Nightly Lessons Book III - The Book of Brotherhood (old version/closed)

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Trees were good for a lot of things. They were good for casting shade during the hot summer days were the sun seemed to scorch the lands in harsh light. They were good for the environment as they made oxygen for blooded creatures to breath. But most of all, trees were perfect for hiding in as Alice was quickly discovering.

Since her home with Aleks was still purging itself of dark magic, the young vampire found herself and her sire living under the roof of her Grandsire, as well as head of House's, manor where things were... well different. It wasn't all bad, though she missed the fact that Dimitrius refused to get a TV, but the expectations of her were more demanding, like her chores.

Which was why she was currently sitting on a branch in the highest tree in the courtyard.

One of her many new chores had involved doing the laundry, not just gathering it, but washing, drying, folding and placing it in the right place. She hadn't been happy when she was told to add this to her ever grown list of things she needed to do.

But if there was one thing she had learned fast that there was no arguing with Dimitrius Rastline.

Ever.

But that didn't mean she couldn't procrastinate in doing it, and she was doing that by doing something completely fitting of her physical age. She was climbing trees and hanging upside down from them. Of course, her elders were going to find her at some point but she wasn't going to worry too much about it.

"Woof."

From her upside down perch in an ancient oak, dressed in a thick green sweater, jeans and winter boots, Alice looked over the garden walls and saw none other then her own pet Hellhound Klonoa. Although she had gotten him nearly a year ago, Klo was no longer a small lap dog, but the size of a small Saint Bernard and probably just as hair, except on his one side where he had been shaved a month ago.

"Shh, you'll give me away," Alice shushed him before noticing the most important fact at all. "Wait... how did you get out?"

So far, Alice hadn't been on the other side of the high walls of the manor, not that she could see an towns near by. Heck, she didn't know what country she was in anymore.

[Peeker]

Hellhounds were very smart animals, but unfortunately, they could not talk. If they could Klonoa would have been able to explain how, ever since he'd been brought to this strange and interesting place, he'd been dying to go outside. Oh sure, there was the courtyard - and that was close to outside, but there were still walls, so it wasn't quite the same thing. So instead he'd been looking out windows, and he'd finally found what he was looking for!

From the lower pantry in the west wing, there was a balcony usually used for hanging meats or something else that needed to be done in the open air. Best of all, if one jumped from the window, it was only a drop about the same height as a two-story building, to the rocky ground.

So he'd jumped! This was awesome! There were rocks, and groundhogs, and more rocks, and trees - he was having a great time out here, and he'd been able to pee on everything - but now he was getting hungry, and his food dish was inside, and he didn't quite know how to get back there. He was much better at dropping than jumping, even though he could jump over a fully grown man when he needed to. He'd proven it to the Mistress' Master's Master several times when playing with him.

Elder Dimitrius' estate was, of course, a modern-day castle. Its outer walls were flush against the steep cliffs, and from any window or vantage point one could see a serious drop to solid ground. Made things harder for someone trying to break in, or in a few cases, break out. Granted, the dungeon hadn't been opened in about 150 years, but such preparations were in place if it needed use again.

"So where is our Alice, Sire?" Aleksandr asked as his bishop retreated from the white knight glaring at him on the other side of the chess board.

"Laundry day, Aleksi."

"Is that why she's hanging like a monkey in a tree in the west courtyard?"

"Well she doesn't visit that courtyard for any other reason but to daydream and procrastinate."

"Of course. It has a great view. And its as far away from your study as possible."

"...which is why we're playing chess in here, instead."

"Yes, Sire."

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice of course didn't know that Aleks and Dimitrius knew she was avoiding her chores. She was more focused on her dog and wondering how he had gotten on the other side of a wall which marked the border of Dimitrius' domain. So to say her dog being on the other side had her curious, wasn't too far from the truth. Righting herself up, Alice looked around herself outside to be sure that Aleks and Dimitrius weren't close by before she climbed the branch out to the rim of the wall.

