Thanks to new followers and beta reader floodmaster16.
October 31, 2015
Drac and his friends wish you Merry Halloween!
CHAPTER 22 - Sacrifice... ?
After the stormy start of the conference, the tempers subsided, and Mavis noticed that the dark and prejudiced glances of several monsters were now calmer. Even the questions, which initially concerned the danger of humans, and now, they were just curiosity about everyday life in the human world. But the thing that did melt the hearts of the listeners was the story of how Johnathan and Mavis' first met, which caused an "Ohwww" to come out of several monsters.
Drac's idea was bearing fruit, even if the members of the Order of the Dragon remained silent and impassive.
The meeting lasted about two hours, until there were no more hands up. The count looked around, "Are there any more questions?"
Only then a mighty, red, and muscular arm stood up, but, despite its frightening appearance, in his hand there was only a pen and a notepad.
"Please, Mr. Oni." Drac cordially said.
The giant monster with red skin stood up. He had a thick, black beard and two horns on his head, and was dressed in tiger skin, "Since there are no other questions I wanted to ask: what will your formal position towards humans be now?"
Drac sighed, "I have learned about the human world, and now understand that we are not enemies as we once were. But it's still not the time to come out. Racism and violence are still rampant in the human world, and even though most of them are good people, just a few opponents can start a war. I will support the FMP, and I trust in a future of coexistence between us and humans. You can write, though, that I'm still formally a member of The Secret People."
This last statement was well received by all the monsters, both those who wanted to keep their distance from the human world and by those who wanted to see all peoples of the Earth together, who applauded satisfied.
"If we are done here we should head up to the garden, where the buffet is." The Count said, and, as he had imagined, the great room emptied in a flash.
"Drac? I have a question," Johnathan said, drawing his attention, "What is MPF?"
"FMP, Friend Monster Project. A project conceived by the humanists to teach humans that not all monsters are bad. In short, what is the difference between the modern monster movie and those that came before the nineties? In old movies, witches, werewolves, vampires, were all bad and were defeated by human heroes. But now, monsters are made to be the heroes, often marginalized and misunderstood. Many of these films were written, or at least inspired, by real monsters, in order to change the way we are presented to humans. Also, some toys were designed by monsters, there are now even dolls for girls that are monstrous."
Johnathan's eyes widened, "You mean to say that movies like Monster CO., Harry Potter, A Monster in Paris and Monsters vs. Aliens were deliberately made as propaganda?"
"Exactly" The old vampire said curtly.
The human's mouth widened, amazed, "And you mean to say that my Monster High..."
"Yes, even those... wait, you played with dolls?" The Count exclaimed, raising an eyebrow.
The boy, taken aback, jumped, "No, I mean... they're not mine... even Twilight was inspired by you?" He kept trying to change the subject.
"No, I've never heard of that title ... wait, is it that stuff with glittering vampires and people who haven't got any money for a shirt? I'll punish the author of this blasphemy in the worst way possible... "The old vampire growled angrily, having become so daunting that Johnathan ran away, and Mavis turning into bat to follow him.
The "discussion with the human", as it the meeting of questions and answers was being called, had just ended and everyone took a short break at the buffet lunch in the courtyard of the castle. The time of the day was definitely not the standard for many guests, since it was early afternoon, but did not discourage the hunger of all those monsters, who, as an angry horde, threw themselves onto the food-laden tables, and the zombie waiters could not do anything but let out sad and helpless groans before being overwhelmed.
"Let me guess," Mavis starts talking to her father beside her, both under the open door at the entrance of the courtyard, "It was the dragons who decided the schedules, right?"
Dracula sighed, "As you can see, they don't even try to hide their hatred of us. They want to upset our schedules to tire us, but I'm smarter than them" he concluded, and with a snap he called the witch maids, who came in riding their rumbling brooms, and began to fly in circles above the castle, causing a dense, black cloud above it that grew big enough to obscure the sunlight.
So, with a satisfied smirk, Dracula, Mavis and Johnathan were now able to approach the banquet.
The human looked around. There was something different from the usual hotel menu: roasted pork, bruschetta, and crostini, cured meats of all kinds, grilled steak, and various types of pasta. No, not at all of that stuff was cooked by Quasimodo. Drac seemed puzzled too, but all those delicious scents erased all his doubts, so, without worrying too much, the three of them armed themselves with a plate and cutlery and set out for the buffet.
Dracula was not very hungry, so he just grabbed a sandwich with roasted pork, but when he tried to bring it to his mouth, he was stopped abruptly.
"Noooo!" A booming voice echoed through the courtyard, above all the noise and the voices of all other monsters. Drac barely had time to turn and see that Quasimodo was jumping at him at full speed, and he could not do anything but being hit in the chest by the head of the little guy, which made him drop his sandwich.
"What the hell are you doing?!" the old count roared, angry for not being able to even take a bite of his sandwich. He took the little man from the ground and lifted him face to face. But Quasimodo was unimpressed, "Sir Dracula, I did it for your own good! Dragons have expelled me from MY kitchen and they have changed everything on my menu!" The cook complained adjusting his hat.
