Disclaimer: I do not own Legacy of Kain. That honour lies upon the fine gentlemen at Eidos and Crystal Dynamics.
A/N: This chapter went a completely different direction then I had originally thought. Hope you like. The response to my last chapter was not much. Still, I got one review. Yay! does happy dance So I guess I'll do a review response.
Shark: Thank you very much. I hope you will like this chapter as well.
Chapter 4: Into the swamp
As I come closer to the swamp, I still see no signs of anything actually living around. Sure, there are a couple of trees around, but all seem dead, however.
When I enter the outskirts of the swamp, I see some plants, if they can even be called that anymore, who still seem to be hanging on. But the only thing actually plant-like about them any longer is a greenish colour. But then I imagine swamp-plants might have always been only vaguely plant-like.
The day is slowly coming out, but the sun is still shielded by the smokescreen, so the light is rather dim.
The swamp still seems to be damp and wet, but I get a feeling it is slowly drying up. I go looking for somewhere to stay.
What I find is a surprise, so I could guess my human self had never come to the swamp. Reasonable really, since this place is just as dangerous to humans as it is to vampires, if not more. There seems to a vague sort of trail leading around the place though, but I don't stay on it, since I don't want to risk meeting more vampires at the moment. It seems that my healing ability is not as strong as the vampires, but it better than any human's, thank the gods. But the injuries I got in that last fight still needs a bit more time.
But I digress. After walking around for about half an hour, I come upon some weird structures. Curious, I search around that area and find several ruins, indicating that maybe there was some sort of settlement here once, but that was a very long time ago. Thinking of settlers in the swamp, a memory came slowly creeping into my mind. Someone lives, or at least lived in this swamp. Yes, a vampire. Older even than Kain. What was his name? Vorador, yes. From what I remember being told, Vorador has not shown himself in quite some time, so people had started speculating he might have died or been killed. It seems he had a mansion somewhere in the swamp, where he kept to himself, not wanting anything to do with the outside world. At least that's how the legend goes. It also says that living in the swamp for so long had made Vorador as green as his surroundings. Heh, funny thought. I wonder if that would happen to me if I stayed here too long?
These structures however do not resemble a mansion from what I can see. Plus it's in one of the watery parts of the swamp, making access for vampires very hard. There's also some eerie feeling to the air, like something horrible once happened here, long ago. I decide to move and see if I can find something else, this place really creeps me out.
About five hundred meters away the air feels more normal and I find what seems to have been a shrine of sorts. There is a safe feeling to the place. I decide to use this as a temporary base of sorts. Inside the small structure, leaves seem to around everywhere, most of them decomposed so much they are more dirt than leaf. I find a place where many leaves have gathered to form a pile of sorts. They have rotted so long, they have stopped smelling, and the smell of dirt and damp swamp is the only one around. I lie down to give my wounds time to heal. To my great surprise I drift away into what seems like sleep.
My dreams, if you can call them that, are far from happy. I see visions of people. People I used to know, but the visions are too vague to make any sense out of, I just get a feeling I once knew them. And painful memories stop by, only to leave and leave me with the pain. The clearest thing I can remember is a person coming after me, calling me "Silly child". It is the last thing I dream before I wake again.
I sit up sharply, still feeling the dread and terror from that nightmare, or perhaps it was a memory. After a few minutes, I manage to calm myself. If my heart had still been beating, I guess it would have been doing so quite rapidly.
I look outside, trying to figure how long I slept. It is still light, or perhaps it's light again. This means that I have either slept very little or I have slept at least one day, maybe more. I still feel exhausted, but a quick check of my body confirms that all injuries have been healed and I'm not even sore. I also find something else. I seem to have changed slightly during my sleep. It's hard to tell exactly what has changed, I just feel… different. A strange feeling, to be sure. Perhaps my body was better able to process my newfound energy while I slept. I check my claws to see if they have changed, but they seem to be the same. Perhaps I will discover what has changed later.
