As you can probably guess, loading the pair onto the wagon was rather difficult seeing as how I was currently one arm down but nevertheless I persisted in heaving the two of them into wagon one at a time. Somehow that actually didn't wake them up and I wasn't the only one surprised by that.
"Jeez. How hard did you hit these two?" Brain asked at seeing their still limp bodies.
"One of them I hit a nerve on the back of their neck. The other I think I just slugged a little too hard." I replied letting out a breath before pulling myself back into the cart.
"You know I'm not taking these two anywhere unless their restrained." Brane said looking over to the still unconscious bodies. I nodded at the logic and began to think. Odds were rope wasn't going to hold them. No it had to be something stronger than that. Chains maybe? I reached inside my cloak going through a dozen or so pockets that went far deeper then they looked before smiling. My arm ran back out through my sleeve with a visible silver chain wrapped around my hand.
"You keep silver chains on you?" He asked.
"Are you complaining?" I asked back.
"Nope." He replied cracking the reins and starting us back on the road. "Just weird is all."
"Like having the name Brain as a first name?" I replied.
"What's wrong with it?" He asked back, confused.
"You're the brains, you tell me."
How the hell could I resist? The guy's name was Brain was god's sake. "Just tie them up." He muttered back.
"You got a place we can go?" I asked towards the driver while trying to figure out how I was going to do that with one working arm.
"Yeah. A small cabin a few miles from here. Should be safe until we figure out what to do next." Brane replied as the horses picked up some speed. I nodded back while trying to stable myself with my one good arm as once again the other erupted with pain. I really needed to see a healer or some shit for this. I mean, it's not like I had some…. I smacked my head with my good hand as I tore through my cloak pockets yet again before finding one I was looking for. A simple red healing potion. It couldn't really be this easy, could it?
Not really thinking I downed the potion almost instantly. The taste was immediate an surprisingly tangy, similar to orange juice if I had to equate it a drink back home. I looked down towards my arm and immediately I noticed two things. One, my body had started glowing a light green color, and my arm was no longer hurting. Even stranger than those two things though, I could feel my broken bone repair itself. Like two magnets hitting each other. My entire arm was numb so I didn't feel a thing but I heard a distinct popping noise over the sound of the bumpy cart that also seemed to go unnoticed by Brane. When the numbness wore off and the glow vanished, I lifted my arm up and just moved it around for several minutes in disbelief. Then when I finally accepted that my arm fixed itself, I clenched my fist in excitement. I could actually get used to that.
"Hey Brain, how's your leg?" I asked pulling out another potion.
"Still broke, Why?" He asked keeping his focus on the road.
"Have a drink. On me." I replied handing him the crimson glass.
After his initial shock and awe and a little lie about not having any more, we continued on our journey to what I guess you could call his cabin. More of an abandoned sawmill but I really wasn't going to correct him on that. First thing we did was chain the pair to the bottom of a tall steel beam that stretched maybe twenty feet into the sky. Good thing too because not a minute later, one of them began to open her eyes.
"Go get some rest. I'll talk to her." I told Brane not leaving any inclination of wanting an argument with him.
"Gladly." Brain said quickly getting inside building. I stood there quietly as she blinked several times and groaning at what I could guess was a hell of a headache. Which judging by the dried blood on her nose, I might've had something to do with. When her eyes opened fully and she began to grasp the situation she was in, she began to panic. Growling loudly while pulling on the chains to try release herself. Interestingly though, she stopped when she saw her double chained up beside her still unconscious. I actually felt a little bad about it but that was good. Maybe I could actually talk to them.
"Hey." I said, making myself known. Her eyes turned to me almost instantly and any worry that she had in them vanished. Replaced by overwhelming rage. She roared and immediately pulled on her chains violently. Desperately trying to break off and doubtless rip off my head. She continued that spectacle for several minutes before I finally spoke again.
"Your not going break out from that. Those chains are solid silver." I told her. A look of shock appeared in her eyes as she tore her gaze away from me and to the chains themselves. She looked back over to the other vampire again before she returned to me. There was still plenty of anger in her eyes but it had calmed a bit, as she continued to piece together the situation she was in.
