Like any society where status mattered if someone did something amazing then suddenly their background mattered and everyone wanted to claim them, so there were tons of stories of Haltija bastards who had found a cure for something or cleared out a new territory for the Haltija and had been accepted by their 'family'. Aveline had no such inspirations, she wasn't doing any of her adventuring for her haltija side, so getting the Vallaslin didn't mean anything to her.

" When I came of age I had already made up my mind, even if my mother offered it to me i would of turned it down." she added, but she didn't have much choice in it. For many bastards It was either accept they would never get the Vallaslin or spend their life trying to earn it, but for her she had started to turn her back on her heritage since before it became an issue.

" The vallaslin don't look like your sigils, though each family has their own so the concept is similar." There was no paper or dirt to draw on so Aveline couldn't draw anything out, but after a moment she grabbed her Tabard as an example. " Most Vallaslin references the abilities of the family, like control of water or plant life, so the designs are very fluid and elegant looking." She pointed to the fluid and long stretching vines on her tabard as an example. " But using those natural elements to form runes is pretty common, they're just hidden. Nothing in the Vallaslin is supposed to stand out, it's supposed to be one large piece of art filled with hidden meaning. Like plant symbolism, runes slipped here or there, or references to past deeds."

The concept was probably hard to explain without any real visual aid, if she remembered Aveline would make sure to try and fix that some time. " Next time we're outside i'll draw my families Vallaslin to give you an idea, if you're still curious about it by then. But if we ever run into a Haltija you would understand what i'm talking about. It's kind of hard to ignore the Vallaslin when it's on someones face, and even the ones not on faces are normally on display. Legs, arms, shoulders, the list is endless really."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trevor had just finished with a goose when he heard the door open, and enjoyed the sweet rush of warmth that came with it. He glanced over his shoulder, a bit hopeful that dinner was ready and he could go and warm up. " Come to keep me company, or is dinner ready?" He asked Lucia as he placed the goose carcass in the barrel he was pretty sure wasn't full of wolf. It would be easy to find the goose body in all the meat, a bird stuck out pretty well, so worst case Danica or someone who actually knew what went where would find the goose tomorrow and put it where it really needed to go.

Trevor patted his legs to get off any feathers that were stuck to him then grabbed a bag of salt from the back of the carriage, it would be the first of many. " Are you sure you're good to be walking around?" He asked with a slight frown. He could see that Lucia wasn't crumbling to pieces anymore, but since it had been only hours ago that she was struck immobile by pain he wasn't sure she should be moving around so much. Her strength was better reserved for healing inside the shack.

" Kind of crazy to see you've healed so much in just a day, I always knew vampires healed quickly but seeing it first hand is pretty wild." He chuckled. In the past he had always cursed the vampires ability to heal so quickly, it made fights difficult and also promised that even being an inch off when it came to striking the final blow could get you killed, but right now he was thankful. If Lucia was human and had been missing body parts or been burned that badly she wouldn't of made it.

Fate had to enjoy twisting things on him like this, making him grateful for the very ability he used to curse when he was on the hunt all those years ago.

Pulling a knife from his boot Trevor sliced open the top of the salt bag, then with a slightly embellished flare returned the knife to its proper place. Laid out on the ground were the pelts, all still in their stretchers, and he began the process of pour salt over all of the exposed fleshy sides. This salt was needed to absorb the moisture and anything left in the hides that could possibly rot, what they wanted was to prevent that from happening since these skins were going to be blankets. They wouldn't be very good blankets if they were literally rotting in their hands when they tried to curl up at night.

But the salt would pull out moisture while curing everything, which was much quicker than the normal process that involved fleshing the hide multiple times a day then leaving it out to dry naturally in the sun for a couple of days. He had already basically all the flesh off these hides so once the salts job was done then he would just need to condition the pelts to soften them, and then they'd have the furry blankets they needed for their upcoming winter.

 

[Lucyfer]

Thankfully, Johann’s ring was entirely silver, a trait of his family, so there was no iron to harm Aveline in it. He was glad to watch her turn it over in her hand, to take it in, before he would take it back and listen about the tattoos of the haltija. It seemed it wasn’t just a human thing to distinguish one from another. It was among the haltija, and vampires – though given vampires were once human, that could have been to blame.

Alucard was listening attentively, too, not asking so many questions as Johann. He supposed he would have been curious if she had such a tattoo – and perhaps it was wrong to assume, but he hadn’t thought it needed to be asked. With all she’d told them, he just knew she wouldn’t have such a tattoo. The idea of them was certainly interesting, though. It seemed it was much like their clothing, representative of their talents, though individualized to the family.

Johann shook his head a bit, amazed some would have it on their face, “I would be interested in seeing how any Vallaslin would look. It…it doesn’t have to be your family’s,” he added, in case it would somehow be a bit painful to draw that one. Even if she had turned it down, he didn’t want to invoke any negative feelings, but he was still curious about it.

“I would be curious, as well,” Alucard agreed, “Though I am interested in why you chose not to take one on, even if it were offered,” he knew her relationship with her mother was not the best, but, “you seem…attached to the attire of the haltija,” to the point she’d seemed willing to freeze to continue wearing those slit pants. “I suppose the vallaslin is more permanent,” she would not be able to get rid of it, but was it in some way a revolt against them?

Or against their idea of what ‘family’ meant?

That he might be able to understand better.

Johann hushed, uncertain if he should add anything or cover for what could be sensitive. So far, Aveline had seemed far more open than he was used to from people with such difficult pasts, but he was always wary for a spark of anger or sorrow.

~***~

While the warmth felt good to Trevor, the sudden blast of chilled air felt good to Lucia, a balm against the heat of her skin right then, and she took in a deep breath of the air, before she watched it steam in front of her on the exhale, “I’m here to make sure you don’t freeze to death,” Lucia stated, “but food isn’t ready just yet, so you’re not missing anything,” she noted the fowl, “though it seems you’re fine if you do miss it.”

Where did Trevor get that?

She leaned against the carriage as she watched Trevor start to retrieve salt and begin to prepare the hides with it, querying her about her health, “If you were all concerned, you wouldn’t have woken me up at all,” Lucia said with a slight smirk, “I just feel feverish right now, it’s not too terrible,” the occasional shooting pain when she moved wrong or clothe brushed over a part more tender than the rest, like a bad sunburn for a human, but nothing she couldn’t deal with, “I would not have healed so fast without you and Danica, so I do have you two to thank for that.”

Vampire healing was fairly simple – blood and sleep. Sleep would always work to restore the vampire to their original state, though how quickly certainly depended on the blood. With little, it could take weeks to months. With a good, maintained diet, it was far quicker.

“Besides, it feels nicer out here,” something that probably only she would be able to say, given all the others were, well, human. Or human-ish. “Though I imagine everyone else will disagree, and be quite pleased with those pelts when they’re done. How long does the process take?” She was curious. She didn’t really do such things herself, it’s what she had others for. She had never really had to live in the wilds.

That, and the kinds of necessities that humans required weren’t her own. When it came to survival, warmth was going to be a luxury not a need. Protection from the sun was ever the focus, her only true need, given she could hunt without tools fairly well, too.

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

The caution and concern in the way Alucard and Johann phrased their questions didn't go over Avelines head, they seemed to have realized they were walking on thin ice. Sometimes talking about her past was hard, but subjects that were broad like this were easier. The culture was more fun to talk about because the clothes, the food, the vallaslin were abstract concepts and a smaller part of a bigger picture that she could tell them. It got harder when it came to talking about her mother, that was where the bad memories started and she would suddenly lose her desire to share.

" I know the Vallaslin of the Haltija who founded the village I was from, I don't mind showing you his sometime." That would be easier for her than showing her own families Vallaslin, because just the taught of drawing it out had her thinking of her mothers tattoo and where it was. The Vallaslin used to look so beautiful to her when she was younger, but now that specific weave of plants sparked bad memories.

Aveline pulled one of her wavy strands of hair taunt hearing Alucards question, it was understandable. She had asked herself before if her mother had really offered the Vallaslin would she of accepted it? She spoke big, but sometimes she felt like a child trying to convince themselves that they didn't really want something when in truth they did. It felt like some deep truth she couldn't reveal to herself. Did she want the Vallaslin?

" I think I knew deep down that they would never offer me the Vallaslin, so I told myself I didn't want it." The truth came out so easily despite how many years she had spent telling herself something different it was a bit surprising. It had taken years for her to turn her original reason for rejecting even the idea of Vallaslin to turn into what it was now, an act of rejecting a society that didn't want her.

She smoothed out her Tabard before continuing, " But the Tabard and clothes are a different issue, I was raised wearing this kind of clothing, so despite my more complex feelings about my mother and my village there are some things I like and miss about my culture."

Like Alucard could see the good in bad in both sides of his heritage she could see the good and bad in her own. She held out hope that it was her own village that was in the wrong and that one day she'd meet more accepting open minded Haltija, but until that day she could cling to something simple like this Tabard and enjoy it. " and it's more practical." She tacked on with a chuckle. " I can fight in this better than I could if I was wearing what humans wear."

Aveline motioned to Johanns pants and then Alucards much tighter fighting pants, " I couldn't do anything in those! The slits in my pants allow for more movement and give me more points of contact with the ground." Of course her pants were binded closed so some of her points didn't make much sense at the moment, but the Tabard did allow for more movement. It was kind of like a sheet with a neck hole and a belt tied under her bust to keep everything in place, while the shirt and slit pants under it were baggy enough to allow for a great range of movement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rubbing his hands together a bit to create some friction Trevor cursed the cold a bit, but couldn't deny that this was nice. This was the weather he remembered being raised in, and knowing that he was closer to home than he had been in years felt good. Despite all the foul memories and dark traumas he'd need to confront when they reached the hold the truth would still be that he was home, the first time in 20 years, and it would feel right.

" I can't take credit for the goose, that was Veidr." Trevor admitted. The large wolf had already started making his way back towards the forest, he was pretty mysterious truth be told. The large wolf rarely walked right beside the carriage regardless of the time of day, but you could tell he was near by. He seemed to appear when he felt he was needed or because he wanted something, which meant normally he showed up when ever he wanted Avelines attention. Still it was clear he was a wild animal and a lone wolf to a certain degree, he protected and cared for them from a distance.

