W.W.V.D. Part One

W.W.V.D.
By Tenshi no Shin


Seanna’s mother had always told her that witchcraft was a lonely profession.  Her daughter never really questioned this; no one but their few customers ever visited and when either of them went down to the neighboring village, everyone stared.  This didn’t make Seanna feel particularly bad as her mother had conditioned her to responses of the kind, it was the things that other kids said to her.  They were heartless.  They said that she and her mother were lapdogs to the devil, that they were dirty,  that they were evil.  Seanna and her mother, Varuna, were known throughout the kingdom as the crazy witch-woman and her half-wild wolf cub daughter.  Seanna would have easily admitted that, yes, she did fraternize with the wolves and other wild life, but this came naturally.  Varuna had told her that their people had been the people of the wolf, thousands and thousands of years ago, before the great totems had broken.  The wolves were their friends and consorts and on her sixteenth birthday, as it had been for all of her ancestors, Seanna was given a wolf cub to watch over and care for.  This wolf-cub grew quickly, and though it befriended the girl at an early age, it became restless and ran away one night while she slept.  Her mother called it an expression of her daughter’s wanderlust.  “My wolf,” she explained, “put down roots and mothered the entire pack.  I’ve never felt the need to go anywhere and I mothered you, didn’t I?  Now, your wolf wandered off.  What do you suppose that means?”

“That I’m going to wander off?”

Varuna smiled in her knowing way, “It’s a distinct possibility.”

Because of this, neither Varuna nor Seanna were at all surprised that the girl too began to grow restless.  At her mothers encouragement, Seanna packed her few belongings, spell books and all, and began to make her way beyond the nearby village and into the world.

The world was a big place, Seanna quickly realized and she wandered from village to village, and even kingdom to kingdom, learning all she could.  She traveled for years, not quite sure what she was looking for, or if she was even looking for something at all.  She saw many strange sights and learned a great number of spells her mother couldn’t have taught her, but her most amazing discovery was Glynn.

The young witch had gone up into the mountains not too far east from the Royal City in the neighboring country of Cyke, in search of new herbs.  Her clothing had grown tattered, her hair hung in tangled mats, but Seanna didn’t care; she was becoming one with her surroundings and it didn’t bother her that she was a bit dirty.  The girl had pitched camp on a grassy cliff and gone exploring the adjacent caves, looking for strange rocks or cave snakes, or even, with any luck, a pack of wolves.  She stepped beyond the mouth of the biggest of the caves and began to explore.  As Seanna drew farther and farther away from the outside world, she was surprised to find that her surroundings weren’t growing much darker than a late twig light.  Slowly, she realized that some of the rocks in the cave were giving off a faint glow.  Varuna had explained these rocks; they were hollow and their walls were about as thick as eggshells.  The reason for this and their glowing was that tiny luminescent worms would bore a hole in them and devour the rocks from the inside out.  A flash of inspiration struck Seanna and she pulled out an empty mason jar from her knap sack.  Cracking the brittle rocks on the side of the jar, the young witch poured the glowing worms inside.  They squirmed indignantly but illuminated the cave well, filling the jar with their bluish-green light.  Seanna held her new lantern out in front of her as she walked through the cave.  The air began to turn from damp and cool to damp and warm, and the temperature continued to rise the farther she journeyed.  When the heat was just about stifling, Seanna entered a large cavern with a very, very high ceiling.  Dots of light near the top marked the surface of the mountain and though the young witch couldn’t tell how large they were, she knew they certainly weren’t as small as they looked.  On the cavern floor lay a hulking red dragon, laboring to stay alive.  Clutched in the creature’s great claws was a brownish-black egg, the outer layers of the shell charred from being heated by it’s mother’s flame.  The mother dragon stared at Seanna reproachfully as the young witch came forward slowly, placing her mason jar-light on the cave floor near the entrance.  The girl had never dealt with dragons before and approached carefully, respectfully, and tried not to make too much noise.  The huge red didn’t seem to feel threatened by the young witch and allowed her to continue toward her.  Seanna reached a quivering hand out to touch the dragon’s nose, hoping desperately that she wasn’t doing something incredibly stupid.  The dragon’s scales where not as coarse as Seanna had imagined they would be and a warmth radiated from the animal like she had never felt.  The mother dragon seemed to take comfort in the touch of the tiny human girl, and allowed her body to relax.  The young witch could feel the dragon dying beneath her finger tips and willed it not to abandon the egg; it would surely die without it’s mother’s warmth and protection.  In answer the dragon loosened it’s grip on the egg and nudged it toward the witch.  “No,” breathed Seanna, “I can’t take it… I don’t know how to take care of a dragon!”  The mother dragon seemed to smile and patiently nudged the egg toward her again.  Finally, the young witch agreed, only after she realized how much this dragon reminded her of her own mother.  “I’ll do my best,” she promised as the great red dragon sighed it’s last breath.  The young witch picked up the egg and winced at how hot it was.  It was so big that she had to carry it with both hands and because of its heat had no time to retrieve the mason jar.  She wandered back through the cave in utter darkness, feeling the unborn dragon shift in her arms.  From what Seanna knew about eggs from chickens and forest birds, she imagined that the egg would soon hatch, but if she didn’t get it really hot really soon, the baby dragon might still die before breaking through the shell.

