Disclaimer: I don't own Castlevania, well, maybe except for all my original characters. Anything else, I know it's not mine. So, happy reading, all you lucky individuals who get to read my story!

808080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080

The Ring of the Wolf

Aleksander's Story

Darkness Into Light

August 13, 1723

268 miles outside Nürnberg, Germany

A lone man stood atop one of the hills that composed his surroundings, waiting for a young boy to return to him. Raven-dark, long hair billowed behind him, while gray eyes set in a pale face scanned the horizon. His clothes belied his experience, for he was dressed as a noble, with no marks or tears. He looked at his watch. He needed to wind it again. Well, if he didn't find what he needed in this city, he could always just go to look at the time. He spotted the clock tower, and noted it for future reference.

He drew his knife out of his belt, the only thing from his past. He ran his finger along the back of the blade, testing its keen edge with his thumb. The blade was curved slightly, and during his travels, he mastered using this knife as a weapon against thieves and bandits. It was custom made, with the family name "Belmont" imprinted on the blade. The handle was birch, with leather wrapped around for better grip. A finger guard ran from the crosstree to the pommel, so he could use it without having to worry about it slipping.

He looked up as the boy came running back to him, waving a paper around with the ferocity that only a boy can possess. "Here it is, here it is!" he yelled. "You wanted the old man, and I found him! Here is where he lives," he managed to spill as he caught his breath. Handing the paper to him, he kept his hand held out, waiting for payment.

"And as promised, here are your marks." He handed the boy five marks, patting him on the head, and sent him on his way. His gaze turned back to the paper in his hand, its contents seeping into him. He folded the paper and put it in his pocket, then headed down to the town.

"What is he doing here?"

"I wonder if he'll give us money."

"He's so handsome."

These were just a few of the comments that greeted him on his way into the town. True, he was a good-looking guy, but he had business on the brain, and nothing was going to stop him. He headed to the Commons and looked up at the clock. Ah, yes, twenty past four. He swept his hair back behind his ears, a few audible sighs accompanying it. He turned around only to find several of the town's maidens looking back at him, their parents or betrothed looking at them with contempt and the young man with jealousy. He turned back to the clock, and took out his gold-plated watch. It was meticulously made, with gold Romanic numbers, ivory hands, and an ebony face. In this light, it shone brilliantly. As he wanted before, he wound it to fit in with the time here, and he walked down the street in the direction of his objective.

He approached a seemingly simple bookstore, with a sign that said "Books" in German. He took the paper out of his pocket, and checked what was on it. Yep, this was the place. He tucked it away and walked in.

The shop was full of books. Absolutely full of them. A few people were perusing them, taking no notice of the newcomer. A hefty older man stood behind the oak counter, looking at him. The man could tell he was being studied, and in turn studied the gentleman. He didn't seem to be against him, so he let his guard down, but not too much. All of a sudden, a bustling man with an armload of books came careening out of the back room, almost knocking the young man over. He helped him to stay upright with all the books.

"Here, let me help you with those, old man." He took some of the books from him, making the older man's load lighter. He was waiting for the man to recognize him. It finally hit him like a load of bricks. The man's disheveled face lit up.

"Aleksander! What are you doing here?" he asked. "Please, come right this way." He glanced at his associate, who was staring dumbfounded at Aleksander, and introduced them. "Aleksander, this is Jans. He helps me out with the shop now and again. I'm not as young as I used to be, you know. Oh, and Jans, this is Aleksander, an old friend."

Aleksander, standing a good head higher than his host, chided him jokingly. "Come on, Friedrich! You're not that old! I should know better than that, of all people."

"Oh, I suppose you're right," Friedrich Heim responded. "Well, come on, come on, we haven't all day. I want to hear everything. Absolutely everything. You must have a lot to talk about, with all your traveling and adventures and such…"

Entering the back room, Aleksander interrupted him. "If you would shut up long enough, I would tell you, but since you want to prattle on and on, be my guest." He placed his stack of books down on a stand next to the door, while Friedrich prepared a place for Aleksander to sit. He looked around him, drinking in his surroundings.

