Chapter 4

Valdis stood in front of perhaps the strangest object he had ever seen; although, he had experienced that quite a lot the last day. Said object was clearly solid, and even hung on the wall, but even then it was like the clearest of all rivers. He could perfectly see his own pale complexion reflected on its surface. It was even clearer than any river, which were often covered in ripples and waves. He could see his messy dark hair, his crimson eyes, and even the retractable fangs in his mouth.

            Indeed, it was quite the sight. It was only on occasions such as these that he could truly see the differences between him, and the humans. The skin of humans was always so colourful, sometimes straight out dark, while his skin was pale as snow. Never had he seen a human which eyes like his own, either. Indeed, he remembered that once, a long time ago, he too possessed normal, brown eyes, but that was already a long time ago, in an age long passed.

            Ah, those humans, how much pain they had caused him. They had taken his only love away, and in the end, they had been the end of him; or so he had thought, until he awakened once more. As he thought of the humans, his mind naturally trailed to that little girl, he had cared for so long. In the end, it was she who had betrayed him, but he supposed it wasn’t her fault. She was naïve, and knew little of the world. And in the end, it could even have been his own fault. Indeed, as the little girl, Tora, had fled away, and been captured by the young man, he had still heard their conversation, even while he fought.

            He supposed that he had somehow forced them to act against him, and perhaps he had enacted his wrath over the wrong people. But even then, he could not forgive. What he did not realize at the time, was that he had long since avenged his past lover, at least for the most part. There was however, still someone left that had to pay; the true perpetrator; the Shaman. He no longer possessed the dire need to kill all of humanity. He simply wanted to find out if the Shaman still lived, and perhaps punish those who had fed on his own flesh.

            But did still not dare act against them. He could feel that he still didn’t possess his full power; like he hadn’t unlocked the power that had built up over the millennia he had slept. His personal theory was that it would quickly come to him over the next few years, but he supposed he would speak to Labrax about the issue.

            On the matter of the first vampires however, he was still somewhat conflicted. Should he kill them, or should he let them be? It was his own blood that now flowed through their veins, so were they not his family now? His descendants? He truly did not know whether he should kill them or not. For now he would stay his hand, and instead focus on finding out the fate of the Shaman, as well as Tora. If the vampires have shown her cruelty and killed her, he would show them no mercy, and destroy all of them, but if she had lived a full life, then he could forgive.

            The possibility of her being still alive also existed. After all, he had already learned that his vampirism could be spread to others, and it gave an eternal life span, so she could still be alive, somewhere. It wasn’t impossible that one of the first vampires had turned her, or that Tor guy. From what he understood, Tor was the one who led them to him, so it wouldn’t have been weird for him to be rewarded.

            For now though, these were all just thoughts. In the here and now, he would instead focus his attention on learning about this mysterious world he had found himself in, and solidify his strength. He seemed to have found himself in safe hands, too. He always had a knack for seeing through people, and he never saw any ill intent in the eyes of Labrax. Perhaps a bit of selfishness, but that was the nature of any self-aware being.

            Even Ulfvaldr, or Valdis as his name now was, had shown selfishness on numerous occasions. First, when he had Tola, his late lover, stay with him in the cave, and second, when he took Tora, and raised her. When he did those two things, it had instinctively been for himself, and himself only.

            As Valdis stood in his own thoughts, he started getting thirsty. Thus, he left his room, and then the mansion, exiting through the main door. As he left, the mansion guard saluted him, and Valdis nodded to him. He felt weird, being saluted by a mortal human. For most of his life, humans had been scared of him, but now everyone looked at him with awe and respect.

            After leaving the mansion, he wandered a short distance away, until he came upon a lone woman, who was hanging her laundry to dry. Even this, was a strange sight to Valdis’ eyes. She hung the clothes unto strings, where they would be left to dry throughout the night. This, of course, was not something the Ulfvaldr of the past had seen before.

            But he had not come here to gaze at the wonders of the new age. No, he had come to feed. Thus, he walked up to the poor woman, who immediately froze in surprise, before she quickly greeted him.

            “Good evening, my Lord!” She said, but before she could utter another word, Valdis had grabbed her by the neck, and bit into her flesh. The woman was shocked, as two sharp fangs sank into her neck, but she found herself unable to both scream, as well as breathe, for her neck had already been torn to pieces. Only a moment later, her corpse decorated the ground.

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            Not another moment later, Labrax appeared out of nowhere.

            “Ah, hells! I was too late! What the hell are you doing?” Labrax screamed, grabbed his head with both arms, almost tearing his hair out, but, he quickly calmed down. Valdis looked at him weirdly, not sure what exactly was going on. He just went out for a drink, that’s all.

