chatper 3

stein continues his adventures with the group to find out who is responsible for the disappearances of the other immortals

chapter 3

the immortal blacksmith

  

 

 

 

There it is the one of the greatest cities in the Transylvanian country, city of commerce, Karta. The city being one of the focal points of income for all people in the country gave it extreme luster and beauty, the city was home to over 50,000 people, 900 peddlers, and nearly 1,000 blacksmiths and a 15,000 count army consisting of men, women, and children, and the rest of the population is just civilians and royalty. The city was amazing both in size and In architectural design, when we all got into the city doors we all ended up in the market and this part of the city was bustling, things being sold or bought or even stolen it was going to be nearly impossible to find Daraous in this chaotic atmosphere. I turned around to see all who was getting off of the carriage; Jedediah, Venikane, Joshua, and I were the only ones that were getting off, the caravan took off as soon as I stepped off. Joshua started to walk away; Venikane grabbed him by the back of the collar and lifted him from the ground.

“Where do you think you are going?” Venikane said as he held Joshua off of the ground even to where his toes could not even touch.

“My work is done, I watched you guys and kept you from danger all the way to Karta, now put me down.” Joshua said as he kicked at Venikane’s legs, Venikane shook him and his bow and quiver fell of his back.

“Actually your work is not over, you did not warn me of the raiders, and you slept most of the here, so our contract is nowhere close to being completed. I still own you.” I cut in as Venikane continued to shake him. Several items fell off of Joshua’s body, those items being his coin purse, his shoes, his bangles, and any other loose items all over his body. Venikane set Joshua down and Joshua punched Venikane in the stomach but he pulled his hand back clutching it in pain.

“I am the immortal of steel skin you idiot, I didn’t even feel that.” Venikane said as he punched Joshua, Joshua flew up against the wall with a thud he fell to the ground, unconscious. Jedediah walked over and slapped Venikane on the top of the head, there was a clang sound as if a gong was just hit with a soft stick, and I thought someone being hollow headed was just an insult but Venikane is literally hollow headed. I walked over; picked up, and slung Joshua over my shoulder, for a human he is very light. I walked further into the city, when we came up to a tavern I set him down hoping that he would pass for another passed out drunk, instead after I set him down Venikane picked him up and threw him into the horse troth, Joshua shot up out of the water and started cursing. Minutes after Joshua started ranting and raving a man on horseback came up.

“You lot do not look to be from around here, why are you here?” he asked as Jedediah walked over and covered Joshua’s mouth so none of the profanity would get out.

“Hello we are looking for the immortal blacksmith, can you point us to his shop.” I said as the man jumped down from his horse.

“Something is wrong with the blacksmith, I was in his shop one day when his eyes started to glow a color as red as blood. I had left but the next day I went back to see if he was okay but his shop was in shambles and he was nowhere to be found, everyone that we have sent up to his home on the mountain has not returned. We are all lost without him; he was one of the city’s main places of business, we have been trying to find another immortal to go up, check on him then bring back word of his health, but still no luck.” The man said as he sat down at a table and we all gathered around them. I reached up and pulled back my hair to show my mark, the man’s heart must have skipped a beat when he saw.

“You have no need to keep looking because there are two immortals standing right in front of you.” When I said that Venikane stuck his tongue out to show his mark, which was III. The man jumped up from the table and hugged me and Venikane together. The man after he released Venikane and me he knelt down and bowed to us as if we were some kind of deity.

“Thank you so much, please go up the mountain and bring Daraous back, I beg of you.” The man begged at our feet. Venikane started to walk off; he sat down at a different table.

“Venikane, what are you doing?” I yelled over to him as the man continued to bow at my feet.

“I told you Frankenstein, I will never help Daraous even if he is enraged. I don’t care how many people he could kill.” He said in reply, I ran over and grabbed Venikane by the collar of his tunic and slammed him up against the wall. Venikane made I thud on the wall before grabbing and throwing me into a group of passing bystanders, when I regained my stance I dashed toward and tackled Venikane he fell hunched over onto the ground.