Trevor picked up his bag of salt and began to pour it out onto the pelts, " I think he's warming up to me since we went hunting this morning. He saved my skin so I gave him a way to make things between him, Marius, and Sulla more civil. The goose is probably a thanks for that, or maybe he's trying to butter me up." He chuckled. he didn't want to say it but after something saves your skin you kind of feel a bit more accepting of it, so he wasn't firmly in the ' I hate this thing and don't want it traveling with us' camp anymore.

He rolled his eyes playful hearing Lucia complain about being woken up, " If you want to sleep outside alone in the carriage then be my guest." he made a sweeping gesture towards the carriage before turning to his work, " it didn't feel right leaving you outside alone though," He said softly, more like a mumble that he was embarrassed to being saying out loud.

He knew Lucia could take care of herself and he knew she was a vampire so she did things differently, but he wouldn't leave a normal person sleeping outside when everyone else had found a warm shelter and Lucia for all her immortal capabilities and limitations was feeling more human to him everyday. When he looked at her the word 'vampire' didn't immediately come to mind anymore, now the first word that came to mind was normally ' beautiful' or ' stubborn', maybe even ' sassy' if he caught one of her jokes.

The bag of salt in his hands was quickly depleted, So Trevor shook out bag just to make sure that was all of it before he went back to the carriage for another bag. " Normally making raw hide or blankets from pelts like this would take at least two weeks. Theres a lot of natural sun drying, fleshing, more sun drying, conditioning, and that's just the beginning." He listed as he slit open the new bag and poured it out over the next pelt.

" But this salt trick will save us a week, maybe a week an a-half. It's a pretty expensive way to save on time though so most peasants don't do it," He patted the bag of salt to high light the main and very expensive ingredient. Salt was expensive, especially if you were trying to make a living off of pelts, so for many people it just wasn't an option. But since the Belmonts hunted monsters they spared no expense in stocking up on salt, lucky for them. Plus the fact his father liked to have pelts made out of the things he killed helped, there was a reason why Trevor knew how to make these pelts after all.

" My old ancestral estate used to have land for all sorts of crafts like these since we weren't going to walk into a normal tannery asking for someone to make a pelt from bugbear skin." He chuckled softly, fond memories of how the estate used to look coming to mind. " We had a tannery for our own pelts, a yarn weaver, candle maker, a stable for the horses, all sorts of things like that. My sisters never got to learn more than inside activities, they had to be 'proper young noble ladies'-" He stopped to scoff at that because none of his sisters had been proper, they were just good actors," But I spent a lot of time running around learning from the servants."

 

[Lucyfer]

Johann and Alucard both nodded their agreement. The vallaslin of the founding haltija would be just as good as Aveline’s own, given it might be too hard for her to draw it. That was all but verified in her next words, of how she’d tried to convince herself to think she didn’t want it, because she knew it would never be offered. “Aww….” Johann did feel her pain.

When he’d gone after his brother, when he’d chosen to spare him, and stay with Lucia, he knew in a way he’d be rejected by his own family. And he had been. Perhaps not so completely, but enough to know that he couldn’t readily use the Abelwerth name. Even in Chernihiv, he tended to feign as if he had no surname. It was another reason he kept the ring turned towards his palm.

He hoped that, one day, his father would get over it. He hoped for reconciliation and still sent letters, now and then – but all he’d gotten was silence. He still hoped, even if he was secure in his decision.

Just as Aveline, perhaps, still hoped.

The clothes were more of a thing she was raised with, without the complexity. Her father most have had enough positive things to say of the style, too, and Johann nodded along more eagerly with the happy topic. Though, Alucard was more muted.

He didn’t understand from any experiences. In a way, he felt more the villain for his manner of rejecting Dracula, and others, but Dracula’s culture had not been his. His mother’s culture had been closer, for Dracula didn’t really have one. He had knowledge, and he had a long with a beautiful castle, but he had closed himself off for so long. Vampires were already solitary, or else involved with humans. They didn’t quite have their own culture, so much as they had their own rules.

Though, he supposed his long coat wasn’t exactly traditional Romanian wear. He was fairly certain it was more French.

“What’s wrong with my pants?” He defended, standing, “They don’t get in my way at all,” he gestured down at his legs. They didn’t impact his movement in the least.

“Maybe because you’re a dhampir,” Johann countered, “they’re too tight. I couldn’t work in those,” Johann stated. His own slacks weren’t as open as Aveline’s, but they were a bit looser. They didn’t cling to his legs like Alucard’s pants, or outline them half as well. “I don’t know what’s wrong with mine.” He pouted instead, playing along with the joke.

Alucard arched a brow at that, “The weight of them?” The padding was obvious, even if it hadn’t helped Johann much with the arrow, he knew they were insulated with a bit more leather padding.

“Maybe let Aveline answer?” Danica teased from the pot, “Though I think you’re all nuts to wear pants. Skirts are so…freeing.”

“They get in the way!” Johann complained.

“How do you know this?” Alucard arched a brow.

“…I had an older sister. You get talked into things.” For Danica it was fine, she threw knives, but even Lucia preferred pants to dresses in combat, so he was pretty sure he was right on this. Skirts were not optimal for combat.

~***~

Lucia’s brows did raise in intrigue at the mention of Veidr bringing the goose. The nightmares were definitely not that nice. She wasn’t about to ask Marius to bring her back anything. He wouldn’t know how to keep it in usable pieces, for one thing. It was good that Veidr was willing to help provide for them, though. Johann would certainly appreciate more things that weren’t wolf.

“I wish him luck with Marius. He’ll probably find Sulla will warm to him sooner,” she still didn’t quite know how the two ended up pairing together, or why Sulla was so much more accepting than Marius, but she liked their quirks.

And they certainly would have protected her if she chose to stay in the carriage. She did consider taking Trevor’s teasing invitation and going back into it, but she’d worry the others too much to be out of their sight, even if the coolness was far more comfortable than the interior of the cabin. Were she in better health, she would have preferred the cabin. She didn’t, though, just remained leaned against it and listened as he spoke of how long it should take. A week, or a little less, depending on how well the salt worked, and likely how clean the pelts were.

She hummed her approval – that was quicker than the two weeks of the traditional method, and they didn’t have two weeks to undergo the lengthy process required. This wasn’t good for profits, but they were hardly concerned about that. “I imagine the reaction in a normal tannery would have been priceless, though,” Lucia commented as he indicated how he had acquired his knowledge.

Dealing with the supernatural required a particular set of skills that most didn’t have – so of course, the Belmonts had to teach themselves. Lucia had never considered it, but it made sense. He would have had a wealth of talents at his disposal, given more time with his family, no doubt. His sisters must have had plenty, too. She did chuckle at his scoff – how well she understood that! How wroth her father had been to find her playing at the gladius with her brother. Her brother had gotten quite the beating for it, too, and reminded firmly not to humor her in these things.

“Inside activities? So I suppose that means the longbow and whip were straight out, but short swords should still be good. Harder to make a mess of things. Perhaps even the crossbow, the bolts don’t get quite the arc of the regular bow,” Lucia chuckled, playing with the idea of what was appropriate for ‘inside’ by thinking of weapons that didn’t cause as much of a mess in wielding, even if she knew perfectly well what he meant by it, “And I thought I left the conversation of nobility inside the cabin.”

Apparently not. “What was your favorite hobby? You know, besides tanning hides and cooking,” he’d mentioned a few, though it was hard to imagine Trevor at a loom or preparing yarn. Those were probably the actual lady-like hobbies, but Trevor had clearly go on to learn more than just the manly ones.

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

The change of topic was refreshing, and interally Aveline was thankful that Johann and Alucard went along with it so easily. The whole group was very accommodating like that, they never seemed to push her for answers, perhaps because so many of them had their own complex backgrounds they didn't want delved into.

Alucard stood up to defend his sense of fashion, and Aveline laughed into her hand. " Style-wise nothing is wrong with your pants." Though if there was she wasn't the person to point it out, apparently her style was odd as well, " and they work for you when you fight, that's all that matters. But I think if anyone but you were wearing those pants they wouldn't be able to fight." She nodded her head, agreeing with Johann that Alucards pants were just too tight for the average person.

" The problem with both of your pants, and skirts-" she nodded over to Danica who seemed firmly in the 'skirts' corner for this, " They are too restrictive for what I do. Not to boast but i'm almost certainly the most flexible person in this group."

Her fighting style was full of a lot of splits, jumps, and flips so tight pants would hinder her. Even a skirt would get in the way, and she'd rather not flash the world her underclothes while she was at it. Johann seemed to understand her struggle at least a bit, though he was a bit embarrassed to admit it.

" It sounds like having siblings was interesting. Is it fun, having siblings?" Aveline was of course a only child so she didn't know what it was like to have siblings, and other than Trevor she wasn't really aware of the others family situations. She assumed Alucard was an only child or else there would be another Dhampir with them trying to stop Dracula, and Sypha only had her grandfather when it came to blood relatives.

Looking away from the crossbow Johann paused to think, how do you describe having siblings to someone who didn't? " It's kind of like having playmates all the time, except they never go away so it can get annoying. But it's not bad, it's actually pretty great to know there are people who will have your back if you need it."

Looking up Johann realized from the way Aveline had tilted her head the concept was still lost on her, " That's right..." he said to himself, the two halflings in front of him hadn't really hidden the fact neither had many, if any, playmates as children. No wonder his explanation didn't help.

" Yes it was fun having siblings, sometimes. It's kind of like traveling with everyone like we are right now, there's joking and worrying and working together." That Aveline could understand, and she nodded along. If having siblings was like traveling with this group then it did sound like it was a good time, because she was certainly having a good time despite some of the bad things that had happened to them.

" Does that mean we can get you to wear a skirt for us, Johann?" Aveline teased as she playfully nudged his side with her elbow.

Johann sputtered as his blush ran up to the tips of his ears, " N-No!"

" But that's something siblings do, Johann!"

"No!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The idea of walking into a tannery with the pelt of some supernatural beast came to mind, and Trevor laughed despite himself. Lucia was right, the imagery was funny. " Can you imagine the poor blokes face if you handed them the pelt of a giant wolf or a 6 legged horse?" It was best to not cause the uproar or give the man nightmares.

