Chapter 16: A Bit of Blood
The party arrived just outside Garfield’s inn. A couple of witnesses to the instantaneous arrival shrieked and ran away.
“I’m going to bed. Yttria, do you have enough energy to help everyone else out until tomorrow?” Garfield pulled out some gold coins and handed them to Yttria.
“I’m pretty fatigued myself, but I’ll take care of it.”
Garfield turned to walk into his inn. Hannah grabbed his arm to stop him.
“I want to stay with you.”
“I understand but… this is how really strange rumors get started. Can you at least stay with Yttria until tomorrow?”
Tears formed in Hannah’s eyes.
“Gosh, fine. You can keep the bears company while I sleep.”
“…Bears?”
Yttria giggled at this exchange. Garfield and Hannah walked into the inn.
“Sir Garfield!” the innkeeper called out. “I wasn’t sure when to expect you back.” She looked at the small vampire next to Garfield and then froze, unsure of what to say.
“While I was off taking care of other matters, I rescued this friendly vampire. Please keep her presence a secret for now. I’m going to bed. She will guard the door and take care of the bears.”
“Oh, um, okay…”
The pair walked to Garfield’s room, Garfield more so stumbling by this point, and locked the door. Garfield dismissed the Backdoor Innkeeper and then collapsed into the bed. The bears ran over to Hannah like curious dogs, sniffing at her legs. She was surprised at first, both by the disappearing man and the strange bear pets, but she seemed to warm up to the cubs quickly. Garfield doesn’t know what happened for the next twelve or so hours after that.
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Yttria managed to find inn accommodations for the rest of the party, including the Emperor’s advisor. The next morning, the fox-people refugees stayed in their rooms while Yttria and the advisor proceeded to Baron Briarcliff’s residence. This was part of the plan Garfield and Yttria came up with the previous day. The pair was quickly led into the manor, where the family of three was waiting for them.
The Baron greeted the group. “Ms. Yttria, I’m so glad to see you have returned safely to Bretten. Did Sir Garfield rescue you?”
“Yes, it was quite a dramatic affair…”
“I’ll need you to tell me all about it, but first, who is the gentleman I don’t recognize?”
“This man is the one who can prove my family’s innocence."
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Garfield woke up, finding himself under a dogpile of bear cubs and one vampire. He squirmed his way out and got to work changing his clothing. Hannah stirred.
“Vampires sleep?”
She nodded.
“When we have more time, I’ll need you to tell me everything you remember. For now, do you want to do something to hide your appearance? I’m fine either way, so it’s up to you.”
Hannah thought for a while, remembering the innkeeper’s reaction, and then nodded. “I do.”
Garfield went to work producing additional clothing. Specifically, he made her a stylish fabric mask and a hood.
“We can work more on the design later. This should work, for now.”
Hannah happily donned the garments which would disguise her appearance as a vampire. The pair went downstairs.
“I have some business to take care of today. I might be moving out in the next few days… I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all!” the innkeeper responded happily. “Between all the outrageously influential visitors you bring in, kidnappings, and… unusual friends, that’s about all I can handle at a normal inn like this one…”
The innkeeper looked at Hannah but didn’t say anything else about that. “Oh, that man from the Magic Academy stopped by again but I told him you were out.”
“Understood. Have a good day.”
The pair departed the inn and walked to Baron Briarcliff’s residence. They were immediately shown in.
“Sir Garfield!” Brooke called out.
“I’m back. Did Yttria explain the plan to you all?”
“Yes,” the Baron confirmed. “First my daughter returns early from a dangerous mission unharmed, then Ms. Yttria arrives with the key to exonerating her family… I don’t know how you do it.”
“Did Yttria have a chance to tell you about the refugees we brought back with us?”
“Yes, and I am prepared to help with that as well, however I can. Is the cloaked person next to you a fox-person as well?” the Baron asked Garfield.
“No, she was another prisoner we rescued from the Empire.”
“I see. I offer to go to the royal palace and explain everything directly to the Prime Minister and the King. I’m sure they’ll be happy to make the necessary arrangements for clearing the Polonio household in front of all the necessary parties.”
