MIRA

✨Chapter Two✨

When she opened her eyes Mira could see daylight streaming in from the entrance. It was only about a hundred feet away. She could have sworn that she had gone farther into the cave than that. She couldn't see any deeper into the cave than maybe fifty more feet ahead of her. Mira stood up. She didn't know why he hadn't come looking for her. He had to know that last night was the sacrifice. She was feeling foolish and guilty. Daylight chased away the fear, but now she was worried he would be angry at her for taking so long to come to him. She could see now that there was only one way to go. The cave went on into the mountain side in a straight line from what she could tell.

Gathering her courage she stood up and brushed herself off and then headed resolutely into the darkness again. This time she kept one hand on the wall and one above her head and in front of her, in case the ceiling dropped again. It wasn't long before the hall curved and the packed dirt changed to stone. She felt the difference under her feet. Mira bent down to touch the ground and found that it felt like stonework. Like a floor that had been made or carved. It certainly didn't feel like natural stone. She traced one pavestone with her fingers and then stood up again and followed the wall.

Farther down the cave and the wall changed under her hand. The stone went from feeling like a cave wall to feeling like a castle wall. Just like the floor, she thought. Now curiosity was winning out over all the other emotions racing through her. Mira moved more quickly down the hall. She wasn't afraid of the ceiling dropping again so she put her hand out in front of her like a blind man feeling for obstacles in his path.

When her hand ran across wood in the wall she stopped. Mira's breath increased as she felt the wood under her hand. There were slats that were held together by metal cross work and bolts. Then her hand found the doorknob. Her heart seemed to pound in her chest. She wondered if she had found him. That wasn't so hard, she thought with a strange, smug sense of accomplishment. She turned the knob and the door opened onto more blackness. "Hello," she called, but there was nothing.

Mira walked blindly into the room. Her hands both held out in front of her, she walked straight forward a few feet. She almost fell over when her foot hit something with a loud thud that echoed out the door and down the hallway. She reached down and her hands found a crate. She felt around it and found that there were a number of crates along the floor. She was about to leave it and try to move around it, when it occurred to her that she may have found a store room. Mira pushed the lid off the crate and found it full of fabric of some kind. She crawled around on the floor groping about until she found another crate and pushed the lid off that one. This crate contained jars. It is a store room, her thoughts raced excitedly. When she ran into a wall she felt her way up and found shelves. One at a time she carefully felt her way along the shelves. There were books, small boxes, small jars, more fabric, paper, scrolls. Finally she found what she was looking for, a lantern. There were several lanterns on that part of the shelf.

She pulled down one of the lanterns and felt the weight of it. She guessed it already held oil in it. Now she needed some tinder twigs. She felt her way back to the small boxes. The first one held something small and round, the next something square. She didn't know what the things were but they weren't tinder twigs so she moved on. She found a box of straight pins and a box of spools of thread. She was about to give up when she found the tinder twigs. They were in a small box almost directly under the lanterns. She smiled and shook her head as she took one of the think wooden sticks out of the box and felt for the striker.

Mira paused as she held the tinder twigbox in her hand. The lantern was ready. She'd finally be able to see where she was going. It was strange, but a funny kind of fear pulled at her stomach again. She had been so obsessed with what she was doing that she almost forgot why she was in this dark place. Suddenly it felt as if she was being watched. He could be right next to her and she wouldn't know it. Her mind raced irrationally as she imagined striking the tinder twig and having an evil face appear in the light staring at her. "Hello," she called meekly into the dark. Maybe I don't want to see, she thought.

"Get a hold of yourself," she said out loud. The sound of her voice was comforting. Mira struck the tinder twig and lit the lantern. To her relief, when light flooded the room, all she found were opened crates and shelves of stored goods. If she didn't know better she would have thought she was in a castle storage room. Not in a cave, deep in a mountain, looking for a vampire who would inevitably drain the life out of her. Not that the idea of being in a castle wasn't strange either. But hell, where else would a vampire live, right?

Mira took another deep breath, held the lantern out and left the room. It was much easier going now. The light gave her confidence. It turned out the rumors were correct. There were quite a few halls that criss crossed, now that she was in the manmade section of the tunnels. How am I going to find him? She asked herself as she looked down several hallways. Other than that first door she hadn't seen any others. She tried listening carefully down the halls for some noise but didn't hear anything. "Hello," she called down one of the halls a bit more loudly than she had before. Her voice echoed back toward her. So she called down one of the other halls. Again her voice echoed back. When she called down the third hall it was different. "Hello," she called again. There was no echo here.

"Something has to be absorbing the sound," she said aloud. "Furniture, maybe." Mira gathered herself and headed down the hallway. There were doors in this one. She opened the first door and held up the lantern. The room was a library. There were books lining shelves. There was a chair and a table. There was a large assortment of papers and writing things on a small desk. There was a rug on the floor and a pile of crumpled papers in one corner. Mira stepped back into the hall. "What kind of vampire collects books," she whispered.

She closed the door behind herself as she continued to walk down the hallway. She found the cause of the lack of echoing. There were tapestries on some of the walls down this hall. Mira started to open another door when a sound caught her attention. At first she thought she may be losing her mind. There was clanging. Metal clanging. Sword fighting clanging. She followed the sound of metal crashing against metal. It was all so strange. This was never covered in the lessons, she thought. The clashing noises became louder as she walked down the hall. When she came to the end of the hall the sounds stopped. She stared at the large carved, wooden, double doors that filled the end of the hallway. There was light streaming out from under the doors.

Mira's stomach churned. She hadn't eaten breakfast and she could feel bile rise in her throat. She wished that the clanging would start again. The silence was dreadful. Finally she reached out and turned the handle on the door. It was well worn and smooth. It released easily and the door swung silently in letting light fall into the hallway from the multitude of candles in the wrought iron chandelier that hung from the high ceiling.

Mira didn't really see him at first. She was looking for a monster. Some pale, gaunt, angry beast that would fall on her and drain the life from her body. What she saw was much different. Rillan Tiernay was tall, built like a warrior. The stories had described him as noble and brave. But that was before he was turned into a vampire. Mira, like those who had come before her, had believed that the man of legend had changed when he was turned into a bloodsucking assassin. Obviously she was wrong. He had dark blue eyes and black hair. His skin was tanned dark, not pale at all. He was wearing leather armor and there was a sword leaning against a dummy that was dressed in armor as well. It was holding a shield and looked severely battered. He was handsome. He was larger than most of the men were in her village. But legend had it that he wasn't originally a druid, nor was he from her village. He had been a warrior of the Celtic clans before the Romans had assimilated them. He had come to the druids seeking a way of vengeance against the Roman conquerors.