Paths

The Beginning of Wonder

The dark black clouds floated in the sky like oil upon water, turning the land beneath into a lumpy blanket of darkness, with leafless trees sprouting out of the shadowed bracken.
Therein there was a dark shadow moving, which seemed to move over the muddy water sodden earth like wind over meadow.
This was Von Dionos, Scourge of Tol Bradic, and Sire of all the Bloodtongue vampires. A thousand years he had ravaged the villages surrounding Mordgate, his black castle.
A thousand undead slaves he had at his call, and he had conquered a small town and set the inhabitants to worship him, renaming the town Blackcircle.
He licked his lips in anticipation as he spied out a nearby house, just on the edge of the wood. He could smell the sweet scent of a young maiden’s blood. He contorted his body and using his darkling power morphed himself into a swarm of bats. They flew through the dense woodland with ease and as they reached the dead forests end, they halted, perched themselves on the trees, then waited, and watched.

They saw an attractive long haired young girl in a bedroom, crying against her pillow, on a simple hay bed. Von Dionos felt a strange sadness inside him, one he had not felt for centuries.
Pity.
Why was she crying? How could something so beautiful be so sad?
His supernatural hearing picked out the sound of shouting from inside the house. It was a older woman’s shriek, her mothers, he presumed.
“You are a clumsy pig! Wench! You ugly wench. Why can’t you use you’re eyes instead of your mouth all the time!” He heard her shriek at the poor girl, then a smack.
“Dianne! Leave her alone, she hasn’t done anything wrong! It was an accident, anyone could have knocked it over!” he heard a hoarse man cry. The voice reminded Dionos of something akin to a long lost brother, but also something unfamiliar. It didn’t sound totally human.
He heard the sound of high-heeled shoes clanking on wooden floor, then a door slamming. All that then remained was the girls’ light crying.
Dionos sidled against the wall, and craned his neck so he could see inside the window.
A man entered the room, but it was too dark too see him fully. He heard the voice again.
He talked to the girl.
“Don’t feel so glum, Fearne. I love you no matter what you do. You’re my daughter, and I will love you forever. Don’t listen to what your mother says. I’m not sure if I love her anymore.”
The girl seemed to be content with her father’s words. She straightened up on the bed and embraced him. She loved him, and to her it seemed he was the only person who truly loved her.

Dionos felt a strange attraction to this mystery girl. He prepared to sidle closer, when he smelt something other then the stench of death on the wind. He smelt the unfamiliar smell of holy incense.
The smell filled him with disgust. He traced the smell and concluded it came from the woods around. It seems the very woods were sacred, and he became unaccustomed to his surroundings. He decided it was time to leave. He would return, perhaps, to see this girl again. She had more then aroused his interest.
And so it happened that Von Dionos discovered Fearne Forevernight.
The years past, harvests were sown and reaped; winters’ white overcame autumn’s gold, spring sprouted as the chill left the air, to summer, natures blossom, which fell to autumn’s slow decay.
Nine times this happened before Von Dionos’ return was even rumoured. Fearne had become a beautiful woman, fair as the moon from whence her name originated, but burdened with grief and sadness. Her father’s death day was nine years ago today.

The sunlight was bright, too bright, in Fearne’s opinion. The golden shine upon the autumn leaves and the pleasant air was a direct opposite to the cold and bitterness she felt deep inside her. Without her father she was nothing. He was her shoulder to cry on, her shrine to pray to. To her he was everything, and now she felt empty, and unloved.
She sank back down into scrubbing the floor of her mother’s home. She was on her hands and knees, and they were rough from the abrasion on the floor, and little smears of blood had appeared on her coarse, reddened skin.
She didn’t deserve this.
She felt the angst rise up in her again. She doubted if her mother had even remembered it was her husbands’ death anniversary. She seemed to busy ordering his only daughter to labour.
She was sick of this. She would do anything for anyone to get out of here, far out of here.
She looked up at the sky.

