Chapter 5
In my twenty-one years of life, I've never been so terrified than now, as I looked into the hungry, cold red eyes with a heart chilling and spine tingling smile, exposing abnormally large canines lengthening out as he smiled over the word 'Vampyre'.
The word made me shudder and my heart thunder in my chest. All my life, I'd always loved the forest, yearned to play in it with the cheeky pixies and playful sprites. But for the first time in my life, I realized my fathers fear for the forest, staring into the dead, cold and red irises, I realized how cruel it all was.
The vampyre reached out to my neck, pulling me up with a strong grip. I struggled under his grip, clasping at his cold hands, screaming again.
This time, the other vampyre whipped his head over, and I noticed how his eyes were the same ruby red, "Shut her up, Aram!" He yelled, breaking his eye contact with my father, who blinked feverishly in confusion, but quickly understood what was going on.
"Daniella!" he yelled, trying to run to me.
But the vampyre was quicker, smacking him down to the ground, in one quick backhander.
"No!" I choaked, squirming against Aram's hold.
He back handed me on the cheek as well and I felt the blood boil under his hit. I whimpered at the pain, but composed myself, worrying about my father at this point.
Aram sniffed my neck again. "There is something about this one...she smells of the forest..." he looked at me suspiciously, then as he contemplated me his eyes popped open in complete shock as he realized something, "she's a Daughter of the Glade!"
The other vampyre looked over in surprise as well, "What makes you so sure?!"
"Look at her eyes and skin, Ramses! It's in plain sight she's not of human descendant alone! I can smell that human's blood in her, whom is sure to be her father, but her mother's blood flows deep in her...smell her, Ramses! She's part faerie, 'tis what draws me to her!"
Ramses left my father, and I noticed how he laid there almost still, except for the quick moving chest - he was still breathing. I felt slight relief settle on me. But my main concern was the two vampyres in front of me, claiming me to be not only human.
"Get away from me!" I screamed, but neither of them seemed to care.
Ramses looked at me sternly, "You're right! There is no possibility that she is full human."
Aram smiled with delight. "Well, I'm not going to leave this one alive tonight. I've waited too long for a feed, and I'm sure going to enjoy this."
I resorted to begging, "Please! Leave us alone!"
"Hardly, you smell to mouth watering to be left unbitten."
"Then leave my father be! And his men! There is no need for them to be - Argh!" I gasped as his grip on my throat tightened, cutting off my air supply.
"Danielle..." my father rasped with weak breaths.
My hands were still gripping his cold hands desperately, but Aram took my wrist taking it to his mouth and bit down violently.
I cried out at the pain, but because of my cut off of breath, it came out in sort of a short snivel of sobs. My breathing was course, and the quick loss of blood was making me weak and tired. I felt as the blood was sucked out through my arms. He didn't take long before he stopped himself, looking back at me with less red and more hazel eyes.
"You're just as delicious as you smell..." he murmured, blood covering his thin lips and canines.
In that moment, he roared out in pain, arching his chest toward me, dropping me to the ground, as I coughed and gasped for air.
Then I noticed what had made him let me go. The captain was alive and standing and had cut the vampyre down with his sword. The sword had only slightly wounded the vampyre though, as Aram lurched up and bit down into his neck. I looked at the captain in concern.
"No!" I cried out in protest.
"Run! My Lady!" He screamed to me, before Aram finished his drink, taking his hands on either side of the captains face and quickly twisted his head, followed by a God-awful snapping sound. The captain slumped to the ground, and I realized he was dead.
"No!" I cried again. I quickly took in my surroundings. My father was still in the same position as before, breathing and unconscious. But Ramses was fighting off two of the other soldiers, who had their swords out, battling against him with no sign of success.
I tried crawling over to my father, who had his eyes open now, staring at me. "You have to run, my darling," He whispered to me in horror.
"I can't leave you!" I told him, tears brimming over from my eyes.
But his next string of protests were abruptly cut off as I felt a surge of pain throb in my leg, blood rushing down my calf.
"You'll be running nowhere, now." Came Aram's voice from behind as he dragged me by my leg toward him, by dress ripping under me from the movement.
