Chapter
CCLXVII: Mind Tricks ~Travallian
Travallian examined the aura he felt around this girl since he could not see her face behind the mask. He felt that she was not in a panic, although she wanted to get away. Better yet, he could tell that she knew he was a vampire by the way she was reacting. An expression of reassurance appeared on his face and he tilted his head lightly to one side. He was not planning on hurting her. He could see that she wanted to get out with her life. He shifted his narrow eyes over her, head to toe, noticing that she was preparing to defend herself; her hand to her weapon. His lips smoothened to curve a ghostly smile on his vampiric face and his voice remained calming, yet serious. A bit of his mixed French and English accent even slipped onto his tongue when he spoke.
“I assure you,” he started, eyeing the girl’s hand which was resting on her wakizashi, “I will not harm you. I am a man of my word, you could say,” he paused, his smile curving into a mocking smirk, “if you consider one like myself a man at all. With the smell of your blood, I can tell that you know what I am. A monster is what I am to you.”
The girl kept hold of her stance, hand remained on her wakizashi. She still did not trust him. He could feel it. With a serene gaze now on his face, he slowly turned his attention away from her and moved in a tranquil closer to the unconscious man and knelt down, examining him carefully.
“Hmm…it is hard for me to precisely tell whether this man is severely hurt or not,” he let out a faint breath then thought to himself, putting his hands on his knees in a relaxed style.
Gradually and almost suddenly, he let out a diverted laugh.
“You were trying to raid this catacomb, milady? How amusing.”
He slowly got back onto his feet and dusted himself off. Slipping one hand into his trench coat pocket, he took out a black velvet pouch filled with gold coins and a few diminutive jewels and precious gems. The gold was specifically the type of currency for the area. He should have known. He had just exchanged an insignificant amount of his fortune earlier in this dignified town for it. It was nothing to him. He had so much on him that he could even pay for the whole entire island this middle-class town continued being inhabited on. What was in the velvet pouch was not even considered pocket change to the vampire.
Travallian reached over and took the girl’s free hand into his and gently placed the tiny bag on her palm, silently closing her finger over it and stepped away distinguishably. Crouching over to his two blades he had set to the crypt’s floor, he began to buckle his sheathed sword back onto his belt and then put away his jewelled, gold dagger back into one of his pockets. Standing back on his feet, he glanced over at the unconscious mercenary once more, getting an idea.
I assume that the knight of ‘walking armor’ will be looking for this chap. Hmm.
“I will take this man to the finest inn in town,” he said, smiling calming at the girl. “He will rest there until I can find his comrade. I want you to keep the money I have given you. I am quite sure that you do not need it so. However, since you wanted to make an incursion over this tomb, you might as well keep the gold. I have a more than enough to recover for that diminutive little fortune I have given you. More than enough.”
He turned his head and looked intently up the stairs and listened to see if anyone was outside. Concentrating. Trying to sense. No one was there. No one was near the cemetery. Good. Very good.
“If you wish to
speak to me later, child, I will be at the
Travallian began to walk again, calmly knowing that sooner or later, people will find out who he really was since he had been in the town longer than he expected to be. He would be known for such petty thing to the people. He did not intend to have that happen when he used his wolf form, but it simply would lead to that direction.
His trail of thought was broken by a hard tug on his left sleeve. He turned his head to see the masked girl pointing at the unconscious man.
“Wait,” she said in a crude tone, letting go of his sleeve. “Aren’t you forgetting something? Like…this guy on the floor?”
The vampire smirked calmly, raising one hand above his head and chanted a small phrase of few words strangely in the Koopa language and snapped his fingers. The sound from his snap echoed to some extent in the catacomb and suddenly, the down for the count mercenary disappeared in a haze and seemed to vanish from sight. The girl seemed to show little alarm, but Travallian knew she was bewildered inside. He ran a hand through Bulaklak’s blonde hair then turned away and began to head out the tomb once again.
“Taken care of, child,” he said as he continued up the stairs. “Oh, don’t worry your little hidden face about it. He’s alright.”
At that, Travallian reached the top of the stairs and began to push the stone door and exited the crypt, leaving the girl with her wakizashi within the burial chamber. No one was near the area outside still, he noticed. Good. He could get to the inn easily without being questioned. No one would even try to question him. No one.
