Fiona's eyes trembled as her magical cat Cake placed another card. They both stepped back and sighed once it was on their towering house of cards safely. Fiona looked around at the empty boxes that once held all of the cards they had since used in the pile. There had to be at least twenty!
"Cake?" Fiona called to her companion.
"Yes?" The cat called back.
"Why are we stacking cards again?"
"Because it's so hot!"
Fiona rubbed her chin, "I don't understand."
Cake sat in front of Fiona to explain, "The suspense we're building helps us sweat more so that we can cool off better." Fiona gave her a begrudged look. "Plus," Cake continued, "card houses blow over really easy. So when they blow over, we'll know when there's a breeze so we can go outside."
"Then why are the windows closed?" Fiona pointed out.
Cake looked around astonished and slapped her paw against her forehead. Fiona just giggled and went over to open a window, wiping the sweat from her brow along the way.
Once she opened it, a soothing gust of wind blew in and knocked over their massive card tower. All of the cards fell on Cake. Fiona sighed, enjoying the breeze as much as possible. She heard Cake sigh as well.
"I'm gonna go outside now," Fiona told Cake. She grabbed one of her favorite steel swords and climbed out of their tree house. Cake jumped out the window and parachuted down moments later.
They walked for a few minutes. Fiona had her arms up, relaxing, letting the wind air out her pits. Cake pointed out an adorable little apple tree in the middle of a grassy field and they went to sit beneath it in the shade.
Cake stretched up an arm and grabbed down two apples, one fore each of them, once they were comfortable under the tree. They were astonished to see that the apples she had grabbed had no color. While the other apples all shined red, these two happened to be blank and gray.
They looked up into the tree, bewildered. How could two apples have absolutely no color? Fiona started getting an idea, when she was startled by a man's voice behind her.
"Good morning ladies," said the casual vampire Marshall Lee, leaning comfortably against the tree, drinking the red out of another apple. He took a bite of the apple and Fiona could see the juice squirt from the corners of his mouth as he chewed. He swallowed and tossed the apple aside, "Horrible," he said.
"Marshall Lee, what are you doing here?" Fiona asked, sounding moderately concerned. "Can't the sun, like, kill you?"
"Yeah," he answered, "but I was already here when the sun came up, horrifyingly this morning." His eyes were closed, and his hands stuffed in his pockets as he spoke slowly and lazily. Almost seductively.
"What were you doing in an apple tree all night?" Fiona wondered.
Marshall Lee opened his eyes toward her, sending a chill down her spine. "Now, when did I say I was in the tree?"
Fiona was about to point out what he had told her, but he immediately spun around to the other side of the tree. Fiona and Cake felt obliged to follow. They saw he was standing in front of a wooden trap door covered in moss.
He smiled at them, but frowned at the door. Fiona came up to him. "What were you doing down there?" She demanded.
"Partying with the mole people. They're great at parties, the DJ boosts the bass so much it makes the ground quake. And they don't have any lights 'cause they're all blind anyway. Have you ever been to a pitch-black party? Anyways, I came to the surface because someone found an ancient dungeon in one of their mines and was afraid of it. I happened upon a crypt of sleeping vampire fledglings and decided to get some help to move 'em all out before they woke up. No doubt those crazy moles already disturbed them though. Well, when I came up it was morning. But then I saw you two heading this way and figured it was only a matter of time or whatever. So here you are, wanna go kill some vampires?"
Fiona looked back at Cake, who hastily shook her head "no," being deathly afraid of vampires since she first met Marshall. She was comfortable around him now, but a crypt full of them was not appealing to her at all. Fiona rolled her eyes and nodded to Marshall. He laughed softly at Cake and turned to the door.
"Follow closely please," he instructed Fiona. He flicked his hand upward and the door swung open. He smiled at Fiona before floating down the hole head first.
Cake grabbed Fiona's shoulder, "Fiona don't do it! You could barely handle fighting him when you first met him how are you gonna fight hundreds of them?"
"Relax," Fiona reassured her, "This time he's on our side."
Marshall floated back up upside down for a moment. "You coming bunny ears?" He called to Fiona, making fun of her hat.
