Vulksrin ( ice vampire)

The day had started out fresh, the air was kissed by a gentle breeze, the birds all sang in the trees I was following my friend Mandrake through the woods on this fine day .We where going to a cabin deep in the woods where we would spend a week up in the mountain air hunting, and fishing.

Mandrake had a certain caliber he was always so out going, full of energy but he had an ego that made him always want to be the center of attention, and that ego often got him in trouble.  

"Just think of all the fun we will have" Mandrake anounced wontonly as he leaped carelessly onto an ancient looking log but sudenly nature had a new plan the log snaped away from the cliff edge his arms started flailing around as he teetered near the edge and then he fell.

I showed my allegiance when I leaped forward to grab him but I was too late at that moment the log fully gave and my friend plummeted down.It was then that the snow began to fall in a blinding furry I stood there scrupled for what seemed like forever before I slid down the cliff.

Snowflakes fell at an ever increasing rate around us the path I had taken to get down the hill was now completely gone, and there was no way to find it again. I stumbled through the snow, supporting the leaden weight of my best friend.

His eyes fly open for a second as he takes in the seen of snow and trees, I used the time to look at his face, alarmed by how white he looked, how hurt, how ill, how like a Vulksrin (an ice vampire).

“Sorry I…I d…d…didn’t see the… the cliff” he stammered out but it was more then just stammering the cold had seeped into his voice “if you had not been trying to show off” I said, he laughed but the pain of the attempt left him cogging up blood for a few minutes.

“Some hunting trip huh…?” I ask as I shift his weight he looks at me and blood rims his eyes from a gash on his head his eyes brighten “I brought matches and a lighter” he manages to say through coughs.

“ your forgetting about the snow, the wood being wet” I comment as I shift how I am holding him once more for my arm had gone numb. It was as I glanced up that I saw the cave mouth lit up as if by a thousand candles a beam of light in an otherwise dark world “No Azeral it is a trap!” my friend yelled out suddenly!        

“We do not have a choice, I will not let you die out here in the cold” I say as I enter the cave a man sits by a fire inside his back is to us and I had the strangest feeling that no normal man would sit so calmly with his back to the only entrance into a cave.

“Come in plenty of fire!” he yelled in a booming voice that shook the stalactites, stalagmites, and made my hair stand on end it was as if his voice sucked the warmth out of the room. “I think we where better off in the storm” whispered mandrake into my ear for once I had to agree with him.

“Sorry lads don’t want an avalanche” the man said in a more calming gentler voice I nod in agreement an avalanche would just make a bad day worse I think as I set mandrake down gently Mandrake was breathing rapidly his breath had become raspy and choked he managed to gasp out “Water”.

I held the canteen to his lips and he drank some before he coughed out more blood. Perhaps I was being avaricious in my choice to stay in the cave it was clear that my friend needed a doctor not the cold stone.

“What are tow young lads like you doing out in Vulksrin country” the man asked I was not sure I should answer the man as I rummaged through my bag for my med kit. Finding it I sighed and said “we where headed to a cabin, when the storm hit.”

“But you are all alone” he said I was about to say that tow friends where waiting at the cabin but bit my tongue and snapped a little too harshly “so are you!” but he just laughed “I like you kid what is your name” he says.

I was wrapping Mandrakes wounds and stopped to glare at the man he was leaning toured us now, he had bright blue eyes maybe too blue, pale almost white hair, and he had blue vanes going up his neck in a DNA strand pattern that branched off like a tree and into his eyes.

I could not tell if the pattern was actual vanes or if it was a strange tribal tattoo of some kind “my name is Azeral and this is my friend Mandrake” I say as I move to take off Mandrakes pack. My friend had fallen asleep and I worried that that might not be best but dismissed it.

“What is your name” I ask as I move closer to the fire “Graph at least that is what everyone calls me” he said dismissively. “Ok Graph” I say he stocked the fire with a metal rod and I remember thinking shouldn’t the rod burn him but dismissed the thought.

“why don’t you get some rest lad I can keep an eye on things” he said I shake my head no I was not yet convinced that I could trust this man he shrugged “whatever you want” we sat in silence for awhile watching each other he seems nice, an ok guy I think as Graph brakes the silence.

“How bout I tell a story just to pass the time” he said in a strange tone of voice a hypnotic tone that made me want to agree with the idea “sure” I say. He grinned an ear splitting grin and began the story.

“Let’s see a long time ago two families lived in the mountains one was the Srin family and one was the Vulk family. An image appeared in my head as he talked of two houses one grand and well keep the other run down with weeds for a yard.

Now as it was the Srin family had nothing but there home and the sacks they called clothing and the Vulk family had everything one could want. Now the story goes that two boys where the best of friends they did everything together. But unknown to the two was that they where half brothers one was Peter and one was Dan.

One day folks in town started to vanish they said a freak storm would appear and after that a person would just be gone. The boys being boys wanted to see the freak storm. The day had been peaceful and they did not think a storm could happen for there was not a cloud in the sky but they where wrong.

Suddenly a storm blew in with such a rage the trees shook one tree even snapped and fell into a gorge leaving only a stump behind snow swirled all around blinding the boys the sky grew as dark as pitch and the boys who where already blinded could not see at all.

That was when the Vulksrin attacked it killed Peter Vulk and advanced on Dan. Now Dan stood before the ice vampire ready to face his death but death was not his fate the cold had seeped into his blood and his veins had turned blue they DNA stranded up each side of his face and into his eyes.

As Peter looked into the face of death he realized that he was looking at his own reflection in a sheet of ice he was the Vulksrin his friend’s blood dripped off his fangs into the snow. You see lad the cold creates the Vulksrin but only if they have the ice blood.

But Azeral had fallen asleep Graph turned Azeral’s head as he slept and ran a finger over the DNA strand veins that ran up his face and branched off into his eyes. Graphs fangs extended “Yes wont be long now” he said as the fire vanished for it had never been there in the first place.