Sir Madric was in deep thought regarding the matter his King, Saldurs Belmors of Lushberg, had entrusted him with. The protection of Westguard. Apparently, one side of Ostrock forest was attached with their border, which was his duty to protect at all costs. Especially from the heartless ninth Prince, Rogan Daardendrian. 

He sighed in relief as he had successfully imprisoned a massive amount of their soldiers and currently his men were trying to juice out information from them. 

A sly grin spread over his mouth when he thought he had defeated that Prince who had a famous title of being ruthless and cunning. His chest swelled with proud, which added into his ego. Now everyone in Lushberg would know his tale. The mighty Sir Madric defeated the ruthless and indomitable Prince Rogan Daardendrain. How splendid would that sound!

The sound of few footsteps along with the clanging of metal came to his big ears- too big for his face as he had touched his forty-nine years of his age, and still no maiden had looked at him with adoration.

The door swung open and one of his men shouted, his voice coated with fear and disbelief, “We are surrounded! Prince Rogan Daardendrian has arrived with his troops.”

He snapped his head toward them with a speed that would have snapped his neck. “But haven’t we captured their troops already, along with their general?” he asked. 

“I’m afraid, Sir Madric, those were the decoys so we would let lose our border security.”

Anger boiled through his veins, and he could hear a faint whistle coming out of his ears. He slammed the table with force and a clanging sound of metal came from the bag which laid on his table. “That son of a bitch!” 

“How?” He asked now rage devoured him, “How?”

Now, the tale of his extraordinary and intelligent mind which would have been spread through the people of the country where a thousand maidens would line up in queues to give their hands to him, shattered into pieces. It felt a long-faded dream. 

All because of that bastard of a Prince. 

That prince had taken away his future with a beautiful wife, his blooming career now he had came to make him surrender at his feet! 

For vampire deity’s sake! He would die before he would surrender himself. 

“The men we have imprisoned were newly recruited for this particular purpose. Apparently, the man we thought general Stefan is actually a commoner.” They informed. 

His palms fisted and asked, “How could you not know about this grave mistake?” he shook in his place and added, “Who was the man in charge? I want him now!” His words blew fire at his soldiers, who seemed to be have grown stiff after his outburst. 

“Err... I’m afraid we can’t get to him now, Sir.” He scratched the back of his neck. 

“And why so? I don’t care. I want him here in this instant! “His head throbbed as his voice touched the stone ceiling above his head where the spiders had woven the network of beautiful webs. 

“We could only locate his head, sir.” He informed. 

Sir Madric’s brow quirked up. “What?” What would he do with his head? He needed the full person! 

“Em... Other than his head we could not find his other parts of the body.”

A lump formed in his throat. He had heard the rumours of incredible swordsmanship of Prince Rogan and the strength of his general. They were deadly and vicious when together. 

He sat on the chair, helplessness oozed out of his pores. He looked at the crest he got from Slithrot for the outstanding services he had done over the past ten years. His name was referred to the nation of Slithrot as a representative of Lushberg’s army. How proud and powerful he felt when he got that emblem, but now, it didn’t feel as powerful as it was before. 

He cursed the Lushburg King for it was him who had went and formed an alliance with Slithrot. Why not Ostrock? Slithrot surely was powerful, but not as powerful and wealthy as Ostrock. A small part of him had always known that, it was almost impossible to defeat a great nation which had been led by a cunning mastermind- their first Prince of Ostrock, Norman Daardendrian and the cruel Prince who would not hesitate to use commoners as his pawns even if they were his people. 

He had heard tales of them from his childhood, how the nine princes were merciless, ferocious and the list went on. 

However, he never thought in his forty-nine years, he would have to face one of them, especially the cruelest among them who now stood at the gates dressed as death ready to knock down his doors any moment.

He looked at his men who stood waiting for their general’s orders. 

“Go and... defend.” Or better, go and die. Because he knew what his fate had planned for him. His shoulders slumped down as he thought he would die a virgin. That feeling added to his misery, and he shuddered at that. 

