Chapter I- Bad Omens

It had been a short summer and a long, harsh winter the year Brishen Valerious's son was born. There was little food to be had because the first frost had come before the harvest, and the snow had prevented them from selling their metalwork to the traders that would have come through. Despite it all, the boy that his wife, Teofila, birthed was healthy and strong. As he watched his beloved wife sleep with the babe in a cradle beside her, he heard a soft click of the heavy bedchamber door. The Oracle, a dried husk of a woman, stood draped in dark and dingy rags, dragging in the ever-looming feeling of cold and unease in behind her.

"Have you come to give your blessings?" He asked, coming to stand beside her. All his people honored and respected the Oracle for her powers of foresight, though they gave her a wide berth.

The Oracle's eyes, normally a bright blue, were clouded with vision. She drifted over to the foot of the large bed where his wife slept. For a long while, there was silence, she muttered under her breath, too low for him to hear, then shook her head.

"No blessings do I see in this child's future." She said at last. Her gaze passed over the cradle, as though she were trying to ignore what she saw there. It was a solemn and condemning statement.

"What can I do?" he asked, following her gaze. At the thought of what her words could mean, horror and dismay filled his chest, making his pleas come out in twisted whispers. "He's my only son, my first child. Tell me there is something I can do."

On the naming day, Brishen christened his son Vladislaus, a name that meant 'Prince of Glory', a name to ward away evil and bring fortune to the child whose life had been condemned from the first time he breathed.

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The village rejoiced with the news of the birth of Vladislaus. Suddenly the cold winter didn't seem so dark and cold. Brishen, who had settled the small village below the mountains and build the castle where he and his wife resided, was much loved and respected. People scrounged up whatever they could to offer as congratulations to the new father. Always the Oracle loomed, lurking in the shadows of the hall where Brishen and Teofila greeted their guests. It made the couple uncomfortable.

"I worry about the omen she sent." Teofila told her husband one evening, holding her child close. "And she hasn't left the hall since he was born. I don't know what she will do."

It was custom to give hospitality to any guest who sought it. They could not deny it to her.

"Never you fear, darling." Brishen replied, holding wife and child close. "She is an old woman. She can do you no harm."

She looked up at him with loving brown eyes. He loved her, and would never allow any harm to come to her. But there was worry there as well.

"It is not harm by strength that I fear." She said, but she let it go, putting her child in his cradle to sleep.

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It was a month later, when Brishen was away on business, that the Oracle approached Teofila and confirmed her fears. It had been a sunny day, so Teofila went up to her sewing room where she could sit with her son in the sunlight. She had been looking out of the window for only a few minutes when the familiar creak of the door found her looking up into the Oracle's mad blue eyes.

She stood hunched, her wrinkled face and hair smeared and matted with dirt. Her hands moved one over the other, as though she were trying to wipe something off of them. Her eyes moved to the child, then quickly back up to Teofila's.

"Not safe, my dear." She rasped. "Shouldn't hold him so close."

"What do you mean?" Teofila asked, hugging her sleeping son tighter.

The Oracle came closer, running a hand just above the boy's head before snatching it back, her eyes returning to the mother.

"He will be the devil's child. A plague unto your people." She replied. "But you can save them."

"How?" Teofila whispered.

"Throw the child from the window." The Oracle instructed, miming the motion. Teofila rose, backing up and away from the woman.

"Never!" She said. "I will never kill my son! He is my child and I love him!"

The Oracle's face stopped trembling, her eyes darkening.

"Then he will be the ruin of all." She said slowly, and swept out of the room. Teofila stood for a while after she was gone, long after the clouds began to cover the sun again.

She looked down at her sleeping, innocent son, the old woman's warning echoing in her mind. The sleeping child began to stir as she watched. She held him close, and began to cry.

A/N: Greetings! I started on another story based loosely on Van Helsing, but I felt that my dear friend Vladislaus Dracula needed a little bit of history. Deserved it, in fact, and there was plenty of room to expand. So I began this tale of his life, and I hope you enjoy it! Please Rate and Review! (apparently rating matters, but mostly I just want you to review. It means a lot to me to know what my readers think)