A/N: YAY! Chapter 3 is here! Once again, MAJOR thanks to everyone that reviewed both chapter 1 and 2... You have no idea how happy receiving reviews makes me. Also, a big thank-you to my friends, Charmaine and Jessica W. who both read the story – thanks for your support! I'll do review replies again as well, and just before I get into the story, the atlas we have at home was printed in 1969, so if any names in Ireland are wrong, please forgive me. At least I'm trying. Now to review replies!
Review replies:
silver-wolf: smiles I'm glad you love the story. The elves will make an appearance in this chapter, but I can't say what kind of elves, you'll have to read the chapter! (I'm mean, aren't I? It's nothing against anyone, I just don't want people reading the review replies and finding out the storyline without reading the story!) Anyway, thanks for reviewing!!
silver-shadow: You know, I smiled instantly when I read your review. I don't like being arrogant, and I'm not really sure of my skills as a writer, but I'll try and give myself more credit. I'm glad you like the story, and thanks for reviewing.
dontuwant2know: Thanks for feeling so strongly about this fanfic. I guess I agree with you because all of the reviewers have said this is a good fic. Thanks for reviewing!
Lady of the North: Intriguing... No one's described my fanfic like that! But that's a good thing! Lots of people are looking forward to my elves, and hopefully I won't disappoint them (and you). And I'm glad I got Carl in character, 'cause that was one of the things I was worried about! Thanks for the review!
Nini-Mouse, Electrocuted Sheep: (Just quickly, your new pen name's cool! ) Once again, an amazing review. I'm thankful that you take the time to do such thorough reviews. I probably should've warned the readers about the dream at the end of the flashbacks, but I forgot; my bad. I hope you like the elves and Mr. Seamus O'Shanesey (I'm glad you didn't think it was stupid!), and I'm glad I've got Gabriel and Carl in character. Also, I've read some of your fics; I didn't read the HP one because I haven't read Order of the Phoenix yet, I LOVED the LotR one-shots, but haven't gotten around to reading the X-Men fic or Van Helsing poems yet. Thanks for your great review!
Okay, now let's do the usual here: I don't own Van Helsing... But wait! I own the elves, Amara and Seamus O'Shanesey! I OWN SOMETHING! YAY! (Sorry about that!) Now onto Chapter 3!!!
Chapter 3
It had taken longer than they originally thought to get to Ireland. Van Helsing and Carl were stuck on that boat for almost four months straight, and, especially for Carl, it was one of the most boring experiences he had gone through. He could've simply read throughout the entire trip, but he couldn't fit enough books into his bag.
Gabriel, meanwhile, had a lot of time just for his thoughts and angst over Anna's death. Of course, he often thought about his mission and the unknown strength of Seamus O'Shanesey, the warlock, but often he found himself thinking about his transformation into the werewolf. Lately, every time he would go near Carl, the friar would tremble and turn pale. He was hiding something, but whatever it was, he was hiding it well.
Carl had found something in his book, "Vampires and Werewolves: The Hunter's Handbook", and it really made him fearful of what was happening to Van Helsing. Sometimes, from his room across the hall, Carl could hear the monster hunter cry out in his sleep, but sometimes it wasn't even a cry. Sometimes it was a howl. Whatever was happening in his dreams, it was getting worse.
She knew He was coming. They all knew it. But only she believed it; deep in her heart, she knew it wouldn't be long.
So many around their clan had already been exterminated, so it was true to say that they were next. No mumbo-jumbo magic would save them from what would come. Her brother had tried to convince her that they'd be safe, that no evil could enter their sacred place, but she didn't believe him.
He'd probably go after her last. He'd let her watch as He stole the life from those she loved, and then He'd do the same to her. Their leader had once said that if worst came to worst, he'd make sure that she could get away safely, but... It was ludicrous. No one could escape Him.
No one.
Gradually, Gabriel awoke. The slow rocking of the sea comforted him slightly, but it was perhaps the only comfort he'd get in a long while. Anna had come to him in his dreams again, but not to console him; no, when she appeared, she had her back to him, and was always just out of his reach. It was almost as if she was taunting him.