It looked clear a few moments ago, but the sky had darkened somewhat. It looked as though a storm was brewing, but no wind stirred. Then black clouds formed like a smothering blanket drowning out the light of the day. The woods around her house became enveloped in darkness.
Fearne was confused and worried. The leaves of the once golden wood were now black and deathly looking, and they rustled maliciously.
She ran into the house, finding more safety inside, especially since her mother was not there.
She burst through the door and felt the warm inside air hit her. She was sweating with panic now. She tripped over the intricate family rug and fell flat on her chest. She panicked, and she ran upstairs into her room.
Fearne had no plan from then on. There was no way out of her room except from where she came. She knew something was coming.
The great Von Dionos had returned for her.
She heard the door collapse. It was totally dark now. All she could do was to listen.
The sound of footsteps clunked on the wooden floor of the hall. Clunk…clunk…clunk-clunk, it went, until she the sound came to the door of her bedroom. Peering to the bottom, the thin ray of light from underneath the door was blotted by two dark spots of the visitors’ feet.
The door slowly opened to reveal the dark figure standing in the doorway.
Icy daggers of fear shot through her. She knew she was going to die.
The figure strode closer. It spoke with a rasping voice.
“You need not fear me, My Lady…I come for you when you have need…”it said. “you want what I have the chance to offer, you want a way out of this life of chains and misery. I can offer you a way out of life, but not an end. I can make you dead but eternal, existent but non-living. I can make your dreams come true.”
Fearne took in what he was saying. As fearful as she was, she felt a strange attraction to this creature, and felt more comfortable in his presence. She was mesmerised by his words, them making complete sense to her.
“I can give you all of which I speak, power, happiness, love. What you’ve always wanted…”he went on, in his malign rasp. “All I ask is for your love in return, you’re loyalty, and together we can rule till the end of time.”
The voice had completely taken Fearne, she became seduced by its whisperings, and held by its promises that so appealed to her soul.
The darkness around her seemed so bright to Fearne now, and she could clearly see the vampire.
His face was white as the moon, but clear, not a single imperfection marred his facial feature. His thin but gleaming eyes had such a quality of depth like Fearne had never experienced before. His face looked new, but a patina of age marred the moon-like perfection of his tall dark body.
“I do not mean to harm you in any way.” He stepped closer. “I only wish to give you my gift.”
He reached out and clutched her waist, and drew her into him. She did nothing to resist, she was in deep lust with him. She wanted him to touch her, make her feel safe and secure. His hands felt cold, and they chilled her to the bone, but they made her heart feel with a fire she had not ever felt. It was a strange irony that something so deathly could make her feel so alive.
He began to kiss her neck, his lips felt wet and full of life, in stark contrast to his pallid and deathly visage.
Fearne was lost in him; she had begun to feel a deep desire for his love. She let him caress her body, his touch felt so good to her, gave her the half life she had been waiting for. She could think of nothing but him.
“It will only hurt for a second, I promise…” He said.
He leant into her neck, and bit her neck with a bestial flare.
Fearne felt hot pain through her body, but she welcomed it. As it ricocheted through her she felt the weakness leave her body, feel the depression, all the hate, all the anger and loneliness leave her body with her blood. Instead, she felt strong, powerful, and secure. It felt like she had just been born again as a goddess on earth.
The last drops of weakness dripped from her body at her neck.
In her mouth, a pleasing pain was about in her gums. She felt her canine teeth extend to her lower jaw. She licked them with her tongue, feeling confident in herself for the first time in her life. She looked up at Von Dionos, feeling so in love with him, and they kissed, for what seemed like days.
He was so beautiful to her, and she looked at him with love and understanding with her new, ageless eyes.

