"Please make sure the safety restraint is securely fastened across your lap and keep your hands and feet within the story until it comes to a complete stop..."
*Grin!* Left field, here we come!
For readers who haven't (yet) played Castlevania,
Symphony of the Night, here is a quick, focused reference page for you:
http://www.stargarde.com/castlevania.html
I have access to a pc again at home (I
have the best boss in the world...except he doesn't like anime! >_)
so I hope to get back to quicker story updates again. Hopefully,
this chapter was worth the wait! ^_^
"Master Alucard!
I've found you at last!" from behind D a woman's voice chimed.
"Not a moment too soon," Alucard agreed, accepting D's hand to regain his feet, "Thank you for the healing! How did you follow me?"
"Oh! It wasn't easy...your presence...got so faint...sometimes..." D felt a slight weight on his shoulder, "Can I please rest a moment?" the charming voice asked softly next to D's ear, "I'm so very weary..."
Automatically, D reached out to catch the creature that slipped from his shoulder. He glanced down and saw silken blonde hair, impossibly delicate features and some sort of wings.
"Yours?" D asked, offering the pretty creature who had addressed Alucard as 'Master'.
"Yes...though I didn't summon her, I don't have the relic with me. How on earth did she manage to find me?!" Alucard wondered, taking her gently from D's hands.
"What are you two talking about?" a querulous voice demanded.
"Don't you dare let that thing anywhere near my Fairy!" Alucard exclaimed, cupping the unconscious little thing protectively against his shoulder.
"Fairy?! Let me see, D!" Left Hand demanded stridently, "Relax, Cookie," this was directed to Alucard, "Fairies are way too sweet for my palate!"
Sensing that Left Hand was in one of its moods, and would whine until it got its way, D removed his glove to let the parasite see.
"She's pretty," Left Hand offered, "Turn her over. There's something I want to see."
Alucard flipped the fairy over in his hands.
"I thought fairies had butterfly or dragonfly wings?" Left Hand noted, "What's up with hers?"
"I...I don't know," Alucard admitted, stroking a finger along one of the bat wings his fairy inexplicably wore.
Alucard tucked her into a fold of his cloak where she slept for the rest of the day. D and Alucard made their way to the edge of the lethal woods, within just a mile or so of the next town, before deciding to camp for the night.
********
"D, wake up!" Left Hand's voice was an urgent hiss.
D flexed his hand slightly, to let Left Hand know he was awake and attentive.
"There's something, or someone, fussin' with Alucard," Left Hand told him.
D vaulted to his feet, drawing his sword as he did so. Alucard slept peacefully on the other side of the banked fire in their camp, untroubled by anything.
D calmly sheathed his sword, turned his palm up and stared expressionlessly at Left Hand.
"I know what I saw!" Left Hand insisted, "Something was there!"
********
"Oh! Master! I truly did find you! It wasn't just a dream!" Alucard's Fairy fluttered about the camp in her joy the next day.
"Not a dream," Alucard agreed, staring at her as she zoomed from one end of the camp to the other. He patted his shoulder. Obediently, she alit, crossed her ankles and settled her skirt daintily.
"How did you find me?" Alucard asked.
"Oh! It wasn't easy! We could tell you had walked a dimension..." she began.
"Walked a dimension?" Alucard echoed.
"Yes, you left your home dimension. Didn't you know that?!"
Alucard looked up at this revelation. D nodded, as it was what he suspected anyway.
"I see. How, then, were you able to follow?" Alucard mused.
"Oh, familiars are used to it. Our home dimension is a little off from yours anyway. I just had to track you through the dimensions until I found you, that's all."
"So you, and the one who woke me..." Alucard started, looking up at D.
"I am a son of Dracula, from when he came to this dimension. It is something I have wondered for a long time," D confirmed, "I knew that father had the power to travel to other dimensions."
"This gem?" Alucard asked, touching the gem he now used as a cloak pin.
"I don't know," D shrugged.
"Demon might know," Fairy offered.
"Demon?" D asked.
"Another familiar, like Fairy," Alucard answered absently, "But how do I ask him? I don't have..." he trailed off as Fairy pulled cards from the tiny pouch at her waist.
They resumed their normal size and appearance as soon as Alucard took them from her. He fanned them in his hands, looking at his Sword, Demon and Ghost familiar cards.
"Where is your card?" Alucard asked, "And the card for Bat?"
"Such inspired names you gave your familiars, Lambchop!" Left Hand noted archly.
"'Left Hand', I hardly think you are one to make an issue of that!" Alucard sniped back, "And my name is 'Alucard' not any of the sick, food-inspired endearments you keep using!"
"Heh, heh! So, you noticed that!" Left Hand crowed, "Why shouldn't I use them? Don't forget how we first met, after all..." the rest of Left Hand's rude comments were smothered as D closed his hand tightly across Left Hand's mouth.
Alucard nodded his thanks to D and looked directly into Fairy's eyes again. She took to the air again on her leathery wings.
"It was...the only way," she said in a low voice.
"What was?" Alucard asked gently, alarmed at her sad tone.
"Sword, Demon, Ghost and I are all supernatural, existing partially in a dimension parallel to yours. We are...virtually immortal. Bat was just a natural creature, who bonded to you as a familiar. When you entered your long sleep..."
Fairy's eyes grew unfocused as she remembered.
"We realized that Bat would die of old age long before you woke again. I know you probably could have simply found a new Bat but..."
"What, what did you do?" Alucard demanded in a whisper, gazing with a sense of growing horror at the bat wings his Fairy now wore.
"All of us are devoted to you. You may not know it...but we are concerned for each other too. Demon searched and found the spell. And..."