“There’s also the matter of the Kingdom’s offer to me of ‘housing’, as well as a title in recognition of my prior accomplishments. Can you mention to the King that we can expect the Empire to be less hostile for the foreseeable future? Now that I’ve brought back so many people to house and possibly employ, I’m more interested in having the greater discussion.”
“It shall be done. Also…” Bartholomew leaned in close to Garfield and whispered. “Were you involved in the arrival and departure of the divine beast yesterday?”
“Yes, by chance I intercepted it before it entered the city. It was being controlled by a magical item. I was just barely able to remove the magic item from it, wresting away control from whoever was trying to use it. I’m sorry I don’t know more…”
“Good heavens! There’s no need for you to apologize! Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Singing and dancing, for one.”
“I’ll teach you how to dance!” Brooke offered excitedly.
“Brooke!” The Baroness attempted to rebuke her daughter. Bartholomew just laughed and then continued his conversation with Garfield.
“I’ll head to the palace. What will you do?”
“I guess the rest of us will check in with the Adventurer’s Guild. We’ll stop by later to see how your meeting went.”
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After dropping off the Emperor’s advisor in his room at the inn, Garfield, Yttria, and Hannah walked to the Adventurer’s Guild. Once inside, various adventurers tried to question them, but the Guild Master ran over and came to their rescue.
“Bearclaw, please join me in my office.”
They followed him up the stairs. Garfield walked the Guild Master through everything that had happened since their last discussion, leaving out the details that he hadn’t already told Baron Briarwood and the others.
“There’s the flight to Foamy Port, repelling the water dragon, rescuing a fellow adventurer from the Emperor’s literal throne room, repelling the divine beast, all in a day’s time… I don’t know how you do it, and I don’t think I want to.”
“Probably for the best.”
“What will you do now?” the Guild Master asked Garfield.
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“I’ll help Yttria clear her family’s name, then negotiate with the King on that reward he was trying to offer me."
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Garfield peered over at Hannah, who was sitting next to him.
“Hannah, do you want to register as an adventurer?”
“Adventurer?”
“It’s the job Yttria and I both have. Well, I’m not sure how much time Yttria will have for adventuring starting soon, but anyway, if you want to join me on missions, you will need to be registered.”
“Then yes!”
“I guess that settles that. Can I bring Hannah back at a later time after I’ve had a chance to evaluate her abilities for myself?”
“I don’t see why not, but what do you need me to do?”
“I need the guild not to ask too many questions about her or her background.”
“Ah, I see. Consider it done.”
The party shook hands with the Guild Master and then departed. They stopped for lunch, which prompted an important question from Garfield.
“Hannah, what do you eat or drink?”
“…I don’t know.”
“Huh?”
“…Before I was a vampire, I ate regular food like my parents. After, I was locked away without eating or drinking anything…”
“Hmm…” Although Garfield considered it a bit rude, he used sensing magic to study Hannah. He learned several interesting things as a result. First, she was technically 74 years old. Second, she was physically and magically slightly stronger than a typical soldier or mage respectively. Third, her ‘blood supply’ was empty.
According to the information Garfield could perceive, Hannah could still eat or drink normal food, but he couldn’t tell if she would derive any useful nourishment from it. In contrast, when she consumed blood, her overall stats would definitely improve, at least to a point. Also, the benefit from taking in a sample of blood depended on time. The longer she went without sucking blood, the more strength should would gain from even a small amount. It wasn’t clear how strong the effect would be after so many decades, especially having never consumed blood before.
“Hannah, are you familiar with vampires needing to suck blood to survive?”
“I remember reading that many years ago, but I’ve never tried it…”
“Do you want to try eating some normal food for now?”
“Yes!”
The trio enjoyed a lunch of a pork based soup, salad, meat stew of some type, and hard bread. Hannah needed a bit of help eating her food; she was pretty rusty, after all. Both Garfield and Yttria assisted her. Small tears beaded in her eyes as she joyfully swallowed whatever she could. The party had seated Hannah facing away from anyone else so she could slip her mask off to eat without revealing her secret.
After lunch, the group returned to Baron Briarwood’s home.
Garfield asked, “Well, how did it go?”
