FIDGET, BATRISHAN PRINCE OF DARKNESS
Dracula's Demands
Year 1857, in the Land Without Magic
Fidget the Bat was now a hundred years old. He had been alive for a century now and still remained in his physical teenager self. And what was he doing to celebrate his 100th birthday?
He managed to obtain rare magic beans that could open portals in order to go and come back from the Land Without Magic with his new traveling mate Iago.
What was the Batrishan doing in a place like the Land Without Magic, where the realm's locals weren't as accepting towards magic as those as the Enchanted Forest? The answer was simple: after so many years of further research, blackmail, and other villainous acts in order to get closer to his goal of revenge on the codfish, he managed to gain the location of a demonic force that could grant him the access to invincibility. But that force was currently residing in the Land Without Magic in the most desolate and unwelcoming area in the most magic-rooted region in Europe since the dark days of the universe's creation.
The Broken Tooth Mountain of Transylvania.
"We should reach it anytime soon," Iago said. He and Fidget were covered in dirty brown cloaks and riding on the backs of mud colored horses. It would have been much faster for the two of them to fly all the way to the Broken Tooth Mountain, but with the...hostile welcoming traditions of the local humans towards non-humans like Fidget and Iago, wasting a week by traveling to the destination via horseback riding and disguising as human pilgrims towards a mountain that was said to be occupied by the Devil himself.
"Good," Fidget said quietly. They just had to go through a presumably haunted forest that served as some sort of perimeter around the Broken Tooth Mountain. With the night falling upon them, the forest was beginning to increase in its eerie atmosphere. Shadows from trees filled the ground and took the shape of dark ghosts slithering on the roots. Spiderwebs were shining from the moonlight with twisted silver silks.
"He really knows where to locate himself," Iago commented. The horses neighed in protests as they got deeper in the woods and closer to the mountain. Iago took note of their behavior. "Blast those beasts! They can tell we're heading straight towards his lair!"
"They'll have to keep moving if they don't want to convince me to give them to him as tribute!" The Batrishan snapped, causing his horse and Iago's to dash through the forest until they reached the rocky bottom of the fog-shrouded mountain. Obviously, they would rather die than become the dinner of the local's dinner.
Fidget and Iago got off their horses and looked upward at the Broken Tooth Mountain as it rose in the air and kissed the dark Romanian clouds. "So. This is where he resides," Fidget said.
"All the way up there, in the highest cave," Iago confirmed. "Do you want me to come with you in case he goes...violent?"
"No, my friend." Fidget patted the shoulder of his traveling companion. "I don't want to risk having you around in case he goes...as predatorial as the legends say. I'll fly on my own from here. Why don't you tend the horses and watch out for any passing human?"
"I can do that." Iago nodded. "Good luck."
Fidget returned the nod and spread his wings open. He could feel Iago watching him as he flew higher into the air until the fog eventually covered the mainland. A normal human would have probably taken nearly four hours to climb all the way up the mountain in order to reach the flat rocky area that led to the cave, but for a flying demon like Fidget, it only took him like eight minutes.
He reached the rocky platform and found the cave's entrance, which was held up by two columns that looked rather clean and perfectly solid...in a dark way. As Fidget walked into the cave, he passed through a corridor of flat walls that were decorated with carvings of bats, moonrises, and mobs chasing vampires. The Batrishan frowned at the setting as he got into the heart of the cave, which looked more like the sides were carved to make it look like perfect rectangles were rising from the ground and ceiling as more geometrical versions of stalagmites and stalactites. Every stone was well-polished and reflected Fidget's dark appearance at every inch of the cave as if shadows were watching over him.
"Well, well, well," a voice said quietly. "I've heard the legends and rumors, but never in my undead years did I ever expect to actually meet you."
A normal person would have looked around to see where the voice came from. Such a normal act would have been useless, since the cave's sole resident did not have a very visible reflection. But Fidget didn't have to do anything: he knew his host wasn't normal, so turning his head around or calling out 'Who's there?' would have been useless.
In less than a blink, blue mist appeared in front of him and spiraled upward until it revealed a tall man dressed entirely in black from his gentleman suit and tie to his cloak. His hair was groomed towards the back, his skin was pale enough for people to notice that there was no blood inside him to redden his cheeks, his eyes were blue, and his mouth had fangs.
Fidget frowned in confusion. "You're Count Dracula? You...don't look like what I expected. I thought I was dealing with some sort of withering ghoul."