Back home, after her first escape from Aleksandr's house on her first day as the 'undead', Aleks had made it a full out rule to stay off the wall and never to climb it. But she was sure she could bend the rule a little by blaming her dog. After all, she couldn't leave Klonoa on the other side alone, he was her pet after all, or rather guard dog. She needed to protect him after all.

"Klo. Klo," She called to him. Klonoa looked up at her, his red eyes glinting with amusement as he wagged his tail at her. "How did you get out here."

Now, if she had thought her idea through, Alice would have stayed crouched down on the thin rim of the wall, so that she could keep her balance better. But she hadn't thought of that so instead Alice was standing straight up on the old, moss covered stone wall, ready to follow her dog to wherever he was leading her. Or rather, she would have, if her foot didn't slip, sending her crashing down in a brier bush placed inside the courtyard.

"Ahh!" She yelped in surprise, her arms waving madly in a desperate hope of regaining her balance but failed. The next thing Alice knew, was that she was covered with several prickly branches. "Ow... ow... ow... that hurt."

[Peeker]

So now, Alice was ass-over-elbows, as the children say, in the middle of a briar bush. Yet another joyous little deterrant that Dimitrius had built into his home. Even the decorations were mean. The rosebushes in the southern courtyard were like razorblades. So now Alice could either climb back up, go inside for help, or see if she could figure out how to walk out of the manor herself, to find her dog.

"Nine hells."

"Aleksi! Stay. If the girl wishes to have an adventure, let her. If she can open the gate, she can walk outside the wall and bring the dog back inside. Unlike you, I've no need to cover my home in thousands of magicks and separations."

"Well unlike you, my home is not in the middle of a barren wasteland in the north country, and my home is - or at least was - slated to have its entire surrounding forest cut down and made into a damned housing development. One does what one must."

Dimitrius sipped from his cup, and smiled. "Check."

Aleksandr sighed, and slew the knight with his own, unpinning Dimitrius' pawn which meant-- and there went the knight. Which meant he traded his bishop for two more pawns, and that damned knight made it over anyway. He ran it over with a piece, grumbling - not a pleasant trade at all.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

With a few curse words due to the pain of the thorns, Alice struggled to free herself from the bush's grasp. She somehow managed to tumble out of it in the end, by paided a heavy price by having several hundred leaves and saplings entangled in her long chestnut hair. Still it didn't stop her from focusing on what was important at the moment. Her damned dog. Even now she could hear him barking worried on the other side, calling to her in hopes she was alright, which she was give or take.

"Damn it Klo, calm down."

She had to snort a little over the fact that a year ago she probably would have been whinning over teh pain of falling off the wall, but not anymore. No, Doctor Danny-the malicious McCaster had ensured that Alice knew of much much worse pains.

Still her dog...

After brushing off her butt, Alice looked back at the tree. did she dare to try again? Sure, she hadn't broken anything in the fall besides her pride. And then maybe she'd find the front door to this place too.

'Does it even have a front door?'

Curiousity killed the cat, they said and if there was one thing Alice was it was curious. But what were Dimitrius' rules about venturing otuside the walls of his home. Did he have any rules about it? He didn't live near a town like Aleks did, the chance she might run into a human was pretty slim. and she had been pretty studious as of late what with Gab-er Lord Marist's lesson plans and her own studies plus her planning a party for Aleks, Alice hadn't have a lot of time to just, well... be a kid. Sure she was eighteen, but that didn't mean she couldn't explore a little too. Right?

Tackling the tree oncemore, Alice took care not to fall off the wall again and this time landed next to her dog on the other side. Klonoa barked happily at the sight of her and gave her a sniffing over, just to be sure she was alright before he returned to his inspections of the grounds.

"Wow... it's so... big."

Alice looked out at the sea of trees which surrounded dimitrius' home. She had never doubted that there were a lot of trees. She could see that from her bedroom, but to actually stand near it... it was breath taking.

