Preternatural Prophecy Chapter 6

to vampire quickly slitting through them like a rag. The blinded vampires scattered at the sound of their kin’s screams of death. Haru chased them down and brought his sword down on the back of the vampires. They fell one by one as Haru sliced through their spine and neck. Laurel followed him cutting them also with her falchion. Tatiana stood shocked rubbing the spot on the armor that was once sliced open. Soon thirty vampires lay slain in the wake of Haru and Laurel.
            The light faded from the armor and the vampires retreated back into the forest. The army cheered and banged their shields together. A small roar was heard throughout the battle field. Slowly it got louder, bringing a pair deep red eyes following in its wake from the forest. A gigantic beast burst from the forest and ripped through the makeshift army’s lines. Laurel froze as the beast charged towards her. It appeared to be a wolf and vampire hybrid. The crimson blood on its incisors matched the deep red of its eyes. It swept away three brave soldiers who had tried to stab at its neck with a lance. Two more soldiers were caught in its path straight for Laurel. Tatiana cried out as she jumped at its side. She brought her falchion down on its side. A deep cut opened in the side. She hung from its side held up by the falchion sticking from its flesh. The beast stopped and snapped at Laurel’s twin stopping a few meters from Laurel. It swung its head around and tried to sink its teeth into Tatiana. Tatiana released her falchion and dropped to the ground rolling with the impact.
            Laurel shook off her fear and attacked the beast. She sliced through its neck in a fluid maneuver and ducked as it swept its claws over her. She slashed upward through its jaw cutting its jawbone in half. It howled in pain and a flock of vampires flew to its aide. Tatiana kicked out at them and pulled her knife out. She parried the vampire’s attacks and returned with her own slices. She killed two of them angrily. A vampire snuck up behind her and slashed across her back. She screamed and fell to her knees. The red blade bit into her back searing the flesh as it passed through her flesh.

Wendel listened to the scream emit throughout the air. He turned to Delano. Delano lay in a pool of his own black blood. Wendel had snapped his arm and tore it off tossing it to the side effortlessly. Delano groaned slightly. He pushed himself up with his one arm. He looked up at Wendel, his face covered in dirt and sweat. Tear streaks ran down his face. He sobbed silently.
Wendel looked at him with contempt. He shook his head and turned to run towards the battle.
“Finish me off you coward. Come on I’m not done yet. Kill me you slimy traitor.” Delano yelled beating his chest with his single fist. Jet black blood squirted from his arm socket as his eyes flashed a bright red. Wendel gritted his teeth and turned to Delano in anger. He threw an arrow at Delano cutting through his neck. Thick black blood spurted from both wounds. The last of the blood in his body drained from his body. The red from his eyes flushed out and Delano yanked the arrow from his wound.
            “Is that really all you have? Are you that weak that you cannot kill a simple fellow vampire? I thought you were supposed to be the best killer around. You cannot even kill me. If you cannot kill me you will never kill Aiden. Nothing will keep me from destroying you now.” He picked his dagger from the ground and smile maliciously. Wendel grabbed two more arrows from his pack and charged Delano. He sliced into Delano’s ribs. He howled in anger and retaliated by taking a chunk out of Wendel's arm. Wendel gritted his teeth and ripped the dagger from his arm. He grabbed Delano by the neck and forced the dagger through the roof of his mouth into his brain. Delano went limp and his eyes fluttered. Wendel yanked the dagger from Delano’s mouth and jammed it in again. Wendel released Delano’s neck. He fell to the ground with a thud. Wendel walked over to his crossbow and picked it up. He placed it in his pouch and looked back at Delano. He shook his head and faded into darkness.