Though sometimes it wasn't even the fact a normal man couldn't mentally handle he truth about everything that lived in the night, sometimes the pelts were difficult to handle. There were many supernatural creatures known for having hard skins or some type of natural protection that a normal tanner couldn't deal with. A normal tanner wouldn't know how to pierce the pelts let alone how to tan them.

He laughed again at Lucias idea of inside activities, he knew what she was doing, and easily went along with it. " Mother used to allow for throwing knives but after one of my sisters knocked a vase over those were no longer allowed. The flail was also out of the question, but Esthel and a mace would of held a lot of promise."

His chuckles slowly died off, even though the idea of any of his sisters in their fancy beautiful dresses carrying weapons was pretty funny. They were shockingly fitting though, his sisters did have that determined, even stubborn, Belmont spirit in them. He imagined any of them could of picked up the mantle of Belmont heir, and if he hadn't been born one of them would of had to. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing though, did he want his sisters to have to face the dangers he faced every day? Of course not, but even one sister being alive and traveling the world would be better than none.

Sack of salt once again empty Trevor grabbed another bag from the back, then hummed in thought as he went back to his task. " I'll tell you my favorite hobbies if you tell me some of the things you did during your childhood." He offered.

Lucia had told him a bit of her history before, but what her average life was like when she was human interested him. What had she enjoyed and what had she hated? He understood her past held its own stock of tragedies, but there had to be beacons of light in her past she could remember fondly.

" I liked caring for the horses a lot, even if mucking out the pens sucked." He confessed. It might sound odd seeing how he kept his distance from Marius and Sulla, but he did love horses. Just not one that ate flesh and caused nightmares, though he was warming up to the two. " and I don't know if you can call this a hobby....but my sisters taught me how to braid. There were 7 of them after all, and I watched them do it all the time. I kick of picked it up, and after I talked Esthel into letting me try it out on her hair once suddenly all my sisters wanted me to braid their hair." His lips quirked up slightly at the memory.

He ran a hand down his face, groaning slightly out of embarrassment but also trying to hide the smile on his face. One of his fondest memories was something so not what people would expect from him. " We used to sit in this large circle, where you'd braid the hair of the person in front of you, while the person behind you would braid your hair. Of course my hair was too short to braid, so normally they just brushed my hair out. My sisters always teased me that if they didn't brush my hair for me it would never get done," They were right, he couldn't care less about the birds nest he called hair when he had training to get to, but they had cared and always brushed out his knots carefully.

" They did stick in small braids in my hair once or twice but after father found them they stopped doing that. Christ he had thrown such a fit when he saw those braids in my hair. He cut them out with his hunting knife."

That had been scary, to see his hulk of a father red in the face and shouting at him, and for a moment he had been scared when he saw that knife. He remembered being happy that it was him getting yelled at and not his sisters, but it had still been hard to return to his sisters missing chunks of hair afterwards.

 

[Lucyfer]

Alucard certainly didn’t know what it was like to have a sibling, or playmates. He did not think his parents ever intended a second child. He’d heard the pregnancy had been hard on Lisa. Dracula would not want that for her again. Of course, that meant he’d been spoiled and got the attention of both, but it also meant he didn’t know what it was like to have playmates that were around.

So he canted his head as Johann suggested it, and Johann cleared it up to put it another way, though he imagined it wasn’t quite the same, or as close, as this idea of playmates.

He settled back down to sit with them once more, smirking a bit as Johann protested this skirts thing, “What did she do to convince you to wear a skirt?” This was morbidly fascinating.

“She bribed me,” he said, bowing his head a bit, that blush still remaining intense, “She promised to make me bethmannchen – it’s not the best dessert, but we only have it around Christmas time, and I really like them, and it was nowhere near Christmas, so I agreed. I didn’t realize she’d tell my brothers and they’d see me like that.”

Alucard couldn’t help but start snickering as Johann’s embarrassment almost became palpable. “So what you are saying is, with the right dessert, we can convince you to wear a skirt?”

“Danica!” Johann called out as if she could get them to stop, but that just started her laughing.

“You got yourself into this, Johann,” she giggled, “and I, for one, would be interested in seeing you in a skirt.”

“Not you, too,” he groaned, “I’m not doing it!”

“But you’d be adorable!” Sypha added, “Oh! I wonder how many dresses Trevor’s ended up in?” She mused, tilting her head up in thought, finger falling over her lips, “He had seven sisters,” this had to of happened. “Maybe we can get you both in skirts.”

“No!”

“And Alucard! Aveline can make sure they all have pretty hair,” now that her talents were known.

“Wait, what?” Alucard suddenly didn’t like this.

“Oh yes! With his long hair and Aveline’s talent we could really make him pretty,” Danica agreed, nodding along.

“Never mind, Johann, I think this idea of putting us in dresses is a bad idea.”

“No, now I’m kind of on board with it,” Johann smirked, and Alucard gave him a glare for being a traitor. “It’s gotta be pink or blue for you, though.” He wouldn’t throw him in something ugly.

Alucard briefly thought to protest, or suggest yellow, but he bit down on his cheek. He probably wouldn’t look good in yellow, for one, and two, he didn’t want to make it obvious he was pandering to Aveline’s preferences. He wasn’t even going to do this in the first place!

“Is the food about ready?” he shifted the topic quickly, and Danica chuckled a bit, but allowed the shift.

“The soup nearly is, the meat is going to be a bit longer to be cooked through,” she noted, “but soon.” Hopefully Trevor was nearly done with his own task so he could enjoy some of the food shortly after it was done, though it would stay warm for him. Danica wasn’t about to get rid of the fire in here, after all. It was keeping them all warm.

~***~

Lucia did allow a laugh at the thought of a mace being an acceptable weapon, and throwing knives once having a place. She knew none of it was true, but it did make for quite the picture, even if she’d never met the Belmonts beyond Trevor. She had her own mental images for each of them, likely none accurate, but all the same – it was still a fun image.

She did scoff a bit at Trevor’s request, “As if I remember things that far back,” she did, and she knew she’d tell him. She wasn’t even getting a choice, because he didn’t wait for agreement before talking of his hobbies. Apparently, he had liked working in the stables. It wasn’t the most pleasant of work, but even Johann took to it back in Chernihiv when there wasn’t anything else for him to do.

Perhaps it was a hunter thing to enjoy that kind of closeness to other animals. Or to just be so used to dealing with all kinds, even if the majority were killed. Hunters of regular creatures, like deer, tended to bond with their horses or dogs.

The unexpected one was braiding, and Lucia did find the thought of Trevor with tiny braids in his hair hopelessly adorable. She had to cover her lips to stifle it, if only because it would have been rude given the addition, “Well, we might just have to put those braids back in your hair one day. And get Alucard drunk enough that he lets you braid his hair,” because that would just honestly be an image worth enjoying. Aveline and Danica would also probably want him to immediately braid their hair. Lucia even had a stray thought of it, but she left it at that, keeping to the humor of it. “Or maybe just con Alucard into a circle like that…though I don’t think everyone in the group knows how to do fancy braids.”

There was just something fascinating about a man who could braid or actually do something with hair. Braiding should be a standard skill, at least a normal braid, given how useful it was to ropes and other things, but it wasn’t. It was decidedly a feminine skill. “As for what I remember of Rome, and my childhood…it likely was not much different from your sisters. I was born a patrician,” their word for noble, and she couldn’t help but use it there. Nobility seemed wrong in speaking of that time in Rome.

There were no kings then. No nobles. “I enjoyed going to school, but I would not have stayed in it beyond ten,” really it was more of a tutor who taught lots of kids around her age, but it had passed for a school back then. It had frustrated her then that she wouldn’t get to continue beyond then. She wanted to go on to learn more, “I was taught the same as any other boy, there. I was able to read about all the philosophers and learn Greek,” a marker of status, “but outside of the school I was expected to know how to spin wool, how to play the lyre and other instruments, how to handle financial matters and run a household, to know all my social graces to make a good impression at dinner parties, and to host them,” Romans weren’t so interested in cultivating too many skills in her, she was only meant to be something to increase the prestige of a husband – someone who could network, and handle affairs that were too tedious for him. Social graces were important – a certain level of education, grace, and intrigue was necessary. “My father enjoyed showing off my talents with music, or have me impress his friends with philosophy or poetry. I had a talent for it, apparently,” she shrugged lightly.

Those talents were still indulged in, though not so much as before. She had lost her love for them, though she’d regained them in more recent centuries. Of course, she had an old companion to thank for that, one who was able to teach her to love those things that made her happy without worrying where they came from.

“But I was always looking to Minerva, or to Nemesis, Diana – the goddesses – and asking too often why I should not aspire to be like them,” obviously, she was human, and not a goddess, “I admired Minerva the most. She was our goddess of wisdom and strategy, a woman who could not only take care of what she had, but defend it. I know I bothered my brother often with requests to teach me how to use the gladius – and I tried to convince my father that any good Roman woman should be able to defend her household, but…,” idly her hand moved by the blade she hadn’t removed from her hip, even in sleep, “My father never approved. It all stopped when he learned and beat my brother for humoring me…but obviously it didn’t work. I still do swordplay,” she smiled, “The only things I really liked were music, so far as what I was allowed. I didn’t mind the lessons in running a household, but I didn’t like them.” She’d taken them to heart, of course.

She ran Chernihiv based on quite a bit of those early instructions. A Roman household was almost equivalent, given the numerous slaves and tasks that had to be performed. “With the free time I had, I indulged in music, or else hooping – a stupid game with a hoop, obviously,” she shook her head a bit, thinking of how that had been vastly entertaining, and unable to understand how playing with a stick and a hoop, and other children, had been so fun. “I never got good at spinning wool, I was hopeless. It was so…boring.”

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

Aveline clapped her hands together eagerly, the idea of getting all the guys into dresses was something too tempting to pass up. " Blue!" she insisted when the question of what color Alucards dress should be came up. " Blue would look wonderful with his hair. Blonds in general look wonderful in blues and greens." she let out a dreamy sign at just the thought, blonds were her weakness after all.

