You there, traveler! You dare read the journal of my tale? Seems as if you are a nosy fellow. Read on if you must,but be warned, this tale is not for the faint of heart.
March 20th, 1570:
Everything seems right in the world. My family is celebrating my 20th birthday today everything is going just as planned. I live in the Ravaryn Kingdom, which is surrounded by mountains, fields, and forests of dark oak. My family isn't the biggest family in our kingdom, but we are well-known for our use of herbs and medicine. My mother runs our shop in the middle of town, and my father helps the ruler of our kingdom. He's like the right hand to the king.
Now my family is very sweet, but today just seemed off, mom's been hiding something from me for the past few days. She's dodging my questions on everything.
"Make sure you're prepared for tonight sweetheart."
"Mom, I'm definitely ready for my party tonight. Don't worry!" She rolls her eyes, but smiles a little. I glance up at her and her face changed to something of more concern. She walks away to start on the cake/ food.
Hours go by and it's now party time. "Aeris! We're ready for you!!" I climb down from the loft in my room and head down stairs. I stop on the landing next to the small circular window. Outside I can see in the clear sky, the bright full moon. My mind goes blank and I feel something pull on me; not pulling on my clothes, but like my essence. I blink and look away from the moon, looking around me, noticing no one is around me to pull on anything on me. ~weird~ I think to myself. I made a confused face, shake my head and continue down the stairs to my party.
"Hey mom, hey Dad!" I smile and look around the living room at the rest of my family. I smile wide and make my way around the room greeting everyone. "Good evening everyone! Thank you all for coming!" My mom grabs my elbow lightly and motions me to sit down. She brings out the cake and the rest of the food for everyone. Hours pass as we're having fun and then people start slowly filtering out leaving, saying their goodbyes. Later in the evening my mom and dad is down on the couch across from the chair I'm sitting in.
"Aeris..." my mother hesitated, my dad putting a hand on her lap. "There's something we need to tell you." I look up from my cake, pausing before I take a bite. "What is it mom?" I look to my mom then my dad, noticing their hesitation. "Mom?... Dad?..." my dad pipes up after I put my plate of cake down on the coffee table. "Aeris, when you were born, we had some... issues delivering you. Now, don't get me wrong your mother did a great job. Everything was going perfectly. Except when the night came, you were born under a full blood moon... just like tonight is a full moon." He cleared his throat like he's trying to explain to me that I'm a monster or something. I'm already a Tabaxi but I'm not going to turn into a werewolf or something! I'm a cat for Pete's sake! "What I'm trying to say son, is that you were born under a Dark Star, along with that full blood moon." I raised my head more, confused by what he meant. "A Dark Star? What is that?"
Blood moons aren't uncommon here in Ravaryn, but I've heard tales of when they do happen. And it's not fun. But a Dark Star, that wasn't talked about at all in school. My mother brushes the hair from her face, her left ear twitching. I look back and forth between the two of them. My dad closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, like he's trying to prepare himself for what is about to be said. "My sweet child," oh no, here we go. "A Dark Star is..." he cleared his throat again. "It's a bad omen. We bring this to you now, because you're now of age to start this training to prepare yourself." My eyes go wide. A bad omen?! They really think I am some kind of monster... a freak! "What?! Wait, prepare me for what?!" I'm on the edge of my chair, practically growling at my parents, my fur standing on its ends. I see my mother hide her face and hold her tail. I calm down some and restate, "prepare me for what dad?"
My mom is starting to cry, her soft sniffling echoing in my ears. I look to her and then back to my hands. I feel like this is my fault, but how can it?? I never asked for this. "Was there someone who put this-this curse on me?" My mom shakes her head, I don't want to pry too much with my mom. She's kind yet strong. But when it comes to her kids, she melts like crazy. My dad pipes up. "Aeris, there's no putting this lightly. You're going to have to train, and train hard. We don't know if we can break this bad omen or this curse. We've been researching for the last 20 years and we've found nothing." Great, something more to add to my list of things on Aeris's plate.
My mom got up and walked into the kitchen. She can't sit still for long when there's something to be talked about. "Aeris," I turn towards my dad, his bright green eyes staring back at me. He's definitely got his 'I mean business' face on. "Yeah dad?" "You're going to have to fight, I hope you understand." Fight? I can't piece this puzzle together like he can in his head. He's got plans made from A to Z and even to numbers. He's the kings planner along with his right hand. "Fight what dad? We're at peace right now," I hesitated. "Aren't we?" He looks down and ruffles his fur. "For the time being we are. But They can be back at any point in time." I knew what he meant.
Vampires.
They have terrorized our kingdom before. We had a war long before I was born. This battle lasted a solid 5 years, never ending. My dad fought with our King Nakoa, through the entire battle. My dad had made such a magnificent plan to outsmart these Vampires. Since they were sleeping during the day and attacking at night, we moved our villagers during the day and set up traps same time. There was so much fire, our books tell us all about it in school.
"Dad why are they trying to come back, I thought you and King Nakoa burned them all?" He sighs and shrugs. I hear intel from our goblins that they have seen one or two during the night. They feel like something is off." I nod and sigh, collecting my thoughts. "When do I start?"
