Chapter 13: Questioning Vampires

There was a long sigh as the Dragonpriest sat up and turned toward them, mask obscuring his face.

"Who has awakened me?" He asked.

"It can talk?" Sonic shouted in surprise.

"Of course I can talk. Now who has awakened me?" Sonic raised his hand hesitantly, and the priest looked at him. "A Dovakiin?"

"Yeah...sorry."

The priest then noticed Martin. "And a dragon as well."

Martin bowed his head in respect. "Dovah-Sonaak," he said in dragon tongue.

"What?" Sonic asked. "I don't understand."

"Dovah-Sonaak means Dragon Priest."

"Oh. Gotcha."

"Why did you wake me, Dovakiin?" The Dragon Priest asked Sonic.

"I didn't mean to. I was curious what was in there."

The Dragon Priest chuckled. "You are looking for the Word Wall, are you not?"

"Yeah. It's right over there." Sonic looked over at the Word Wall. He walked over to it and felt power flow through him. "That's another one down." Sonic smiled at the Wall and turned toward the others.

"What are you going to do now, Dovakiin?" The dragon priest asked.

"Find the rest of them, of course!"

"Are you going to come with us?" Shadic asked the Dragonpriest.

"I have other things I must attend to now that I've awakened," the Dragonpriest said.

"Like what?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with."

"Where will you go?" Sonic asked him.

The Dragonpriest was about to answer when a roar sounded and they looked up to see Frobranir land. The dragon noticed Martin.

"Pick up a new friend, Dovakiin?" He looked at Sonic.

"This is Martin Septim," Sonic told him.

Frobranir looked at Martin in surprise. "You've woken up?"

"I have," Martin said. "The Dovakiin woke me."

"It is good to have you back," Frobranir said. He looked at Sonic. "Have you found your brother yet?"

Sonic shook his head. "Not yet."

"Then Martin and I will help you find him."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," Frobranir said. "Have you any leads?"

"Nothing much."

"I suggested that we look in caves and ask vampires," Martin said.

"Some of them might know something," Frobranir agreed.

"Where should we first look?" Sonic asked.

"Vampires can usually be found in caves. Besides that, I'm not sure."

"We found a coven of vampires in a ruin a week ago," Shadow said.

"I'd suggest you start looking there."

"Who is this 'Manic' you speak of?" The Dragonpriest asked.

"He's my brother," Sonic said. "A vampire that was kidnapped by a group of werewolves."

The Dragon Priest nodded. "I should get going," he said. "It was nice to meet you, Dovakiin."

He vanished in a flash of light. Martin smiled. "Well, we know where to go now."

He lay down and let Sonic, Shadic and Shadow get on his back. Martin flapped his wings and flew into the air as Frobranir followed him. After a while, they landed outside the ruins they remembered seeing vampires in.

"Well, here we are," Frobranir said.

"Hopefully we find something helpful," Shadic said.

"We'll wait out here for you," Martin told them as the three hedgehogs walked into the ruin.

"All right. We'll try not to take too long."

They walked into the ruin, looking around. Shadow changed into his wolf form and sniffed, trying to catch the vampire's scents.

"If they aren't here anymore, they left recently," he said.

"Is their scent here?" Sonic asked him.

"It is."

"How strong is it?"

"Strong. Like I said; if they aren't here, they left recently."

The werewolf looked around, sniffing. He motioned for Shadic and Sonic to follow him and went into a passage.

"How many do you think are here?" Sonic asked.

"The same as last time, I imagine," Shadow growled.

"We didn't see exactly how many there were."

"Hmm...would you like to find out?"

"I was kinda hoping you'd be able to tell before we ran into them."

"I'm not sure exactly."

"A vague number works too."

Shadow shrugged. "10, 15, maybe?"

"All right. Let's hope they're in a friendly mood."

The werewolf nodded and walked ahead. They soon saw some vampires in a clearing.

"Heya," Sonic said as he approached them. "I've got a question."

A vampire looked at him. "What is it, mortal?"

"Have there been problems with werewolves recently?"

"Once," the vampire said. "It was a few days ago."

"What happened?" Shadic asked.

"They attacked without cause. We fought them off, and fortunately have not seen them since." The vampire looked at Shadow. "I take you are not a part of whatever's going on?"

The werewolf shook his head. "I'm with them," he said, pointing to Sonic and Shadic. "We're looking for Manic. He's Sonic's brother, and a vampire. He was taken by werewolves."

"That's strange. There isn't any reason for them to kidnap vampires..." The vampire looked back at the others. "What do you think?"

"I'm not sure," one said. "It is odd that they would do that..." The wolf looked at Shadow. "Id anything else happen after Manic was kidnapped?"

"We did chase after them," Shadow said. "Someone used a paralysis spell on us to give the werewolves time to get away."

"That's odd. Someone must be working with them."

"So, on top of dragons and a war, we have to worry about something going on between werewolves and vampires," Sonic said. "Great."

"What should we do?" Shadic asked.

"Go ahead with our quest and help in any way we can while we're at it."

"Do you have any further questions?" The vampire asked.

"No. Thanks for your help."

Sonic and his family walked out of the cave. Martin looked at them. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Kind of," Sonic asked. "Apparently the vampires were attacked by the werewolves too."

"There must be something big about to happen."

"Do you have any idea what we should do?"

"Continue with what you have been doing."

Sonic nodded and looked at Frobranir. "Where's the next word wall?"

"The Word Walls are all over the place," Frobrabir told him.

"Any locations I should know about?"

"The tombs of the Dragonpriests. The Throat of the World." Frobranir gave something akin to a shrug. "Word Walls can be found just about anywhere if the place is old enough."

"How many do I need to find?"

"Need to find? As many as you want."

Sonic nodded. "I think we've found enough for now. I'd like to focus on looking for my brother."

"As you wish."

"What did the vampires say?" Martin asked.

"They've had problems with werewolves too."

"There must be something going on if the werewolves are attacking and kidnapping vampires."

"Maybe a werewolf could tell us?" Shadic suggested.

"We have a werewolf," Sonic said, pointing to Shadow.

"That doesn't necessarily mean they'll tell me," Shadow said.

"Where are the werewolves anyway?" Sonic asked him.

"Everywhere. You just need to know what to look for."

"You keep in contact with them at all?"

"A few of them."

"Would they help us at all?" Sonic asked.

"Maybe."

"Do you want to take us to them?"

Shadow thought about it. "It might help us find Manic." Shadow nodded. "We'll have to do a lot of running around. They don't exactly all live in one place."

"Where's the nearest place?"

"Windhelm."

"That's a long way from here," Shadic said.

"It's the first that comes to mind."

"Can you and Frobranir take us there?" Sonic asked Martin.

"If you want."

Can't we just run there?" Shadic asked.

"You don't want to ride a dragon?" Sonic looked over at Shadic.

"Well, I..."

"You?"

Shadic sighed. "I guess I could ride Martin. It's just that I feel like running at the moment."

"Then run. Just be careful."

The teen nodded and ran off as Sonic got on Martin. Shadow mounted Frobranir, and the two dragons took off.