Hunters

Disclaimer: Castlevania belongs to konami not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard . . . then he’d be mine.

Rating: PG-13

Part: one of one

Authoress note: just a little ditty I thought up.

This sort of ties in with the idea I had in another fic of my, ‘Life’. For those who have not read it heres all the information you need to understand this fic.

Adrian has limited memory of his mothers death all he remembers is that his mother was murdered by humans but he does not remember her last words to him and has been under his fathers influence for a long time; as a result he hates humans.

For those interested ‘Life’ can be found at my castlevania web site. www.oocities.org/castlevania_light

Italics = thoughts and flashbacks

~

He could smell blood.

Human blood, but it was weak, watered down as if the mortal had bled into a river, yet the only river for miles around was on the other side of the forest, to far away for him to be able to smell it this strongly. Adrian paused and sniffed again at the humid night air, he could defiantly smell human blood, maybe it was old hence the fading . . . but no that didn’t fit either; he’d been out here only the night before and smelt nothing.

Curiosity aroused he wandered slowly in the direction of a potential meal; although it was more out of boredom than hunger that he followed the trail. The forest was dense at this time of year, mid summer always made even the silent forest seem almost welcoming and safe. The scent of pollen was so strong it stung his nose and eyes and made the back of his throat tingle unpleasantly, he snorted quietly trying to rid his nose of the plant fragrance so as to better follow his confusing quarry.

After little more than a few steps he found he was not the only one who had been interested, tuffs of silver fur clumped on low branches and dog-ish prints littered the moss covered floor. A werewolf; odd to find one alone, unless it was a young male, often young males left family groups to search out groups or packs of their own. The dunpeal smirked to himself a pack of werewolves would have made him pause if not turn away from this unusual chase, he was young yet and not as strong as he would one day be, a pack of over eight of the giant sized wolves could do him some damage. But one lone adolescent wolf would not be a problem. Just for sport he leapt vertically upwards, landing on a thin branch in the lower canopy of the forest; better to have the element of surprise and he could just as easily follow the scent from this vantage point.

Walking through the canopy was simple, the summer trees were so overgrown that a great many branches interlocked and made it almost like a floor above a floor. he had to keep low as to avoid tangling himself in any other branches but on the whole the climb was very easy. Occasionally he would leap forwards, catching branches that were further and further away, testing his ability to leap and wondering briefly how much more his power would have to grow before he could shift his own form, like the werewolf below whose presence was becoming more and more obvious. Low branches were littered with silver fur and many twigs were snapped, littering the floor.

The situation was becoming more and more curious, now that he was closer he could tell that the scent was at least a few hours old but it had not been here when he came out merely half an hour ago.

“How strange,” the dunpeal muttered to himself, warning bells going off inside his head; his pace slowed.

His fellow hunter below him had also noticed the strangeness of their situation, the paw prints became closer together as the wolf slowed its pace, the prints deeper as it paused, stopping completely. He could just imagine the great hulking beast pausing in its chase, gapping jaws closing as it swallowed, ears erect and twisting trying in vain to hear anything unusual. He smirked and gently so as to remain silent approached what he knew to be the source of the scent.

He stopped.

Blood covered a small patch of grass and earth in a clearing. The blood was old; it had been removed from a body before it had been ‘placed’ here. This was a trap; someone knew that blood in the silent forest would attract a great deal of attention, someone knew that a great deal of the creatures here would not notice that the scent was just a fragment wrong and that someone could only be a human hunter. Silver eyes flashed red, how dare hunters enter his fathers and therefore also his, forest. He felt an enraged sound well up from the pit of his stomach but swallowed it before it escaped his mouth.

“What is it?” the question shocked the dunpeal almost making him lose his grip on the branch he was currently clinging to.

Eyes now searching the forest floor he spotted two mortal humans, crouching in the foliage around the clearing, they had covered themselves in pelts and mud. They looked ridiculous but Adrian silently commended them, they had masked their scent almost perfectly, obviously these men were not complete novices.

“Something’s here,” the tallest of the pair whispered,

“Isn’t that what we want!” the first to have spoken laughed quietly “why do you fear so, we are the hunters here,”

“No sir I do believe we are . . . the ones being hunted,”

The moment those words left the mortals mouth Adrian’s competitor lunched itself from the brush behind the humans. Both mortals were sent to the ground, the tallest managed to roll away from the werewolf. His companion however was not so lucky; the werewolf’s long teeth were imbedded in the human’s throat before he had time to scream. Adrian grinned and silently applauded the wolfs timing, yet his silent praise stopped when the wolf turned from its own catch and moved to the surviving mortal, opening its blood covering it’s muzzle showing freakishly long teeth that could only belong to a daemon.

“Back foul creature,” the surviving mortal threw up his arms in a gesture of helplessness made defence.

The wolf made to lunge but suddenly found itself pinned under booted feet. The surprise of the attack gave the dunpeal the seconds he needed to send a blade into the wolf’s scull, causing the massive beast to convulse before lying still. Left alone like this the blade would soon be forced from the wolf’s body and the creature would heal, but Adrian did not wish the beast to survive. He looked around the clearing spotting the humans battle axe he lifted it easily and sent it biting into the wolf’s throat, severing the head. Now the wolf was dead. The dunpeal disguarded the axe and turned to the slowly standing mortal.

“I thank you stranger,” the mortal hunter said getting to his feet, Adrian crinkled his nose at the pungent smell of pelts coming from the mortal, it was highly unpleasant “who are you?” the mortal asked after visibly taking in the immortal

“My name is of no consequence,” the dunpeal answered, absently brushing silver fur from his clothing, hoping that his coat could be cleaned to remove the stench of the wolf.

“What are you doing in such a dreadful place?” the mortal snapped before the dunpeal had a chance to say anything more, Adrian smiled a little at the human.

“This is my home human,” the statement took a few moments to sink in, and then the humans clumsy axe was back in its hands, held ready.

“Vampire!”

“Oh stop that,” the immortal muttered, sending a small well aimed spurt of flame, catching the humans weapon making him drop the axe before the flames licked with unnatural speed that the mortals gloves.

“Your . . . your name; creature I will have your name before I kill you,” the dunpeal had been wrong, the mortal was a well learned hunter but one with very little experience.

“My name that you seem so desperate to know is Adrian,” this new piece of information made the mortal pail even more so. Adrian the well known dunpeal child of Dracula. “you may have one more question mortal before you leave,” the dunpeal said feeling generous.

“Very well, this is my last question before I leave your forest; why did you save me from the werewolf?” the hunter asked solemnly, Adrian blinked at him for a few silent moments before his laughter escaped him, “excuse me?” the hunter spoke up through the immortals laugh “I said excuse me! I demand to know what you find so amusing,”

“Oh humanity, I love you,” Adrian whispered as he shook his head trying to calm his amusement, “this has been amusing and that was not something I expected but now . . .,”

“How is it amusing?” the mortal was angry, its feeble anger only made the dunpeal chuckle quietly behind his gloved hand.

“My poor deluded mortal, I am laughing because you are so clearly confused,” Adrian smiled “firstly you think I’m letting you go, secondly you think I have saved you, I’m not sure which is causing me more mirth.” The dunpeal stepped closer to his intended meal “but you were right about one thing you are being hunted,”

“But the wolf . . . you . . . you,” the mortal was backing away

“I eliminated my competition,” Adrian calmly explained before lunging forwards.

It would be a long time before Adrian felt grief at the slaughter of humans.

The end

Authoress note: short simple and rather pointless but I wrote it anyway. Please let me know what you think.

Please review.