I know I've been away for a bit... so sorry! Been busy with real life and other distractions, but heres my particitpation for KlarolineAUWeek over on tumblr right now... If you aren't aware... head ver there now to read and see some amazing stuff! :D also check my page (ashleigh-jewitt-xx) for Aesthetics, gifsets (posted tomorrow) and a cover I made for this! Thanks to Abby for looking over this for me :)
Dedicated to Kelly for helping me with my drabble for Vacay exchange... Thank you soooo much 3
Dyfed, Wales, 1002 a.d
The first time he saw her, he thought it was a hallucination, that he was high on the blood he consumed from the fallen.
She was at in the middle of the field, dead bodies strewn about the area, their blood dripping into the soil. Her blonde waves covering her pale skin as he could see her hand clutch around around a man, rocking him back and forth, could hear her wailing over and over. Her body shaking with the wracking of her sobs. Too consumed in her grief, the young woman didn't notice him creep closer, he thought she would be an easy fresh meal to indulge in after consuming stale blood to sustain him until they travelled to the next village.
She finally looked up and locked eyes with his, her eyes red raw, almost as if she had been crying blood.
Light footsteps in the distance alerted him of his siblings presence, getting closer to him. He turned to see how close they were when he noticed the mist around his feet, growing thick and fast, spreading outwards towards his family. Looking back at the blonde to see where she was, he noticed she had disappeared, a black raven in her place, flying up to the dull, dark sky, taking the mist away with its departure.
When his brothers and sister finally reached where he stood, they dismissed his questions about the mist, the raven and the blonde, neither of them seen anything out of the ordinary, so he shrugged it off.
They had more pressing concerns than a hallucination brought on by tainted blood.
Their Father, Mikael, was hunting them down. Was going to end their existence after him and their mother tried to play God.
Their youngest brother, Henrik, had been ravaged by the wolves in the nearby village. It had been a fascination for the pair for years, to witness the men shift into their wolf forms, and little Henrik was determined to see them, even if that meant he would go alone. So Niklaus went with him, leaving the safety of the caves in order to witness the men transform and to keep his younger brother safe. But he failed dreadfully in doing so. The moment Henrik fell from the tree branch, a wolf came and dragged large, deadly claws down his chest. He was about to sink into his neck greedily, but the sound of a loud howl caught its attention first, sending the wolf after the threat and leaving the bloodied and battered body of Henrik on the ground.
The family was distraught and their mother, who was a healer, tried her all to bring him back to them. With no luck she turned her attention to her living children, tried to make them stronger than the wolves in order to keep them safe, but she didn't know of the consequences of her actions and had turned them into beasts.
Realising what she had done, how little control they had on their bloodlust, she turned her husband into the same creature in order to rid them from the world and correct her mistakes.
Florence, Italy, 1100 a.d
The Mikaelson siblings had settled down in Italy after their stay with the De Martels in Southern France a century ago, settling with the Count and his family after they fled from the old continent via England. It was there that the family gained the knowledge of creating creatures just like them and they had travelled across Europe turning humans into vampires in order to distract Mikael from hunting them.
News of vampires had spread from quiet whispers in crowded dens, to humans becoming hunters and exposing the creatures in front of mass crowds. Even though the family had found the human hunters amusing to watch, they felt safe in the knowledge of them being indestructible. They began inviting the hunters into their home, sharing tales of vampire rampages from other towns and taking delight that the hunters never knew the tales were about them.
This was what led to Rebekah falling in love with one of them, Alexander.
Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah, Finn and Kol were sat around their large meeting room, as was most of the rooms in their manor, holding five large personalities in a small and confined space was asking for trouble. They were discussing what they were going to do about the group of hunters who named themselves 'The Five'. Too much exposure would be disastrous and the brothers were not happy with Rebekah putting them closer to danger by sleeping with the enemy. No matter how weak they seemed.
Kol and Rebekah had been bickering when there was a persistent knock on the window pane, a raven pecking at the glass trying to get their attention. They had ignored it, would rather throw themselves at each other and throw insults back and forth then deal the a pesky animal.
Elijah's patience wore thin, with both the constant bickering and incessant pecking, and he strolled to the window opening it, intending to shoo the bird but instead it flew inside. Thick, grey mist flooded and filled the room, the temperature decreasing dramatically and disappeared as quickly as it came, revealing a young, blonde woman standing in the middle of the Mikaelsons.
"You look familiar." Klaus stood up from his seat, confused, trying to place where he had saw this woman before.
"I've never met you before." She brushed him off, catching the eyes of the family as her voice dropped ominously, "But I am here to warn you."
"Warn us of what?" Elijah asked her.
"Your deaths. It's getting closer…" the blonde tried to inform them, but was cut off by their laughs, not taking her seriously. She shrugged and muttered Chwandinaidd under her breath before she transformed back into a raven and flying off, leaving the family both stunned at what she could be and amusement to think they could die so easily.
