ⲥⲏⲁⲣⲧⲉⲅ 2
At first, I saw only the person's leg, but as they entered the bathroom in a cautious fashion, I got a full view on their entire figure. And boy, was I rather shocked! This mobian appeared to be a male hedgehog, his fur was raven black and he had some cool crimson stripes on particular body parts - like head quills, top of his head, backspins, ring fingers aaaand that's all I could see so far due to him wearing a black satin, long-sleeved shirt with a deep V-neck, black tight pants and black boots with red platforms and dark purple leg warmers. His eyes were bright amber and when he faced my direction, I noticed his fluffy saffron cheeks along with a crimson double-marks in the corner of his eyes. I wondered, if it's just a makeup or actually part of his special marking. However, what truly shocked me was his long tail ending with a fluffy fur tuft, which had crimson tips. Such tail was undoubtedly a typical feature of royal vampires. I completely forgot about those, since they were believed - among us hybrids and werehogs - to be exctint due to the rogue vampires' superiority. Royal vampires are usually very noble and follow a list of strict rules. They are way more civilized than the rogue vampires and are known also for their ocassional hospitality towards other creatures. Me and Tails heard a few stories about these royal aristocrats, some of them seemed to be rather arrogant and used others as their servants. I could now only pray for this one to either not find me or to express some hospitality towards me, once I would get a chance to explain my presence here.
I did my best to stay as calm and quiet as possible, yet my shaky breath was surely too audible in the deafening silence of the room. I could hear even my own heart beating rapidly in my chest and my entire body was tense and stiff. I found myself frozen there, trapped underneath the bath tub with my gaze fixated on the vampire in front of me, as I cautiously watched his every step. He walked confidently in a slow and steady pace around the bathroom and twitched his ears to all directions in the process. I pressed my hand firmly against my mouth in order to breathe as quietly as possible, so he couldn't hear me. Even though, vampires' hearing sense always had a very big range and they could hear even a small pin clink against the floor. From a fair distance. Due to this realization I panicked, that he might be able to hear even my heartbeat, especially when it was this fast and kinda loud. I could see his feet coming closer to my location and widening my eyes I started losing control over myself, as I began trembling and bristled my quills and fur in fear and panic. He knows I'm here! He surely knows! His feet stopped moving just a few inches in front of my face and I utterly froze, not daring to move even an inch of my body and also held my breath. What was I thinking! All because of my curiosity. Yeah, Longclaw was right. Curiosity will, one day, be the death of me. I can already prepare a tombstone for myself out there. If I even get out of this situation alive, that is.
The tension in the air was so thick, that one could cut it with a knife. At one point, I had to let my breath out, since I was running out of oxygen and luckily he moved again at the same time, so my breath got covered by his heavy footsteps. Yet, it was still too soon for the relief to come, as I watched him walk around the tub and then I lost the sight of the feet due to my body being unable to properly move underneath the tub. And if I move, he would surely hear it and that would blow my cover.
"There you are," I heard his smooth, deep voice speak up behind me and then I screamed due to his creepily cold fingers wrapping tightly around my tail. Afterwards, I ended up getting dragged out of my hiding spot and lifted up to the air, which was hella painful, because he kept holding my fluffy tail super tightly in his almost deadly grip.
"I-I can e-explain!" I stuttered badly and he dropped me on the floor with a loud thud my body made upon the collision with the tiles.
"Ow- hey!" I naively believed, that he would let me get up and at least explain myself, but he grabbed me by my shoulder and lifting me up again he carried me out of the bathroom.
"How dare you invade my mansion!" he hissed at me hatefully and I could see his eyes shifting to an orange shade, which was surely an interesting feature. Vampires, in general, were always so interesting creatures, I must admit that. And this one was, dare I say, even kinda charming, considering the rich, silky medium sized patch of white fur right in the center of his chest, which was revealed thanks to the deep V-neck of his shirt.
"H-Hold on a second, l-let me explain, please! I-I swear, I did not mean to- huh?" I shook my hands hastily and in shaky tone of my voice I tried to somehow get him to at least listen for a moment, but he abruptly stopped in the middle of the awfully long hallway and just blankly stared at me with his orange, dimly glowing irises, which took me by surprise and I tilted my head to a side in confusion.
"Something wrong?" I dared to ask after a while, when I felt rather uncomfortable under his intense stare straight to my soul. He was like in a trance and eventually his eyebrows met in the center of his forehead, whilst his eyes turned back to the amber shade, their glow dying out along with the orange colour.
He looked at me in silent judgemental fashion from head to toe and let out a scoff while slowly shaking his head.
"Should have known better, halfling!" he spat out in another hateful hiss and started walking again, this time in a faster pace.
