Sunday, February 18, 2018
Friday, February 16, 2018
Thursday, February 15, 2018
the neverending knight chapter 1
The
Neverending Knight
Chapter
1
He sat
there, waiting patiently for the rain to stop. Always the rain was
his nemesis, if he were to stand within it, he would be paralyzed by
its hold over him.
He was
an immortal, a vampire. He'd lived for centuries just wandering the
world, righting wrongs with his crimson blade, intruding where he did
not belong and slaying those he deemed evil. Equal parts villain and
hero, he was little more than a specter here, in the rainstorm.
But it
had not always been so. Once, he had loved the rain as dearly as if
it were a lover, he lived for running through it without an umbrella,
felt sheltered by it.
Now
however? It was like a prison to him, it would force him into a
frozen state and he'd not be able to move until it subsided.
And so
he sat at the base of the tree, his long devil's horns, appendages
that had grown thanks in part to his long life, gently accepting
droplets of rainwater. They were jet black in appearance and jutted
forward from his temples, just below his hairline.
Once,
his hair, a proud ebony, had gone silver due to his long
transformation into a creature of the night, and though his face
would remain eternally beautiful, it had once been the face of a
rugged barbarian. A bit babyfaced as well, but his eyes had always
glowed with a feral hunger since before he became a vampire.
With
the change to his flesh came the change to his very genetic coding,
and his body took on a more “Noble” appearance, his face had
changed drastically, he was almost unrecognizable now. His nose was
thin and narrow, his eyes were gentle and serene, his lips full, but
not as they had been, a bir more drawn than before, but not to any
extreme. His chin, once thick and full, had become thin and graceful,
and even his brow, once jutting out like a sheld, had sunken in a bit
to allow more of his hair to fall forward.
He wore
a wide brimmed hate to hide all save the horns, which were a foot
long and could not be hidden or cut off. They would simply grow back
within the week thus the effort was futile, indeed, he vampire had
adorned them with gems and jewels, all of which were enchanted.
He wore
a slightly off-green trenchcoat that was riddled with spelltags
designed to keep his power from overwhelming him, to take the coat
off meant he would be consumed by his own vampiric side and become
monstrously hungry. To avoid this problem he had designed the coat
with healing spells and great sealing enchantments to keep the hunger
from wiping his senses away.
His
name was lost to history, now he had none. He was a thing now, not a
man. No identity, for ego was a decidedly human need. He was no
longer human.
He sat
in the rain, thinking only of the next meal, thinking only of the
next person he might save. But he gave no thought to how, or why he
saved them, he thought only of food, and of things to distract
himself during his long eternity.
Ten
thousand he was today, his birthday had come and gone faster than he
had bothered to keep track, and now he was trapped in a rainstorm,
waiting for it to pass.
He
leaned against the tree he used as shelter, wrapping himself
comfortably in his rainproof cloak and he settled in for the long
wait.
The
vande forest, a place belonging to the old fairy king, did not harm
him, indeed it knew better than to even try. Even so, one could never
be too careful, even now, amid the towering celestial trees, trees
the size of the skyscrapers of old earth, the realm he once called
home, he could see them leering down fearfully, watching him.
His
kind weren't welcome here, but the fairy king had long ago struck a
bargain with him, out of gratitude for his aid.
Once,
his humanity and thus his “ego” had granted him the desire to
save the fairy king's daughter, and the fairy king, understanding him
to be young at the time, had acknowledged this desire and repaid it
with an eternal welcome in his dominion.
But the
king knew a fundamental truth that he did not, could not have known.
That when one is a vampire, ego will eventually cease to be, and
function will dictate one's actions. Humans, as far as he knew, were
creation's greatest actors, for they made for themselves a “self”
and acted it out, the very idea of identity was intrinsic to them.
But becoming a vampire would eventually reveal a haunting truth.
Selfhood is a lie, a fabrication of the mind. When a vampire grows to
be a certain age they are “cured” of the madness of self and
simply cease to allow the middleman of ego into their thoughts. They
become what they always were, beings whose actions come without the
pretense of self.
But a
hero requires a sense of self, to be aught else is dangerous. All
that allowed the vampire to identify himself as a hero was habit now.
He
wondered...how many had he wrongfully slain out of this habit? How
many lives had he taken in his immortal journey? Who deserved to
live? Who deserved to die? To be a vampire was to ignore this
pretense of “heroism” entirely. Paradoxically, the “self” of
the vampire as he was now was one that continued gripping tightly to
the idea of heroism, even though it held next to no value now.
The
young man who had saved the fairy king had died due to slow decay of
the self, and in its place, an altruistic monster that followed its
former ego's commandment without giving any particular question as to
“why” it just did.
The
fairy king had known this deterioration would take place, had known
the vampire would eventually lose his humanity and become like the
dogs or the wolves of the world. A creature that didn't base its
actions on its sense of identity, but its needs, thus their
relationship was doomed from the onset.
Though
they were on good terms, there was a keen understanding between the
two. The vampire was welcome, but only up to a point. He could pass
through, sleep and even hunt. But he could not live in vande. That
was forbidden to his kind.
The
rain subsided hours later, and the vampire rose, shaking the
rainwater free from his cloak, it struck the soft, green grass with a
gentle splatter as he took off, his black leather boots making not a
sound as they all but floated over the thick grass and loamy soil of
the forest floor.
“I'm
leaving.” he said, largely out of habit.
He made
way for his mother's castle, on the other side of this great forest.
His “Mother” who had adopted him when he first came to this
world, she was very much a gentle, kind hearted being, and had served
as his mentor for many, many years.
But
once upon a time, the two had been rivals, nay, enemies. He was a
trespasser in her castle, and she was a vampire hungry for the blood
of said trespasser.
Once
upon a time, he had been a man called “jacob peregrin” and his
life had been mundane, ordinary even. He was a barista at a coffee
shop just doing what he always did, serving coffee in modern day
america.
That
is, of course, until the dragon king arrived to subjugate that world.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Saturday, February 3, 2018
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