As quickly as she could manage, Seanna built a mighty fire and rolled the egg into the flames, not quite sure as to exactly what she was doing.  All she knew was that she must keep the egg from growing too cold.  The young witch wove cantrips into the burning kindling, allowing for bursts of heat.  She sat at the fireside, watching the flames lick the shell of the egg for hours, hoping she would not fail it’s mother.  The only times Seanna ever left the egg unattended was to gather more wood for the fire which burned continuously for two days.  Seanna did not sleep.

Just before the morning of the third day, Seanna spotted serious movement in the egg.  It began quivering and then rocking amongst the red embers.  A small crack formed and grew as the creature began to push its way through the shell.  The crack split wide open as the little dragon forced it’s snout out into the burning air.  The young witch watched with interest as it struggled and squirmed free of the charred egg shell seemingly unaffected by the burning around it.  It stood in the middle of the flame for a moment or two until it noticed Seanna watching it.  It made a cry, almost like a bird’s and began stumbling over the embers toward her, eyes bright and expectant.  When it had cleared the fire pit, the baby dragon shook the ash from its newly forming scales and walked right up to the young witch on unsteady feet.  With every step it raised a tiny clawed foot high, spreading its toes so as not to snag them on anything.  Seanna was reminded of a baby kitten, unable to retract its claws.  The dragon, however, was the size of a small dog and it’s claws were at least a half an inch long.  It stood in front of her, starting to unfold it’s leathery reddish-brown wings and making little cries.  Seanna held out a hand and patted the dragon’s warm head.  It seemed to enjoy this and began rubbing against her finger tips.  The inquisitive little thing murmured as it neared her, sniffing and investigating.  The young witch wondered if it would be strong enough to eat solid food.  This was until it nipped her.  Only just born and already with teeth! she thought, sucking her bleeding finger.  She tossed it some dried meat and watched as the dragon tore at it hungrily.  When it had finished eating, the baby dragon began making more little cries and Seanna tried everything to appease it, but she worried she would never learn to understand it.  Suddenly, the impression of thirst was thrust upon her mind.  Seanna herself didn’t feel thirsty, but the thought of being so wouldn’t leave her thoughts.  She found her canteen and a chipped clay bowl and poured some water into it.  Setting the bowl before the dragon, she watched with interest as he began to lap it up quickly.  The nagging thirst quickly subsided and was replaced with a feeling of love so strong that Seanna was compelled to pick the baby dragon up and cuddle it in her arms as she’d done with her wolf cub what seemed like a long time ago.  That night, before she fell asleep next to the fire with the dragon beside, she named him Glynn.

Glynn grew quite quickly, much faster than Seanna ever imagined he would.  By the end of the month he was the size of a small pony and began hunting for himself.  At six weeks he was the size of an ox and the witch sometimes noticed tendrils of smoke escaping his monstrous nostrils.  Before much longer he was the size of a large elephant and weighed about six tons.  Even with all of her supplies, when Seanna rode on his back, she was nothing more than an after-thought.  The witch and dragon’s psychic bond grew stronger and stronger until they could communicate quite easily and understand each other perfectly.  The two made quite a scene when they came to town for most of the villagers feared witches, but a witch whom had tamed a dragon had a power no one else had ever possessed before.  There was no convincing any adult that Glynn was harmless, but children came in droves to see him.  He was always very gentle in his dealings with children as Seanna had taught him at an early age that human beings, especially children, were very delicate things where he was concerned.