Sypha didn't even try to hold in her laughter, Aveline looked lost in her day dreams. " Come back to us, Aveline!" then she snapped her fingers a few times to get her attention.

" Oh sorry," Aveline apologized sheepishly.

" You looked ready to drool," Sypha pointed a finger at her and gave her a coy smile, " and don't even try to deny it."

There was no point in trying to lie her way out of it so Aveline gave in with a small shrug, " I can't help what I like. Asking me to not go crazy over blonds is like asking you to not love preserves."

Sypha let out a small gasp, " You leave my preserves out of this." Even talking about preserves was hard for her, they had run out weeks ago and hadn't been able to restock at the last town. She felt like she was going through a personal crisis at the moment.

Aveline rolled her eyes playfully but pushed herself up to her feet to check on the soup. She stirred it a bit to make sure nothing was sticking to the bottom, then hummed at the smell. You could never go wrong with a good potato soup. " Should we go and get Trevor yet?"

" No," Danica spoke up, she had seen how Lucia had slipped outside and wanted to give the two more time together. With how Trevor had seemed to hover and really take looking over Lucia seriously some time between the two would be good, even if Lucia wouldn't admit to herself her feelings ran deeper than she was telling herself. " We can get him once the meat is done, maybe even after his piece has cooled down. I'm sure working on the pelts is hungry business, he'll probably want to tear right in."

Aveline hummed her agreement, " When he's done i'll ask him if he needs any of his tools sharpened. I found a really nice whetstone in the first dugout, I plan on sharpening my spear tonight. So if anyone needs anything sharpened might as well hand it over to me," She didn't know if Alucards sword needed sharpened, it could be magical for all she knew, but Danica probably wouldn't pass up someone sharpening her daggers for her, and she knew Trevor carried a few blades on him that could probably use a touching up.

" Oh and the books we found earlier Sypha, if you want to look them over I don't mind answering any questions you have. Might as well find a way to pass the time." Sharpening was a bit of a mindless task, once you got the motions down you could multitask easily.

Sypha let out a small cheer and immediately dug through her bag for the books from earlier, " I made sure to put some spare paper and pencils in my bag incase I had questions!"

Aveline rolled her eyes playfully, " Of course you would Sypha."

" Do you think you can show me a rune to blow something up?"

" You don't need runes for that! You have your own magic," With the ability to control the elements with a few hand gestures Aveline didn't think there was really that much use in showing Sypha runes.

" Ah, then i'll think up something really interesting I want you to show me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It didn't sound like the roles assigned to women of higher birth had changed all that much, despite the roughly 1500 years that Lucia had been alive. Generally it was about educating the women enough that you could tell they had status and then using those skills to manage the household when the husband was away, other than that there was a lot of crafts and other things to impress people regardless of if the girls enjoyed something or not. He'd say the only real difference was that his sisters education included learning about the supernatural so they could report anything back to the estate once they were married off, they needed to know the signs and act as the eyes and ears of the family even once they no longer held the Belmont name.

" You can play the Lyre?" He asked with an arched eyebrow.

He could see it, Lucia always carried a refined art to her and she was also very precise, he could easily see her with a Lyre in her hands pluck at the strings. He could also easily see her talking about philosophy or poetry, but there was a real difference between doing something because you enjoyed it and because it was expected of you. He couldn't speak for her and maybe her feelings were different now that centuries had gone by, but given how much and what she normally read he imagined she still enjoyed the subjects.

Trevor opened his 4th and what would most likely be his last bag of salt for the night, but hummed at the comment about spinning yarn. " Yeah I remember my sisters complaining about it sometimes. It was a skill the should learn but it also annoyed them because they knew they'd be married off to nobles who could afford pre-spun wool." None of his sisters had been happy after their trip to their spinners workshop, apparently the work was very boring and had rubbed some of their fingers a bit raw.

" If you weren't able to continue your lessons with your brother, who taught you how to use your gladius?" The question was asked lightly, but Trevor was aware that he was possibly bringing up a sore subject.

Lucias human life was so long ago that she didn't seem to have that hard a time talking about it, but the one time she had spoken about being changed and taken from her family it was clear the years after Rome were hard. He imagined she was taught how to fight after she became a vampire, and that was a history he didn't want to bumble into or force out of her. She hadn't tried to force anything out of him and she deserved the same in return, but he was curious.

She fought well knew that Carmilla woman, and had spoken of times were she had been hurt worse than she was yesterday, there were stories he wanted to know. Whether or not he had earned the right to hear them was unseen yet. Trust was hard to build, it was a slow process but he felt like something was building between them.

Just what that was he wasn't totally sure. He knew he felt strongly for her, that he wanted to travel with her after this, that she made his heart pound, and he knew he liked her. He wasn't sure if it would become more than infatuation or if it would go anywhere, even if it didn't that didn't matter as much as trust did.

" Your sword is a traditional Roman sword right?" He doubted there were many people other than romans who knew how to use that sword properly, but even with Rome long gone it was clearly possible for Romans to still be around. One was standing right in front of him.

 

[Lucyfer]

“I’ll take the green dress then,” Johann said as Aveline gave her preferences and Alucard groaned. Certainly they’d all forget about this later, before it could become a reality. Though, he made a note that he might want to acquire some blue clothing. Possibly some green, as well.

At least the preserves comment shifted the topic, and Alucard was able to chuckle at Sypha’s pain. “I’m sorry, Sypha,” he still managed, “we’ll get more preserves when we can.” It wouldn’t be for a while, though. He idly wondered how Sypha ever went without it as a Speaker. Certainly, she had to suffer a few times without any near access to fruits or preserves.

Alucard did pull his blade out when it was mentioned that she could sharpen them up. His blade might need it, though it usually retained its edge fairly well. The perks of being made of steel instead of iron, which was another reason he wouldn’t have trouble handing it over. It wouldn’t hurt her to be in contact with it, and so he withdrew it fully and set it down in the place where Aveline had been sitting.

“I’m sure it could use a bit. It keeps its edge well but we don’t need to have it dulling before the end of this journey.” Before Dracula. Though he wasn’t sure how good his blade would be. Of course it’d be useful for staking Dracula’s heart, but that didn’t require much of an edge. It helped – but that was more a matter of strength.

He didn’t want to linger long on how difficult that would be – physically, as well as otherwise.

Though, he was taken from those thoughts by his surprise that Sypha had pencils and was prepared to write. “You’re not just going to remember it all, Sypha?” He teased, “Are you finally succumbing to the fact that writing is a good way to preserve information.”

Sypha stuck her tongue out at him, but went back to looking down at the book, “No, I’m not. For keeping track of information you do not yet understand it is useful, but once I’ve learned it, it’ll all fit neatly in my mind!”

“Or you’ll forget it,” Johann said, and felt Sypha’s glare. He was fairly certain he almost felt fire on the ends of his hair, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

“I will not! I can retain information well, and I will retain all of this.”

“There will be a test later, then,” Alucard smirked. He’d have to pay attention to the conversation, when Sypha found things she wanted to ask on, and make sure to commit some things to memory so he could ask her about them later. Just to see if her memory was truly so good as she spoke of. He didn’t doubt it was good, but it certainly wasn’t eidetic.

“Are there runes that can blow things up, though?” Johann asked. He didn’t know the limits of runes, or all the ways they could be used. He knew that Lucia could only manipulate shadows, while it seemed that Sypha could manipulate the elements. He was used to magic in those forms, and in enchanting weapons and the like, but beyond that, he was not familiar with how far things like runes, or even consecrations, could go.

~***~

Lucia nodded, smirking at his raised eyebrow, “The lyre, the harp, cithara, fiddle, lira, citole, viol, harpsichord…probably some others,” she counted them off on her fingers, before folding her fingers back in. She had an eternity, after all, and she was confined to spaces when the sun was up. Given, she filled that time often enough with business, downtime existed for those who didn’t sleep. Lots of it.

She did chuckle as Trevor noted his sisters hated spinning, too. It was so tedious, and so boring. At least her family had the excuse that it truly wasn’t that feasible to buy pre-spun. Her mother had been good at it. She might have married rich enough not to need to worry about it, but that was unlikely, and she would have been considered unfit regardless. Even if she had a slave who could have done the spinning well.

The query of how she learned to fight was unexpected, even if it should have been obvious. She did pull the blade from its place, “Yes, this is a gladius. I suppose I should upgrade one day, but some old habits die hard,” she answered that first, turning the short blade in her hand. No doubt, her style was not quite what the Romans were used to, given her years and adaptations to it. “Roman soldiers find many things amusing. One of them is a vestal virgin who wants to wield a sword. I was able to acquire some lessons that way, usually after beating them in a game or two of dice on Saturnalia.”

Holidays were one of the few escapes from her duties, even if she also had duties during them. Tending the great hearth on that day brought her into contact with the guards there, and they were usually bored to tears. “My childhood technically ended when I became a vestal virgin, but I was only ten at the time. I probably shouldn’t have been gambling, but,” she shrugged, “Well, if I had done all I was supposed to, I wouldn’t be here. I didn’t learn much from them. A few things on balance and stance, some understanding of anatomy and armor, and an idea of how to effectively wield the blade so I wasn’t swinging wild, but…I admit most of it came from later in life, with Tiberius.”

He didn’t practice with the gladius himself, but he knew it, all the same, and when she was in Rome, she’d asked. It was all she thought to use then, just like her red cloak, it was something that had felt from a ‘better time’. Something worth preserving. “Carmilla may be Roman, but she can’t wield a gladius, she was useless with weapons,” Lucia chuckled, but that had not been what made her terrifyingly powerful. “I was so out of practice when I met Tiberius though, that I fear none of what I learned was of much use then. He sent me back with a couple of collected letters from Marius about how to train soldiers and I’ve worked at it since then.” Centuries of sparring with others and practicing the maneuvers, adapting. “It’s not that different from a short sword, in practice. Though, I used the sica before I returned to the gladius.”

When Dimas had given it to her, having some fun at her having a weapon but still being utterly helpless at doing anything against him. He’d still use her as a guard, of course – without knowing her magic, just the speed and strength, and the healing properties. Little more than something feral. She was either in that role, or the quiet doll he wanted her to be, as much a tool to protect him as one to show off. She hadn’t truly been taught much in that regard, though. He didn’t really want her to know much.

