LORE: Training a Hell Hound (MATURE)

[Emora Deen]

Tenele frowned, glancing back to the door. "Like I said, he's acting strangely..." she whispered. "Now I'm worried..." She withdrew her arms and folded them, walking a slight distance away from Vlad and standing still, watching the door as if she expected Talon to walk back through to continue the arguement... and arguement that should have been taking place under normal circumstances.

[Soran Nightblade]

"It is unusual," Vlad said. Not that he was about to start get worried about that stuck-up control freak, but somehow he wasn't very satisfied with the flow of that conversation. "I could go speak with him," he suggested half-heartedly.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele glanced to Vlad, now starting to wonder if she had woken up in some alternate world, where everyone was strangely excepting of each other all of the sudden. She then looked back to the door. "That would be nice," she told him with a soft smile. "He tends to keep things from me in order to protect me. Why he is so bent on keeping me safe I have no idea. There is brotherly protection, and then there is... Talon. He is a special kind of brother. He's probably gone back to his room."

[Soran Nightblade]

"I'm not doing it to be nice," Vlad clarified, "I'm just feeling gypped of my gloating period." He turned toward the hall that led to Talon's quarters and glanced back at her with a sly grin. "I'll meet up with you in a bit," he said. He began walking, but disappeared after a few steps, teleporting directly into Talon's room. The man hadn't made it back yet. After all, Vlad kind of cheated. So the vampire made himself at home on Talon's bed, throwing his arms behind his head.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele didn’t have time to tell Vlad that she was going to go into town to get a new pair of boots, she was in the process of opening her mouth when he teleported away. She looked down to Stalker, rubbing the top of his head. “So, want to go to town with me?” she asked him with a smile.

* * *

Talon opened the door to the study part of his quarters. Where the walls were lined with book shelves filled with books, and it was dimly lit by the small pointed arch windows. His desk was covered in papers and books and other things that he’d been looking over the past couple of days. He gave a heavy sigh, leaning back against the door for a moment and putting a palm to his brow.

He had fever.

Talon shifted off the wall and took his cloak off, draping across the chair at his desk. The desk faced the part of his opening that lead to his bed room, and his bed that was positioned against the far wall. He didn’t even look at the bed, just stared at the floor as he walked, pulling on his the black cord that had his hair pulled back. He finally looked up at the bed, and froze, frowning at the vampire.

“And to what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked, instead shifting to the chair next to the fireplace.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad cast Talon a perturbed glare. "Pleasure? What's the matter with you? I proposed to your sister, crashed in your bed. I think I deserve a little credit here." He studied the silver-haired man and sat up. "You smell different," he observed, trying to place what was off about Tenele's brother.

***

Stalker leaned into Tenele's hand approvingly and circled around her, alert and looking ready for a trip outside the castle walls.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele smiled at Stalker. "You'll have to behave, and not scare the townspeople." She pulled her cloak aroun her as she headed or the door, taking the hood and pulling it over her head.

* * *

"I'm fine," Talon muttered as his eyes turned to Vlad. He stared at the vampire for a long moment before sighing heavily. "I'm sick. I've been sick, actually, for some time now. Its why I came home a year ago in the first place. Tenele, doesn't know."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's expression shifted almost imperceptibly. "Why doesn't Tenele know?" he asked seriously, looking at him as if he could tell what was wrong with him just by a visual examination.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele shivered under the cloak. It was getting colder… or maybe it was just she was used to the desert heat. She wondered down the steps, and out the palace gates, into the city, passing the empty corner where her house once had been. She watched it with a bit of longing, thinking of how nice it would be to still have that house, a place for she and Vlad to live, outside the palace walls and away from advisors and rumors.

The market was filled with people, which wasn’t surprising given the time of day. She had to nudge past people, moving through the crowd, but glancing behind her to make sure she wasn’t getting away from Stalker, though she doubted he would allow such a thing to happen. “Hmm… I wonder if Brander’s still has his shoe shop…” She smirked to herself. It had been a long time since she bought new shoes, but she had gone through her last pair of boots in the Outerlands.

