The Prisoners of Moonloch Castle

[~Fletch~]

Hunter shook her head, her eyes gazing into the depths of the fire before turning back to Fearno and answering his question verbally. "No, but then I have never thought much on the topic, it seemed irrelevant at the time". She looked at the stranger and wondered if their talk should be paraded before him so. She glanced a him several times in quick succession as if trying to refrain from being rude, but needing to gather as much information from him as she could. "You are not quite the tired traveller you seek to imitate are you" she asked him. His eyes seemed to hold a secret presence and though his back stooped, it looked a position adopted through want, not through need.

[Maggot]

''Beg your pardon,lady?'' Bane stammered,taken aback by the sudden questioning tone of her voice. ''I assure you that I am what I claim to be,a humble wayfarer seeing shelter and if possible,a guide to show me out of this dank forest the next day. Really,you have no need to fear or suspect my motives for coming here in any way.''

 He spread his arms sideways,indicating that he was willing to be searched. ''If you fear that I conceal any kind of weapon on my person,you are welcome to look for it.  As for your cryptic discussion with your lord,I did not understand a single word of it,nor do I care to. All I want,is refuge from the dangers that lurk in the forest outside.''

[Luke Lavin]

Fearno looked at the self proclaimed weay traveler, this man really is dumb as he sounds or quite clever which would make him quite dangerous.  Even the mortals should feel the taint of this place, the utter lack of will to live is frightening, death seems to have to come Earth in this placee.  Yet as he gazed at Hunter she was different from the others, the spark of life still brightly lit her face.  

If I have enough to time to scrounge up some clues tomorrow while these vampires sleep then perhaps I can figure out who has a hold on this place.  Arrogant humans... weakest of all the walking lifeforms yet think they are the greatest.

"Perhaps you are what you say you are. I fear for you my friend there will not be many awake by the day to help you on your quest.  You look weary perhaps he should stay a couple days if the dangers are not to great?" He asked in turn the mysterious traveller and Hunter.

[Maggot]

Bane gave a thin little smile. ''I would not wish to impose myself on both of you and become a burden on your hospitality. Leaving the next morning will be fine with me,guide or no guide. I'm sure I will be able to find my own way out evantually.

 This dank gloomy place was begining to get under his skin. Yes,he had cautioned himself against letting his imagination get the better of him. But his suspicions were begining to take shape and the worst part of it  was that they were not entirely unwarranted. The strange warning of the lady of the keep,came flashing back to his mind again. Do not awaken those who slumber. And the lord had told him that there would be none to guide him out of this foul forest in the morning. Yes,there was certainly something very untoward about the inhabitants of this keep.

 Then the truth struck him like an enarged bull. Gods in heaven and hell be d**ned. Could he have stumbled into a nest of the undead? Why else the aversion to sunlight. Desparately,he shot a look at the lady. That pale skin,so pale with not a hint of living flush in it.... Gods,why had he not recognized this before? Was he was doomed to end his life in this nest of  murderous blood draining killers? To escape the Scourge,but only to fall into the hands of these foul things was a cruel irony. Vampire. Even holding the word in his mind made him cringe. They were abombinations,even for demons that shunned them as such. A demon animating the human flesh,creating beings that were the utimate mockery to both races. If he was to survive these deadky killers,he had to show no sign of having recognized the residents of this keep for what they truly were. That was the human half of him thinking. But the demon half,the cursed inheritance his sire had left him,it itched for a fight.

 Come now,that vicious voice insisted. Surely you can take on those leeches? There are just two of them and they must be weak like the the rest of their parsitical kind. Certainly weaker than the two warriros of the Scourge who pursued you. Weaker than a demon such as yourself. Yes,for you are a demon,regardless of hard you try to deny your heritage. Embrace that noble blood now. Make it proud. Overpower and bind the two who stand before you. Leave them out for the deadly rays of the sun to destroy as it rises the next day. Hear their final screams of helpess pain and terror as their fesh becomes dust and savour them ...

