Everywhere I look, I see different buildings of various sizes.
To the left of us stands a building not much bigger than a normal house. It has red horns on top of the roof, with a sign on the front written in dwarvish.
I look toward everyone. "Should we go there first and see what it is?"
Elizabeth smiles and walks forward into the building. As we walk in, we notice how cool the building is inside compared to the outside.
The walls have a metallic tone to them, which clearly is not metal but resembles it. I go up to the wall and feel it.
"Wow, the wall is so smooth. How on earth did they do this?" A dwarvish man walks in from the back. "The dwarves are very crafty; if not, we would have died a long time ago."
Everyone looks toward the man. He's the same height as the other dwarves, but he carries himself very well. He's wearing an apron with two knives clashing on the front.
"So, are you staying the night? If so, I can cook you some famous dwarven food." We all nod our heads. Elizabeth is drooling from the mouth.
"Is the food that good?" I ask, looking towards her and seeing her eyes; they're practically looking through the man.
"Dwarven food is some of the best food you can have; it's hearty and has many health benefits." She explains walking into the other room.
We follow her into the room, and I notice that there are a dozen tables that are perfectly sized and round.
The tables are made of wood, and from the looks of it, they are very sturdy.
We sit down at the table, and the dwarven man brings out a huge plate of various foods.
He places the plate on the table, and the smell instantly hits my nose.
I breathe deeply and sigh. "Why does it smell so delicious?"
Grabbing a piece of what appears to be a beast, I take a bite.
My eyes open wide. "This is absolutely amazing; how did you do this?" I say this to the man as he stands there, smiling.
"I unfortunately cannot tell you that; if I were to, then the dwarves would lose out on bragging rights." He says this before leaving the room.
We all look down at the huge plate and start eating. Elizabeth looks like she's crazed.
She clearly loves this food, and I can see why.
"If this were to go into the human world, then many of the fancy restaurants would go out of business." Jenny says she takes a big bite out of their home-made mashed potatoes.
"I think I might need seconds." I say as I finish my portion and look over at Alistair; he's eating very slowly, clearly wanting to enjoy the meal.
He looks over, noticing that I'm eyeing his food. "Stay away from my food, Kamen. You had your share."
I groan. "But I'm so hungry." I freeze.
"Wait, I'm hungry?" I thought to myself before looking at the food.
"This has human blood in it." I say this because everyone freezes.
Elizabeth takes a big, deep breath of her food and notices the blood smell.
"You're right, but why would they use human blood?"
I shake my head. "I'm not sure; do they know we're vampires?"
"I could tell that you were vampires the moment I met you, but you're clearly human." The dwarven man says this, looking at Alice.
"I was merely trying to be accommodating; I did not think that it would offend you."
Shaking my head, I look at the man. "It's not that you've offended us; it's that you should have mentioned it. This could have turned ugly."
We all look at the man again before shaking our heads and proceeding to get up and leave.
As we walk outside, we notice that a few of the dwarves are running like their lives depended on it.
Looking into the distance, we notice an army of at least 5,000 men and women marching our way. We look at each other before deciding to leave the back entrance of the village.
We make it out of the village as we hear the dwarves fight with the army. "What in the fuck are they doing here? Are they looking for us?" Elizabeth asks, looking toward me. I shrug my shoulders.
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"I'm not sure, but let's not stay and find out. We need to head either to the next village or back to the human world." I say this as I walk down the path.
Alice steps forward and says, "Let's go to a nearby village; we can find out more information there." We all agree and start walking down the path towards the unknown village.
The journey is long and tiresome, but with Alistair's guidance, we make it there before sunset. When we arrive, Jenny immediately runs into a shop, asking for food and water, while Elizabeth looks around aimlessly for clues about what is going on around here.
After a few minutes of searching, she finds out that a group of humans has been recruiting from this village to join their cause against the Giants and Dwarves, who have been raiding villages in this area for some time now. She gathers us all together to tell us her findings and decides that it might be best if we go investigate further on our own since none of us really know what is going on in this world just yet.
We all agreed and set off again, leaving Alice at an inn where she could rest while we investigated further. We travel through small villages, asking questions here and there about what is happening in this strange new land, until finally our journey takes us to a large castle with many guards posted outside its gates. We approach slowly as one guard notices us making his way over, quickly demanding identification papers from each of us, which he inspects closely before finally allowing us entry into the castle grounds after finding nothing suspicious about our papers or our appearance.