The witch and the dragon traveled from town to town, selling remedies, cantrips, and charms for over a year before Seanna received a message from her mother.  It arrived in the form of a large black raven but when it landed on her arm it turned into a roll of parchment with a black ribbon tied around it.  As it turned out, Varuna was calling Seanna home to begin preparations for attending some sort of magic university.  The young witch did not know how she felt about this, but decided that she should at least give the idea a chance.  She wrote her response on another roll of parchment, tied it with a white ribbon, and threw it high into the air.  The wind caught it and it turned into a osprey and flew off to deliver the message.

It took them a little over two weeks to reach the village at the edge of the forest and Seanna found that not only had the children who taunted her grown up, but they now respected her.  News of the witch’s daughter who could tame dragons had traveled farther than Seanna had thought.  As she passed through the village, all of the people stopped and stared at both the witch and Glynn as though they were death personified.  Seanna got a thrill from this and rode with her chin tilted slightly upwards as the ladies of the court did in Royal City.  She rode this way all the way up to her mother’s cottage in the deep woods although there were none but squirrels and the occasional deer to look on her there.  Her mother found this highly amusing.  “Bewitched your way into the heart of some Royal have you?” she said mockingly, “Or have you just taken to putting on airs for the fun of it?”  They had a good laugh and Varuna patted Glynn on the nose without any fear, much to his surprise.

Seanna slid down Glynn’s back like it was the most natural thing in the world and gave her mother a hug.  “It’s good to see you again, but what’s all this talk of university?  I’ve learned plenty during my travels these last couple of years.”

Varuna nodded, “So much in fact, that you’ve caught the eye of the headmaster there.  He says he’d like to sponsor your enrollment.  Talk of your friend Glynn has reached some very important ears.”

Glynn looked slightly confused at why Seanna was being invited to university and not him if he was the cause of it all.  The young witch silently explained that university was for humans and not dragons.  The dragon didn’t seem to happy about this and Seanna chuckled as tendrils of smoke rose from his nostrils.  “Mother,” she said, redirecting her attention, “I don’t feel that university would be the place for me; it’s so… institutional…”

“How do you know what university is like if you’ve never been there?”  Seanna shrugged.  “Well,” said Varuna, “I’d like you to go for a little while, if only a year.  They have a wonderful library at this university, full of spells you and I have never heard of, and it’s in a land far away, one that you probably haven’t reached even if you have traveled for six years.”

These things certainly caused Seanna’s interest to perk up, but she still had doubts.  “Fine, I’ll try it, but I’m not making any promises.”

Varuna smiled.  “That is all I ask.”

It took a little over a week to get Seanna cleaned up and ready for the trip to the university; her hair was so matted and dirty that many brushes broke in it and had to be cut out.  Seanna felt a bit like a sheep being sheared.  She was bought a new dress from the village tailor, a blue one and rather plain, but it suited the young witch fine.  She would never admit it but she felt much better, clean and new.  There was still a question of traveling; if the university was so far away, how was Seanna going to reach it?  Glynn could not yet fly, despite her encouragement that he should learn.  Varuna had told her everything would work out, but she couldn’t see how that was so.

The morning of Seanna’s departure, and older man came to their door, wearing the robes of a scholar.  Varuna greeted him as “Professor Blackstone.”  Professor Blackstone reminded Seanna of the eternal grandfather with his neat white hair and groomed mustache.  He was very polite and kissed her hand, “Miss Seanna, I presume?”  Seanna didn’t know what to say to this, so she said nothing.  “I have been sent,” explained the scholar, “to fetch you to Grimoire University.”

Obeying her mother’s wishes, Seanna grabbed the sack of her possessions and kissed Varuna goodbye.  Glynn could sense her apprehension and nuzzled her lovingly.  She kissed him goodbye and promised that she wouldn’t be gone too long.  Professor Blackstone patted the dragon on the head, a sparkle of excitement in his eye and offered his arm to Seanna.  She took it politely, but rather than strolling down the path toward the village like she’d imagined they would, they didn’t move.  Suddenly, the ground flew out from under the young witch’s feet and she found she was soaring through the air, faster than any bird she had ever seen.  The experience was somewhat frightening but very exhilarating.

