11. HISTORY
When Marcus had finished telling them everything about himself and why he was there, he realized now that he was starving. While amongst the nymphs he had no thought of feeding; their enchantment on him had made him forget his most basic needs. However, he also noticed that the three people he had come upon did not make his mouth water as most humans did. That was when he realized that they were probably not human at all.
Marcus turned to Griffin, "Well now that I've told you everything about me, it's time that you tell me about yourselves."
"Here we go!" Ebson said as if he had just won something. He started pulling off the armor and clothing of one of the dead bodies on the field. "This should fit you nicely, Marcus."
Marcus cringed and wondered how long the body had been marinating in his soldiers uniform. He stepped over closer to Ebson to see the fallen man. "What the hell is that?!" A wave of nausea overcame him but not because the body was dead and rotting. His face was of a creature Marcus had never seen before. It was tormented and twisted with a greenish skin.
Ebson laughed. "Don't they have Malum's where you're from?"
"What's a Malum?" Even though the creature was disgusting, Marcus was peculiarly interested.
Griffin answered, "We call them Malum but I now in ancient times they have been referred to as Ogre's, Goblin's, Orc's. Do you know what those are?"
Marcus nodded. "Yes, those are the words that we would have used to describe such monsters. I can't believe this. Goblin's aren't real!"
Ebson laughed. "Yeah well, we didn't think vampires were real either! At least we didn't believe that any of them existed anymore." He handed Marcus the clothing and the armor and Marcus began to get dressed.
"Finally." Danowyn muttered under her breath.
"Anymore?" Marcus asked Ebson, ignoring Danowyn. "Did they once exist here?"
Griffin cleared his throat and began to unfold the history of the underworld. "The stories that have been passed down to us explain that there was once free passage between the underworld and the world above. Only the city of Tartarus was off limits, where the dead are kept. One day a vampire named Orpheus was seduced by an Auloniad, a nymph of the mountain pastures. Her name was Eurydice. They fell madly in love and one could not live without the other. They both had hair as red as blood. They had many children together and all of their offspring had the same red hair."
Marcus remembered how there had been a few strands of red hair tied to the arrow that had struck him. He wondered if that had something to do with this story. He also thought it was interesting that a nymph could carry the child of a vampire, since female vampire's bodies don't change and therefore don't allow room for a child to grow. Humans were not great contenders either for carrying the offspring of vampires as they usually died in the process. Bella Cullen was a rare case indeed. Marcus remembered how beautiful the child Renesmee was and wondered what the children of Vampires and Nymphs might look like.
Griffin continued his story. "Another century or so later a similar incident occurred again. A vampire named Aristaeus traveled down into the underworld. It turned out that while he was here, his strength began to wane. He was lost in the marshes and nearly died when one of the Eleionomae, a water nymph, rescued him. She fell in love with him and enchanted him to keep him near. They both had hair as black as pitch and when he impregnated her, her children had the same black hair. But the longer he stayed down there, the closer he came to death. To save him she let him go and he promised her that once his strength returned, he would come back to see her again. However, once he was beyond her enchantment, he had no love or desire for her. It broke her heart. Her name was Lethe."
"Lethe?" Marcus' ears perked at the name. "I know Lethe! I met her when I was trapped in the marshes. She was the one to let me go."
Griffin nodded. "Lethe is very kind. Her mercy is unending." He spoke of her as if she were a revered goddess. "Anyways, once in the upper world again, Aristaeus eventually caught sight of Eurydice in the mountain meadows. He was instantly attracted to her and he chased after her. She ran from him because she only loved Orpheus. During her flight, she accidentally stumbled upon a very rare and poisonous snake whose venom was strong enough to kill an immortal creature. The snake bit her and she died.
"When Orpheus discovered what had happened he was distraught. He was angry at Aristaeus for causing the death of his beloved. Orpheus would not accept what fate had given him and decided to go to Tartarus to bring Eurydice back." Griffin paused for a moment. "Marcus, it sounds like you are embarking on the same journey that Orpheus had."
Marcus nodded. "So what happened? Did Orpheus succeed?"
Griffin's face was grim. "Orpheus went to Tartarus and was told that he could bring Eurydice back with him but as long as he was in the underworld he would have to walk in front of her and he was not allowed to look back at her. He agreed and the two of them began to make their way out. Just before they were able to exit the underworld, Orpheus turned to look back at his beautiful wife and she instantly disappeared forever, never to be seen again."