“Stupendously!” said the Baron. “The King was elated at the opportunity to clear Count Polonio’s name! He was also quite excited to hear you are interested in discussing his offer…”
“No surprises there.”
“Yes. He is going to assemble everyone tomorrow morning for a hearing, of sorts. The goal is for a representative of the Polonio family to provide evidence that they were wrongly accused of betraying the Kingdom. I have submitted a request to Count Polonio to allow me the honor of representing them. Even if he does not accept, I will provide his representative with everything they need.”
“This all hinges on that damn advisor coming through for us. I’ll need to be there to ensure he does not become uncooperative,” Garfield noted.
“Of course. I’m sure the King will offer you a seat of honor at the proceedings.”
“That honestly doesn’t appeal to me, but whatever. Hey Yttria, where do you think—“ Garfield turned to address Yttria, but she was a bit distracted with tears running down her face.
The Baron spoke up suddenly. “Oh, uh, I think I’ll step away while you two discuss this very emotional affair. Hannah, is it? Please let me introduce you to my daughter.”
“No wait, uh…” Garfield’s words were disregarded. Bartholomew wasted no time leaving the room, pulling a surprised Hannah behind him. Yttria buried her face into Garfield’s shoulder.
“Sir Garfield, I can’t believe it’s really happening! My family’s going to be completely cleared of suspicion!”
“Yes. I won’t accept anything less.”
“When I first met you, I didn’t think this was possible…"
“Oh, anything’s possible in a world of magic.”
“World of magic? You speak as though you’ve also spent time in worlds without magic…”
“Hm, such a world would be incredibly boring.”
“I see…”
Yttria had mostly recovered, so the pair met up with Hannah, who was receiving comments about how amazing her clothing was.
“And it’s so soft! Hey, mom, come feel it!”
“Brooke, it’s a bit rude to… well… this IS soft…”
Brooke noticed the pair arrive. “Sir Garfield! Is your clothing also soft like this?” Brooke hopped over to Garfield and started feeling the fabric of his sleeve. She placed one hand on the sleeve and another on one of the shoulder bears, for comparison.
“Brooke!” the Baron called out. “I’m very sorry Sir Garfield…”
Garfield just laughed.
Brooke had a suggestion. “Sir Garfield, you could start a business selling clothing or even just fabric! You’d put the merchants’ guilds and the criminal businesses under, all at the same time!”
“I don’t think I’ll do that.”
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That evening, Yttria was given permission to meet with her family. They had been transferred from detention to a well-equipped manor where they could rest up in comfort. Yttria invited Garfield, but he said he felt the need to stay distant until the matter was resolved. His meeting with the King would follow the hearing, so he wouldn’t be able to meet with Yttria’s family for a while.
Garfield and Hannah traveled from room to room, meeting with the fox-people, helping them out with minor matters, and hearing more of their stories about what had happened to them before yesterday. He also had a chat with the Emperor’s advisor, who did not seem to feel strongly regarding what should happen to him after he finished answering the kingdom’s questions. Garfield decided to leave that for later.
Due to an odd number of fox-people, one of them, Gregorio, was staying in a small room by himself. Garfield asked him a very serious series of questions.
“How is your physical condition?”
“Fine! I was one of the luckier ones in that I was not there for very long, and not seriously injured or weakened.”
“That’s great news. You know that Hannah here was locked up because she is a vampire, albeit a very nice one, right?”
“Yes,” Gregorio confirmed. “We were actually aware that she was locked up somewhere else, but of course never met her before you rescued us.”
“If you are willing, I would like your help with a little experiment. Vampires famously drink blood in order to survive. Hannah has been able to persist all these years without drinking blood, but it’s likely weakening her greatly.”
Hannah turned to look at Garfield, surprised at where this conversation was going.
“I need a volunteer who will allow her to drink a little bit of their blood, under my supervision. If it looks like anything dangerous is happening, I will stop it immediately. Normally, I would volunteer myself for something unusual like this, but for certain reasons, I’m not sure if my blood will be suitable for her… especially not for her first attempt at nourishment—“
“Sir Garfield, say no more! If there is anything I can do to help, I will. We can start immediately if you like.”
“Hannah, is this okay with you too?”