"It's not a big deal, you know?" Johnathan cried while eating a plate full of mixed cured meats and cheeses.
"My kitchen might not be good for humans, but this stuff is not suitable for you vampires! The last time I cooked Italian food you threw me on the hot coals where I cooked the steaks, remember?" Quasimodo insisted.
Drac was about to answer, but he was interrupted by heavy coughing from his daughter.
"M-Mavis? What's wrong?" Drac asked worried, but the young vampiress could not answer. She was red-faced, and due to the spasms she could not even cough anymore. She dropped her dish and slumped to the ground, but was held up by Johnathan.
"Garlic. Garlic everywhere!" Quasimodo said, "It's as common as salt in Mediterranean cuisine!"
The old count brought the midget close enough so their two noses touched each other, "Why didn't you warn us before?" the vampire roared menacingly.
"Drac, what do we do?" The human asked, worried, "Picking on him will not help Mavy!"
The vampire dropped the hunchback to the ground, who ran away scared, then he came up to his daughter, "Don't worry, the garlic is bad, but not lethal. You'll be better soon, although it will take a few days to recover completely." He said, stroking her cheek.
"A couple of days that you can't afford," An old hag stepped in. She was thin and tall, a few with white hairs and wrinkled face, but her pale pink skin made her look more like a human than the witches who worked in the castle. The strangest things about her were her gray and dull eyes. They seemed to be the eyes of a corpse, but she was far more lively and active than Drac's zombies. She was dressed in a black and tattered robe that smelled of incense.
She approached the young vampiress, looked into her eyes, and, without hesitation, she stabbed her in the chest, but before all the monsters around them could worry about what the mysterious old lady had done, Mavis opened her eyes and took a deep breath. She gasped a bit, but her throat was no longer swollen. Then she hugged Johnathan, who kissed her head to reassure her. The worst part was over, so he looked up at the old woman, "What was that, magic? Drac always said that there are no cures for a vampire in garlic shock."
"Magic? Monsters are too reliant on magic, forgetting that the world is based on science, not on magic." The witch said, opening his withered hand, which was not holding a knife, but a self-injecting syringe, "Five grams of adrenaline to block the shock and ten of cortisone to reduce the activity of white blood cells, that'll let you keep eating all you want."
"You're sure she doesn't need to go to the infirmary?" Johnny asked, still worried, despite Mavis recovering quickly, "My mother is allergic to bee stings, and when he went into anaphylactic shock the self-injecting syringe gave her only some extra time to get to the hospital..."
"Over a hundred times the lethal dose of adrenaline isn't good for a human heart." The witch said.
"But… are you a witch or a doctor?" Johnny asked, surprised to see a monster that combined magic and human scientific knowledge.
The old lady smiled, but soon turned serious again. A group of onlookers had gathered around them, who took on them and gave attention that they would have preferred avoid.
"Why is there a crowd in here? What happened?" Shin Ryu asked authoritatively, scaring many of the present monsters.
"You should know," The mysterious witch replied, "After all, it was you who organized this toxic-for-vampires buffet, driving the head chef out from his kitchen." She continued, without delay.
"Quasimodo is an incompetent cook, he would poison us all!" The dragoness countered.
"And I guess that choosing foods that contain garlic is just a coincidence. Its outrageous that you dragons believe that we monsters are so stupid as to be unaware about your sneaky plan to knock out Dracula. You are his guests and you repay him by poisoning him and his daughter? You dragons are honor less creatures!" The old witch knew how to make her words sharper than razors, and, in fact, got the desired effect. Ryu was blinded by rage, and, despite the small stature of her "human" form, she took the witch by her neck and lifted her into the air.
"Here's what you dragons are," The witch continued in a choked voice, but still clearly audible, "Violent and petty, ready to destroy whatever it is that you don't like..."
The dragon's queen growled in anger, but then moved her eyes towards the crowd attracted by the uproar, and only then she realized she had fallen into the trap of the witch. Whatever she had done, Drac and his friends were able to fight back, and once again the Dragons were losing the respect of other monsters.
Shin Ryu let go of the old witch, who stood back up like nothing had happened and went away, embittered, among the mutterings of monsters.
Dracula cautiously approached the old lady, "There are far too few monsters that use both magic and human knowledge. Hal, if you expose yourself like this, I can't protect you." He said in a low voice, so as to not to be heard by anyone, not even by Johnathan and Mavis, both worried and angry about the boy's irresponsibility.
"You caught me." Hal-in-the-old-witch-disguise said with a raspy chuckle, and then a hand rested on his shoulder. It was Mavis.
"Are you two conspiring?" The young vampiress joked, smiling, "I wanted to thank you for curing me. I would have been sick for days, but now I'm fine, and it's all thanks to you."
The woman reciprocates a loving smile and caresses the head of the girl who was unaware of who that old witch really was.