Marcus didn't like the ending to this story at all. It made him feel sick.
"After that Orpheus became a hateful man. He and his children with the blood red hair went after Aristaeus. Lethe knew that he was in trouble so she sent their children with the pitch black hair to defend him. A war began between the two families that continues on to this day. We call the reds 'The Cruentus' and we, the ones will pitch black hair, are called 'The Piceus'."
Marcus looked at Griffin with astonishment. "You are the children of Lethe and Aristaeus?"
Ebson laughed. "More like the great, great, great, great, great times a thousand, grandchildren."
Danowyn sighed. "All I can say Marcus is that with your long black hair, you're lucky we were the ones to find you first. They would have killed you without any hesitation."
Marcus turned to look at her. "So you guys have gifts too then? Some vampires have special abilities and yours is to heal. Is that correct?"
Danowyn smiled. "Only girls have extra abilities. In both families, only the females are born with special gifts."
Ebson's face went sour. "We can still do plenty of other things. For instance, I'm a much better hunter than Danowyn." He was proud for making the distinction.
Danowyn laughed. "Oh really? And who had to stitch you up when the auger attacked you?"
Marcus was about to ask what an auger was but figured it was some underworld beast he'd never before seen or heard of.
Ebson just grunted in response to Danowyn. Then he turned his attention back to Marcus. "So how's that armor working for you?"
Marcus looked down at the black metal that now protected his body. It was lightweight and durable. The shoulders were decorated with what looked like small metal bat wings but he wasn't too terribly concerned with how he looked at this moment. He looked down at the decaying body of the goblin. "So how do the Malum come into play in all of this?"
Griffin snickered. "The Cruentus made an alliance with them to wipe us out. The Malum are stupid creatures that have been manipulated into serving them."
Ebson chuckled. "You're just sore that you didn't think of it first."
Griffin shrugged. He knew it was true. "All the same, evil creatures enjoy the company of other evil creatures. That's how I see it."
Marcus' stomach growled. "I'm very hungry. Are there any humans or even beasts that I might feed off of?"
Danowyn's eyes went wide. "So vampires really do drink blood? I thought that was just a myth. Huh." She pondered it thoughtfully.
"We'll take you back to our village." Griffin said. "It's on the way to Tartarus and we have farm animals that you can use to sustain yourself."
"First we've got to meet up with the rest of our group. They are waiting for us on the shore." Ebson said.
The four of them began moving away from the battlefield back into the cover of the woods. After a while of walking, the trees began to thin out and clear as they came close to a beach. On the shore were gathered about twelve more people, all with raven black hair. However, Marcus noticed one among them whose hair was as red as blood. He was bound and blindfolded and looked no older than fifteen or sixteen.
In a low voice, Marcus asked Griffin "What do you intend to do with him, the Cruentus?"
Griffin smiled. "We will take him back to our village and execute him. Our people need to know that that our enemies are being destroyed and are shown no mercy."
"But he's just a boy!" Marcus argued.
"Tell that to the families whose husbands and fathers they've killed! Will you deny them justice?" Griffin was angry now. The centuries of vendetta had been building up inside him.
"Is it justice or is it revenge?" Marcus asked rhetorically.
"Is there a difference?" Griffin shook his head and walked down to the beach to join the others.
The Cruentus boy had his hands bound and tied to a longer rope. One of the men yanked on the rope, pulling him into a standing position. They party began to move, dragging the blinded boy clumsily behind them.
While working for the Volturi, Marcus had been a part of many wicked things in his day but this truly bothered him. Why couldn't these two groups forget the mistakes of their fathers and begin a new life? Why couldn't they put this useless war behind them? Why did this boy have to pay for the crimes of his forebearers?
Marcus' stomach growled again. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt this hungry. Suddenly, he missed Heidi and the way she always brought him his meals. He missed the comfort of his home in Volterra. He missed his friends. Then his mind went to Didyme. He missed her more than all of those things combined. He had to continue on this journey, he had to find her. He didn't have time to save these two warring peoples. He looked down at his blue glowing necklace. The light had faded just a fraction more since he had left the marshes.
Marcus made a decision he knew he would regret. He would not think of the boy, there was no time to try to remedy the damage that centuries of war had done. He would go to the village to feed and then be off again on his journey to Tartarus. He had to save Didyme because that was all that mattered… Wasn't it?