Hannah reluctantly nodded.
“Gregorio, please lie down… I don’t know if that will help or not, but it seems safer. Hannah, make sure you only take a little bit of blood for now. I’ll be ready to help if either of you experience any severe side effects.”
Gregorio did as he was told and lied down on his back, a peaceful smile on his face. Hannah stepped over to the side of his bed, and leaned over. She agonized for a bit about which way to position her head, then she pulled down her mask and sunk her fangs into Gregorio’s neck.
‘I really hope she doesn’t actually turn Gregorio into a vampire or something…’
Hannah drew blood for a few seconds and then pulled away. Gregorio breathed deeply a few times but otherwise seemed okay. Suddenly, Hannah hunched over and then dropped to her knees. She grunted, and then arched her back as she tilted her head up at the ceiling. At the same time, a red glow emanated from her entire body.
“Guh!”
“Young miss!” Gregorio was already getting up from the bed out of concern. Garfield was standing by behind her and to the side but not directly intervening. Hannah’s body shook a few times, and then she collapsed to the floor. Garfield gestured for Gregorio to keep back for the moment.
“Hannah, are you awake?”
Garfield could see the side of Hannah’s face as she lay there, collapsed on the ground. Her skin looked a little less pale than before. Getting an idea, Garfield gently pulled back her hood. Instead of translucent hair, she now had healthy-looking blond hair. Her eyes were open but she didn’t immediately respond to Garfield. He noticed the red of her eyes was much less pronounced than before. As a vampire, she didn’t breathe, so it was hard to tell if she was alive in the conversational sense.
Garfield waited patiently for Hannah to react, with Gregorio watching on. After a few moments, Hannah spoke.
“I’m… okay.”
“Good. What happened?”
“It felt really… good.”
“You handled that much better than I would have after not eating a thing for decades. How do you feel now?”
“Stronger… It’s like I was half-dead before.” Hannah slowly rose back to her feet.
“How is your appetite?”
“I don’t feel as weird about drinking blood anymore, but I don’t crave it, either.”
“Gregorio, how do you feel?”
“I feel fine. It didn’t hurt at all, honestly.”
“Hannah, do you know how much blood you drew?”
“I think it was just a single mouthful. I stopped right away out of fear that I might hurt him. I didn’t start feeling strange from the blood until after I let go."
“I don’t think you’ll react so strongly next time, but we’ll need to be careful. May I use magic to sense your health?”
“Yes.”
Garfield sensed her for the second time. After drinking just one mouthful of blood, her physical and magical abilities had grown significantly. Her blood supply was still practically empty. Most likely, this was because the blood she drank was immediately processed by her body. Garfield noticed one other thing. Within the information available to him, the term “fox-person” showed up. At a glance, it seemed to be a list of all the types of people Hannah had drawn blood from. Perhaps she would derive a benefit, or a penalty, from diversifying.
Garfield thanked Gregorio and then returned with Hannah to the Bretten Sunset Inn. It was time for Garfield to address the elephant in the room.
“Last night, I expected you to guard the room or just play with the bears, but you ended up sleeping instead.”
“I’m sorry…”
“There’s no need to apologize for that. If you need to sleep, then you need to sleep. As someone who slept over twelve hours, I can hardly complain.”
Hannah smiled beneath her mask.
“The thing is, like the bear cubs, you were snuggled up against me. Why?”
“That…”
“I should clarify. It didn’t bother me. I don’t need you to keep away from me or anything. But… how should I interpret your actions? After all, you’re not quite the little girl you seem.”
“At first, after playing with the bear cubs for a little while, they both climbed up on to the bed and pressed up against you to sleep. I got… jealous.”
“You were… jealous of baby bears?” Garfield asked.
“I know, it sounds silly.”
“I realize you’ve been horribly deprived of human interaction for an incredible amount of time, so I’m, of course, not mad at all. Just… what do you want?”
“…Nothing. Just let me stay close.”
“I certainly don’t want our relationship to be the same as my relationship with the bears…”
“Of-Of course not!” Hannah insisted.
“So all you want is some closeness?”
“…Yes.”
“I may be deluding myself here but… okay. Other people probably won’t understand this so, please be careful.”