 Clenching his teeth,he forced that hateful presence from his mind. He had to ignore that foul part of him. If he was not strong enough to fight it off,it would lead him to death. Forcing a smile,he turned to the male vampire and said tightly ''I am afflicted by most frightful headaches,my lord. They strike without warning and are sometimes unendurable.''

[~Fletch~]

Hunter watched him curiously. His thoughts though not readable were obviously conflicting. She herself was not new to that experience and to be able to read it in another was simple. She moved listlessly about the room brushing back strands of hair from her face every few minutes or so. "If you plan to leave in the morning, you must take the same door we took to get in" she said watching him critically. "If you take any other you run the chance of meeting up with some of Moonloch Castle's...security" she said finishing her sentence warily. She looked out of the window. She thumped the carved stone windowsill aggitatedly. "I am sick of all this pretence" she muttered incoherently to herself. She sighed deeply before facing them again. "Perhaps Fearno" she said thinking, "It would be wise for you to leave with this wayfarer?" she asked him thinking of the situation as it was. Enough death happened here in these grounds without it getting out of control.

She still had a slight tingling about the traveller and her vampiric senses would not let her forget it easily. He may have no concealable weapon but there was definately something about him.

[Luke Lavin]

Fearno raised an eyebrow, security here? He smiled a toothy grin, he wanted to laugh out loud.  The man thought I was a vampire, perhaps he did not get a good look at my complextion.  The darkness of my skin should have made it obvious that I was not vampire but then again not everoyne is knowledgeable on things like this.

"Perhaps I will but I rather enjoy the company here." And my stomach growls to meet this human who controls this castle and embrace his inards and flesh in my jaws.

[Maggot]

Bane was confused.  So the male blood sucker was not master of the castle,after all?

 Clearing his throat,he decided to find out the identity of the lord who ran this place ''If I may be so bold to inquire,who is the lord of these holdings,lady?'',he asked the vampiress courteously.

[~Fletch~]

Raising a wary eyebrow she did not answer right away but seemed to muse on the question. "Why would you presume there is such a person?" she asked him plainly as she stared at him boldly her eyes appearing to try and analyse him further. Finally she laughed, a sound that brought forth no real mirth, for it was sarcastic and condeming in tone.

"Each individual that lives here rules himself or herself. There is no residing Lord or for that matter Lady" she announced loudly. "Though on this occasion perhaps I should appoint myself temporarily with the mantle of  leadership, for I doubt you would much like the attitude of some of the others. But I see it is clear you already dislike me for whatever reason you have decided upon". Her cheeks had become flushed in her pursuit for the correct words and yet also the niggling voice in the back of her mind that tried to persuade her to feed.

The colour of her eyes had begun their residual change though she held back against her natural instincts strongly. She looked to Fearno who being familiar with the habits of vampires knew the internal moral conflict she was now facing as she looked upon the 'traveller' as both prey and the neutral passer by he most surely would have been should she have been human. She turned away from them walking to the window. She noted the the darkness of night was fading and within a few hours dawn would arise. Sighing she closed the wooden shutters and drew the heavy velvet curtains across the window before facing them again. She indicated two low profile lounges against one wall, their fabric seemed surprisingly new for the obvious age of the furniture. "You two may sleep there". She took the blankets off her bed leaving only one bottom sheet on it. "Here" she said passing them a blanket apiece. Then with little ceremony she walked to a small chest of drawers to one side and pulled several peices of clothing out of it. She changed behind a wicker screen then walked back to the bed. She looked at it, examining it closely before lying down on it on her back.

Sleep would not come eas she knew as she lay her hands palms down either side of herself. She had cut the conversation short so that there were no replies, and now the possible retorts flooded her mind. The fire crackled companionably in one corner and yet it did nothing to relax her troubled mind and restless body.