She sheathed the blade, trying to dismiss thoughts of what was ‘before’ the gladius, when there should have never been a ‘before’ given her origins. “I’m not sure if it’s the aesthetic or the straight-edge that has me preferring it to the sica, but,” she shrugged, “we all have our reasons. I’m sure you have a reason for a preference for the short sword you have.” It was more a way to question its presence, and if learning it had also been a part of his upbringing. He probably was taught many weapons, though a short sword seemed such an odd choice for a vampire hunter.

The whip wasn’t – especially given its consecrated status, but even without that, whips often moved in a quick and unpredictable fashion, making them efficient choices, if someone actually knew how to use it.

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

The whetstone was submerged in a bowl of water for a little bit, just until the bubbles stopped rising to the surface, then Aveline placed a cleaning cloth on her lap and grabbed one end of her spear. " The paper will be useful for me too," She added, backing Sypha up with a chuckle. " Despite some things in the books being wrong they're still part of Belmont history and someones hard work, I don't want to go in and scribble things out, so the paper will be helpful."

She wasn't sure what was waiting for them in the Belmont hold, but if what Trevor said about it being full of knowledge was right then the books rightful place was in that library even if it wasn't totally correct. A Belmont had most likely written this book, but even if it wasn't it was still someones research and could help one day, just like how this knowledge she was willing to share with Sypha and the others could help them one day. She wasn't sure if it would, but sharing knowledge was about preparing.

With the tips of her fingers Aveline allowed a few drops of water to drip onto her blade to keep things moving smoothly, then she began to push the blade along the whetstone with the dull edge facing away from her. She was careful to keep the angle correct, and that was something she'd need to keep in mind as she moved onto different weapons with their own angles, " There are runes that can make things blow up, yeah. Some aren't complex at all actually, but the more complex the bigger the explosion."

Sypha hummed eagerly, mind already curious if there were ways to mix her magic and these runes. There certainly had to be something.

" Wait so are there runes we could use?" Despite not knowing much about magic or runes Johann could still see potential when it was there. " Like could you put a rune on one of my bolts?"

Aveline paused in the languid stroking of the blade to think, she rocked her head from side to side as she thought. " In theory yes, but your bolts are very small. It would take a fine hand and a small sharp tool to carve the runes into each bolt." She wasn't sure if the bolts even had enough room to inscribe anything on, and if they did she wasn't sure she could write that small.

Johann signed a bit, he should of expected that his luck generally didn't pan out. " Though I could probably put a wind rune on the crossbow itself, so that anything it launches gets additional speed. That would be helpful, right?" In theory the faster the bolt went the more damage and distance it would get, which would be good since crossbows didn't get the distance arrows did.

" And doing that wouldn't kill me?" He had to be sure before he agreed to anything.

" Well now that depends on the strength of the rune. Like I said the more complex the rune the more powerful the effects. I could have you shoot bolts with the strength of a hurricane, that would certainly kill you."

" Well lets not do that!"

Aveline giggled softly, she hadn't been serious about really putting him in any danger, " We'll figure something out."

Sypha leaned forward slightly, all this talk of hurricanes got her excited. " Can you show me the rune for hurricanes?!" Why a speaker mage who could shoot wind from her hands wanted to know a rune for Hurricanes Aveline couldn't understand. " But you can summon strong winds without a rune."

Sypha huffed a bit and sat back on her heels, " I just want to learn some runes." Aveline paused for a moment, but nodded as she took the pencil and began to write on one of the sheets of paper. She wrote out the whole alphabet, each rune coming out swiftly and easily. Above each rune she wrote the way to pronounced correctly and below she put the translated equivalent in Romanian so Sypha would get an idea of what was what. Then below all that she picked 5 runes and wrote something else down.

The first symbol looked like a lightening bolt, the next an English 'z', then a straight line with a space between it and an angled line, another like a flag, and finally a diagonal line with two lines coming off the side. "That is how you would write out your name letter by letter. It literally translates to ' thunderbolt dream dance hail inspiration', but each rune has its own sound and that's what we would call you, not that mouth full." looking at the word in front of them Aveline frowned a bit, " Since you're name is foreign it doesn't translate well, if we tried to pronounce it it wouldn't sound like your name at all. It would sound more like sighfeea." She made sure to pronounce the last 'a' like it was a long vowel, not short.

Sypha 'ahhh'ed at the information and moved her eyes over the alphabet curiously, It seemed like for the moment Sypha was willing to forget about the magic the runes could do and was enjoying the process of learning the language first, " Can my name be used to make something amazing happen?"

Aveline stood corrected." If put into the proper array then probably, like I said my magic knowledge is a bit lacking." Then she signed, " Just, enjoy the language part for now. I don't want you doing real magic inside the shack, we are sleeping here tonight."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trevor let out a long whistle hearing all the instruments Lucia could play, sounds like yet another thing she could add to her list of things she could do. She could play a bunch of instruments, control shadows, and fight with a style of sword that was basically out of date. He doubted that people were readily making Gladius's, not when so many new blades were being made in all the countries around the world. Which brought him back to his question about who trained her.

He had worried he had gone too far in asking, but she opened up. The name Tiberius was said again, she had told him about him before, the only vampire crazy enough to live in Italy despite the heavy church presence and one of the members of her proposed triumvirate.

He stood up straight, his back arching a bit from being bent over the pelts and pouring heavy bags of salt over them, " You learned how to fight properly using letters?" Of course Lucia emphasized the little bit she had learned here and there from before she was turned, but it sounded like the bulk of what she knew came from those letters and practice. He couldn't imagine learning something as physical as fighting from letters and pages.

His own training had come in the form of his father showing him how it was done. The old man would show him a few new stances or moves then make him practice against a dummy until he got it right. When he got older then he trained against real people and was forced to learn anything that wasn't basic from just sheer experience.

" Sounds difficult," He finally concluded. He was a physical person, he learned best through action which was why the knowledge under the Belmont hold had done little and meant little to him today but he knew it wasn't like that for everyone. Plus if Lucia had the time to learn how to play who knows how many instruments then she certainly had the time to iron out any kinks in her fighting style.

He didn't want to dwell on the Sica, it was another weapon from Ancient Rome he knew but something in the way she talked about it made it clear it was from a time she didn't want to talk about. There seemed to be a whole period of her life she didn't want to discuss. Her human life seemed fine to a certain degree, but he still didn't know how she became a vampire or how she knew Carmilla. The vibes he had gotten when he had been in that stable told him Lucia knew Carmilla better than she was letting on, he wouldn't be surprised if there had been something intimate between them once, but that was something for Lucia to talk about.

His deal with her, no not a deal a promise, still stuck out to him. She would be there for him if, when, he needed to talk about his family and he hoped she would remember he was there for her as well. Mostly because if he had to relive the pain that was his families death then he wanted to know it got better over time. Trading Traumas wouldn't make the things that happened any better, but it would make them easier to accept and talk about.

" The short sword is just because I know close combat isn't something I can avoid. Generally what ever I fight likes to get close to me and try to tear me in half, having a sword in my hand makes that harder." The sword length of the blade let him defend up close and gave him the speed he needed for fighting vampires, but he suppose he did prefer this sword specifically for a reason, his thumb ran over that reason.

The pad of his thumb could feel the Belmont sigil pressed into the pommel of the sword, " If we're being totally honest here, a sure fire way to make me use something is to put my families sigil on it. So much got burnt in the fire, it's rare to find it these days." He tried to justify, he certainly didn't have the skills to make the sigil and put it on stuff. He could draw it out roughly by heart but as for putting it on his clothes or adding it to weapons he was at a loss.

 

[Lucyfer]

The thought of adding runes to their weapons was an intriguing one, and even Alucard gave his blade a second look as he considered if it would be a good idea to put a rune on it. He idly wondered if the ‘sun’ could be put on it, the way the ‘wind’ could be put on a crossbow to hasten the speed of its shots. He doubted it would be that simple. Otherwise, other hunters certainly would have figured it out and started adding the sun to all their weapons to deal with vampires.

Sypha was clearly the one wanting to use runes for violence, though. Alucard arched a brow at that, and made a mental note that Sypha was definitely not a pacifist thrown into a bad situation. She did not mind using violence, at all, like other Speakers. Thankfully, what Aveline showed instead, was the alphabet, and Sypha’s own name.

“Hum,” he couldn’t help but note, “It seems Sypha’s name is fairly accurate,” thunderbolts and hail all wrapped up in a violent dance.

Of course, Sypha was not easily detoured, “I could do the magic outside the shack!”

“You could end up destroying the shack from further off, too,” Alucard pointed out, and Sypha let out a scandalized gasp.

“You don’t trust me?” She tried batting her lashes in that innocent fashion again.

“Not that much,” he answered honestly, not being put off by her reaction, and she sulked, but then sighed.

“I’ll just have to see what I can figure out from this book,” and ask questions once she’d gathered information. She may be able to weasel more information out of Aveline that way, too. If she had specifics to ask for, from examples, Aveline might want to make sure to set her right. So, she went back to the book, pulling the paper back over to herself so she’d be able to jot down her notes.

Alucard shook his head a bit, but noted, a bit quieter so he wouldn’t disturb Sypha with such thoughts again, “It may be a good idea to consider runes for the weapons, though,” he noted, “We are going up against powerful foes in the future. Any edge would help.”

Johann arched a brow, “You’d let your fancy sword have a rune on it?”

Alucard chuckled, “It’s just a sword,” there was no emblem on it, nothing to make it particularly special, except that it was made of steel, and he was quite good at wielding it. He’d been using that blade for a while, so it’s history was special, but he wasn’t opposed to ‘upgrading’ it. It didn’t need to stay as it was. “You’re considering it with your special Belmont crossbow. I wonder what Trevor would say?” He teased.

Johann clearly hadn’t thought of that part, but as he did, he considered Trevor might not approve. He didn’t know, though, and gave a helpless little shrug, “I guess I should ask him before I do anything like that….”