She stepped up to the trap door and Marshall zoomed back down. "Not to mention, it's way cooler underground," she pointed out before jumping down the hole.
Cake did a little panic dance chanting "Oh, Fiona" in a worried voice. She eventually dove in after her human friend.
Fiona landed and rolled at the bottom of the drop. Marshall was already there waiting, looking unimpressed by the chaos unraveling in front of him. He crossed his arms as Fiona marveled at the event.
What she saw was a bunch of two-foot-tall moles standing on their hind legs wearing clothes and running for their lives. All around were these little gray creatures, hardly any taller than the mole people, flying around biting at the necks of any loving thing they come in contact with. They looked so gross, Fiona slightly gagged when one flew past her. She covered her nose, gagging more with the odor it left behind.
"These are vampires?" Fiona asked.
"They're fledglings," Marshall Lee responded, "Really more of a mockery to vampire kind. They'll bite you, suck a tiny bit of blood and fly off. They're more like mosquitoes, nasty little things."
One flew up right in front of him and he spit on it. It freaked out and swirled around, passed Fiona, and crashed into the floor of the cavern. She grimaced as it passed, disgusted by it.
"Plus they're ugly as crap," Marshall added, putting his hands on his hips, ashamed.
"Well," Fiona ignored the fledgling with Marshall's spit on it's face, "how can we stop them?"
"My my, aren't we just full of questions today?" Marshall joked. "They have the same weaknesses as real vampires, but they're way smaller. Just start swinging that nice sharp sword of yours and don't kill the mole people." At that he hovered off the edge and started attacking with punches and kicks with his vampire strength.
Fires had started all over the place, so it was illuminated well enough for a fight. Fiona grabbed her sword and leaped down the edge they stood on. She sunk her sword into the first fledgling and it evaporated into strange gray dust. She swung and cut through another vampire before it got close. Cake was stretching her arms and legs every which way, crushing the fledglings as they tried to suck the blood of the mole people. She pounded a few into the dust with an enlarged fist and fell back on some others. Each one that she dropped a part of her body on disintegrated into dust.
Marshall Lee floated down next to her with a fledgling under his arm. "If you can help it, don't breathe in that dust. I'm not entirely sure, but vampiric dust from real vampires has been known to turn people into vampires." At that, he punched the fledgling he was holding right in the snout, instantly turning it to dust.
Cake panicked slightly and stretched over to Fiona. She reached into Fiona's green pack and took out the two napkins she kept in there for emergencies. She wrapped one around her own face and the other around Fiona's to cover their mouths from the vampire dust. She did a brief explanation about it and they went back to fighting.
Fiona jumped on top of one and launched upward onto one of the mole houses. She back-flipped off of that one onto another and jumped straight up toward the stalactite ceiling. She swung her sword and it stuck into the rock. After a few kicks, swinging back and forth against it, it broke off and she fell along with it. It fell faster and crashed into a whole bunch of tiny vampires, changing them all into a big cloud of gray powder.
She quickly planned to slide down one of the roofs, but it might be risky. She tried to plan how to land safely before Marshall Lee came up and caught her, setting her down gently.
She thanked him and they went back to fighting the vampires like a team. She lost sight of him quickly. There were only a few left and Fiona figured she could handle a few more. Suddenly her sword stuck into a wall after running through a vampire. She tugged at it, but before she could get it out a fledgling jumped up and bit her arm.
The teeth pinched roughly through her skin. It made about one swallow before Fiona threw it off and roundhouse kicked it into a stalagmite. She saw the miniscule holes in her arm and started sweating. "Oh no!" She cried, "I've been bitten! I'm turning into a vampire!" She fell to her knees dramatically, grasping her forearm even though there was no pain.
"Relax," Marshall Lee hovered above her, "it's just a fledgling bite. Like I said, they're just like mosquito. It will itch for a while, but you'll be fine."
She looked down at it calmly. Suddenly it puffed up, nearly doubling the regular size of her arm. She panicked more.
"With some swelling," Marshall added, "nothing to worry about."
It swelled up thicker and farther up her arm. She started moaning as it starched the sleeve of her shirt. She could no longer move her fingers. The two holes where the vampire's fangs sank in started oozing clear liquid.