An adult part of her told her it was time to return now that she technically had her dog, but a younger more childish side of her was begging just to explore the woods. Just for a bit. She chewed her lip nervously, wondering if it was a good idea but then again it wasn't like she was risking their expossure if she took a quick run. what was the worse she could run into, a bear? Right, and even then she could probably out run and climb the furball if she didn't scare it with her fangs first.

Fangs which she had started to brush and floss damn near religiously after meeting Doc. McCaster.

"Woof woof!" Turning she looked at Klonoa who wagged his tail at the forest. So many trees, so small a bladder. It made Alice smile as she looked back at the friendly woods.

"Just five minutes, that can't hurt right?" She asked her dog though recieved no answer. "If we go in a straight line, we'll be fine."

As she took off running, Alice never stopped to think that maye hundreds of other lost hikers had probably thought the same thing once too.

[Peeker]

Dimitrius clicked his tongue scoldingly at the younger man. "No, Aleksi. First of all, you are not scenting her, you're chasing her with magic. I told you I want none of that until I say."

"But Sire-"

"...and secondly, this is good for her. The big city girl you know, walking in the woods?! Hah! You would have to use a hot iron to 'make' her do that! I want her to enjoy this as best she can."

Aleksandr sighed, rolling a chess piece in his palm. Even though Dimitrius had a point about the magic, he was not a fan of letting the girl 'loose' to wander about in unfamiliar (and cold) territory. It was night, after all, in a rather chilly part of the world. The altitude was high, and the hills were steep. ...he knew she would be able to make it back, but that didn't mean he wanted her to get lost first.

The hills were not as cold as the protective parent feared - there was no wind, tonight, and not a cloud in the sky. There were stars beyond stars out on the hills and plains surrounding Dimitrius' home - even Alice could tell they were far from civilization, in a true wilderness.

...and yet the man had an unplugged refrigerator chilling their blood in the middle of his positively medieval kitchen.

Klonoa barked happily, licking and half-tackling her Mistress as she hesitated - there was so much to see and she was just standing there! So much he hadn't peed on yet!

The hound began to bound into the wilds.

***

The boy born John Thomas Bell - Jake to his friends - well, his human friends - and now Janus Dornell - was the youngest vampire turned in three-hundred-and-forty-seven years. He'd beaten his best friend, Alice Harker (Rastline) by eight months. She'd held the title until then, but the younger boy had quite suddenly replaced her.

"So when is Sir Kaine going to get in touch with me, anyway, Mikeal? Like, I know that Lord Victor said I'd have to wait six months until I could use it --- but I mean... it still has to be made, right?!" Janus had been talking about his promised sword for three days. He was a little excited. "Am I going to get to see it be made? I know she mentioned some guy once - Mercury? He's the weaponsmith, right? ---but I haven't read anything about him in the history books you gave me, or anything..."

Janus was a bright boy. Impulsive, stubborn, emotional - but bright. At the moment he was teaching his puppy, Bruja, to fetch - the little white hellhound was racing up and down the hallway between the kitchen and the front door, retrieving a chicken bone that had been part of last night's dinner which she was, it seemed, particularly fond of.

Usually the hounds just ate the bones, barely even noticing them. This one appeared to be 'special' to her, though.

Janus was feeling awesome. It had been a week since their last amazingly stupid adventure, where he and Alice had probably sort of stopped a war from continuing - and tomorrow they were all going to the home of his best friend, Alice, to celebrate the anniversary of her Sire's turning.

Life was pretty good. Only thing that would make it better was having his own sword!

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

(My computer is acting up, so I might reinstall windows on it come monday. Just os you know if there's a long break between posts.)

Alice had never felt more giddy in her life then she had now. There was something with having the freedom to just let loose, to run wild and as fast as her vampiric strength. There was just something so liberating in the knowledge that she could run free, be wild and not have to worry about Sires or chores or whether or not she was going to risk exposing their kind if she let go of all her restraints.

Well, almost all. She was sure if she cast any magic, Aleks would be that in two seconds flat with a very pissed off Grandsire behind him.

And given that for the last few years, with a lot of cuddling due to her horrible experience of dentist terror, Alice had stayed fairly well out of trouble. At least she had managed to keep her heated arguements with Lord Marist to a few swats and that had always be regarding her penmenship.