That night, after entertaining the hunters to a meal, the family members were daggered and were it not for Klaus' inability to be put down by the magically crafted weapons, the family would have been taken to the great hunter, The Destroyer.
Devon, England, 1495
Over the course of the centuries, Klaus would be visited by a Raven.
Knocking on his bedroom window in Athens, perched in a tree watching him in Moscow, following him around in Warsaw and again hovering in Prague. Each time he saw the creature, he took it as an omen and gathered the family and fleeing straight away.
His siblings would be confused and curious to know how Klaus would know that their father would be gaining closer to them. News that the village they were staying in would have been burnt to the ground the day after they had fled the area, that they would have been caught and killed, made him trust the beautiful, black raven.
They had stayed in England for the past few decades, travelling from city to town around the country to take in the beautiful countryside sights. He had recently moved to Devonshire after the debacle with the Petrova doppelganger in their previous residence three years ago, as his minions continued searching for the young vampire. His loyal servants knew not to mess up and let her get away from their grasp. They had a healthy amount of fear not to betray him. The last he knew, The Destroyer was causing carnage in his wake through Europe, cleansing the continent from creatures of the night. Rumors were whispered in fear amongst the supernatural that The Destroyer had decided to solely feed off those creatures he deemed abominations rather than from humans to sate his hunger and to destroy them in one fail swoop..
Klaus was sat in his bed, fully sated of his lust and hunger, sketching yet another drawing of the first time he met the blonde. He had a collection of drawings, ravens featuring in most of them from where he had been warned to flee. But the image of what he had first thought was a hallucination was getting clearer the more he drew the scene.
It was real.
She was real.
He awoke to the sounds of wailing in the nearby forest. He placed the sketch book on his side table and used his vampire abilities to dress quickly and jump out of his window, off to see who dared waked him.
He stopped a few miles into the dense wooded area where the river bank would be, he could barely see it through the thick, heavy, grey mist that threatened to consume the forest whole. The wailing that woke him up had dissipated into quiet sobs, but loud enough to know he was close to whomever they came from. The fog had slowly cleared up, eerily in tune with the sobbing, to reveal the blonde woman he had just been drawing. She sat on the marshy area, half in the water, half on the muddy banking. There in her arms was a of a man, drenched and dead, his legs still floating in the river.
He had drowned.
It didn't take too long after his arrival for her to notice his gaze and she carefully placed the man onto the ground as she stood up and turned to leave.
Klaus followed her, the woman of his dreams and the raven who saved him. Wanting, no, needing answers. He didn't like being indebted to a creature for reasons he still did not understand. His mind swarmed with all the questions he thought of in the dead of night.
"What is your name?" His voice stumbled out in surprise that that was the first to form on his lips.
"Caroline." She replied, her tone a little bit snipped.
He flashed by her as she carried on strolling through the trees, hoping to see her face as she practically ignored him. "And what are you exactly, love?"
She have him a pointed look, registering his presence and that he wouldn't leave her alone until she gave him some sort of answers. He looked into the eyes that still was still red and puffy from crying, but her crystal blue eyes shone through, stunning him at her beauty. "I have been called many things." She spoke in a clipped tone with her head held high, "The Wailing Woman, Harbinger of Death and Banshee to name a few."
"So what is it that you do exactly? How do you turn into a raven? Why do you?" Klaus found that once he began voicing his questions he couldn't stop. The pure need to know more about her taking over every inch of him.
She stopped walking and Klaus feared she would fly away without giving him some more answers he wanted, but she turned more toward him and sighed, he held back a flinch at the annoyance written clearly on her face.
"I warn those families under my protection of their death, mourn those who have died and stay with the dying so that they aren't alone."
The heavy set in her shoulders and the melancholy in her lyrical voice touched him deeply as he whispered, "Why would you do that?"
"Cause all life is precious, Niklaus. Even yours." He raised an eyebrow at that, her clipped response had him wonder why she would continue to warn and save his life after he took so many others, others she may have mourned while he relished in their death, satisfied by their blood.
"My family is under protection?" she nodded and turned back to walk away. "Why?"
"I have no idea, but I wish I didn't have too." She said with as much disdain as possible.
"Why?" He pressed, shocked at her hatred, wanting to know what irked her so much and why she still looked after them.
"Because your kind killed my family." She snapped, her eyes flashing and her chest heaving.
"Vampire weren't around the first time I saw you." Klaus scoffed, "And I know my family only fed from the fallen villagers."
"Your still vikings." She snarled as if the name alone was like ash in her mouth.
"You hold a grudge," His blue eyes widened in stun, "not because I am a vampire, but because I am a viking?"
