Demyan stepped closer to her, but she made a step back. She wanted to
hold on to the promise, which she gave herself to keep her distance from
him. Now it became even more of a priority. She was in the presence of a
PRINCE! Demyan was upset by her standoffish behavior. "Why have you become so distant towards me?" He was waving his arms out of frustration. "I do not understand your Highness!" He knew, he couldn't force any interaction with her, so he just laid down to sleep. In
the middle of the night, he stood up and carried sleeping Petrona from
the sofa to the bed, where he covered her and went to sleep in her
previous spot. The morning was awkward, when she woke up in bed instead
of him. Why was he doing that? Why can't he just treat her like any
other servant? She knew, he was thankful for saving his life, but this
was too much. After the breakfast, they left for the Fairy realm. On
the way, Demyan noticed someone was tailing them. He was on high alert
and annoyed by some human woman's lackeys. When they stepped out of the
forest, it was for Demyan like they would emerge in a whole different
world.
From all the diverse sides, came together long, wooden
bridges overgrown with colorful flowers, which looked like ornamental
fences. Those bridges led to the huge city on an ancient tree. Each
section of those enormous leafy branches had its own village. Already
from the distance, it was recognizable, that these weren't traditional
houses. Those were grown from that tree and blended into the aesthetics
of it. On the top of the tree stood the grand rose palace of the Fairy
King Oleg.
He looked at Petrona with questioning eyes. The ground under those bridges looked fine to live and walk. She smiled at him. "That is the domain of the Rusalkas.
For women, they are mostly harmless, but for men... They will drown any
male, as soon, as they lay their hands on them, no matter, if it's a human, fairy or an elf." That information awoken curiosity in Yan. "What kind of fairies are they?" They started to cross the first bridge. "Well, Rusalkas are water nymphs. Their queen, will take unlucky souls of deceased young women and turn them into Rusalkas. Their
appearance is tall, slender and overly beautiful. They own long hair,
which is bound to the water. If it dries out, they will die. Every area
has different-looking Rusalkas. Here in the meadows and tall grass, they
will be blond with blue or green eyes. Over there by the forest, those
will have brown-greenish hair and brown eyes. Inside of swamps, will
reside Rusalkas with black hair and eyes. Interesting right? They
are like beehives and every hive has a queen. Down there, it's Dana. She
is godly beautiful and highly dangerous. We should just cross as fast,
as we can and be done with this area. At this pace, we should reach the
Tree Town before sundown."
This journey was progressing
until... The men, who followed them, took it upon themselves to attack
them in the middle of nowhere, with no escape route... with no
witnesses... Demyan noticed five men ahead and behind them. They must
have planned this ambush. He immediately stood in front of Petrona
to protect her. That was uncalled, since she is just a servant at this
point and he is a royal. She was ready to fight as well. She took out
her short sword, which she hid very well. Demyan didn't expect it, but
was relieved, that she had something to keep the pest at a distance. An
unavoidable fight enfolded. Demyan was very fast and flexible, with a
distinctive swordsmanship style, which was unknown in Lush Lands. He was
dealing with those thugs without breaking a sweat. Those masked men
figured out, they had no chance against him, so all of them at once
focused only on Petrona. Demyan was horrified and ran to help her. He
grabbed Petrona into his arm and blocked their attack. They saw, it
was impossible to go past him, so they made up a plan to just split them
apart from each other. Since Angelika instructed those men to only kill
Petrona, but with the prince on her side, it was a challenge. Rather,
they destroyed the railing on one side of the bridge in a way it
looked like, they did it "accidentally". And now were focused to somehow
push Petrona down there. They knew Demyan as a man wouldn't dare to go
searching for a mere servant. They just imagined all the gold, that
was promised for them by Angelika. Their attacks on both, Demyan and
Petrona continued. They were dodging it together in sync. The men became
impatient and they increased the frequency pushing them both; of course
Petrona more, to the edge. What they didn't know, because of the
damage, the bridge became unstable and under all the weight fell apart
together with everybody on it. Demyan dropped the sword and grabbed
Petrona into his arms to hold her tightly the whole fall until they
reached the bottom.
Petrona came to her senses as first. Some
time must have past, since the sun was going to set soon. She sat up and
realized, that Yan had taken in the full impact. She shook with his
body. Silent giggling and singing were getting closer.
The young vampire Demyan woke up from a nightmare. For decades he lived an emotionless life, but here, he shed tears over a dream. Amused he soon forgot about it and focused on one thing, one day of the year, which kept him going for a century. The sight of the autumn Festival of Lights over in the Lush Lands, which he idolized from the beginning, but never got the chance to participate. He was a vampire prince from the Waste Lands, which were the opposite of Lush. To his disappointment, short before the festival, his father sent him for a one year long war campaign with the Demon and Goblin Kingdoms in their Waste Lands. After a victorious return, he was drained and ready to die, but before he would leave the world of the living, he wished to see that one... familiar Lantern.
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