7. Fight

"Anna..."


I stand before him ready to die to buy the others time to get to the top of the mountain. He must not get to them or he will ruin everything. Lord Henry has followed us from one kingdom to another all because of me.


"No." The sword pulls on my arm as I lift it into a defensive position the way Joan taught me. How long do I have? How long can I hold him off?

He takes a step towards me and I tighten my grip on the sword handle. "Anna," my name falls softly from his lips. His deep voice brings back the memories of sitting on his lap and curling up in his arms. I am ashamed that I was ever so naive. My grip tightens on the sword so that the leather squeaks in protest.

Although he hesitates, he does not stop. Another step towards me, and I shout, "Stop!" There is a warmth that floods me. My own magical defenses, natural and innate, warm my muscles, traveling down my limbs. When he is within the swing of my sword, I follow through.


The weight of the sword disappears once it has begun its swing. I put my body behind it so that I feel the aftershock of my attack in my shoulders. I open my eyes to see that I have managed to hit him in the shoulder. The wound is deep; the blood flows down his tunic, but he will heal in minutes.

He stands still long enough for me to see the damage I have caused before he swoops in, wrapping his arms around me and pressing the sword, still clutched in my hands, against my body. "No!" It is a guttural sound that comes from deep within me. The denial is so strong, it almost feels as if I can break away. But my mind knows better despite my thrashing.


I can feel his breath upon my neck, and I know the end must be near. The only thing to do is to stop fighting and hope that I have given the others enough time.

"Anna," his voice is soft in my ear. His arms are still wrapped tightly around me in an embrace that is impossible to break.

I still live, and though I do not fight him physically any longer, I still hear myself saying, "Come sun rise, the vampires turn to dust and the werewolves will become human. It's over. You can kill me now if you wish."

Softly, he kisses my forehead as he hasn't done since I was a little girl. He moves away from me, and the sword drops to the ground, my muscles are too drained to lift it again. The cold night air rushes in, chilling all the parts of me that had been pressed to his warm body. He is gone and I am alone in the moonlight.

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Since this is the last post for the past part of the story line, feel free to ask me anything you want. Basically, if it isn't clear, Anna is buying time for Joan and "others" to get to a spot where they can cast a curse. The curse will make it so that the supernaturals can only come out at night. (But oddly, it does not affect the mermaids. I have some reasoning for that, but I am reserving it for possible future storylines.)

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6. Flight

Norma, my maid, runs a brush gently through my hair. "I heard it was quite a show last night. Chef says that you impressed our guest very much."

I sit still as she begins braiding my hair. "Mermaids don't even use magic; of course he was impressed." At the thought of his red eyes on me, a chill runs down my spine, and I feel indecent in my night gown.



"No dear," Norma's voice is hardly above a whisper. She leans in as she continues braiding. "There was another guest. One of our guests."


I turn my head quickly to look her in the eyes. Could it be? A true human rebel here in the castle? Norma has told me stories of the human resistance through out the kingdoms fighting for the freedom of all humans. But I could never fully imagine someone who would do such a thing. What kind of person would be so brave as to risk their lives for the impossible?

"Come. She will help you escape." Norma takes me by the hands and has me stand up and she takes off my night gown and replaces it with a course dress that smells of the scullery. "You must leave. You are powerful." She smooths my hair with one hand. "This dress will confuse his sense of smell long enough for you to get away."

There is a knock on the door. On the other side is the one who must be the "guest." She holds a tray of food which she quickly puts down. Her eyes have a glint in them that a normal maid would never have. She glances at me, taking in the sight of me in my course maid's dress with an unreadable expression.


There isn't much time. Norma packs the food the guest brought in for lunch and ushers us to a secret passage way with brisk instructions which she aims at The Guest who I assume will know enough about the outside to know where we are going.

My chest constricts as we run from everything I have known my entire life into a world I have only seen through windows.

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5. The Show of Your Life

The chef enters the large dining hall and gives me an encouraging smile. Earlier, he had said, "Just make sure to stay put, my dear." I was to be his "assistant." "You will see the most amazing show you have ever seen in your life. If only your father could have seen..."



The chef bows to the lord of the manner and the two guests nearest him. The face of the ruler of this land remains hard edged and stoic. I get the feeling he simply wants the show to start already and could do without the formality.


The chef sits down at the piano and begins to play a soft melody as the candle lights go out and we are left bathed in the partial moonlight filtering in through the large windows. My heart thumps as I stand in the dark, a strange crawling feeling rolls up my back. I do my best to stay as still as possible. Being trapped in the dark with a bunch of vampires and a mermaid requires a special ability to remain as un-prey-like as possible.

The music swirls around the large room as it begins to crescendo. As if on cue, a blue light beings to gently glow.


I suck in a breath when I notice the girl standing in the middle of the room. A small ball of blue light floats at her fingertips as if it were an animal she were gently coaxing back to the stable after the freedom of a pasture field.