~***~

“And Tiberius,” Lucia held up a finger to acknowledge that he had been of some help, though even she knew the truth of it was more her adaptations from what she figured out with the sica, and the knowledge that carried over from that practice, and information from before. It did take a while – there was no question on that, but she had time. Time, and people willing to spar against her.

Or hunters who annoyed her.

Peace was something she would never have.

“But it wasn’t the easiest idea. I would have been better off going with something standard to the era,” she agreed, but it hardly stopped her back then. It was only something she thought about now, in considering whether or not she wanted to change weapons to something ‘modern’ and potentially more effective.

Trevor’s reasoning was similar to her own. It was something dear to him – perhaps not the short sword itself, but that particular short sword. There was logic to it. A vampire who got in close would still have to deal with that blade and avoid it staking their heart, which, obviously, any who came up against Trevor had failed to do. He was the one alive, so he knew how to use it, but the reason for that sword was still tied to the personal.

“So what you’re saying is that if I ever want to get you a gift, I should make sure the Belmont sigil is on it somewhere?” It was easily done for her, she had her own sigil that was imprinted into things. Obviously, not everything – she tended to use it only for formal events, or for seals. The gladius didn’t bear it, after all. She had a few cloak clasps with it on it, but she also had more with the Roman eagle on it instead.

Of course, she wasn’t so attached on principal. The sigil meant little to her, just a necessity of the era she was in. It hadn’t belonged to anyone before her, and had no personal ties. The ‘Belun’ sigil was quite different from the ‘Belune’ to make sure no one dared to get them confused. “I’ll have to keep that in mind – at least I know you’ll be easy to buy gifts for.” She pushed off from the carriage then, taking note of his hands as it brushed over the pommel.

She was supposed to make sure he didn’t freeze to death. If it wasn’t a trick of the light, then his hands were far too red from exposure to the elements and likely working to dump all that salt on the pelts. She flicked the clasp of the cloak easily and moved to settle it over Trevor’s shoulders, “You’re cold.” And she could deal with it far better than he could, no matter how tough he was trying to appear.

It still felt nice, after all. She wasn’t looking forward to going back into the cabin, which was likely nice and toasty by now.

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

Sypha was a genius in her own right, she eagerly sought out knowledge and always seemed to have a solution in mind, but right now Aveline cursed those traits. She watched Sypha study the books and the sheet of paper, hoping she hadn't just spelt out future trouble for the group. Sypha struck her as the type of person to try something until it worked, even if it meant blowing stuff up. Actually Sypha might prefer to blow stuff up.

" I have a few runes on my blades, so it's possible." She piped in as she pulled her blade away from the whetstone. Using her cleaning cloth she wiped the dirty water off her blade and walked over to show Alucard and Johann the two runic arrays on both sides of her blades. " One rune strengthens my blades so i don't have to worry about breaking it regardless of what i fight, and the other keeps it hard." she understood that one seemed like an odd rune to keep, it wasn't like blades were known for melting off their handles. " I once fought this odd fire lizard, it did not melt my blades but it softened the metal to the point it was like fighting with clay. So I've taken steps to prevent that from happening again."

She went to fold her spear back up but Sypha had over heard the talking about runes and curiously took the spear so she could jot down those runes as well. " Really sypha?" Aveline chuckled.

" If you won't teach me runic magic just yet then i'll have to make do with what I have." Sypha said with no shame without looking up from her papers.

Aveline shook her head, there wasn't really anything she could say to that. " Regardless we can worry about the runes later, my knowledge is limited so It might be a bit of a process to figure out and carve. I'd like to eat first."

She wasn't a magical apprentice to anyone, she had learned as much as she could on her own but she didn't feel capable enough to sit here and teach Sypha everything she wanted to know. She had always wished she had spent more time learning the craft but she hadn't been willing to force herself to stay in the village more than necessary and that was coming to bite her in the ass.

" The soup is ready if you're that hungry, Aveline." Danica spoke up. The meat was almost done, but the soup was ready to be served. The others would most likely wait until everything was ready to eat, but since the soup would be Avelines whole dinner there was no reason for her to sit down.

Aveline cheered softly then took a seat near the fire place to enjoy her soup, " It tastes great Danica, i'll make sure to sharpen your throwing knives after this as a thank you for the hard work," She promised. Of course she'd sharpen anything for anyone if they asked, Alucards blade was still on her list of things to get to, but the throwing knives had just suddenly passed the sword on her priority list.

" I didn't think I could bride you with food that easily," Danica chuckled as she turned the meat, " Nice to know i don't need to be blond to get you to help me,"

" Danica no, be nice to me. Please,"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

" Planning on getting me a ' good job on killing Dracula' gift when everything is all said and done?" Trevor asked Lucia with a cheeky grin on his face.

He was a little embarrassed that gift giving for him was that easy, slap a Belmont Sigil on it and that was a pretty sure fire way to get him to at least keep the thing. Considering the fact he didn't have an of the seals for his family though it did mean a lot. The official family seal had been left behind in the fire, along with so many other important things, so when ever he did find the sigil on something it was a miracle it was still around as far as he was concerned.

He would be the first to admit that his family wasn't perfect, it had it's issues that should of been dealt with but never were, but seeing the Sigil on the pommel of a blade or stitched into a shirt was a reminder of a better time. A time when the Belmont name was alive and meant something.

Trevor let out a curious hum when Lucia draped his cloak over his shoulders, but she was right he was a bit cold. He still felt the sting in his fingertips even after his cloak was given back to him, but the immediate and light warmth that came from his cloak was nice. Lucia didn't really put off body heat, and maybe it was because she was recovering from her horrible burns, but the cloak felt warm. It also smelt like her, which stood out a lot compared to how his cloak normally smelt. Though he felt more hyperaware when it came to Lucia.

Like even now she was standing closer than normal, their height difference was maybe 5 inches at most but there was a emphasized cuteness about Lucia being shorter than him Though he was probably the only person that looked at Lucia and thought she was cute, elegant and stunning fit her better truthfully.

" Look at you looking out for me," he teased her, then readjusted his cloak a bit. It was nice to have to back, but he hadn't minded lending it to her. " Guess you don't need it anymore." She had been complaining about the heat so his cloak was most likely nothing more than a bother for her at the moment which was a shame, he'd miss seeing her wear it.

" Are you going to stay out here for a bit?" He was already going about and cleaning up his mess, he was packing the empty salt bags into the back of the carriage and making sure all the pelts were spread out so they could sit. The salt needed to work it's magic and draw the moisture from the skins. " I'm sure the others wouldn't mind opening the door to cool the shack down a bit if I meant having you back inside."

Danica and Johann might get a bit cold but they had blankets, Sypha had her magic, and apparently the cold didn't bother Aveline and Alucard to the same extent it would a human, while he had his cloak back. But he knew Lucia wasn't going to make everyone else cold just for her sake. Still he didn't feel right with leaving her out here. He'd most likely grab his dinner then head back out here with some excuse to explain away him still being outside in the cold.

 

[Lucyfer]

“Fire lizard? Do you mean a dragon? Did you fight a dragon?” Johann suddenly became way too excited about this, “I thought they were all extinct!” Of course he’d heard stories of dragons, but he had been told that they were all, more or less, dead. If there were any alive, they were far away.

Alucard arched a brow at Johann’s excitement, but didn’t question it, or act too skeptical. Though he was. Dragons did seem more like things of myth to him, if only because of their proposed size, but…there were dragons in almost every culture he’d heard of, and in so many worldly mythologies. It was hard to doubt something that reoccurred so frequently. “I think she would have said dragon if it was a dragon, Johann.”

He pouted a bit, “But what other kind of fire lizard is there?”

Alucard shrugged. He honestly didn’t have an answer to that, but he was certain there were other things out there that could be classified as ‘fire lizard’ that weren’t dragons.

Though, they both laughed a bit as Danica joined in teasing Aveline. Danica chuckled as well, her smile soft, “I don’t mean anything by it,” she said, reassuringly, “I don’t mind what order the knives get sharpened in.” She added, “The night’s only just begun,” there ought to be plenty of time to eat and tend to these things like sharpening weapons.

Johann started to pull himself off, but when Danica gave him a look, Alucard set a hand on his shoulder. He pouted, “I just wanted to get some soup.”

“That hungry?” It wasn’t much of a question, he had slept through the day and not had any sort of lunch or snack. He gave a nod, and Danica spooned out some soup into a bowl for him, and brought it over so he wouldn’t have to get up.

“I’m not that poorly off….”

“No,” Danica agreed, “but we don’t want you to get worse, either,” she pointed out, “Just try to stay off your feet much for a week.”

Johann huffed, but dug into his soup rather than complain further about this treatment.

~***~

“I was thinking Christmas, but they’re likely to be fairly close together at this rate,” Lucia answered. They had to be nearly into December now, though she wasn’t sure. She hadn’t exactly been keeping track of time in that way. She might not believe in the faith, but she’d gotten used to it being celebrated in Chernihiv and had to keep up appearances. Gift giving was one of the common practices of that time.

She did roll her eyes at his light teasing, that cheeky grin resurfacing. She stepped back, “Someone has to.” Just as someone had to look after her. At least she was aware of it in her own case. She would miss the cloak, though. Once her temperature returned to normal, and she wasn’t so aware of how hot it was, she would miss it.

But right then it was more a bother than an enjoyment, and besides, making sure Trevor didn’t die of the cold was why she’d stepped out there. It was the partial truth she’d admit to, anyway.

And she intended to go in when he did, the job then ‘done’, so his query came as a bit strange to her. She did arch a brow, before answering, “I will return when you do. I told them I was going to make sure you didn’t freeze to death. A bit of discomfort in the heat is nothing to worry about,” nor nothing that would prevent her from stepping in and just dealing with it. There was probably a cooler corner somewhere. Or she could station herself near the door. “The fire’s not going to burn me like the sun,” it wasn’t an issue.

Either way, she wouldn’t remain out and worry others, or force Trevor back out into the cold. “If things are all set here, we can head back in.” He needed to eat, and get warm. She probably needed to get back to sleep, and the uncomfortable heat would help with that, but she didn’t want to. She hated sleeping, especially at night. During the day it was more acceptable, but it was never a pleasant experience.