That had probably been the last rest he'd have in a long while. Last night he had been informed that they were less than a day away from reaching Ireland, and pretty soon he would have to face his new enemy, Seamus O'Shanesey.
He finally got himself out of bed and slipped into cleaner clothes, and then made sure he looked like he had actually gotten some sleep. If Carl knew about his restlessness and his odd dreams, the friar would surely get worried.
Van Helsing met Carl out on the deck of the ship, where they watched as Ireland got bigger and bigger. The friar had all his baggage with him, and looked sourly at the monster hunter; Van Helsing had given Carl all his weapons, and now he had to carry them! And on top of that, he felt sea sick!
Van Helsing wanted to keep to his thoughts for the few hours they had until they arrived, but Carl was persistent on telling him about the elves they would surely encounter.
"They really are amazing things, Van Helsing!" Carl said, opening a book to a page he'd marked. "Tall, graceful and peaceful beings with acute senses of sight and hearing... They forge some of the strongest swords and knives, and are excellent bowmen as well! They don't age or are affected by diseases, and the only way they can die is if they are killed in battle... Oh, wait a minute..."
Van Helsing looked at Carl when the friar didn't speak again. "What, Carl?"
"It says here they can die of a broken heart..." he murmured, looking up at Van Helsing. Instead of getting an emotional reaction of any kind, the monster hunter gave a quick nod before turning his attention back to the rolling waves.
"Is there anything else I need to know? Can they cast magic spells? Do they have any odd ways of protecting themselves and their villages?"
"No, they cannot cast magic, and they have their bowmen shoot down any suspicious things coming towards their home. We should be careful, Van Helsing. They're extremely cautious, and don't trust mortals an awful lot."
Van Helsing nodded again, and Carl couldn't help but speak his mind.
"Have you been feeling alright lately, Van Helsing? You look like you haven't slept in days."
"I'm fine Carl." Gabriel muttered, but the blond friar wouldn't let it pass.
"No, you're not. I've heard you almost every night since we left the Vatican; you've been having nightmares about Anna's death, haven't you?"
"I said I'm fine, Carl!" His voice was more heated this time, but Carl had come too far to stop now.
"Van Helsing, please, let it go! It's not healthy to be beating yourself up about it, when it wasn't even your fault!" Carl was stopped abruptly when Gabriel shot him an angry glare, his eyes becoming that feral gold colour again. He suddenly remembered what he had translated from the moving picture in Transylvania; "Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms, and the moon is shining bright... Or crave another's blood when the sun goes down, and his body takes to flight". Carl didn't realise he has spoken the words aloud, and Van Helsing's eyes narrowed in anger.
The monster hunter grabbed the friar by the shoulders and held him over the raging sea, the weight not seeming to bother him.
"What do you know, Carl?!" Gabriel shouted, scaring the friar even more than he already was.
"Nothing! I know nothing!" he shouted back, but that wasn't the answer Gabriel wanted. He dropped Carl closer to the waves, getting a cry of surprise and fear from the friar. "Alright! I read about some side effects from the werewolf venom!"
Gabriel tightened his grip on the friar before pulling him back up onto the ship. Carl dropped to the floor, shaking, the bottom of his robes drenched with water.
"What side effects, Carl?"
"I-In the book I have, it says that if you don't cure someone before the twelfth stroke of midnight, they'll be consumed by the curse."
"I already knew that, but it doesn't matter, because I was cured in time!" Van Helsing said, and Carl looked at him, still breathing heavily.
"No you weren't. Anna administered the cure just after the twelfth stroke, so although you cured in more ways than one, most of the werewolf venom was left over."
"What does that mean then? That Anna's sacrifice was in vain?!" Gabriel shouted angrily.
"Not completely in vain, Van Helsing. You still have all the "attributes" of the werewolf, and you can still transform, but you can choose when, and you'll have control over yourself." Carl reached into his bag and handed "The Hunter's Handbook" to Van Helsing. "This is where I found the information. It would explain a great deal more if you read it yourself."