His men went away as he could hear the metal clanking faded to a distant. 

His gaze fell on a weird piece of cloth and he picked it up examining the strange fabric. It had slits at the places of eyes and a mouth which were covered with a thick substance which he could not decipher. 

He sighed but immediately stiffened with a cold shiver rushing down his spine as he felt the edge of a blade brushing against his Adam’s apple. The tip was threatening to cut his skin if he gulped. 

Were the Ostrock soldiers already inside? 

“Well! Well! I would not be pleased if you were to put on the mask, which is mine.” A sweet feminine voice growled behind him. Well, it wasn’t sweet at all considering her blade’s tip wad pressing against his throat. But her scent felt rather too sweet as it reminded him of pure and fresh blood. His stomach hurt and his canines itched. He licked his lips. 

What was a woman doing here? He never heard of any woman soldier of Ostrock! Were they now hiring women? 

“Give it to me, boy!” The stranger commanded, her voice as sharp as the blade she held. It was low and held a strange power. He could not see her face, nor had the guts to do so if he didn’t want to lose his precious virgin and unmarked neck. 

He stretched his hand and in a swift movement the woman snatched away the cloth that she called mask. 

Now the blade tip had moved. He tilted his head toward her and saw a woman standing with he back against the table. The black cloth covering her every inch of skin, not even her hair peeked out from her mask. His scrutinizing gaze fell on her certain areas where things were pretty... pompous and attractive to a man’s eyes. Her attire was a bit too tight, even to breathe. 

How could she breathe? He wondered. 

He was about to open his mouth when in a lightning speed his own sword was pressed against his throat, again. He could not register how his sword which had been hanging from his belt came to her hands. Her hold was perfect, like an art that had been perfected over the years. 

“Shout and I’ll cut your tongue and feed it to the dogs.” That was definitely he would want to avoid, especially when he liked his tongue where it was. Besides, tongues could do wonders in certain cases. 

“You might be wondering, who am I?” She asked her gloved fingers touched the sharp side of the blade. 

He was wondering at first, but now, he was slightly awestruck by her. 

“Err... Yes?” He said. 

“Well, I’m no one!”

He furrowed a brow and asked, “That’s a pretty weird name.”

She straitened her back. “I meant, you don’t need to know that. Now,” she moved toward him and stretched her hand, “-if you’ll excuse me, I’ll have to take my things back.”

She took the big knapsack and wrapped it over her small shoulders. From her scent, he could figure out she was a human. However, she seemed more wild and daunting. She wasn’t even scared that a vampire was near her. 

He grinned in his head. A human placing a blade to a vampire. How bad it could get? He was about to stand up when found out his hands were tied down to the chair. 

“What? You thought I would let your hands loose so you can kill me?” He could feel her smirk behind that mask. And it made his insides boil. 

“What do you want?” He hissed at the lady- no, she wasn’t a Lady. She was a filthy human. A Lady wouldn’t wield a sword. 

He knew Ostrock was too noble to hire a woman as their warrior, let alone a human. Everyone knew Ostrock had a reputation for its slaves. The only nation who used human as their pleasure commodities. Every other kingdom had abolished the slaves but Ostrock King, Vance. He would never do such a thing as it had been adding large amounts of gold coins to their wealth.

However, humans deserved to be slaves. No more than that. 

“Nothing just a location.” She answered placing her hands on her hips while his sword hung from her right hand. 

“And why do you think, I’d answer a woman?” He cocked his head. A bit of ashamed and angry as a human managed to capture him. He was a Knight of Lushberg, for vampire’s deity’s sake! 

She chuckled. A dangerous meaning behind them. She slowly approached him like a wild cat and towered over him as if a devil had come disguised as a woman.

“If you don’t-“ the stranger leaned in almost invading his personal space, “- I’ll have to kill you in the worst way possible.” And he believed her. Her low voice was definitely unavoidable which made a shiver run down on his spine. He realised he didn't want himself to be get killed yet especially when he was a young bachelor!

His eyes turned wide as first bid of sweat rolled off from his forehead. Had he get scared of a woman?

