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Fandom Castlevania: Night's Dirge [Closed]

With some type of game plan figured around the group split up and into the village to try and gather what they could for everyone, and with so many people adding to the cause it certainly made things seem to go quicker.

Aveline looked over an apple and thought about how if this had been a few months ago she would of only been grabbing things for herself and preparing to journey alone again. Despite the fact it was better for her to travel alone, no attachments to people and no one to hide her secret from, she had been lonely. It had been one of the reasons why she clung to the speakers when they had welcomed her with kindness. How often do you find kindness like that in these hard times?

She grabbed some things that she thought the group could use, and that hopefully no one else had already gotten, and returned to the ruins of the speakers house. Along the way she passed by Johann, who was looking around at a stall of premade clothes and some bolts of fabric that they could use to make what ever they needed if the stall didn't have what they needed, and Trevor who was looking over the dried meats and black smith stalls with mild interest.

By the time he saw the carriage come into view the sun was finally fully in the sky with it signaling that day had started and with it came moderate safety. Sypha had already returned ahead of everyone else and there was a good bit a supplies in boxes that she and Alucard were helping Danica fit onto the carriage.

" Is the carriage big enough for all of us and what ever we're bringing with us?" she asked curiously. In hind sight maybe they should of set a limit of how much they could bring.

" Well if we over bought then we'll just have to scale down, and we can give the surplus to the poor. Gresit certainly isn't wanting for people who need help." Sypha said sagely.

Trevor showed up with his own idea of supplies, mostly dried or smoked meats that wouldn't spoil on their way to the distant land that was his families old estate. Of course now the church had most likely divided the land to lesser lords or clergy, but if people really did fear that the Belmonts practiced black magic then for all he knew his families old estate was a fucking goat pasture by now.

" Hope you all grabbed what ever you need to survive the cold. If there's one memory of that old mountain i have that isn't tainted in blood or ash, it's that it was cold as a witches tit." Trevor said as he found a spot for his box of dried or preserved foods. Syphas eyes lit up seeing a jar of preserved fruit, and Trevor told himself to make sure their preserves didn't magically disappear during the trip.

" If it's cold then you better dig you're cloak out of the rubble." Aveline suggested as she pulled an apple from her own sack of supplies, then pulling a dagger out from under her cloak she put off slices of it and offered it to the others. Sypha and Danica took a piece with a smile and thanked, and even Trevor grabbed a hunk before grumbling and digging through the fallin bits of house.

" I wish i had seen you reveal your crest and heritage to the mob, it must of been some show." Sypha teased him, but she also helped him look for his inky black fur cloak.

" Yes it was almost as dramatic as your little ' I am no witch, i'm a scholar of magic. I serve no demon and do no evil.' bit." Trevor teased her back, but his chuckle was cut off when she pushed him into the rubble.

" I thought you did no evil!"

" Pushing you into the dirt is a good deed, maybe the dirt will absorb some of your smell."
 
Bolts of cloth and fur had been bought, along with premade clothing. Johann was used to the cold by now, and had some idea of what would work. Danica could help to make clothes, and he knew that Lucia was liable to help, if only to have something to do in the day, so he made sure thread and sewing supplies were bought. He didn’t think any were brought, though he wouldn’t have put it past Danica, given how often she had to repair Lucia’s favorite red cloak.

Supposedly, from back in Rome, a gift…though by now, it was unlikely any of that original fabric remained.

He also made sure to buy meat for the horses, though he wasn’t sure it would put them off eating any more demons on their trip – he’d try. It wasn’t really something he wanted to have to see again. He didn’t need to be reminded that the horses were vicious things, and probably more intelligent than he gave them credit for.

Then he was of the same mindset as Trevor, opting more for dried goods and preserves, which he brought back with some help from Alucard, who saw him getting in over his head with supplies. The dhampir was thankfully quite a bit stronger than he looked and bore the brunt of the burden, returning to the carriage as they were asking about space, “Should be!” Johann said. There was space under the benches of the car, he knew, but there was another space behind that for supplies, which had earlier been loaded with food and some other notable items, mostly books for Lucia. He could see that Danica had already opened the back and they were loading things up.

They wouldn’t want to open the door now and expose Lucia – the carriage back was built with that in mind.

“I made sure buy some clothing. Danica and Lucia should be able to make some things to keep us all warm,” Johann added, passing some of the bolts to Danica as she added them to the pile. “We’re from further east, so we’re used to it.”

“Where are you from?” Sypha asked, looking away from where Trevor had fallen. Alucard had moved to take a piece of apple from Aveline, thanking her, as Johann just shook his head, but smiled. He just wasn’t hungry, he had no issues with apples. His appetite was long gone thanks to the nightmares.

“Chernihiv,” Danica answered, “but we visited here often, when…well, when things were better with Dracula.” Danica glanced down a moment, “Not Gresit, but Romania,” where Lisa had lived, with Alucard, and Dracula. Occasionally, they would visit his castle, as well, but more often than not the time was spent in Lisa’s home. “Oh, and there should be enough room within!” Lucia wouldn’t like it, but…, “If not, there’s the bench here with the nightmares, that can hold three people. Johann?”

“Mm?”

“You’ll take first shift. I need to get a nap in before I try to steer the horses.”

Johann sighed, but consented.

“Are they difficult?” Alucard asked, glancing to them, “I’ve had some experiences, perhaps I could assist?” He had wanted to drive his mother and father around once, as his mother was always so insistent that his father travel ‘like a man’. He wanted to show him it….

“Marius can be,” Danica sighed, “That one has a mind of his own. At least Sulla can usually keep him in line…we can show you as we travel, having three to switch between would be useful.”

“I can drive carriages, as well!” Sypha volunteered, “I haven’t…driven a demon carriage, but I am certain I can help!” Plus it would get her out in the fresh air. “We’ll all need a break from Trevor’s stench.”

Alucard wondered how long this joke was going to run as he snickered, “Indeed. Lucia’s the lucky one. She doesn’t need to breathe.” He knew many did it out of habit, or to speak, but she could at least stop.
 
Aveline turned away from watching the others load the cart, ducking her head slightly to hide the crinkle in her noes after seeing all that meat. She didn't mind other people eating meat, not every one had the ability to just grow fruits and vegetables when ever and where ever they needed. But it could cause trouble for her in the future. Fresh fruits and vegetables wouldn't last long, and when they were out in the middle of a frozen forest or landscape how would she explain finding apples or wild carrots? Her choices seemed to be starve to keep up the lie, actually eat the meat which she wasn't a big fan of, hide food from the others, or tell the truth. She popped another slice of apple in her mouth and decided she'd worry about that bridge when she came up to it.

But she was aware that she was putting off a lot of issues, and if she wasn't careful she could end up burning bridges with the people she was really starting to enjoy being around. Everyone had a lot of personality which she really enjoyed, there was already a sense of teamwork being built.

" Oh I want to learn how to steer the carriage as well!" Aveline said, happily pushing away from the wall she had been leaning on.

" Looks like we won't have to worry about finding someone to change swifts with then." Johann said. It would be nice to know that there was multiple people on stand by ready to take over it one of them was tired or something happened to them.

" I don't smell that bad." Trevor called out from the pile of rubble he had mostly cleared. With a sound of triump he stood up and held his large cloak up in the air to inspect it and see if it was damaged, who knows if all those falling rocks had torn open old stitches or created new one.

He shook out the cloak but frowned when he found a rip along where the bear fur met fabric, that would need patching as quickly as possible. The bugbear fur was built for harsh weather and had kept him warm long after he had started to travel the world on his own.

" Truthfully you aren't the worst smelling Trevor...but a quick dip in a river and some smoked herbs over your clothes would be nice." Aveline admitted sheepishly. They all seemed to like giving him a hard time, she didn't want him to think they were being unfair to him.

" In fact i'll keep my eyes open for herbs we can use to freshen you up a bit. Oh some lavender maybe or some Artemisia would be nice." She counted off on her fingers.

" Whoa calm down there. The only herbs I use are the ones I use to keep creatures at bay. I might let you burn some Rowan branches near me if we find any trees." He said off handedly as he tried to gauge how big the whole in his cloak was. He was able to stick his whole arm through the hole and he pouted to himself, which got a laugh out of Sypha.

However Aveline swallowed a bit tensely at the talk about Rowan, hoping if she didn't talk about it the topic would just be dropped. The tree was bad news for anything not strictly human, and she avoided it like the plague.

" Once we hit the road Trevor i'm sure someone will fix you're cloak, don't pout like that." Sypha teased him.

" No I can do it." He insisted and pulled his cloak a bit closer. " This cloak means...well I don't have a lot of things I hold dear but this cloak is one of them." he explained softly as he rubbed the pelt between his fingers.

" This bugbear was the first creature I killed by myself, I brought the pelt home and one of my favorite family servants helped me tan the hide. Only a little bit of the pelt was useable after the fight and I...well I looked stupid just walking around with it around my shoulders. It did a shit job at keeping me warm too. My oldest sister Esthel sewed the fabric onto it after I caught a cold for going out in just the pelt."

His reason for caring so much for the cloak didn't have to be said, it hung in the air. After all everyone knew what had happened to the belmonts, and they knew they were talking to the only living Belmont. The fate of his favorite sister didn't have to be said. It also explained why he wore the cloak and used it to hide his families sigil. The Belmont name had only brought his family death and betrayal, but this cloak that his sister had so lovingly put together for him was more than a family name. It was love without any worries or pressures that came with the family they were born into.
 
“Perhaps sage then, it is not so bad, and may help to keep some evil at bay,” Alucard noted, though one of the nightmares gave him quite the look for it, as if it understood what he said. He stiffened a moment as Danica patted the nightmare’s neck.

“Sage is out. Sage and nightmares don’t mix.” Sage was rather good at repelling evil spirits, or those who tended to bring about malignant presences with them. The nightmares fell into that latter category, their presence often a herald of a plague of bad dreams in an area. Whether or not the creatures were themselves malign, Danica couldn’t say – she did not know Marius or Sulla to be, but they could be exceptions.

Then again, they were in a party of interesting exceptions. A hunter working with a vampire. A son going against his father.

“Well, I am sure we will think of something that will be a benefit to us all,” Alucard noted instead, “even if it ends up being lavender.” The cloak, however, was ruined. Though Trevor still seemed to plan to see it fixed, and as he told the story, Alucard found he could not blame him. Danica let out a slight sigh at the stubbornness, but moved back to the back of the cart and drew out some spare cloth, some thread, and a needle.

If he was intent to do it himself, he may as well have the material. She wasn’t certain he would need the black cloth, but if he did, he had it. She brought it back around to him and held it out, “You can work on it in the carriage if you like, otherwise, I am sure this is enough for when we’ve stopped.” It might be too bumpy for him to work on it adequately in the carriage, but he would have the supplies at hand now.