Gabriel took the book, and Carl stood up. Before he could wander off, Gabriel grabbed the friar's robes. Carl looked down at him, and watched as the hunter's eyes slowly returned to normal. Van Helsing was left shaking, but he was himself. "I'm sorry about that, Carl." He whispered, and the friar nodded his head. Van Helsing released him, and Carl left the man to him thoughts.
Van Helsing had read most of the book by the time they finally arrived at the port. He shoved the book in his small bag that Carl had given him, and then headed out of the cabin. He met Carl and the two left the ship, heading towards the small village of Dublin. Gabriel also made sure his face was well hidden; he was still the most wanted man in all of Europe.
As they entered, a girl stepped out in front of them. She was about Carl's height, with odd silvery-white hair and ice-blue eyes. She smiled at them, then bowed. "Welcome to Dublin. I am Amara; hunter extraordinaire and local... "mystic". I am your contact."
"We didn't know about a contact." Van Helsing said, suspicious.
"Of course you didn't. Cardinal Jinette didn't mention me because he wanted to see how far you could get without my assistance. Obviously..." she looked them over. "You wouldn't have gotten far."
"What do you mean?" Carl asked, and Amara smiled.
"You seek the elves. They inhabit the forests." She pointed to a worn path that led out of the village, past the docks and into a large, nearby forest. "You can't reach the forests by going through the village; that's the only road." With that, she bowed again, and disappeared into the crowds.
Van Helsing watched for her, before turning and going down the path. Carl quickly followed him, and a few minutes later they entered the forest. It was dark, and the trees swayed in what seemed like a rhythm, their glossy leaves almost reaching out to grab them.
Carl had goosebumps all over; he had seen some pretty spine-tingling things one his first mission, but for some odd reason, this forest scared him more than all of those things put together.
As they walked, Van Helsing swore he could feel someone, or something, watching them. They walked further into the forest, with Carl fighting the urge to speak; he didn't want to upset the stillness of this odd place.
Finally, he got his tongue to work. "Van Helsing, where do you think the elves' village will be?"
"I thought you'd know that." Gabriel murmured back.
"I only know what they can do, Van Helsing. I've never seen one of their villages, or whatever they call them. How long have we been walking, anyway?"
"I don't know, Carl..." the monster hunter replied, before he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He just froze in the middle of the road, leaving Carl to stop beside him. The friar looked at him for a moment, before trying to snap him out of his trance. "Shh, Carl!"
The friar stopped and looked at his friend. "What is it?"
Suddenly a look crossed Van Helsing's face, and he leapt to the side just as somebody swung down from a tree branch just behind them. The person kicked Carl in the back, which sent him sprawling into the ground. The person then pulled out an ivory knife and was about to hurt Carl when it was grabbed by the back of the neck and slammed into a tree trunk, courtesy of Van Helsing, whose eyes were glowing gold again.
The person's hood fell back, revealing a girl that couldn't be older than sixteen. Her face was pale, but her bright green eyes were full of life. Her hair was an earthy brown with streaks of the sun, and there were markings on her face; some kind of battle tattoos in an almost invisible grey colour, one under her left eye and another running down the right side of her face, placed right where her bones were. She was just shorter than Carl, and her ears were also pointed; she was an elf.
Van Helsing stared at her for a moment in astonishment before he took her knife and held it to her throat. "Who are you and why did you ambush us?"
"I... I thought you were Him, I thought He had come back for me!" the elf shouted back, staring back at Van Helsing in fear.
"She doesn't look like the elves from the books!" Carl said as he got to his feet, walking closer to look at her. "She might be a spy for Mr. O'Shanesey, sent here to trick us!"
Van Helsing growled suddenly, pressing her against the tree harder. "Give me one good reason not to kill you!"