Prince Maeryn stood at his window looking out on Grimoire.  The sun had just set and the lamps where being lit one by one.  The boredom that had been plaguing the Prince for the last month had only grown in the last few days and the King was in a horrible mood; he’d been insulted by the old wizard at the university and was spoiling for a fight.  Maeryn tried to distance himself from his father as much as possible during times like these, but it was growing hard as the King had also decided that it was time for Maeryn to find a bride.  The Prince of vampires did not find this a good idea at all.  Most of the woman his father presented him with where petty, snotty, social climbers with the goal of becoming royalty on their agenda.  Maeryn was polite to these women, no matter how obvious they were about what they intended and then “forgot” to contact them after their first meetings.  The King just assumed that his son had a very fine taste and was waiting to be presented with the right woman, but the King didn’t know the half of it.  Scandal of scandals, the Prince of vampires had a taste for living women, though not in the way that most vampires did.  Maeryn found he had an odd interest in living things; they were so fragile, so delicate, and yet they seemed to posses great conviction.  They lived their short lives to the fullest and felt more strongly than Maeryn knew he ever would.  As the Prince watched the hustling and bustling of the crowned city, a spark of movement in the sky caught his eye; a shooting star arched across the twilight.  Maeryn took this as a sign that he should go out on the prowl; something was afoot.

As soon as Professor Blackstone and Seanna touched down outside the gates of Grimoire University, Seanna could tell that Grimoire was seriously different than Cyke and Idyllwylde; it was darker, and the people seemed gray and muted and they stared at the two outsiders.  “Don’t pay them any mind,” said Blackstone, steering the young witch through the gates, “vampire fodder, nothing more.”  The word “vampire” sent a shiver down Seanna’s spine and she felt as though she was being watched.  The gates closed behind her, but she didn’t feel much safer.  Maeryn’s interest centered on the girl who walked through the gates of the university.  She was going to prove entertaining, he could tell.  The Prince of vampires slunk back into the shadows, his curiosity brimming.

Seanna looked up at the old buildings of the university and felt slightly intimidated.  Professor Blackstone smiled down at her.  “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” he assured her, “it’s not half as bad as it looks.”  The young witch still felt uncomfortable and had no clue that she was being watched from the shadows.  Blackstone lead the way through courtyards and around buildings until they reached the headmaster’s house.  It was as tall and dark as the rest of Grimoire but something about it was very unapproachable.  Stone lions guarded the stairway and glared fiercely as the old man and the young witch knocked on the blackly tarnished door.  A withered, stern-looking old woman opened it and ushered them inside without a word.

The headmaster was a gruff old man with a hooked nose and beady, glass-green eyes.  A shiver went down Seanna’s spine as he looked her over; it was as though he was sizing up his prey.  The headmaster held out his hand.  She took it and they shook.  The old man’s grip was stronger than it looked.  “Pleased to meet you, I am Professor Padd, head of Grimoire University.  Welcome to our fine institution.  You will, of course, be expected to perform at a certain level of excellence while you are here.  We are anticipating great things from you, miss Seanna.  Professor Blackstone will show you to the women’s dormitory.  You shall report to him in the morning for class assignments.  Good night.”  It had seemed as though that entire speech had been only one breath.  Seanna was so lost that she didn’t manage to say a thing as the little old lady herded her out the door again.

Blackstone smiled.  “Don’t looks so frightened; I’ll be keeping an eye on you and it’s not half as bad as it seems at first.”  Seanna was lead to a plain brick building with many small windows.  Most of them had lights in them.  “You’ll be staying in 407, that’s on the fourth floor.  I believe you’ll find everything you need up there.”

The woman’s dormitory was just as boring on the inside as it was on the outside.  The walls were all a dull puce and every room was exactly the same.  Room 407 and all of the others in the building held two beds, two desks, two closets and two trunks.  Seanna’s roommate, a freckly redhead was already asleep in one of the beds.  Rather than wake her, Seanna put her meager things away, stripped naked, as was her practice when not sleeping in the wild, and crawled into bed.

“Oh!” said an overly bright voice, “You must be Seanna!”  The young witch opened her eyes.  Her redheaded roommate was standing over her, beaming.  The sun beamed through their plate-glass window and blinded Seanna into misery.

Despite her horrible morning-mood, Seanna tried to be pleasant.  “Pleased to meet you.”  She pulled her arm out from under her blankets and offered a hand in greeting.  The blankets slid down enough to make it obvious that the girl had slept naked, and her roommate, standing there in her pristine white and lacey night gown looked shocked.