[Luke Lavin]

I tried to give Hunter my best sympatthetic smile yet it seemed she had lost herself in the gloom of the moral conflict.  I had been bitten and turned into a Lycan when I was but thirtteen a time long forgotten.  Even now I found myself on days passing up human prey in favor of something that would let my conscious rest easy at night.  Vampires did not even have that choice.

Hunter disappeared behind a screen and changed into some clothes for sleeping.  I had abandoned sleeping as a human long ago it was simply too easy for someone to sneak up on you.  

"Do you mind turning around for a second fellow." I asked, turning without watching to see whether he complied or not.  I didn't feel like waiting on him and I had long gotten over being arroused be nudity alone.  I stripped off the cloak Hunter had given me, folded it and set it on a china table at my side.

With an almost silent moan my body shifted.  My legs revered I feel foward one onto my hands with rapidly shrank forminthe my paws.  Long grey white fur sprouted all over my body and my tail grew back, it was long and shaggy also. In a minute the change was over, I could do it faster, but a slow transformation was less draining.  I padded over to the blanket and curled up on the floor with it in the middle of the room.  I gave a slight yip as I snuggled into the blanket, then cured up with my snout and tail almost touching. With out another sound my flittered about the room before I closed them and let myself fall into a deceiving light sleep.

[Maggot]

''Of course,my lord.'' With these words,Bane turned his back,tensing his body to run. Now was the moment he would find himself struggling with the fiend for his life. It was something that he did not look forward to. But to his astonishment,he did not feel a pair of fangs descend on the back of his neck. Ws the thing planning to toy with him?  With a defiant cry on his lips,he spun around,convinced that the male vampire was lurking somewhere,waiting for him to loose his nerve before it pounced on him like a great cat hunting it's prey.

 There was a wolf curled up on the blanket,a giant grey furred monster. '' So it is true.'' Bane whispered. ''You vampires can turn yourselves into wolves. What about bats? Is your lady planning to swoop down on my throat as a bat and drain me dry,fiend?''

[~Fletch~]

Hunter turned her head to the side at the man's snide comment. "It would be foolish to think all vampires possess those powers. Some of the higher breeds have them, not all. And" she added coldly, "Had i wanted to drink your blood half breed I would have already done so". She turned her face back up the ceiling. "You cannot hide much from those who look past the living flesh. I am not a mindless killer" she said sitting up suddenly and looking at him, using this as a chance to convince both herself and the stranger. "I am not comforted by the knowledge that I must kill to live". Her voice had faded somewhat. "Can you admit you have never killed?" she asked him darkly. "Because one life is not less than twenty lives, you have already bloodied your hands" she said standing up no longer able to sleep, her own inner fury heating her cheeks.

[Luke Lavin]

I though the conversation was done and sleep would be welcome but apparently before he settle further the human that stank of demonic blood had to open in his trap.  I spoke but all that came out was a snarl and growl, I let myself slide back into my human form.  This time rather quickly, and I would probably have to sleep human I was getting pretty drained now.

"Listen idiot none of us are pure here, and I would like you to know that I am a Lycan, more commonly called a werewolf, not a vampire.  I have much esteem for my nocturnal collegue, and if you had any sense about you, you'd show a little more respect to your elders."

[Maggot]

'' A were wolf.'',Bane said slowly,with some suprise evident in his voice.'' I thought your kind were extinct. You lycans consort with vampires,then? Funny.  Those writings that I have read on the fiends that walk this earth,gave me the idea that lycans and vampires held each other in mutual disdain. My thanks to you for enlightening me on that score.''

 Then turning his head to her, Bane flashed the vampiress a pleasant mile. ''You are very perceptive,lady. What was it precisely,that allowed you to dig out the seceret that my father was a Chaos demon? Mind reading? T'is not good manners to snoop through the private thoughts and memories that the mind of another holds. But I shall be so kind as to forgive you for that little intrusion. Coming to a more important matter,what is it that the you and your furry friend plan on doing to me? I beg your pardon for for sounding suspicious and even a little hostile,but neither vampires or were wolves are known for their compassion.''