"What do you want?" She asked. Her voice surprised me in how cold it was. I shouldn't have been shocked, she was a vampire after all but still, Shally at least sounded like their was some life to her. This one sounded like she had been dead and rotting in the ground for weeks. After I got over that, I spoke once again.
"Answers." I said.
"As do I." She replied. "Where is Lady Shalltear?"
" Somewhere at the bottom of a mountain. I wouldn't worry about her."
"Liar."
"I am not. I'm Haon the Handsome. No the liar." I replied with a smirk. She didn't find that amusing however and I can't say I blame her.
"How did you get away?" She asked. "Lady Shalltear never abandons the hunt."
"She must've gotten preoccupied." I said back sitting down and crossing my legs. "Point is she's not here."
"I see. You're too cowardly to face my lady in combat."
"Too smart to face your lady in combat. Big difference." I shot back. "And you'll find it difficult to piss me off when you're the one who's captured." She growled yet again as I reminded her of her predicament before she continued.
"You won't get anything out of us." She said in a tone that I could only guess was assuming the worst. .
"I don't care about you precious Shally if that's what your worried about. I just want you to tell me about Nazarik." I said back.
Her eyes widened as she looked at me yet again with a renewed sense of anger. Okay, this was going to be a little harder than I had hoped.
"Look I….." I started hoping to clarify.
"You will not get a thing from us, Human!" She spat back at me before I could finish. "Nazarick will remain untouched from your vile hands."
"I don't want to touch it, I just want to…" I stopped talking as a wave of exhaustion hit me. I suddenly felt how tired I was just as the sight of the dark sky turning increasingly brighter came to my attention. I looked back to her and when I saw that her gaze drifted back to the other vampire beside her, I decided to call it quits for now.
"Fine. I'll try this again later." I said standing back up. Her eyes never left her compatriot as I walked back towards the building and they stayed there after I had closed the door behind me. I sighed heavily as I leaned against the door much to Brain's amusement.
"That tired from talking?"
"What the hell are you still doing up?" I asked back annoyed.
"I wanted to see if that stuff actually worked. Silver weakening a vampire is sometimes thought to be an urban legend. Like a stake through the heart or some shit."
"Well, it looks like it worked." I replied looking out the window towards the non moving pair. "But their going to be tough to get information out of."
"And what information would that be exactly?" He asked.
"Do you know what YGGDRASIL is?" I asked back to himHis blank look gave me my answer. "I didn't think so." I sighed. Let's just say, they know where a few acquaintances of mine are and I need to find them."
"So the other vampire was what?" He asked with a yawn. "Their captor?"
"God only knows. I'm making this shit up as I go!" I replied with a tired yell. He chuckled a bit at my reaction before yawning.
"Well, I'm calling it a night." He said just as a ray of sunlight blazed through a broken window.
"Right. I guess I'll take the first watch." I replied rubbing my eyes.
"Watch for what?" He asked.
"Hell if I know." I said with another sigh. He passed out not long after that, collapsing onto a rotting wooden chair. I set myself up against the window and looked back out towards the tied up pair. The one that awoke screamed out in frustration for a while still pulling desperately against the chains before finally quieting down. Whenever she did calm down though, her eyes were always on her companion. The sight of which made me wonder what exactly their relationship was. Friends? Sisters? Lovers?...All three? I sure as hell didn't have a clue, but at the very least it was clear that one cared about the other. Now all I needed to do was to convince them that I wasn't going to harm Nazarick. No small task considering my encounter with their little entourage as well as their current predicament. I did essentially kidnap….
I slammed my head onto the dusty window seal at the realization. It all came full circle. I leave E-Rantel to stop a kidnapping, and now I had just kidnapped two people.
"For fuck's sake." I growled at myself as I repeated the smash to knock away the impending grogginess of my lack of sleep. What I would've given for a coffee right then. It was here oddly enough, my thoughts drifted to the object that had led me out of the mine. I pulled out the contraption again and began to really look at it. It still had the outer design of a pocket watch if you asked me but looking at it again, the twelve markings where the numbers should've been seemed to be glowing a light blue color. Curious, I lightly tapped the symbol that would've been the three….and nothing happened.
