Over the next few days, Seras sent her imps out to dig new tunnels and chambers in search of anything of value. She could rest in her chambers while keeping an eye on things through her Keeper vision. In retrospect, it wasn't very different from that 'third eye' her Master had taught her about. At least the bigass demon wasn't being a pain. He'd occupied his time by alternating between roasting and dicing chickens by the score. The Mentor had taken some to time to explain the way of the world, at least in this one.
Things here were even more black and white than back home. People like Keepers were everything she was supposed to stand against as a member of the Hellsing Organization, and here she was fraternizing with phantoms and demons!
The surface was even worse. Sifting through the Mentor's prose and exaggeration, the surface world sounded like something out of a fairy tale. Noble knights, old wizards, elves, fairies and dwarves defended an idyllic realm from the forces of darkness, and invariably won every time. She'd have laughed if she wasn't one of the people they were devoted to destroying.
She pondered these things in her comfy new bed, as well as the Reaper's answer to her question. Just how did she get here?
"While there is the rare chance of someone finding a rift between dimensions, it's a one in a million possibility. It is far more likely that you were summoned to this world for a purpose. Much like myself. What that purpose may be, however, is beyond me."
Master..what do I do?
This question haunted her even as she fell into a fitful slumber.
.....
"So, who do you think the sire is?" The pasty phantom was practically salivating ectoplasm over this latest conundrum.
"What should I care? They either didn't care enough to keep the girl around or she was too weak to be worth keeping." The Reaper had just finished vivisecting about 30 chickens and was currently relaxing in his lair while working the marrow from a bone.
"You said it yourself, Red, her sire is old and powerful. Powerful enough to prompt a summoning?"
The demon tossed aside his leftovers and looked at the spirit. "What are you thinking?"
Grinning like the cat that ate the canary, the Mentor checked to see if anyone was listening. "Crowned Death is on the move."
"Oh really? Making another push on the surface is he? So what?"
"Why, Horny, I'm surprised! I'd think the prospect of fresh war would excite you!"
"There's nothing 'fresh' about Crowned Death or his lackeys. And the last time I followed one of his keepers into battle, I ended up being imprisoned." He growled, and envisioned a row of rotting heads on pikes.
"Ah, but a powerful elder vampire would make for a grand general, don't you agree?"
The Horned Reaper hated to admit it, but the spirit had a point. But there was a problem. "Why here? Why not one of his temples?"
The phantom shrugged. "Some fool warlocks error. Or maybe Crowned Death just wanted to test his prospective new champion." The devilish grin the shade shot his direction did nothing to ease his growing irritation.
"BAH! As if there's any leech in existence that can match me!"
"I don't know Horny. I felt that girl's aura too. There's something about the sire that screams of blood and power. I mean, just look at her! Most bloodsuckers look like walking corpses, but this young woman doesn't look a day past 19."
The frustrated demon just blew the apparition off, getting up to kill more chickens. He would never admit it, but the spirit was right. When he'd bonded with the little fledgling, he'd felt the presence of an ancient and terrible darkness. Looking into her soul, it was as if he'd stepped into one of the Dark Gods temples. And that was across dimensions! How much stronger would that aura of power and blood-thirst have been if he were to have come in the flesh?
Infuriated by his own self-doubts, he resolved to show the girl the true might of a Horned Reaper. So distracted by his inner thoughts, he almost failed to notice the prone form in the middle of the hatchery.
"What?"
.......
Seras blinked her eyes a few times, fighting away the weight of sleep as she let out a deep yawn. As her vision came into focus, she was shocked to find herself in the hatchery. Surrounded by dead chickens. Covered in blood. Naked.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
She scrambled to cover herself with anything and everything in reach. Which was mostly clumps of feathers.
"Bwahahahahaha!!" She turned towards the door, where Horny was laughing himself to tears and the Mentor was leering like an old pervert. Seras turned an even deeper shade of red than the demon.
"WhatthebloodyhellamIdoinginherewhyarethereabunchofbloodydeadchickensANDWHYAMINAKED????!!!!"
........
Seras had taken a loooong bath to wash the blood and dirt out of her hair, and more importantly, desperately try to recover her dignity. Unfortunately, the Reaper was still laughing, and the Mentor was still leering.
"Would someone please tell me why I woke up in the chicken coop? NAKED?"
Averting his gaze from her chest for the moment, the Mentor responded. "Oh, well it appears that your vampiric thirst has not been entirely suppressed."
"What?"
"Whatever bloodline you hail from is far stronger than anything I've seen before. While they still partake, most vampire keepers find that they no longer suffer from the driving hunger for blood that the rest of their kind does. You must be ravenous indeed to have sought out fresh vitae in your sleep."
"That still doesn't answer why I woke up naked."
"Perhaps you manifested one of a greater vampires natural abilities in your sleep? Becoming a mist or fog is an excellent way to catch prey unawares. I hadn't thought about it."
Hiding her face in her hands, Seras just wanted to run away from this embarrassment. "That's just great. I'm a vampire dungeon keeper who sleep eats. Lovely."
"Don't worry. So long as you maintain a healthy and regular diet of fresh blood, this shouldn't become a problem." The look he gave her after saying this made her keep any arguments she had to herself. "There's a reason so few of the living are willing to work a vampire. You will need to learn how to control your hunger."
Before she could come up with a retort, one of her imps trotted up to her and motioned excitedly.
"Oh. It looks like your imps have made a discovery."
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(Posted Thu, 20 Nov 2014 10:44)
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