Wendel appeared a meter from Tatiana. Tatiana lay on the ground, her back bleeding profusely. His eyes widened in horror and ran over to her. He pulled medical herbs from his bag and placed them on her back. He pressed the herbs against her back. She screamed out in pain and arched her back. Wendel ripped some cloth from his tunic and tied them in place. Tatiana writhed in pain, flailing about on the ground. She stopped flailing and lay limp on the ground. She gurgled and flailed one last time. Her eyes fluttered and closed. She opened her mouth slightly and a thin stream of drool ran out into the dry dirt.
            A group of ten vampires materialized near them looking around for the screams. They spotted Wendel and Tatiana. Three backed up while the other seven charged them. Wendel bellowed in anger and threw arrow after arrow at them. Each arrow dug deeply into one of the vampire’s foreheads. The seven stopped in their tracks and fell forward one by one. The other three stepped back once more. They stared fearfully at Wendel. Wendel snarled at them. They turned and ran into the shadows, disappearing into the night.
            The sky was light shallowly by the rising sun. Only a small amount of lights filtered up over the horizon. Laurel came stumbling over to them clutching her arm. She fell to her knees next to Tatiana. Tear streaks streamed down her face, glinting in the new sunlight. Laurel let go of her arm. She fell onto her sister and wrapped her arms around Tatiana’s neck.
            “Tati, wake up. Wake up Tati!” Laurel suddenly got angry and shook her twin. Tatiana lay limp in her arms. Laurel pulled her sister into a hug and held onto her. Wendel scooped them both up in his arms and carried them back to the camp. Haru met them at the entrance to the camp. For once he stood motionless waiting for them. As the trio approached he said nothing. He motioned for Wendel to follow him. He led Wendel into a medical hut. Wendel set the twins down on a single cloth. Three women hurried over to them and pulled the twins apart. The women took the armor off the twins and set it aside.
            One tended to Laurel’s hurt arm while the other two peeled the herbs off of Tatiana’s back. They examined Tatiana and one spoke quickly to the other. The women picked up Tatiana and rushed her from the hut. Laurel cried out and jumped up after them. The third woman restrained Laurel and pushed her back onto the ground. The woman whispered something into Laurel’s ear and she went limp. Her eyes closed and she started to snore. The woman finished wrapping up Laurel’s arm and hurried after the other two women. Wendel stared at the entrance flap. He looked at Haru.
            “Do not worry. She is in a better place now. It is somewhere where she can have peace while her soul heals. You and I must go now. Laurel must rest. Let us go somewhere where we can have some peace and quiet and watch our beautiful sun rise.” Haru said motioning towards the flap. He walked out without swinging his arms and parted the flaps. He looked back at Wendel and beckoned him to come. Wendel followed him dumbfounded.
            Haru led Wendel back out onto the battle field. The sun peeked over the sun and the field was lit with bright sun light. Red blood clotted on the fallen soldiers. The dead vampires faded as the sunlight touched the bodies. Slowly the battle field cleared up until the only remaining bodies was those of the human soldiers. Wendel silently wept at the sight of the dead men lying in the gently swaying grass, the sun making flowers bloom around the dead bodies. Blood spurts were painted randomly across the grass. The crimson blood lay still wet on the grass. Haru shook his head.
            “I can hear their souls reaching out screaming at me. None of these men wanted to die. They scream in pain. When you are hurt not only is your body in pain but also your soul. It seems our gods were not kind enough to grant us the life force to move without losing a man such as our king and queen had done so long ago. Half of our men are gone. We think that almost every single vampire was killed that was on the battle field last night. There will be no more attacks on this village. Our whole village thanks you three. It is unfortunate what happened to Tatiana though. She is in good hands though. Our gods smile upon those who help us. Come there is more to see.” Haru led Wendel through the forest.