She wouldn’t insist on repairing it for him. It would mean more to him if he did it, even if the lines ended up zig-zagged, or uneven in some way. This was a family cloak. He would want it to stay touched by family, or himself.

“Esthel sounds like she was lovely,” perhaps it was not so good to mention it, but Danica had dealt with the chill of such things before. In getting to know a vampire over millennia old, it was still so strange to her that some subjects would still chill even her, and turn her silent and bitter. One moment she could be speaking so easily of Rome, and with a word, or a name, turn as silent as the grave.

Alucard was not so bold, but shifted instead, “Do we have everything we need?”

Sypha pursed her lips a moment, counting off, and going through a mental list of what they had gathered, “I think so,” she said after a moment.
 
Trevor looked at the supplies Danica offered him, then gave her a small thankful smile as he took them. She hadn't offered to fix his cloak for him, after his confession he didn't think anyone would, and he appreciated it. He knew his stitches wouldn't look as good as his sisters had, but there was still some of his sisters handiwork in this cloak and he wasn't going to just tear it apart or throw it away.

" Esthel was....lovely doesn't even begin to describe her." Trevor confessed softly, his words filling the silence that had befallen the group. " All my sisters were but Esthel was special."

" All your sisters? Did you have a lot of siblings?" Aveline asked him gently, probing to see if he was ok with the topic.

" I had 7 sisters, and i would of had a brother but he died when he was a babe."

" Whoa that's....more than I expected." Sypha said. Speakers of course traveled in groups but they weren't known for a single couple having so many children, normally a family would have one or two children but the whole caravan would help to raise them.

" yes well when you're a noble family that hunts monsters you never know how many children you'll lose to creatures, so my family tended to keep having children to pass on the name or until there was a male heir. Guess I turned out to be both." he said with a bitter chuckle.

But thinking of his family was quickly bringing him to a bad place, and god did he wish he had some ale.

" Lets head out." He said, quickly changing subjects when Alucard brought it up.

With that the last of the supplies were loaded up and Danica knocked on the side of the carriage to watch Lucias attention. " We're coming in my lady." She warned her. Despite the carriage being pulled into the shadow of the building She and Johann weren't going to risk hurting Lucia in the slightest.

"It's surprisingly big in here." Aveline hummed as they all piled in. Trevor took the spot across from Lucia and immediately started to prepare his needle for the work ahead.

" It'll make taking a nap easy." Sypha supplied, trying to find a bright side in being inside a dark carriage for most of the day.

" If I get stir crazy get ready for company, Johann." Aveline called out to the blond but took her seat regardless. A bit of a nap would surely pass the time.
 
Danica’s smile remained warm as Trevor mentioned more about Esthel – not much, but a little to know she was likely his favorite sister. Perhaps the eldest of them all, as he mentioned there were many. Not a surprise to her. Nobles tended to have plenty of kids. They were able to. People such as her…before her life with Lucia…were not so able. She could have. Once she thought to, but that time had passed her by only a couple of years ago, and by then she had determined that Lucia was enough of a hassle.

It was enough to know she would mean much in the life of an immortal.

“I’d love to hear more of her – seems we had a common interest,” Danica chuckled lightly, before she would let the topic be turned, and alert Lucia to the new situation.

Lucia did press into her own side of the carriage, and Danica would step up to sit next to her, as Trevor sat across. There was a book in her lap, and the carriage even had a lantern in the center. It was roomy, but then, when one had to live in it for hours on end, they tended to make it comfortable for the trip. It was a little snug with so many people in it, but that was no issue.

Danica noted the red cloak draped around Lucia, but made no comment to it then. She usually wore it within the carriage, a false protection against the sun, but one Danica had seen her raise up against a few times in vain.

Sypha took the spot besides Trevor, and Alucard moved to sit by Danica, thinking it might be wiser to stay on the side of people he knew, and allowing Aveline the spot besides Sypha. Sypha at least thought if either got tired, they could lean into each other – assuming Aveline didn’t get stir crazy. If she did, more room for Sypha!

Johann didn’t call back, but soon enough they felt the carriage begin to move. That was when Lucia lowered her gaze back down the book, the Latin text scrawled out, though not before noting to herself that Trevor was going to try and sew in a moving carriage. Danica was capable of it. She wouldn’t have guessed Trevor could, but then, nomads had to pick up skills.

For a moment, the silence seemed to hang heavy in the air.

“I don’t mind if you talk,” Lucia said without lifting her eyes, “I’m not going to be disturbed,” she could read through conversation, particularly when focusing on the language others weren’t speaking.

Sypha exhaled, not quite tired enough to drift off. “Well I actually wanted to ask…how did you come by those Nightmares?”

Well this was bothersome. No matter, she supposed it was a topic that would come up. “They were causing a ruckus in Chernihiv, I handled it. I cannot exactly have a city plagued with foul dreams that they start to take as premonition or prophecy.” It made people quite irrational. “They’re reasonable.” They had come to some conclusions in the astral plane. Marius and Sulla could not speak in this plane, but within dreams, they were capable of much, much more. It was why their power shifted with the sun, too – they were more potent, and so more demonic in appearance, at night.
 
" So they bring nightmares with them then? That's a bit on the nose for the name then. Kind of like a pun," Aveline mused. " I love it."

" Wait so will we get nightmares if we sleep around them?" sypha asked with a frown. Life was already a living nightmare at the moment and dreams were the only escape most of them had, it would be horrible to lose those too.

" What ever you dream up can't be much worse than what we live." Trevor said idly. " Demons literally steal babes from their cribs at night." he cited as an example. But then again with everything he had seen in his life over years of being a hunter nice dreams were rare for him anyway. It was just another reason why he liked to drink himself to sleep, with Ale coursing through his veins it was hard to dream.

" Things can always get worse though Trevor. Imagine dreaming about fighting those monsters in Gresit naked." Aveline said as she grabbed at the small carrying bag she had brought on board with her and started to dig through it. When you wandered on your own you tended to travel light, so this small bag held almost everything she owned. Though she did have a second bag that had been tucked away along with the supplies that had bigger or heavier items. She always made sure to carry a spare spear head, sharpening tools, and other such supplies that assisted in her survival.

" It's still a dream, who cares if you're naked in a dream." Trevor scoffed, then cursed softly as they road over a particularly large bump and he prinked his finger. He was suddenly even more aware that he was in a small confided space with not one but two vampires.

" That's what a man with no shame would say." Sypha said, looking like she was re-evaluating Trevors character just for saying that.

" Don't look down your nose at me. The elder told me what you said about pissing in a bucket, you have just as little class as I do."

" Oh you did say that didn't you Sypha? I forgot." Aveline laughed, then cheered softly to herself as she pulled out not a book but an old scroll.

The Haltija preferred scrolls over books and despite trying to distance herself from her mothers side of the family Aveline had grown up reading scrolls and preferred them to books, So when ever she found scrolls she couldn't stop herself from grabbing them up to read them. she had stumbled upon a treasure trove of scrolls less than a week ago when she had ventured through the catacombs looking for Sypha. Sadly she hadn't found Sypha because she had used a more traditional entrance unlike the weird one Sypha had used, but she had found some light reading.

The church had probably put them underground because anything not transcribed or translated by the church might as well be witch craft, she was just happy they hadn't burned them. And her eyes glimmered slightly in the light from the lantern seeing that this scroll was written in the traditional runes of the Haltija, who claimed that all runes were based on their own original system. It was rare to find Haltija runes outside of the clans hidden all around the world, but the runes were the first things Aveline had learn to read and write in and she did enjoy reading in her first language. Even to this day she found she couldn't shake the accent that came from speaking Romanian, whos letters and sounds were so unlike the runes.

" I don't remember saying such a thing." sypha lied but Trevor could see the coy smile on her face.

" Yeah yeah pretend you forgot all you want, i'm onto you." He pointed what was supposed to be a menacing finger at her but continued his sewing so the effect was lost.

His eyes strayed from his work when he caught fight of the red cape Lucia was wearing, it was pooling around her feet on the floor a bit. Seeing it he could help but stifle a laugh a bit. "No offense, or maybe full offense i'm not sure what i'm going for here yet, but aren't red capes a bit...cliché for vampires?"
 
The scent of blood did not perturb Alucard so much, but then again, it was not quite so necessary for him as it was Lucia. He’d also woken from a sleep, where he’d been healing himself with blood, so he wasn’t exactly starving. Lucia, on the other hand, lifted her eyes at the slightest scent of spilled blood. She hadn’t drank the night before, not even animal, being dragged into a fight and catacombs.

She had enough self-control to do nothing more, but it did cause a slight ache, a reminder that she would need to hunt as soon as she got out of the carriage in order to maintain the control, while her attention shifted back to the book and others spoke of the nightmares.

“Oh – yes, Marius and Sulla can cause literal nightmares, and they do,” Danica wouldn’t lie about it, “but only when they’re asleep, too. And it’s…it’s not so bad. They have to restore themselves spiritually, too. That’s how they do it.” She’d gotten used to these kinds of things, of creatures having to cause harm to stay alive.

Did humans not cause harm by killing creatures for food?

A nightmare didn’t kill, though it could be quite draining, and spark paranoia if one didn’t know where it was coming from.

Lucia also tried not to kill when feeding, her restraint learned over years. Even then, though Danica noticed the bead of red, too. She felt Lucia tense at her side, but she did nothing else, just tried to bury herself in the book once more.

And Danica had to cover her mouth as Aveline and Trevor outed Sypha for a rather vulgar comment. Alucard’s eyebrows raised, “Well, I was not expecting that.” He admitted. He had been fooled into thinking Sypha had a bit more class, too. He leaned forward though, as he saw a scroll come into sight, brows knitting together.

This wasn’t a language he knew. He had seen plenty of scrolls in his life, and for all he knew, he’d come upon this language, but he could not read it. “What is this?” He asked, voice a bit lower as Trevor made another crass comment about the cloak that Lucia was wearing.

“Oi, Trevor,” Sypha elbowed him as Lucia lifted her gaze again from the book.

There was no humor, even if she quirked a smile. “Yes. It is.” Her simple and curt agreement belayed some agitation with the comment. He wasn’t wrong. Red cloaks were horribly cliché for vampires. Did she care? Absolutely not. This still bespoke of the Roman centurions to her, of a life long lost. “If you get to wear a ridiculously large family crest on your back and chest, I see no reason to be any less subtle.” Her eyes flicked back down to the book, “You should cover that wound.”
 
Avelines eyes quickly scanned the paper, the runes being as clear as day for her to read. She preferred runes to the latin based languages that the countries and peoples around her spoke, because the runes used symbols to represent full words more often than not. As far as he was concerned the scrolls were able to carry a lot more knowledge because it was compact, but the region of the world she was in certainly didn't make use of runes.

Her mothers clan was rather removed from the west where the runes carried more weight, but the Haltija didn't change themselves to fit the place they were in. They changed the place to fit them, and since they lived rather secluded it didn't matter if outsiders couldn't read their texts or understand them. But the Haltija also held themselves to a certain standard and enjoyed learning, so even if they thought their system was better they weren't past learning.