"Honey corpse, take advantage of the medicine's effect and continue with the banquet, I'm going to prepare something else for myself" Dracula said to his daughter.
"Honestly, I am not hungry anymore" She sullenly replied.
"Too bad, I wanted to see the face of our opponents when they see you eat peacefully" Her father replied, smiling.
Mavis sighed, "If it's for a good cause, maybe I can force myself!" She said, then taking Johnathan's hand and dragging him towards the tables.
Meanwhile, Drac and Hal entered the castle. It was deserted at the time, so it was also safer to talk inside.
"Why are you dressed like that?" Drac asked, "Are older women your new perversion?"
"They look for a young, tall, charming guy, so I decided to reverse my physiognomy. You can congratulate me, nobody recognized me... But regarding your other question, you should know I prefer young girls... your daughter for example."
Drac took her by her neck and lifted her off the floor, "DON'T. . SPEAK. OF. HER." He roared menacingly enunciating every word.
"Don't get mad Vlad, you're acting like Ryu." Hal quietly said, as if he was not being strangled.
Drac let go of him, "You're crazy to show yourself around. What the hell are you thinking?"
"Important news" The man-dressed-as-a-witch said shortly, "I found a little vipers nest."
The Count smiled in satisfaction, but a moment later a hundred monsters of all kinds broke into the lobby, armed with spears and colored armor, their helmets looking like dragon heads. They were dragoons and they were surrounding them.
Dracula clenched his fists in anger. Hal had been discovered, but when he turned to him, he didn't seem surprised or worried at all.
"I never thought I would ever say this..." Shin Ryu said as she came down the stairs to the lobby, stopping on the landing and putting her hands on the stone handrail, looking down at Drac and Hal in the middle of the room, surrounded by her warriors, "Thank you, Vlad, for reporting and bringing us the traitor... Hal, you must be really desperate for hiding yourself behind those appearances."
The old woman turned to Dracula, "How could you betray me?" She said, full of rage.
The cCunt raised his eyebrows in surprise. Despite what Shin Ryu had just said, he had not alerted the dragons.
"I trusted you." The old lady continued, and, with a flick of the hands, she threw him away, beyond the dragoons around them, and making him crash on the floor.
"Don't fight and you'll be given the right to a trial." Shin Ryu said.
"Tried by you?" The old woman replied. "At least the human judges are impartial towards the accused. You would kill me even I was innocent." With that said, he raised his sleeve to show a tattoo, but because of the wrinkled skin, it seemed just like a black incomprehensible scribble, "Stay away!" He continued in a threatening tone.
But none of the warriors around him yielded.
"But... what's that?" One of them muttered and when Hal heard him, he checked his arm, then, with one hand, he pulled the skin to smoothen it. Now the drawing was better defined, it looked like a complex ideogram, and only now was it recognized. In fact, all dragoons backed away a few steps and stood in defensive position.
"You wouldn't be that crazy!" The queen of dragons shouted, leaning over the balustrade.
"Are you willing to risk it? After all, what have I got to lose? You have no idea of how many surgeries I had to do on myself to reduce myself to these conditions. I'm exhausted and desperate." The old woman said. Then, she closed her eyes and her tattoo began to shine.
"CONTAIN HIM!" Ryu commanded and the group of warriors on the front line retreated to leave the field to a new group of monsters, who wore long robes of different colors. These surrounded Hal at a distance of a few meters and raised their hands toward him.
And then, only a blinding light.
It lasted only a moment, and when Dracula opened his cloak, with which he had protected himself, he saw the dragoon wizards on their knees, exhausted. Inside the circle that they had made around Hal was a magical sphere, like a slightly luminous bubble, that faded quickly, and within it the tiles were destroyed, as if there had been an explosion in there.
"W-what happened?" Drac asked.
"That's what I'm asking myself" Shin Ryu said while she reached him, "Too many things that don't fit in your friend's behavior…"
"He's not my friend." Count interrupted her.
"That symbol tattooed on his arm served as a trigger for a very powerful spell. It concentrates all the magic of a body and then re-emits it in an uncontrolled way, destroying the user both physically and spiritually. Luckily, my sorcerers have protected us, but I was afraid that they wouldn't be able to." The dragon's queen said, then shrugged, "I'm glad he's dead, one less problem that I have to worry about "She concluded, then went away, followed by her troops.
Drac stood alone for a moment. What happened left him speechless, but after a few minutes he returned to the backyard, where he was immediately greeted by Mavis.
"Daddy!" The girl called to him, drawing his attention. His face was still thoughtful and his daughter noticed it, but first she had to tell him something else, "Hal says you're a fool."
The old Count raised an eyebrow.
"Rather, he has just added that you and all the dragons are fools. Do you know what he means? And, what happened in the hotel? Many people saw a bright light just a few minutes ago." His daughter resumed.
Dracula smiled, "That guy's a lot crazier than Ryu thought..." He said with a chuckle.
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