“Now, you are being a child. Daraous may have killed Sheevares but she died after a hell of a fight. She died in battle, and I were you I would want revenge for such a disgrace.” I said as I picked up Venikane from his hunched over state and set him back up on his feet. Venikane did not say anything he just nodded in reply to the man’s request, the man stood up and handed Venikane and I both 500 crems. Venikane and I walked away with Joshua and Jedediah close behind; the walk to the back gate of the city was a long walk so I decided to stop a couple places, first to the weapons shop which is apparently separate from the blacksmith, when I got there I got my scythe sharpened and Joshua bought a sword so he would be more “dangerous” as he called himself. The next places we all stopped was a tobacco shop so Venikane so he could get a couple more cigars, a tavern so we all could eat so we aren’t hungry when we leave the city, the next place we went was map shop because personally I cannot tell the difference between a hill and a drop when it comes to a map. After all of our shopping was complete we all started to leave the city, the journey to the top of the mountain wasn’t going to be easy, one of the people in the map shop told me that if we were lucky the only things that we would face would be high winds, wolves, rain storms and snow, I didn’t stick around long enough to hear what would happen if we weren’t lucky. We all walked out of the city without any problems from the royal guards, and so the journey up the mountain starts. The sun was just starting to set but we decided to press on, knowing that if we travel through the night we are more susceptible to attack from animals or people. At least Venikane and I know that Daraous is enraged and that also makes him extremely strong but being enraged also displays a weakness more than anything, Daraous has always had a temper but with help from Nominus he has been able to control it for as much as we know, but if he is enraged that means one of two things, one is that he has just gone mad the other is someone has poisoned him. Poisoning immortals does not kill us it drives us closer to madness, sometimes pushes them over the edge. I have only been poisoned with some wolves’ bane but that is a tranquilizer so it did not take me any closer to madness even though I am already standing on the razors edge. The journey up the mountain is possibly going to be hard because of a couple things, the thin air at the higher parts of the mountain and when we all reach that point Venikane and I will have to continue on alone because immortals can survive much longer in low oxygen. The other things that we  will face is the obvious wild animals, looters, storms, and everything that goes bump in the night, luckily the last vampire and lycanthrope that I know of was slaughtered by some villagers about 3 years ago.

“Are we there yet?” Joshua asked as he tried to sit down before being yanked up by Venikane.

“You ask that one more time and I will rip your throat out.”  Venikane said before he threw Joshua up by me, I may have hired Joshua but now I am starting to regret that. I held my scythe in one hand and my bag in the other, Venikane had now joined me at the front of the group leaving Jedediah back there with Joshua. The sun was now completely down and the group had decided to stop for the night. Jedediah lit a fire, I cut down trees so we could have some firewood, Venikane set up the tents, and Joshua, well he had passed out from dehydration about 10 minutes earlier.

“Well, what does it mean when an immortal is enraged?” Jedediah asked.

“When an immortal is enraged they are possibly the most dangerous thing on the planet. Their power is greatly increased and once they are enraged the immortal only knows one thing, kill, Daraous was smart to seclude himself before he went insane.” Venikane said as he rubbed his hands together to keep them warm, the strange thing about Transylvanian nights is once the sun goes down the temperature drop dramatically.  

“Is it possible to save an immortal after he is enraged?” Jedediah asked as he poked some of the embers at the bottom of the fire.

“Yes, it is possible but near impossible. First you have to get in close enough to remind the immortal who he is, then you have to try and calm the immortal down by knocking him out, and you and I both know how hard that is, right Frankenstein?” Venikane said. I only nodded at his question.

“What is after that?” Jedediah asked as he reached into his travel bag and pulled out one of the cigars that he and Venikane bought in the city. He used a match to light it