She paused in her reading hearing Alucards question then glanced around to see that everyone else was distract enough that they could chat about this a bit. After all she could pass it off as a dead language she had learned for fun if pressed about it, but since Alucard knew the truth about her she actually appreciated knowing she could be truthful with him.

" This is a scroll I discovered hidden by the church in Gresit. It's written in what my people- What my mothers people call the Flaradr Uppruni." She explained softly and handed him the scroll to look over, but she could tell he didn't understand any of the runes on the paper. Even the translation to Romanian hadn't been very easy, but that was the struggle of transitioning from Germanic and Slavic roots to the more popular Latin ones. " Its closest understandable translation would be the false origins."

" Its a runic language, and this one looks to be one of the early attempts by man to write in runes. It's not totally accurate to the source runes created by the fae, but it's very close." she whispered to him. The stories varied but either man stole the runes from the fae or good fae gifted man with their knowledge of runes, but like anything man touched the gift had changed over years. Still the changes in the language on the scroll were slight and similar to what she would read as a child. It was clearly old and the fact it survived was impressive.

" Have you never seen this before? Surely runes are something you've seen before, though maybe those have been so distorted over time someone unfamiliar with them wouldn't of guessed they were related." She mused.

On the other side of the Carriage Trevor grunted as Sypha elbowed his side. " Ow woman! Don't you see I have something sharp in my hand?" Trevor grumbled.

" If you got hurt it would of served you right, you're being rude."

" I was just pointing out the oblivious you had to be thinking it too! " And while Sypha didn't say anything she frowned.

But the bantering stopped hearing Lucias answer. She wasn't ashamed of the cliché, and in a way Trevor appreciated it more than her trying to come up with a reason for it not being something cliché like what people spread through gossip and stories of vampires stealing virgins.

" This is just an old shirt." Trevor half heartedly argued, but he wasn't putting effort into it. It was nothing more than a sassy comment.

" But I see your point. I'll lay off, just try to keep the clichés to yourself. Stay away from swooning virgins and all that." He said, then grunted when Sypha elbowed him again.

He quirked an eye when Lucia talked about his bleeding finger, he had been watching her for any reaction to it. But she seemed to have passed what ever test the open wound had been, so he popped it into his mouth to stem the bleeding.

" You're literally sitting next to a magician and you're sticking you're dirty finger in your mouth." Sypha sassed.

" It's a little prick, it's not worth the magic." He wasn't worth the magic.
 
Alucard took a glance to the others, briefly, as Aveline mentioned that the language was of her mother’s people. There were humans that seemed to use runes – or had used runes – so he supposed it could be easily passed off as that. A historical language, an ancestral one. He let his golden gaze return, and he gave a small nod to acknowledge he’d heard her, and understood. He wouldn’t repeat it, as he tried to make sense of it.

Of course, there was no making sense of it. Though he may have seen it, it did not stand out in his memory. He could not recognize it as he could Enochian – though even that, he was not versed in reading. “The closest thing I feel I have seen to runes would be some Germanic ones, or hieroglyphs, if you intend to count those,” his father did, at least, somewhat. “I did not learn to read the Germanic runes, though I can read some of the hieroglyphs and coptic language.”

He did not have so much time as his father to learn all those languages. He tended to study those his mother knew, first, aware she would pass before him. He wanted to learn what he could from her, in a way, before she passed. To carry it on. She’d found much in hieroglyphs that were useful to her – the Egyptians had known many sciences now forgotten.

“What does it say?” He lifted his gaze up from the runes to meet her gaze once more, “Sorry,” he realized, “I may not have given you enough time with it yet….” She might need time to read through it first, before she could consider how to translate or summarize what was written.


Lucia waved off Sypha’s comment of Trevor being rude, a slight gesture of her hand. She’d dealt with so much worse than this, he just chose to insult something she actually cared a bit about. It was easy enough to brush off, given he didn’t dwell on it, just told her not to pursue any other clichés.

Oh, she was tempted to make a comment about how that was going to be impossible. But then another opportunity arose. ‘Comment on the virgin bit, or the small prick bit?’ Decisions, decisions.

“No, small pricks are rarely worth the time,” Lucia said, leaning back to settle back in comfortably, her tone easy, wondering if the double-meaning would zip over Trevor’s head or not. Danica shot her a look for it, before rolling her eyes.

Well, at least Lucia was relaxing. She had half-expected her to only grow more agitated under the earlier question. “Honestly woman,” the words were in Ruthenian, and Lucia just chuckled at the exasperation of Danica.

“They’re allowed to be classless and I’m not?” Lucia responded in turn, Ruthenian. "Besides, at least I didn't call him out on being a swooning virgin."

"I'm not sure he's swooning...." Danica wasn't denying the other thing being a possibility, just by his attitude. "Should I warn him about how cliche you can be?" Lucia gave a slight shrug.

Sypha scowled at them both. “Now you two are being rude.” Leaving them out of the conversation. She didn’t understand Ruthenian. At all.
 
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" Germanic runes are very similar." Aveline explained with a smile. " the story goes that it was the fae that first invented runes and one way or another man discovered them. Over the years the runes have changed, different peoples write them differently or create new ones that the original did not have. But any runes that hold magical properties or offer protection are either directly fae runes or very similar."

She was impressed to hear that Alucard was versed in other languages, his knowledge was better than you're average human. Of course humans were living in an age were literacy wasn't the best and books were rare, but her upbringing had involved a lot of reading and schooling. She had really immersed herself in it because between learning and training she didn't have to focus on her loneliness.

" I have studied Coptic languages as well, in addition to some latin based languages. My mothers roots are clearly german and Slavic, hence the insistence with runes, but my father was Romanian and even he knew a foreign language or two. He traveled a lot before he settled down at the base of my mothers mountain." She had been blessed with parents educated above the means of many average people and she was grateful, at least, for the knowledge she had access to growing up.

" From what I've read so far it's a story warning the reader about the Nokken. They're a shape shifter who likes to lure people into areas with thin ice or create holes in boats to sink them, then they drown them at the bottom of what ever pond or river they're in." She explained and grasped a side of the scroll, so they could share it and look it over together.

" This rune here means Vatn or lake, This one is hoettr for dangerous, and this one over here is Haski or to do harm and it's referring to the Nokken." Her small pale hand easily picked out the correct runes to show Alucard, eager to share her knowledge. This was actually probably something Sypha would enjoy finding out as well, and as the thought entered her mind Aveline decided that maybe it would be a good way to bond with Sypha more. She was the scholar of the group after all.

" Perhaps my knowledge of runes will be helpful on our journey. Or maybe it won't, either way it's nice to share it with someone. I haven't spoken in or read in my mother tongue in quite some time."



" Did she just..." Sypha trailed off, a bit taken back by Lucias joke. She came off as regal and all knowing, much like Alucard so the dirty joke was kind of from left field in her opinion.

Trevor on the other hand really loved it, snorting out a laugh as he pulled his finger out of his mouth, the blood flow stopped and the taste of copper a suggestion on his tongue at best.

" I think i'm starting to like you a bit."

" That's what changes you're mind about her? A dirty joke?"

" I'd take a dirty joke over a monologue about ending the world or any other number of things the things I hunt tend to say. You heard that one demon back in Gresit ' we have an army. an army from hell. you can't stop us.'" Trevor imitated, but his voice was high and clearly mocking. " it's dramatic and I don't trust anyone that can't relax a bit."

Sypha rolled her eyes at his words, but watched as his hands worked along the seam that attached the cloth to the pelt. Trevor hadn't been confidant he would do a good job and she had been ready to offer advice if he needed it, Speakers made all their own clothes after all, but he was good at what he did. True his stitches weren't the neat little ones that kept the rest of the cloak together but his hands were steady and he didn't hesitate.

Trevor had learned how to darn socks and patch the basics while traveling on his own, and it was actually a skill his sisters had insisted he knew. Growing up he was all lean muscle and quick movements, the opposite of his large and bull like father, so nothing he ever did was good enough for his father. Each cut or broken bone was a lesson to learn from, but it also left him with holes in his clothing and sometimes with an illness that his sisters nursed him through with rapid attention. They had taught him to patch his clothes with the hopes of warding off illness while on hunts, and while what he knew was practical instead of the beautiful needlework they had mastered to impress future suitors he was happy with it.

But still his stitches stood out, it was clear two different people had worked on this cloak now and he frowned.

With a bit more aggression than needed Trevor beat his memories out of his head but tying off the threat and then snapping the left over thread with his teeth to seal the work off.

" Danica, thank you for the needle and thread." He said as he tucked the needle into one of the leather straps on his chest, it might come in handy to keep it around in case his cloak ripped on him anytime soon.

" Well I know a thing or two about repairing favorite cloaks and capes, so i know the importance of keeping needle and threat around. I'm just happy I had some threat in the right color."

And with that sentence Trevor looked at the red cloak again, this time noticing spots where it had been clearly sewn together or patched up. Suddenly it didn't seem like some cliché cape, suddenly It seemed like something sentimental and that hit a bit closer to home than he was comfortable with.
 
Alucard was fascinated, as he had always been a curious child. He was born of two curious individuals, in their own way. While his father was a bit…stubborn…he had grown into a curiosity the more he learned about the Lisa. Through that, he wanted to learn more about her world, and what she had seen in it that made her so helpful. It was a shame, instead, that when he left, he learned the cruelty of mankind.

Languages though – his mother had loved them. So much knowledge was lost, so she tried to take in what she could to learn what was lost, to translate it, so it would continue on. Others had helped her with that, of course. Dracula opened up to her a world of so many dead languages and opportunities, and Alucard took to it as well, even learning some alongside her.

She would have liked this. To see more magic. To learn more of fae.

They never met a fae.

His brows knit together at the word ‘Nokken’. He didn’t need to ask what it was, she clarified it, and he nodded. “Interesting,” he mused as he took hold of the scroll. He couldn’t read it, but he did take note of the runes she pointed out and described, “Do you think the nokken are real?” Perhaps it was naïve to even ask it, but certainly not everything was real.

His mother’s skepticism was still something present within him, too. A strange mix, curiosity and skepticism, but it did make him wonder how much of it was stories, and how much was real – and where the stories came from.

He repeated the words to himself, softly, “Vatn, hoettr, haski….” The accent may have been wrong, but he knew it would still help him to commit them to memory. Though he imagined he would get them mistaken with other runes, first. They did look a bit similar to some others, after all. He smiled a bit, “Not every talent needs to be used for this one mission, Aveline. There is life after this.”

Even if Alucard found it…immensely difficult to think that there was a life for him after this, there was, at least, a life for her.


Trevor got it, the snort was more than enough reflection of that, and it allowed a slightly smug smile to touch Lucia’s lips as her comment clearly surprised both Sypha and Trevor. And neither understood Ruthenian. Perfect. She had a way to talk to those she wanted to, then.