I ponder for a few moments what I should do, and I find that I would like to see myself. If I could just find a mirror. Perhaps there is a mirror in Vorador's mansion, but it's quite a risk trying to find it. If the vampire still lives, I'm probably no match for him. His strength might be second only to Kain himself, or maybe even above Kain's, but somehow I doubt that. I think I really am a fool, because I still decide to try it.
I wonder how I should find the mansion, and then I get an idea. I find my way back to the trail I saw earlier, and I follow it into the swamp. The trail is even vaguer than I had first thought, and following it was no simple feat, but as long as I took it slowly, it went ok. I stayed a bit away from the actual trail, so I could quickly hide if anyone or anything came along.
After I little while I find something laying half in the trail and half in the water. It's a body. I draw closer to the trail to investigate, always on the lookout for the perpetrator. The waist and up is on the trail, while the rest is in the water. To my surprise it's a vampire. To my even greater surprise it appears to have been killed by another vampire. It is totally drained, which is deadly even to vampires. The bite-marks are unmistakable. It was killed by a Rahabim. The bottom half of it has been more or less burned away by the water. It was wearing boots, which were adequate protection, I guess, as long as it didn't fall. I can't place what type of vampire it is. It's like none I've ever seen, or maybe I just can't remember. It looks more human than any of the lieutenants' spawn. Maybe one of Vorador's. It looks like it might have been male, but I'm not sure how to tell with vampires. Maybe I'll find out how later. This body seems to have been here quite some time, so I'm guessing the Rahabim that did it is long gone. Still, there could be Rahabim about yet.
As I continue following the trail, I find more bodies. All vampires, and most of them the same kind as the first, although there are a few dead Rahabim about as well. Maybe there was an attack by the Rahabim once? All the bodies seem to have been for the same amount of time. I start wondering if a blood infusion will reanimate them, but then why would I want to do that? More out of spite than anything else I tear apart the Rahabim bodies I find, but I can't make myself do that to the others. I can almost sympathize with them, since it seems a Rahabim attack was what killed me as well.
I even find some bodies that seem to be female. So there is an actual difference, but for what purpose? As far as I know and can remember, vampires are unable to breed the way humans do, so having genders are futile. The thought of vampires in love seems very alien to me, as that would require them to be more than the cruel monsters I have so far thought them to be.
Also, these other vampires, although I see common features in them, indicating they are of the same kind, seem more individual than any of the clan vampires. Perhaps all vampires were more like this once upon a time.
When I finally find the mansion, the body count has risen to twenty-seven, of which nine were Rahabim. As the large structure appears before me I wonder how anyone was able to build such a thing out here. I see no lights, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything, since vampires hardly need light to see, especially during the day.
I stand before the front doors a little while, wondering if I should open them, but I decide not to, as I don't know if it might be noticed or not, or if there are any sort of traps or wards on the thing. I walk around the tall wall to see if there are any other ways in, but there doesn't seem to be, but I notice some now-dead trees standing not too far from the wall on the left side for my jumping abilities to reach, I think. It's worth a shot, at least. But how will I get out again? I don't know what's on the other side of the wall, and if I can get over the wall back outside if I need to flee quickly. If the place is abandoned, I can just use the front doors, I guess, but if not…
Being the fool I am, I still decide to attempt to jump over the wall. I climb as high into the tree as I can, and I leap towards the wall. I manage to barely get across. I land on a walkway up on the other side of the wall. Good. Now it's confirmed I can get out again over the wall. It's about a meter and a half up to the wall's edge, but I can easily jump that. I look down into a courtyard. The place is badly in need of repair. Several pillars are there, reaching all the way up to and past the walkways on either side, four in all, although one of them has been toppled, and the three others look ready to fall any day. There are small ponds down there, something I never expected to find in a vampire's mansion. I look towards the entrance to the main building, and I see there used to a balcony over it, but most of it has collapsed. Someone has cleared away the rubble, though, so the entrance is reachable. I look to the left up my walkway, and I see a door, which I judge it to be safer than the main entrance. I can't feel any vampires around, but I still can't quite calm down.
