"Move quickly, wanderer, for if not I fear those you call 'friends' shall suffer..."
"What do you mean?" he asks, narrowing his eyes at the fog-shrouded being before him. He is not sure exactly what it is, or, for that matter, why it is here, but what he does know is that it just threatened all of his Chosen.
And, for him, threatening the Chosen is not a good thing to do.
"...I cannot tell you...I was merely sent by my Master, from many years hence...I was instructed not to give you more information than is necessary."
Yes, it appears that whoever this 'Master' is happens to be threatening those that the wanderer picked. But who, among them, was threatened?
"You may bring five of your thirteen, no more, wanderer...Your 'Chosen,' or whatever you refer to them as...Once you do so, I shall appear again to give you further instruction. But, until then, I bid you adieu."
The shadowed form vanishes as though it never was, and the wanderer closes his eyes, trying to ward off the sickening feeling he senses in the pit of his stomach. Something is wrong - terribly so - and if he does not try to fix it, time itself will be utterly destroyed.
Of course, he cannot allow that, so he sets to work preparing the field upon which they shall reside.
~()~
"So you're saying that I actually have a choice in the matter?"
He had appeared before her just as she completed a mission assigned to her by the head priest. She had ridden the catacombs underneath an opera house of zombies and a number of other horrifying things. To her surprise, as she accepted her reward and headed outside, she ran into the man she had least expected to see. After all, she figured that her life would go back to normal upon her return to her era.
My, how horribly wrong she was...
"You do, in fact. If you do not wish to accompany me and four others on this quest, then I shall merely choose another. It is not anything too hard, really. Each of you are very talented. You are just among the best. And, secondly, I did not wish to bring Dracula into this, so he has been left out," the man answers. "That is to say, I have convinced someone I know to put he and his followers in a dormant state for the time being."
She smirks, and a breath of laughter escapes her lips. "If I do not agree, will you ever bother me again?"
"Perhaps I shall."
"If that is the case, I will accept. You can only ask so much of me without giving anything in return."
"Clever girl. Let us be on our way, then."
~()~
Much the same happens at the wanderer's next stop, although with much more annoyance induced upon him.
"What do you mean, quest? All I want to do is settle down! Dracula has been defeated here, so there's nothing more I have to do!"
He forces a nonchalant laugh. "You do not have to come if you do not wish it, but you are simply among the best of the thirteen I had previously chosen. You, likewise, will be with the others I have chosen. Already I have recruited two, one without much difficulty and the other with a bit of a conflict. He was not very happy, but he agreed eventually."
"'He'? He, who?" the girl demands. An owl hoots, and she glares with blazing red eyes, curious but nearly enraged at the prospect of having to fight for him again.
"I believe it is the very same boy you fancied back when I first picked each of you."
A blush very much like her eyes suddenly colors her cheeks, and she sputters, "W-what do you mean?"
This isn't going very well. If he talks about the boy, there is little chance that she will agree. Perhaps if he had simply ignored her question she would have agreed straightaway. It's just a thing with girls that he doesn't understand. Why must they be so difficult?
Letting out a sigh, the wanderer refuses to answer and simply stares at her until her blush deepens and she grumbles, "Okay, okay, I'll go. Next time you won't be so lucky, though."
He chuckles, a bemused look on his face as he prods her and says, "That rhymed."
"Shut up!" she growls as, together, they warp to whatever destination he has in mind.
~()~
The wanderer has only one more stop now. While picking up the other four, he has decided to leave this one for last. This, indeed, should be the most challenging. The man he means to ask is clever and forethoughtful; he thinks of everything before rather than as it is happening, much like the wanderer himself. This is the very reason the wanderer has decided to talk to everyone else before him, for practice, perhaps.
The moment he materializes on the physical plane, the wanderer is nearly decapitated cleanly by a silvery sword with a golden hilt. But, luckily, the man he is visiting has keen senses and stops just before any blood is spilt, which is ironic considering who he is talking to.
"What are you doing here?"
The wanderer only gives him a smirk, pushing the sword easily away from his throat. He clears said throat as he prepares for the long conversation he will undoubtedly have.
"Yes, well...I have come with a request."
~()~
Alucard plays around with his sword, drowning in boredom. He has been waiting for nearly an hour now. Aeon still has not returned with whoever the other four are.
He is leaning back on a long wooden bench, with one leg propped up over the arm and the other crossed over it. The blade of his sword has scored the ground at least three times now, given his utter and complete boredom. Aeon has left him with absolutely nothing to do except fiddle with whatever he has on hand, or count the panels on the ceiling.
The entire room is decorated simply. A warm, merry fireplace burns across the room. In the very center sits an oak table, elegantly carved and golden plated in some parts. Everything is a deep, chocolaty brown, matching Alucard's mood perfectly.
There are six doors, evenly spaced across the room. Two sit on one side of the fireplace, two more on both sides of the bench Alucard has sat himself upon. The others gaze almost longingly at each other, separate across the room. Each of the doors are tall and made of the same type of wood used in the table, carved with swirling patterns that seem to represent personalities or something.
Alucard notices these patterns and stands from his seat, walking over to examine the door nearest him. A quiver of arrows, a spear, and two blades cross each other. From this, the dhampire can guess that Shanoa is one of the five chosen by Aeon.
He glances over at the one next to it, seeing owls and trees. Maria, possibly? The next one is drawn up of a moon eclipsing a sun, a long sword very similar to the one he currently holds, and a winged creature flying across the empty sky.
He decides it must be his and looks at the door to the right of the fireplace, facing the bench. An enormous clock and a moon, simply, mark this door. The one to the left of the fireplace is marked with a long spear, the very same spear that Alucard entrusted to the Lecarde family. Eric.
The final door is of another full moon with a wolf howling at it. Of course. Cornell was another of the best and most difficult to defeat. He remembers vaguely that the werewolf won only because time ran out and the battle was called to a halt.
He has settled back down on the bench, this time merely staring at the ceiling, when a quiet sigh announces that Aeon is back. The clack of boots on the wood echoes through his ears.
"I'm glad you're back," Alucard mutters softly, "but why did you leave me here and have to get the others from somewhere else? It was terribly boring."
"Aw, did our little dhampire get lonely?" Aeon teases with a grin.
Alucard's glare answers his question perfectly.
"I'm sorry; next time I'll leave you a teddy bear."
His glare intensifies, but then he notices that he was correct about all of the others. Shanoa, Maria, Eric, and Cornell stand beside the time traveler. Eric, hefting the enormous spear Alucard entrusted to his family, snickers slightly at Aeon's remark.
"Keep it up and you may not wake up tomorrow," Alucard growls before turning back to counting each individual panel of wood on the ceiling. So far, he's at sixty-two.
Aeon nods. "I trust that Alucard, having been here long enough, can show you to your rooms. I will be in mine." The wanderer snaps and disappears.
"Why couldn't he just walk?" Maria asks in bewilderment.