"Here, boy, sit down! Sit down!" Friedrich was the only one who called Aleksander "boy" anymore, so it was a little strange for his ears. He sat where Friedrich had indicated, and reached for a cup of tea that sat on the table separating the two. "Now then, your travels," Friedrich prompted.

"Ah yes, my travels. As you must know, since we last saw each other, I have been all over the world. Well, I take that back. I've been all over Europe, which is more accurate. I've seen the French, Prussian, Italian, Spaniards, even our friends from across the Channel. I've learned at least sixteen different languages, and can speak them fluently now. I have learned everyone's superstitions, their food, their lifestyles."

"My, my, you are the globetrotter, aren't you?" Friedrich interrupted.

"Ahem," Aleksander cleared his throat as Friedrich got the message, "Anyway, I believe I have something that would greatly interest you. You were a student of superstition, if I remember correctly, and it seems like I've got a good one. On my way through France, it seems I heard tales of a "werewolf", as they call them over there." Aleksander noted Friedrich's eyes growing as he informed him. "They say it appears out of nowhere, taking their young women, and eating them. It will occasionally go after a man, but it loves to take the women. I was wondering maybe you would know something about it…" He paused, waiting for an answer from the old man seated across from him.

Friedrich leaned back in his chair, then stroked his chin, which had some stubble from not keeping up with his personal hygiene for the past several days. "Well, this news disturbs me immensely. I thought that old thing had been destroyed long ago…" Aleksander became immediately curious, wondering what he was hiding. He reached across the table and asked, "What is it? What is it you know? I believe it might help me somehow."

Friedrich sighed. "Your curiosity always got the better of you, as did your perception. You were always such a smart young lad. Alright, I'll tell you, but we must go elsewhere." He went back out front and told Jans to hold down the fort for him until he got back (which he was already doing), then came back to Aleksander and said simply, "Follow me." He pulled the blinds over the windows, and walked to one of the bookcases, and pulled out three different books, all of them on lycanthropy. All of a sudden, the bookcase swung inward to the wall, and a passageway opened up, leading under the store. Friedrich motioned for Aleksander to follow him, and went down. Wanting to know what this was all about, Aleksander followed him.

When they got to the bottom, there was a door with a lock, and a strange-looking motif on the door: two wolves coming together to form a ring, looking like they were eating each other, with a coat-of-arms that consisted of two swords crossed together in an "x" on a shield, with a cross on it. Friedrich reached into his pocket and produced a key with a wolf's head. He unlocked the door quickly, hurrying Aleksander inside and closing the door behind him.

The room was furnished as if they would need to be down there for a while. There were more bookshelves, this time on one side of the room. Two sofas dominated the left corner of the room, while there was a table and chairs in the opposite corner. A doorway led to a pantry full of food, where they could get anything they wanted. Another doorway led to some beds, with shafts going up to the ground to let in air from above. Two weapons rested behind a glass on the hearth opposite the shelves: an immaculately forged sword and a chain whip made of the finest links, wrapped around the blade. Aleksander walked over to the sword and whip, with Friedrich watching from behind. His gaze bored into the sword, seemingly going through it to the wall.

"That would be your inheritance. You are Aleksander Belmont, a part of the family that is destined to defeat the Lord of Darkness, Dracula."

"Dracula?" Aleksander asked, a bit ludicrous. "He's only a child's bedtime story to scare them into sleeping. Are you telling me it's a real person?"

Friedrich looked down. "Well, he's not a real person, per se. He is a demon that feeds off of people's fears, of their superstition, of their pure being. Your family has been fighting him ever since the Second Crusade, when he truly sold his soul to the Devil, and took on the powers of darkness. I was assigned to raise you, for there is another Belmont, Juste, who is the true heir to the legend. But for such a time as this, one other should be used, and that is you. I trained you, and let you go out into the world to complete your training for just such a time. But I am getting ahead of myself. You aren't going to go after anything as big as Dracula, you're going after this beast."

"Wait, you said you were assigned… By whom?"