The ball moves with her as she dances, twirling around her torso then her arms as she stretches out her perfect limbs in time with the music. She raises her hand into the air and the ball twirls up her arm and to her fingertips where it shatters shatters into small sparkles which appear to fall from her graceful fingertips to the ground.

Ever so delicately, her bare feet daintily prance across the floor as her arms gracefully arc away from her body. There is a light that comes down from the ceiling and falls down upon her and around her.


As she stretches out her arm, the light turns blue and envelopes her. It surrounds her as the music reaches its finale and, as suddenly as she appeared, she is gone. The room is in the dark once again, and my life suddenly feels dark as well. I have just seen the sun for the first time and I realize now that I have only been living in a dark cave this entire time with nothing but a campfire for light.

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So I fixed up some of the storyline side bars. I'm horrible with names, but I like to keep things organized. So this current storyline is called "Connections." All the past Amberle and Henry stories are now all filed under "Embarrassing Amberle."

Oh and new background images. ^_^

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4. The Garden

Same morning as this entry


The sun shines brightly in the courtyard lighting up the dark stone of the castle walls. I remember when I was very little, coming out to the courtyard after my lessons was a treat. Lord Henry would bring me to let me play in the sun shine on the hot dark stones of the courtyard. Then one day he surprised me by having a small garden planted. They were the only plants inside the courtyard. The only other plants I had seen before then were the forest plants that I could see from my room widow on the third floor.


I bend down to closer inspect the flowers. They bloom so brightly that bugs from all over are attracted to them and seek refuge in their petals. I have often wondered what kind of life the bugs see outside. How do the other humans live who are not under the watchful eye of their vampire lords? What do they do when he must feast? Do they give up loved ones? Do they give up the poor? Maybe they simply give him the people they don't like.



Today, he wants to speak. There is space for me to sit on the bench beside him, and so I do. I can feel the stolen warmth of his forearm near mine. When I was a little girl, I never knew. There would be times he would be warmer than others, and in my ignorance I would crawl into his lap like a cat seeking the warmth of a sunbeam. I know now that those times would be just after he had fed, when the hot blood of his victim ran through his veins renewing his own life and strengthening his body.

I try to smile, but I can see he is still scowling over the merman.

"Barbaric!" He speaks in a low voice, but the word spits from his mouth. "A cart full of young maidens. Does he think he is dealing with the werewolves?"


I try to sit quietly, staring ahead of me as if I were looking at my flowers. He is one to talk. Is he more refined simply because he uses young women like my mother and my grandmother, breeding them for his own amusement and fame? I suppose he's more refined because he has raised me and, instead of killing me, parades me me around when other vampire lords visit?

"Are the werewolves bad?" I ask as I try to channel the young girl I used to be. Though Lord Henry has said enough to make me understand that he does not approve of the werewolves, he has never said specifically what is bad about them. We share a border with one of the werewolf kingdoms, yet we have never had a visit from any of the werewolves.


He turns to me in a rare form. His teeth are plainly visible as he angrily tells me, "Very. I want you no where near a werewolf, do you understand? Even your magic would not be enough of a defense against them."

"Are they immune too? Like the vampires?"

"No, but they will not give you time to cast a spell once they have caught your scent." He looks away from me towards the flowers, deep in his own thoughts.

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Why yes, that is a vampire hanging out in the day. (Just so you know you're not imagining things.) XD

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3. Found

Last time we saw Joan


Just my luck.

We hadn't been sure where the gift was going, but our intelligence suggested it would most likely be an offering to a near by lord. Of course, that would mean that I could be facing a werewolf as well, and I don't want that either; it's just that none of us had been expecting that the gift would be carted to one of the higher vampire lords as well. I recognized his name when I heard it spoken by one of the guards.

Lord Henry's name had been carried to our little resistance group by a person who had managed to make it out of the Vampire Empire. Apparently, he is known to be rather eccentric (even for a vampire). He enjoys collecting art and throwing parties where the humans aren't the meal but the entertainment.


I saw the vampire lord with my own eyes in the courtyard. There was an angry scowl on his face as he commanded the gaurds to drop us into the cells. "Be sure to check their eyes," he added. A young girl stood behind him with her hands neatly folded behind her back. She looked young-- about 18 or so-- and yet she stood securely near him as if she knew that she was in no danger. Her exposed neck showed no wounds, and none of the guards so much as glanced at her.

It seemed clear to me that she was a kept human. Protected and cared for while the rest of us suffered. If I did manage to find a way to escape, I would be sure to steer clear of her. She would be the first person to turn in a human rebel-- of that I am sure.





I could hear boots scuffling on the stone steps. It was more than one pair, but I couldn't tell how many more. My heart raced. Were they already here to pick out one of us to go upstairs?

Two men stand before the cages looking us over. I do my best to huddle down and appear as unplesant as possible, but I can't help looking around at the young girls in various states of distress. I know they wouldn't do the same for me. If I were in trouble, they would not help me. They'd all just be glad it wasn't them.