"Vikings killed my mother, my husband. A vampire did not." She sneered in contempt and with that she transformed, her dark raven feathers glistening in the moonlight as flew away, leaving Klaus alone, angry and amaused. His hand itching to draw their newest encounter. Itching to draw her face, now that he knew the exact shade of her blue orbs, knew how bright her light shine within her.
Mystic Falls, Virginia, January 2013
Klaus hated doppelgangers, with a passion.
The most recent being nothing but a nuisance in his life. He finally managed to use her as a sacrifice and become whole again, freeing his wolf and breaking the curse his mother bound it to with her death. But then her pesky friends had managed to safe her life in the process. If it wasn't for her blood being a key ingredient in the making of more hybrids, he would have killed her, again, but this time just for the sport of it.
Now that she had turned into a vampire, however, she had made it her life's mission to rid the world of the Mikaelsons. He had finally killed Mikael, freeing himself and his family from the constant torment of having The Destroyer forever nipping at their heels, and now he had three young vampires and an untrained witch on his case filling his life with irritating annoyance. He had made up his mind and was ready to leave them to their pathetic plans and teen drama, but a hunter of the illusive 'Five', one that was not an original member, had appeared, piquing his interests and keeping him in the town a little longer. His younger brother Kol, had come back spewing nonsense of some bedtime story they listened to as children, warning them of the first immortal Silas and what would happen should he be awakened.
Klaus didn't believe it then, and he doesn't believes it now, but Kol was determined to stop the rag tag group from doing something they would all come to regret. This is what caused him to stand in a terror induced rage, clutching the wooden doorframe, screaming at the insolent teens to invite him into their home.
Kol was weakened with vervain, trapped in the Gilbert kitchen with the indestructible white oak stake in Jeremy's hand, aiming for his baby brothers heart. Elena spraying vervain laced water from the taps on him to keep him distracted. He couldn't watch another sibling die in this cursed town.
Not after Finn.
Not after...Henrik.
Klaus was stood there, eyes burning from the tears welling up in his despair. The world was about to burn down, just after he tortures Elena and Jeremy.
As soon as Jeremy brought his hand up, ready to strike Kol, a piercing squawk nearly shook the house, shocking them all as a black raven flew at the young boy trying to peck at him.
The surrounding temperature dropped suddenly, a cold, thick mist traveled into the house and Caroline stood in between the Gilbert's and his brother, shielding him with her imposing form. She took her entrance and the distraction to her advantage and wrestled the stake out of their possession and helped Kol out of the back door, Klaus meeting them on the other side ready to flash them out of harm's way to the safety of his home.
The young hunter snarled in frustration and had managed to grab his crossbow, aiming for Klaus to temporarily take him down so that they could still get to Kol, but Caroline saw it coming and move in its way first, the arrow piercing her through the chest.
Klaus roared at the scene, catching Caroline moments before she hit the ground. With his adrenaline and anger pumping, he managed to take hold of both her limp body and his weakened brother and flashed them to his mansion with as much speed he could possess.
She awoke to shouting and the sound of glass being shattered against something. Groggily, she brought her hands up to massage her temples. Dying usually gave her the worst of migraines. Groaning, she opened her eyes to the destruction of the lounge she was placed in. She swung her legs off the couch while she sat up, alerting the Mikaelsons of her recovered state.
"Great, sleeping beauty awakes." Rebekah muttered angrily as Klaus looked away sheepishly.
That caught Caroline's attention, causing her curiosity to flare.
The two brothers were also present. Kol, the one she saved along with the elder, and reputedly more moral brother, Elijah. All four of them had their attention focused solely on her now, their argument seemingly forgotten as they stared at her expectantly and slightly confused. She pressed her lips, ready to ask them why they were looking at her in such a manner, until she remembered that she had just died.
"Ohh." She managed to rasp, her voice still sore from death. "I'm immortal, so I can't die. Well I can die but I can't die-die."
"How are you alive?" Elijah questioned her skeptically, uncertain of who or what she was or if she posed any type of threat to his siblings.
"He can explain that to you." She waved her hand towards Klaus as she stood up and spotted the front door of the mansion.
"Your leaving?" Klaus asked, his bewilderment clouding his voice and features, as she began to walk out of the door.
"You left first, Klaus." She stated primly as she brushed passed him.
He grabbed onto her upper arm to halt her steps, forcing her to turn towards him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I would have ran with you when you left Chicago, you know." She whispered to him as she smiled a little, even if they both knew it wasn't a real smile.
"I left to keep you safe from my father. He would have killed you." He attempted to reason with her, neither noticing that his siblings had quietly filed out of the room.
"But I can't die." She stressed.