He darted out the cemetery and through its open gates, closing them behind him with the mere force of his vampiric mind. Although, he did not lock them. He didn’t want to trap the girl and get her caught…or did he?
He began to stride through the now almost empty streets of the town. It was getting rather late for mortals. Only a few humans and nocturnal anthromorphic beings occupied the street. They did not seem to notice him very much and were dealing with their own affairs. A grin formed on his face and then he started to move faster; the way he moved to keep himself hidden from distracted mortals. He stopped once he reached the old fortress he had been looking at the first day he arrived to this village.
He gazed upon it for a moment then began to head one way, stopping once he saw the sign written in a cursive technique, reading Blood Rose in large dark red letters. Under it read the smaller letters, Inn and Tavern, written in an Old English fashion. There was one small rose carved and painted darkly at each corner of the wooden sign.
So this is the inn, he thought to himself, looking side to side. Looks like no one’s outside.
Travallian smirked lightly, chanting a few words again like before, but more quickly. When he finished his little chant, the unconscious man from the tomb appeared. He stood for a few seconds and began to wobble until he fell forward until the vampire knelt forward, letting him fall onto his side. The two let out a rather aggravated groan at the same time from to quick collide, but the man still seemed to be out cold. Travallian slung his arm over his shoulder and help the limp chap up onto his feet. With his free hand, he pulled one door of the inn open and helped him inside and just stood at the door, holding it open with his free hand. The outside air was rushing into the warm room. He was purposely doing this to get some attention.
Peering around the room slowly, he saw three townsfolk there looking at him in a concerned manner. They were the ones who had been following him not too long ago: the old man, the young woman, and the boy. They got off their seats hurriedly and rushed themselves towards him, looking at the unsteady man the vampire propped up on his feet.
“For heaven’s sake, boy!” the old man exclaimed, putting his hand to the sides of his head. “What happened to this gentleman here?!”
Travallian looked straight at the oak floor and grit his fangs; the weight on the back of his neck was slowly getting to him. The mortal girl and boy helped the passed-out man off the vampire’s shoulders and to a nearby chair, setting him down softly.
“I don’t know what happened to this man,” he said as he slowly lifted his head to look at the old man. “I recently found him in the cemetery like this. A girl there told me that he was knocked out by someone then the foe fled the scene soon after.”
“Poor guy,” said the villager girl, poking the mercenary lightly on the chest. He let out a faint moan, but was still unconscious.
“Take him to a spare room in this inn,” Travallian ordered the three calmly. “I will search for his friend in the next day. I saw him earlier this day and I assume that he will be searching for him soon enough.”
The innkeeper walked over to him and bowed respectfully. He seemed to be a well dressed middleclass man in his late twenties. “Of course, sir,” he said as he stood straight up again. “Anything for a lord such as yourself.”
Travallian quirked his eyebrows slightly and shook his head lightly, using one of his alias names once again. “No need to be formal. My name is Jeremy.”
“Yes, Sir Jeremy,” he bowed again then called for a few others to help him take the mercenary up the stairs and into a cleaned up room just in front of the stairs, setting him on a single sized bed, leaving the door wide open.
The nocturnal being sighed and put a hand over his face in response to the innkeeper’s reply. Let them call him anything they wish to as long as it was nothing insulting…
He leisurely leaned on a wall, folded his arms together, he closed his eyes. He thought for a moment and mumbled to himself, “Oznek…Oznek…that isn’t a real name…is it?”
He paused for a moment, a thought sparking in his mind. He kept his eyes closed and tried to read the unconscious man’s mind. He knew who he was. It took him a while to read the haze of his him, but a grin slowly appeared on his face and he opened his eyes lightly. He got it. He knows now. The secret was solved.
Of course…Kenzo. I should have known. He and this Jaded lad are pretending that his name is Oznek. Hah! I’ll play along with their small game later…
Travallian looked up at the crystal
chandelier hanging off the ceiling and tilted his head to one side. He still
did not quite understand one part. What was this Havering? He could not read Jaded’s
mind any further to get the information. With a faint sigh, he slowly sat down
on a chair and began to think of his plans on finding the tin can and plans on leaving the town
sooner or later.