Capítulo 52: Missing Prince
The sun rose over the horizon and I groaned as I sat up from the pile of leaves I had fashioned into a small bed. The forest was strangely quiet, unbothered by this I went about my business. I stomped out the remains of last night's fire and took to the sky. I felt the thrust creeping up and realized that I had not had some blood in quite some time now. The whole ordeal with Klaus and Dahlia had distracted me to the point where I hadn't fed in nearly a month. Sure it didn't bother me, but no one wants to explore a strange land with their throats constantly itching. That and I was just curious as to what blood tastes like in this part of the world.
I flew around for a hot minute before. I spotted a gathering of tents and men in shiny armor. I observed the camp for a bit and noticed that the men were significantly darker skinned than anyone else I ran into. They also spoke in a language that sounded strangely like Arabic. The scimitars like swords finally led me to the conclusion that these must be Turks. Which also made me realize that my situation was far worse. I was in Europe during the time where the ottomans attacked.
I flew down into the camp and made short work of the men. Wiping the blood from my mouth I looked around their small camp. They must have been a scouting party, taking one of their horses. I ransacked the camp for anything I could use, from silver coins to water skins that I filled with blood from a man who's neck I merely snapped. Loading my loot onto the horse I quickly mounted the steed before pulling up the hood of the cloak I had appropriated from one of the scouts. Having no clear direction I followed the dirt path leading me north.
Eventually arriving in a larger town with a castle peeking over a wall I dismounted and scanned the crowds. Strangely people looked happy, which was slightly unexpected. I had expected a medieval European town to be full of moaning and groaning. Both the good and the bad kinds. Shockingly the place was also relatively clean, whoever owned the castle seemed to care for cleanliness in the streets. Walking to a set of large iron gates I was stopped by a couple of guards who spoke in the same strange language. I cursed silently in my mind, this was not the time to not know the language they were speaking. Their language sounded Slavic enough so I tried speaking the only language I knew that had similar origins, Norwegian.
"I am a traveler, who owns this castle?"
The guards looked at me strangely, they turned to a man slowly approaching the gate. Calling out to the man, I picked up a few words that sounded like 'foreigner' and 'Rus'. The man eventually stood beside the guard and spoke to me.
"They say that you are a foreigner."
I looked at the man, he had spoken in Norwegian and yet it sounded older, less flowery than the modern Norwegian I learned through a friend.
"I am, I mean no harm, I only seek information on who lives in this castle. Perhaps even the direction of an Inn I can stay at."
"Your dialect, it's very strange. Where is it you come from?"
I froze, I had not come that far with creating a backstory for myself. I prepared to draw my sword and fight my way out when another man called to the portly man who I spoke with.
"Forgive me, my prince is calling me, we shall have to continue this conversation another time."
With that the man shuffled away, I glanced over to the man who had called him over and I felt a sense of recognition as I took in the man's features. Something felt off about this world and the fact that I knew but couldn't point it out was beginning to bother me. I turned away from the gates and wandered back into town. Eventually I found a tavern and managed to gesture my way into renting a room for a few days. Collapsing on the straw bed I began to replay what I had done in the world thus far since arriving.
Morgana left me little to no clues on who I was supposed to save, and I had slaughtered a scouting party of Turkish soldiers. I had two water skins full of blood which I was sure would go bad soon so those would have to go by tonight. I took out one of the water skins from a pack I had taken from the scouts camp. Taking a sip of the cold blood I began to formulate a plan.
I knew I was in some European country, they had in fact dealt with Norsemen as that man knew Norwegian. So I was at least past the Viking raids. I noticed a large number of crosses and religious symbols in the town so Christianity was a major religion here. What bothered me was the familiar looking people that I know damn well I had never met before. Maybe this was another movie or tv series that Morgana decided to shove me into.
Draining the last of the blood I discarded the water skin and robbed my eyes. When I opened them again Morgana was standing in a corner of the room. I sighed and looked at her.
"What is it now, did you forget to tell me something crazy, do I have to fight a crazy warlord and save an alien race or something?"
"Nothing like that, I'm just here to apologize for leaving you here without giving you a way to communicate with people."
"Well it's too late, I've pretty much established that I'm some sort of Nordic traveler."