"I didn't know that. I was afraid he would find you and..." He looked away, sighing as he licked his lips. A clear sign of his that she knew all too well, he was nervous about what it was he was feeling and thinking. He shook his head as if to stop his train of thought before looking back to her. His eyes spoke of his deep desperation, his need for her to understand and believe him. "I tried to look for you." He laughed humorously, "In fact, my minions are still out searching for you as we speak."
"I'm not just leaving because you left first," She gave in a little, cocking her hip and waving her hand about, "I do have a life you know. Outside of the whole saving lives and supporting and morning the dead. So once you're done with whatever mess you got yourselves into here, I'll be in New Orleans."
He drew her closer to him as she made to leave his side, the hand still on her arm dragged her near as he bent down towards her ear, his warm breath tickling the side of her neck. "Good, because I intend to be your last love, Caroline." He whispered and kissed her slowly and lovingly on her cheek.
He watched her leave and caught sight of the small genuine smile she failed to hide from him as the door swung closed behind her. Caroline could swear she still felt his eyes upon her, sending her mind to drift back to a time when his eyes, and hands, rarely left her.
Chicago, USA, 1920
Smoothing her red flapper dress down, she placed her coat on the rack and made her way to the bar.
She had not been in Chicago for long before hearing of the most sought out bar in the city, Gloria's. Prohibition sucked, but the supernatural underworld usually thrived in these types of scenarios, which led Caroline to assume the woman would be a witch. They were famous for owning pubs and bars these past few decades.
Settling down on the bar stool, she waved a waitress over and placed her order of champagne before she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. A gust of wind shook her beads on her dress, causing them to clank against each other.
"Is my family in danger once again?" A husky voice caught her off guard.
Caroline turned around to see Niklaus Mikaelson. "Nope," She groaned as she took her glass from the woman tending the bar. "Just a simple case of bumping into each other."
Sensing her withdrawal from his presence Klaus leaned in further into her personal space.
"Come on, get to know me. I dare you." He whispered in her ear, causing goosebumps to travel down her spine, leaning back to see her response, his eyes twinkled.
"I'm too smart to be seduced by you." She protested, chugging her glass of champagne and placed it on the bar.
Caroline stood up to leave with Klaus grinning at her. "Well that's why I like you."
Unamused, she rolled her eyes and made her way towards the door. Glancing back at the ancient creature, leaning against the wooden bar, staring over her body before reaching her eyes. She couldn't help the shy smile that grew over her lips before storming out of the building.
She had been in the Windy City for a few months now and she really had been enjoying herself. She loved to visit the boutiques and Gloria's bar was her favourite go-to to let her hair down. It helped that a certain creature resided his time there too. After she first bumped into him, it took her another two weeks to go back to the bar. But after a few sightings of him around the city, she couldn't help but feel drawn to him. Call it curiosity, or her lack of refusing a dare, she eventually dolled herself up and danced her worries away. Klaus left her alone as she worked the room, seducing the men, though she couldn't stop feeling shivers travel down her spine as his eyes bore under her skin.
It took a month for him to dance her off her feet, another to fall into bed with each other, and a third for her to realize that he slipped his way inside of her walls and that she didn't mind at all. She was having the time of her life. They danced, romanced and shared their passions, secrets and fears. Her second most favourite place in Chicago became Gloria's, the first was Klaus' studio where they spent hours closed up in the room, the stench of paint and lust on their skins.
She laid in bed, exhausted, sleepy. The slow, lazy patterns being drawn on her shoulder blade, down her spine before travelling to her thigh, lulling her to sleep.
"I always wondered..." she heard Klaus murmur.
"Hmm?"
"Whenever one of us is in danger, you come to me instead of any of my siblings." He paused, but carried on drawing invisible art over her body with his skillful fingers. "Like when my father was going to kill Kol for all his recklessness in Spain. You told me first and we managed to set sail to New Orleans."
She hummed as she began drifting off to sleep and she realised she hadn't answered him. "I don't know. Maybe it's something to do with nature."
"What do you mean, love?"
"Well in nature, ravens and wolves are natural friends. So why should it be different? I'm a raven and your a wolf." She managed to reveal before drifting off into a deep sleep, barely registering him freeze behind her.
New Orleans, Louisiana, October 2013
Caroline brushed past the party goers to find the right spot. Dancing had been her favourite pastime, and even if this era seemed more provocative than she had grew up in, she still loved to let loose of everything and just feel the beat of the music, swaying her hips with the rhythm.
Lost in the music, she didn't feel the the familiar presence until it was right behind her.
Hands smoothly gliding on her waist stilled her for a moment before she was pressed closer into his chest, her head resting on his body as he swayed to the music with her. His nose brushed the hair that was on her neck away before his lips descended on her, trailing them up and down, nibbling.
She groaned in response and spun around, arms wrapping around his neck as she pulled him close.
"My last love." She managed to purr before she greedily took his lips with hers.
** Chwandinaidd (Scandinavians in Welsh) **