"I'm an elf! One of the elves you were sent to protect!" she hissed, trying to draw in a breath. "My name's Lyridana! Please, let me go!" Gabriel sighed and released her, but he didn't hand back her knife. She leaned against the tree, coughing. "I've never known a werewolf to let go of his prey..."
With that, Van Helsing spun around and stabbed her through the stomach, which also pinned her against the tree. Carl covered his mouth as he watched the elf splutter and hold the wound. As Gabriel looked on, she pulled the knife out and dropped it, looking at him as she gasped for breath; she wasn't dying.
"It said in the book that elves can be killed in battle, so why aren't you dying?" he asked, and she managed a smile.
"I didn't fight, did I?" Lyridana said breathlessly as she ripped off a piece of her top and held it against the wound, which had already started to stop bleeding.
Van Helsing watched her every move. "Where's your home then, Lyridana? Where are the rest of the elves?"
Lyridana's face paled, and she pointed to directly in front of her. "Keep walking straight until you reach a clearing, Werewolf. If you walk into the trees just beyond there, that's our home. That's where you'll find them."
Gabriel gave her one last glare before he stormed off in the direction she told him. Carl lingered for a moment, looking at the elf with interest, before he followed his companion. Lyridana watched them disappear, before she reached up into the tree branches and pulled down her things; a bag, a bow and a quiver full of arrows. Slowly she began to follow them.
Just before they reached the clearing, the ground started to go into a steep descent. As they entered the clearing and neared the trees ahead of them, everything became deathly silent. The birds stopped chirping, and even the wind stopped blowing through the grass. These trees seemed so much larger than the other ones, and as they entered the wood, Van Helsing spotted something; a sentinel box was built into the tree, just below the canopy of leaves.
As they walked further in, Carl and Gabriel began to spot more and more "tree houses". The deeper they walked, the more appeared. As they were walking, Carl suddenly tripped over something and fell to the ground.
As he was getting up, he looked at the thing that had tripped him; to his surprise, he found it was a body. He rolled it over and gasped. "Oh my God, Van Helsing..." he murmured, making the monster hunter turn around. "It's an elf..."
Van Helsing instantly ran to another body he had just spotted. "It's another elf, Carl." "
They... They're all dead, Werewolf." Carl and Gabriel turned to see Lyridana standing over the body of an elf, a look on her face that could either be grief or hatred. She walked amongst the dead elves, seemingly looking for someone.
"When did this happen?" Van Helsing asked, following her as she walked.
"He knew you wouldn't arrive in time, so He attacked us." She said, stopping and turning to face the man. "So much for protecting us, Werewolf. I could very well say that you're the one responsible for their deaths."
"Who's "He", Lyridana?" Carl asked, stopping the elf in her tracks.
"The one the whole world will come to fear in due time. The dealer of Death and the stealer of Souls. I believe you call him "Seamus O'Shanesey"."
A/N: Ohh, scary! Not really, perhaps a bit over-dramatic, but I had to make Seamus sound evil. I'm afraid I was a bit vague with the elves, and especially Lyridana, but I had to stop it at a point where I could continue easier. There'll be more about Lyridana and the elves next chapter, I promise. A whole talk around the campfire, in fact. So please, don't yell at me because there weren't many elves here. (Btw, I apologise to all those Carl fans out there; I wasn't going to have him kicked in the back originally, but it was the only way to introduce Lyridana. Hey, at least I had her stabbed for hurting poor Carl, ey? Please forgive me.) (Lyridana was referred to as "it" and "the person" until her gender was revealed, so that's why there was a lot of "its".)
(Also, I didn't know how long it would take to get from Rome to Ireland by boat in the 19th century, so I just said four months. If it's wrong, please forgive me. Again. LOL, I'm asking for a lot of forgiveness, aren't I? )
(Just off the topic, but I need some help, if people would be kind enough to assist me. When you first post a story, the first chapter is always titled "Default Chapter". Can anyone tell me how to change it from Default Chapter to your own title? If you know, please tell me how! Thanks.)
Anyways, please review; tell me where I went wrong and I'll try to fix my mistakes. NO FLAMES THANKS! Please review!