"H-Hey! Are you racist or something?! It's not MY fault, that I am a hedgewolf, you know? Blood-sucker!" I growled at him while folding my ears to the back of my head in threatening manner and bared my sharp teeth at him in response, as I struggled in his grip. Such an insult really scratched my core, especially when it comes from such noble being like this vampire. Or maybe I was wrong and he was just a rogue one in disguise?
"It's not that- whatever! Besides, you broke into my mansion and I do not tolerate such barbarism!" he growled and approaching seemingly a front entrance of the mansion he kicked the door open and threw me harshly on the ground. I groaned in pain, as I laid there on my side and held my aching left arm for a moment before clumsily getting up on my feet and glaring at him in anger.
"If you at least let me explain myself!" I snarled at him and approached him, but he closed the door right in front of me, so I bumped into it with my face.
"Hey! Is this how you treat your guests?!" I started banging on the door with my fists while yelling at him through the door.
"I never invited you, halfling, so you are no guest to me! You are an intruder, who dared to touch my stuff! And specifically in my bathroom, that's an utter top of uncouthness!" I could hear his voice yelling in response from the other side of the door, which I still ocassionally banged on, as I grew desperate due to not wanting to be torn apart by that revenge-hungry werejackal in the woods, plus this mansion made me feel oddly safe, despite this blood-sucker now kicking me out.
"I am sorry, alright? I was curious!" I tried to justify my previous actions in the bathroom, where I accidentally pushed the various bottles off of the tub with my clumsy tail.
"Curiosity killed a halfling!" he shot back and I hissed while kicking the door with my bare foot, which did not cause much damage to the door, but rather to my toes, as I jumped on my healthy foot and held the aching one in my hands while groaning.
"Isn't it a cat, that got killed?!"
"Doesn't matter, I see no difference!"
"Why you little-" I growled quietly to myself this time, already having enough of this vampire. Of course, after meeting a royal vampire in person for the first time in my life, it has to be the arrogant type! That's just my luck! I wonder, if he has any servants in there. The mansion was awfully quiet despite its size.
"A storm is coming to this area, so be careful out there!" I heard him speak up once more before silence took over the place again. Great. As if this night couldn't get any better. I now have to deal with an incoming storm.
"Let me in! I have nowhere else to go! Please, at least for the night! I promise I'll leave the next morning and you won't ever see me again!" I still tried to convince him out of desperation while banging on the door, but to no avail. He no longer responded, he was probably not even behind the door anymore, so my words got consumed by the empty void of nothingness all around me. Figuratively.
I let out a soft sigh afterwards and turning around I walked around the yard and the garden by the mansion. I definitely refused to just fully leave, because the possibility of the werejackal lurking in the shadows was still there and it wouldn't allow my mind to rest even for a bit. Especially because of Tails, who was now surely trying to find me. I only hope, that he is somewhere safe.
"Be careful to not step on his precious lavenders!" someone's voice randomly spoke right next to me and it made me scream in shock, as I bristled my fur and quills and got into a fighting stance while baring my teeth and growling at the voice's owner. Who was... transparent? A ghost? Man, this night was wild for sure!
"W-Who are you?"
"The lavenders!"
"What? You are the... wait, no, no, what is your name? Is what I meant," I shook my hands, at first not understanding the context of his words, so I tried to elaborate. He pointed down towards my feet and looking down I finally saw, what he actually meant. I was standing in the center of a lavender garden bed without realization due to my previous exasperation.
"O-Oh, hehe, lavenders! Whoops, it was not really my intention," I relaxed my body and now felt rather nervous and embarrassed, as I carefully stepped out of the garden bed and saw the ghost leading me towards a bench located by a small fountain in form of a beautiful mermaid holding a little shark in her arms. The water was calmly spurting out of faucets placed all around the statue. Heck, it even seemed to have a modern lighting, which the vampire supposedly took from the civilization far from here.
"Take a seat," the ghost spoke to me and I complied with a nod, as I sat down on the bench and rested my fluffy tail in my lap. I took a better look at this ghost figure afterwards. He was an ivory male hedgehog with five top head quills styled backwards over his head and two long quills growing from the back of his head. Despite his transparent figure I could clearly see his eyes just as amber as the vampire's and he seemed to wear some sort of long black coat covering his entire body.
"Who are you?" I asked again, once I was done checking him out - in curious matter, not in any weird way!
"My name's Silver van Venice, I am a former owner of this mansion," he answered my question while calmly walking towards the fountain and casually sitting on the wet edge of it.
"You are?" I raised my eyebrow in surprise.