For years he had attended many balls, danced with different Ladies- also gave them flowers however, never had gotten a handkerchief. But the maidens that he had known were delicate as flowers.

Not this one. He gulped. 

“So, from where had your soldiers captured me?” She asked. 

“I don’t know!” And he certainly didn’t unless he faintly remembered one of his men saying of capturing a strange woman from Darkdelve forest. 

The sword pressed a little hard toward his Adam’s apples and suddenly he felt getting killed by a woman- human’s hand was far worse than getting killed by a noble Prince and he split out, “Darkdelve forest! Please don’t kill me. I have a wife!”

“Oh! Then there’s more reason to kill you as your wife will be free from a chauvinistic bastard.” Her sword now had cut his skin and he could smell the metallic scent of his own blood. 

“I’m a virgin!” He huffed getting flustered that he had voice his deepest secret to a complete stranger, not to forget a human woman. Well, that was a good reason to be excused, he thought, at least. 

“A what?” She laughed out loud and suddenly she didn’t felt any more dangerous as before. But his cheeks felt hot after blurting out loud that in front of a woman. 

“Then, live as I don’t want to waste my time over here.” She said her voice felt a warmth rays of hope in him. “But, I’m going to take this with me.” She held his Slithrot emblem where golden three stars with a tiger in it shone brightly in her hands as if she deserved it more than him. 

“Why?”

“This looks expensive. Besides, I don’t have money,” Her blade slowly caught up its previous position and he could feel the grin the strange woman was casting inside of that mask, “Well, why don’t you just give me your wallet, virgin boy?”

He groaned. Had he thought she was a warmth ray of hope? Well, she definitely wasn’t! 

****

“Capture them!” A heavy voice pierced through my ears almost deafening me and my eardrums banged. My heart nearly popped out of my ribcage but I had managed to capture it back as I realized it wasn’t directed toward me. I had just stepped out of the large ancient museum like looking building and was greeted with the sight where a lot of people were wearing the armours and were mounted on horses with swords. What was this some movie shooting? 

A heavily muscled man wearing a gothic costume sat on a stallion shouted again ordering his men, “Capture all of them!” His face still as a stone and pale as a white paper. His dark colored cape hung from his shoulders reaching his thigh, his metal armour glinted in the sun rays. He was quite large like a mountain. 

I hid myself behind a wall while peeking at them because I wouldn’t like myself to entangled in this thing. I tried to orient myself in this chaos as there seemed to be many troops of another kingdom coming and capturing the soldiers of Lushberg. 

Which was more overwhelming, they were riding horses. No cars? No guns, but swords. Spears and horde. The hell seemed like an ancient place and development hadn’t touched it. People were wearing doublet and metal armours, while their heavy cloaks and capes hanging from their shoulders. And nearly everyone had red eyes and canines peeking out of their lips. Why were they so old fashioned?

It seemed as if I was in the Game of Thrones series by the way everyone was dressed here. Maybe I'd get to see dragons too.

Okay! Maybe I was going crazy or maybe they were some strange people. Whatever it was I found it hard to make any sense of it, the people were equally strange as the place. What were these guys? Some nomads or wait don’t tell me they were cannibals!

People were screaming all around me, running, shouting orders and fighting with their swords. I only wished I would go nuts because of all this, besides, was it possible that the entire village would be crazy? I shuddered at the thought of being in a mad town. Maybe I should think of a way of escaping from this place before these guys kill me or worse make me crazy.

I turned my head again surveying my surroundings also thinking of some route to escape and somehow managed to go Darkdelve or whatever forest.

And my eyes fell on a person who stood by his horse at a distance from all this chaos. Wearing a silver giant junk while his golden cape fluttered in the air, he certainly seemed like a wise person to avoid the chaotic situation behind. Considering the fact that he would be my next target, I needed him to be out of everyone’s eyes. 

A grin slowly crept on my face and I moved forward. 

----
[Edited by Sam8136 date: 18th July, 2020] third draft
(2570 words)