They came across the clearing that Delano and Wendel had fought at. A crude circle was drawn around Delano’s body. Ancient writing was poorly written in blood around the circle. A small bowl had been tossed casually onto the ground. Delano was flipped face up, a small trail of blood dripping from between his lips. Haru’s arm flung up in front of Wendel.
            “This is a trap. Delano is not dead.” Haru hissed. Wendel drew an arrow and pulled his arm back. Aiden stepped from the forest beside them and laughed. It echoed throughout the forest. He stepped into the sunlight and raised his arms staring straight up into the sun.
            “Isn’t the sunlight wonderful Wendel? I could stand here forever and enjoy it.” Aiden said smiling broadly. “Oh you must be wondering why I’m not affected by the sunlight. That is a good question my friend. This is gonna be a little hard for you to understand since you don’t know our rituals. Well ever since the start of our civilization there have been special vampires with powers. These vampires are called the elders. They possess different powers each and every one of them. At the start there was a single vampire. His name was also Aiden. He was an all powerful being; who controlled the universe and every creature that resided in it. The humans were his slaves and he ruled them harshly. Soon after a visit to one of the villages an old woman told him a prophecy of his downfall. She warned of a man who would destroy him and scatter his powers all over the world. He was too confident in his powers though and continued his reign over the universe.
            “Soon the humans became tired of his cruel behavior and chose a boy to challenge him to a sword fighting contest. Aiden was so confident in himself he told the boy that he would fight the boy with only his hands while the boy could use any sword he wanted. The only thing he did not know was that the old woman had given that boy a sword that was enchanted to kill anything instantly. The two marched onto the battle field. Aiden boastfully announced that the boy could have the first attack. Aiden smiled widely as the boy approached him and swung the sword across into Aiden’s hand. It sliced right through the hand. Aiden let loose a boastful laugh. Then slowly Aiden’s arm twisted. Aiden’s complete face changed into horror as he stared at his arm. He screamed out as his whole body twisted and turned and then exploded. His body shattered into millions of pieces and his powers separated from his body.
            “His powers scattered themselves around the earth into different vampires world wide. They found their way across the world into one tiny village in the middle of this place. They started a war against the humans but soon were outnumbered a hundred to one. They sat in their village for days while the humans lay siege to it. After a week they decided that they needed to do something. They had no food left and would need to hunt soon. One young vampire stepped forward. He told them of his own power that allowed him to walk in sunlight and would allow him to kill the general of the humans. The other elders agreed to this. He then told them of his conditions. He told them that they must give one power of his choice to him. They waited as he told them that he wanted to power to turn into shadows as well. The shadow elder nodded his head and transferred some of his power into this young vampire. The young vampire was me. I slaughtered the human’s army and turned the survivors into my vampire minions. Like the original Aiden I am thirsty for power and wish to conquer the land again in my own name and soon it will be mine. You are the only thing that stands in my way. I must thank you so much for walking into my trap.”
            Aiden smiled and turned into shadow and darted towards Wendel. Wendel drew his arm back farther and threw the arrow at the black shadow. The arrow went right through it and into a tree. Aiden reappeared and tackled Wendel to the ground. He pulled his arm back and punched Wendel in the jaw. Wendel’s head smacked against the ground. Aiden breathed into Wendel’s face. Wendel looked around at the darkening scenery. “Night, night Wendel.”
            Aiden stood and looked over at Haru. Haru stood stunned in his place. Aiden sneered at him and grabbed Wendel roughly. Aiden hefted Wendel onto his shoulder and turned into his black shadow again leaving the spot where he once stood.

Haru stood paralyzed in his place not knowing what to do. The scene replayed in his head over and over till he shook off this shock and ran towards the village. He dodged around the trees knowing the route by heart. He jumped over the fallen logs and tree roots that were scattered about. He ducked under the branches as he sprinted out of the forest and into the clearing that lay near the village. He stopped immediately sensing a different presence near him. Delano’s mangled form stood in front of him staring at him.
            “Hello Haru, so nice to see you again. Well nice for me at least. You are the one that can’t see. Well I’m here to make sure you do not report to the village what has happened to our dear friend Wendel. So I will kill you swiftly and get this over with.” Delano pulled the sword from its sheath with his lone hand and held it up awkwardly. He charged Haru swinging the sword madly, Haru dodged the wild swipes and grabbed Delano’s wrist. He chuckled then broke Delano’s wrist with a sharp twist. Delano screamed in pain and dropped his sword. Delano dropped to his knees and sobbed, his limp hand hanging from his forearm.
            “Delano…you will be the only one that will be dying today.” With those words he grabbed Delano by the neck and crushed it. A slight gurgling noise from his corpse as the air escaped from his collapsed wind pipe. Bits of spine poked out of the back of his neck. Haru lifted up the corpse and threw it out of the way with his head hung. “So sad that he had to die, he was a good man. If only he had been on our side.” Haru sprinted back to the village in silent meditation.

