Earthmaid
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Vampire Hunter D, Dracula (Who does have his rights?),or anything else from the Vampire Hunter D movies or novels. So don't sue me. Please. (Do it! Do it!) Now, enjoy reading my new work while I go and kill my childish dhampir friend.
Bie ran. She didn't have destination in mind, but she ran as fast as she could. She tried to outrun all the guilt, and the loneliness, and the fear. 'Maybe if I run fast enough, I can outrun my own lies." She thought. Gradually she had to stop. Bie found she was on a trail through mountains she knew well. Not mountains, actually, but the foothills of some. She kept walking to a spot where an old, dead tree leaned over a mossy cliff, the kudzu growing over it making a perfect shelter for a scared, tired runaway. Bie pulled a backpack out from under a rocky overhang and checked it for spiders. The waterproof bag was also arachnid-proof, apparently. Bie crawled into the kudzu cave and tried to think. She couldn't go home, at least not right now. Her parents would probably go looking for her at dusk, but Bie wasn't worried. She had always thought she was born in the wrong era, and was not especially dependant on electricity, so she had stored only a flashlight for reading in her backpack instead of the camp lantern she had considered. "What to do, what to do." She murmured as she pulled a Vampire Hunter D book out ofa compartment. . There was still plenty of light to read by; she had read in the car with less. Bie lay inside for a while reading. When she had read several chapters, she crawled outside to watch the sun set. Bie had a perfect view from the edge of the cliff. A moment passed, then another, before Bie felt a tickly, prickly sensation on her leg. She looked down and froze. A big, hairy, eight-legged, venom-fanged, fat wolf spider was starting to crawl across her leg!
"Augh! Ew,ew,ew get off, get off, GET OFF!" She screamed as she tried to swipe it off her now thrashing legs. Just as the hideous atrocity came dislodged, so did Bie. With a final shout, Bie went tumbling off her cliff and onto the distant mossy ground.
The daylight was beginning to seep from the earth, and still D had not found his prey. The Hunter wasn't worried, merely beginning to be irritated at the time it was taking to locate the young bloodsucker. Rarely did he lose a whole day in fruitless searching, but to find a vampire holed up in a flying castle was proving a daunting task. D turned towards the mountains a short distance away. Most of the mountains in this region had been flattened long ago by the nuclear war that had nearly destroyed humanity and given vampires an opportunity to reign. The remaining hills were bare rock, bereft of lush greenery and still scarred. Many monstrosities dwelt in the caves there, and a constant stream of hiding Nobility plagued the area. Whether they were drawn by the deep caves or by the beautiful but surreal landscape D could not say, nor did the scenery appear to affect him in the least. With hardly a glance at the ridges of dark rock, D rode right into the thin forest surrounding them. The trees were enormous, draped with heavy vines and surrounded by pools of water belying the springs beneath the ground. The ground was churned in places as though a cavalcade of horses had stampeded through the wood. Presently D arrived at a place where some smaller trees had been snapped, and a large gouge in the earth made it seem as though something enormous had crashed in the forest. A few scorched stones were all that remained of the flying fortress.Carriage tracks led away from the disturbed area, deeper into the woods toward the bare hills. If this was D's prey, the vampire was running scared. D found the remains of the carriage outside a cave. It appeared as though the fleeing Noble had leapt from his carriage and allowed it and the frenzied horses plough into the hillside. There was no trace of the horses anywhere; not surprising since nothing edible escaped the scavengers long on the Frontier. The vines covering the cave had been sliced partially away, but what caught and held the Hunter's attention was the pool of water just to the side of the cave. A pile of boulders lay between the mouth of the cave and the pool proper, and lying among the rocks as though she had been thrown there was a girl. Her legs trailed in the water, but the rest of her body was on the dry rocks. The water plants had twined about her legs as high as they could reach. The rocks she lay on and everywhere she touched were carpeted in thick, vibrant mosses. Vines had begun to cocoon her upper body as well, creating a sort of living coffin strong enough to protect the body from scavengers. D dismounted and moved to inspect the oddity.
"Well? What do you make of it?" D said after a moment's inspection.A harsh voice emanated from his left hand.