Once inside, we find ourselves face-to-face with none other than King Aramon, the king of the elves. The King is a very stoic person; his face is that of a god, perfectly sculpted.
His body looks slender but very strong; his height would have to be around 6 feet 9 inches just by looking at him.
"What is your purpose here, vampires?" The king says it in a deep and commanding tone.
We all look at each other before I step forward and reply, "Your majesty, we are here seeking information about the recent raids that have been happening in the area. We were told you were in charge of this area."
The King stares us down coldly for a few moments before speaking again: "I am indeed in charge of this area, but I know not of any raids. What can you tell me?"
Alice steps forward. "We heard from villagers in the area that humans have been recruiting from small villages to join their cause against the giants and dwarves who have been causing trouble. Is this true?"
The king's face relaxes into a smile. "Ahh, yes, it is true. The raids had been going on for some time, and I had asked some brave humans to help me take care of the problem. They did indeed succeed, and all is now peaceful here."
Elizabeth takes a deep breath before speaking up. "So how can we help your cause? We are quite capable warriors and would be happy to assist you with whatever tasks you may have."
The king smiles again, his face lighting up with joy as he claps his hands together twice. Oh," excellent! We could use all the help we can get! I will assign tasks to each one of you, but first tell me more about yourselves."
We tell him about our backgrounds and capabilities before he assigns each task. Alice and Elizabeth were assigned as scouts to watch out for any suspicious activity, while Alistair was given guard duty outside the castle walls during the night, and Jenny was assigned to help out with any chores or errands that needed doing inside the castle walls.
I walk through the castle, noticing different details I wouldn't have noticed before becoming a vampire. For instance, I can see microcracks within the castle's structure, which shows that this place has been here for quite some time.
The walls are painted a very plain white with a touch of red. I lean in even closer to the wall and notice something else. "This isn't paint; this is dried blood. It would seem that his place has seen a lot of death throughout the years." I say to myself as a guard rounds the corner.
"Hey! Who are you?"The guard yells out, making his way to me. The guard looks at me up and down. "You don't seem like much of an intruder; you have a lot of balls to try and invade this castle." The guard is laughing.
I turn around, look at the guard, and smile. "You seem really stupid for a guard; once you became a guard, were you required to have your head in your ass?" I reply.
"You little shit, you think you're clever, don't you? Well, that's too bad. I was having a bad enough day as is, but you've made it worse. You're coming with me!" The guard says he is pulling his sword out and pointing it towards me.
I laugh. "If I were you, I'd leave. I'm not someone of your caliber who could hurt." I say this with a smile as I grasp the blade of his sword and bend it backwards towards him.
Seeing this, the guard's eyes' opened wide in shock. His face turns to anger. Looking at his face, I can see the wrinkles around his eyes and on his forehead. The man has clearly been a guard for a long time, and this isn't the first time he's dealt with someone like me.
"Just wait until the king hears about this! GUARDS! I need some help over here!" The man yells out as several guards come out of various rooms and the walls. They stop by the guard and see me.
I look at them and smile slowly, letting a little bit of power leak out. Sensing this, the guards break out in a cold sweat.
One of the guards speaks up. "Shit, it's Kamen. The king told us to leave him alone. What's the matter with you?"The guard says this as he smacks the other guard in the back of the head.
"What's the big deal? He doesn't seem like anything special to me." The guard says he is turning around and looking at the other guard.
He feels a strange pressure behind him and notices the guard's face has turned white, and he can't speak. "What's wrong with you?" The guard says he is waving his hand in front of the other guard's face.
The guard turns around and sees nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see. The noises he hears send him into a panic. The sounds of hundreds of people screaming in pain, wishing for it to be over Suddenly, his environment around him turns red. Soon, blood can be seen climbing up his leg.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING? Why is this happening?" The guard yells out, frightened. He looks up, and suddenly my face comes through the darkness and blood with a smile.
"This wouldn't have happened if you had simply left me alone, you know?" I laugh before placing my hand on his face.
The guard wakes up lying on the floor with me standing above him. "Are you alright? Did you have a nice nap?" I say it with a sly smile.
Looking up, the guard sees my face and freezes. "I am sorry; I promise that I will never cause you harm or give you any trouble!" The guard cries out. I smile. "I would hope so; you should have listened to me in the first place. Maybe next time you'll be a little kinder, won't you?"
The guard shakes his head yes before getting up and running off into the other guards screaming.
"Hahaha, man, that's always fun." I say to myself before walking throughout the castle again.