The Vampire King

A cold drop of water landed on the tip of his nose. When she awoke, she grimaced, feeling the drop continue down her cheek and roll into her ear. Struggling with the remnants of deep oblivion, the girl sniffed, tried to bring her hand to her face and brush off the annoying drop, but her hand stumbled on a hard, wet surface. She froze, listening to the world around her. Absolute, impenetrable darkness reigned everywhere. Silence rang in my ears, pulling me back into sweet oblivion. The girl almost succumbed to this alluring sensation, but another drop broke on the skin of her face, and the prospect of dealing with what was happening still seemed to her more tempting. But how? The girl lay on her back and clearly felt the cold, uneven surface with protruding corners, as well as the muscles that were stiff from all this.

Another drop landed and hit right in the eye.

- Yes, to you! .. - the girl nervously fidgeted in place and grimaced when her forehead met the hard and suspiciously close ceiling. How did she even get here? The answer was not found, and the victim fumbled around with her hands to determine the approximate trajectory to retreat.

Loudly puffing and swearing from the bottom of her heart, she somehow crawled to freedom. Getting out of the crevice, where the girl had climbed so successfully for reasons unknown to herself, she slowly sat down, then stood up, first feeling the surroundings with trembling hands. In the cave, every movement echoed. From somewhere came the sound of dripping water. The girl grimaced and automatically wiped her dry cheek.

At first, moving through the cave was not very comfortable. But gradually the place became more and more. The girl began to make out the outlines of the sharp edges of the rocky walls. After the next turn, she went at all confidently and easily, moving along the wagging passage and examining the damp walls with amazing golden streaks and gleaming quartz crystals. Everything that surrounded her seemed strange: the sensations of her own body, smells, sounds and the complete absence of any thoughts. As if she had just been born, and the pristine mind had not yet been polluted by the bustle of life.

The end of the cave opened suddenly. The girl stopped abruptly, covering her face with her hands. Her eyes, accustomed to the dark, watered, and she swore again. Something, and her arsenal of dirty words was excellent. The girl's surprise increased as she examined the dry crust of dirt on her pale fingers. It was a strange, unexpected discovery, and for some time the victim simply examined her hands from all angles. The next surprise was her long men's shirt, dirty and torn in some places, under which there was nothing of her clothes. Only high boots made of good soft leather gave at least some sense of "dressing", but even this fact did not bring her any closer to understanding what was happening. Rather the opposite.

Beyond the darkness, the view was breathtaking. The cave was located in a sheer cliff, and a gentle stone slope connected the crevice with a green meadow dotted with flowering daisies and dandelions. Yellow-green prelude to a dense forest, spreading its sweeping crowns to the rays of the midday sun. Majestic cliffs shone white above them, obscuring most of the sky. The cold air made the girl understand that she was at a fairly high altitude. In winter, it is probably quite difficult to get through here. But now the wonderful weather and fresh air have made this place stunningly beautiful.

The girl ran down the stone slope, easily keeping her balance, and drowned in the grass up to her ankles. She was immediately enveloped in a scent of freshness mixed with the sweet scent of flowers. The head swiveled slightly. The idyll was spoiled only by the loud rumbling of a stomach that missed food. The girl grimaced. Suddenly surging hunger hurried her to go further and clarify the situation. Better yet, find something and sacrifice yourself. For example, fried rabbit meat or pheasant baked on coals. The girl swallowed her hungry saliva, snorted, and headed for the forest, hoping to find her way there.

She quickly reached the edge of the forest strip and stopped, looking for the most convenient passage. From the cave, the trees seemed attractive and inviting, but close up it became clear that this path would not be easy. Tangled branches, thorny bushes and tall roots emerging from the ground - that's what awaited the unfortunate ahead. But she saw no other way out. So she pushed back her thick, tangled, filthy hair in preparation for battle. The curls lashed her back and immediately scattered in unruly waves over her shoulders and chest. Sighing and shrugging her shoulders, she stepped forward with determination.

The forest took the victim into the arms of thorny bushes and hard branches. Very soon one sleeve came off and hung on the wrist in miserable pieces. The girl impatiently tore it off her and threw it aside. Each step was accompanied by the unraveling of hair from tenacious woody claws and copious mention of all the relatives of the aforementioned as they graciously left delicate scratches on exposed skin. Fairly fighting for her freedom and the right to personal space, the poor fellow did not even notice how the thicket gave way to a wide knurled road. Another jerk forward left a piece of the hem on a branch, and the girl, by inertia, simply fell out in a layer onto the dusty ground. Joy and relief mixed with the annoying taste of dust in my mouth. The girl got up tiredly, coughing and trying to get rid of the terrible taste. She was busy evaluating what was left of her already not very magnificent outfit. But she quickly realized that someone was looking at her.

- Yasechka, my dear, but you cross this damn stream! Felix jerked the reins irritably, trying to move the horse, which was resting all four legs on the ground, at least a little.

A tall, bushy-legged stallion of a bright red-bay color did not want to approach a thin strip of a narrow stream, which barely wetted his legs. The hawk was not a cowardly stallion, and more than once participated in difficult battles, faithfully following his master. But the horse had a strange phobia - snakes. The bay stallion could not stand these nasty, creeping creatures and began to tremble with fear, barely seeing any representative of the snake family.