After having run into Astaroth Slangetunge, leader of the Furies Rebels and traitor to the counsel which Alice's Grandsire was a member of, Alice's left hand had been pierced with a silver laced leather needle. The experience had been terrifing as well as painful, leaving her with a forever reminder of a starfire shaped scar on the back and palm of her hand. She had been told, or rather Aleks had been told and she had heard it, that she had been lucky not to get silver poisoning and that none of her nerves had died, but she still hadn't gotten it back to normal yet so her skills on the piano and writing had taken a few steps back.

She could still remember they last arguement where Gabriel had accused her of not practicing her letters. She acttually had been, probably not as much as he wanted her too, but she had been nice and spent most of her free time doing it given how much she was trying to get done and ready.

So this was one of the few times where she had spare time and she was doing nothing important beyond taking a breather.

Of course that meant she wasn't paying attention to where she was running or how far she was getting from the safety of Dimitrius' walls. After all, walls worked both ways. They kept things in and things out.

***

Mikeal Dornell, his own birth name long ago forgotten even to him, was currently looking over several different documents with much irritation. At some point of time, thankfully when Janus had been living with Lady Wainwright, their little London flat had bee broken into and torn apart. As a result, he now had to got threw all his books and personal things, checking to see what was lost and missing.

"So when is Sir Kaine going to get in touch with me, anyway, Mikeal? Like, I know that Lord Victor said I'd have to wait six months until I could use it --- but I mean... it still has to be made, right?!"

"Janus..."

If it wasn't because he knew how excited he had been getting his first sword, Mikeal would have yelled in rage over how many times Janus had brought it up.

"Am I going to get to see it be made? I know she mentioned some guy once - Mercury? He's the weaponsmith, right? ---but I haven't read anything about him in the history books you gave me, or anything..."

"Janus. Breath," Mikeal ordered, looking up from his papers and then sighed. "Sir Kaine will come the moment she has time. There are a lot of Furies she has to round up and her eye needs to heal enough for her to see though it first before she will teach you."

That was true, Kaine believed that anything you made, had to be done right the first time or not at all. And for her to teach Janus how to fight with a sword properly, she need perception.

Not that she wasn't lethal without it.

"As for the sword, you're gonna have to be patient," Mikeal laughed. "Mercury is pretty secretive about how he makes the blades. You can write to him if you want to know if he'll let you watch. Now please. I need to read this."

"Yip!"

Having put her bone down, Bruja yipped for attention from her master. She was still small, tiny compared to Klo when he was her age and even more compared to her own litter mates.

"Tell you what. Let me finish two letters here and we'll take the dogs for a you-know-what," Even though Mikeal didn't say the word walk, all three dogs perked their ears. Even Caboose, who had been sleeping, snapped awake looked alert at Mikeal with hopeful eyes. "But first the letters. Okay."

[Peeker]

(sotiredhavetostopwriting)

Aleksandr groaned, and left the room. If he wasn't allowed to interfere, he couldn't be this close to what was happening. He left Dimitrius to keep a careful eye on the window and went to do some work of his own - keeping up with his communications and such, mostly: he'd gotten some surprisingly glowing commendations from Lord Marist. Both the Elder and the Sire were proud of the girl's behavior, and her recovery... there was little enough need to push the girl, as she was showing remarkable fortitude in pushing herself. Aleksandr had done nothing but compliment, praise, and encourage in the past few days, and it had felt wonderful. She could do without him being the oppressive father figure for a little while longer.

Of course that meant it would be Dimitrius to help her - and catch her - if she got in trouble, but to be honest, if something actually happened out there... well... that would probably be for the best.

Klonoa smelt something. It was familiar - but not really. Like, he knew what the smell reminded him of, but it obviously wasn't that smell in particular. Like saying you knew what perfume smelt like, but you weren't sure what perfume it was - but you knew it was a perfume you'd smelt before..... if you were the kind of person that spent a good amount of time sniffing their own perfume, that was.