A light, as bright as the bolt of creation scorched into the room. The intense light burnt into Von Dionos’ eyes. He flinched in pain for a second, and retreated into the darkness, and out of the confusion, he dragged Fearne into with him. They sidled against the wall of her bedroom. Something powerful had come, something very powerful, if it could challenge the dark will of Dionos.
The light receded slightly, but it could still be seen filtering through the bottom of the door, making its wrathful presence seen for all darkness to fear.
“We must escape, my love, too long have we stayed. The light has come to take its rightful place in the day once more.”
He climbed out of the window.
“We must escape now.” He said. “Follow me.”
And out of nowhere, he was struck by a thunderous blow, which made the earth and heavens sing in wrath. He fell to the floor. Above him was a shining figure wreathed in archaic energy.
It spoke with an intense voice which sounded like heaven’s wrath, echoing through the land.
“I am the arm of heaven. My hammer is the torch which brings light to the dark corners of the world.” It said. “By Moon Or Sun, My Will Be Done.”
The figure was still hazy, and shimmering with a holy light.
“You are a fool. You have chosen the path of death and undying. You will not live forever, as he has promised. Instead, you will die forever. There will be no peace or respite for you. You have escaped the shackles of your unfaithful family to be locked in the shackles of undeath.”
Fearne stood in front of it, powerless to do anything, which came as a shock. She expected to be totally in control of herself, yet now she felt even more fearful.
“You deserve the path you have chosen. Your lack of faith to the Light is your downfall.”
Suddenly, she felt power run through her. Anger and hatred danced through her and she spoke in a voice of demonic doom.
“Lackey….You do not understand…poor creature…”she flicked a malicious grin. “I never once felt faith to the Light. My ally is Darkness, for it keeps me, and loves me. I love it back, and it blankets those who worship it’s name with power and admiration.”
Thunderous black power surged out of her, and enveloped the creature.
Its light was blotted out. The darkness smothered it. It did not shine again.
She became completely possessed by this new power. She saw Von Dionos before her. He was still undead. She picked up his body. She had to get out, make her way to his palace of darkness.
Her eyes were blood red with passion at the moment. She was mixed up in love for Dionos, Hatred for the light, and Anger from her new power.
She kicked the wall of her bedroom. With a crack of flame the wall burst and splintered. She ran out, with unnatural speed. She leapt, covering ten or twenty metres of ground in one jump. She moved like a true creature of the night.
It was two o’clock in the afternoon, and still pitch black.







“Arse. Arse again.”
Max Millwonder missed the target for the eighty-ninth time. The scruffy haired alchemist seemed put his bow down. One of the blokes at the local tavern said the local chicks dig that Archery. Unfortunately, he had only yet succeeded in giving himself terets. Every time he missed he swore violently, and after missing it eighty nine times, a man just has to blurt out his feelings.
He comforted himself by testing out his new gizmo, the aptly named Fairyfinder. He had been very clever in its making. Basically, all one has to do, is write the name of the fairy you want to appear, wrap it up in copper and nickel strips, and place it into his specially made furnace, and in the pewter disc next to the furnace, that fairy will appear from whatever it was doing and wherever it was. In testing, this proved fine, since most fairies were fully clothed and ready.
Looking through the Pink Pages (used for locating the right fairy) he decided he’d try a happy fairy, for a pleasant conversation.
He looked up the fairy ‘Giggles’. To him, this sounded like a very fun and outgoing fairy, and an excellent candidate for his test.
So, on a scruffy piece of parchment he had in his pocket, he scrawled the name, wrapped it up in copper and nickel, and chucked it into the furnace.
An unearthly boom broke out, followed by a crack of lightning, then a sound not unlike a sheep’s baa was heard
Max was thrown quite abruptly against the wall, and landed quite achingly on the floor, feet up and back down. Surely enough, however, a fairy had appeared on the pewter disc.
Once more however, this was not the kind of fairy he would have expected to be called giggles, nor in the same circumstance, as the fairy was naked, but for a small towel concealing the ‘naughty bits’ of her body, and, since Max’s overcrowded, mad laboratory was not a naturally accustomed position for a fairy, especially a naked fairy, it could only be understood that the fairy would not be too pleased in it’s recent turn of fortune.
All the same, Max made an effort to greet the fairy, despite the embarrassment of the situation.
“Hello, I’m Max Millwonder, and I’m pleased to tell you you’ve just been part of a successful test of my new machine.” He said, with the obliging, charming smile he had mastered in his courting of the local girls.
The Fairy smiled wryly, and responded with the rude, abhorrent hand gesture she had mastered with the millennia of being asked out by all the boy fairies.
“Shut it, numb nuts. You better have a good reason for bringing me here, or I’ll give you a face not even a Nartajack Toad would kiss.”
On other occasions, Max’s well taught manners would have prevailed, and he would have spoke back calmingly and civilly. Unfortunately, he was feeling a little grouchy from being hurtled against the wall, and having his self-inflicted terets, he just had to blurt out what he felt like.
“Look you insect winged pigmy girl! I thought with a name like Giggles you might have been a tad more pleasant! Turns out you’re an obnoxious little bug-bitch!”
On no occasion yet has Giggles shown any form of what could pass for good manners, and today was no exception.
To Max’s spontaneous bout of insult, she responded quite quickly, by inflicting Max with a solid kick to the groin.

