Good morning everyone, I was delighted to hear from the very talented Matt Snyder at, A Prolific Potpourri Art. that had spotlighted the first few chapters of my Saga The Vampire, the Witch and Werewolf.
I was really delighted to hear this, the music he chose really caught the atmosphere I was hoping to create and he really put himself in the reading. I am truly grateful and if any you would like to pop across to Matt’s blog and have a listen to him reading my chapters please do and also while you are there have a look around at Matt’s work he’s very eclectic and so generous.
Please visit here. And listen . The rest of the saga is here on my blog under the heading , Vampires, The Witch and the Werewolf if anyone is interested đ
Rachel ran, ran as she had not run for months. The moonlight urging her on she gave her blood lust free range for once . She looked magnificent. By midnight she had killed and disposed of a huge bear and was having her normal internal fight. The werewolf in her craved a human but the tiny but strong human part of her was fighting the craving.
Stopping in a clearing Rachel got the scent of something she craved almost as much as human, Vampire! It was close and it was female and the way she felt right now she could easily take her on. Standing stock still and sniffing the air she located the Vampire. Slowly and silently she crept up to a line of trees, fully aware that she was in the open and at a disadvantage she went carefully and stealthily . As she entered the wood she saw ahead of her a female Vampire bathing in shallow looking pond. Rachel felt a shudder of sheer want pass through her . Closing in, moving silently. The Vampire, at first unaware that she was not alone, suddenly felt Rachelâs hot breath on her neck. In a flash she rounded on Rachel. They stood fang to fang Rachel on the shore the Vampire in the water.
In a flash the Vampire lept out of the water and landed in the snow behind Rachel, who turned on her hind legs and lunged at her victim. Biting the Vampire in the stomach she was spurred on by the taste of flesh. The Vampire let out a scream of anger and dug her nails deep into Rachelâs back. Rachel flicked the Vampire off of her back and pounced on her. The Vampire was trying to bite into Rachelâs neck but Rachel was high from lack of real prey for so long. Biting deep into the Vampireâs chest, Rachel was soon covered by the blood oozing out covering her face and fur. Quickly she ripped out the Vampireâs heart and ate it then just to make sure she ripped off the Vampireâs head , then she quickly lapped up as much blood as she could before the Vampire and her scarlet blood turned to ashes in the snow.
Rachel felt elated she arched her back and throwing back her head she howled at the moon loud and long. As she turned to leave the wood she froze, on the wind she could sense and yes, smell, more Vampires, at least three of them. As she fought madly to clear her mind of moonlight and blood she saw a strange domed building on the far side of the clearing . She ran for the door she had no idea why she was heading to the building⌠she just felt drawn towards it. Halfway across the clearing to her grateful amazement it started to snow heavily covering her paw prints. As she reached the door her luck was still holding and it was open. As she slunk inside the door closed silently behind her.
Outside she heard the Vampires arrive. They spent what seemed like hours trying to open the door but failing. Walking into the gloom she saw light and felt warmth coming from a fire at the far end of the circular room in which she stood. The fire drew her in and she approached , all the time looking at the writing on the wall above the fireplace.
âThis is Sanctuary to all but Vampiresâ. Feeling exhausted Rachel curled up in front of the fire and slept.
Outside the Vampires tried to enter the Sanctuary without any luck. They then searched for their sisterâŚin vain. Just before dawn they left to seek shelter.
It’s Sunday again and time for Jim Adams Song Lyric Sunday. This week’s prompts are Begin/End/Finish/Start .
I have picked Runtime from Imogen Heap, I may of mentioned her before? It’s about the end of a relationship, the singer wants to finish as it is past it’s sell by day. It has started in it, end , quit , stop , done. A song about finishing a relationship, with the prompts in plus a few synomines all except begin .
Runtime is Sparks is the fourth studio album by English singer Imogen Heap. The album was released, via iMagaphone Records ( her own label, and an anagram of her name) on 18 August 2014, in three editions: a standard edition, a deluxe two-CD edition and a super deluxe box set.