Marshall Lee landed beside her. "Maybe they have a different reaction to humans," he guessed.
"You mean you don't know?" She panicked some more.
"The last time I saw a human was a millenia ago. Fledglings are kind of new." He told her.
Cake came up and crushed another vampire before it got too close to Fiona. She gasped, "Fiona did you get bit? What's happening to her?" She demanded from Marshall.
"As if I know, I would've done something by now," he pointed out.
"You should be doing something NOW!" Fiona shouted at each of them. Marshall nodded and reached down to pick her up.
Before he could lift her, a mole person came around a corner and spoke up, "Actually, we can probably help. We've dealt with fledglings before, just never so many. If you'll come this way the guru can try to heal you." He turned and ran around the building.
Marshall picked up Fiona in his arms and floated along after the mole man. Cake grabbed Fiona's sword from the wall and followed closely. The mole man ran quicker than it looked like his feet could move. He tripped over some rubble on the way, but got up quickly explaining how he knew the streets well in the but couldn't see any changes like the mess they'd made fighting the vampires. They hurried past mole workers putting out fires and cleaning the streets.
It wasn't too long before Marshall set her down in a padded bed that was too short for her. Her legs hung off the edge and her swollen arm stuck out in front of her.
Soon an ancient-looking mole man waddled to the bedside and started smearing brown paste over the bite. "First time being bitten?" He asked her.
"Well yeah," she responded, "but I thought it was just because I was different that it was this bad."
"Your race definitely has something to do with this, I've never seen a case this bad. However, it is always bad for the first time. If ever you are bitten again, the most you are likely to receive is an itchy bump." He started chanting in a deep voice and the paste turned white. "Unless of course your race messes with that too," he added as the paste swelled and her arm shrank.
As the guru removed the crusty medicine, Marshall floated around the bed. "That guy said you had dealt with fledglings before," he reminded him, "what exactly did he mean?"
"Look who's asking questions now," Fiona pointed out before the guru answered. Marshall gave her a smirk and Cake chuckled.
The guru began answering, "We've run into crypts with vampire fledglings numerous times in the mines. We've come to the conclusion that it's just inevitable to happen again and again no matter what."
"You could try leaving," Fiona suggested, "or just mining somewhere else?"
"Silly human," he laughed a bit, "us mole people aren't smart enough to turn around and do something else." Fiona gave him an awkward look but he reassured her, "Not to worry, we've all become more or less immune to their bites, so we'll be able to take care of in time on our own. We do appreciate the help this time though." He washed off her whole arm in cold water and gestured for her to go. "Oh, and their dust is absolutely harmless, so you don't really need those things on your faces."
Fiona blushed and ripped the cloth away from her mouth and nose. Marshall Lee led them back to the trap door and helped Fiona out. It was dark now, so Marshall had nothing to worry about. Cake stretched up after them and rolled around in the grass.
Once they were both safe on the ground, Marshall Lee and Fiona gazed deeply into one another's eyes. Marshall was the one who broke the silence, "Fiona?"
After a few seconds of more silence she responded, "Yes?"
"Being down there with you, seeing you fight," he paused.
"Yes?" She urged him to finish.
"Well, just seeing how well you handled being bitten, and cutting apart all those fledglings."
"Yes?" Her eyes grew big and sparkled in the darkness.
"It just made me realize," his eyes were large too, "It made me realize..."
They stared in silence for another few moments in the cool night. Each staring into each others' eyes was something to behold. Cake seemed to be enjoying the scene, with her cheeks in her paws, laying in the grass, watching.
Finally, the moment was broken when Marshall spoke up again, "It made me realize how dirty you can get underground."
"I know," Fiona agreed, "I was about to say I feel disgusting."
"Come to think of it, I'm sure I got all dirty too."
"Yeah, I wasn't gonna say anything but you really smell like fledgling."
"I guess that means it's bath night, eh?"
"Definitely. Se you around?"
"Whenever you go walking at night!" He lifted off the ground and started floating away. She turned and started walking back to the tree house, leaving Cake in the grass with her mouth hanging open.