Bubbles awoke shivering profusely. A long wet tongue licked her back making her squeal and sit up quickly. She was outside in the snow, sitting in a conclave of some ever-greens which loomed over her. She had spent the night sleeping amongst the wolves, resting one of them so that she wasn't on the snow directly, and having the other two either side of her. Now, in the cold day there was only one, a pale blue eyed wolf. It sat looking at her, its tongue hanging out. It looked a little bit stupid and she couldn't help giggling slightly at it before brushing its snout. The wolf was amazingly large, almost as large as a man.

"Where are your brothers?" she murmured.

Just then she heard the sound of feet, she turned to see another wolf, one with black fur and green eyes that looked like they belonged to a cat more than a wolf. Beside him was...

Bubbles stared unable to believe her eyes...

Besides the wolf was her sister Buttercup!

Buttercup looked as stunned as Bubbles. She was wearing thick furs and on her back were arrows in a pouch. Around her waist was a short sword. She looked like a boy and a hunter.

"B-Bubbles!" she spluttered, "why are you here? Why are you naked?!"

Bubbles suddenly blushed and covered herself with her arms. "I...well...I was in the Castle Catiche..."

Buttercup's expression suddenly darkened, "say no more. Get on him," she indicated to the pale wolf, "and I shall take you to where I have been staying."

Bubbles did as she was told, but on top the wolf called, "but shouldn't we go to papa? He's all alone in the village."

"He is safer there. I have stayed out here because I found out what those...those monsters are! If I returned home, or if you do now, they will hunt you down and kill everyone in sight. They have the scent of your blood now, they won't let you go."

Bubble's head burned with the amount of questions she felt whizzing around her skull. She was also horribly cold and could feel illness coming upon her.

The strange troupe went deep up one of the Little Carthapians Hills. This particular one was full of ever greens which scented the area strongly.

Eventually they came to a small cave which was surrounded by strange markings carved into the stone.

"These runes keep out the vampires," explained Buttercup.

"Vampires? Is that what they are?"

"Yes. They are the un-dead. Abominations in the sight of god that prey on human flesh, they find pleasure in the misery and suffering of others and rely on blood of living humans to keep their own demonic vitality sustained. The precious Princess up in that castle particularly thirsts for pretty young women."

They walked into the dark cave. All over the walls were chalk pictures of humans fighting what looked like flying humanoid monsters, and more strange runes.

Deeper in a warm glow of a red-hot fire lit up the dingy surroundings. There were various furs and meats on the ground packed neatly. Bubbles climbed off the wolf and gratefully huddled up in a warm fur blanket. She sat by the fire and felt her skin tingling with the sensation of warmth and long last. Buttercup slid thick fur boots on her feet which looked like they were suffering from acute frost bite. She clenched her teeth, wondering if Bubbles would end up having to have her feet removed but said nothing.

"You've been here all this time?" said Bubbles after several minutes of silence. She couldn't imagine sleeping in such a scary place, especially knowing what was living at the bottom of the hills.

"Yes."

"Do the...the vampires know you are living in here?"

"Yes. At night they stand outside the cave and talk to me." Buttercup harrumphed, "it's very irritating."

Bubbles watched her with wide eyes. "How do you cope with that? I'd go out of my mind!"

"That's what they want, they want me to go insane with fear, but I won't let them do that to me." She sighed and sat next to Bubbles. The wolves lay on the floor in the corners, watching the flames. "They sometimes bring the poor souls from their castle basement to me. They kill them outside the cave. They put the people close enough so there's a chance I could save them, but I know the Vamps are too fast for me. It's horrible."

"One of the wolves killed a vampire last night. Seduca. It ripped her head off," Bubbles felt her voice waver a little. The whole night had been highly unnerving and seeing the head of Seduca hanging from that wolf's mouth had been the stuff of nightmares.

"What, one of these wolves?"

"No, the third one."

Buttercup gave Bubbles a strange look, "what third wolf? This one," she gestured to the blue eyed wolf, "only appeared recently. You mean there's three?"

"Well I've always seen three. The last one is the biggest, his eyes are red. He was the one who killed Seduca."

"If I had known the wolves could kill the vampires I would have used them long ago!"

"When did you meet the wolves?" Bubbles shifted, "how did you find out about...about the Morbucks?"

Buttercup stared into the fire for some time and Bubbles, starting to notice that she could feel her extremities again, let her stew in the dark halls of her mind until she was ready to speak. At long last she did.