Being curious about this unfamiliar smell, which still reminded him of a good one, the hound decided he had to check it out - as long as the Mistress stayed with him so he could keep her safe. The pup barked eagerly for the girl to keep up, and ran towards a thick copse of blasted pine trees - they filled a large rocky crag that jutted up out of the ground - it was either a big hill or a tiny mountain, but it was rocky, and rough, and full of ancient, and often dead trees. Calling it 'creepy' was being charitable. And the smell was coming from it. Alice probably couldn't pick it up, if only because she wasn't in the habit of memorizing the scents of things - also because there was alot more fresh air, pine, and distance between her and what Klo was scenting.

***

Janus nodded. He could get the message loud and clear, even with snuggly, whiny, yippy Bruja nosing at him. The boy picked his puppy up, and carried her to his room to get out of Mikeal's hair for a few minutes. This week she'd proven that she could not only sit, stay, fetch, roll over, and play dead, but she'd also learned how to turn on their new television, open the refrigerator, and had learned how to turn the pages of a book, instead of chewing the thing to shreds. Oh, and when Janus played his new guitar, she continued to be very able accompaniment, and extremely musical - unlike her tone deaf big brother, Klonoa, she made an awesome back-up singer.

In short, she was a smart lil' puppy, and without a laptop or all of his stuff to distract him, Janus had been spending alot more time with her when he wasn't doing his homework. Life felt normal again, and life was pretty darn good.

A walk would be nice. Stretch his legs a little. Hm. But if Mikeal had letters to write that meant he had like a million years. He put on his sneakers anyway, and walked around his half-decorated bedroom again. Mik had said something about it 'not being another prison', which Janus was pretty sure he understood. His old room at Razziel's could have been covered in personal touches, it would have been more of a prison than Janus' room ever was.

-so he couldn't bother Sir Kaine... he was still waiting for Alice's letter - he wasn't going to start writing to this Mercury guy when he didn't even know who he was.... Hrm. The boy hugged Bruja tighter, and flopped onto his bed, sneakers and all, and began to lift her up and down in the air like an exercise weight while he counted the seconds.

"It'll be nice to go for a walk, eh?" he said to the pup softly. "Give us something to do besides more Latin."

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

At the call of her dog's yips, the giddy vampiress followed giving chase. She only paused once and that was to look up at the small cluster of nests in a tree, amazed to see the mother ravens glare down at her in silence. She felt she could run wild for days! Why hadn't she done thing before?

Oh right, over protective fathers and very tall walls.

Klonoa lead the why as he followed the strangely familiar yet enigmatic scent. He lead them to a small clearing set close against the face of the mountain. At least Alice believed it was because the barren areas showed bald spots of pure white mountain rock beneath them. It was truely beautiful in a fairy tale or cinamatic sort of way, making her think of Lord of the Rings when the fellowship reach Rohand. The whole area just breathed live into air and make her feel like the only thing missing was her dressed in a white midevil gown. It was a tempting idea if it wasn't for the fact that Lucy would murder her for dirting a gown doing something so silly.

With a twirl on her heel, Alice allowed herself to fall flat on her back on a heavily mossy patch, a smile on her face and a giggle bubbling in her throat. Klonoa merely looked at her for a minute after rolling in the moss himself and then raising once more to sniff the area. It was strange to him, how where Alice lay, the perfum of something known and yet unknown seemed the strongest. If only he could remember where he knew the scent from.

Now and Alice been paying attention to her surroundings and not on a high from running, she would have noticed the soft smoking smell, mixed with exotic spices. But she didn't. She was too electric from the run, too giddy to not enjoy the sweet smell of the moss and how the sun had warmed it like a cozy bed. As Klonoa walked around sniffing, Alice turned to notice an odd bent under the moss. It was odd because it roase as five smooth bumps and then just fell flat elsewhere.

"What's this?" rolling onto her stomach, Alice crawled over to the lumps and uncovered them. Had she been able to look at herself at the moment, she looked like she was more forest nymph then vampire with a thin layer of green covering her hair. "Oh my... how pretty."