“If I had not learned how to relax after all these years, I would have died a long time ago,” she noted, adding, “perhaps you should take time to get to know what you’re hunting. We aren’t all so dramatic.”

And some had once been human, some had joked around with centurions who had a worse and dirtier sense of humor. Her poor virgin ears hadn’t known what to do back then, though she had tried awkwardly to banter with some back then. Even if she really didn’t know half of what they were implying. No, she learned that years later.

For a time, she was able to settle back into her book. Until Trevor finished his cloak, and Danica commented too loosely on her knowledge. Lucia just gave her serious side-eye for it, feeling Trevor’s look without needing to see it. “Necessary?” Ruthenian again, no longer Romanian.

Danica was the one to shrug this time, “You like swooning virgins, I’m helping.” They wanted to show him there were similarities, right? And she rather enjoyed the play she was seeing between the two of them, anyways.

Lucia grumbled a complaint, sticking to Ruthenian as she shook her head, but the trace smile remained. Danica meant no harm. She just tended to forget that Lucia didn’t quite enjoy sharing all her sentiments. Trevor was still a hunter. He could still decide to use those sentiments against her.
 
" I am of the belief that unless something is disproven, then it's real." Aveline said with a convicted fire in her eyes. They lived in a world of demons and humans alike, and if Alucard had never met a Fae before he now had so she should be proof enough to him that anything was possible. In fact they both should be, neither of them would exist without something your average human would laugh off as fiction or the work of the devil.

" Though I do know for a fact Nokken are real. I fought one once, about 3 months into my journey into the world. Nasty little things." She hummed, remembering how the creature had taken the form of a beautiful horse. She had been tempted to touch it, but something had seemed off about it. It was so beautiful, too beautiful. She had been able to break the illusion it had put on her and seen it's true twisted form, then had to fight it off as it tried to drag her to the bottom of the near by lake.

" try speaking from the back of your throat more, the old runes are meant to have more of a husk to them." She suggested, hearing Alucards attempts. He was trying and his first attempt was good, but if these had been magically infused runes he probably would of turned himself into a bird by now. If they ever came across runes she would have to voluntary to handle them, unless Lucia knew about them. Just glancing at the book on her lap told Aveline that Lucia was just as well versed if not more in languages of the past.

" I know life continues after this, but i'm afraid I don't have much to offer to this group of legend we've put together at this moment." She explained sheepishly. Trevor was an amazing hunter and tactician , Sypha was a master with magic, Lucia was clearly very intelligent and experienced, and as the son of Dracula she was sure Alucard could more than carry his weight. But when compared to the rest of them she was a small thing, just a wanderer armed with the spear on her back and the bits of knowledge she had acquired over her short 20 years of life.

In the least she hoped she could provide the group with some good luck and maybe fresh fruits and vegetables if they ever ran out, but like every where else in the world she didn't feel like she totally belonged here. She tried to shake that off though, she had just gotten together with this group there was still a chance to find something resembling comfort with them.

" Though I like to think i'm funny, and there's nothing quite like a funny joke in the face of adversity."



" There's never much time to sit down for a drink with the thing you're trying to kill. " Trevor said dryly.

He was just a man, as fragile as any other despite his Belmont blood that had never done anything to help him in his life. Ever. In his line of work it was kill or be killed, and no matter how much he had wished sometimes that he had died with his family he had a job to carry on the Belmont name, so no dying for him. Besides did he really want to try and talk with the things that were causing harm?

In all the hunts he had been on he had rarely met a creature that had spoken to him, and even fewer said more than curses and cuss words.

" And despite all the high hopes that have been placed on me and my Belmont linage I haven't actually killed that many vampires." He added. " I've killed a lot of their underlings who ride into towns and kidnap people to bring back to their masters, but there are vampire strong holds that require more than a single man to take." He explained.

In the past he had dreamed of teaming up with his father and rushing into danger to fight the vampire lord in control of innocent towns, but that fate had never come to pass. And now that he was hated he didn't go out searching for things to fight. He normally just ended up fighting what ever thing god threw into his face.

His gaze stayed on Lucias cape before Sypha stole his attention, complaining about his lack of vampire killing creditials.

" How many vampires are we talking about?" She wanted something to put some faith in.

" That's not a question I should be answering right now is it?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow, and sypha remembered where they were.

"Oh yes...sorry."

" If you're that worried about how i'll fair against Dracula then maybe you'll find some solace in my resolve. I ready to stop Dracula by any means necessary." There was an edge to his voice, the words as serious as the grave he was willing to hop into if it meant saving this damned country that he and his family loved so much.

" you won't have to do anything drastic with us here." Sypha promised him, and trevor looked at the others then nodded his head. The people in the carriage were strong and maybe together they had a chance. It was still a small chance, the same chance a snowball had in hell, but it was better than nothing.
 
Alucard could not say he ascribed to the same belief system as Aveline, but he supposed that could be good – for them both. Someone to doubt, and someone to believe. They would be more likely to get to the heart of the matter, and in this party, taking things seriously would also be good. Sypha would likely rely on her stories, and Trevor might just want to kill it on sight. Lucia, he couldn’t say – he knew she was capable, of course, and he’d seen her at play with her gladius, but she seemed to prefer less violent paths.

Had she met more things in the world? Did she know of what Aveline was? He couldn’t ask that, of course. Perhaps he could ask about nokken, though.

He wanted to ask more, but was distracted by the pronunciation lesson. He tried again, trying to speak more from the back of his throat. It would take practice, he knew, but he was certainly intent to figure it out. He was continuing to go over it in his head, even after he stopped speaking, to listen to her doubts.

He cocked a smirk, “You have no idea how powerful a thing it is to keep morale up and keep a group together, do you?” Lisa had bound Dracula’s life together in ways no one would have ever imagined. “If you can do that much, you may be the reason we even make it so far as Dracula.” He said it with all seriousness, even if the smirk was on his lips. “We do not all have to contribute to the fighting. There are many important ways to be involved. Harmony, healing, fighting, magic…these are all components of staying ahead of my father, and making sure we can overcome him.”

Alucard knew they wouldn’t get there unscathed. He was also aware of the potential for this all to explode. Lucia and Trevor, or even himself and Trevor, could come to blows. Would Trevor even take kindly to what Aveline was? The potential for it all to go straight to hell was not far from his mind. “The prophecy put a wanderer in the ranks for a reason, the stories involve you, for a reason. All of us.”

He would hold onto that resolve which took him to Gresit, and which would carry him through to the end, just as the others had their own reasons to fight, their own reasons to believe it could be possible.


‘Don’t you say it.’ Lucia had to keep the joke firmly checked, as the thought came that in her line of work, there was plenty of time to sit down and have a drink with something she was trying to kill. In fact, it often went hand in hand. That was decidedly not the best comment to make in this situation, just as Trevor stating how many vampires he’d killed was also, probably, not the best comment to make.

Even if Lucia could also attest to killing one.

“There is a thing called stealth, Belmont. Perhaps you can learn a bit about it.” That would get him into strongholds, though admittedly, it was easier for her. As unsubtle as the red cape was, she could easily shift forms, and she could manipulate shadows. Hiding from sight was no difficult task.

Regardless of his credentials, his resolve was comforting, in a way. She would not contradict Sypha, although she imagined that Sypha was quite incorrect. “It’s more than Dracula we have to deal with,” Lucia reminded, however softly. She knew others had gone. She knew some of who – had seen them when she went to see Dracula.

She had been quite careful with her words then, stepping around the possibility of him seeing her as enemy. “I’ve only killed one vampire myself, but never more, and never in groups, though just as old as many of those who have answered Dracula’s call.” Older than Jesus. She was that, but these far exceeded her in age.

Most she just knew in passing.

“Who are they?” Sypha asked, drawing Lucia’s gaze to her, “You seem to know who he’s gathered at his side…any information would help us prepare to deal with them.”

“I know some, and one, at least, who is unlikely to help him, much as I am, though we could not count her an ally.” Lucia admitted, “I know that Godbrand has gone, Ching Shih, Parvati, and Ishak ibn al-Rayees.” She had no idea if any of those names would mean anything to Trevor or Sypha. They were rather…notorious figures, which was indeed why they were made into his generals. Parvati had, in some places, made herself seem to be the goddess Kali, and had plenty of worshippers back in India, while Ching Shih seemed more ghost than vampire at times. Godbrand was just an ass. Ishak ibn al-Rayees had been more intelligent than most, integrating himself as a prince among humans, and making his power in wealth.
 
" No I suppose I don't know. I've never traveled in a group before." Aveline mused, taking Alucard encouragement to heart and really thinking it over. She certainly knew that when ever times got tough for her in her travels finding a bright side had created a second wind in her, and that could be the same here. If she could keep the others from worrying too much or from fraying at the edges then maybe that would be enough to justify her place in the group.

And in the least if she could find a way to believe in this prophecy that had driven Sypha to risk her life in the underground and put Alucard in that tomb in the first place, then maybe she could motivate the others in times of trouble.

" I will do my best." She concluded, simple and sweet without some big speech. All she could offer was her best, but her best had helped keep the villagers in Gresit from attacking the speakers for almost two months. Her best had kept her father going when times were tough and his heart was breaking, and her best had helped her travel this land on her own for almost two years. It was all she could promise, but they were all promising their best to this cause and to the prophecy.

" Thank you, Alucard." She looked at him and save him a gentle smile, then tucked a strand of inky black hair behind her ear. " I did not take you for the reassuring type." She teased.

" Though for my pride i do have to assure you i'll be doing some fighting along side keeping the peace," then a mischevious smile crossed her face, " and maybe i'll be tossing some pranks in for color."

Her giggle was impish but light, like something story tellers always tried to imitate when telling stories of trickster fairies causing trouble. Unfortunately the only story teller in the carriage with them wasn't paying attention, it would of been a good opportunity to learn from a real source in trouble making.

" Oh but as a thank you, if you'd like i could translate some of the scrolls I have with me to Romanian for you. I can't promise they'll be anything useful or stories you haven't heard before, but this trip will take some time. Maybe you'll learn something." she teased, mentally thinking over the supplies she had brought with her.

There should still be some parchment and ink in the bag she had tucked away under the carriage. When they stopped and if she had some free time, then she'd translate the texts for Alucard and maybe Sypha if she was interested in what the scrolls had to say as well.


Trevor raised an eyebrow at Lucias comment, his expression almost challenging.

" I don't know which is worse , that you believe that little old human me could sneak into the court of a vampire without being detected or that you think i could kill a court full of vampires on my own."

If anyone knew the strength of a vampires court it was the two vampires in the carriage with him, and if either really believed he could take on hundreds of vampires or who knows how many are in a court at a single time by himself then they were putting too much rather in him. Or maybe the rumors about him and his family were really blown out of the water. Actually that thought left him curious.