“Um, yes,” replied Red, averting her eyes, “I’m Mabella Macayle, of the Royal City Macayles.  You should really think about wearing something to bed--it’s getting cold nights.  I could lend you a nightie if you’d like.”  Both girls, very embarrassed, didn’t say much to each other as they got ready for breakfast.  Breakfast was grapefruit, a slice of toast and black coffee.  Seanna didn’t like any of these, but had a little of each.

The young witch met with Blackstone on a nearly empty stomach and suddenly found herself loaded down with classes.  She’d been signed up for some of the hardest courses offered by the university.  Greatly intimidated, she pleaded for help from Blackstone.  “Don’t worry, my dear,” he said, smiling his grandfatherly smile, “from what we’ve heard of you, you should be able to handle classes at this level without any problems.  You should at least give your schedule a chance.”

Seanna decided to take the professor’s advice and go to her classes for a while, hoping that maybe things weren’t as bad as they seemed.  She admitted that campus was beautiful in a rather gothic way, but she wished that the sun would shine; the shadows kept giving her the shivers and she still felt as though she was being watched.  Really, it wasn’t so much the shadows that watched her as all the students.  Seanna noticed pretty quickly that they all wore black, very much like the rest of the citizens of Grimoire, but the young witch still wore her egg-blue traveling dress.  This worried her; she didn’t own any black clothing.  She stuck out like a sore thumb in her first class; the only one not wearing black.  Her professor frowned at her, but didn’t say anything as she was a new student, but it was expected that she should dress like the rest of the student body quite soon.  Classes were both boring and exceedingly hard, even the practical magic lessons were proving difficult.  Seanna had gone from learning at her own pace to having to struggle to keep up with the class.  She could do some spells much harder and much more useful than the ones her teachers were teaching her, but because she couldn’t learn more slowly, it was incredibly hard for her to learn anything.  At first, it seemed as though it was just the jitters; she was nervous, said her professors, and that was why she was doing badly.  Weeks later, classes still weren’t going very well.  The professors instructed Seanna to try harder and to purchase a black dress to wear to classes.

Purchasing anything meant going beyond the university gates which made Seanna nervous as anything.  Grimoire seemed very much like its name; grim.  The skinny black buildings offset the skinny pale people who had sunken eyes and an odd way of staring at the school whenever they passed..  It took a while for her to get her nerve up to pass through the gates but once she did, something inside loosened up.  The tense, horrible feeling she’d had since she’d come to Grimoire began to fade away.  There were no assignments expected from her here, and she was free to do as she pleased.  She wandered the dark streets of Grimoire, observing the inhabitants.  They were not as unhappy as they seemed, they laughed and smiled like normal people and Seanna found she felt more at ease with them than she did with the normal people at the university.  She wandered into the main square where the stall markets where situated.  The hustle and bustle there was on par with that of Royal City, but the wares where highly unusual.  There were storms in bottles, chips from a giant’s toenail, black dragon scales, fire breath potions, and all sorts of small exotic animals and plants.  A miniature red dragon in a cricket cage caught Seanna’s eye and she suddenly realized that she missed Glynn badly.  It felt like a long time since she’d experienced his warm, earthy aura in her mind and she wondered what he was doing.  Reeling in a sudden wave of homesickness, Seanna put a finger between the wooden slats of the cage to stoke the tiny animal.  Fearing attack, the dragon bit her as hard as it could.  She jumped and withdrew her finger, sucking the drop of blood forming from the tiny bite.  The old woman running the stall came over to see what all the fuss was.  “What is a healthy young girl like you doing in a place like this?”  she asked, glancing around, “Sun’s going to go down in less than an hour, and it’s not safe for your kind to be out and about after dark.”

Seanna was slightly confused.  “My kind?”

“Magic student, aren’t you?”  Huffed the woman, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Them vampires can’t abide your kind these days, something to do with the King and that Padd having a bit of a row, so I’m told.  Nobody’s really sure about what, but either way, unless you want to die a gruesome and horrible death, you’d better get in off the streets before the sun goes down.”  Seanna nodded and politely said goodbye, hoping she didn’t look as nervous as she felt.  As she went off in the direction of the local tailor, the old woman called out, “And be sure to wrap that finger up as soon as you can manage!”

Seanna managed to procure a black dress and a “nightie” at the tailor’s though they were a bit too big.  The young witch decided that it would be best to take them back to the university and hem them herself rather than let the tailor and risk being caught out after dark, but she miscalculated how long it would take her to reach the gates again, and as it always happens when one goes to a new place, she got slightly lost.