"That will make things interesting, here." She tossed me a silver ring. "It's enchanted so that you can understand what people are saying."
"This is an oddly convenient item, what's the catch?"
"Why do you always assume that there's a catch Seth. Maybe I just want to see you succeed."
"This is your mess in cleaning up in the first place." I sighed. "But it was this or sitting at home doing nothing I guess."
"That's the spirit," Morgana began to fade. "Listen, I have to go before he realizes that I'm here. You'll be brought back to Mystic Falls once you complete your task here."
"Wait, who? Who will know you are here?"
Morgana disappeared into the air before I could get an answer. Growling in frustration, I kicked a chair over and slumped back down on the bed. Slipping on the ring, I watched as it adjusted to my finger. Sighing I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
[Scene Break]
I was up and out of the tavern the next day before the town even woke up. I quietly took to the sky and observed the castle far below. Making a list of what I knew in my mind I summarized that I was in fact in another veneration world. The cave, the prince, the ottomans, it was all too much to be a coincidence. I thought back to all the movies Nicole and I had watched and remembered a few where there was a strange vampire in a cave and a prince.
The thought of being in Transylvania immediately brought a small smile to my face. If anything Morgana really had a way with playing with me. First snatching my life away and turning me into a vampire. Then there was the whole, sending me to another world ordeal, not to mention she had kept up with the Vampire theme throughout. I wondered if there were anymore vampires in this world now that the vampire in the cave was dead. I didn't remember much from the movie, but I knew that it was based on Dracula's life. Speaking of, it was strange that a prince had gone missing. As far as I was aware Dracula was the only prince. Unless there was a change in the story.
Of course this could all be a part of Morgana's screw up, two princes when there should have only been one. I flew back to the wooded area surrounding the cave and explored for a bit. The forest was rather large, large enough to get lost in with a few wrong steps. Soon I found myself at the foot of the lone mountain once again and looked up to the cave. I made note of the strange rock formations. The shapes were too geometric to be natural, having been through a bit of wacky supernatural situations I wasn't throwing out the idea that some 'mysterious ways' being made this entire mountain.
It already stuck out like a sore thumb being the only mountain visible for miles around. Not only that, but it had sprung up dead in the middle of a small river. That river now ran around the base of the mountain and was surrounded by the forest until it broke at a few clearings. I explored the lands around the base of the mountain and decided that the best course of action for me was to find the second prince. Dealing with Dracula would have been entertaining, but I did not want to screw up any historical moments by slapping him around.
The forest was not too far from 'Castle Dracula' and was only a bit further from the town I had found the new of the second prince in. It was within reason that the missing prince was either lost or hiding in this forest.
"Well," I sighed. "I better get started on looking."
Contrary to popular belief, a vampire's heightened senses contributed nothing when one was stuck in an eerily silent forest. It began getting on my nerves when I realized that all I could hear was the sound of my own footsteps and nothing else. I had been wandering around the woods for maybe two hours now. Eventually a clearing came into view. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw a crude wall made out of sharpened logs. Knowing my luck this was probably the home of some deranged hermit.
As I approached the wall I felt a presence hurtling towards me. Using my power I froze the entire swarm of bats mid air. Despite not remembering the title of the movie I knew that one of the broken powers given to Dracula had been the ability to transform into a cloud of bats. I raised my hand and with the flick of my wrist I sent the cloud of bats that coalesced into a human figure as it slammed into a tree. A feminine scream came from behind me and I spun around just as a knife was driven through my chest.
I felt the sting of pain, but having been alive for a few hundred years I didn't react. Using my power I shoved the woman back. She stumbled landing on her rear, the hood of her cloak flew off and my eyes flew to her mane of red hair. Yanking the knife out of my chest, I tossed it off to the side and looked at the woman. She looked every bit as her painting had portrayed her.
"Cine eşti tu?"
I sighed, pulling out the ring Morgana had given me and slipped it onto my middle finger. I made no move to attack as the woman slowly got back to her feet.
"Didn't you hear me? Who are you?"
"Hmm, it works. That's interesting."
The woman's eyes widened, the missing prince rejoined her and was equally in shock.
"You speak English?" She asked in shock.
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