Sparks might fly, in no time. Itâs a delayed reaction of the third kind. (ooh) Iâm so ready for this. Shrink-wrapped tones, I can face the music. Stop matters bonding us way beyond Our best by-days.
You know we’ve had it good, we’ve had it bad, so no hard feelings. We’ve done all we could and all again. Iâm done pretending. Letâs quit while weâre still friends.
Making up stories that grew to be too tall, My fortress to forget couldn’t take anymore. You nearly watched me ruin everything, everything! Thereâs a number one rule of donât-doâs. Well we knew it all too well. You were supposed to be looking out for me! Have you any idea how difficult itâs been?
You know we’ve had it good, we’ve had it bad, so no hard feelings. We’ve done all we could, and all again. Letâs save ourselves a sorry ending. You know we’ve had it good, we’ve had it bad, but this is as far as we can stretch. Letâs stop pretending, stop pretending. And quit while weâre still friends [x2]
Well I was so young, misguided maybe. But still this hands over my every pen to paper. And this all started with a song. Let this be our last one. Drop, drop. Bridge, bridge!
We’ve had it good, we’ve had it bad, but this is as far as we can stretch. Stop pretending! And quit while weâre still friends.
I wish you well. I wish you well⌠(I wish you well, wish you well, wish you well)
Wish you well, I wish you well, I wonât tell if you wonât tell. I wonât hold it against you if you bow out gracefully. (gracefully) Can we just not drag this out, please? I wish you well, I wish you well, I wonât tell if you wonât tell. I wonât hold it against you if you bow out gracefully, (do it gracefully!) Can we just not drag this out?
*******”
So we need Begin …So I am using Imogen Heap again her song Useless.
“Useless”
I am a mirror, with no reflection I am a razor, without my blade I am the daylight, when the moon shines no Who will want to make my sandcastle that’s already made
I feel so useless, do you
Speak to an ear deaf to my voice Look through your fear, still blind to my way I reach to hold you, but I don’t feel you there, do you Even realize I’m here am I just wasting away? No wasting away Living, inside you play
My dying prayer, sealed in a scream Unwelcome, and a conscious dream I am your whore, without a name I climb to fall, to begin again, to begin again I climb to fall, suffer, hatred, deceit and pain Anger, regret, loving in vain
I am an arrow, with no direction My life your tarot, my picture your fate I’m your becoming, so ill always be nothing If i ever break away from you that day forth, you’ll be living My hate Oh God help his fate I’ll watch you, watch you suffocate.
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows stormy sky above a ruined tower, perched above earthen banks and ditches.
Calador took Lisa in to his arms and smiled down at her. She looked tired and small but no a day older than when they had met fifteen long hard years ago. Her eyes, that deep blue, indicative of witches showed the pain those years of war had taken on her soul.
Hope was ahead of them now striding up the hill towards what was left of Ewan’s Castle and the deep trenches that had been used to deter the hosts of Vampires. “Come on you two” she called, “there’s a storm closing in and I for one could do without getting soaked again” Calador laughed and shouted back, “It might be cold but the sky is clear no sign of a storm!” Hope laughed loudly. Lisa smiled and hugged Calador, “Come on , you know she is always right she can feel the weather, see the future, past and present” she said braking free from Calador’s hold and heading up hill.
As they reached the top of the hill and crossed the earthworks the skies darkened and the first drops if rain began to fall.
As they entered the Mott, all that was left of the castle the warmth greeted them. The fire in the kitchen filled the whole place with heat and the smell of stew cooking. Leona was there Hope threw her arms around her, she had great affection for this woman who had helped raise her. Who had kept her hidden in plain sight within her own large brood.
As Calador and Lisa walked towards the Great hall Ewan came out to meet them. He greeted them both warmly.”It is very fortuitous that you have all visited today. Alicia and the witches council have asked me to bring you here tonight.” He added, ” I fear there is a storm brewing! ”
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows a winter landscape, with trees by a stream and rough stepping stones across it.