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

" No it wasn't a dragon," Aveline assured Johann and Alucard. She knew what a dragon was, most people had heard the stories. The thing she had fought was no large scaled dragon soaring in the sky or holding princesses captive. " What I fought was a lizard the size of a deer, but when it stood up on its hind legs it was tall like a bear and it was bright red. It just gave off heat in waves!"

She shivered a bit remembering the pain in the ass it was to fight, it had turned her blades into putty and scorched the ground where it walked. " That was a horrible fight, it had a tail it would strike out with and it burned my ankle. I still have a scar," She sat her bowl off to the side for a moment and pulled up the cuff of her right pant leg where a burn scar almost totally wrapped around the small of her ankle. The had healed well but there was still a slight shivery pink outline that showed where the burn had been.

Johann leaned forward from where he was sitting, he hadn't been sure Aveline was telling the truth because he had never heard of a 'fire lizard' but something had burned her years ago. " How did you beat it?"

Aveline pulled her pants leg back down and grabbed her bowl of soup, " I lured it close to a stream, and used huge leaves to dump water on it. Though I never killed it, it ran away at a certain point and my ankle hurt too much to go after it. Burn wounds hurt," She whined a bit in her own defense. After getting burned all she had wanted to do was keep her ankle in the water and make a burn salve, so that was what she did.

" So no dragon?" Johann looked a bit sad to say it.

" I don't think it was, there were no wings. Though I never saw its den, maybe there were mounds of gold there," Aveline chuckled then sipped at her soup, " Just because that probably wasn't a dragon that doesn't mean Dragons are real. But knowing our luck it'd be best if Dragons weren't real, I don't want to fight a dragon."

" I don't want to fight a dragon either, it's just there are stories of them all over the world! If all these horrible creatures exist then why can't a dragon," He waved his free hand a bit, clearly passionate about this.

Aveline blinked a bit curiously though, " Don't dragons eat cattle and people? Then steal women for some reason?" She didn't think the Dragon was some innocent creature that deserved a chance to exist, if they were real then they'd cause some real trouble.

Johann shrugged a bit, he couldn't defend those actions but maybe the myths were wrong. There were tons of creatures they fought that weren't totally like their legends painted them to be.

" Maybe you should ask Trevor, if anyone knows then he does. Or Lucia, she's probably heard things." Danica suggested as she prodded the meat, then let out a happy sound when she found everything was done. " The rest of us can dig into the meat now," she said, already putting some on a plate for Johann since he needed to stay off that leg as much as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

" Just because the fire won't burn you doesn't mean it's comfortable for you right now," Trevor said. He could see the bright pink all Lucias body better now that she had returned his cloak and since he had been on the receiving end of burns wounds and sun burns before he could relate a bit, any heat would be uncomfortable right now. " Your comfort matters," he added seriously.

It seemed Lucia needed someone to care for her or at least remind her of her options sometimes, and now that he thought about it he realized he was stepped into Danicas role a bit. He had wondered how long he would need to travel with this group before he began a bit of a mother hen, but he had expected to worry about the younger people not the roughly 1500 year old vampire.

He didn't feel like he would get far with Lucia, she was always putting others and their comforts first. " Just make sure to step outside when the heat gets to be too much for you," he said with a small sigh. " Or better yet i'll be checking on the skins every now and then to make sure they don't need more salt, you're welcome to use me as an excuse to step outside." He offered incase it would be easier for her to take care of herself by saying it was really for his sake.

A small breeze cut through the open flap of his cloak and Trevor shivered a bit, the cold really biting at his finger tips. " Well come on then, if i'm out here much longer i'll become a hunter-sicle." he rubbed his hands together to try and keep the feelings in his fingers then walked back to the shack, opening the door wide for Lucia to step through first.

" You know-" He started off as he followed Lucia inside, " I didn't think you'd celebrate Christmas. I kind of didn't expect you to want to celebrate the birth of the lord and savior of a religion that can cause you harm." He just didn't think Vampires would celebrate given all the problems that the church gave them, and boy did the church love Christmas.

On a side note he didn't know how wide spread Christmas was for that matter, though he suppose that any place the religion had spread would probably celebrate or at least recognize the holiday. Still didn't seem like anything Lucia would celebrate. Even the mostly orthodox Chernihiv probably celebrated despite the separation between the Orthodox and Catholic religions.

" Next you're going to tell me you celebrate Easter too," He chuckled.

 

[Lucyfer]

Trevor was sweet in his concern, protesting that her comfort was important. He even offered a way for her to use him as an excuse to avoid confessing that the heat bothered her as much as it may, suggesting she step out with him when he came to check on the pelts. “I may take you up on that,” she allowed, “though you have to stay in long enough to warm up.” She did move towards the door as it was opened.

His comment on Christmas earned a shrug, “It’d be strange if I didn’t – and it isn’t only Christianity that harms me, you know,” perhaps he didn’t, he was likely not familiar with the concept of ‘faith’ itself as a weapon outside of Christianity, but she’d stepped into a mosque before and realized fairly quick that it wasn’t just churches she was barred from. “We are damned in every faith.” She said it as if it was an amusing thing, but it wasn’t.

It was one of the reasons she avoided Delphi. Even if the Oracle wasn’t there, she still had a desire to return, but if there was any place she was certain something holy was, it was Delphi. The prophet had predicted all of this, there was some power that gave the knowledge to her. The Abrahamic God would probably have never given a heathen oracle such power.

Apollo also wouldn’t bless a mosque or a church. Lucia would never claim to know the source, but she understood well enough that it wasn’t just the Christian churches that could cause her harm. One trip to Egypt and a mosque taught her that. “And I do celebrate Easter,” or, she pretended to celebrate Easter.

“No you don’t,” Danica called her out, hearing it, “You just make sure everyone has a meal and you give some money to the churches.”

“That’s celebrating enough for me,” Lucia shrugged, “it isn’t like we give gifts on Easter, and I can’t feast, so my options are limited here.” Making sure people were able to feast, as Rome did for the Saturnalia, seemed the best way to honor the spirit of it.

“Holidays aren’t important!” Johann interrupted, “I need to know about dragons.”

“…what about dragons?”

“Are they real?” Johann asked, “Have you ever had to deal with them?” That one was clearly meant more for Trevor, and Lucia laughed a bit.

“What conversation did I miss?”

Alucard shook his head a bit, “Runes, which led to talk of enchanting weapons with runes, and a discussion of a fire lizard that Aveline had to fight and the reason for one of her runes in her spear.” Alucard answered, “Johann is now determined to find out about dragons. With our luck this means we’re all going to have to fight a dragon.”

“Pass,” Lucia said, leaning her back against the wall near the door, deciding not to venture any further in, “I make a point to avoid fighting hyper-intelligent, fire-breathing creatures with armor harder than any sword I own.”

“So they’re real?” Johann’s eyes lit up.

“Yes, they’re real, and they’re mostly all dead,” dragonslaying had been a popular occupation for a few centuries. “For all their intelligence, they still liked to try and pick fights with humanity and try to take over towns.” She shook her head at the audacity of it.

“So…what vampires do?” Alucard smirked.

Lucia opened her mouth to protest that, then shut it. She couldn’t exactly argue, she had taken over a town. “…Shut up, Alucard.”

He just snickered, thinking his point was proven.

“Doesn’t ‘Dracula’ mean ‘Dragon’?” Sypha suddenly popped out of her daze of research. “Is Dracula a dragon?”

“No!” Alucard quickly denied it, and Sypha squinted, clearly he’d been too quick in his denial. Why did he make that comparison? Why? Danica quietly set a bowl of soup by him, and a cut of the meat, as she did with Johann, apparently deciding to let the conversation go without her input for the moment, though a grin was on her lips as she divvied up the food.

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

As in awe Johann was over Lucias answer regarding Dragons Aveline was more amused by Alucards quick response. She almost choked on her soup when she started laughing, " You were so quick to say no," She giggled. " Are you hiding something from us Alucard? Can you turn into a dragon as well as a wolf?"

Trevor groaned a bit at the though, " God I hope Dracula isn't really some type of Dragon, I've never fought one but I have read accounts by some of my ancestors that did. That would be a pain in the ass."

None of the accounts had called the sport easy, not when Dragon scales were almost impossible to cut through. Normally to kill a dragon you had to find a way to use magic against it or it's own claws, and since Dragons were smarter than your average animal that was hard. The Belmont line had magic in it once upon a time so maybe it was easier back then, but he was just happy he had never run into one as he was. He might be a damn good hunter but he didn't think it would be possible for him to defeat a dragon.

" Sypha pull yourself our of those books and eat," Aveline insisted. " Besides we have more important research to do now, when we get to the Belmont Hold we'll have to figure out if Dracula is secretly a dragon."

It could be a secret Dracula kept, he was the king of vampires somehow and he was no mere Vampire either. Maybe his power came from Dragons somehow, regardless an answer would be in the Belmont Hold, and even if there was no truth to this it was fun watching Alucard get riled up by it. Aveline loved watching people that weren't her get teased by the group.

Sypha laughed a bit then her gaze was caught by the bowl of soul Danica was dishing out. She tapped her fingers against the books before finally snapping them closed for the time, and she happily accepted the dinner Danica handed her. " Food for now, then we discover the truth about Alucards heritage," She agreed.

Trevor laughed then took a seat by the fire to warm up his hands, though nothing warmed his hands as well as a hot bowl of soup. He thanked Danica for dinner then hummed as he rubbed his hands over the bowl, he could feel the stinging sensation in his fingers already dissipating.

" Speaking of the Belmont Hold," Aveline piped up, " Are we very far, Trevor?"

Trevor hummed around a spoonful of soup, he had been meaning to update the others on the journey. " The hold is on top of a mountain due north of here. We have to pass through the mountain pass we turned at to come here, then head up the mountain but we're certainly closer. With winter basically screaming in our faces its here though the trip will be hard. The mountain pass gets dangerous when it's icy and it'll be a bitch to go up my families mountain if it snows on us." And It was certainly going to snow on them at some point.