" Do vampires tell stories about my family and other hunters like how humans tell their children stories about vampires?" He asked.

he knew parents used stories of the supernatural to make children behave and over time those stories were normally far from the truth, so he wondered if Vampires did the same with ' the famous Belmont family'.

but he put his curiosity aside to try and learn what he could from Lucia about those who had flocked to Draculas side.

"Ishak ibn al-Reyees rings a bell." He said. He had come from a noble family after all, names got around and his father had liked to keep feelers out there for any vampires that had risen in status just in case those vampires tried to corrupt what ever environments they were in. " and I think my father complained of a vampire by the name of Godbrand once. There were rumors he was turning people into boats."

" And if Parvati is the same Parvati from the stories the speakers have heard then she is particularly vicious." Sypha added with a frown then realized what Trevor said about Godbrand.

" Wait boats?"

" Thats what the reports said."

" How?"

" I don't know? Vampire magic? Good old fashion string and a prayer?" Trevor said with a shrug. " We weren't worried about how he was doing it, we were just worried because he was doing it. Father never got to investigate though. He was too busy being burned alive to follow up on it."
 
Wanderer.

But not one who had been in groups. Aveline would learn the importance, he suspected. They all would. Lucia and Sypha were, perhaps, the only ones accustomed to traveling in groups, Lucia never without a couple of humans to watch over things in the day, and Sypha with her family of Speakers. Alucard…hadn’t, but he had seen how it worked.

He leaned back, releasing the scroll, “I will do what I must for this group, as well.” He indicated. He would not want any of them to lose sight, focus, or confidence. It might break him at the end, but he wanted to get to that end.

He had to. For his mother.

‘For my father….’ For the man he had wanted to be.

“Ugh,” he groaned at the mention of pranks, “Please keep those to Trevor,” Trevor wasn’t paying attention. He’d probably take the pranks better, anyways. If not…well, at least it wasn’t bothering him. “I didn’t think you’d be that much like your mother.” He couldn’t help it – he’d heard the stories of tricksters, and fae were always in that category. He had no idea if it was standard for the haltjia, but he could assume.

Possibly wrong.

“But I would appreciate translations. I do not know what I can offer in turn, but…whatever I know, is yours as well. I will share as you will do,” he promised. He did not think he should have the scrolls translated solely for being reassuring. Besides, she had confessed to being curious of him earlier. He could help with that, and in the process, learn more of her, and her culture – the people she’d come from, too.

That seemed fair to him, and a decent way to keep his own spirits up through the distraction of mutual curiosity and interest. Never mind that he was more than aware of what those kinds of curiosities so often led to when there was a mutual attraction there, and he was still enamored with her eyes through all of this.

Still could not forget the way she had addressed him in the catacombs, when she mentioned the curiosity that now had him offering more on himself, to her.


Lucia sighed, “It’s true, about Godbrand. He flayed humans and tanned their flesh as you may do with cattle,” Sypha looked like she was going to be sick. Lucia couldn’t blame her, “and he used that to reinforce his boats, like any bit of leather.” It was…honestly disgusting, but given how Godbrand saw humans as no more than cattle, not surprising, either. That was how most of them viewed humans. Ishak was a bit different, but no less opportunistic. It was a pity he saw Dracula’s path as better.

A pity none could see that Dracula had no true plans for herding the humans. He hadn’t even lied about it. They all just assumed that by ‘kill all humans’ he didn’t mean it. Somehow. Idiots.

“I won’t miss Godbrand.” He was a disgusting pervert on his best days.

Sypha arched a brow, “You would miss any of them?”

There wasn’t a good answer to that. The simple answer was ‘yes’, of course. It was honest, but not what any would want to hear, and she let it swirl in her mind for a moment, before settling on, “I will miss what some of them once were, and what they once provided, in my life.” But she shook her head. That had passed, like so many other things. “And yes, Trevor – there are some hunters, and hunter families, that are used to keep vampires in line. Our ‘boogie mans’, if you will. Your family may as well have been the worst of them, particularly with rumors of the Morning Star.”

To say the vampire world celebrated the death of the Belmonts would have been understatement. The entire community seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. The bias went both ways. Most vampires would have torn Trevor to shreds just because of his name, as they believed a Belmont could not be reasoned with.

“I was named after that. Not the weapon, but…it is what Danica means, back home,” Danica added, unable to help it. Lucia had commented on it when they met, wondering if Danica might end up her downfall.
 
" Trevor is too easy of a target and I think that's something everyone knows." Aveline quipped. Everyone in the group seemed to have a go at him every now and then, he was easy to fire up because despite how much he had been through there was still life and fire in him.

But Alucard or Lucia seemed a good target for pranks, they were so regal and she could only imagine how they would react to some cute pranks. Maybe by gifting Lucia with a prank book filled with invisible ink that she insisted was simply a normal book, or by creating a fake story for Alucard and insisting to him no matter how crazy the story that it was truth. But she'd worry about that later. The best pranks were the ones that came to you in the moment.

Her fists clenched around the scroll in her hands for a moment when being compared to her mother, but she sorted herself out to try and preserve the old edge.

" I'm nothing like my mother. She thought pranks were beneath her, but that was mostly because her pranks weren't funny. They were cruel."

She didn't blame Alucard for bringing up her mother, he didn't know of her tense relationship with her and he seemed to have come from a happy enough home until of course just recently. But she considered herself nothing like her mother or the stuck up Haltija who were more worried about clan status and ranking than anything else. She wished she had come from more friendly and prank loving fae, instead the Haltija were known for protecting what was important to them which more often than not was themselves and their reputations.

" Then i'll get to work on the translations," she said, eager to leave the topic of family behind, neither of them seemed to have a nice happy normal family and she wondered for a moment if that had to do with being halfings.

But she was also eager to learn about Alucard, after all how often did she get to be around a handsome man that she was interested in. He posed nothing but questions that she wanted answers to, and the questions didn't even need to be about him. Being the son of Dracula had to leave him very knowledgeable in many areas.

" I am very curious about you, but i'm also excited to have company while traveling for once. I'll just be happy to get silly things out of you...hm like you're favorite color." she said as she tapped her index finger against her chin.

" Though if I could guess about what everyones favorite colors are i'd say that Lucias is red, Syphas is blue, Trevors is what piss color ale is, and that yours is gold."


Trevor looked at Lucia, the wheels in his head turning as he thought about what she said. He suppose he hadn't stopped to think about this crusade against Dracula from her or Alucards point of view. To him, Sypha, and Aveline these were monsters they were killing, but to them these were people they knew and interacted with. Of course he didn't know if Alucard was close to any of the vampires Lucia had listed off but he had to at least be familiar with them. And for Lucia these were people she had known and gotten along with for the most part.

This wasn't just a crusade against Dracula it was a crusade against any vampire attacking humanity in a way, and instead of siding with their own kind Lucia and Alucard were siding with humanity. Did they see something in humanity that even he as a person didn't see? Or did they understand the good things about humanity that he couldn't put words to but felt deep inside him that kept him fighting?

Honestly this was all too much for him to really try and sort out at once, so he looked towards the lantern in the carriage and focused on the flame to give his head a break. But he looked away his curiosity piqued when he found out that his family was in fact like the boogie-man of the vampire world. It kind of brought a prideful smirk to his face. At least the things his family had hunted held some type of understand when it came to their skills and abilities. If the church understood just how much work his family put in to keep humanity safe from monsters, they maybe his family would still be alive.

But then again if his family was still alive he'd probably be already married off to some woman he didn't like who was already about to pop out their 3rd or 4th kid. He couldn't say the image was pleasing, especially when he remembered some of the woman his mother had talked about arranging him with. The pious house wife type that never stepped out of line, he had hated the idea of his sisters being one of those to some man that didn't appreciate them and even at 10 or 12 had never liked the idea of settling down with a woman who he didn't love. Especially not one that couldn't keep up and bicker with him, he liked women with that fire that burned inside them. Women with a strong will and a sense of duty to do what was right no matter what or who they faced.

His eyes landed on Lucia again, and he quickly looked away.



The carriage fell into a lull at some point. Aveline and Sypha ended up sleeping up right in their seats and using one another as pillows, no doubt their necks would have cricks in them when they woke up, and at some point Danica had also fallen asleep. Trevor had stayed up for a bit after the girls had fallen asleep, his instincts telling him not to sleep with something that could kill him literally sitting across from him. The girls were vulnerable after all, but then again were they really?

They had their own strength to protect themselves and they were strong enough to trust everyone in the carriage because of the purpose they had come together to fulfill, while he was still sitting here and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Maybe he was the most vulernable person in the carriage and he didn't even know it. No, on second thought he knew it but he didn't want to acknowledge it.

To almost spite himself and prove himself wrong he ended up resting his head against the side of the carriage and using a bit of his cloak as a pillow, then drifted off to sleep as well.

He and the others woke up to the sounds of the nightmares making their weird version of a neigh and crawling to a stop that really gave everyone an idea of just how far outside the city they had gone. no paved streets for them anymore.

" It's night." Johann called back into the carriage, then knocked on the door of the carriage to alert everyone that it was safe to open the door and come out.
 
Alucard had only smirked, and shaken his head, “Not quite right,” he said, but since she had guessed, he did not clarify his color. Not then. He would later, “You can try again,” he liked gold, of course. That was obvious, but he was not so vain as to have it as his favorite – his eyes, his hair, the trim on his coat, it was all gold, but not his favorite hue. It just went well on him. He did at least have something of an eye to fashion.

Things came to a lull, though, as Aveline fell asleep, and Sypha. Even Danica and Trevor fell off, leaving the dhampir and the vampire alone to their thoughts. Well, Lucia to reading, and Alucard to his unpleasant thoughts of the future. It was as the carriage came to a halt, that he was shaken from those and Danica stirred at the sound of Johann’s voice. “Wha—Johann! I had a shift!” She complained, pulling herself from her seat first and hopping out as the door opened, giving Johann a look.

“I can sleep during the night, it will be okay,” he noted, “you seemed quite tired.”

Danica huffed, but it faded as Lucia was the next out of the carriage, her cloak staying behind, book resting atop it, as she moved wordlessly on ahead, “Where are you going?” Danica asked.

“Food.” That was the only answer that was needed, and she didn’t pause to glance back. She was determined to keep her word, but that would mean hunting immediately. It was bad enough she’d gone one night without anything, a second night would not do, since she had to share the carriage with so many humans.

Johann and Danica briefly exchanged a look, before Johann moved and unhooked Marius, giving the Nightmare only the briefest of nudges. The horse looked different now, mane truly seeming to be of blue flame, body of a dark smoke, and eyes literally glowing that vibrant blue. It followed after Lucia, “Be careful!” He knew very well she wouldn’t be right then, thus the thought to send the nightmare. They had to set up camp here, after all – prepare food, set up the fire, and make sure they figured out shifts for the night creatures, as well.