"Yes. I died from an incurable desease 20 years ago. Ever since then, I haunt this place as a ghost and keep any intruders away from here. Or well, I used to do that, until von Doom showed up and made the mansion as his home," he explained further while crossing his arms and according to the tone of his voice I assumed, that he hates this 'von Doom' person. Wait, is that-
"That's the vampire's name?" I widened my eyes. His name itself sounded pretty menacing.
"He is the only vampire king I have ever came across. His whole name is Terios von Doom. But shh, I didn't tell you anything," Silver pressed his index finger to his lips and I just subtly nodded in understanding manner.
"Got it. I know nothing," I made a zipping motion in front of my mouth with my hand as a sign, that my lips are sealed and I won't use the name in front of the vampire, unless he introduces himself to me. If he is even going to ever speak to me again, that is. At such rate, I feel like I might not have much luck with him. I did not need him to immediately become my friend, but it would be cool, if he at least lets me stay for the night.
"How long does he live here?" I asked another question, getting dangerously curious about this vampire, even if he was so harsh to me. I believe, that he had a reason for it. And I need to figure it out, so I can understand him better and hopefully get on more friendly terms with him.
"For over 16 years, I think. I do not remember much from the times freshly after my death, but I know for sure, that he moved in shortly after he discovered, that the mansion is unoccupied," Silver replied and to me, this made sense. Just now I realised, the vampire is sort of hypocrite, when he minds me 'breaking in' to 'his' mansion, when in fact he did the same to Silver. And just because Silver is a ghost doesn't mean, that he does not deserve to be treated equally like a person.
"But you are still here, basically owning the mansion till tonight," I objected and saw him averting his gaze while gently running his transparent hand through the water in the fountain.
"He does not see it like that, he sees me just as an annoying poltergeist, because, truth to be told, I get a lot bored and hence move random objects and sometimes even break something to gain his attention," Silver admitted and I thought about it for a moment. Hah, so that's why ghosts move objects! Not really to scare us, but just because they want to make themselves acknowledged by the living beings. Man, being a ghost must feel so lonely.
"I get that and I am really sorry to hear that," I replied while dropping my ears and holding my hands together I looked down at them.
"What about you? Where did you come from?" I heard the spirit asking me these questions, so I glanced up at him again and saw him looking at me.
"I am Maurice Sonic Feral, but I prefer to be called just Sonic for my super speed. I live on the outskirts of the dark forest," I introduced myself to him and smiled in confident manner.
"Super speed? You mean, even faster than vampires?" he widened his eyes and I nodded.
"Precisely! Wanna see?" I smirked at him and standing up I stretched my body, hearing a few satisfying pops in my spine I felt relief wash over my entire system. However, my fur stood up upon the shift in the atmosphere and I could feel a few first rain drops land on it.
"Uh oh, this storm is going to be wild," Silver got up as well while looking up at the dark sky in concern. I looked up as well, unable to see a single star due to the thick layer of the dark, storm clouds covering the entire horizon.
"How can you know that? Maybe it won't be that terrible," I tried to comfort him, thinking, that he is afraid of storms. But even I felt like my statement was a lie. I could sense the atmopshere quickly shifting, the temperature dropping too rapidly and there were lightnings jumping all across the clouds from one side to another, back and forth within seconds.
"Is underestimating stuff in your nature?" he poked me a bit while questioningly raising his eyebrow.
"Hey, I am just trying to ease the situation, come on!" I defended myself, trying to cover my fear of the strong storms by my recklessness, but the ghost probably knew more than I myself did, so I was like an open book to him, despite us being a complete strangers.
"Don't worry, I am also scared of these wild storms. Welp, I wish ya good luck," Silver held his hand up and tried to touch me, but then paused and rather retracted it before vanishing to the thin air.
"Hey, wait! You can't just leave me alone here! Hey! Come back!" I panicked for the milionth time tonight and hearing the thunders I quickly rushed towards the mansion itself. The wind was slowly picking itself up, rustling the bushes and leaves all around the area and bending the trees to all directions. The rain started gradually getting worse, so I took the only cover by the entrance of the mansion, which had a canopy built above the front door and supported by two majestic pillars. Despite everything, it was still not enough to fully protect me from the rain, as I could feel a lot of the droplets biting deep into my fur and reaching my skin. The contact brought chills down my spine and feeling already too tired I curled up at the doorstep and tried to keep myself as warm as possible while just quietly praying for the storm to be soon over. The loud thunders weren't allowing me to sleep at all, yet I kept my eyes closed for the whole time and just suffered through the weather change. Eventually, I heard the main door getting open and a few moments after that a certain cold arms surrounded my body, lifting me up their owner carried me, surprisingly, to the warmth and dryness of the mansion's interior, which brought comfort and relief to my core.