I turned over onto my back and kicked him in the lower area of his torso with my better leg, and he backed off slightly at the slight pain, but recovered himself too hastily for me to be able to scrambled away from him.
He skidded down to me, straddling me on top of him, holding my arms above my head as I thrashed under his hold.
"I told you you'll be running nowhere." He said as he bit down onto the top of my breast, and I screamed out in protest again. Tears were streaming down my cheeks now, and I knew in this moment that there was no way I could get away.
Until Aram was hit in the neck with an arrow, throwing him off me, and I scrambled to my feet, despited the pain in my leg, looking to my savior.
My father had managed to get his bow from the carriage, and was kneeling as he shot Aram again, just left of the heart.
"Silver..." my father murmured, looking at the vampyre with a look of pure cold seriousness.
"Smart man," Aram spat, gasping in pain, ripping put one of the arrows from his neck, grunting in pain.
"Run, Daniella," My father told me, with more force.
"I'm not leav- "
"Run!" He yelled this time, Aram had pulled out the other arrow, and was now walking to us, "One life is better than two, do as I say, Danielle..." My father shot Aram again, aiming for his heart, and he lurched in pain to the ground.
I looked to my father, and he threw me something from his pocket. It was a small gold necklace, with a tiny dragon knot in the shape of a heart, and I recognized the pendant as being a symbol of good luck, courage and power - or that is what my father had told me.
"I won't ask again..." My father ordered me, and I gave him a worried look, and tightening my hold on the pendant, making the hardest decision of my life.
I turned around and ran to the forest. I heard noises of attacks from behind, but I aggressively ignored them as I limped as fast I could deeper and deeper into the forest.
The more logical part of my mind was protesting to me that I had no idea where I was, or where I was going. But my survival part of my mind was telling me to listen to my father, who was sacrificing himself for me right now, and keep moving.
Some other part of me was yelling at me to turn back and help father. And I wanted to, very badly, however my legs refused to listen, pushing me toward some invisible force. Very quickly I got lost, it was inevitable, but no matter how far I got, I managed to keep going.
Then I remembered the pendant my father had given me. He wanted me to be safe and strong. I knew I had to keep pushing forward, and keep myself alive. I tied the piece around my neck, and I held it subconsciously as I weaved my way through the trees.
I pushed myself blindly through the silent forest; it was almost black as pitch, except for the guidance of the full moon and the stars. I decided to use the moon as a point for me to follow, which kept my common sense happy, as it seemed I was no longer wandering aimlessly through the forest of the unknown.
The pain in my leg soon dulled slightly, and became more numbing, though as much as I was pleased to be away from the stinging pain, I quickly realized how my whole leg was throbbing in numbness, causing me to hobble more than jog. I slowed to a very gradual walk, making sure I stayed in line of the moon, following it despite my leg.
When I remembered how quickly Aram killed the captain, it made me comprehend how quickly they could kill the others...and my father. I trembled at the thought and suppressed it immediately. Soon the vampyres would come looking for me, I realized, as I increased my speed promptly. It would take them almost no time at all to find me, as I was bleeding, and a small trail was almost certain to be left behind.
Ignoring my leg, I pushed myself further into the night, until I reached a river. The river was beautiful, it was quite possibly the most peaceful thing I had seen all night, and the momentary glance at it made me feel calm and secure, almost. Until I remembered how I'd got here. Seeing the river also immediately made me thirsty, as I realized how much energy I had lost tonight.
I stumbled over to the side of the river, sliding my hands into the cool, running water. I cupped my hands into the shape of a bowl, lifting my hands up to drink, but before the water could touch my lips, a woman appeared to me, her head bobbing up from the water.
"There is a price to pay for drinking from the water," She told me, her voice was musical and sweet, though at the same time cold and menacing.
"Who are you?" I said.
"I am called Leila, and I am a mermaid of the Hiril, and I tell you that you must pay a price to drink from the river."
A mermaid? So many encounters of the forest creatures in one night! Only two, though, it seemed too many for myself.
"What price must be paid?" I asked in a small voice.
"What do you have that you can offer?" She asked strongly.
"I have nothing to exchange."
She smiled slightly, looking pointedly at my neck. "What about that neckpiece?"