“Let’s get things set up,” Danica clapped her hands together, full of energy then as she spun back around to the others, Alucard moving out of the carriage. “We need to get a fire started, and to use up some of the fresh foods we have. Someone should draw water, too – there’s a river not far from here. I think Trevor should do that!”

“I will not be fetching water,” Alucard stated. He was better off than some vampires with water, but even so…no.

Danica was about to ask why, but then recalled, and stopped herself, laughing a bit, “Oh right, right – do the rest of you all know how to swim?”

“I do, yes,” Sypha agreed, “I will set the fire,” she could do it easily, “Aveline, would you gather some wood for it?”

“I’ll go with her – in case the night creature’s come back,” she had already noted she might not be the best fighter, “I do not think anyone should be going alone,” though he suspected that wasn’t going to apply with Lucia while she had the nightmare.

“Good point,” Danica flushed, “Johann, go with Trevor, then you can come back and sleep.”

Johann groaned his complaint, but figured getting water couldn’t be that hard. “Alucard will go with Aveline, and Sypha will help me unload what we’ll need for tonight!”
 
" Look at you Johann, you have a heart gold to match that head of gold." Aveline teased him as she stepped out of the carriage, hopping down slightly because of how high up the carriage was off the ground.

Trevor stepped out of the carriage behind Sypha, but snickered having seen Aveline literally hop down.

" 7 inches off the group too high for you?" He teased, but Sypha elbowed him in the gut for Aveline who gave the speaker a grateful smile.

With duties basically assigned by Danica Trevor signed but grabbed the bucket he was offered and went to go and fetch water for them to get something going. Since it was night time and he, Sypha, and Aveline had to adjust to staying up at night and sleeping during the day these next couple of days would be rough. Staying up all night without having monsters to fight would probably mean they needed lots of tea or something to keep them up. Any other time he would of happily suggested Ale, but his deal with Lucia was still fresh in his head. Plus he doubted they brought any, though if they had then he'd have to call that out as bullshit and paramount to torture.

Aveline meanwhile had been immediately drawn to Sulla, the smoky body and vibrant blue of the creatures had immediately pulled her over like a moth to a light. She was a sucker for animals, she loved them so much she didn't eat meat despite her understanding that was just the way the world worked. She didn't hate animals or people for eating meat either, she just couldn't bring herself to eat something so beautiful. But she snapped out of her daze hearing Danicas question.

" Oh yes I can swim." she assured her, then nodded when given the task of fetching fire wood with Alucard.

They headed off towards the mouth of the forest, hopefully they wouldn't need to go in too deep to find dry fallen wood for a fire. They would need enough to last the night and it was best to grab as much as they could right now before the hoards descended on the land.

" I was thinking about what your favorite color could be." She said idly, her steps sure as they moved through the forest. Her sense of direction was pretty bad but she felt at one in forests, easily making her way through fallen crush or thick grass.

" Gold was too oblivious, I was being lazy honestly. And guessing red is equally lazy and pretty cliché." She laughed, then smiled when she spotted some wood that looked good for starting a fire with. They'd need some brush and tinder to get the fire going but larger pieces of wood for actually keeping the fire strong and going.

" How about blue? Is that your favorite color?" She asked curiously.


" Don't worry, we'll fetch that water and have you sleeping in no time." Trevor assured Johann as they headed down towards the stream that they could pretty much hear from where they had parked the carriage. It sucked that they would have to carry the water a bit up hill but there could certainly be worse things. And the ground was solid so they didn't have to worry about slipping in mud and rolling down hill. God I that happened the others would never let them live it down.

But as he filled his bucket something ate at Trevor that he had wanted to ask since he had found out Lucia traveled with two humans who were loyal to her.

" Hey, why do you follow Lucia?" he asked Johann almost out of the blue.

" You trust her, you and Danica clearly care about her. I'm a hunter i'm having a hard time separating her from the things I read about growing up, but as a person I know there has to be a reason why you're here with her."

It was driving him crazy. What had lucia done to get two humans loyal to her despite them knowing what she was? they didn't fear her or treat her like the devil reborn, what did they see in her that inspired loyalty and trust?Because maybe if he knew why they trusted her, he could find it in himself to trust her a bit more too.
 
Alucard chuckled a bit as Aveline mentioned it was lazy to guess gold, the topic turning back to colors. Red might be a lazy guess for Lucia, but he did not think that she was wrong. He didn’t know, though. It was never something he really asked…not since he was much younger, anyway. Still, he shook his head again as she guessed blue, “Not quite, though I would almost consider that closer,” he said, but then relented, “It’s white.”

A ribbon Lisa wore at times.

The peace lilies that Dracula brought home.

A color associated with everything he was not – purity and renewal. A part of him hoped that it was not so opposite from him. His wolf form was white, after all. It seemed to speak to his inner self, or what he hoped to be.

And the color of the full moon – the moon upon which he was born, blessing him with the wolf form. The moon spoke much to what powers a vampire would have, and so even a dhampir. “Let me be obvious for a moment then – your favorite color, would it be green?” He couldn’t help but continue it, wondering if it would be just as obvious, or if she would surprise him, as they walked out under the falling leaves. He didn’t reach up for a branch or kindling, but looked to the ground instead, picking up fallen branches, uncertain how much they may need.

~***~

Johann moved at a slower pace, tired, but he still filled his bucket. He hummed as he heard Trevor’s question, before laughing, and clarifying, “Sorry – I was wondering how long that question was gonna take,” apparently not long, once they were alone. “I don’t know if you’ve heard of me…I’m Johann Abelwerth.”

The Abelwerth were a Germanic family, currently residing in Frankfurt – not exactly the best place for them. The church had taken it over for those reasons, to keep a better eye on them, making it an ‘Imperial Free City’.

They were, also, hunters – werewolves were their specialty, though. Much outside of that was unknown; he was still surprised by plenty, like the nightmares. “Seventh and youngest son, though not all of us remain alive…I was hunting a werewolf in her territory,” he’d gone out of his way because, well…it was his brother. “She must have caught wind of the presence, too. She was out there, hunting. Only she didn’t kill the werewolf, just trapped him in silver. I…I confronted her.”

Probably stupid, but seeing a vampire trap a werewolf just seemed…too bizarre. “Yelled at her for a good while, I think, before she told me I could kill the werewolf, if it was unrepentant.” He shook his head as he hefted the bucket up. “So I went back to her home – foolish, stupid, but…it was personal. You know, we’re taught in my family…the werewolves, they know what they’re doing. They’re taken over by something foul, and they mean everything, so when he changed back to a human in the day, and when he started to sob and apologize to me for everything. He said he was trying to run to where he couldn’t hurt anyone when he transformed…I…I guess I started to think.”

To realize that his brother wasn’t in full control, to realize how deeply wounded he was to know what he’d done to his family, and to be helpless to prevent it. “Lucia told him he had the option to head to a pack further north and learn to control himself, or perish there. And he went north…and I stayed. My family wasn’t going to let me come back when I told them I let the wolf go, and I…couldn’t justify continuing things as they had been going.” He shrugged, “And then I learned the vampiress was duchess, and did quite a bit to protect her home and the people in it, and it felt…well, proper to stay and actually learn about these creatures. See if they could be helped.”

It was why he fell easily into the role of guard. Like Trevor he’d been trained as a hunter. Different creatures, but all the same – those things which prowled the night and terrorized humans. Those which didn’t want to change, or enjoyed what they did, were monsters he had no problem killing – but he saw those hunters who didn’t look into things deeper as much the same as those monsters, now. “So yeah. Long story short, I guess I remembered that these things are individuals. And some were humans.” Which meant they had the ability to reason, and make their own decisions.

~***~

It was further down the stream from where Johann and Trevor were, that Lucia had tracked prey that would suffice for the night. A lone deer that had thought to get a drink late at night. It wasn’t appetizing, but it would suffice. The only problem was its nearness to the water. The deer itself was no problem, but a kick, or a stumble, and Lucia was doomed.

So, she didn’t approach it. It hadn’t noticed her, and the Nightmare was quite a ways behind her, seeming to understand the predatory nature had taken over, and knowing that hunting involved a certain level of stealth and silence.

Perhaps it could run down creatures, but it wasn’t the one hunting.

Lucia let the shadows of the trees near the river stretch out, further and further, until they reached the shadow of the deer. Then, with a flick of her wrist, the shadows deepened. The deer let out a frightful sound as its hooves sunk into the ground, quicker than quicksand, it was knee deep in the ground and flailing, tossing its head and trying to get free.

Lucia didn’t let it suffer its fear longer than necessary to be certain there was no threat to herself.

She sprinted forward and snapped its neck, before letting the shadows release it and dragging the deer back, into the shade of the trees, where she dug her fangs deep into the creature’s broken neck.

The taste was absolutely foul to her, like spoiled fruit or rotted wine, but she forced it down, sip after sip, until she just couldn’t stand it and she dropped it, letting Marius come forward to finish off the rest of the meat.
 
" White..." Aveline repeated, mulling over the answer as she looked at Alucard. Yes that made much more sense than gold or blue had. In the same way that his name was the reverse of Draculas then white being his favorite color when his father was the prince of darkness made sense. And he was certainly a bright line shining in the darkness that Dracula was trying to cover the land with.

Aveline paused for a moment, looking up at the pale moon in the sky then turned to Alucard with a smile. The soft light of the moon illuminated behind her making her black hair seem to be pulled from the night itself, and from under the intense darkness of her hair her blue-green eyes were brighter than ever.

" I think white really suits you, Alucard." she smiled at him, then walked a little bit ahead to grab more wood.

Though she did worry that Alucard was trying to define himself not as his own person, but just as the opposite of his father. That was no way to live, striving to be the opposite of someone else especially a parent. But she was a hypocrite to even think that when she had only started to travel the land to show she wasn't her mother. She wanted to be what her mother wasn't, which meant as human as possible. But at the same time she had fallen in love with humanity in the form of her fathers encouraging smile, so if she had to change herself to do his memory honor then she was willing to. It seemed she and Alucard were similar in that regard, and that was comforting. Whether or not it was healthy was a different question.

She turned around to face Alucard with a cheeky look on her face.

" Nope." She said, popping the 'p' in nope. " Though green is definitely up there. Green and my favorite color look so beautiful together. It'd be hard to choose between them most of the time." She said, filling her arms with fallen branches and pieces of bark that had fallen to the ground. Luckily It hadn't rained a few days so everything was dry and just waiting for a spark.

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

The name Abelwerth was familiar, they were a family that his own called on for help when ever they needed to tackle something big. The belmonts were a catch all kind of family, if you needed something killed then they were the way to go. They didn't have they specialty other than killing, but when your family has been dedicated to hunting the creatures of the night for close to 5 centuries there wasn't a lot that you didn't see and in his family they wrote down everything they came across, so by the time Trevor had seen the family library he knew if something he didn't know was thrown at him then he could just look it up.

