Athens

Well that's new

I didn't know I needed blood until I chased a deer in the woods and leaped on it like a predator. I ripped its neck open lapping at the blood like it was a water fountain. I woke up again sometime later to find myself still latched on to the body.

I stood brushing myself off, looking around trying to figure out how and why I got here. But I was full, the deer though was completely drained of blood. I was tapping my mouth when I cut my finger. Touching my mouth more I realized that I had fangs. They were longer than my other teeth and I realized I was no longer the person I had been. Running to the nearby stream I cleaned up and looked into the rippling water. I could see I was paler, opening my mouth I had fangs that extended just past my teeth, which were pointed and sharp.

"What am I?" I asked myself as the water rippled down the creek.

There were no words for what it could be. I wandered back to the house I shared with my mom. I slept for hours after that first feeding. The following day the hunger intensified again. I caught a rabbit, not even cooking it made me gag until the blood pooled in my mouth. I ate greedily. I wanted more. I realized at that moment blood was sustaining me. What had the woman made me? The more I thought the more I got angry. I punched into a tree noting how the bark curved and the tree cracked. I was an oak not young but not old. I had cracked a tree with barely a punch. I pulled back again this time as my fist landed the tree snapped darting across the forest floor looking for a place to land.

"Whoa..." I breathed. Looking at the skin on my knuckles I watched it mend back together like I hadn't done a thing. That is when the idea hit me. I would hunt down the monsters that destroyed my family and my village. I would wipe them out. I ran, faster than I thought possible within a day I was back looking at the burnt ruins of my old village. Bodies had been moved and a new village had started. As I wandered I heard people talk about the group who came and left as they owned the place. I figured that must be them. They had plundered to gain territory. This was my territory, I would allow no one to keep it.

Asking questions, I gained their base location, a three-day ride they said. Pointing to the base of the distant mountains, the same one that was near where mom and I had lived. I ran back to the house mom and I shared. I stood there looking around trying to find a direction. My hearing caught the sound of a heavy horse, a few carts. I ran in the direction to see a group of people using horses with carts filled to the brim with supplies and gold. I followed it. They made their slow way up the hill to a Castle situated along the cliff face. That cliff face seemed to protect them in one form. It would no longer do so. I filtered into the group of working men. Staying mixed in enough to not be noticed. Urging the tired horses forward.

The castle gates came into view as a hoard of scraggly, unkempt-looking fellows appeared.

"What is your business!" They shouted.

"Supplies for our new King, Sir!" One of the men up ahead of us spoke.

"Open the gates!" The other bellowed.

Once I was inside, I waited just enough to gather my bearings. Then I began. I ripped and tore at each man. Using my fangs and speed. Blood and screams slammed against the walls of the stone castle. I pulled a sword from my body every so often as I continued my quest for the man who ordered my pain. I went methodically through the halls, dancing and killing with glee. Each scream becoming music to my ears. The more the blood flowed the giddier I became.

I was coated in a thick layer of blood as I slammed open the throne room doors. There sat a man whose face was littered with scars. He was a massive, brute of a man with long nasty hair, tiny eyes, and an ugly scar running up the side of his face. "Who the hell do you think you are?" His voice rattled the walls of the room.

"Your death," I hissed and ran at him with blazing speed. I caught and crush his wrist with my hands. Scooping him up I bit into his chest, My fangs going straight to the sound of his heart. I drank until I ripped a bigger hole open. Yanking my hands I ripped him in half as I opened my mouth for his splattering blood. They created this monster. I would let them see what they created for their understanding. The other people in the room began to run. I zipped around it as fast as I could go using my nails like claws and my fangs. The whole chamber when I stood panting was covered in blood and bodies. My stomach was full as their blood tasted divinely. I wanted to kill more, but there was nothing but the horses below. I would not harm them. They had no hand in what played out here.

The man who would be King laid in half, his eyes hazed over in death. I claimed this place would be my new home. I settled into the throne as a storm blew in along the mountain. I cared not about it. Looked down with great pleasure as I saw the man's lifeless form. "I offer this up in penance for not protecting my family before. I claim this place as a home forevermore." I did not realize it then but I had just sealed my home and the lands around it. My resting spot had been found.

Yeah, I had magic in my blood, and the amount I had spilled tied me to the place forever. I could only sleep here. It was a shackle I would have to learn to deal with. Happily, though powers show up which allows me greater ways to apply power to those who need it.