"Humans," Dracula scoffed in his Transylvanian accent. "They think they know everything! Drinking blood, bah! Their blood is so fatty and you don't know where it's been. I prefer going with blood substitutes."
"I see," Fidget replied. "Any who, Count Dracula..."
"Call me Drac," the vampire said. "Most of my friends do. And I believe that you are commonly known as Fidget the Bat even though you are also feared as the Batrishan Prince of Darkness."
Over the passing decades, the dark Batrishan had managed to get quite a reputation for the 'minor evil deeds' (as he visualized them in his head) during his quest for revenge. People feared the last Batrishan (with most people unaware of Bartok's existence, Fidget was the designated sole survivor of the genocide), who has shown so far to be the cruelest that ever existed, for he lacked the altruism, benevolence, and wise righteousness that his people once had. Raised by humans prevented him from being taught the Batrishan ways and the backstabbing events of his life that drove him in the pursuit of revenge have made him do unimaginable things like murder, trickery, and other miseries. As his patroness and the Fates predicted, he became a terror known as the 'Batrishan Prince of Darkness'.
"So, what may I do to honor the presence of such a celebrity?" the vampire asked the Batrishan.
"There's a human who has destroyed everything I hold dear," Fidget explained. The tone of his voice indicated lots of anger in it. "I want him to pay severely for what he did to me. But my exposure to immortality is not enough to help me get rid of that codfish; he keeps slipping out of my fingers like a coward. I heard about your knowledge about the greatest power in the universe, Drac. Only you know the sister power of eternal immortality: eternal invincibility."
Dracula rubbed his chin in thought. "Are you certain you want such power?"
"On the grave of my cherished foster mother? Yes."
"Careful," Drac warned. "Do not misunderstand me, but I admire your desire to get revenge on someone from that ghastly human race. But eternal invincibility is not like eternal immortality."
"What's the difference?" Fidget frowned.
"Both of them are potions that will consume your very soul. But while eternal immortality can come through ingredients found in the wild and a witch's shop, the potion for eternal invincibility can only be created by the successful results of five deals done with five immortals."
"Excuse me?" Fidget nearly choked.
"You heard me." Dracula waved his hands in a circular motion, creating a small storm of blue clouds to form within the cave. While the cave darkened, the cloud brightened and showed a series of red apparitions while Dracula's voice deepened and his eyes glowed with red.
"Five scrolls for five contracts." Five scrolls burning in red flames floated in midair. "A burning pentagram born from the five pacts." The scroll apparitions took positions in the air and formed a perfect pentagram, symbol of witchcraft. Fidget watched in awe as a black humanoid figure floated towards the five-pointed stars and stopped once it reached the center. "A pathway towards great power and the downfall of kindness' willpower." Soon, the apparition's humanoid silhouette was engulfed by the pentagram's burning branches, causing the blue cloud to explode and the humanoid apparition to increase in size until it was larger than Fidget and Dracula and surrounded by a dark aura that sent waves of power through their bones.
Dracula snapped his fingers and made all the grand showcases disappear, returning the cave back to normal. "So it's simple, really," he said in his normal voice. "Bring me back your five deals with immortals and I will cast the spell that will grant you the invincibility that you desire."
"You make it sound so easy," Fidget mumbled.
Later
"...And then he said: 'Well that's what immortality is for!'" Fidget told Iago as they rode away from the Broken Tooth Mountain to the location they were planning to use as a departure point back to the Enchanted Forest.
"So it can be any immortal?" Iago asked.
"That's what he implied." Fidget shrugged. "I have an idea of who to start with first."
"Really? Who?"
"My patroness. Kaïra Lokisia, the goddess of the in-between deaths," the dark Batrishan declared. "It's worth a shot. I mean, I do owe her for blessing me with a foster family when my own biological parents abandoned me when I was an infant."
"So you're just gonna go to her kingdom in the Between Underworld of the Aesir and say: 'Hi boss! Remember that debt I owed you? Well I want to use it in order to gain invincibility!'" Iago looked rather deadpanned. "That will work."
"I can always try." Fidget tried to sound optimistic. "Otherwise, what would you suggest?"
"If I were as desperate as you? I'd try making a deal with the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin. With his hobby on making deals for the near-century or so, you probably won't have to suffer from his prices since you don't love nothing anymore."
"You might be right," Fidget considered the notion. "I'll check on the Dark One after I check my patroness."