I looked down at my newest jewelry, and wrapped my hand around it instinctively. "No! It was a gesture valued far greater than my own life."
"Then why not exchange your soul?"
My jaw dropped at this thought, and I realized how insane she must be. All I wanted was to save my own life by satisfying my thirst, and for me to do that, she expected me to give my own soul? I cringed away from her instinctively.
"Whomever you were running from would probably not be far behind," she persuaded, I shivered as I thought again of the vampyres, "and from your blood loss and weakened state, you will most probably die soon, if you do not drink soon, or even if your wounds are not tended to. And if you do die, I will get your necklace, then."
"No, never..." I spat, as I wheeled around and back into the forest.
Then a sudden thought came to me. The river would go on for miles on end, and there was no possibility that she could govern the whole river from me. The possibility made me feel slightly triumphant, as I quickened my pace, trying to find another place far enough from the mermaid to drink from the water. I was feeling dizzy now and disoriented, and weakened from blood loss. I managed to stumble to another part of the river bank, making my way to the side.
But she was waiting there in the water. She surfaced in front of me, and I narrowed my eyes at her as she giggled at my expression.
"You can't beat me," she chuckled at me with wary eyes.
I didn't listen to her, and turned back to the forest to try again.
I failed though. This time, I tried dragging it out longer, to make it seem as though I'd really gone. But when I sauntered to another part of the river bank, closer to the ocean now, and dawn seeming to be oncoming, Leila was always there waiting for me.
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Instead of acknowledging her, I weakly sat down against a tree, near the river, and sat there listening to the river flowing. The air was getting warmer, but the wind that rolled from the ocean made me shiver in coldness. I hugged my robe tighter to me. I knew that she was right. She would get my necklace soon, if I was to die, since it was the most likely thing to happen, as of my weakened state and my untended wounds. As I sat there drifting in and out of unconscioussness, I realized that Leila was singing:
Farewell sweet earth and northern sky, for ever blest, since here did lie and here with lissome limbs did run beneath the Moon, beneath the Sun, Tamuríl Silimaurë more fair than mortal tongue can tell.
Though all to ruin fell the world and were dissolved and backward hurled unmade into the old abyss, yet were its making good, for this- the dusk, the dawn, the earth, the sea- that Tamuril for a time should be.
She was singing a song of farewell. She was saying goodbye to the world for me. And I realized, no matter the decision I made, I would be loosing my life or soul tonight. And in that moment, I made an impossible decision. Pulling my injured leg and bruised body along the ground, I focused on my target, the mermaid, directly across from me.
She smiled at me tentatively, "Changed your mind?"
I hesitated a moment. I knew it was so stupid to trade my life for water, so I tried to compensate. "If you can promise me that my people will be safe?" I asked. "That is once I take up your offer."
She smiled wider in a wicked grin, "Of course," and with that, she snatched my hand to her mouth and bit down deeply with her small sharp teeth.
At first, all I could think about was the pain in my hand - though it reminded me of the vampyres earlier, it was no where near as painful at first, until the pain seemed to circulate up and through my body, rapidly becoming more and more painful. It felt as though my whole body was being sucked out through that bite.
Ripping and rifling, the pain became more, slowly settling around my chest, as my heartbeats intensified, until I didn't seem to be getting rid of the pain anymore, it felt as though I was clasping onto it, as I could no longer distinguish it as being foreign to my body. It seemed like a part of me, like my arms or legs. I couldn't separate what was pain and what wasn't.
All my mind could see was red - blood, pain, transforming. A small part of my common sense told me something was terribly wrong, that I should get away, fast. But this was my body, I could not run from it. I tried to open my eyes and I was vaguely aware of the fact that I was underwater - but I didn't seem to be struggling for air. My chest was in a tight painful trance with the rest of my body.
In what felt like years, but was probably more specifically hours later, I was aware of the fact that the pain was dulling from my fingertips and toes and up my limbs, as I realized my transformation was coming to an end. The pain settled from my chest, and then all I could feel was the swirling water around me.
My mind was a complete blank, the pain seemed to throb there, though in more as though I'd hit my head multiple times against a stone wall, and I didn't doubt that I most likely did.
Then I noticed the biggest shock of all. I realized I was no longer a human - but a creature.
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