" On the bright side I remember there being a town through the pass we can stop at, but whether or not it's been abandoned I wouldn't know. I have been this way in years, a lot can change." His voice dimmed a bit. He hadn't been here for 20 years and despite how happy he was to see the things that hadn't changed there were some things he'd rather not see at all. Nature and all the animals he was fine with, but the people he could due without.\

He could also go the rest of his life without turning to the burnt out shell that was his childhood home but they were too deep into this journey to abandon the quest now.

 

[Lucyfer]

Alucard was clearly going to sulk over this idea that Dracula was a dragon. As if a vampire wasn’t enough. He knew for a fact that Dracula wasn’t a dragon, though admittedly he didn’t quite know why he was called it. He had another name, Vlad Tepes, but he preferred the singular ‘Dracula’ to everything else.

He took his own meal into his hands to get rid of the thoughts of his father as a dragon and hope that conversation would disappear in discussion of the Belmont hold. “Why would the town be abandoned?” Alucard wondered as Trevor suggested the town up ahead might be. He didn’t see a reason for it, if they’d stayed there before, he doubted a couple of harsh winters would drive them away.

He didn’t think it was common for people to simply up and leave a town.

Johann shrugged, “Maybe without the Belmonts around they got overtaken by other things,” Johann suggested, though even that didn’t seem quite right. If the Abelwerths vanished from their home, or moved on, the people of the town wouldn’t be in immediate danger. They’d probably be safer, honestly. Besides that, someone else would end up appointed in their place, regardless of if their mansion was standing or not. “Actually…are we sure we’re even going to find the Belmont ruins?”

“What do you mean?” Alucard canted his head.

“Well…where I’m from, if a noble family was all killed, they’d have some new family set up there to rule things fairly quick,” there was always someone looking for an opportunity, and the government never liked to miss gathering taxes. “It seems like they’d want to erase the history here and just…set up someone new, real quick.”

Sypha hummed. She hadn’t thought of that, but she did note, “There isn’t any new governor of this area, though. At least, not from what I’ve heard, and I’ve been in this area a while now.” She knew almost all the nobles here now, but when they spoke of the Belmont lands, they were still just that – Belmont lands. No one had stepped in to feel that power gap. Though, that could also be why the town was abandoned.

They were without the help of the Belmonts, and so, without the help of the government. They couldn’t reach out well to anyone when aid was needed, so if their civilization started to crash around them, or if they could no longer get through to other cities during harsh winters, they might have decided to abandon things for a town better connected.

Sypha hoped not, though. They needed to restock, and she wanted more preserves!

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

" I think I've heard of lords trying to take over the job of governing my families old lands but no one ever stuck around," Trevor added before going for another spoonful of spoon.

Johann was right in normal cases nobles were always looking to expand their lands and power, plus the church could of tried to fill the empty gap they created with someone loyal to them and while Trevor wasn't big of politics it was pretty big gossip everytime some noble did try to step in. " I've heard from a few bars my old home is haunted now," He teased with a wiggle of his fingers. " and given what happened on the lands plus what my family was accused of it's possible no one wanted to risk anything by being associated with it."

Trevor knew none of his family were witches, he was certain his parents didn't practice black magic, but to the rest of the world they were black magicians so all it took was for a year or two of bad crops for everyone to blame the Belmont name for it.

" So the possibility of your old estate being haunted drove away anyone with the ability to government the lands," Aveline hummed, she could understand villages being abandoned in that case. She understood the basics of human society, the villagers looked to their lords in their castles for help or protection and if there were none to be found then they were left out in the cold.

Trevor shrugged, " Like I said I don't know whats happened to these lands since my family was murdered. When I was here 20 years ago the village in the mountain pass was still alive, but I doubt villages as tucked away as the one i'm talking about get much business. If they were really left on their own things could of gone to hell." Trevor was just trying to prepare the others for the worst. It would be great if the town was still alive and they could restock, but they couldn't get their hopes up.

" Plus i'm biased, there was almost certainly people from that village involved in my families deaths. I'd like to see it abandoned," He didn't hold in shame in that.

He never wanted to relate to Dracula, but he was a bit jealous that the vampire was actually getting his revenge done. The City of Targoviste was basically destroyed and the old Priest from Gresit was dead, anyone directly involved in the death of Lisa Tepes was most likely dead. He didn't get the justice for his family, because when his family was just a smoking pile of ash those normal villagers behind it were safe in their homes feeling like they had done a job well done.

When he was a more cynical man he would of wanted them dead, wouldn't of thought twice about it if he had run across one of them, but now he was trying to save humanity. He'd settle for just never seeing those people again, and maybe driving him off his families old lands if it came down to it.

" We need supplies Trevor," Sypha pointed out, they could catch all the meat they wanted but running out of things like spices and bandages were not things they could find in the wild.

" Yes, but if we got them from the village in the pass there's a possibility they'll try to burn me alive first," Which given how the last town wanted to do the same he'd really like to avoid, "So are preserves really worth it, Sypha?"

Sypha didn't say anything, just put on a thoughtful face like she was really thinking about it. " Oh you're an ass," He said with a roll of his eyes.

 

[Lucyfer]

Haunted? Alucard visibly scoffed and rolled his eyes as Trevor tried to make it dramatic. He didn’t believe it would be haunted. Perhaps it was just the guilty consciences of those who had destroyed the Belmont family, or even those who moved onto the land. Innocent or not, they knew what happened. They couldn’t feel good about living on such ill-gotten land. Perhaps that would also mean the villagers had left, then, if no one could get a foothold in it.

Though, that Trevor wanted to hope they were all gone did sour Alucard’s thoughts a bit, he couldn’t hold it against him too much. He was reminded of Lucia’s words on how she wouldn’t have held it against Dracula if he kept his revenge to those who had been responsible. ‘I wonder how many would have left orphaned children if revenge was had in your case, Belmont.’ Was it truly right to punish those who followed authority blindly?

That, Alucard wasn’t sure he had an answer for. He liked to think not. He liked to think to leave them alone, but….

“We can survive a while longer without supplies, Sypha,” Alucard sighed, “Anything we need, we can find a way to get, or make. Humans did so before we had all of these items so readily available.” Humans survived in much worse conditions than these, he was sure they could make it, too. Sure, they’d run out of some things, but the necessities – water and food – would be had. Bandages and healing salves might run out, but they had clothe they could use in a pinch for bandages.

Maybe they’d have to find a way to use large leaves or something.

Regardless, they’d manage.

“And if the town is there, we can always just steal from them,” Lucia shrugged.

“Or not,” Danica’s tone took on a chastising tone. “Many may not have had anything to do with the destruction of the Belmont hold by now. It has been 20 years,” children had time to grow up, parents had time to die. “I would wager if there is anyone still there, they’re innocent.”

Lucia could argue, but she wouldn’t. Even if Danica was probably right, that didn’t mean she wanted to support the town that led to the destruction of the Belmonts. “I guess we’ll see when we get there…but we shouldn’t get our hopes up for supplies,” even if there was a town, from the sounds of it. Even if they could keep Trevor in the carriage, out of sight and out of mind, Johann was pretty sure it wouldn’t work. Their luck hadn’t been the greatest so far.

“Agreed,” Alucard said. They would have to continue on with the idea they wouldn’t hit anything, and then if they did, they could gather supplies. If they didn’t, they’d at least be in a better mindset to deal with that disappointment and more prepared to handle going on – even if they’d be eating smaller portions by then. “But if we do it reach a town, we’ll just have to keep Trevor in the carriage so he’s not seen, and get supplies quickly.”

“Before we’re all burned at the stake again….” Johann sighed. He really didn’t want to go through that. “I’m all for just passing the town….”

 

[AnxietyandSparklingWater]

Trevor scoffed at the idea of being burned at the stake, despite the fact it literally almost happened within the past week. " It's one thing for inquisition soldiers to jump us during the day then try to burn us, it's another for random villagers to try." The inquisition had magic and men on their side, they had come into that village and all but taken over. There had been innocent people there that didn't leave a bad taste in Trevors mouth, so he had gone along willingly. If this town tried something then they would be farmers and peasants, they wouldn't be worth getting his whip out for. " Hell i'd like to see them try, I don't want to stay in the carriage."

" If they see your sigil they might not want anything to do with us, Trevor." Aveline pointed out, though this was all a hypothetical if things did pan out for them they needed to have a plan agreed on.

" And if I see their faces I won't want anything to do with them, but i'm not going to burn their families alive in their homes so they can deal with us." Trevor spat back. He felt like his heckles were raised, and Aveline backed down realizing she was on thin ice.

Trevor sighed a bit and his shoulders slumped, he didn't mean to get so worked up but being back this way was apparently already starting to rub him the wrong way. " Aveline I didn't-" He started but she gave him a reassuring smile, her feeling weren't hurt. But Trevor still felt a bit bad, still felt like their were too many eyes on him now that he had reopened this festering wound.

He pushed himself up and away from the fireplace, sat his empty dinner bowl in the bucket of water for washing, then headed towards the door. " I'm going to check on the pelts," He didn't wait for any replies before slipping back out in the cold. A moment alone would do him good.

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The door opened then shut quickly, the quick burst of wind made the fire in the fireplace waver a bit before it regained strength. " I guess we'll have to get used to dealing with that until we're done with the hold," Sypha said with a frown.

They all had their traumas and none of them were going to push one another farther than they wanted to go, but if this issue with Trevor started to cause problems in the group it would need to be addressed.

" He's going home for the first time in 20 years Sypha," Aveline reminded her as she frowned at the door, a sympathetic look on her face, " He's hurting and opening an old wound for the sake of Wallachia. I'd say he's allowed to lash out a little."

" I know that, but we're his team mates. We did nothing wrong," They hadn't been the ones to seal the doors or light the flames, Trevors harsh nature was unwarranted.

" None of us can claim to be masters of their emotions, give him time. I'm sure he'll open up to one of us." Aveline got up and dropped her empty soup bowl into the water, then started to wash the dishes. It would be a long night, might as well get the chores done.

" You don't know that for sure,"

" I don't, but when people are hurt they tend to drift towards people who will understand them. I did." She pointed out. She didn't have the tragic story that Trevor did, but her own issues were alot easier to bare now that she knew she had Alucard near by ready to listen. She was sure Trevor would find someone to talk to when it all came down to it, this had been festering inside him for 20 years so it wasn't going to stay down for much longer.