* * *

“I don’t want Tenele to worry about me. She has quite a bit to worry about without having me to worry about also. Besides, I’m dying…”

[Soran Nightblade]

Stalker trod at a long, muscular gait close at Tenele's side. His scarlet eyes took in all of their surroundings as they walked through the crowded area. Pedestrians shifted uneasily out of the way as they noticed the large canine at the pretty young woman's side.

***

"You're dying," Vlad asked skeptically, as if Talon might be pulling his leg. And yet, he knew in the same instant that the man was telling the truth, and that this was exactly what smelled 'off' about Talon. He could smell the strength of the man's life diminished, just as he could detect every change in his heartbeat. His red eyes flickered with confusion as he looked up at Talon. "Are you certain?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenele was looking at a table covered in jewelry and fabrics. She smiled as she ran her hand over them, and then turned her head to look over her shoulder at the carts behind her. She crossed the street and wondered along the side of the buildings until she came towards the end of the market and saw the hollowed out shell of a building.

Cold wind blew down the street, tossing the thin strands of silver hair that were loosened to tickle her cheek. She watched the door opening that was the doorway, and felt strangely drawn to it. She narrowed her eyes, tilted her head ever so slightly, and walked towards the doorway, glancing back at Stalker.

She edged closer to the doorway, looking inside the ruined house she’d burned, knowing that lurking somewhere down there was a temple to Verin. She stopped in the doorway, unable to shake the feeling of something whispering for her to venture down there and have a look. She swallowed, reaching down to stoke Stalker’s head, and after a moment longer of watching the darkness she turned away.

There was the sound of something in the darkness, something falling and then rolling. She paused, glancing back over her shoulder as she saw something role into the light, just passed the doorway at the edge of the darkness beyond. She frowned, turning back around. It looked like a bottle with something inside. Tenele edged forward, putting a hand on the doorway and leaning in. Still, she couldn’t tell what it was, but she was a little apprehensive to step inside.

* * *

“Certain? Very… It’s the same thing our father was dying from.”

Talon stood up from his chair and walked back into his study, motioning for Vlad to come to the desk. “Tenele doesn’t talk about our parents, does she?” he asked the vampire, moving some papers around on his desk until he found the one he wanted. “She was very little when they… died.” He glanced up to Vlad. “Our father was a very sick man, and I assume that it was in his genes and that I have inherited it. When I found out that I was dying I wanted to know everything about the disease and if I had inherited it. It’s hard to get records that are hundreds of years old, but since my father was a ranking member in Sinead’s circle it wasn’t lost. Turns out my father had been dying of the very disease that I now have… the one that I too am dying from. Only problem with is my father didn’t die, he claimed to have found a cure.”

Talon took a seat in the chair at the desk, turning the paper with the three claw marks drawn on it around and pushing it towards Vlad. “The night our parents disappeared, the doctor made a house call. He saw my father, recorded that he had found a cure, and when questioned by the Queen’s investigators he mentioned that my father had this tattooed across his neck.”

“So I looked into it,” Talon told him, reaching behind him for a book that had obviously been opened many times. He opened it to the marked page and twisted it around to Vlad. “It’s the mark of a wolf-demon. One of Shea’s elite. He didn’t find a cure, sadly… He found a curse. Our father didn’t die… He betrayed his country to save his own skin. “

“When you and Tenele left for the Outerlands the first time I took a trip. I’d been gathering information, getting word of any clans that were close to the Border, since Shea has been moving in closer. I found him, Vlad… I found our father. Of course it nearly got me killed, but I managed to meet with him, and though it was probably the most uncomfortable few hours of my life for the first time in over a hundred years I saw my father’s face. But, while our conversation was very… uncomfortable when it came to matters of my mother… he became especially irate when I got around to telling him where Tenele was.”

