The Hunt Begins

[XD Dear god I think im in love with your charie lmao. You play 3.5 and Magic the gathering dont you?]

She watched him before laying down, pulling her cloak around her a bit tighter. She didn't trust him. BUt then, she as a rule didn't trust anything was magic. Past experiences and all...

"Sweet dreams then." she said, closing her eyes.

When morning came, the woman woke up, before the sun had risen. The sky outside the cave was only just turning light gray.

She sat up and groaned slightly, cracking her spine form top to bottom.

(( Yea I do. My favorite table/board game is D&D 3.5 and my favorite card game is Magic by far ))

Valandil had removed the barrier from the wall and was just dragging in a dead deer carcass, his dried meat was running low so he did some early morning hunting. Not to mention if he let the wolf out every now and again it was easier to control in times of desperation.

"Breakfast is served," he stated as he took a large chunck of flesh and spitted it over a fire he had created.

He went to work on the rest of carcass separating usable things with non usable things. He made sure he stretched the hide out so it could tan as they traveled. He made sure that he didn't cook for breakfast he dried on a nearby rock so that it could be packed easily. He took the antlers of the deer a nice 5 point on each antler, he had no use for them but he knew they would fetch good money in most places for alchemists. He made sure the rest of the non-usable stuff was buried somewhere so that it wouldn't cause any kind of uncomfortable smells for the next things that chose to hide in the cave didn't have to deal with it.

[XD Awesome. I'm thinking maybe my chick is some sort of Lawful Neutral Ranger. I'm thinking shes the sister of the two brothers?]

"You should have woken me up." she said as she stood, stretching out. She was used to sleeping on floors, but it didn't make her any less stiff in the morning.

She ate only a little before making sure her horse was tended to as he worked on the carcass. "There's plenty of water running through these parts." she said. "Streams. The only real river is farther south and runs north." she explained, tacking up the stallion as she spoke.

Valandil shrugged at her comment of waking her up, "Didn't need help hunting down the breakfast and you looked like you needed some sleep."

He finished all of his preparations of the carcass and then then packed up his gear which wasn't much since a lot of the stuff he used he summoned to him.

"Good I have traveled a long ways and my water skin is nearly empty," Valandil mentally smirked at the irony of a long ways since he had come from another complete plane of existence.

He quickly pulled out his blade to make sure it was sharp. The blade was made of Avacyn Blessed Silver dipped in the blind eternities to make it have even more magical properties like severing the ties living things had to their current plane of existence. He quickly sharpened it with a whetstone and made sure the taint of the blind eternities was strong. As soon as that was done he spun the sword and re-sheathed it.

Valandil had left his cloak off during the hunt so he was just in his black studded leather with silver symbols embroider into the leather, symbols of his plane where he grew up, the collar of Avacyn. As a werewolf he could not touch any of his equipment with his own skin but he made sure to wear gloves when he did it. The absence of his cloak showed his long elven white hair and his pointed ears, he didn't think that it would cause to much among his current companion, if it did he would just tell her to lead him there and then they would split ways.

He walked over and grabbed his cloak and put it on the black fabric swallowing him up in its dark folds, this was also magical allowing him to easily blend with the shadows, another gift for the hunt like his armor and his sword.

"Shall we?"

"I think I ought to to know who I'm traveling with." she said, undoing the lead of her horse as he fiddled with his blade.

She glanced over, raising an eyebrow. She had to admit, at least to herself, she had never met such a pale drow before.

"I'm curious as to why any of your kind would bother getting involved. Especially since as a rule of thumb I was under the impression you sided with the vampires?"

He'd traveled to a plane run mostly by dark creatures.

She tugged the reigns and clicked once, leading her steed off, taking the first steps in their journey together. "I'm Marry, by the way." she added.

Valandil thought for a minute he could give her false name he probably would never see her again after this part of his journey...he decided it was better to tell the truth at least most of it.

"My name is Valandil Tulcakelumë (( just as a fun side note that is my actual name in elven )). I am a moon elf born a long, long ways from here," he stated as he followed her on foot being easily able to keep up with the horse with his werewolf stamina, "I was trained by very good family of vampire hunters to hunt them down and destroy them no matter where they may be found."