"As you know I was never that happy at home, especially when mama...when mama passed away. I know she is in heaven and the Lord wanted her, but I wanted her too. She understood me. She knew that I was never the kind of girl who wanted to flirt with boys and have my first bairn at fifteen. She knew that I wanted a different life. I wanted to see the world, I wanted to earn my own money and become something more than a mother and a wife. When mama died I no longer wanted to live at home, I hated it there. Especially with papa so forlorn and the house falling into misery and disrepair. I wanted to leave.

"I was happy when Castle Čachtice announced for new maids from the village. I wanted to go but instead papa sent Blossom because she was more mature. I was so angry.

"Anyway, after a month Blossom sent me a letter saying that she was unhappy at Castle Čachtice, that there was something terribly wrong with the place. She told me that members of staff were vanishing and that she was concerned about the Morbucks, who acted strangely. She said things were happening at night and that she even heard a few screams now and then.

"I was jealous and bitter. I thought that she had the opportunity to leave home and make her own way and yet in the letter she was complaining. She said she hadn't written to papa because she didn't want him to worry and that she didn't want to bother you, but she knew I was made of sterner stuff and therefore she could confide in me." Buttercup took in a deep breath, "I should have told someone she was worried. I should have told her to come home at once. But I didn't. I was jealous and angry and so instead I kept knowledge the letter to myself. I never told anyone her concerns. I never wrote her back. The actual letter itself I burned in the fire." Buttercup bit her lip and a few tears fell from her eyes. Bubbles cried silently, not realising she had even begun.

"Months went by and she never wrote back ever again. That was the last we heard of her...that I heard of her. I began to feel more worried, but also more ashamed of keeping the letter a secret. I didn't know what to do. I just kept telling myself that she would be alright. That everything would work out. Even as papa became worse in his depression and even you became increasingly subdued. I knew you missed her. I had...I felt I had stolen her from you somehow.

"One night, when it had been snowing for three months straight and we were all becoming concerned that winter still hadn't ended, I remember I was peeking out of the window. I could hear wolves crying out and it...it worried me...wolves never came so close to the village before. I looked out of the window. Everything was well lit because the moon and the stars were out in all their full glory.

"I looked at the white untouched snow and then a saw someone. I looked hard and saw Blossom. At first I thought, 'why is she back and why is she here now, in the middle of the night?'

"Then I realised something else, there were no tracks around her. No tracks at all. How had she gotten to the village? It was too strange. I shook my head, wondering if maybe I was dreaming or if I was seeing things, but she was still there. She looked pale, sickly even, but very beautiful, more beautiful than I remembered. And then she gave me this really sad smile and waved at me." Buttercup cried for a while then, in between sobs continuing her tale, "I suddenly felt so scared and confused. I ran from the room and out into the snow. But she was gone. She was just gone. All that was there was our steadily crumbling village, the snow, the sky and the howls of wolves.

"It bothered me. It bothered me a lot. So I ran further through the village until I reached the outskirts. I was certain I had seen her. I ran to the outskirts, and, and I looked up the hill and saw the Castle in the distance. I hated it, then and there, I decided that I hated it. Something had or was happening to Blossom. It was my fault because she had told me months beforehand and I had ignored her. I decided to go save her and bring her home, to make us the family we once were, even without mama.

"I didn't intend to be gone for long. Maybe just the night. But you know what I am like, I just didn't put any real thought into it. I just chased into the night, deciding that any wolf that wanted to attack me could feel my fists."

"Oh Buttercup," sighed Bubbles.

"I know, I'm stupid. I walked for hours. As I got closer to the castle I saw something flying out from the towers. They looked like shadows. I ducked down and watched them flying into the Little Carthapians. I followed them. I ran into the woods. They went to where all those dead black trees stand sticking out of the earth. I hid behind a tree and saw a number of people. All women. They were wearing white paint on their already pale faces. Two of them were beating on this drum. They walked in a line, single-file. In the middle was a woman. She was naked. Her face had a bag over it. Her arms were tied behind her back and there was a long rope from her hands to one of the female captors. There was another rope around her neck, and that was being carried by a captor in front." Buttercup shuddered and Bubbles felt herself rooted to the spot.

"It was the beating of the drum, the consistent beating, I shall never forget it, and the tied up girl that made me scared. I was...I was so scared Bubbles. God I was so scared. My whole body was shaking and my jaw was clenched together so hard my teeth ached in agony. The party went into an opening and I heard this high pitched whining. It was the girl whose face was covered. She was sort of whimpering and quietly screaming. It was...it felt all wrong. It sounded so wrong.