Choices
The woman stood and looked upstream. It was cold but it was February. It was cold but not the cold of the war. That gnawing cold that the Vampires had spread across the world. That winter that had lasted a decade and been the destruction of so many and so much.
Lisa pulled her cloak around her tighter against the cold and the memory of that long cold and bloody time. She felt so alone so many close to her gone, Mathew ripped to pieces by his own kind, Rachel valiantly fell holding back the hordes of Vampires with so many of her kind. There were so few of the werewolves left now. Faye had been the hardest to take,she had betrayed them but had repented as she died… Something no other Vampire had ever done.
Those ten years and the five after had been hard, lonely years. Lisa felt her age, though her body still looked like that of a young woman. Shaking her head she cleared her brain of all the horrors she had witnessed.
Suddenly voices from behind her brought her back from her memories. She turn to face Calador and Hope approaching her. Calador showing the signs of the fifteen years she had known him, and Hope blossoming into a beautiful young woman. A smile lit up her face and her eyes showed her true magic she was a saviour, Hope by name and nature.
Looking at Hope as she hopped across the stepping stones towards her Lisa knew the choices she had made were the right ones.
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows a landscape wearing a light dusting of snow. From the hill, where skeletal heather and brown grasses pierce the snow, a valley spreads out below, lit by the rays of a pale sun.
After the noise of the battle earlier the silence cut like a knife. The snow was doing a good job of covering the dead and dying. From nowhere came silver rays from the sun bathing the valley in an almost gentle way.
It seemed almost impossible that only at dawn she had stood on the horizon looking toward the castle wondering what was to come. There had been no snow or cold when she had arrived. The witches still held sway over the climate around the castle. Yet as she had stood in the early morning warmth wondering about her future she had felt the temperature drop and seen the white of the Vampire winter approaching.
Realising there was no time to waste she ran to the castle altering those within to the incoming danger. Not bothering to morph from wolf to human she bounded up the stairs howling. She halted at the sight of Ewan, relieved to see he was back to his old irritating self! He confirmed this by patting her head. ***********
The men, dwarves and elves were ready, Rachel told Ewan that the warewolves were on their way. Everything was set and ready, the battle was nigh.
The snow and ice covered the ground silently, it didn’t fall from the sky it was just there. The temperature plummeted, the men’s breath frosted their beards as they saddled their horses, the dwarves drew their cloaks about them against the cruel wind, their axes glinting in the pale morning light. The elves lined the turrets their quivers full of wooden arrows tipped with silver.
The men on horses rode out across the draw bridge and lined up outside the castle in a phalanx the others formed a line infront of then with their spears and weapons raised. Not one of these brave men had ever fought vampires before. The dwarves were ready inside the gates singing and banging drums. The women, children and the old were all inside the castle praying to their gods . Alicia, Lisa and Rachel stood on the ramparts with the elves.
Then of a sudden a whispering, a screaming, a moaning carried across the valley and up the hill towards the castle. “They are here” shouted Alicia, “where” shouted the men. Too late they were upon them , bodies flew around, and were torn apart, men’s and horse’s hearts ripped out and thrown upon the ground. The vampires were invisible they picked the men off simply and cruelly. Within minutes men lay dead and dying, disemboweled, quartered some just drained of blood.. The elves fired into thin air and many arrows met their mark, revealing the evil vampires, writhing and screaming as they caught on fire then turned to dust.
Not a man was left standing not one survived the carnage. All the while the vampires fill the air with their screams and threats.
Hope stirred in her cot, she visualised the Vampire hoards and broke their veil of invisibility. The Elves took aim and fired their arrows up into the sky from where they rained down on the the enemy. The dwarves now came into their own as each vampire swooped at them they used their honed weapons to decapitate as many as they could. Sadly the dwarves took heavy losses.
