| Derral Derral, a 16 years old peasant boy, had been seduced and bitten by a female vampire six days ago. After being bitten, Derral looked like twice his age, he couldn't stand sunlight, couldn't eat, he didn't breath and had terrible hunger for human blood. He had immediately escaped from her parents' farm with his very dear older sister, Lanya. They were trying to find a cure for Derral's "illness" - maybe a scholar in an academy or hospital or just a wandering scholar would know what could be done. They just didn't know the country at all, so they had to ask help finding scholars, academies or hospitals. Derral and Lanya talked to scholars and other people in Broken Shovel, lieing that their little sister in the farm was sick, with sun allergy, problems being awake during the day, paleness and lack of appetite. First their hopes were high, but quite soon Derral was very doubtful in finding any cure, and Derral was terrified in finding that the whole tavern was talking about vampires and were-wolves. And he was afraid of the drunken vampire hunters. Derral was becaming more and more blood-thirsty, and he was somewhat interested in a beautiful girl, Anwen. He found himself thinking what it would be like to have a taste of her blood. He joined her company as often as he could. He would have asked her to join him for a walk in the woods, but almost constant trouble between the vampire hunters and soldiers prevented him to do so. A traveling merchant had a medicin, which he said would most probably cure Derral's and Lanya's little sister. Problem was that they didn't have enough money to buy it. A chance to earn some came up, when a group of people headed for treasure hunting. Derral and Lanya joined the party. Night grew darker and darker, and Derral's senses were sharper than ever - he could here a cuckoo singing - not only the one near the treasure hunters, but also the ones several miles away. He had the strength of several men. He dug up the treasure box from the ground in no time, and had no difficulties carrying the heavy box all by himself the whole way to the tavern. Now they had enough money for the medicin, but before they went to see the merchant, a noble man they talked with earlier same night came to have a private talk with Derral. He told that he was a vampire and had immediately seen that Derral was also one. He told that there was no cure for vampirism - but not to worry, being a vampire had several good sides to it: super strength, super senses, almost immortality. The noble man was willing to help Derral in his first steps as a vampire. Derral could be his apprentice. At some point the noble man provided Derral some human blood, which he had in a bottle. It was delicious, and helped a bit against the hunger at first, but after a while it just felt like an appetizer... Derral realized that he needed to get her sister as soon as possible away from him, because his lust for blood - anybody's blood - was terrible. He bought the medicin from the merchant, drank it, and pretended her sister that he was cured and they could go back home. His plan was to eventually tell her sister to carry on riding back home, while he would fetch something he had forgotten on the way. Then he would have traveled far from her, never returning to his family. When the noble man - now being detected as a vampire and followed by vampire servants - came upstairs, Derral knew he was coming for him. Derral's sister clung to his arm trying to stop him joining the vampire. She really believed Derral's lie about being cured. Derral told her sister to stay where she was, but she refused to listen. Then the vampire asked Derral to show his loyalty to his master and to kill his own sister and drink her blood. Although Derral was now already thinking more like a vampire as a human, he begged to be allowed to drink some other human - any other human. No. But the vampire offered him a choice: to kill him with a wooden stake, as he was old and tired in being a vampire. Derral wouldn't believe this, as the very same man had just an hour ago appraised so much the benefits and joys in being a vampire. Derral was sure that if he would grab the stake, the master would punish him, and kill his sister anyway. And the hunger for blood made Derral almost insane. Tears in his eyes, Derral took his sister in his arms and said "forgive me". Then he bit her neck and drunk blood of a human that once had been his sister. |
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