"She's just a normal girl, and what's more, she isn't dead. She's still breathing and she has a pulse, so she isn't undead either." D turned to check out the cave. The sky was only lit now by the sun's afterglow of twilight. Day was over, and soon it would be the time of the Lords of Darkness and all their foul creations. D left his horse by the plant-entombed girl and waited.
Just as the moon rose in the sky, D's keen ears heard noises in the pitch-blackness of the cave. The foolish vampire underestimated D rushed out of the cave, apparently trying to startle the Hunter into a bad position. It was the final foolish mistake the young noble would make. D drew his blade with a flash of silver. A split-second later the vampire's head was continuing on it's forwards path as his body thumped onto the grass, black fluids seeping from it's severed neck and pierced chest. D elegantly flicked the gore from his blade and collected the fallen head.
"So what are you going to do about the girl?" The tumor in his left hand asked. D stayed silent.
"You haven't decided yet, have you? Come on, D; like you're going to leave a girl out in the middle of the Frontier, an immobile snack for whichever fiend comes this way next." The hand snickered. D clenched his fist.
"I didn't ask for your opinion." He said. His voice was icy enough to freeze a salamander.
After a moment the hand turned out to be correct. The Hunter sighed- sighed– and started pulling the vines away. Almost instantly they moved back, and strong green tendrils wrapped themselves around his boots, holding him immobile. D's eyes flashed.
"Back, you. I won't hurt her." The vines slowly shrank away at the Hunter's words and let him continue his work. When he had moved all the vines he knelt to pull her free of the water and it's plants. D could hear the fem's heartbeat, faint but steady, as well as her shallow breaths now. He lifted her clear of the water and set her on some non-mossy rocks. Her clothes were torn as though she had fallen over sharp rocks, yet D could see no wounds or marks on her pale skin. And she was indeed pale for a human, a smooth, creamy color that seemed even paler in contrast to her dark hair, which would seem to be almost black in the lmoolight. She wasn't drop-dead gorgeous, but had a sort of refined, quiet elegance. She had a rounded, but not bulbous, nose; and finely arched, slim eyebrows. Her eyes were adorned with long, thick lashes other girls dreamed about, and her lips were a pale rose just beginning to blossom. D's eyes were instinctively drawn to her long, equally pale neck, and he found himself touching the spot at the base of her throat, where her blood slowly pulsed against his fingertips. D barely noticed the imperceptible elongation of his canines, nor could he see the reddish hue slowly tingeing his normally grey eyes. He didn't notice that he was slowly leaning closer to the helpless girl's exposed throat. The entire world was in that fragile thread of life, that heartbeat, the blood of the innocent, pure girl below him, hypnotizing him, teasing him. Suddenly her pulse grew stronger under his fingers, and her breathing deeper. D jumped up with a growl and shook his head. The normally stolid Hunter was trembling from the effort to control his much-hated vampiric urges. By the time the girl opened her eyes, he was fully in control of himself, so great was the willpower of the man that was Vampire Hunter D that the girl had no idea what he had almost done to her.
The girl's eyes flicked open. D absently noted they were a golden-brown, flecked with green. She looked at him for a moment, frowned, and warily sat up.
"Where am I? And who are you?" she asked. "You're not some psychotic murderer or rapist or somewhat, are you?" The man didn't answer. She couldn't really get a good look at him, since the moon was covered with clouds now. He seemed…eerie, unnatural, and sad. He also seemed to be deaf.
"Hey, say something, will you? Who are you?" She demanded, using bravado to ward off panic.
" My name is D. I am not a rapist. And you are?" The man-D- said in a low voice that sent inexplicable shivers running up and down the girl's spine.
"I'm Bie, Bie Glenstone. My apologies, I must have heard you wrong: did you say your name was D? As in the famous Grade-A half-blooded Vampire Hunter D?" Bie asked incredulously. D blinked in reply, which seemed to be all the affirmative the girl needed.
A/ns: Well, there's the beginning of Earthmaid. if it sounds like it's going to turn out to be a typical mary sue or whatever those annoying self-insertion-oh-arent-i-amazing fics, hang on for a bit because it is definatly not. (...) well, maybe a little. (that's what i thought.)But i promise you it will beskillfully and tastefully done! okay, read, reveiw, and C-ya!