As he entered the village he made his way to the medical hut. He ran in and went directly to one of the nurses. He demanded to know where the twins were and she pointed him to Laurel, who was huddled in a corner sobbing. He went over to her and softly laid a hand on her shoulder. He whispered in her ear that her sister was okay and that she would be visiting her soon. Haru stood up and told the nurse to take Laurel back to her room. He then walked out of the hut and into the sun shine. He looked around reading the thoughts of passersby seeing if he could find the location of Tatiana.
            No thoughts of her were in any of the people except one man who stood across from him staring straight at him. The man turned down an alley way and simply walked toward the center of the town. Haru followed him closely making sure not to hit anyone. He followed the man through the alley until he turned around and faced Haru.
            “Tatiana is being carefully stitched back together by the cities healers. I suggest that if you want to find her you follow me. I have read your mind just like you read mine and I know what has happened to Wendel. You must follow me if you are to find him before he is killed. Haru you now have the choice to come with me and save the entire world or you can go now and save just your life. Haru by coming with me now you will die. But if you turn around and stay no one will know how this will turn out in the end. You have a choice Haru. Turn around now or come with me.” The man said turning and walking back out of the alley. Haru thought for a second then followed the man's thought trails through the city to a small shelter.
            Tatiana lay on a small bed her body stripped of almost all clothing. A thin sheet lay on top of her with four healers standing around her chanting in an ancient language. A slight glow enclosed her body. The wounds on her closed up slowly. The blood that spilled from her veins slithered back up into her body. The healers chanted louder. The strange man stood by them and watched intently as her wounds finished closing and her entire body looked as if it were new. The glowing receded and the shelter darkened. The strange man turned to Haru.
            “Now that you have seen her you must take her back to her sister. You three will have to make your way through the wilderness and fight off the vampires that will stand in your way of getting to Wendel. He is the key to saving this future. You must not fail at getting him. If you fail then all hope is lost and we will never be able to save this world from Aiden's plan for world domination. You now must go with her. No questions I know you have many but I cannot reveal all to you.” He pulled Haru over to Tatiana and put her on his back. “Go now!” the man whispered.
Haru turned and ran back to the medical hut as fast as he could. The man turned to the healers and transformed back into the old woman who had helped the twins before. “Now let us hope that they can fulfill this prophecy and they do not get greedy themselves and take over this world.  Come we have much work to do.”

            Wendel woke up in a small cage surrounded by vampires. They all stared at him as he stood up. He smiled as he saw the cage bars were made up of only thin branches. He drew back his arm and swung at the bars. A jolt went through his body. Wendel took a step back shocked. One of the vampires on the outside cackled.
            “Did you really think it would be that easy to escape? This cage has been cursed by one of our spell casters. It will take a lot more than that to break out of this cage. We once put our wolf beast in there and it still could not get out. Have fun in there because you will be in there awhile.” The vampire cackled again and turned his back on Wendel.
            Wendel scowled and sat down. He silently meditated waiting for something to happen. The vampires either slept or played dice. Soon a shadow appeared next to the cage. All the vampires looked over and watched Aiden appear. They went back to what they were doing. Aiden looked around and sneered at them. He went over to the cage and taped on one of the bars.
“Wake up Wendel. Time for us to get along. I will be taking you to our home land then see what I will do with you then, At the moment you have no chance of escape so I’m going to leave you with these lazy imbeciles.” Some of the vampires looked up then shrugged their shoulders. “Once you get there we will see if I shall turn you to my side or I shall have to kill you. Good bye for now Wendel.” Aiden turned back into a shadow and slipped away silently.
            Wendel smiled thinking to himself. He looked around and watched the vampires stand up and dust off. One walked over and threw a water sack into the cage. Wendel took it and drank it slowly relishing the liquid. When he tried to toss it back out of the cage it hit an invisible wall and bounced right back in. He made a mental note of that and turned into a shadow. He floated around the cage and up to the top of the cage. He flew at the side and hit the bars. He was immediately sent into a shock and blacked out.