[~Fletch~]

"And perhaps you will forgive me for my stereotypical thoughts about demons, after all I have not seen them in the spotlight for their good deeds or angelic demeanour" Hunter replied sarcastically.

"Werewolves and vampires have not always loathed each other so. It is a complicated tangle of oaths and broken promises. But seems to have diminished and hatred seems only to survive in small sects. I harbour no ill intent against any for what he or she is. That happens to include demons" she finished a little breathless. "And as you may have gathered, our intentions were simply to aide the weary traveller you were portraying, not to begin a moral argument that neither of us are able to win, for let's face it....We are and will be who we are".

Pacing the room her arms folded across her chest she said, "Out of all who gather here, Fearno has been the first to extend a hand of friendship and he is a newcomer with no real need to be here. Who could depise someone who will help another with no motive?" she asked Bane. "far be it from me to judge someone by their heritage, inherited or later generated".

[Luke Lavin]

"No one said anything about you being a particular but your lack of imagination is evident.  Not all our powers are mystical or magical, the fact is you stink of demon blood.  You reek of fear and you are starting to edge on my limit of paitence, if you really want to see what happens to fools around here then continue on your present course, and you can see a real werewolf in action." I spoke irriatated the halfling could not get over the fact we were creatures of the dark, he was a foulsome little whose father the earth had to suffer the indignation of walking upon it's ground.

"It takes little for one who has experiance to see what you are.  Lucky for you I've had my fill of demonic flesh for tonight.  If you haven't noticed we actually let you, gave you a warm blanket, and the Lady suffers both our presences in her chamber.  Edicit seems to have been dropped in the new breed." I smiled at Hunter and wrapped the blanket around my waist, I wouldn't be able to sleep as a human.  I let my self sit down on the automon letting out an exasperated sigh, I eyed Bane watching for his riposte.

[Maggot]

Bane gave an amused little smile. Turning a deaf ear to the brute's  loud mouthed threats and insults,he chose to address the vampiress instead.  ''There is some truth in what you say,I suppose. Neither of us are in any position to judge the other. Both of us are dangerous abombinations and monstrosities in the eyes of the world. And your kindness does touch me.'',

 He reached a hand back  to run it through his tangled hair in a reflective manner. ''Beggars cannot be choosers. I am in no position to turn my back on the hospitality you offer me. The White Glove stalks the night and I have no wish or desire to confront them. So let me express the deep gratitude and the thanks which I owe you. But there is one thing more I would ask of you,though you have already been more genarous to me than others have. Please refrain from calling me a demon. I am no pureblood who carries the undiluted demon heritage in him. A human I was raised and a human I shall ever be. My demon ancestory means nothing to me,for I am twice the man your wolf pet will ever be.''

[Luke Lavin]

I stood up and seized Bane by the throat and hauled his carcass into the air with one arm, my finger nails slowly grew into long razor sharp clawss that pressed against his soft fleshy throat.  I stood there naked, scars covering my body, and I was quite the man I assure.  "Make my day halfling, know this I came of my own free will, I have lived longer than you most likely will. I am a Lone Wolf and I am my own man, and if ever again insinuate that I am anyone's pet I won't kill you I will unman you, you spineless pondscum."

I held back the urge to bodily throw it into Hunter's standing curtain.  The heart thundered in my ears. My fist slowly crushed his throat then I let him drop, I held back a kick to his curled up form, I backed away waiting for the youngster to get up.

[Maggot]

Bane pulled himself back onto his feet with trembling hands,his heart juddering madly in his chest. Gods,he had been so sure that the brute would haved killed him then and there. Unlikely that a were and a Lone wolf at that,a pariah even among those other flea bitten eaters of human flesh,would have thought himself bound by the laws of hospiitality.