            “Ah, of course, you wouldn’t know any better… I keep forgetting just how ignorant you are. Look, Valdis, my friend, you can’t just go around killing someone, whenever you’re thirsty. There are rules in place, you know,” Labrax explained, much to Valdis’ surprise.

            “Rules? You mean you don’t just kill someone when feeding?” Valdis said.

            “Great, not only are you ignorant, you also don’t know the value of human resources. You see, if we kill a human whenever we’re thirsty, they will quickly go extinct. And we need humans, not only for food, but work as well. Without humans, we won’t have any workers, you understand?” Labrax explained once more.

            “Yes, I think so. I guess that makes sense,” Valdis said.

            “Good. So, don’t kill people randomly, or you’ll normally get a fine of a few coins. Only vampires get off with such light punishment, if a human kills another human, he’ll be either imprisoned or executed. Punishment is usually laxer on vampires, but there are still numerous laws to follow, which I will teach you later, so don’t worry. Now, let’s go back, you still haven’t met the others of the Draco house,” Labrax said, as he walked back towards the mansion.

            “Alright, and I’m sorry for the trouble,” Valdis apologized. Before they entered the mansion, Labrax told the entrance guard to have someone clean up the corpse, and compensate the family. It was surprisingly kind of him to do so.

            At that moment, Labrax decided to teach Valdis common sense. He seemed to be severely lacking in that department and would surely bring trouble upon himself and possibly Labrax’ house if left alone. Thus, they entered the mansion, appearing in the entrance hall, and then walked straight forwards, into the main hall. The main hall had a large dining table in the middle, and around the dining table, four people were seated. One of them was the long dark haired man who announced the arrival of the Priests.

            Another of them was female. She, too, had long hair, although it was a bit shorter than the first man’s, and of a lighter shade, similar to Labrax’. Her face was abnormally beautiful, and even Valdis found his throat dry for words at her appearance. Her skin was as smooth as silk, and as pale as snow. Her breasts bulged out of her chest, and were perfectly accentuated by her clothes. She had the most perfect curves, but somehow still managed to look modest and refined. Valdis’ eyes kept lingering on her for a while. It was the most stunning beauty he had ever seen, even compared to Tola.

            The third person was another male. Compared to the long haired one, he looked more manly, with his short, dark brown hair, and squared face. He even looked a bit brawny. The fourth, and last, person, too, was in perfect contrast with everyone else. Compared to the brawny and feminine look of the two strangers, and the charming, almost playful look of Labrax, this one looked refined, and wise. He kept his sight fixed on a book he held by the center with his fingers, as he drank out of his chalice.

            As Labrax and Valdis entered the room, all eyes suddenly fell upon the newcomer. The three, whom Valdis had yet to meet all looked excited, while the long haired one was a bit more curious than excited, and only wanted to learn the newcomer’s name.

            “Everyone, this here is the newest addition to our family, Valdis. It is very important that all of us help him in this strange time, since he truly knows nothing of our world. Now, everyone, introduce yourselves,” Labrax said. As soon as he finished speaking, the brawny stranger stood up, the excitement clearly visible on his face.

            “Oh, this is exciting! There’s hasn’t been a new addition to our family in ages! Let me introduce myself. My name is Parmus Draco, and I’m the second youngest of our family, not counting you,” he said.

            Next, was the intelligent looking youngster,

            “My name is Pythos Draco, and I’m the youngest, still not counting you. I must say, it will be nice to not have to live with that role anymore…” Pythos said. The third male, the most feminine of the bunch, perhaps even more so than the female herself, was the next to rise,, maybe even more so that the female herself.

            “I’m Actos Draco, the third oldest, nice to meet you,” he said, rather simply, then sat back down to sip his drink. The fourth, and final one to stand up, was the beautiful woman.

            “My name is Alayla Draco and I’m the second oldest, as well as the true sister of Labrax. I’m honoured to meet you,” she said with a kind smile, before sitting down again. Then, it was finally Valdis’ turn, to introduce himself.

            “The honour is all with me,” he started. He had never been taught that he should respond like that, but it still felt like the natural response to him. After all, should he not be honoured to see such a peerless beauty?

            “As you know, I am now known as Valdis, however, I was born with the name Ulfvaldr. It is fine to call me Valdis, though. It is my honour to meet all of you, and I look forward to our time together,” Valdis said. As he spoke, everyone suddenly found themselves speechless, including Labrax. There was a strange warmth in his voice and eyes, and as they heard him, they could feel it, and as they looked into his eyes, they could see it. It was as if Ulfvaldr had finally found a place where he could belong. He had finally found someone he could call family. Because in Valdis’ mind that is what he wanted these people to be. They were his descendants, people reborn from his blood; his family.