Valandil decided that was enough information for her right now unless she asked something more of him. He opened his wolf senses to the surrounding area, his nose and ears were as sharp as ever. He let small veins of his mana spread out as well, it was a trick another hunting planeswalker had taught him by letting out small veins of your mana you can extend your senses even further then even he as a werewolf could.

"Thank you," he stated as they walked, "for leading me to the nest."

"So then you're not Drow?" she raised an eyebrow as he gave his name.

Even if he were, and he were lying, she was sure he wouldn't betray her. At least until she brought him to the nest.

When he thanked her, she chuckled and looked ahead again. "Don't thank me. I'm helping myself just as much as I'm helping you." she stated. "The only 'vampire hunters' here were all put to death when the prince was bitten. The King didn't want anyone attempting to kill his son."

Valandil scoffed at the idea of being a drow, "No, the dark elves and I share ancestry but that is it my race is rulers of a realm far from here, but even that realm has been corrupted by powers that I could never understand so I was exiled from there just as fast as I was exiled most everywhere else."

Valandil mentally hit himself he hadn't meant to say that much, oh well nothing to do about it now.

He listened to her talk about how all vampire hunters were killed after the prince was bitten, "Fools, they have damned themselves more then they could ever understand. Vampires are like parasites if you let them survive they will grow and grow especially if nothing is there to stop them."

It was what happened to Innistrad when Avacyn seemed to disappear from the world. The vampires grew out of control and almost destroyed all other races on the plane. Only when Helvault was destroyed did the people finally get a way to fight back. He hoped they would come out top and mentally made a promise to travel back there and see what has become of his home plane.

There was a tingle on the edge of his mana veins.

"Something or someone is coming," Valandil placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and had a spell on the tip of his tongue just in case it was something dangerous.

"Oh no, they realize it now, I assure you." she said, clearly displeased with the current events of the area herself.

Listening to him go on about exile though made her wonder what he must have done. Before her mind could get too far away form her though, she was pulled back to the present by the announcement of a potential approaching enemy.

She pulled her bow from her back and in one steady movement had two arrows placed, pinned and ready to strike.

"Which way?" she asked.

Red mana a lot of it was coming there way, two, three, four, five...yeah five the mana was uncontrolled and wild barbarians or the equivalent of them in this plane of existence he mentally thanked Garruk for teaching him how to identify mana signs it helped the hunt a lot.

"Seems to be a band of some kind, probably wild or feral I sense about five of them," he pulled his sword out, his werewolf strength and elven grace would be enough for this fight he didn't need to use magic would probably just cause more damage then good anyway he didn't have much control over actual spells other then summoning.

"They are coming from the northeast at a fast pace," he loosened the seal on his werewolf nature enough to feel the increase in strength and speed his senses also improved.

Sure enough a few seconds later a band of five massive humans came through the woods, they wore furs and skins. They carried crude iron weapons axes mostly but he did notice one archer. They were dark skinned and feral to the core, Valandil had seen others go to the realm of berserker so much to become animalistic.

The band of five saw the two lone travelers and all of them grinned feral, easy prey they raised their axes and howled in a un-definable sound.

Valandil gave his own feral grin, "Apparently they just don't want to pass by harmlessly do they."

"Savages never do." she said letting two arrows fly. It took down the one on the far left immediately as she slid off her mount, pulling back two more, ready for the charge.

For a human, she was fairly good with a bow. Though she was no vampire hunter- she was used to the ranged weapons of a hunt, and just as well versed with close combat. She had the makings of an assassin. Sneaky, cut thought, swift.

Valandil let a little of the wolf's bloodlust build up in him just enough to satisfy its eternal hunger but not enough to lose complete control, it would probably do him no good to wolf out in front of his guide and either drive her away or have her try and kill him, neither were options he cared for much.

Just as the savages started to charge after one of them went down with one of her arrows Valandil was off in a flash, his cursed speed pushing him into the middle of the three lead ones. He ducked low as a axe came in to lop his head off, the offender was quickly rewarded with a slash to the back of his knees causing him to fall down since Valandil had cut a major artery. He felt an arrow whizz by his head dodging just to get a slight scratch across his cheek darn archers, he figured that his companion could easily take care of her though. Another axe swung towards him and he twirled his long cloak around it and pulled it out of the unsuspecting barbarians hands his blade then cut deep into that barbarian as well there was a surge of purple energy from his sword into the barbarian as his binds to this plane were severed he melted into red mana which Valandil quickly soaked up for later summoning.

