Chapter 5: The Danger in the Pass

Disclaimer: I do not own Castlevania or the characters that are a part of Castlevania.

They waited for Alucard to calm down a bit before they walked over and Sonia put her hand on his shoulder to see if he was back to normal. That demonic blood lust that was emitting from his body had chilled the bones in Simon's body and made Simon begin to question his new ally because he was, after all, the son of Dracula. After waiting for things to finally calm down, the trio started to walk out of the room through the opposite exit, walking past the piles of treasure that were amassed in the room, and they continued to explore the caverns that lay ahead of them. For a long time nobody talked about what had happened, it was unimportant and would only make the entire situation awkward, something they didn't need to happen at the first step in their miles long journey that would take them to far places. The coldness of the underground swept its chill into their souls, except for Alucard who felt at ease when it was cold, but for some reason felt to uneasy when he was put into a warm environment, probably due to his dark blood line. The darkness of the cavern was only remedied by the pale light of the moon stones and diamonds that seemed to be powered by the number of dark souls in that were buried deep beneath the caverns.

"Are you sure this is the right way," asked Simon as he began to find everything familiar and couldn't tell whether they were getting closer to the exit or just going around in circles.

"Everything seems to be coming back to me the deeper I go into these caverns, probably by some magic, of my father's," replied Alucard as he moved out of the way of stalagmite. "It seems that what was once just a feeling or instinct has become a recollection of my time travelling through these caves to see how the digging was going. We should be coming up to the passage out of here right now."

"Well it seems like coming through this way has not caused any great calamity worth mentioning unless you count Ihmotep," said Sonia and then they came to the pass that was right in front of them. "Is there anything important that we need to know about this pass, like anything that could get us killed?"

"Not that I can recall," replied Alucard, but he sounded unsure of himself, like there was something that he was supposed to remember.

"Well then I suppose it's good for me to walk then," said Simon as he took a step closer, but he was soon stopped by Alucard's hand on his shoulder. "What is it, have you remembered something about this pass that would make crossing it hazardous?"

"It's just an instinct, but for some reason it's not like the others, it's fainter," replied Alucard as he took his hand off of Simon's shoulder and stared at the ground before them. "I sense nothing from the ground except death, this is an ominous place."

As soon as the words left his mouth, dead hands with pale green rotting skin sprouted out of the ground like flowers and they reached out to grab at the Dhampire with their crinkled rotting hands, but were all crushed beneath his boot. The ground shook with such a force that it almost made Alucard lose his balance, but he was able to stay upright as corpses popped out of the ground, all with white eyes that showed nothing, not even the basic signs of conscious thought. It was only natural that the ghouls were mindless otherwise they would be a lot harder to control, but they weren't the best soldiers or guards. Slow moving and very awkward, the ghouls were easily destroyed by the lashing of a whip, the thrust of a spear, and the slash of a sword. Yet they weren't getting anywhere anytime soon as more ghouls popped out of the ground and it seemed as if there were a thousand corpses buried under the earth. Along the pass was a ridge line that was most likely used as a way to get by the ghouls, but at that moment it was the area of the heaviest concentration of ghouls, so it took a while for them to get to it. It was only after an hour of fighting that they were able to brush past the army of ghouls and by that time all three were tired from swinging their weapons to have to deal with anything else.

"Throw some holy water every ten feet so we can keep some distance," advised Alucard as he led the way out of the cavern through the pass.

Simon did as he was advised to do, heaving a bottle of holy water behind him to start a fire that would keep the ghouls at bay for a while. In the mean time, they made their way out of the cavern, finally catching scent of something other than rotting flesh and god knows what. They decided to rest for a while so they could regain their energy and plan for where to go to next. Alucard used one of his fire spells to start a fire, while Sonia cooked the game that Simon hunted from the nearby forest, surprising how many living creatures there could be next to a mountain of death like the one they had just left. The sun was just going down, an ominous time for anyone in Transylvania while evil still walked the earth.

"From here, we can head towards Borgo Pass and make our way to the forests of the north," said Alucard as he traced the trail on the map with his index finger. "From there we can pass into the family's lands right here, where people have long forgotten about."

"So how many people live on this land, might I ask," asked Simon as he ate his dinner of rabbit stew that had a savory spice to it that Simon had never tasted before.

"The last time I was there, I'd say about twenty people in all," replied Alucard as he folded the map back up and placed it into his coat. "Though we should be careful of watching eyes, we never know when they are watching us or how they are watching us."

"Are you sure the family hasn't died out already if there are only twenty people there, it must have had some form of famine from the times that Dracula ruled these lands," asked Sonia.

"My father gave them the key and told them to hide it, that key opens more than one tomb, my father was careful not to turn their lands into dead lands."

"That seems very kind and generous for Dracula," commented Simon as he put his plate down and started sharpening his golden dagger.

"Well my father has a hate for humans, but he will make an exception for some," replied Alucard as he got up and started to stretch out. "I'll check around to see if there is anyone watching us."

"Alright then, be careful you don't get hurt or killed," said Simon before Alucard ran off and he could hear the cracking of bones and the sound of a wolf. "So strange that we have such an ally, but then again, it is unfair of me to judge him because of his father."

Iscariot walked from the next rooftop to the other, tracking the man he was stalking as he went around in his ridiculous colorful coat and trousers. The man looked like some form of a clown, but that was not what Iscariot was concerning himself with, the only thing he concerned himself with was the information that the man had. Jumping down to the streets below, Iscariot made his way to the inn and tavern that the man was walking into, probably to enjoy the company of some woman of the hour that was waiting for that pretty silver that the man had in his pocket. It disgusted Iscariot how much the man was so fooled by the woman's tricks, being taken for a ride by her body. After two minutes, Iscariot walked into the inn and went up the stairs after paying the inn keeper the agreed amount of silver. He made sure his footsteps were very silent to mask his approach under the sounds of the grunts and fake moans before he slipped open the door.

"Sorry to interrupt her performance, but I have a few questions I would like you to answer," said Iscariot as he sat down on a chair next to the bed and lit his pipe.

"Look here, mister, if you want to talk to me you do it outside, don't come in here talking about this shyte," shouted the man as he moved to get his sword and he felt Iscariot's blade on his neck.

"Now then, you know where Elizabeth Bartelbey is, the only other relative of Dracula who knows where the family is," said Iscariot very slowly and calmly. "What I want for you to do is tell me where she is."