I walk slowly over to the door and try the door handle. Nothing happens. I open the door and walk inside. There is a walkway here that goes down to the bottom, and I decide to try it. I hear nothing, see nothing and nothing happens as I walk down, but it still feels like something is wrong. I try to ignore the feeling. This seems to be some sort of storage area, but it doesn't appear to be in use. I look for a mirror, but sadly there isn't one here. Damn, I was hoping I could leave already. Something tells me I should leave anyway, but I dismiss it as the coward within me.
As I proceed further, I notice that there are signs of battle almost everywhere. Old signs yes, but they're still there. Broken crates and furniture and old blood spatter are the most frequent signs, but someone seems to have cleared away any bodies that might have been and also the worst of the debris. Walking though old hallways I find a few tattered tapestries, but no mirrors. There also seems to be rather a lot of stone rubble around. Someone has cleaned up the worst of it, but traces remain everywhere. After a while, I find myself in what might have been a sort of inner garden at some point, with three demon-angels spurting blood into a pool. It looks like blood, at least. I decide not to investigate further. There are also some ancient murals that seem to have been destroyed or have just fallen apart, with small compartments behind them. I'm on some kind of upper walkways, with another door opposite the one I entered though. Instead of going though it, I decide to jump down and exit this room. I think I'll be able to jump back up again.
The feeling that something's wrong seems to be growing the more I walk around this mansion. It almost feels like someone is watching me, but I neither sense nor smell anyone, and it really creeps me out. At this point I really haven't much choice but continuing on however, so I try my best to dismiss these feelings, not quite managing it. As I go through a door into what seems like the main hall I think I see something down the stairs, but when I turn to get a better look, nothing's there. This is all getting pretty disconcerting, and my courage is quickly failing me. I manage to walk around the hall looking for a mirror. Sadly there isn't one here either, but I do find an old painting of Vorador himself. He looks practically like royalty with his blood red clothes contrasting his dark green skin. I wonder who painted it, and if it is an accurate painting. I walk back the way I came, not wanting to try to open the main entrance door.
I backtrack to the room with the demon-angels and I try the door opposite the one I first enter through, after a quick wall-jump up there.
The feeling of being watched still intensifies, but I still do my best to ignore it, and I'm successful enough to keep going, but only just. I constantly reach out with my senses, but I never find anything. I wonder if I'm going paranoid.
I eventually find my way into what looks like a library. As I walk down the stairs, I finally spot a mirror. Sadly it's too big for me to take with me, but at least I can get a look at myself, and for the moment I forget all creepy feelings.
As I look into the mirror I'm both amazed and appalled by what I see. I don't think I could be called pretty under any circumstances. My face resembles a cross between human, vampire and… something else, giving me a slightly demonic look. I extend my fangs as I watch, and it's a rather scary display. They look razor-sharp. I then recall I cleaved in two the vampire that held me, and I turn and I try to will it to happen again, but carefully this time. After a short while, I see some sort of bone blade come out of my back, slowly and carefully this time. It seems to be fastened right below my neck, and extends all the way down my spine. I seem to able to take it out so far it nearly touches my head, but it only goes straight up and down, so it's mostly helpful if someone grabs me from behind or is upon my back as I lie on the ground.
As I observe my lean but muscular form, I must admit there is a sort of beauty to it all, but not exactly in the conventional sense. Hard to explain really. I seem to be constructed in a way that gives me the ability to reach top-speed very quickly, and also get a low amount of resistance while swimming and jumping. The powerful leg muscles and lean frame further suggests this body was built primarily for speed and agility, but the muscles on my arms and torso indicate I was also to have sufficient strength to actually harm my enemies. But not much more, it seems. I'm not built like a brawler, so I need to be mindful in battle. I still remember the Turelim cracking my ribs quite easily. But I believe I'll be stronger after I drain enough vampires.
