Adrileena's Mission
"I'll call her… Adrileena."
My mother held me then breathed her last breath. And ever since that day, October 9, 1996, my father despised my existence. My grandmother, Adessa, is the only one who really raised me. She fed me, clothed me, and did everything a mother AND father should do. And what the world doesn't know is that vampires exist. But they aren't your stupid Twilight vampires. Way more refined, way more sophisticated. With vampires come vampire hunters. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's take a little trip back in time, shall we?
700 B.C.
Once upon a time, in ancient Greece, in the time before the Romans took over, lived seven families in Sparta. Since it was the Peloponnesian War and all the men were gone, the women took care of the livelihood of Sparta… until THEY showed up.
Vampires of the highest degree, pure bloods, began attacking the people late at night. No one knew how to stop these fowl beasts. Remember those seven families I mentioned. The seven families were led by the women, but one family was the most dominant and took the roll of leadership; the Sunoki family.
The women in charge was Adrileena (my namesake). She was the youngest of the seven family leaders but the most confident, bravest, and fearless. The seven women began developing techniques to destroy these beasts once and for all. And they succeeded… well mostly.
At some point in training, Adrileena found out her husband had died in battle. She was utterly alone… until she met Zuko Kiryuu. They fell fast and hard for each other. But before they could marry, he vanished without a trace. Adrileena, heartbroken yet again, poured herself into her training and became the first Huntress to kill a pure blood.
Now before I go further, let me tell you the difference between vampire hunters and Huntresses. Vampire hunters can be just about anyone, very rarely is there a lineage that follows. Their training is hard but the graduate in two years. They also encourage Western knowledge. Huntresses are strictly family lineage. Unless you're married in, you know nothing what they do. You start training as soon as you can walk and talk. You are trained with every weapon imagined; spear, sword, gun, toothbrush (weirdest training ever). You train until you die or retire (most of the time it's death). That's not counting specialized training, aka how to kill a pure blood vampire. Hunters don't know this key information because it is a predominantly male group. Huntresses thrive on female power, so the heads are woman mostly. Oh, I forgot to mention; you're homeschooled until you're about 13 or 14 then all you do is eat, sleep, kill, repeat. Western knowledge and medicine is forbidden. And there is only one Huntress family left… The Sunoki Family. Sound familiar?
JUNE 2008
Skipping ahead to when I'm 12. At 12, I was named the next head of the family, despite the fact that I am the youngest of 14 grandchildren. How our family goes: the youngest usually takes over because Adrileena was the youngest of the first 7 Huntresses. Let's just say my cousins were PISSED! They could challenge me at any time for the head through combat. But only one did, my cousin Izak. He and I grew up more like siblings rather than cousins, so he's practically my brother. He was my only friend I had. But back to story.
The same year I named, a family of vampires (yes you read that correctly) had asked to observe the skills of a Huntress family to give us the respect we deserve. I tried to talk my grandmother out of it because something felt very wrong. My grandmother just brushed me off. She said, "what could possibly go wrong?"
We found out two weeks later.
JUNE 18, 2008
I remember it like it was yesterday, the worst day of my life. It was midnight, I was sleeping next to my grandmother like I did every night. We were awoken by the guards from the gate.
"Excuse us, my lady. But a peddler family requests a meeting."
I pulled my grandmother sleeve, "No nana, I see you're demise."
She kissed my head, "it's alright little one, I'll be back. Go back to sleep." And she left.
Fearing my vision coming true, I followed her. In the conference room, my grandmother stood in front at least 12 people. Then smoke. Once the smoke cleared, where 12 people stood were now 12 pure blood vampires. At this point, the whole family was up in arms, myself included. The battle began. I saw vision happen before my very eyes. Cousins, aunts, uncles, all falling at the hands of the pure bloods. I played dead at an attempt to spare my life. But when I saw my grandmother fall, I rushed to her side. She was wounded to the point there was nothing I could do.
I grasped her hand as she whispered, "You are the last of our line. Avenge me."
She pushed what is my most prized possession into my hand. She gave one last smile and then died in my arms. I sobbed and sobbed. When I finally stood, I felt a pain I will never forget. A burning, stabbing sensation pulsating through my shoulder. Little did I know, it would lead to my own demise.