FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Those brats! I should make them pay. I will make them pay! I was the one who whipped the covens into line, it was me who had the cattle worship us. Ignorant and stupid whelps! They are going to pay tenfold for their short sightedness.

Stuck in the woods. I was the king, lord of the lands and all who walked it. I was a lord of lords. I commanded immortals.

They would love to see me now. Covered in dirt and filth. That I could take, I was a warrior before I took the scarlet kiss, no, it's that I must feed on creatures lower then the cattle.

I took a boar the other day, now I must feed again, though I am loath to do so. I will not be here long. Not much longer I hope. How long has it been? A year I think. Time, is inconsequential, but a useful tool. Still, these woods seem to have a freshness, something vastly more alive, I can feel it. It's in the flora and the fauna. An extraordinary energy. This is a very old forest and it shows in how deep the energy penetrates the soil and how thick it is in the air. But that's not the only thing I can smell in the air, it's not food, no, it's sustenance, nothing more then a feeding to get me by. I drank from golden chalices once.

I feel the change. It's harder to breath and I get weak. I crouch down and then my skin, dead as it is, begins to tingle as when I were alive. I breath heavy and I have to stifle the sound of my rasping unbreath. It's more of a reaction to the scent then anything really. Hmm, a buck today.

I make quick work of it. Skittish creature, I just about gave it a heart attack, but the ones that still beat, when I feed on those, I take the best parts of them. Minuscule as they are, the collective strengths I have built over the years have made me stronger then anyone, as an individual. How power can fade like the seasons, or even quicker. There isn't a second I don't dwell on my fall. The youngest and most foolish in the council rose in anger at the restrictions I made to protect them. Now they are hunted not revered. Foolish, brainless idiots!

The blood is infinitely warmer then myself or the surrounding air, so the heat condenses to vapor, it like the buck was on fire and I feel it go down my throat and warm my organs. It spills over my face, chin and chest as I continue to lap up the thick blood. My nails become talons and begin to; grow, darken, thicken, harden, sharpen.

Just like any skinner or hunter. I slice open the belly and splay the bucks legs out. I make careful, delicate cuts all over. I peel the skin off the body. I snap the horns off. I lick the inside of the fresh pelt, the blood has a more earthy taste to it then it does from the arteries.

Feeding is certainly the most base and animalistic act we vampires engage in, lowering us, from what we show ourselves as. It's not pleasant work, but the reward is beyond divine. With the animal skinned, and the pelt ready to tan with the dawn, I take the carcass to a village about a night walk away, I know a cave near by I can use, just over the hill, dawn is coming.

With the wind comes valuable information... The presence of a beast. The scent of it's musk. If nothing else it's ready for war. Terribly violent things with no regard to civility. I am more then willing to talk to those lower then me and willing to accept their worship, but the werewolves are the worse. Terribly violent, I can't state it enough. I step over the spilled intestines, I head with the wind, I'l have to be more cunning then the beast. Where they use their base instincts, I can outsmart the low born. But I have a task.

On the outskirts of the woods lies a village and in the village I have allies. They are cattle, yes, but with their help, I can take back my throne. The young reckless idiots. I see the headman's hut, they live in poverty if you asked me, but they tell me they are a rich and powerful tribe.

I throw the carcass down in front of the hut, and it lands with a thud. The head man was waiting for me it seems, he simply pulls the leather door to one side.

'You bring us meat and we are grateful.'

'A socerror as well as headman then?'

'Of sorts, my lord.'

'You plead fealty to me then?'

'On certain conditions.'

'Being?'

'Our warriors receive the Scarlet Kiss.'

I would have been an idiot not to see this coming, but saying that would make me egotistical, seeing as I did see it coming, I can't help but have been prepared. 'You and your people aren't stupid. It's not all power you receive. I have my weaknesses. Are your warriors willing to accept death as well as weaknesses to the mundane?'

'If we can subdue our enemies, we won't have to worry about the mundane.'

'I thought the same thing long ago.'

'We are prepared and many have already volunteered.'

'No doubt. But of those who even wish to be turned, I will turn away many. I can't imagine my giving my gift to seed just anyone. Anyone who gets the kiss from a newly turned with be substantially less endowed. You know this as well?'

'We do now. We wish to be more then a tribe. We seek to be a coven.'

I couldn't believe my ears. I looked at the hut made of skins and bones, the village was made of these like warts on the surface of the land. 'A coven? You would certainly be the most, rustic coven I know of.'

'You might look down on the way we live lord. But we are the strongest tribe on the steppe. We seek battle with a great enemy. Your enemies are the strongest we know of, what better way to prove ourselves then against immortals?'

'Well you certainly have an enthusiasm for the task. I suppose I should make this quite official.' A talon ran over my wrist and exposed with dark blood, it could hardly be called such, but it was what It was, nercotized blood, flowing thickly through my body, dead so many years ago. 'Lick it before the wound seals.' Not so much a wound when you heal with out a scar and there was no life in the skin as it was. But the headman obeyed, just like cattle, but now he would be so much more, even if he was so much less then I.

The headman licked it, he winced as if the inbibment of the substance caused him pain. If that was the only thing he felt, I was impressed. 'Now. Just a sample of yours to seal out pact.' The headman cut his wrist as I had, though much shallower. I took my cold mouth to his wrist and sucked strongly without thinking. I groaned, doubled over as if I had just swallowed a large rock. My head throbbed and ached as it never had since before I became a vampire. 'Ahh! you're a psychic?'

'I am.'

'Mongrel!' I sneered. He masked his powers as psychics could and I was unprepared. I would break this one quickly before he became another rallying traitor. ' I have a task for your hunters. Go into the woods. A creature lives there. It will try and kill any who enter the woods and it may come close to it's goal, but it needs to come back alive. Even if only by half.'

'How do we find it? What does it look like?'

'It will find your men easily I'm sure. It is, a hellion. A werewolf. It's alone I'm sure, but it's the only thing in the world as dangerous as me.'

'And what about me my lord?'

'You're clever, but your abilities equate infancy to mine. Besides. You won't have that smirk on your lips tomorrow.'