He turned to the last of the three, he seemed smarter and more dangerous then the other two. The two enemies circled each other looking for a weakness in the others defenses.

Marry took down the opposing archer without an issue, though the final man was too close to Valandil to get a clear shot.

Besides....

She looked at the other bodies he had so easily taken care of.

He could take care of himself, she decided. Though she kept the bowstring pulled tight, just in-case.

he barbarian growled before lundging, making an odd grab for his ears.

Valandil smirked savagely the lunge was awkward and slow, "To slow," he whispered his heightened speed allowed him easily to dodge the lunge and he came up with a punch to the mid section of the barbarian he put all his force as a werewolf behind it that with the force the barbarian used to lunge at him made for a very powerful blow.

The barbarian collapsed spitting up blood, he probably had some internal bleeding or something. Valandil circled the barbarian he could feel the bloodlust in his soul rise so he took the time to force it back into its seal.

"Why are you running?" he asked the barbarian, "a band of five of you means that you have been driven out why and by what?"

"Bloodsucker," the barbarian was able to cough up in between his blood, "black power, light as black as night."

Valandil listened to the last part, light as black as night that was how black mana looked. Valandil knelt down in front of the barbarian, "Where?"

Valandil was to busy with his interrogation that he didn't feel the black mana come hurling towards the fallen barbarian. Suddenly the Barbarian went rigid as his eyes rolled back in his head, Valandil knew what was coming. He back peddled and sprinted over to where Marry was. He called upon his green mana as a green force flowed around the two. The barbarian exploded sending out a magical shockwave of power that slammed into the green force around the two of them. The spell had used to much black mana leveling the area where the barbarian once was and reverberating through Valandil to his very core but did no damage to either of them.

Valandil fell to one knee and spit up a little blood, "This is not good."

A little ways away a shadow watched the event, "He blocked it how? The master said no one would be able to? I must report this." The shadow vanished.

Marry scrambled to her feet, swearing. They'd been dooped.

She whistled sharply and knelt down, throwing one of his arms over her shoulders. "Alright then elf boy..." she said, grunting slightly as she stood, pulling him and his gear up with her. "Like it or not, on you go." she instructed, holding the reigns to steady the stallion.

"You use Green magic, those vampires use black. If you trust me, I know where to find some white and blue."

She herself was no magic user. She didn't know more than the extreme basics.

"If you're hurt from one blast, there's no way I can take you to that nest."

Valandil shrugged her off, "Its not them that caused the damage, its the spell I used its the first one to come to my mind it is called lifeforce. It uses my own lifeforce to counter black magic it causes some minor damage to myself but I heal it instantly."

He stood up and stretched the damage was already healed, "Besides blue and white mages wouldn't help me anyway. There mana is strong but it is uncontrolled whoever attacked us used to much of it for that one spell you can bet he will be in worse shape then I am. Mana when you learn to harness it becomes your lifeforce if you use to much of it in one spell you run the risk of killing yourself."

Valandil did his best to smile, "Next time I will be more prepared, we are still going to the nest and if you don't want to go that is fine but one black spell is not getting me off this trail. I have to find answers...I need to find him and destroy him like he destroyed my life I will not stop until the hunt is over."

Valandil stalked off ahead but not to far because he still needed a guide he just needed to cool down a little, he didn't appreciate people thinking he was weak.

She frowned after him. Part of her wanted to ask how he had healed so quickly, another wanted to scold him for talking to her like a child. But all of her knew neither was a smart choice. She learned long ago not to ask questions you didn't want an answer to and that picking fights was pointless.

"Ya,ya, you got lucky." she said to her horse when he nudged her, apparently please not to have to carry him.

She followed at a distance until he seemed to have calmed down, then took the lead once more.

It was nearly sun down when a small village came into view.

"Only place to stock up on supplies." she said. "Also a safe place to wait out the night. I doubt you'll find anyone with any information here. They're all just simpletons."