Lisa and Alicia felt Hope’s power and they joined with her willing the sun to shine at its brightest and hottest. Slowly their powers joined and the warmth in the sun turned into heat. The elves could see the younger vampires crawling up the castle walls and taking advantage of the light they shot at them mercilessly. Rachel looked out to the plains where she saw that the hoards of Vampires were still massing. All was lost how could they cope how could the beat these numbers? The humans barring the women, children and old all dead, all gone. The Dwarves were valiantly holding the castle but for how much longer!
Then a miracle happened the Vampires began to feel the effects of the sun.. they began to burn, black dust from them coated the snow. Their war screams turned to wails of anguish and pain as they died.
The order from the ancients went up R
“Retreat, Retreat” and soon the sky was full of retreating and burning vampires.
After the noise of the battle earlier the silence cut like a knife. The snow was doing a good job of covering theb dust and human dead and dying. From nowhere came silver rays from the sun bathing the valley in an almost gentle way. The heat was gone and the cold had returned. The vampires had gone for now they would be back at night.
Hope stirred in Lisa’s arms as her power subsided so did her mother’s and Alicia’s. “Sleep for now Hope my darling” whispered Lisa, ” they shall not have you” The child smiled in her sleep.
To be continued.
If you wish to read Lisaâs and Rachelâs story up to this point you can find it here.
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows the dark silhouette of an island in a shimmering lake, surrounded by shadowy hills. The sun is breaking out from behind the clouds in rayed splendour
Rachel stands on the shore of the lake looking across to The Island and Ewan’s castle. It dark and cold, so cold, she shivers. She is lost, her lover gone, her baby gone, her enemies almost upon her, she shivers. Then suddenly the first silver rays of dawn reach through the clouds and shimmer on the lake.
Shimmer Silver hope spreads out like fingers Rippling the waters of life. The fear of the dark still lingers Clouding our minds and causing strife The future is outlined dark , black For now we have the moment The past full of all we lack. The War is upon us in earnest What will the dawn bring?
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows green fields leading to distant, snow-covered hills, lit with the pink-gold glow of sunset.
Afar
Looking out from the ramparts of the castle Ewan looked out across the land protected by the witches spell to the evil winter beyond. He was almost his old self again but beneath his brave exterior he was still deeply affected by the horrors of that last battle. The screams, the blood the noise the absolute horror invaded his waking moments and his dreams.
The two witches and the new armies of men dwarves and elves had so raised his spirits and he was almost his old self again. He had been helping with the training of the troops, the elves, master bowmen, were happy to train men and dwarves, dwarves skilled axe and swordmen trained the elves and men and the men helped with tactics something especially the dwarves never really took into account. They always thought noise and brute strength would carry them through.
Lisa was delighted to be back for a while and being able to be with Hope was more than she had hoped for when they had left the castle for the first time. Though her heart yearned for Calador and Rachel to be safe within these castle walls. As she looked to the mountains covered in snow she saw a murder of Crows approaching from afar what news did they bring.
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows a woodland scene with a dusting of snow and the sun, rising as a rayed orb through the boughs of a tree.
The Light.
Many miles away from where Thraun had taken Rachel, Lisa and Alicia where traveling through the wilds. Gathering as many men, dwarves and elves as they could find to join with them in the fight against the vampires.
Lisa turned to Alicia and they spoke as one, ” Thraun has delivered Rachel, she is with her kind. ” “Yes” said Alicia, ” I hope she has more good luck than we are having.” The two witches had travelled miles and seen hardly anyone on their journey who was either fit or willing enough to join them. So far they had only found fifty men, ten of which were women and children, a score of draves but no elves. Their hope was that the elves were all together and marching to meet then as promised.
The harsh winter was taking its toll on everyone and everything. It was all the harsher for being an unholy winter not a natural one. Lisa shielded her eyes against the winter sun, shed turned to Alicia and asked, ” The news Corvus brought us about the death of Mathew, is it definitely true? ” Alicia reined her steed in and looking Lisa in the eyes replied quietly. “Yes quiet true and sadly Rachel knows the time and manor of his passing. Though as it came to her in a dream she may choose to ignore it for now.”