“Then if the immortal does not calm down after all that, you have to kill the immortal before he kills you. The only reason I actually know this is after Sheevares was killed Venikane had become enraged and almost completely destroyed my castle. You still owe me the 900,000 crems it took to repair all of the damage to my lab and other places of my home.” I said as I took my glasses off and got into my tent, Venikane and Jedediah continued to talk for about thirty more minutes before both of them retired to their specified tents. I laid awake only praying for sleep but I was also afraid to sleep, with the way the dream is progressing, who will die next. The better part of me took hold and I eventually fell asleep, the dream started and I looked around to see if anyone else was dead. I tried to stand up but something held me down I looked down to my feet and it was Venikane’s lifeless body with a giant hole in his back implying that the figure had ripped out his soul, I continued to look around for the figure, I caught a glimpse of it as the figure engulfed Venikane’s soul. I awoke in a cold sweat, what does this dream mean? How can I stop all of my friends from dying? Who is the shadowy figure? Is it just a dream or is it a premonition of future events?  These are the questions that kept filling my head when I sat up. I looked out of my tent and the fire was still going, how long did I sleep. I grabbed my bag to grab out my sun dial; hopefully a sun dial will work with the moon I got out of my tent and pointed the needle to the opposite side to the moon and the shadow covered the fifth line, I was sleep for only 5 hours, five hours of relentless nightmares, I had to figure out what those dreams meant and who or what that figure is. I stepped over to the fire and poked the embers to keep the fire going as long as possible with the stick that Jedeiah had left out; the fire was the only thing keeping me warm. Even with my shirt and pants on the cold Transylvanian night air got to me, my clothes were still thick to a very minuscule extent, I am not sure if you have noticed but to have black jeans and grey tee shirt may seem weird to have in my position in the late 1400s but Memuos the immortal of time gave them to me at my 240^th birthday, yes immortals still have birthdays no matter how long they live, I was then able to find the materials to make more so that is why I have more than just on pair. I continued to think on what the nightmares could mean, could they just be a coincidence, or could they be something more. I picked up my bag and grabbed out my journal

“For the third day I have had the same dream, only one major difference, both Jedediah and Venikane were dead and the figure is still getting closer to me. If we ever find Nominus that will be the first question I ask her, I only hope that she can tell me something about them. We are about half of the way to Daraous and I can sense that something is wrong, I really hope that I don’t have to kill him.” I wrote in my journal before I heard something in the forest seem to approach the campsite, I stuffed my journal back into my bag and grabbed my scythe. I looked for the sound and out of the forest came a small wolf cub and what seemed to be its mother, the small cub walked up and I gave it a small piece of the dried beef that Venikane gave me. The cub gobbled up the beef and rubbed up against me; the cub’s mother walked up to me and rubbed up on my waist then lay down at my feet. I guess I am experiencing what Nominus wrote about in her last letter, she wrote that she had noticed that animals seemed more calm and collected around immortals than they are around humans, either that or they liked the heat coming from the fire. I reached down to the mother and she did not growl at me so I guess Nominus was right again. I just sat there and watched the small wolf cub chase its own tail, I was always amazed that small animals were never able to figure out that their tail was attached to them, he probably knew and was just showing off for me.

“Frankenstein, do not move.” I heard Joshua say as he drew back an arrow in his bow.

“Put down the bow, they aren’t going to harm you.” I said as I started to stand up, the wolf cub now hiding behind my legs. Joshua put his bow and arrow down then proceeded to walk out of his tent, the she-wolf now tensed up as he walked up and sat down on one of the logs. The wolf cub walked out from behind my legs and jumped up on the log that I was sitting on and proceeded to roll around on the log strangely without falling off. The she-wolf stood up and walked over to the cub and bit the gruff of its neck and carried the cub away into the woods, Joshua relaxed as soon as the wolves disappeared into the woods.

“Why didn’t those wolves rip you to pieces?” Joshua said as he slung his bow over his shoulder.

“Nominus suspected that wolves acted calmer around immortals than they do around a human, that’s why the mother tensed up when you walked out here. The cub seemed to like me though.” I reached into my bag and pulled out my canteen, and then I threw it over to Joshua.

“Drink up, you passed out from dehydration. I am surprised that you didn’t die.” I said as Joshua popped the cap off and drank the water that was inside. I looked over the mountain and saw that the sun was starting to rise, Joshua threw the canteen back over to me and I put it back in to my bag.

“May I ask you a question, Joshua?” I said.

“Go ahead” he replied as he popped his knuckles.

“Why did you want to come on this trip so much?” I said. Joshua seemed a little caught off of guard.

“I wanted to find out if immortals were any different than humans, in all reality I am a werewolf, and I also wanted to see if there were anymore. I think I am the last lycanthrope to exist, I only hope that there are some more because it is kind of lonely.” Joshua said before he opened up his bag and took out one of the strips of beef that he bought in Karta before we all left, Venikane walked out of his tent and strapped on all of his armor to cover up his shirtless body, he strapped on his claymore and his shield, which really made no since for him to have because his claymore was forged for two hands. Venikane sat down next to Joshua on the log that he was still sitting on.

“Did I hear you right, did you say that you were a lycanthrope?” Venikane said as he lit up the same cigar that he had been smoking for the past 4 days, he really knows how to conserve the small things.