I stand up and stare at the two men catching the eye of the one with the hat. He nods and points at me. Crap. What the hell was I thinking? I want to sit back down, but they're already unlocking the cage door and motioning for me to come out.


We end up in the kitchen. The guard takes his leave.

The cook smiles at me and says in a low voice, "Don't worry. You're safe. I knew your father."

I'm not sure what to say or do. Luck? Chance? Or was this planned?

"Come, I'll show you how to chop vegetables." He sets me up with a cutting board and sets me to work, explaining how to cut the veggies. Inbetween instructions, he explains more in a lower yet clear voice.


"Someone followed to be sure you arrived, and when it was noticed that you were coming here, they sent word to me to save you."


We work to make stew and gruel for the guards and the prisoners. All the while, he softly explains the vampire kingdom to me.



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So I was looking over last week's entries, and I feel like I wasn't clear enough. Part of my problem is that when I write, I just start writing, usually from the middle of a story. So sometimes, there are details that I might not mention because it's something that's clear to me. (I do this a lot IRL too.)

Basically what's going on here is that Supernatural creatures once ruled this land. To my sims (excluding Amberle), this is a new land. They came over from the old land, so they know none of the history. (Heck, how much Amberle and the other elves actually know is questionable too.)

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2. Anna

Also a long long time ago (around the same time as last entry):


I stand at my place behind my lord's large wooden chair. The maid said we were having a special visitor this morning and that our lord needed me today-- not only to show me off, but also as protection. She picked out one of my rarely used gowns, a deep purple one which exposes too much of my neck. "It brings out the color of your eyes," she had said. But all I can think of it is that my neck is too exposed.

Boots loudly scuffle on the stone just outside the door. My stomach churns anxiously at the sound of his arrival.




Lord Henry sits down in the seat before me as I try my best to smile the way I used to when I was a naive little girl. The look on his face is stern. Once he is in the seat before me, he says, "A mermaid visit today, Anna. If he should attack, use fire."

I simply nod and pray that the merman doesn't attack.

My lord leans back so that the wood from the back of the chair creaks from holding his weight. I can feel his agitation. Mermaids are not the friends of the Vampires.

A messenger announces the arrival of Lord Pollonios shortly before he walks in through the door. He wears no clothes. My eyes dart away quickly. From my first glance, I can tell that he is much smaller than my lord, shorter and slimmer. His skin appears to be blue like the ocean he comes from, and he looks very much like a human, but for his flat nose and large red eyes.



From the corner of my eyes, I can see him moving to a seat motioned to by my lord.

"Good day, my lord. I have come bearing gifts." The merman's voice is deep and low but carries far. There is a vibration to his voice; it rumbles as if deep within his chest he brought the water from the sea.

"You are quite a way away from home, are you not? Don't tell me you came all this way to bring me young maidens."

The merman gurgles. I can only guess that he is laughing. "I am sorry, my lord, but my land, unfortunately, does not have much else to offer to one of your calibur. Unless, perhaps, you were needing strong workers."

My lord's voice becomes deep and menacing. "What is it you are hoping to get in return?" I can imagine his dark eyes glowering.


The merman maintains his calm. Quickly, my eyes scan for his face and I catch him glancing at me before I look away again. He is curious about me, but because my lord hasn't brought the subject up, it would be rude for the merman to ask about me. "Nothing at all, my lord. Simply, your goodwill. The previous lord met an untimely demise, and I have stepped in to take care of his lands. I thought it might be a good idea to meet my closest neighbors."

My lord sits quietly for a moment. Both the mermaid and I hold our breaths as we wait for a response. I can't help glancing up again, and I see the merman's eyes on me. It becomes clear to me that he knows the blow will come from my hands, not the guard who stands near by.


"Quite daring of you to appear before me as a new lord." My lord's voice suddenly changes into something more like the purr of a cat. I wonder if he is smiling and flashing his fangs as I have seen him do sometimes. "In a few days, some of the other Vampire lords will be visiting to partake in a show quite unlike any thing I dare say you've seen. I would like you to come."

The merman has no choice. "Thank you. The art of this kingdom is known far and wide. It would be an honor to be a witness."



The merman bows his head, then rises to take his leave. My lord stands, blocking my view of the merman. I peek one eye around my lord's large arm to watch the merman bowing deeply. When he pulls himself up, he glances at me again, clearly still curious. But my lord says nothing.

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I haven't said it at all so far, but Henry is actually William Carfax by Atomic Space Kitty. He is simply awesome. The second I saw him, I thought he would make a good bad guy.

Also, although I keep thinking it, I refuse to ask if I've gone too weird. XD If there are people out there going, "Whaaaat?" Then I can only point over to my "About me" section and stress that I really love the X-Men, comic books, science fiction and other odd things. (In particular, I love the late 70 and early 80's when Chric Claremont did the whole Space Opera thing which began the Dark Phoenix storyline.)

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