Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not in any way own the Saga of Darren Shan/Larten Crepsley. I'm not that lucky. All rights go to Mr. Darren Shan, I'm just a fan.

The young woman strides up the side of the mountain, completely barefoot, but smiling. She hasn't had such fun in years. Her medium-length hair was unkempt from weeks without a brush or bath, the weather too cold for the latter, and the former being heavy enough to leave behind. She could only carry what was most needed, which, to her clan, was next to nothing.

Her feet aching from the various cuts and scratches on her feet, she leans in the shade of a tree, looking down the small trail for anyone else who may be walking up it. That would be nice. The trek was long and hard, and a traveling companion might be nice, if not for the company, than to see what her clan was like.

It would be her first time to the fabled Vampire Mountain, her first time to meet another vampire, too. The first and last time she had met one of her kind, he had just blooded her, and was promptly killed a few minutes later, without being able to tell her anything of her new existence. So, she had sought out others like her, soon figuring out the ways of the vampires by herself.

Eventually, the young woman had found a Vampaneze. He was young like her too, and without a sire to take care of him. Neither knowing that they were supposed to be enemies, they each sat together, smiling, and sharing their stories. Finally, she had asked the slightly purple man where she might find others like herself.

He told her grand stories of Vampire Mountain that his sire had told him, and where to find it, not forgetting to include the various prerequisites to get there honorably. He told her of the Council held every twelve years, and the Festival of the Undead. Amazed, the woman had asked the Vampanze how he knew so much, and he said that his sire had once been a vampire, but deviated from the clan many hundred years ago. Taking this knowledge with her, the woman thanked him, and left, making it her goal, her quest, to find the mountain, and scale it.

It must have been one of the years between Council, as she had not seen another vampire in her trek. However, she knew that she would find one when she reached the mountain. She had to. Otherwise, her quest would have been in vain.

Again gazing longingly down the slope, she went back up the mountain, and several hours passed without delay. Soon, she found the entrance to a cave, guarded by two men. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, she hid in the shadows thrown by the tree from the full moon. The Vampaneze hadn't told her of this.

One of the guards spotted her, and he was gone, reappearing behind her, and startling her as he laid a hand on her shoulder. "Who might you be?" He asked her, the hood of his cloak covering his eyes. She turned slowly.

Her eyes dancing about in the darkness, not knowing what to make of this, she told the guard her name.

It was Aradia Dilara Nolan.

End Chapter 1