Talon put a hand to his forehead, feeling a little woozy. “He said that Tenele was in grave danger and that above everything, Verin could not learn of her existence.” Talon leaned forward. “Do you have any idea why our father, who hasn’t cared to let us know he was alive all these years, would want so vigilantly for Tenele to not go to the Outerlands or for Verin to not know of her… or me? He said we were both in danger. So when I returned home and Tenele was… She told me that she thought she was pregnant with Verin’s child… I don’t understand why my father would fear Verin’s attention on us so much, and it actually makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.”

“Then, again I could be over thinking things… My father is a demon now, he knows well what Verin is capable of, just as you do. That is probably the reason he was so passionate about it. Unless you can help shed any light on it?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad shook his head and paced stiffly across the room. "Verin hardly attended to her at all. She was only caught up in that mess because he affiliated her with me. That was why I...sent her home." He blocked off the sick compulsion to recall what he'd said to Tenele in Verin's realm. "He certainly picked on her, but it was engineered to get at me. Her real challenge was probably managing my image. She had to put a good deal of effort into keeping the locals from ripping me apart after my...lapse. Fortunately, all the locals were convinced she was Attara."

[Emora Deen]

Talon sighed. “Then, I don’t know why he would say something like that,” he muttered, tilting his head back and closing his eyes for a moment. Then, his eyes blinked open. “Because she looks like Attara?”

Talon sat up. “Attara, the Goddess of Nature…” he stood up and walked around his room, running his hands over the books until he came to the one he was looking for. He opened up the book and went and sat down in his chair again, flipping through it until he came to the chapter on Attara. “Do you know the legend? You probably heard about it in the Outerlands… Maybe my father is concerned about us for that very fact? Verin was supposedly driven insane with jealousy over Thar and Attara. There are many versions of the story, but this one in particular says that Verin was in love with Attara, to the point he was willing to call off his minions and leave the world a peaceful place… But, Thar came to her as a human and stole her heart first. She chose Thar, and that was more than Verin could bare…” Talon frowned. “Maybe my father feared he’d take out some pent up vengeance on her because of her looks?”

“But, you did say that he rarely paid her much attention except to torment you… My father’s fear could be misplaced.” Talon sighed. “Let’s hope for that. At least you are both back from there, and hopefully have left Verin behind. Just in case.”

* * *

Tenele looked down at Stalker. “Don’t tell Vlad I’m doing this,” she told him, taking a step in. “Unless of course this ends badly.”

She stepped in a little more, the charred floor groaning. It probably was going to give way on her, but she was light enough that for the moment it would hold. She reached down and wrapped her hand around the bottle, then stood up and stepped back into the light quickly, as if she feared something would grab her and drag her into the darkness. She swallowed, glancing at the bottle in her hand. It was small and filled with some sort of cherry colored liquid, and there was a slip of parchment inside with the liquid, and had one word written in script across the front. “Relief.”

She frowned, looking back into the door, feeling eyes somewhere in the dark. She glanced down at Stalker. “Let’s go get those shoes and go home…” She slipped the bottle into her pocket and turned back towards the market.

[Soran Nightblade]

A low, rumbling growl began in Stalker's throat as she picked up the bottle. His demon eyes seemed to be glaring as he regarded the strange item, but he made no move to knock it away from her. The bottle was somehow threatening, but as far as his instincts could tell him, it wasn't necessarily a threat to her. He stood close enough for his fur to brush against her as she began walking again.

***

"Actually," Vlad said, thinking closely on the last few days, "There was something, the night before we returned. I was...ill, and Verin went to Tenele's room. He gave her some strange warning..." He glanced at Talon and the way he was touching his forehead. How had he hidden it so well in front of Tenele, when it was obviously affecting him this strongly? Talon still hadn't really explained the nature of his illness, but the vampire decided to only push one issue at a time.

[Emora Deen]

Talon's eyes opened, one at a time, and he tilted his head forward. "What warning?" he asked him slowly.