Fear of Spiders
Author's Note: Hello, everyone who is reading this. First off, I want to thank you for reading my works, as it will be a great confidence boost for me. This is my first fanfiction. I just had this idea when I read Serge's description in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia and it said that he thinks that Anna is a bit of a crybaby. And I was also running around with my pet skull spider familiar, and that's how an idea is formed, for those who are trying to write.
Me no own. If I did, Castlevania would have many more sequels.
"Hey, Miss!" Shanoa halted in her analysis of the castle's map to glance up at the approaching child clad in blue and with a heart-melting smile. Well, what would be a heart-melting smile, had she not had her emotions thieved by Dominus.
"Yes, Serge?" The raven-haired lady asked, rolling the map up and stashing it in her inventory. If she was going on another quest for this boy, she was likely going to have to play a game of some form or another, so she best be ready for a work-out.
"Can you do something for Anna?"
Shanoa would have tensed upon hearing this before she had become a host for the glyph resonating Dracula's might. The poor girl, who wasn't even old enough to be considered a tween in the village, was prone to demonic possessions. Her mangy, gray alley cat that she had reserved a special spot for in her heart might have ran off, along with the collar with the enchanted gem, leaving Anna defenseless against any form of vile creature out there. "Yes, what is it?"
Serge's eyes fell to the ground and he blushed in shame as he began to speak. "Well... I... um... might have been sent on this silly errand by Mum when Anna ran screaming to her when I showed her the spider I found crawling around in Aeon's kitchen."
"So you want me to cure her fear of spiders?" Shanoa questioned her mission to make sure she had everything in line. Serge nodded, grinned, and took off, yelling a thanks over his shoulder.
Shanoa thought to herself then sent a specific glyph to her back, where the largest and most odd of her tattoos was nesting. She quickly moved from the entrance of the general store to Irina's household, a three-storied building that housed the all the children of the village other than Monica, and who's upper level patio provided a perch for George, the musician of the town, to weave his heart and soul around the strings of his violin.
Remembering how Irina often worried over silly things, Shanoa noted that this must not wait to complete this little sidequest, lest Irina be kept awake another night, fearful that her daughter would find a vicious, poisonous arachnid in her bed, then run screaming down the steps and trip over Tom, sending her to the healer.
She lightly rapped her knuckles on the plain wooden door and waited patiently as she heard a chair's legs grind across the floorboards, which were soon creaking under the weight of the plump woman as she approached. Before Irina opened the door entirely, she peered through the crack, then sighed in relief to let the emotionless beauty in.
"Oh, thank goodness it's just you, Shanoa. I was worrying that Serge had lied about fetching you and he was returning home already. How dare I think like that, though? Have I become to doubtful of my own son?–" The only mother in Wygol could rant on for hours if one wasso inclined to test her level of talkativeness, so Shanoa merely held up a hand, and Irina nodded and stepped out of Shanoa's way, who then proceeded to climb up the nearest flight of steps. While the gray tomcat was lapping up a bowl of milk on the second story, the blonde-haired child was no where in sight.
Shanoa swapped her Back Glyph to one she had absorbed from the lingering soul of a black panther that she had vanquished in the castle, then allowed her inner feline to come out.
Hey, Shanoa! Anna's upstairs if you're looking for her. The gray tomcat had not opened his mouth once during the explanation of Anna's location except to snag a stray drop of milk that had began to roll done one of his whiskers. It was a result of the physic connection the humanoid feline had made during the conversation.
Thank you, Tom. I'll be sure to fetch another mouse off the ship for you. Shanoaresumed her human form, not hearing Tom's grateful thanks. Shanoa ascended up the last flight of stairs and found Anna sitting on her bed, seemingly captivated by something not of the earth. She listened harder and heard George's new piece being preformed, finding her reason for not being entirely alert.
"Anna." The girl snapped her head toward the direction of the woman, her eyes entirely red. She cocked her head to the side, her neck cracking, like she was made of stone and she was cracking under any motion. "Damn..." Shanoa muttered. A few minutes away from the tomcat and she had already been possessed once more.
"Stupid..." The demon that was inside of her body had a voice that was made of something like a legion, a thousand damned souls screaming out at once to form a voice that wavered in an eerie, perfectly-broken harmony. "Miss!" The child's voice returned. "Help me!"
Shanoa swore once more as she activated her Glyph Sleeve and summoned the tiny gem that exploded into freezing crystals of ice once it contacted the ground, the one that Albus had imprisoned the villagers in, Torpor, and tossed the ammunition toward Anna, who was frozen inside the crystals within an instant. Shifting her glyph once more, she awakened her feline and called out for Tom, who came bounding up the stairs, hissing and growling the entire way.
Shanoa, still a feline, dashed for the crystals and shattered the delicate frozen water and freeing Anna, as well as the demon, who screeched in agony as Tom neared him. It let out a cry of defeat as the enchanted cat's eye gem cast the demon out, a being that reincarnated itself the moment it was outside Anna's body. Though it weakened him, the Chrysoberyl hadn't entirely killed the demon, meaning the being was exceptionally strong, who then proceeded to scale the wall, then was suddenly upside-down, hanging from the ceiling and chittering demonic chants.
Shanoa swapped to her final sleeve on her useful relic and awakened Fidelis Aranea, or 'Familiar Spider'. A highly-toxic skull spider, to be exact. The freeing of this beast was always ugly. Its front two legs would break through her skin, and inch by inch, the spider would slowly break free of the prison while the flesh resisted being stretched and broken when it was not tattooed over with the strange marking, and the spider, still covered in the blood of its host, which returned into Shanoa's body when the glyph returned, would finally scamper out.
The spider quickly raced up the wall then flipped itself so that it was crawling on the ceiling with ease, then latched onto the demon with two legs while the other two anchored it to the tricky terrain. Unlike most spiders, the skull spider lacked a set of eight legs, and instead had only four, yet that didn't even put a halt to the death of an enemy.
The spider quickly sunk its fangs into the demon, who fell to the ground, cursing Shanoa in his language of Dracula's underlings. He thought he was home-free until the blade of a rapier plunged through his temple, sending blood gushing everywhere, and the sword returning to a bloodied hand as it was pulled back to the glyph master. The limp body of the demon soon materialized into nothingness, the spider returning to its master.
Anna, who was clinging to Shanoa's clean arm the entire time with one hand will holding Tom back with the other, shook uncontrollably. Shanoa pulled her wrist free and crouched down so that the two's eyes were level. "Are you hurt?"
Anna thought over this. "I'm scared. Not of the spiders anymore, but of whatever's out there that's making the demons come a lot more and making them stronger. Promise me you'll get rid of it and come back okay, Miss. Please?" Shanoa nodded in response, even though she knew that in the back of her mind, she was never coming back if she was to condemn the Prince of Darkness for another century. Two promises not to use Dominus would she break...
Author's Note: How was it? If I get enough reviews, I'll do another villager fic soon when I finish toying with the idea. I do take requests, as long as the story line sounds intriguing and pairings make sense, straight or slash.
Do not own.
All flames will be given to my pet ukoback.