The Nosferatu Adventures
page 16, chapter 16
"Photo?" he looked at her with a sideways glance. "I have no idea
what you're talking about." he shrugged. "Nice necklace, you make that?"
Our heroine moved her hand down her neck, her pale slim fingers
brushing across the mermaid scale necklace.
"Um no, a friend did."
"Your friend the one who made that too?" he said, pointing a very tattooed hand at the mini dream catcher that was tied to her wrist. Our heroine nodded as she brought her arm up to look at it.
"Different friend actually. Why the hell do I smell wet dog?" she asked still holding her arm up. She sniffed, then took a really close look at the dream catcher. "Oh my god! He used werewolf fur for the thread." she spun it around in the moonlight. "Is that teeth?" she untied the little gift from her wrist, but held it tight still in her hand. The little charms knotted to the ends of the werewolf fur were indeed teeth. "Why do I have the feeling I don't even want to know."
Ash took the dream catcher from her holding it up to the remaining light. "What exactly was your friend doing with werewolf fur?" he handed it back to her with a look of disgust on his face. That's when our heroine got a look at one of the tattoos on his knuckles. It was the word stay.
"Uh. Being one."
Ash smiled as he threw his head back, closing his eyes and relaxed his shoulders. "It's going to rain soon. I'm going back to my cabin. It's up to you if you want to stay here and wait for your friend." he pointed to the dream catcher. "How'd you end up in the lake?"
Our heroine sighed. "I have no idea. I was fighting someone, last thing I remember; then I woke up here."
"You were fighting someone?" Ash asked, his eyes still closed.
"It's a really long story. And I'm pretty sure this was a goodbye-good riddance gift." our heroine replied as she tied the mini dream catcher back to her wrist, as she didn't have any pockets. "So, how do you know the King? And why aren't you like old man material?"
Ash opened his eyes staring at her. "You've been to the Fort?" he smiled then, rubbing his hand over his jaw. "Well, that's an even longer story then yours might be."
"Condense it for me." our heroine wrapped her arms around herself as the wind began to pick up and her water logged clothes stuck to her.
"I was the adviser to the King. We were traveling, were attacked. I think you know by what. He went back, I stayed in the woods. There, condensed." a clap of thunder roared through the sky. "I think it's time to go." He turned grabbing a large picnic basket and the long leather trenchcoat that had been sitting on top of it. "You're safe. Promise." he nodded towards another path that lead into the woods.
"I've had two werewolves kill me already. You killing me again, doesn't scare me." she said following him. Ash turned to look at her over his shoulder.
"I wasn't even referring to that, but okay." he handed her the coat. "You're still soaked through. Put this on." They reached a small stream that trickled slowly, creating a small crater in the mud. Our heroine stopped suddenly, unable to cross it. Looking around she didn't see a break on either side for miles. Ash turned when he realized she wasn't moving. "You okay?"
"I can't...I can't cross the water." she said suddenly feeling like a child. Ash chuckled shaking his head as he put the basket down and moved back the two steps to where she was. He found a rock and placed it dead center in the stream telling her to just step on the rock.
"Vampire eh? Damn!" he said picking up the basket again and continuing on. It wasn't long before they were face to face with his cabin. Our heroine felt a chill run up her spine at the site of it.
Dead animals hung skinned from a large wooden spit. A fire pit and brick oven were outside in what anyone else would consider the front lawn. A large piece of leather was hung over a low tree branch, and the strangest part of all was the row of tiny white flowers around the tree. "I use every part of the animal. Food, leather, fur. For a vampire you're sure jumpy."
"Hey, it's only been like three days man." she said scrunching her nose up as they pasted the tree. "Garlic? You planted garlic flowers?"
"Keeps the racoons away from the leather." he led her into the cabin, lighting a fire in the fireplace.
"So what did you mean just then with the little comment about vampires?" she asked hovering in front of the fire.
"Female werewolves are extremely rare, like maybe one out of every forty-five are born. When you told me you had been hanging around another wolf, my first thought was that you'd been bitten. But clearly, that's not the case." he moved across the room opening up the picnic basket and putting stuff away in a cupboard.
"Okay, so where are all the bitten ones then?"
"They usually don't survive the bite. And given that werewolves, like other canines, have litters, most females die in childbirth."
"Sounds like the middle ages." our heroine started to examine the room. She spotted a red and black book on a shelf as she surveyed the bookcase. "Where did you get this?" she asked pulling the binder from the shelf.
"Found it near the edge of the woods near the lake. I take it, it's yours?" Our heroine nodded holding her vampire themed binder to her chest. "Then I guess this is too." Ash remarked opening up another cupboard and retrieving her lunchbox. "So you going to tell me how you became a vampire?"
"He killed me." she whispered.
"Who?"
"The werewolf who made me this." she said holding up her wrist, the mini dream catcher spinning as she did. Opening up the vampire themed lunchbox, she decided to put the dream catcher into it. "And I drank from him, and now seems I need werewolf blood every so often." she turned looking at Ash, studying his tattoos, thinking of nothing but the vein at his wrist.
tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me. (yes another straight up story piece.)
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