Anti climatic? Well I thought so too. Kind of disappointed but nevertheless glad nothing bad happened, I set myself up against the window desperately trying to keep from dozing off. Which was kind of hard to do because the vampire was still desperately trying to escape. The rattling chains kept me After some time, which might as well been weeks, I was that tired. I walked back out towards them.
Her gaze remained as vengeful as ever but I wasn't really focused on her at the moment. I moved past her and towards the still unconscious other.
"Keep away from her!" She yelled pulling on her chains. I paid her no mind though and immediately examined the body of her friend. Her heart wasn't beating but she was a vampire so that didn't really worry me. Still though, I figured she'd be awake by now. Her face wasn't contorted in any way so she wasn't in any unconscious pain. At least not visibly. By all accounts she should've been awake so why the hell wasn't she?
"Great. Maybe I did hit her a little too hard." I said aloud not really thinking before reaching inside my cloak. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other girl grow a slightly confused look on her face as I pulled out a familiar potion.
"She won't choke on this will she?" I asked. I didn't get an answer. I was about to give it to her when it hit me. Healing potions healed the living if I remembered right. And since she wasn't technically living, this might just make things worse. I put the potion away and wondered if the opposite was true. Maybe if poison harmed the living, it could help the dead. I tore through my cloak again pulling out several vials of various liquids that I had honestly forgot I even had before finally finding one particular vial with a solid black liquid that might do the trick. Good old Rat poison.
You're probably wondering why the hell would I even carry that, but you gotta understand the rats back in YGGDRASIL were huge bastards. I'd almost caul them unusually sized. Right when I first bought a house, the first thing I bought for it was rat poison. Anyway, I silently prayed that this would work before pouring a good amount of it down her throat. After a moment or two her pale body began to emit a glowing purple aura and a rather loud popping sound came from her neck. Son of a bitch, I did hit her harder than I thought. I stood back up and within a few minutes I saw her eyes flick open. After adjusting to the light she looked up to me and rather unsurprisingly she tried to lunge. I however was too tired to move out of the way so less than inch from my face she bared her teeth in a low growl as the chains echoed through the area.
"Good morning to you too." I replied way to tired to care as I turned around and began walking back to the cabin. "Your welcome, Vampy." I said towards the other one before collapsing back into my little spot. I then yelled at Brain to wake up, which he did with a jolt.
"Yeah?" He said groggy as hell.
"Your turn." I said before finally shutting my eyes. Feeding poison to a vampire. I really was too good of a guy sometimes.
Once again, I awoke feeling like I had maybe got only an hour of sleep.
"Ah, still with us?" Brain asked as I rubbed my eyes.
"For now. Anything?"
"Nope. Just pretty quiet right now. Those two vampires hadn't really moved." He said with a noticeable chuckle. I looked out the window and saw the pair of them starring right back at me in a completely non-creepy and not spine tingling way.
"I think they like you." He laughed.
"You think your funny?" I asked back to him.
"I do." He said back. "I also think I'm hungry."
"And what am I supposed to do about that?" I replied.
"Nothing. I'm gonna go find us some food." He said moving to the door. "You just, do whatever it is you are doing with the vampires."
"Great." I said with a sigh as he walked out the back door. I looked back towards the pair whose stares hadn't faded in the slightest. Well at least maybe they'll talk now right?
"So, are we feeling better?" I asked towards the pair.
"Why?" One of them asked.
"Because I knocked you out."
"No. Why did you help me?" She asked.
"Because, I. Need. Answers." I said putting emphasis on each word to mask my annoyance.
"I knew it. You saved Reina just to get information about Nazarik!" The other vampire yelled out furious.
"No! For god's sake, I couldn't give less of a fuck about attacking Nazarick!" I yelled back matching her tone. "All I want to do is talk to someone ! I don't even care who. TouchMe, Momonga, HeroHero, Warrior, just somebody!
