Private Tales Monsters

[Orchid]

Orchid liked deserts. They were hot and dry and full of death. Nothing survived unless it killed something else.
It felt a lot like Vel Anir.

This place, a pleasant little outpost that was little more than a few sandstone buildings about a well, was full of life and in his humble opinion the best kind of life.

Desperate.

As soon as he began walking among the people he knew there was plenty to eat. Grifters and drifters abounded. Treasure hunters and lackeys galore.

He could stay there for weeks without needing to move on.

The target was a large wealthy woman, a merchant leader with guards and carriages enough to supply a small army. She was refined and smelled like scented oils. Lavender.

Orchid waited a whole day to make his move on her entourage and it was through a lonely looking creature that smelled like years and tarred up lungs. Personally he never understood the aversion the young had for the old. Everyone tasted good to him... as far as humans went at least.

He took his time, charmed the old man, lured him out into the dark and stopped...

A new smell was in the air, something not human, or elf or any of the other myriad things that walked and talked. It was familiar but he couldn't place it.

It smelled like dirt and blood.
Somewhere close, if he was not mistaken, was a vampire.




Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

Orchid​

---

It was natural that the desperate should prey on the desperate, and even among "civilized" species it was no different. One of these desperate creatures lurked in the dark tonight, veiled in lace that covered her features and a dark cloak which did the same, all save the eyes.

Silver, piercing.

Humans rarely looked up, thank the Gods, not like forest dwelling elves who'd learned to watch for predators in the trees, or hunt like them. It was for this reason those glowing eyes searched from the rooftops, darting and primal. This... wasn't her, not quite, but hunger did terrible things to all creatures.

It was sight of the old man that drew her in, and the sound of a heartbeat.

Maybe two? she was too starved to tell.

The Vampire leapt from roof to roof until she found the source, and dropped into the street just beyond the reach of torchlight or sight of windows.

Little more than glowing eyes warned of her approach, as she reached for her prey without thinking.

 

[Orchid]

Swift and recklessly Orchid yanked the old man away from the clasping hand and the burning eyes.

"MINE!"
His voice melted into many sounds, snarls and growls as if within him was a menagerie that all spoke at once. In the dark he let his shape ripple, mouths and fangs and claws before settling to his assumed form again.

"You find your own plaything."
The old man had broken from his shock of being pulled so hard and so fast and now attempted resistance.

"Unhand, me."
"SILENCE!"

Orchids hand twisted and wrenched the older mans until it broke and the old man whimpered, which was at least quieter though he could not deny something of the magic of his seduction was lost and his plan was now in jeopardy so he turned his attention back to the vampire.

"You're ruining this for me you stupid blood sucker. Get lost!"

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

A thousand screams. The sound sent her instincts reeling and feet a step back. She would not run though, not while the voice within growled at her to press on.

This was survival.

The display of wanton cruelty made her neck crane like crane. She'd have just killed him, personally. It was easier, quieter, and mercifully quicker. Her eyes never strayed from her fellow predator however, even as it presumed to bark orders at her.

She opened her jaws wide, and the loose fabric about her face deformed in the shape of a fanged maw, canines out on full display.

"Rrraaghhh!" she hissed like a big cat.

Her posture showed no signs of backing down, shoulders hunched, knees bent.

Even as all logic commanded she flee. The fact he knew of her affliction from the start was sign enough, to say nothing of the supernatural warping of flesh and teeth and snarls.

But in this moment, she was not entirely herself.

"...blood..." she rasped.

"...only blood. I need'st not the rest."

Perhaps there was just enough left to bargain.

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

He was annoyed at the vampire but even in his frustration he knew that they were not so secluded that none would notice if they came to blows and Orchid needed to remain undetected.

Just blood, that was the offer and perhaps then he could convince her to stand up straight and use more of her words. Vampires were creatures he had little experience with.
There may be an opportunity to learn here.

"Very well."
Another painful twist sent the old man collapsing into the vampires hungry arms.

"Have your fill and then..."
Taking a moment to sit elegantly on the top of a woven basket as if waiting for some tedious thing to be done.

"... we may have a little talk."
Possibly he could discover where she came from and how she ended up in such a terrible state. Weren't vampires supposed to be intelligent? She seemed more beast than anything at the moment.

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

Her eyes widened in surprise, and something resembling gratitude even in this bestial state.

Yet the old man was snatched up without second thought, her mask being pulled aside just enough to catch a glimpse of pale lips and long, needle-like canines as they sank quickly into the elder's neck.

It took only moments for their shared prey to cease struggling, something about her bite seeming to sap strength long before blood-loss ever could.