 It would be wise not to say anything that would send that wild thing into another violent outburst. If this happened again,the were would kill him in cold blood. He was as sure of this,as he was of the fact that the vampiress would sink her fangs into his throat if she decided that she was famished enough to devour a guest,regardless of how hard she tried to convince him that she wan't like the rest of those undead leeches. An eloquent,charismatic vampire was still a vampire. No doubt her victims would testify to that,were they able to.

 Yes,uttering a single word that would upset either one of these two,was nothing short of sucide. He should remain silent. It would be the wise thing to do,improving his chances of surviving the terrors of Moonloch castle the way it did.

 Inconvenient then,that the demon in him didn't see the wisdom of that. With the human part of him momentarily stunned into pure panic by the were's violent asssult,it was that dark twisted half of him that took over.

  He let out a low growl,one menacing as that of any lycan and glared savagely at the one who had dared to manhandle him in such a vicious and callous manner. ''Careful,wolf boy. You don't want to see just how much demon I can get. The fiend in me is not as polite and understanding as the human,I assure you.''

[~Fletch~]

Hunter watched the conflict with a concerned expression on her face. Whether the two tore each other to pieces or suddenly shook hands should have been no concern of hers, but something told her the former of these two situations would not do any of them any good.

"Enough!" she said aggressivly stalking towards Bane. "Make one more harrassing comment and you will have two pining for your blood. You hold no command here". By now she had calmed a little. She gave Bane a reprimanding look. "As I see it, you are both standing on my territory, unmarked or not" she said sending this last comment to Fearno with a small smile. "And as such...Can I formally request a small verbal contract from you both that you will refrain from any more heated arguments and/or attempted blood spilling?". She looked at the two with her head to one side, ever the mistress this night, or morning as it was fast becoming.

She bent down and picked up the blanket and tossed it to Fearno. "I have a small feeling none of us will sleep this day, so sit down and at least make yourelves comfortable. You will both learn the errors of your ways by this evening, for you have both yet to see a Vampire suffering from a severe case of sleep deprivation" she said trying to lighten the situation. She sat down on one of the lounges tucking her feet under and rubbing her hands to warm them.

[Maggot]

Instantly,Bane was all polite contrition,humbly bowing to the vampiress. With the steel glinting in her eyes  the way it was just a moment ago,he thought it most prudent to to put on a repentful face. Why anger the host who took you in,by being stupidly stubborn?

 ''I am deeply sorry for making a threat of violence against another guest of yours,lady. It was a rude and flagarant violation of your hospitality,one that will not happen again. My tounge can sometimes get the better of me. When I was a child,my dear mother would often tell me that unless I learnt to rein it in,it would make life very difficult for me. Twenty years since then,I see that she was more right than I could have known.''

[~Fletch~]

"It is all forgiven" she said looking at Fearno hoping he was thinking similar thoughts, because she felt she herself could not contain his anger should he decide to attack Bane.

"And should you call me by my name and not the pleasantries you have chosen I may even decide to go and see what I can find for you to eat. I doubt there is much...You will have to wait until tonight in either case". After seeing his expression she added, "No, not human flesh" she said almost smiling.

[Maggot]

Bane begun chuckling ''For a moment there,I was sure that you were going to tell me all that there was to eat were a couple of corpses,lad-,I mean Hunter. Hunter. A rather unusual name for one of the fairer sex,if you don't mind my saying so.''

[~Fletch~]

Hunter nodded. "My father was a stubborn man. He had chosen the name long before my mother even fell pregnant, and even when I proved to be female he would not be persuaded otherwise. In either case he has not been proven wrong" she said attempting to jest.

"I doubt you will find much in this stone prison. But perhaps tonight you can hunt, or if you win the favour of Fearno he could indeed find something to suit your fancies. But of course that is for Fearno to decide" she added looking at her friend.