After taking a few breaths, I calmed back down. Looking back at their faces they had shifted to that of surprise and confusion. They looked at each-other and then back to me before the one called Reina spoke.
"You know of the Supreme Beings?"
"Supre...What?" I stopped mid word as the word had thrown me off.
She continued. "Lords TouchMe, HeroHero, and Warrior are all the Supreme Beings of Nazarick."
"Guild Members you mean? Why would they be called Supreme Beings?" I asked clearly confused.
"They created us." Reina said speaking in a tone of awe that I wouldn't have expected. "Us, the Pleiades, and even the Floor Guardians."
"Created?" I repeated back to them. How could they just create two people? The answer came to me just as quickly as the question. These two were NPCs. Or at least had been back in YGGDRASIL.
"So wait, Shalltear is what? A Floor Guardian?" I asked. I got silence in response as each looked away from me. Ok, I shouldn't ask about her in particular. Fair enough.
"Fine." I said once again sitting down opposite from them in the dirt. "Can you tell me anything then?"
"Not before you tell us how you know of them?" Reina continued. I sighed yet again before replying.
"I'm from YGGDRASIL." I said. Their eyes widened as I finished the sentence. "My name is Haon, the Handsome."The other vampire scoffed at the name Reina remained intrigued. "I'm hoping one of your, uh Supreme Beings might know how the hell we ended up in this new world. And if there's a way back home."
"And we're supposed to believe that? After you attacked us and Lady Shalltear?"
"Hey! I wanted to leave you guys alone! You attacked me first." I reasoned back. "I mean if that wasn't true, why the hell would I keep you two alive? Why would I waste a potion on you?!"
She went silent at that and looked away with a low growl.
"Look. If it makes you feel better, Shally actually knocked out two of my teeth." I said pointing inside my mouth to where two healthy beautiful teeth used to be.
"You got off easy Haon. Believe me." Reina said with a low laugh.
"I don't have a doubt. But I'm ready to let bygones be bygones." I said, leaving out the fact that I'm pretty sure Shalltear wasn't.
"Prove it." The other one ordered. "Release us."
"Are you kidding? You'll just go for my throat like last time." I shot back.
"I will not." She said in a false offended voice.
"No. You'll go for something else, I'm sure." I sighed. The three of us sat in quiet contemplation for a while as I tried to figure out where to go from here. We had officially made it out of the wanting to violently kill me stage but I still needed to earn their trust. And judging by their looks, that was going to take some extreme convincing. So I figured I'd start by getting to know them specifically.
"Ok can I at least get your name too?" I asked over to the vampire I had slugged in the face.
"Why should you get the privilege?" She asked
"Ok Vampy. I'm going to stick with that name." I said with a light laugh. She looked annoyed but after a quick look to Reina she sighed and spoke.
"….Remna." She grumbled just loud enough to hear.
"Reina and Remna huh? Cool." I said really liking the similarity. "And what exactly did you do under Shalltear?"
"We are Lady Shalltear's servants. Anything she asks of us, we carry it out without hesitation." Remna said quickly.
"I figured that part out, but what were you specifically created to be? Warriors? Spies?" I asked remembering their fighting skills from last night.
"Concubines." Reina replied simply and in a rather detached voice. Well I certainly didn't expect that answer.
"Ok….So are you two….related?" I asked rather hesitantly. Hey, if I didn't odds are I'd never get another chance.
"Related?" She repeated back to me seemingly confused by the word. I was confused before remembering she was created by the Supreme Beings themselves. She probably didn't have a clue what being related meant and she certainly wasn't related to anyone for that matter.
"Never mind." I replied quickly while shaking my head. That was too off topic. I looked up to the admittedly beautiful sky for a moment thinking about soaring through the thick white clouds that were floating by before remembering I had lost something very valuable. With a large groan, I looked back over towards the pair.
"Hey, can either of you fly?"
Well there ya go. Sort of a calmer chapter than last time but I felt like it should be. Not everything can be one huge fight for survival after all. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it. The Vampire Brides are interesting to write considering we never really got a feel for their personality in the series. But hopefully they turned out ok.
See ya guys later.