All the while her gaze was kept trained on the yet unnamed co-hunter.

Desperate gulps eased gently into savoring, grip loosening as the man in her arms grew paler, until finally, she closed her eyes and let herself quietly feed.

By then it was eerily silent out, not a breath drawn save for the last of a dying man's, his consciousness fading while the vampire bore him more gently into the reaper's arms.

The whole thing lasted mere minutes, and when the body was nearly pale as she, the vampiress wiped clean the blood from her lips on a dark glove.

"Thou... wishest to speak?" she said more gently, but still hesitantly.

Her fangs seemed to retract like knives being sheathed, though for what little tension her body language might relieve, the near-bloodless corpse remained cradled in her embrace.

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

Orchid smiled. Watching the vampire drain the blood was fascinating in its own way. There were two transformations happening, almost a transference of life from one to the other.

"Verily."
He adopted the cadence of his co-hunter but it was mockery. His arms folded and his meal forgotten as he lifted up his eyes to meet her gaze.

"This is my hunting grounds little vampire. Why are you here hmm? I doubt you plan to take it from me."

The dark of the alley held them in its secret. Here they would not be disturbed save for the sound of revery from the trading posts main quarter.

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

Mockery. It was a common response to her antiquated way of speaking, to which she reacted with an otherwise desensitized glance.

While the boy—or whatever they may be—spoke of hunting grounds in his playfully belittling tone, Lilette set about sitting her newest victim against the wall, tucked out of sight behind the very boxes Orchid sat atop.

"Nay." she answered softly, cordially even.

"Travel doth take me hither and thither, passing through and naught more."

The Vampire stood straighter now, hands clasped as though a lady of court. Her eyes though, when they did manage to rise from the sandy floor, they were most studious, alert. She was as curious of him as he was she.

"I couldst bear no more this hunger mine, thoust surely understand." she said.

"...and what of thee...?"

Blood dripped from behind her veil when she spoke.

"Thou'rt unlike anything I've yet encountered."

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

Orchid smiled. It was sweet to be given such a compliment. It was of course true entirely, few beings could claim to be as unique as he.

"Yes well, that's a very astute observation."
It amused him to pretend to look at his nails then affecting aloofness.

"I am of course not like you, that is to say, I am no vampire I'm..."
Orchid teetered on saying the word, he hated the word. Hated how it made him sound.

"... a homunculus."
The word came out snippish and short as if it should barely be recognized.

"But I too have great hunger and it can't be denied so, in that way we are alike at least."

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

She immediately cocked her head to the side in recognition of the word "Homunculus."

For what little could be explained of such creatures, so too did this explain a great deal to the former prodigy of House Blackbriar. Quicksilver eyes softened with something dangerously close to sympathy.

The girl swallowed, and unfurled a digit and the now-corpse behind her.

"If... if 'tis blood for which thoust hunger, some yet clingeth to his veins."

Standing aside, she put her back to the wall and rubbed at her arms, kneading the stiffness out now that blood once more flowed through cold limbs. She could even hear her own heartbeat again.

"I've heard tell o' thine kind once before." she spoke up then.

"Thou'rt a creation of Magi, no? Them that raised me frowned upon the practice, though knew ought of it."

"Art thou a runaway as well?" she dared sound hopeful, friendly, even.

"Mayhaps we yet share commonality more than hunger alone."

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

The dark eyes in Orchids face became lidded at the insinuation of him being offered his own treat back to himself.

"I don't just need blood, my diet has to have more substance."

As the vampire spoke he ground his teeth.
"I do not have a kind to speak of but yes I am a thing of magic I suppose though my creators would not call it such and my mother would kill at the very suggestion that I was anything other than her beloved son..."

For a moment he went away then gently returned with a soft shake of his head.
"And yes, I ran away. From a great many things and for a time I enjoyed this little spot of heaven."
Arms out he displayed their shaded surroundings.

"As for what we have in common. I assume you too are on the lamb, how curious. I had thought vampires some of the most durable of all beings, save a few exceptional vulnerabilities, so either you are running from ones who know your true nature or from something more powerful than yourself. Am I hot or cold?"

The guessing kept him interested but he wondered if she was fleeing something what else may trundle through the trading post.

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

"Ah, forgiveth me mine wandering tongue." she said apologetically.

"I meanest thee no offense ser, Mine lineage wert Magi, not I. 'tis a subject most new."

The vampire bowed her head, enough to show sincerity, but otherwise remained very still while the... 'beloved son' spoke. Her gaze seemed to sink into the cool sand below, as the realization dawned that she'd intruded upon the favorite hunting grounds of another. Had the girl any more experience she may have understood the primal logic of territorial claim, but then, would she not have risked animal-war to stave hunger nonetheless?