The young witch looked up at a tavern sign, the Lion’s Rut, and wondered if she’d seen it on her way to the square.  In the darkening twilight, the lamps inside allowed a cheery glow through the bottle glass windows causing Seanna to yearn for her own, if not so cheery bottle glass window up on the fourth floor.  As she was contemplating the sign and how lost she could possibly be, a young man approached the witch.  He was just as pale as any of the citizens of Grimoire and this was particularly highlighted by his ruff of shockingly bright red hair and startlingly blue eyes.  “Need some help?” he asked, casually looking her up and down, “Looks like you’re a bit lost.”

Seanna smiled graciously, but remembering what the old woman’s forewarning replied, “No thank you, I’m fine.”

The young man chuckled.  “That you are,” he retorted disarmingly and held out his hand in greeting, “Name’s Nicodeme.”

“Seanna.”

“You’re new aren’t you?  Living up at the university, I imagine.”

“How did you know that?”  Asked the witch, slightly surprised.

Nicodeme shrugged.  “You just have a certain scent about you.”  He grinned, rather wickedly and revealed dangerously sharp fangs, “Cut yourself, have you?  I could smell you from miles away.”  Before Seanna had even decided which direction to run, the vampire had shoved her against the wall of the tavern.  His grip was as cold and strong as steel, his eyes twinkling with excitement.  The witch tried to fight him off, but he was impossibly strong.  Thinking quickly she muttered a fire spell under her breath.  The back of Nicodeme’s shirt caught instantly and he screamed in surprise and pain, releasing Seanna.

The witch took off running as quickly as she could but the vampire had soon beat the flames out and was pursuing at a speed no human could have matched.  He caught her before she had gotten too far and knocked her to the cobblestones.  “Thought it would be that easy, eh?”  he laughed, “I’m not as weak as all that!”  Nicodeme placed the heel of his boot in between the witch’s shoulder blades and applied pressure.  The pain was horrible.  Seanna cried out, but nobody was around to hear.  This seemed to excite the vampire even more.  “I love it when they scream,” he confided, “tells me I’m doing something right!  You stupid spell-munchers think you’re so great!  Not so great now, are -- hey, what are you…?!”

Instantly, the pressure was taken off and Seanna scrambled to look up at her attacker.  His tuft of red hair was being held in the pale hand of another young man, who yanked with such force that Nicodeme had tears in his eyes.  “What is the meaning of this?!”  demanded the vampire, struggling to reclaim control of the situation.  The newcomer said nothing, but allowed Nicodeme to look him in the eye.  “Oh, Gods help me!”  Cried the vampire in recognition.  The young man in control let go of Nicodeme and to Seanna’s surprise, her attacker disappeared in a panic.

The stranger offered a polite hand to Seanna and helped her up off of the ground.  He was very tall and sinewy and his hair and eyes were both dark.  He looked as though he’d just rolled out of bed.  It was impossible for Seanna ignore how striking he was, especially considering he’d just saved her life.  “Are you wounded?”  He asked.

“I don’t think so…”  replied Seanna, unable to take her eyes off of him.

He smiled.  “Very good.  Then, will you allow me to escort you back to the university?”  The young witch nodded, words having failed her.  “I must say, I was surprised to see a university student out after dark; hadn’t anyone warned you about the vampires?  They love to prey on young witches and wizards.”

Seanna blushed with embarrassment.  “I got lost and couldn’t find my way back to the gate.”

“Perfectly understandable, but would you allow me to make a suggestion?”  The young witch nodded.  “The next time you find yourself in a similar situation, seek shelter before the sun goes down.  The town’s people understand that it is unsafe for people like you to be out after dark and will certainly provide you with a place to stay, at least until dawn.”

The young witch nodded quietly.  “Thank you for your help; I had no idea vampires where so strong…”

“That they are.  I imagine this encounter will certainly teach you not to underestimate your enemies.”  Seanna nodded yet again as the young man escorted her through the gates of the University and up to the women’s dorm.  “Sleep well,” he chuckled, “don’t let the bed bats bite.”

She smiled and opened the heavy wooden door.  “Thank you again for your help.”  The young man bowed and she sheepishly closed the door, seconds later, chiding herself for not asking his name.

To Be Continued...