"I'm afraid I must tell you… I am part of a group called 'The Guardians', who use their power to guard an ancient relic, the Ring of the Wolf. There haven't been any real werewolves around France for several centuries, so this must be the work of the ring. What I don't understand is why it has come into light now. Maybe your family history might play into this somehow, I don't know. What I do know, is that you need to go and defeat the monster while he isn't up to his full strength. Are you ready and willing?"

Aleksander thought about it for a few minutes. He scratched his head, wondering if he could do it, weighing the odds, and such. "Sir, I know I can do it. Just give me where and when, and I'll take this thing down."

"Ah, yes, that's a good lad. Now then, for your equipment. Obviously you know two articles, the sword and the whip. The whip is your family inheritance, the Vampire Killer. This whip has been used for centuries, defeating Dracula and his minions. This is a tried and true weapon. Now, this," Friedrich said as he pulled the sword from its glass tomb, "This was my weapon when I was in full service of the Guardians. This, I call the Watchman's Blade, and was entrusted to me from the leader of the Guardians herself. This blade has dispatched many a supernatural being in it's time, from werewolves to lesser vampires to ghosts. I want you to wear it. Here, play with it for a little bit, I'll go fetch the sheath." With that, Friedrich went away to look for the sheath.

The blade was shining even without any light in the room. It was a straight, two-edged blade, with a finely designed hilt. The crosstree was made from gilded steel, and the tang went the full length of the blade, making for a strong sword. The hilt was designed to take on a wolf's appearance, with two tails forming the crosstree, and a head forming the pommel. For the wolf's eye, a ruby had been used, and several garnets had been used to make up its teeth. The grip had been made from leather and wire, and wound up the length of the grip, for easier handling. He sliced the air with it several times, and noticed the weight of the sword: not only was it perfectly balanced, but it was also lighter than his knife! He thoroughly enjoyed it. He stopped swinging when he saw Friedrich come back with the sheath, which was leather and marked with many runes.

"Ah, here is the sheath. Yes, I see you have noticed its usability. It is very lightweight, and it has certain features that other blades do not, such as its blade cuts through the flesh of werewolves without the werewolf healing itself. Also, the blade doesn't break under the strain of a vampire. I made sure of that one myself, in case I had to go up against the Dark Lord myself. Now then, I must bid you on your way right now if you are to catch him before he gets to full strength. There is a passageway through here where you can get back up to the surface without being seen. Now away with you!" He urged Aleksander out of the room, out to the surface to start his adventure. Aleksander saluted him, and went out of the passage. Friedrich chuckled to himself, "He reminds me of me when I was his age." He went back to the shop, after making sure not to be seen coming from the underground room.

A strange presence filled the store around midnight. Friedrich, startled from sleep, grabbed the nearest weapon he could find (a book), and was ready to hurl it at the thing. The mist that filled the room materialized into the form of a man in black, in noble's clothes. Friedrich threw the book, but the man caught it before it connected.

"Friedrich, don't you remember me," the man asked the now puzzled old man.

"Alucard? Is it really you?" Alucard nodded, and a seriousness settled over Friedrich. "Let me guess, it's worse than I thought."

"You were right to send the Belmont. He is the only one who can stand the thing at its current strength. But alas, its power is growing. Not only has it realized what it can do, it also knows about my family. About my father." Alucard lowered his head, waiting for the news to sink in.

"He's headed to Transylvania. I was worried about that." Friedrich ushered Alucard down to the same room that he had pushed Aleksander out of to start this dangerous journey.

"He wishes to gain the power of Dracula. I must put a stop to him myself, but I am too weak. Sealing my power has taken some of my strength. It will return to me in time, but Aleksander has to ward off that beast before he can take all of Dracula's power." He sat down on one of the chairs as Friedrich planted himself on the sofa.

"So, that's why you came here. Why don't you send one of the younger Guardians? I know of several in Britain. Maybe they could help you…" His voice drifted off, and he was fast asleep. Alucard walked over to him, and draped a blanket over him.

"All right, old man. I will. Thanks for the advice." He walked to the entrance, turned into mist, and crept over the ground out of the shop. "Now I know what to do…"