When the Homonculus—or rather, the Boy—turned to continue speaking, she listened with vested interest that caused what may have been ears to twitch beneath her hood.

To his questions though, she blinked.

"Hot or cold...?" she muttered.

A common expression, yet one she'd never heard. Given the context however, she assumed it not unlike "close" and "far", which she'd picked up from the humans over time, and so she looked with a spark of recognition in her eye.

"Ah- ah, hot methinks."

"Home is..." she hesitated, "...'tis no longer home, thou see'th."

A moment of silence followed, broken only by the ruffling of fabric when she rubbed her arm.

Until; "Thou clamest to know of Vampyres?"

"Knoweth thou where they art found?"

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

Orchid was quiet for moments that felt longer than they were.

"I see."

Standing now he turned his back sharply then turned back again to face her.

"I don't know other than what I have read, perhaps you can tell me fact from fiction."

An eye full of disdain flickered to the corpse for a microsecond.
"I'm afraid I don't know where any others might be other than I expect larger cities might be home to one or two."

Gently his teeth met his lip and he felt his hunger begin to stress him

"I need to finish that. Please excuse me."

He changed them, limbs grew anew and stretched as the chaotic shape of fluid flesh that consumed the corpse with multitude mouths that seemed to meld into the body as they chewed it.

The visceral display was over in a few unpleasant seconds and Orchid returned to the form of a young man again now sated he wiped his human mouth with the back of his hand.

"Apologies, Vampires are not the only ones with a deep hunger."

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

"Ah, then mine quest continues anew." sighed the vampire.

"No matter. If 'tis knowledge thou seeketh, I doth suppose it only fair recompense for mine supper."

On the topic of supper, his table manners caused the woman's brows to knit. She watched the whole thing though, with morbid curiosity in fact. It seemed all the discomfort she'd express, save perhaps the pause before she answered the boy.

"No need, thou canst help it naught more than I."

"Hmh," she chuckled nervously, "Yet, in truth, I am joyed thou'rt feeling diplomatic."

The girl continued to stare at the place their shared meal had once sat, or rather what remained of the blood they'd shed over dinner. Such short work of it, her heart skipped a beat, now that there was vitae to be pumped once more.

"Dost it hurt...?" she asked hesitantly.

"To contort thine body so?"

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

Orchid sent his eyes toward the sky in thought for a moment before answering.
"It doesn't hurt, it's more like, stretching out a stiff muscle I suppose. When I'm like this..."

His thin arms displayed himself.
"I am like a vapour trapped in a glass jar. Capable of much more than my shape allows."

It felt odd to explain himself. Few asked how or what, most only ever cried out why?.
Still he continued.

"If I don't change shape in a few days it begins to feel like I'm cramping but what if you? I have heard that the vampire may change its shape, to wolf or bat or even to become mist. Is there any truth to such tales?"

Now he asked, and it was... nice to speak with someone without hiding his nature.

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

"Fascinating." muttered Lilette.

"Then we art both made to wield our powers at regular."

To his question however, the vampire folded her arms and looked away for a time, pondering.

"In truth, I've not been a Vampyre o'er long ser. Mine research hast proven inconsistent, nor mine learnings adequate in lieu of them that turned me."

She rubbed her sleeve, only to perk up with a thought.

"Mine fangs mayest point to such, however? thou wouldst not see, not as they art, unless I wishest."

"I doth feel it, sometimes." she said, turning with revelatory glee.

"They hideth under mine skin till I hunger, or command. Mayhaps there is more to this body than I knowest."

She... laughed. A small, girlish sound, not at all like the predator she'd been moments ago.

"Wings? claws? ought possibilities!"

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

"Dare we say, a tail?"

Orchids thin mouth shifted into a smile as he slunk into a posture so poor it looked as though he might break.

"I think you might look well with one. Nothing too garish, something slim and sleek and pale as you are would do."

A short laugh as he imagined it escaped him.

"I wonder at how you might unleash yourself. Perhaps it really is only something others of your kind can show you."

His eyes grew large and predatory, his limbs long and sharp and when he spoke next his mouth had cracked and broken into mandibles.

"I fInD I nEeD lItTlE pRoMpTiNg!"

He did not move, only shifted his being to something between person and abomination. A show of himself.

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

"Forsooth! and shalt I sprout horns as well?" she giggled.

Even masked, the girl's smile could be heard in her tone. How long had it been since she just talked to someone? Truly talked to someone, without fear nor regret.

