| Anakat, Fida'i of Alamut |
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| Awaiting picture of Anakat |
| Background: I grew up in a village of warriors near Volgograd in western Russia. It was a pretty common type of village back then being that there were a lot of wars and fighting, it was also good money. The men of the village fought hard to protect it from invaders and those who would come to destroy it for fun. They were also hired by others to fight and protect because of their reputation of being fierce warriors. When I was born, my mother died soon after giving birth. As a result of this, I was considered "cursed" and would end up not having the normal life that everyone else did. It's a good thing my father had lived in other places where science was more advanced and was not superstitious like the rest of the people in the village. He knew that I wasn't cursed and that it wasn't my fault. My father also knew that he could not convince the other people in our village otherwise. During his travels, he heard the word Anakat and liked the sound of it. He did not know what it meant, nevertheless, he named me Anakat. I was not allowed to go to school nor was I allowed to train with the other boys in the ways of the warrior. Wherever I went, people would either stare at me or turn away and leave. The other kids would pick on me and we'd get into fights until an adult came around to break it up. Yes, I was larger than the average person but so was everyone else in the village, so it didn't really matter. It's okay though; my father learned a lot in his travels to other countries and taught me the best he could. He also learned different fighting styles from fighting along side with other warriors and taught me the art of combat, helping me to become the best warrior I could be. When I was old enough, my father and I had a discussion and decided that it was my time to travel across Europe and broaden my horizons. Besides, it's not like the girls of the village wanted to have anything to do with the "cursed one". At the age of 15, I packed my things along with my axe and sword and left, heading west to see what the future held in store for me. The first country I went to was the Ukraine which turned out to be pretty similar to Russia in both culture and language. I then continued west through Romania, Hungary, Austria, Italy, France and ended up in Spain with a quick visit to Portugal. As I passed through each country, I tried to learn as much of the language as I could and build on the languages my father had taught to me. By the time I decided to leave north from Spain, I was fluent in Italian and Spanish and also knew enough to get by with Romanian, Hungarian and French. I traveled north through France and went to Germany and the Netherlands. After Germany, I went northwest to the English Isles since I kept hearing about them. This country was wet with rain a lot of the time; needless to say, I did not stay there for very long. I did hear English spoken in many of the countries I had been to, so I made an attempt to learn this language. When I had finally become fluent in English, I left south back to France, which just so happened to be at war with England at the time. One day, while walking down a road and minding my own business, a knight on horseback thought it would be fun to harass me. He got in my way and ordered me to "halt". I pretended that I did not understand English and proceeded on my way. The knight drew his sword and pushed me back with it, then hopped off his horse. He removed his helmet and started to insult and try to demean me. I let this go on for a few minutes until I figured that he wasn't going to let me just walk off. "Hey, I am neither English nor French so this war does not concern me. Leave me alone." I said. The knight replied, "So you do speak English after all. By the way, I don't care what you are, I'm bored and you're going to be my entertainment." He took a swing at me with his sword, which I parried with mine. He then took a second swing and I jumped back and easily dodged it. I smirked at him and said mockingly, "Fool, did you not see the sword I was carrying and did you think I didn't know how to use it? Would you like me to show you how to use your sword?" He growled and was about to charge when about a dozen armed men rushed out of the bushes and had us surrounded. Great, it seems as if I am going to die today. They carefully kept a watch on me while they disarmed the knight and started kicking him around. When they were done, they told him to leave and never come back or he would meet his end. The knight hopped onto his horse and sped off down the road, never looking back. Even better, I am going to die alone I thought to myself. Well, I would do my best to take as many of them with me as I could. "What business do you have here?" one of the men asked. I replied, "I'm just a traveler trying to experience what life has to offer." Another man said, "Are you sure? That sword and axe you are carrying are those of a warrior and you moved and used that sword with great skill just now. You were toying with the knight and could have killed him at any time." "Yes, but he was a fool. He didn't deserve the honor of tasting my blade with his flesh" I answered. "Good answer." spoke the first man. "Now you have a choice, you can either accept our offer to join us, or you can refuse." "And if I refuse?" I questioned. "Well, then you'll be on your merry way. What, did you think I was going to say we were going to kill you?" he said while chuckling, then added, "You can go back to whatever it is you were doing, traveling, but you will be missing out on all of the adventure, excitement and experiences of a lifetime you would have if you came with us." That last comment caught my attention. It had been 5 years since I left home and I was getting tired of wandering from place to place alone and knew that this would definitely be different. I didn't have anything to lose by joining them so I told them "I accept." I found out that they were mercenaries who went across Europe being hired to do jobs as soon as they reached an area. Business must have been good. I no longer traveled alone and it felt great. We took jobs that would benefit us the most monetarily, but would not take the ones that asked that we destroy a village or estate and kill everyone including women and children or any other job of that type. This group that I was a part of was like a second family, like the extended family I never had. The members were from many different places and they decided that the language they would use with each other was English. However, that didn't mean they could not use their native tongues. There were two Spaniards, one Frenchman, two Englishmen, one Hungarian, one Austrian, two Germans, one Norwegian Viking, one Dane, one Cossack, one Moroccan and myself, fourteen total men in our group of mercenaries. Having this variety of nationalities allowed me to continue to learn the different languages I already knew along with new ones like Norwegian, Danish and Arabic. While that was interesting, it could not compete with the combat training of the group and since all of us were skilled fighters, the training was very intense. It was amazing to be able to see the different fighting styles and different weapons in use and to use them against each other. While each person kept their own fighting style, at the end of each training session, we'd