The Abelwerths focused on werewolves though and he remembered his father calling on them for help when they found a pack or suspected a werewolf but needed more muscle. The Belmont didn't have many friends, especially once the church started to come down on them, but he thought of the Abelwerths as allies in the least. Which made him more curious about why the son of a hunting family was here, willingly serving a vampire.

But then he heard the story, and he didn't say anything during it he just listened. He looked down into the water, the moon reflecting as he too reflected on what he was hearing. But from the sounds of it no matter how cool or even distant Lucia seemed to be she cared. Maybe it wasn't as noticeable as the way Sypha seemed to smolder at her fingertips when she got worked up over something, but it was passionate. She was out there patrolling her lands and keeping the peace. Hell she was ruling over her people justly and maybe even better than some humans were at the moment. She was clearly doing a good enough job that she swayed Johann, someone who had like him been raised to just hunt and not ask questions.

In hunting families origins didn't matter unless it was going to help them kill a creature. How or why a creature came to be didn't matter, and they always just assumed their intensions without ever really finding out.

he remembered asking his father once why vampires killed humans, and his father had sneered at just the thought. ' they're monsters wearing human skin. Why they kill doesn't matter, all that does matter is that they do.' and that had set a barrier between them. Maybe it was because his father had been hunting for years and had seen the things these creatures could do, but Trevor questioned his father from then on. He questioned his father until the man was dead and even then when he was roaming the lands as a scared lonely 12 year old he questioned almost every kill.

Not every creature acted like more than a normal animal, but you could see in the eyes of some creatures that they knew more than they let on. Those were the eyes that he saw in his nightmares, watching him as he dug through ash stupidly hoping maybe even one sister had made it out alive somehow.

" So you follow her because she taught you about humanity." he finally said, finding some irony in it. Shouldn't it of been their families who said they were trying to save lives that were willing to do whatever they could to avoid blood shed? Instead that was their first instinct and Lucia had actually saved a life. Who knew how many were still alive because she sought a different course of action.

Trevor finally stood up, pulling his full bucket of water out of the river and turned to head back to the others.

" Thank you for being honest with me. It puts some things in perspective for me." He told Johann, giving him a small but earnest smile form over his shoulder. " Now lets get back to camp before you pass out. Honestly you should of asked one of us to take over a shift, you look dead on your feet and we're literally traveling with two vampires." he teased, before they headed back together.
 
Alucard had not explained why he liked white, but all the same, it was accepted without question. It was encouraged as a color that suited him, even as the moon highlighted the darkness of Aveline’s hair. He knew that all things dark weren’t evil by nature. He knew the associations were inventions and colors were just that – colors.

Yet, it did not stop him from falling prey to those thoughts, and putting those associations upon colors. Blue and green were healing colors, black still associated itself with darkness, red was blood and passion, gold had some association with the holy – more than white did. He couldn’t help but wonder how the colors received their various associations.

Might be an interesting topic to explore.

Especially as he was proven wrong about the favorite color of Aveline, while they moved on until their arms were full of wood and kindling. The pop on the ‘p’ brought a smile to his lips. “Oh? Is it brown then?” Brown went well with green, “or perhaps blue. Your eyes seem to show how well the two colors meld together.”

The compliment slipped almost too easily, as thoughtlessly blunt as he’d been in the catacombs, only now did it inspire a hint of embarrassment to cross his mind and his thoughts, after it was said. He cleared his throat, pressed on, “If it is not one of those, you’ll have to enlighten me. So many colors go well with green – the many colors of flowers show that,” upon green stems, framed by green leaves.

~***~

It was simply who Lucia was. It was why Johann trusted her. She looked to the creatures, like werewolves and nightmares, and saw more to them than a hunter would ever dare to. Were it not for her, he probably would have thought to kill the nightmares on sight, just as well, but she introduced him to them – Marius and Sulla – told him a bit about the care for them, and why they needed to eat meat, and why they brought nightmares, and he became somewhat…appreciative.

It wasn’t right to kill something just because of their nature. Cats that humans loved were also obligate carnivores – there was no one going out there to kill cats for it, but nightmares? They would go out of their way to kill nightmares.

“It’s one way of putting it,” Johann said, as Trevor boiled it down. He supposed it was the best way, and he laughed as he was thanked for being honest, “There’s nothing to hide in it. Not the first time I’ve had to defend my position against other hunters. At least you’re listening.” Most of the others, didn’t.

They ended up dead. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention who I was before. I don’t…really associate myself with my family any longer.” Yet for Trevor, it was a name worth knowing, to understand better what he was doing there. He was grateful that Trevor didn’t seem upset that he hadn’t mentioned it right off.

It was also why he hadn’t suffered much from taking on the entire trip that day. He was accustomed to long journeys without sleep, from even before Lucia, and he chuckled a bit at Trevor’s words, “Trust me, I’m crashing when we get back. The demons won’t even be able to wake me.”

Returning to the camp, there was no fire yet, but at least they had water. It would help to put the fire out if needed, but more than that, could be used to clean anything, or drink from, before they had to go into their stores of water. He hoped that they would be able to follow along near the river a while. He’d want to get a bath in soon, too.

Lucia was back, as well, and the bloody muzzle of Marius was a tell-tale sign of a hunt gone well, likely for both. Lucia wouldn’t let them eat human, so it was unlikely that had been what they encountered, but the thought of them eating demons again still caused Johann to pale.

Lucia also seemed to be heading out again, decked out in her leather armor, speaking briefly to Sypha as Sulla came forward, lightly teasing the woman for assuming she was from Chernihiv.

~***~

Lucia had returned only a little before Trevor and Johann, still looking slightly disgusted, the taste still in her mouth and she knew there would be no getting it out. She couldn’t exactly do a palette cleanse. On returning, she saw that Danica had changed from her dress, into a tunic and slacks, her knives now plainly visible, and her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. Everything was already set out for the day – what fresh food they had, what meats could be cooked up for the others.

“I regret everything,” it was Ruthenian again, and Sypha gave an annoyed look towards the vampiress as she and the horse returned. Seeing the bloody maw of the nightmare, however, had Sypha freeze. The teeth gave away what those things ate, but seeing a horse with blood over its mouth was still something of a shock.

Danica just chuckled at the voiced complaint. “I’m going to take Sulla hunting,” probably should have taken both horses, but she hadn’t been thinking of it. That was spoken in Romanian again.

“You should change first,” Danica noted, another thing she’d forgotten. Now that they were in the wilds, the dress was hardly appropriate attire.

Lucia wouldn’t argue, and she moved to the carriage, back up into it. She shut the door as she drew one of her suitcases out from under the bench, and dug out her leather armor. It was limited protection, in truth, but better than nothing. Tempting as it had been to always keep it in the style of the centurions, the skirt of their attire was just horribly impractical. Horribly attractive, but horribly impractical.

There was plating sewn into the leather at points to add further protection, but overall, it was still clearly a lighter armor set than a heavy one. It was tempting to add the red cloak – she usually did, but her hand paused on it. ‘Cliché.’ There was something to the thought of Trevor knowing more about it that caused her to leave it instead. ‘It isn’t like it actually protected me, is it?’ Despite the words of the one who handed it off to her.

It hadn’t protected her at all. Though the stain was long gone, she could still remember how her darker blood had stood out on it, how she’d tried to use the cloak to stop the bleeding, thinking she’d never see it on all that red….

She swallowed back the memory, and forced herself to move again.

She folded the dress and put it back into luggage, before stepping back out of the carriage. She clicked her tongue, “Veni, Sulla.” The classical Latin rolled off, the ‘v’ more like a ‘w’, far removed from the ecclesiastical Latin.

Sypha noted, brows briefly knitting together. She knew Ecclesiastical Latin, and understood she was hearing Latin, but the different accent threw her a moment. “Isn’t it vin-ee?”

“That’s how the church says it,” Lucia said, putting a hand under Sulla’s chin as the steed came forward, “They butchered my language like they butcher everything else. Wen-ee is how we said it in Rome. And it’s Kai-sar, not Seize-er.”

“You’re not from Chernihiv?”

Lucia shook her head, “You did not think Lucia was a native name, did you?” She teased, “I’ll be back.”

No, Lucia wasn’t…but Belune? That didn’t sound Roman.
 
Aveline blushed slightly after hearing Alucards compliment, it was so simple that it could of been ignored if he didn't always seem to draw her rapid attention. His words were not the first compliment paid to her eyes, but she had never been complimented by someone that made her blood pump faster or her stomach do flips. Her eyes fluttered and she looked away, almost embarrassed and trying to hide her reaction in the darkness of night.

" No, it's not brown either." she said as she shifted the load of wood under her arms slightly, they probably had enough to at least get a good fire going.

" I like yellows, the shade doesn't really matter. Oh but my favorite shade of yellow is almost golden! Like liquid sun or golden strands of hair that make you think Midas put each strand on a persons head." She hummed, mind thinking back to the times she had seen her favorite color in the most beautiful ways.

She thought of sun flowers sitting by the hearth and her fathers own head of golden hair shining in the sun light. As a child she remembered the halo the filtered light of the sun had given him, which further cemented her love for him. Growing up he had been everything to her, her world. After he had died their home had lost all its warm and no matter how large the fire in the hearth was the house was cold. But now when ever she saw the right shade of gold she felt warm and remembered the good times.

" Though if i'm being honest I think i have a bit of a bias." she admitted with a laugh, the cliché of Faes loving blonds and the color of gold did no escape her. Though those stories seemed to be dying down a bit and now most people associated the fae with nature, which wasn't wrong.

" I think we have enough for now, lets head back. " she suggested, then turned her attention to the path that lead back to where they had set up camp for the night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
" Yeah I suppose you wouldn't get a lot of hunters willing to listen to you." Trevor agreed, chuckling slightly as he thought of hunters accepting the ' no she's really a good person and avoids killing' speech.

But Trevor understood better than he could put into words, because Johann reminded him of a younger version of himself. That version had doubted if what he was doing was right or if there were other better ways to protect the country, but tradition had all but squashed his protests under the heel of his fathers boot when he disagreed with him. He actually found himself admiring Johann a bit, at least he was bold enough to do what he believed in and stand his ground. If he had done the same years ago and broken from tradition to really try and save as many lives as possible he would only imagine where he would be now. In the least he wouldn't feel the weight of deaths he wondered if he could of avoided pressing down on him.

Arriving back at camp Trevor set his bucket of water down around where he could see Sypha and Danica planned to build the fire, they would probably want to start boiling water as soon as possible.

He spent a moment looking at the bloody mussel of the nightmare and made a mental note to keep an eye on them if he ever got hurt, then around a comfortable-ish looking rock to sit on as Lucia and Sypha talked about latin. He followed along with it, remembering the lessons drilled into his head as a child. The priest sent by the church to education him had always thrown a fit when he switched to the classical latin that his private tutor had taught him. It was part of the burden of being a noble like he was, education was rained down on him whether he appreciated it or understood it. Plus in his line of work Latin was pretty useful to know. He wasn't ordained in the least so he couldn't bless water but Latin was rather prevalent and it was useful to know.