Valandil nodded he was still not in the best of moods, rattled by the fact he let the wolf take over for the short amount of time that caused him to miss the danger of the incoming black spell. Also mad at himself for snapping at Mary it wasn't her fault that he didn't notice, not that he would ever admit it. So many betrayals makes one cruel.

"Okay I am not a big fan of spending the night in cities so I am going to set up camp just outside," He walked towards a small clearing just outside of town, this will work he pulled out a tent from his bag and quickly set it up. He then used his green mana to ward the area.

"I am ready to go into town whenever you are."

"Come on then." she said, having waited for him to set up his tent. She saw no use in arguing with the man. He obviously already had his mind made up., just as she had hers made up to spend the night in a well guarded city, as opposed to the wilderness where a vampire might find her to be a midnight snack.

She lead them into town, first and foremost housing her horse for the night and buying a room at the inn.

She looked to Valandil as she tucked the key to her room into her blouse. "So then, what do you suggest we get for this raid?"

She was no fool. He knew what he was doing against vampires. She could tell. The way he spoke about them, the sheer blood lust he himself had towards them-- she would take his advice wile equipping herself to go up against them.

Valandil half-way smiled to himself, he had picked up a hunter and it was time for him to pass on what he knew to someone else.

"Do you have anything silvered?" he asked he pulled out his sword and spun it to show her the blade, "Vampires for the most part as I go from place to place are very allergic to silver it seems to cut through the skin and makes sure that the limb or cut is not going to heal nearly as fast."

He also moved his cloak to the side to show the silver embroidery on his armor, "We will need to get some embroidered into your own armor as well, it gives makes it so Vampires can't grab and hold onto you without causing them pain as well, prevents getting bitten."

"What are your beliefs?" he asked her it was a strange question but necessary. Holy items didn't automatically destroy a vampire what destroyed it was the belief behind those symbols. The reason he had the symbols of Avacyn's collar embroider in silver on his armor and carved into the blade of his sword was that it allowed for his beliefs in Avacyn to flow through those and cause harm to the vampires.

"That's sort of a personal question, isn't it?" She asked, a bit flustered. She had been listening and making mental note of the silver idea before he asked her such an outlandish question.

"I believe in the Four Godesses." she said simply. "Personally, I follow the path of Vint'gul"

She crossed her arms, as if waiting for ridicule.

[Im thinking she pretty much said she worships a goddess who thinks women should be the typical mother-hen type protector and embrace mother nature as a protector.]

Valandil smiled, "It will help in the hunt, if you carve whatever holy symbol you believe in and believe in that symbol and the power behind it, that by itself will grant you an even stronger weapon against Vampires. The symbol itself means little but if your belief in that symbol is strong that is where the real power comes from your belief in that symbol."

"For equipment that is the stuff you need to fight with, so I think that is as good as any to start with," Valandil sheathed his sword so he didn't draw unwanted attention to himself, "you know where the blacksmith is in town?"

Mary frowned, though nodded to show she was following him so far."I can find the black smith without a problem, and money is no object to worry about." she said.

She pulled a necklace out from under her shirt, showing it to the elf. "This is Vint'gul's symbol." she said simply. "You're telling me to get this embroidered in silver on my armor then?" she asked for clarification.

While cost was no issue, time was. She had a feeling it would take a long time to finish that sort of work.

Valandil nodded as he looked at the symbol, "Yes, it will be well worth it. For now that is all we will need except for basic supplies for traveling."

He stopped and turned to her, "If you follow me into this your going to be involved in something much bigger then just what is going on this plane."

If she was going to follow him or lead him as it were, she would be risking angering someone who was very strong, very old, and very very powerful.

"I do not want you going into this blind and end up suffering the way I have, so if you agree I will tell you everything I know but if you don't want to I can understand that as well," Valandil stated. He was not harsh and he was not evil he has just been betrayed one to many times to put full trust in someone but if she was determined to continue on this course she would have to know.

"Those leeches have thoroughly destroyed everything dear to me." She said bluntly. "I would go to hell and back to see to them to their demise."

She looked him dead in the eyes as she spoke. "I've already watched my family be torn to shreds, I've seen the love of my life disemboweled. No physical suffering could be worse."