"They stopped the slow beating of the drum, thank goodness, and the red-head began to speak. She said, 'let the Blood feast begin!' or something like that and they ripped the bag off the girl. She was so young she couldn't have been much older than us, maybe sixteen. All these tears were streaming down her face and you could see cuts and gashes and bruises all over her body. Then the red-head-"

"Elizabeth," Bubbles silently corrected in her head.

"-she began to rub her bare arms and say 'I need replenishment.' Then they untied the girl and told her to run as fast as she could. So she ran. She ran in the opposite direction to where I was hiding. They were grinning, like the whole thing was a game to them. It was like when hunters chase after game they do not need. It was awful.

"I knew the girl wouldn't survive the cold. So I was thinking of how I could help her when...when those things began to show their true selves. They began to writhe and hiss. They had long tongues that lolled in their heads and wide eyes that looked like that of a hawk gone mad and sharp teeth that looked like they belonged to a snake. I nearly screamed but I choked it back. They ran away suddenly, moving so fast they were like blurs. Alone in the snow I knew I had two options, run as fast as I could back home or run to find that girl. For better or for worse, I went to try and save the girl.

"I ran around where the vampires had been and instead went in the direction where the girl had ran. I saw her footsteps in the snow and I followed them. Eventually I spotted her gasping by one of the trees. I called out to her and she gave me this look of a terrified animal. I said, 'I'm not going to hurt you! Come with me, back to my home!' The girl stared at me for a little while. She was so pretty Bubbles, I know that must sound strange, but she was. She had this long brown hair that went down her back and these big blue eyes. Her skin was tan and you could tell she wasn't from these parts. She was probably some poor girl tricked into going into that horrible house for work or tutoring. It was disgraceful. She stared at me like she didn't know if I was real or not, but then she stepped towards me and held out her hand, like a small child, to me.

"And that's when they came."

Buttercup gulped and her voice became hoarse. "They must have been hiding in the trees or something. They just dropped down out of nowhere. Seduca, she grinned at me like this was a great joke. The blonde was laughing and drooling like a lunatic, glaring and gesturing at the terrified blue-eyed girl. Then the red-head, she grabbed the girl, pulled back her head and ripped out her throat with her teeth! Blood sprayed everywhere, all over them, and they loved it. Oh...it was horrible...horrible. They began to lie in the blood that was gushing out in the snow, allowing the girl to fall to the ground. She was still alive Bubbles! She was still alive. Her body was in shock and was shaking."

Buttercup stopped looking as if she were about to vomit and instead her face went still and cold- like a dead person's, "I couldn't handle what had happened but it got even worse. The red-head she began to change. Her skin began to look more ethereal and she looked even more beautiful, as if she had stolen to vitality and beauty of that girl for herself.

"Seduca was watching me the whole time. She said her name, introducing herself like we were at a party or something, and said that she liked feisty little girls like me. I ran then. I just turned and ran. I heard them chasing after me. They kept saying 'one little bite, that's all it takes.' I would've been caught but then he," she gestured to the large black wolf behind her, "he saved me. He jumped out of nowhere and I just know somehow that he wasn't going to hurt me. I jumped on his back and he took me to this place. And here I have been since. The pale wolf by you only appeared to me a few days ago. I kill some animals for food and clothing. I have to. I've tried sneaking down to the castle in the day but the blonde vampire guards it. For some reason the wolves won't go into its shadow or anywhere near the actual stones. I wanted to live alone, I suppose I got my wish didn't I?"

She smiled ruefully, no pleasure in her face.

"Have you seen Blossom since?"

"Not once."

"Do you think she's...?"

"One of them?" finished Buttercup, "I don't know."

"There are people in the basement," said Bubbles, "all men. They kill the girls early on. We have to fight them Buttercup. We have to save those people."

"Of course we do," said Buttercup, "now that I know these wolves are more than friendly but can kill those things we definitely will. Before I was alone, but now I have you and the wolves. We will take the Castle Čachtice and we will find Blossom. No matter what."

"No matter what," confirmed Bubbles.

Both girls knew that they were probably walking straight to their deaths but they didn't care. They couldn't spend the rest of their lives in a cave being haunted by monsters, not knowing what had happened to Blossom. They would go fighting and die together as sisters.