“Yes, you did. I said I was the last lycanthrope that I know of. You have something against werewolves?” Joshua said as he pulled off his glove to show his hand and the pale moon light made his human hand change to a fuzzy paw with extremely sharp claws on the end of his fingers, The rest of his attire blocking the rays of the moon from the rest of his body, his hood covering his head, his boots covering his feet and so on.

 “No, I just didn’t expect someone so wimpy like you to be a lycanthrope.” Venikane said as he took a long drag from his cigar, he puffed the smoke out in a huge cloud. Joshua slipped his glove back on and his claws disappeared in a matter of minutes, the sun came over the mountain and took the moon completely out of the sky. Jedediah walked out of his tent, he was tying the side straps of his armor and when Jedediah was ready we all started again to walk to the top of the mountain to get information on Daraous’s condition. I was walking next to Venikane, Jedediah and Joshua were walking a small distance behind us, by the end of the day if we are lucky Venikane and I will reach Daraous by the middle of the day. Jedediah was the only of us that did not know that Joshua was a lycanthrope and it would help if he didn’t ever find out, he is one of the most renowned soldiers in the country and he is known for killing vampires and werewolves, it would only make things complicated if he did find out. The walk up the mountain was becoming hard mostly because of the near vertical slopes to walk up, I could see Daraous’s shack in the distance giving the signal that it was time to split up from Joshua and Jedediah. The low oxygen doesn’t affect immortals as much as it does humans, so immortals could survive longer in low oxygen. Daraous’s lungs must have gotten used to the low oxygen because even the fact that he is immortal doesn’t mean he would survive for as long as he has and he has been living in the mountains for almost 90 years. Jedediah and Joshua set up a camp and venikane and I continued to walk up the mountain to hopefully reach Daraous before the end of the day, before separating from Joshua and Jedediah I took one last oxygen rich breath, venikane was already walking ahead of me. I ran to catch up with venikane and he was now jogging up the mountain, I guess it was because he wanted revenge for what Daraous did to Sheevares. I did not want to run or jog but to take my time because Daraous was known for by the immortals for setting traps, as venikane and I walked up to Daraous’s shack I noticed that there were broken trees and rocks that smashed  to the point of pebbles. I guess that Daraous is enraged; I only hope that is isn’t too late to save him. I stopped to catch my breath but venikane would not stop, seconds later a gigantic rock landed next to me not ten from me and for my sake I decided to run up and do my best to catch up to venikane. Venikane and I ran up the mountain and eventually we stopped at the front door of Daraous’s shack, I grabbed my scythe from my back and venikane pulled his claymore from the scabbard.

“Okay, you ready?” venikane said. Before I could answer Daraous punched a hole through the wall, his fist was the same color as when I last saw him. His dark skin must have been from where he was born, the Galapagos Islands as he said that the locals called it. The locals must have mastered travel by water faster than everyone else because he came to Transylvania in the early 1400s. Daraous pulled me through the wall and threw me against the wall and then punched me in the stomach as I flew so the added force made me fly through another wall, venikane slashed at Daraous’s leg with his claymore and I caught the wall as I flew through the air. I picked up a piece of the wood that was broken on my impact and chucked it at Daraous and the piece of wood smacked him on the back of the head, what Daraous did next as unexpected, Daraous threw Venikane at me, with a thud venikane and I both fell to the ground with venikane lying on top of me.

“Okay, he is stronger than the last time I fought with him. Where is my scythe?” I said to venikane, without any warning my scythe flew into the ground next to my head, I could see my reflection in the blade. My silver hair was thrown out of place and my birthmark that was in the shape of 7 in the roman numeric system was showing, I stood up and pulled my scythe out of the ground and wiped the moist dirt that was stuck to the blade off onto the ground. Venikane stood up after me and with his claymore in his hand he rushed back into the house only to be punched back out of the wall, I stepped out of the way so I wasn’t knocked back down, and he landed only three feet from where I was standing.

“This is bullshit, how can we defeat him?” Venikane said as he stood up and again pulled his claymore from the soft ground, the dirt may be soft but when you land on it after flying through 2 walls and getting punched in the chest it is a pretty rough landing. The moist dirt still hanging on to the blade, venikane dragged the blade across his pants to get the dirt off.

“I don’t know how to beat him but remember we do not want to kill him. I do know one thing; we can’t rush in without a battle plan because if he did kill Sheevares he is going to have the battle strategy to take down an army.” I said to Venikane before he rushed back into the shack only to be thrown out a couple of seconds later.