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When crossing a small ford stream, the knight and his horse stumbled upon a snake, carelessly basking in the sun. He turned around and lazily crawled away, but Hawk decided that the bank by the stream was now forever defiled, and in no case should it be crossed. What he tried to convince his master: a tall, athletic young man with shoulder-length curly chestnut hair. Gray eyes looked sleepy, and from that they looked displeasedly at the resting horse. These eyes betrayed their owner with a head: kind, somewhat gullible, they harmoniously complemented the bony, square face with pronounced eyebrows and a long mouth. However, appearances are often deceiving, so, despite his outward "powerful" appearance, Felix was a very good-natured guy.

- Yasha, stop fooling around! You disgrace me! – the wandering knight was indignant, again pulling the reins on himself.

"To whom?" - said the mischievous eyes of the stallion, mischievously shining under the thick black strands of a long bang. The horse shook his head, biting the bit, and began to rein back, dragging the man along with him. Felix irritably dropped the reins, and the horse obediently froze, lowering its massive head and squinting towards the owner with its dark eye.

- And what should I do with you? The grey-eyed knight threw up his hands. The stallion rubbed good-naturedly against his shoulder, snorting and blowing warm breath over the man's hand. Then the horse took a step back, shaking his head and pressing his ears to the back of his head in displeasure. Felix gave up.

- Okay, you got it. Went around.

As soon as they stepped onto the beaten path, a young female lady fell out of the forest with a crash, flopping her face into the dust. The hawk, having accompanied the appearance of a stranger with a loud snort, stopped abruptly. The young man, stumbling from surprise, almost flew head over heels. In a few seconds, he successfully assessed the situation. The miserable remnants of the stranger's clothes were soaked with dried blood. At the same time, the girl looked whole and unharmed. It was also alarming that there were very few clothes on her. The knight glanced at the stranger's bare legs as she stood up and dusted herself off, and felt himself blush to the very tips of her ears.

Felix opened his mouth to address the girl when she looked up and stared at him. The cold gleam of emerald eyes brought the young man into a stupor. Such a look could be seen on a dark night in a wild thicket near a wolf's lair, but not at all in a beautiful young person. As if to confirm his anxious thoughts, Hawkeye flattened his ears menacingly and snorted loudly, reacting to the stranger as a clear threat.

Realizing that he was standing with his mouth open, Felix collected his thoughts and squeezed out a few incoherent sounds:

- Are you... are you... are you all right?

The sudden change in the girl's face startled the young man. The predatory look disappeared, as if it had never been there. Now the stranger seemed vulnerable and lost. But even those emotions quickly changed. Proudly lifting her chin, she replied with a short and succinct “yes” and was about to leave, but Felix stopped her.

- Can I help you? We seem to be moving in the same direction, - the young man was polite and at the same time tried his best not to stare at the stranger's bare legs. It turned out bad. - Who you are? Maybe we can escort you home?

The girl stared at him like he was crazy. This expression would have seemed offensive if it were not for the confusion on her face.

- I... I don't know. I don't remember anything. Nothing at all. The girl took a step back and looked around with a confused look.

Everything around her seemed completely unfamiliar. How did she get here? Who is she? Where? There was a void in her head. Not a single clear thought, not a single conscious memory. No names, no faces, no city names. It was like there was nothing in her life at all!

But beneath the terrifying emptiness, there was something else. Fragments of memories, echoes of emotions: horror, cold, helplessness, pain. They made their way in a poisonous fountain from the subconscious and filled the void with their caustic blackness. She was drowning, bogged down in sticky fear. Grasping her head in her hands, the girl squeezed her temples with force, trying to stop the flow of surging feelings. She was thrown into a fever, her heart beating like a frightened bird in a cage. Everything swam before my eyes, the world spun, and the girl collapsed to the ground, raising a cloud of yellow road dust.

The young knight helplessly watched the behavior of the stranger. He was young, and fighting had become familiar to him, but women were still mysterious creatures. This person so unexpectedly switched off that he did not have time to react. A noble knightly heart and kindness did not allow Felix to leave the girl in trouble. He rummaged through his saddlebag and pulled out a thick traveling coat. Blushing, the young man clumsily wrapped it around the girl and lifted her up in his arms. The stranger was light as a feather, although she did not seem emaciated. What worried Felix more was that she was so cold. Pale skin was blue. Whatever troubles fell on the girl’s head, she needed to rest and gain strength as soon as possible. The young man approached the bay stallion with his unusual burden, but he snorted indignantly and, flattening his ears, stepped back.

- Yasya, let me put her in the saddle. There is nothing left to the city, - the knight asked gently, taking a couple of steps towards the four-legged friend. The hawk was not happy with this arrangement. He hurriedly retreated a couple of meters as soon as the young man approached him with the girl in his arms, and still pressed his ears menacingly.

Felix quickly grew tired of playing catch-up. The young man stopped and, sternly moving his dark eyebrows, turned to the stubborn animal:

- Yasha. Go. Here. Otherwise. Blame. On the. Himself, - the knight said quietly, with an arrangement.

The horse glanced at him with a dark eye. Realizing that the owner was really not in the mood for such games, Hawk gave up with a distressed sigh. Lowering his head, the stallion obediently approached the owner, allowing him to make the girl comfortable and climb into the saddle himself.