take things from the different styles and try to fit them together into a new form, unique to our group of warriors. The next day, we'd incorporate those ideas into the training and repeat the process again to see how to fight most efficiently, how to get the most attacks in and how to deal the most damage. This was a lot of trial and error, but it was worth it. Over the course of the next five years we took part in many battles across Europe from England in the north to Turkey in the south and from Spain in the west to Russia in the east. Amazingly, we never lost a single brother in all those years of fighting. Maybe it was because we were lucky, or was it because we were careful and took every precaution including planning each situation out? It was probably a combination of both, but you never know. After a battle in Romania, I told my brothers that it had been ten years since I left home and that I was going to visit my father to see how he was doing and to give him some money. I thanked them for everything and they bid me farewell and good luck. "Catch." said the leader as he tossed me a pouch of coins. "Say hello to your father for us and let him know that we took good care of you too." he chucked and continued, "We'll be heading northwest to Germany then west to France, you can catch up to us there. If we don't see you, don't worry, we will meet again someday." I replied, "Thank you my brothers. I will try to catch up to you and yes, we will once again ride together." And with that, I was on my way home. As I neared my village, the sight of it brought back both good and bad memories from my childhood. I wondered if I was going to become the cursed one again with people hiding or harassing me, but there was only one way to find out. Upon entering the village, a quick look around showed that it basically appeared the same as when I left ten years ago. The homes looked the same were in their places and so were the fields. The only thing that had changed were that the people were older and there were new children running about the village. I saw a couple of my old bullies but hardly recognized them, the other boys from my day also looked different. They had fought many battles and it showed in their faces and bodies. It was odd seeing them as adults with wives and their own children, but they seemed to be happy and they were oblivious to the stranger walking through the village...me. I went to my house to see my father and as I approached it, I saw my father outside chopping wood for fire. He looked up at me, paused for a moment and said, "Son, is that you?" "Yes, it's me father." "Welcome home, it's great to see you again." he said smiling and came up to me and gave me a hug. "It is good to see you and be home again too." I replied. He turned towards the house and said, "Come, there are some people I want you to meet." I followed him to the house and we went inside. It turns out my father married another woman after I left and they had a son. I had a real brother. I was happy for them and glad that my brother would not have the same childhood that I was forced to endure. We sat and talked about many things and experiences and I gave the money to my father, to help out with the family and to show appreciation for what he did for me growing up. After around a month, it was time for me to get going again so we exchanged farewells and I promised to visit more often. Westward I headed, hoping to meet up with my brothers in France. I liked to travel at night since I didn't really care for the sun and also because the roads and paths were less crowded, it was cooler and I could go farther since I did not tire as fast. One night while going through a forest road in Romania, I was ambushed by 8 men. They jumped out of the bushes on the side of the road and encircled me, each with a sword drawn. As they circled around me, I drew my sword and watched to see who would attack first or which one I should attack. These men did not speak a single word or make a sound. When I had chosen my target and sensed they were about to attack, I charged towards the victim. I saw the rest of the men closing in with my peripheral vision and parried the sword in front of me and ran the guy over knowing that getting outside of the circle was my best chance for survival. Once I was past the men, I stopped and turned towards them full of rage. How dare they attack me for no reason. I shall show them the wrath of a true warrior and let the dogs eat their corpses. Suddenly out of nowhere, a weighted net dropped on me from above and entangled me. I was subdued, struck over the head and was out cold. When I came to, I could feel pain in the area of my head that I was struck and the blurriness of my vision cleared. I saw the men rummaging through my belongings and tossing what they deemed useless or without value aside. I yelled at them in English, "Hey, what the hell are you doing!" They stopped, drew their weapons and started towards me. Again I said to them tauntingly, "What, you girls can't win a fair fight? Untie me and then we'll see what happens!" Still there was no response from the men. One of the men stood back with a throwing knife in his hand and cocked it ready to fire when I barely saw a blur go past the man and he dropped to the floor, dead. It went through the area six more times, each time a man was killed instantly. Finally there was only 1 of the men left when the blur went past one more time. The man fell to the ground, still alive but disarmed with two broken legs, eyes full of fear. Another man stepped into view. His skin was pale and his hair was long, but not tied back. His clothes were neat and clean and he had a black trench coat covering him. He walked over to the man trembling on the ground, picked him up and held the man in front of him. He said to me, "Fear not, I am not here to harm you, but to rescue you." I heard him but did not see his mouth move. I asked, "W...why?" He answered, "You are the cursed one are you not?" I nodded and he said, "Well, I am 'cursed' too." He then extended his fangs and bit into the man's neck, draining the blood from his body. When he was done, he effortlessly tossed the corpse a distance of about forty feet to the side. "You're a vampire!" I exclaimed. He calmly answered, "Yes", then grinned and disappeared in a blur. The ropes holding me to the tree were released and I landed on the ground. Confused and curious at the same time, yet a little shaken, I gathered what was left of my stuff and continued on my way west to find my brothers. From that day on, I knew that vampires did exist and tried to figure out why that one helped me and revealed itself. I was always looking to see if I could spot any vampires walking amidst us humans trying to blend in. I have not seen any yet, but I know I will see that vampire in the forest again. Now if only I could find my brothers and see if they would believe this story. |
| Description You see a large, muscular man who is 6'1" tall and at least 200 pounds in weight. He has broad shoulders with a slight tan, short dirty-blonde hair and deep blue eyes that are intense. He seems to be using a combination of chain mail and hardened leather armor with plates of steel covering vital areas. As he walks past you, you notice that his movements are not stiff, but quite fluid, unusual for a man that muscular. You also see a battle axe strapped to his back and a hardy, yet sharp longsword at his side. |