Ah but the boy's sudden shift did elicit something like the former.

She paused, staring at his mandibles a moment longer than intended. A reminded that he was indeed a monster. They both were.

"Be this thine true form?" she said in her usual, softer voice.

In truth she had just fought the mortal urge to flee, but now she took a step closer, head cocked to the side. For surely if there was something 'human' in her still, there was in him too.

Though hesitant, she pulled away her mask to reveal the freckled features of her ever-youthful face, and pale lips stained with blood.

"This be mine." she said shyly, though looking as much the predator as he in that moment.

"And what meanest thou by "prompting", might I inquire?"

A cautious frown betrayed her fleeting reservations, shadowed by the curious gaze which kept her.

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

Orchid hesitated, what might be shame passed over the monstrous face it wore before it returned to the young man's firm it casually took.

"I don't have a "true form" so to speak. It's one of the less that wonderful things about my being. I can take the form of any creature I touch though. Which has its uses."

Gently he watched her display herself. He did not know why she was being shy, as far as he could see she was not disfigured in the face.

"Hmm. For one who is stuck with your face I think you did well."

A pause and then a laugh as he brought a hand up to his hairline.
"I suppose now, we might exchange names!"

The bizarre nature of, themselves seemed to lead them into doing it backwards, typically name came first but he supposed this was not a typical meeting.

"My name is Orchid."

He offered, cordially extending his hand.

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

That look, she knew it to be her fault. Maybe she was too young a monster, too unused to this new world, to be as accommodating as she wished. Yet it would not stop her from trying.

His ever shifting form elicited another craning of the neck from one side to the other like some curious corvid. Certainly there was a clinical quality in her eye, but more than that, a simple desire to understand him as she would anyone else.

Comments toward her own appearance broke the curious stare and cracked a fanged smile.

"Tis naught but elvish heritage, good Ser." she waved dismissively.

In truth, wresting control of that smile over introductions proved a challenge, merely thinning to something less cheeky.

"Forsooth and well met, Orchid!"

She performed a curtsy for the shapeshifter, followed by a mimicry of his own cordial gesture.

"Upon my name is Lilette of House Blackbriar, last of that name."

Lilette rubbed at her sleeve, pondering smile at odds with the red streak down her chin.

"Hm. thou'rt the first hitherto hearest that name in full."

"I suppose silence be necessary no longer," she laughed, a little nervously.

"Thoust seen mine face, hearest mine foreign way of speaking."

"Naught left to hide mine identity, should'st we meet again."

She released a deep, cold breath, as though it were uncertain and liberating at once.

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

"Hmm."

It certainly was a bit of an odd spectacle to see. At least his first experience with a vampire was a polite one.

"You do speak in an old fashioned way, I always supposed that vampires would blend into their surroundings like a snake or some such. You stand out though Miss Blackbriar. It's curious."

Ending his musings on the matter Orchid closed his arms again, one over the other and strolled about the alley.

"So where are you from? I have never heard of your house."

Lilette Blackbriar

 

[Lilette Blackbriar]

"Ah," she sighed gently, "standing out hast always been a shortcoming of mine."

Orchid's strolling saw the vampire follow soon after, head tilt and eyes forward like a curious little duckling, even if a tad more graceful. Soft steps on silver-buckled shoes, quiet as the grave on these sands.

"Tir'Rhosyn," she perked up at his question, "though the humans call it The Briarlands."

"Though in truth I'd be much surprised if thou'st heard tell. 'tis a border region in the northern Falwood, and though mother raised many a mage, we Blackbriars oft livest solitary lives of pondering in yonder woods."

"Well, most of mine kin, anyway."

Lilette paused, lest her waggling tongue bore the poor boy to death.

"And uhm, what of thee? from whence comest thou?"

---

Orchid​

 

[Orchid]

The Fallwood, Orchid had never been himself but had read much. Lilette was correct however, he had not read nor heard of her house or home specifically.

Less pleasant was his remembering of his own origins and what he knew of them.
"My mother is a noblewoman of Vel Anir and a monster like myself but born and changed unlike my own creation. I am product of a most unnatural birth..."

Pausing by the end of the alley Orchid resisted stepping into the light again. Beyond them life and light became a dim of animal noises to him. The screeching of goats and camels.

"...one that I have only recently come to understand. While I am not and never was human, I am the product of certain ingredients and some of them were of people. This too I only recently learned."
With care he turned his young face towards the vampire to ask his next question.

"Did becoming a vampire change you? Change who you are beyond diet and ability?"

Lilette Blackbriar