"And who, pray tell, are you?" I freeze immediately. That came from behind me. "For that matter, what are you?" I'm able to turn around very slowly to see who spoke, but I already know the answer. And there he stands; tall, green and definitely mean. The look on his face is bemused and he looks like the spider that caught the fly in its web or perhaps the cat that cornered the mouse. "And most important, what are you doing in my home?" He also seems to be getting a bit impatient. I can't answer, since my brain seems to have frozen from shock and fear. "Answer me!" he suddenly shouts and I jump involuntarily. After what seems like an eternity, he cocks his head. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" His tone is getting rather dangerous. I quickly consider my options. I could try to attack him, but he could probably destroy me with one finger. I could try to talk to him, which at least buys me a little time, or I could just try to run, but he's ready for that, I see it by the look in his eyes and the way he stands. I decide to try talking, but being as terrified as I am, it's hard to say coherent sentences. "No, I… I just…" I manage to stammer forth. His eyes narrow, and if I could swallow, I would have done so. "You just what?" he asks. I try to answer, but in my terror it's extremely hard. He decides to finish for me. "Perhaps you're a new creation of Kain, sent here 'just' to destroy me, hm?" he asks in a sarcastic tone. I quickly deny it. A bit too quickly, perhaps, but it wasn't true, was it? "No, no… I just… just wanted…" He gives me a look that kinda says, 'Go on, or else'. "I just wanted… to look in the mirror." I finish quietly. He gives me a quizzical look, before letting out a laugh. It isn't a pleasant sound. "Oh really? And why would you want that? And why here?" I can't find an answer to give him. "Who are you?" He asks after a little while. I slump my shoulders slightly in defeat before saying truthfully: "I… don't know." He seems a bit surprised for a moment, and then he seems a little curious. "You don't know? How can you not know?" He demands. "I can't… remember." I say carefully. His patience seems to be at an end, but he stops to consider for a moment. I'm not sure what he's considering, until he speaks again. "Bah, I don't have time for you, even if you don't come from Kain. And I can't just let anyone come in here when they feel like it, so…" He says simply, and I suddenly see more vampires appearing, the same kind as the dead ones I saw outside. Two, five, ten, twenty, thirty. Way too many.
I suddenly go into desperation mode, thinking only to get away. I try to bolt past Vorador, but he backhands me and I fly into a bookshelf with a sickening crunch, and all his children, if you can call them that, come rushing towards me. I ignore the pain, running on pure adrenalin. I dodge past a few vampires before crashing out a window into the one-time garden. There are walls here as well, and I look desperately for a way out. The vampires pursue me, and I run for it. I run right into a dead end, and a few of them jump me. I'm able to push them off me with only a few scratches. I try not to hurt them, and at least not kill them, as I don't want them any madder than they already are. I get by the vampire rush with nothing more than some scratches and a few gashes which quickly start to heal, but I'm not sure I can take the blood loss. Of all the things to think of as I run, I wonder how I can bleed when I have no pulse. I'm able to find a damaged pillar low enough for me to jump onto, and from that I'm able to jump up the walkway on the wall, but not without considerable effort.
As I land I cry out in pain and fall over. Whatever was damaged when Vorador sent me flying, it's pretty serious. The vampires try to follow, but by the time they get up there, I'm on my feet again and leaping over the wall. I can't help but cry out again as I land in the swamp outside, but at least this ground is a little soft, so it's not as painful as before. I quickly dive into the swamp water and I try to get away as quickly as I can. I hear angry and disappointed hisses from the vampires as they realize I'm fleeing in the water. They give up, for now, but I must be more careful than ever now, at least while I'm in the swamp. Now I just try to find my way back to the shrine before I black out. I go as fast as I can, and when I reach it, I'm completely spent and collapse right inside the doorframe. Stupid, stupid, I berate myself. Why did I do something so foolish? But I already know the answer. I have an incurable curiousity. I just had to know. Darkness engulfs me as I fade into unconsciousness.
A/N: I used what I could remember of Vorador's mansion from Defiance in this chapter. Hope I haven't made too many mistakes. As I mentioned earlier, this chapter took a completely different route from what I had first intended. I didn't really plan on going to Vorador's, but I couldn't help it once I started writing. Less action in this one, but I hope you still like. I'm relatively pleased with it. I plan on putting in more adventure in the future, but I won't abandon fight scenes completely. Hope I haven't portrayed Vorador wrong either.
PS! Raziel is getting impatient, so I hope I get ten reviews soon so his free soul comes through, or he might take mine.