She couldn't believe it, what she had discovered. There beneath a blanket of green, were five perfectly smooth jade orbs of oolite stone the size of a tennis ball. She only knew of oolite because she had been talking to Lucy about what they could use of stones to decorate her shoes to her gown with. Lucy had shown her with a small peddle example a smooth almost soap like looking stones which was simple yet beautiful enough to compliment the gown.

"Oh these would be perfect for Lucy," Se smiled as Klo came over and sniffed them as well. Alice quickly took one of them and placed it in her pocket while Klonoa backed away from the stones. "I'm sure she's be able to think of something prefect to use this for."

She could only take one, the trip having been pretty impromtu after all, but if Alice had known just what sort of trouble she was getting herself into, she would have never taken any of them.

***

"WOOF! BARK!"

"Damn it Janus." Mikeal groaned. He knew it was unlikely, but he had a feeling that Janus had said the 'w' word on purpose just to hinder him in getting any work down.

It didn't matter who the boy had said it too, the dogs had a selective hearing at times and when it came to walks, he could whisper the word half a state away and they'd still hear him. The appartment rumbled as two large dogs raced to their masters, tails wagging and barking happily. there just wasn't any undoing it. To deny them a walk now would be cruel after all. so getting up, Mikeal gave Janus a look at spoke volumes.

'You did it on purpose, didn't you'. that was what hteh look said.

"Alright, alight. ALRIGHT, calm down," Already he had Caboose practicly trying to climb him as he went to get the leashes. "Easy now. there, those as my good boy and girl. come on Janus. It's too late to go back now."

The letter would have to wait, though with luck, when they got back, Kaine would hopefully have time to visit Janus.

Finally.

[Peeker]

Janus grinned sheepishly. That had totally been an accident.... but he was pretty okay with it, to be honest. It wasn't like he'd been doing much of anything - and Mikeal could always write the letters when he came back, right?

"Sorry...." he said, but his eyes were twinkling. It was really hard to be mad at the dogs, and really funny to see them 'force' Mikeal do to what they wanted. The boy plucked Bruja's leash from the man, and fastened it onto the wiggling animal, who he quickly had to start chasing in a circle to keep her from hog-tying him in her excitement.

"Whoa! Hey! Bru! Heel! Bru! Bruja- Heel Bruja!"

So maybe it was a little tricky to get her to do what he said, yet. But she was getting there. At the moment, for example, she was attacking his heel, chewing on the back of his sneaker. That was progress, right?

The five of them stormed out to the elevator, a furry wall of doom and their albino trainee, dragging two young victims who had no chance of stopping them.

***

Klonoa pawed the ground thoughtfully, sniffed, whined, and hurried himself back towards the way they came. At least Alice wasn't going to get lost in the forest with Klo as her guide - the furry little compass knew just where they had to go... even if he had no idea how to get them back indoors.

vaarrk.....


vaaaaargh....


vraaaa...

nngh! varrkkk!

VRAK!

VARK VARK VNNARGH!

The sounds were all around them, and getting louder by the second. Before Alice had turned around for a third time to see where the new sounds were coming from, she was being bombarded at all sides by high pitched, angry, gargling animal noises, like some mixture of geese and chainsaws.

Klonoa immediately installed himself against Alice's leg, growling threateningly, but there was nothing he could do to scare off what was coming out of the shadows. Some pressed deep into the gravely earth, some boiling out of the corners of the craggy rock face behind them - and all of them glaring with set after set after set of glinting, hungry eyes, and row after row of sharp fangs.

Klonoa's tail drooped: this was not good.

The largest of the dragons - easily as tall as Alice, snapped all three of its mouths at her, and hissed: it was definitely about to strike.

***

Janus was glad: he was still a little stronger than Bruja. What was harder was making it look like he wasn't actually being dragged behind the happy creature. He had to hide her strength from anyone that they saw on the street, which meant he had to make it look like she wasn't ten times as strong as a puppy her size.

Raising Hellhounds was hard.