Fairy reluctantly produced the card from her pouch and handed it to Alucard. He accepted it. Fairy stood on his shoulder again and looked down at the card in his hand as she explained.
"Demon used the spell to bind Bat and I together. That way, Bat could share my supernatural nature and not age and die..." Fairy's voice had a catch in it, "I really don't mind...but...I miss my beautiful wings!"
Alucard realized the card he held was Fairy's card and Bat's card somehow merged together. Alucard couldn't help but gape at Fairy and the change in her wings he now understood.
"And Bat? What about Bat?" he asked.
"Oh," Fairy ran a tiny finger swiftly under her eye blotting a tear before stroking her hand casually through her hair, fluffing it out prettily, "Bat is so happy to see you that it's almost more than I can manage to not dance through the air!"
Alucard smiled at that. He wasn't sure he would have allowed his familiars to do what they did if they had asked him...though he would have hated to wake up and find Bat dead too.
"Why you?" he asked gently, "Demon has wings almost like Bat's already..."
"Oh, it had to be me!" Fairy declared.
"Why?"
"Didn't you know?!" Fairy demanded.
"Know what?" Alucard asked, confused.
Fairy stamped her foot on his shoulder and pouted.
"Oh, you make me so mad!"
"What?! What did I do?!"
"You are such a...such a...MAN!" she spat out the last word almost as if it were a curse. Fairy jumped into the air again in disgust.
D hid his grin. He was pretty certain he knew what Fairy's and Bat's upset was. It amused him that Alucard was so blind to the reason behind it.
"Didn't you ever think to wonder?" Fairy demanded, glaring into Alucard's eyes as she hovered before him.
"Wonder what?" Alucard was becoming more confused.
"Whenever you assume your bat form, doesn't Bat fly closer to you?" Fairy asked in a more reasonable tone.
"Yes...what of it?" Alucard asked.
"Idiot!" Fairy glared at him again, "Didn't you ever realize that Bat is in love with you?!"
"In...love...?" Alucard echoed.
D nodded to himself. He was right! Poor Alucard!
"YES! Bat is in love with you, whenever you are in your bat form!"
"Then Bat is...is..."
"Female, just like me. That's why it had to be me who merged with Bat. Otherwise, there would be...complications."
"Oh," Alucard realized in a tiny voice. He had never really thought about his familiars when they weren't with him. He was surprised that they were able to function and interact evidently, in whatever place they went to when they weren't with him. And Bat...mortal, but in love with him?! What was he going to do about that?! Though Fairy and Demon seemed to have solved part of the problem...
"I...I'm sorry, Master! I shouldn't have been so harsh," Fairy began, alarmed at how pensive Alucard had become.
"No, don't worry. I never realized about Bat, that's all," Alucard reassured, "Either one of Bat's concerns, that is."
"Well, I found you," Fairy began in a business-like, almost bossy tone. D cocked an eyebrow. Of course he didn't know Alucard's Fairy, but her attitude seemed somewhat unlike what he would expect from a familiar. From the look on Alucard's face, it surprised to him too. Fairy rummaged for a third time in her pouch, "We thought it best to bring this to you."
She pulled out and offered a tiny pack to Alucard. As he took it and it resumed its normal size, Alucard realized it was his adventuring pack and from the weight, it was full of his items.
"How?"
"Magic!" Fairy chimed, "Now that you have all your gear, and your familiar cards again, perhaps it would be best for me to return to where I belong."
Alucard stared at Fairy's face for a long moment, finding the vulnerability she was trying so hard to hide under her abrupt manner. Alucard held up the Bat/Fairy card, "I can summon you again with this?"
Fairy nodded.
"Thank you. I left the sanctuary in such a hurry, I didn't think to bring my pack. That error has made things difficult for me. And I never should have left most of my relics, and your cards, behind," Alucard admitted, "I was just so angry..."
D filed that bit of information away. Alucard had been goaded to rash action by anger.
"Well, we found you and brought your stuff, so no harm done!"
"True," Alucard agreed, "Come here."
Fairy approached and floated before Alucard.
"Thank you for what you did too," Alucard reached out and stroked one of Fairy's Bat wings with a finger. Fairy shivered at the touch, "You make Bat's wings look very beautiful."
Fairy gasped, "You don't think...I look...ugly?!"
"Not at all! Thank you for saving Bat for me," Alucard smiled, "Now I'll let you go so you can rest properly. I will call you again when I need your help!"
As Alucard released her, Fairy smiled and flew upward. She disappeared.
"Ga-a-a-ag!" Left Hand complained, "Too sickeningly sweet! I'm gonna go into sugar-shock!"
"Shut up," Alucard advised mildly, looking at the merged Bat/Fairy card in his hand.
"Whatever you say...sweetie! I've NO idea how you can be any help at all since you are such a sensitive, touchy-feely type..."
D muffled Left Hand's grousing in his hand as he considered this extra-dimensional half brother. He knew the strength under Alucard's decency and manners, having seen Alucard in action and having felt Alucard's battle instincts for himself. He suspected that Alucard was significantly younger than he was though, since Alucard was still able to be so openly concerned for others and could be swayed by powerful emotions.
"Fairy seems to be a great deal more helpful and resourceful than you," D told Left Hand in a low tone.
"WHAT?!" Left Hand screeched, "D, I'll have you know...!"
Having turned Left Hand's loud, insulting attention to himself, D wondered again at the person who had waken and riled Alucard up, framing D for that action in the process. Was it Alucard that person wanted out of the way, assuming D would slay him for attacking unprovoked? Or was it D who was the true target? Would having his items and familiars back help Alucard or distract him?
"And another thing!" Left Hand paused to take in a deep breath and ranted on.
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Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com
Next Chapter teaser - Haunted Dreams