" I would of thought speakers would of preferred classic latin over the churches version, given that speakers are denounced by the church." Trevor commented on idly.

" Yes but we learn much of our histories and knowledge orally. Anything to do with latin is normally spoken to us in ecclesiastic latin because it is the most prevalent." Sypha explained. " Though I suppose I should of made more of an effort to learn classical latin." her words tapered off and she clearly started to think to herself.

There was probably so much knowledge that the church was keeping hidden and not translating properly, she would have to try to learn classic latin.

" Hang on wait-" Sypha seemed to have latched onto something. "- Trevor do you know how to understand latin?"

" Scio equidem eram Latinis nobilis." he respond as he rolled his shoulder, stretching it to make sure he hadn't pulled it while they were literally trying not to die back in the tombs.

" Oh I forget sometimes that your family for all it's beast hunting was still nobility." Sypha said, eyes widening for a second.

" Yeah a lot of people forget that. But I had classic latin taught to me by some professor my parents hired to spite the church, who in turn sent a priest to beat ecclesiastic latin into me with a switch."

" So that means you're either smarter than you look."

" Hey! I'm plenty smart, i'm just not running around losing my shit over books." he scoffed.

Their banter lulled as Aveline and Alucard arrived with the firewood, and Sypha instead turned her attention to getting a fire going.

" Sypha can you and Danica cook the vegetables on the side?" Aveline asked them curiously as she watched a pan sizzle over the fire, some animal fat getting hot for them to add the meat and vegetables too. " Or maybe just roast a few over the fire without the fat and meat?"

" Of course, do you not like goat meat?" Sypha asked curiously as she found a skewer to roast vegetables over.

" I don't like meat in general. Sorry to cause trouble, but hey more meat for you guys." she said, knowing not everyone went along with her requests. Sometimes people just thought she was giving them more work to do for no reason, but Sypha and Danica didn't seem to mind. Then again they were literally in the company of meat eating demon horse and blood drinking vampires, her diet wasn't that weird.

Drowning out the others trevor looked into the woods where Lucia had disappeared in her armor, the revelation of just how old she could be and where she probably came from sticking with him a bit. He wondered how many times she had reinvented herself over the years and wished he knew a bit more about her past. She was the most mysterious of their group as far as he was concerned.

" Give Aveline my share of vegetables." he said finally looking away from the mouth of the woods. " just eating vegetables won't give you the strength to fight whats coming our way. "

He shrugged off the part of him that felt good about helping other people, that missed being a protector.
 
Yellow did look good paired with green. Daffodils came to mind, followed by sunflowers, and a host of other florals and plants, but even certain yellow birds framed by leaves. He couldn’t argue, and he hummed out a sound of agreement. It hadn’t been the color he expected, though to be fair, he was also not aware of the connection between fae and gold, those stories never reaching him.

If anything, he would have expected gold to be a dragon’s favorite color.

If dragons were real.

“Don’t we all have a bias?” He smirked, “It would not be a favorite, otherwise,” he said, but agreed, “If we need more, they can send us back out.” It wasn’t like it was terribly difficult to gather wood, even if it would require two people just to stay safe from the demons. He couldn’t help with water so much, but here, he could be useful. He could probably carry more wood than most of the others, anyways.

As they returned, he noticed that Marius had, too, and so had Trevor. The other horse was gone, and Lucia. Johann was climbing into the carriage to sleep, apparently determining it was the best place. “You should eat something!” Danica was saying.

“I’ll eat breakfast,” Johann murmured, before shutting the carriage door to keep the noise out. Alucard couldn’t help but chuckle. The man had done them all a favor by not waking their companions. It would take a while for them all to adjust to this schedule.

The fire was started, and Aveline requested vegetables only. “It’s no trouble at all! We’re working with a lot of diets here,” Danica chuckled, “seems we have our obligate carnivores and our obligate vegetarian. We’ll make do!” She was chipper, though of course, she was already used to the weird diets around her. “Alucard, nothing special is really needed for you, right?”

He shook his head. “No, but thank you,” he would be fine, when he needed blood he could get it in much the same fashion, “though I suppose you can cook my meat a bit less,” rarer was better for him.

Danica certainly assisted in skewering vegetables, and prepping the pans for cooking, finding a wire rack to put over the fire to set the skillets on. The skewers would have to be held over, but that was no trouble. She hadn’t exactly counted out what was everyone’s share, but she made a point to set up a second skewer for Aveline that would contain Trevor’s share.

Then she noticed Alucard stiffen, and drawn the sword from his side. “Hm?”

Danica looked back, following his gaze, as Sypha did, to see a single flying demon. Danica immediately reached for a throwing knife and hurled it without a thought.

Alucard looked taken aback a moment as it struck, but didn’t question it – he just sprinted forward to take the demon down as it hit the ground not far from the camp, more surprised by the dagger than hurt. It had been glancing back for something else and missed Danica’s throw.

She let out an irritated huff. “Can’t even let us eat first!” As if demons had any concept of respecting dinner time.

~***~

‘It’s a dead language, Sypha.’ No one spoke Classical Latin any longer, except a few vampires, some of her servants, and old vampires – if they didn’t prefer another old language, like Sanskrit. Sypha would only learn the stories from books, not orally, and the only thing to get used to with that wasn’t the dialect so much as how they wrote back then. Punctuation was a mystery. So was spacing, sometimes. At least for the Greeks, spacing was.

Lucia heard Trevor’s Latin, and almost paused as he spoke the Classical, not the Ecclesiastical. It shouldn’t surprise her – he was noble, after all – and yet, that kind of knowledge usually faded without practice. Johann had needed quite a bit of brushing up on it, and he’d only been taught Ecclesiastical.

They’d made do, though.

She didn’t allow the distraction to linger in the back of her mind, though. They needed to find food, and if there was one deer, there were usually more. She was fairly certain she could smell one….

“Oh.”

Yes, she definitely smelled a few, as she and Sulla stumbled onto a place where it seemed another group had stopped to camp, had killed a deer, and were overcome by the demons that were still there. “Well Sulla, I suppose you get the better meal today.” The demons turned from the human bodies that they seemed to be…packing up? For a moment, they looked at her in a questioning fashion, clearly uncertain if she and the nightmare were on their side.

When the shadows lifted from the ground and tried to entangle them, that gave an answer and they quickly tried to move to leave the entanglement. Those that could fly fared better, as others were dragged down, and Sulla knew well enough to rush ahead to trample them underfoot, and kick out at others who got near.

Lucia had to evade one that dropped down with a spear. ‘Shit.’ She needed to tell the others, too…there were probably more than these. She drew the gladius as the one with the spear lunged again, upon the ground, smoothly side-stepping and impaling it on her gladius.

There had only been four. One in flight hesitated to return, seeing the three other felled between the two, and Lucia knelt to grab the spear of her opponent, not wanting to use too much of her magic when she knew it would just drain her more. She hurled the spear up at it, but it evaded, and flew off.

While Sulla tried to eat the meat, Lucia grumbled, and picked up the corpse. Sulla, naturally, whinnied a protest, “You can eat closer to the others,” they had to be alerted. She’d keep the demon corpse in the woods so they didn’t have to see that, though.
 
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Aveline watched Danica and Sypha work around the fire, and it showed that they were used to this kind of work. They fell into caretaker roles easily and were used to traveling in groups. Sypha traveled with a large group of people all the time and Aveline could only assume that Danica handled feeding large amounts of people when they weren't traveling, more maybe she was just well put together. The woman was clearly in her middle ages and didn't seem to beat around the bush, but she gave off a kind and understanding energy. Danica seemed to keep her eyes and ears open, ready to help like a mother would.

She didn't want to get in the way of Sypha and Danica though she could help if they needed it. She might not eat meat herself but her father had so she had grown up watching him making dinner and eating meat with him. It wasn't until she was older that she decided to stop eating meat and her father had never tried to pressure her to change, he just made sure to keep a lot of fruits and vegetables around.

Instead she just took the vegetables skewers from Danica and offered to roast them for her while she and Sypha worked on the rest of dinner. She could season and roast a mean vegetable.

" I have some fruit in my bag we can have for desert." She added cheerfully. Luckily it was grape season so she could explain away having grapes in her bag, though when winter and spring came those would be harder to explain. She'd have to start paying attention to what fruits were in season and what could possibly be growing around them, no one would believe she just found an orange tree growing and offering fruit with winter so close after all.

The groups gaze moved to the sky where the telltale signs of the demon hoard preparing for a night of causing trouble stiffened them all out. A single demon was flying in the sky and Alucard looked ready to go after it, but it was actually someone elses dagger that took it down first. Aveline exchanged a look with Trevor at first wondering if that was his dagger, and he sent her an equally puzzled look. The looks didn't really go away when Danica made it clear she had thrown the dagger.

" Guess those knifes aren't for show." Trevor chuckled, but he had noticed her amazing accuracy, speed, and strength in that throw. ' Better not piss her off' he thought to himself then began to warm his hands by the fire.

With it clear the hoard would be on its way soon it as best to warm his hands up and prepare for what ever right would be coming their way.

" Better eat quickly then." Aveline said, pulling the skewers away from the fire and gently blowing on them to cool them off. She tested a potato and hummed when she saw it was tender. Then huffed when she popped it in her mouth when it was still too hot to eat.

" They won't steal your dinner from you. You are dinner." Trevor teased her as he watched Alucard return from killing the fallen demon. Vaguely he thought about how the horses had something to snack on if they were still hungry after hunting with Lucia.

" and it's never the best idea to fight on a full stomach." he added, remembering a few times when a full stomach had actually caused him trouble.

" And it's better to die with a full stomach than an empty one." Aveline quipped.

" hey you're not going to die!"

" If I have a say in the matter I won't, but better safe than sorry." she shrugged as she plated the skewers so everyone could grab them as they pleased.

Despite the sense that a hoard could be on them at any moment everyone circled around and grabbed their own plates, and as Trevor took his first bite he realized he hadn't eaten lunch today. In fact he hadn't eaten since lunch maybe a full day ago. The meal really hit the spot. Though watching Alucard eat left him with some questions. He hadn't known if the Dhampir could eat human food or if he even needed to. He could just be eating to appear more human along side them, or maybe it really did give him energy like blood would to a full blooded vampire.

But to keep the peace with dinner Trevor didn't say anything, he just ate his meat and enjoyed the little bit of an extra portion everyone got since Aveline didn't need the meat. But he also made sure that she ate enough to keep her going, he didn't think potatoes and other root vegetables would really give her the energy for the task they had ahead of them but he wasn't her master and she had made it this far.

" One of the best parts about only getting vegetables is the quick clean up." Aveline chirped, the first done and her skewers totally clean. She filled a kettle with water from one of the pots and instead set it to boil over the fire, thinking some tea would be wonderful. Hopefully they could enjoy it before the hoard descended on them tonight.
 
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