Even having a speaking disorder, Max could not verbally express the utter agony he felt down his trousers. The best he could manage was a long string of profanities and curse words, followed by rolling over on the floor and murmuring softly.
Giggles felt really mischievous, and decided it would be fun to put Max on the pewter disc. She knocked him out with a spanner, and using her magic, made him float onto the pewter disc.
She made herself busy with the controls. She set the Fairyfinder to ‘Send’ and destination ‘Anywhere’.
Engaging the machine with a flick of her wand, Max Millwonder disappeared in a wisp of smoke and once again, a noise not unlike a sheep.

Fearne had been searching for hours now, and had at last seen the great castle of Mordgate.
At first she mistook it for a jagged black mountain; such was its size and magnificence.
Fourteen tall towers shot up like dark daggers piercing an icy sky.
She stood there gazing in wonder, as her rage had subsided long ago. Now she felt the urge to save Dionos’ undeath, and seeing the castle had come as a huge relief to her.
Making her way forward through the broken trees and scattered, dead foliage she saw a smaller establishment not far from the castles gates.
It was a ruinous black settlement, and Fearne gave a smile at the darkness in it, it gave her warmth in her soul.
She neared the castle, and noticed the ornate carvings into the castle walls, depicting a knight in shining armour being trampled to death by a dark beast. This made Fearne giggle evilly. The castle gates where two immense obsidian blocks, on which was the following inscription.

Come soon or late Death’s undetermined day,
Your mortal body can only decay.

This made Fearne giggle again.
She stepped up to the gates, and saw there was no way through them from the outside.
Pulling up her concentration, she leapt up over the gates into the castles first keep.
She was greeted unexpectedly by a hideous monstrosity, clearly a slave of Dionos.
It spoke with a phlegm laced rasp.
“Master..! What is wrong with the Master?”
“He’s taken a blow from a light-thing. By what are you called, man thing?”
“The Master calls me Raknol. What is it your business, stranger? The master will not take kindly to your being in his castle.” It said with a curious look.
“I am with Von Dionos. He and I have fallen in love.” Fearne said back quickly.
“Speak not his name to me! He is the Master to me and only Master.”
“Then, if he is master to you, from now on, to you I am Mistress,” she spoke. “Lest you wish his displeasure…”
Raknol recoiled at the threat, and bowed low.
“Yes…Mistress, Yes! You must come with him, we must revive him. To the tower you must come. Follow me!”
He started off to the stairways, carrying Von Dionos easily on his hard laboured back. He turned back.
“Quickly, Mistress, we must act quickly like!”
Fearne followed, but shot the creature a dangerous look, inspiring fear into the poor thing.
The tower seemed to be a menacing spire of doom against the mountainside, but with crucifix like crenulations in the walls. The interior was a dome shaped room, with black, crystalline root like growths intertwining and connecting to the walls of the room.
In the middle lay a simple rectangular pedestal, as if used for sacrifice.
Raknol had already placed Dionos’ limp body onto it, and was beckoning Fearne closer.
“You must help him, My Mistress. Only a creature like you can perform this ceremony.”
“And what is this ceremony?” Fearne asked, looking puzzled.
“You must use dark power to revive him, yes, dark power…” He went off, looking sad. “Place your hands upon his chest, and channel your (he gulped) dark power through him. This should be enough to reclaim his spirit from the nether.”
Fearne abided his instruction. She didn’t want to lose him so soon. He meant the world to her. Placing her thin fingers on his chest, she felt the dark warmth in her flow to him, and bind with his heart. The effort exhausted her, and she fell back.
Slowly but surely, Dionos began to regain undeath.
Fearne let out a sigh of relief. He was still part of her world.
Rising up as a man would from a restful sleep, he saw Fearne, and smiled.
“You have saved my soul, my love, and I am deeply indebted to you.” He looked around. “I see you have found my castle, yet you have not seen its splendour.”
He leaned over, and they kissed, lingering on each other’s lips.
“Shall I take you on a tour, my love?” he whispered in her ear.