“Okay, what’s your plan?” Venikane said still lying in the dirt, this time he had his claymore still on his person.

“I don’t have a plan.” I said as Venikane stood up. When I said this venikane got wide eyed.

“How could you not have a plan, you’re the only one of us that can come up with a plan.” Venikane said to me while he slid his sword back into his scabbard.

“Wait, I have an idea. Look whenever we first charged into the fight we were attacking head on, so my idea is if we attack from different directions we might have a better chance at defeating him. What do you think?” I said.

“I think it might work, but I think we still could be kicked out of the house again, literally.” Venikane said sarcastically. I grabbed my scythe and we got into position to start the attack, I slowly walked to the other side of the house hoping not to arouse Daraous’s suspicion, when I was in front of the house and Venikane was still in the back, I gave the signal to start the attack, the sounds of battle between Venikane and Daraous was Venikane’s signal for me to attack Daraous. I ran up the stairs and kicked the door off of the hinges, which were wooden so when I kicked the door it literally flew off of the hinges. The door continued to fly and eventually struck Daraous in the middle of his back, the wooden door shattered on impact. I ran up to Daraous and in his enraged state he was still occupied with fighting Venikane. I know very well that is unethical to attack someone from behind, but if you had a giant with enough strength punch a hole through the great wall of china and enough stamina to chase you around the entire planet, oceans and all, 5 times in a row, would you honestly be dumb enough to fight him head on.  I swung my scythe and it slashed the back of Daraous’s leg, he blindly swung at me, he smacked with the back of his hand and it felt like I had just been smacked with a very large hammer. I was certain that a couple teeth were broken. Venikane stabbed Daraous through the forearm and then pulled his claymore out of Daraous’s lacerated arm, Daraous picked up one of the tables that were strung around the house and smashed it over Venikane’s head, and the impact must have hurt even for Venikane because he knelt down to one knee clutching his head in his hands. I got out of my dazed state and resumed the fight, Daraous was still bleeding, and the blade must have done some real damage because with his enhanced healing that all of us immortals have it would already be closed up but the wound was still leaking blood. I grabbed my scythe and taking the risk of being cut I grabbed the sides of the blade and smacked the wooden handle against Daraous’s head and it shattered leaving the handle one half it regular size. I had finally registered a hit on Daraous which was both a good thing and a bad thing, it is good because Venikane and I are that must closer to knocking out Daraous, it is bad because Daraous is now aware that I am a threat and will try even harder to kill me. I flipped the scythe around and swiped at his face but the blade only cut his cheek leaving a small cut that ran red with blood, Daraous punched me in the stomach and elbowed me in the small of my back, with the full force of being hit twice in opposing directions made my body smack the hard stone ground. Daraous picked me up by the loose cloth of my shirt if it weren’t for Venikane and his throwing of small objects that were lying all around us; I think Daraous would have killed me. Daraous dropped me and I saw something that might help me, a sketch that consisted of all of the immortals, standing in order by height, first Zakar being the shortest standing farthest to the left, then Nominus being a couple of inches taller than Zakar, next there I stood, then Sheevares, then venikane, then Memuos, then there stood Daraous. I picked the picture up and then threw a small stick at daraous to get his attention, the stick hit Daraous and he charged at me, just before he tackled me I held up the picture and he stopped in his tracks. I had reminded him of his humanity, which was one step to bringing back an immortal from insanity, next was to knock him out. I put down the picture and Venikane smacked Daraous on the top of the head with the flat side of his claymore, with that Daraous fell to his knees and then fell to where he was lying on his stomach.

“Oh my god, finally he is done. That took a lot longer than I thought I would, are you okay?” Venikane asked me.

“Yeah what do you…?” I had wanted to finish my sentence but I had fallen unconscious in the middle of it. Not 2 minutes into my unconscious the same dream started, yet this time the shadowy figure drove his two swords into Daraous this time, Leaving him to bleed out before plunging his hand into Daraous’s chest and before the figure ripped out a small green ball with a wisp like tail, that was Daraous’s soul and ate it I could see Daraous’s lips make out a name that seemed to be Faust, who was Faust. Now all of the people dead in this nightmare are Jedediah, Venikane, and Daraous. How are we going to find out who the Faust character is and who was going to be killed next?

Author's Note

a continuation of my first writing project.

should i keep writing it, or give up and start something different?