Lisa felt such pain for her friend Rachel who had lost so much, her lover and her child.
The witches carried on in silence. Cold and tired but not defeated. Back at the Castle Ewan was making progress, gaining strength, regaining his memory of the terrible battle. Luckily his mind was processing the information this time. He was regaining his strength ready for the next battles.
Which each dawn he greeted the stragglers that arrived through the castle gates, either by chance or by the witches guidance. All who arrived at the gates were fed and found lodgings and trained by those soldiers true and valiant who had survived that evil battle.
Rachel stood on a hill miles away looking towards the weak winter sun, as did Ewan from his castle Ramparts. They were imploring the fates for a miracle.
The two witches approached a copse where they could see men, many men. The two stoppeda looked toward the trees where the sun was shining through. Like a beacon. Afraid to admit to eachother what they saw masses of men, drawves and by far the most welcome sight, beautiful tall blonde haired blue eyed elves.
The sun glowed like an orb through the trees like hope spreading it’s light. At once the witches, Rachel Ewan and Calador the elf all communed with the light. Their souls flew up the light and travelled far above the world. There they met and felt the warmth of millions of souls past, present and future. They were all gathered up in the warmth and before they left the holy place they felt and received new strength and hope.
One by one they returned to their bodies, Rachel last as she had found the beautiful and newly whole soul of Mathew there.
Once they were all back in their reality they were happy in the knowledge of being one. And so every group now marched toward the Castle and the stronger Ewan. The four remaining races united and ready to face the Vampires. All full of hope.
*********
To be continued.
If you wish to read Lisaâs and Rachelâs story up to this point you can find it here.
For visually challenged writers, the image shows a frosty dawn, seen through the bare branches of trees. The sky is aflame, dappled with pink clouds, deepening to orange and gold. On the horizon is a small hill crowned with trees, behind which the sun will rise.
Glow
The stag finally finally reached the only surviving group of Werewolf Lupines. He gently put Rachel down in the snow and told her they had arrived at her destination. Rachel now in her werewolf form asked him how he knew where she was going . The stag replied he had been asked to help her by Alicia.
Nudging her gently he suggested they should approach the one hundred packs of wolfs in the valley together and with stealth. He also asked that she let him do the initial talking. Rachel agreed to this readily as she was weak from hunger and still shocked from what she had seen while she had slept on the journey here.
So together they walked towards the wolves. There were fires and the smell of cooking and Rachel saw shelters too, which looked welcoming these creatures were all in human form. Looking up at the stag Rachel asked him if he was sure these were indeed werewolves. He just smiled down at her.
As the neared the encampment four huge wolves barred their way. They looked incredulously at the two unlikely travelling companions, an emaciated wolf and a stag . “What do you want, have you brought us dinner” Asked the largest male, baring his teeth “No ” Replied the stag telepathically . “I am Thraun leader of my kind and I have been tasked by Alicia Queen of the witches to bring Rachel here to meet and speak with your leaders. The wolves though not stupid were taken aback by this stag that could talk inside their heads. They started to back away all except for the female among them who approached Rachel.
Rachel stood her ground as the older female spoke gently to her. “How have you managed to survive on your own and why do you have a stag as an escort and why are you on a mission for the Queen Witch?” Rachel looked this female straight in the eyes and replied “It is a long and dark story and if you will forgive me I would prefer to only tell it once and to your leader” Feeling suddenly tired again, Rachel sat , “Please take me to the elders” The three male wolves made to disagree but the female silenced them and with Thraun leading the way she escorted Rachel towards the camp . As they approached Rachel looked the warmth and human looking creatures. Then Rachel’s eyes were drawn to the sky and the horizon . To the beautiful glow of a new dawn and maybe new hope.
*********
To be continued.
If you wish to read Lisaâs and Rachelâs story up to this point you can find it here.
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