Of all of the monster hunters that have come and gone through our world of Kothenus over the ages, none have carved out a reputation like that of the Ravenson family. Nor have most lasted anywhere near as long. Members of the Ravenson clan have protected the planet from the worst creatures to threaten it for centuries with the most famous, and indeed one of the earliest, being a woman named Selena. A longtime acquaintance of mine who shared with me many accounts of her adventures. While there are many great stories to tell from her incredible career, the tale of every adventurer has to start somewhere.

In this case the story of the clan’s battles with malicious forces began with Selena’s father, Gabriel Ravenson, who traveled throughout the world in his youth and fought all sorts of monsters who threatened some of the towns and villages he came across. Most of his fame came from slaying vampires, though he was not all that familiar with them since they were were not all that common. However, they were among his more powerful opponents. It is said that he slew more than fifty vampires in his time which is just a small fraction of his accomplishments. The final vampire he fought in his youth was one who threatened his hometown of Windmore. His little sister went out to hunt it after showing interest in the trade herself before disappearing and, if the words of gossipers were to be believed, was either killed by the creature or turned into an undead monster herself. Not that there was any proof one way or the other at the time. After slaying this creature he settled down and became a knight of the kingdom of Reyedral, serving directly under King Lucius VII. Monster hunting remained as one of his top priorities, though it would be many years before he would be brought into contact with another vampire.

After becoming a knight, Gabriel moved to his ancestral home in Roguebourne; a city surrounding the king’s castle. There he started a family of his own consisting of three boys and two girls, with Selena being his youngest daughter. While her sister Maria had noble aspirations with the desire to marry either a high noble or a prince someday and have some sort of control of a part of some far-off land, Selena spent most of her days learning how to fight alongside her brothers and studying in the family library. It was not long before she outclassed everyone in her family with the exception of her father.

Her drive to become a fighter stemmed from an incident that occurred one night when she was about seven. There had been reports of vampire attacks and sightings sweeping through some neighboring towns for the first time in over fifteen years. Many people who were either born after the last attack or had at least moved into the town since then suddenly disappeared and were often found the next day, alive or dead, with two bite marks on the side of their necks. The night in question happened to be the one where someone forgot to secure the city gates and the creature got in, abducting several children, including Selena, from the castle and leaving before anyone was the wiser.

While Selena was fast asleep at the time of the abduction, she woke up while the vampire was traveling to its lair. While she was scared out of her mind, she remained silent since she figured they even the slightest sound indicating she was conscious would lead to her instant death and took note of the path her captor was taking. The vampire entered a desolate ruin shortly before sunrise and descended down a set of steps to a dark chamber that was barren save for a single coffin off to the side. Selena saw the creature grin as it carelessly threw its captives against a wall.

“Hmmm. Who first?” The creature cackled to itself. “The castle didn’t have as much as I would like, but I guess this one’s blood will do for now.” Selena then felt the vampire’s hand wrap around her neck and she immediately reacted by taking a small wooden dagger out of her boot (a precautionary measure taken from one too many assassination attempts made against her family) and slashing the undead monster across the chest, causing it to scream and drop her before turning into mist and disappearing into the coffin, though Selena did not see this as she had already bolted to the stairs and climbed them as fast as she could, not even looking back once as she ran all the way home.

“I know I left the others behind, but there wasn’t much I could do. Good thing it’s daytime so they should be fine if someone can get there before nightfall. After all, father says in his stories that vampires rarely venture out during the day since they are weak and vulnerable.” Selena thought as she arrived at the castle and ran to the training grounds, where she hoped her father would be. “Father? Father! Where are you?” She shouted as she ran around the training grounds. She then glanced up and saw that it was midmorning, remembering that he was usually training the castle squires near the armory by then. Sure enough, she arrived there and saw Gabriel training a few squires as she expected. Father! There you are!" She shouted as she ran up, almost completely out of breath and on the verge of collapsing.

“Not now, Selena. Just stay there until…wait. Selena?” Gabriel immediately dropped the weapons he was holding and ran to embrace her before she could fall to the ground. “When we saw your empty bed and heard reports of a creature sneaking into the city, we feared you were gone forever!”

“Father, you off all people should know it will take more than some monster to get rid of me. As you’ve said many times yourself, I am a Ravenson.” She said.

“That you are.” Gabriel chuckled. “But how did you get out of the vampire’s lair without a scratch on you?”

“It made the mistake of trying to get me at sunrise. I hurt it with my knife and ran.” She replied.

Gabriel smiled and nodded. “You did well to react the way you did, but what of the other captives?”

“Still asleep in the monster’s lair when I last saw them.” Selena said. “I came to get you to destroy it before nightfall.”

Gabriel nodded solemnly before looking to his pupils. “I am afraid this is a rather urgent matter, students. I’ll send Sir Giradus to finish your lessons.” Some groans could be heard as Gabriel brought his daughter into the armory for preparations.

Selena really wanted to look around since she had only been in there a few times, but she did not have a chance as her father dragged her by the arm to a section toward the back of the armory where several freshly cut stakes were sitting on a table, which she knew to be the worktable Gabriel used for crafting weapons of all kinds.

“I had these made as soon as the first reports of a vampire reached my ears.” Gabriel said as he picked one up. “Best tools for the job. One of these through its heart and the bloodsucker will never walk again.”

“Really? That stick of wood is all it takes?” Selena asked in surprise.

“Oh yes, my child. Simple but effective.” He responded as he suddenly looked Selena in the eye. “I just realized. Do you know the way back to the creature’s lair?”

“Of course.” Selena began. “He’s in an old ruin in the direction opposite of the rising sun.”

“I see. Can you show us the way?” Her father asked. Selena nodded. “Then I’ll assemble some men and meet you at the west gate within the hour. Oh. Before I forget, you might want to have your wooden dagger at the ready.”

“Father, I only saw one creature in there.” Selena replied.

“Perhaps as far as you saw, but there could be a whole swarm of the things lying in wait there for all we know!” Gabriel said as he picked all of the stakes up. “I need to prepare for the hunt and gather those men I promised. Wait for us by the west gate.”

“Very well, father.” Selena said, giving a light bow before she left the armory and then the castle itself, making her way through the surrounding town before arriving in front of the gate leading out into the world in the direction of the sun. She waited for a bit, taking her dagger out and tossing it about in her hand until she saw a group of about ten knights marching in the direction of the gate and stopping right before it, stepping to either side as the familiar form of her father walked between them armed and ready for action. Selena looked at the knights and saw that there were only a few she recognized, though she had little doubt that she would become familiar with most of them as time went on.

“Ready to lead the way, Selena?” Gabriel asked.

“Oh yes, father. Follow me!” With that, Selena turned around and led the way out of the gate in the direction of the ruin. The group came upon the ruin a little over an hour later and before long she was leading them down the stairway to the vampire’s lair. She then saw a shudder go through her father’s body as they walked down the stairs.

“What is it, father?” Selena asked as they entered the lair.

“Ruins just make my skin crawl, especially ones that go underground.” Gabriel replied. “Probably because I’ve faced quite a few foes in them. What is it about ruins that attracts everyone from the lowest dregs of society to the most powerful monsters?” He shrugged.

“Well, this place looks pretty dark and it’s far from the city.” Selena remarked.

“That’s true. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was involved in some way.” He replied as they arrived at the bottom of the stairs and saw the captives huddled against the wall, scared out of their minds. “I think we’ve come to the right place.”

“Yep.” Selena then nodded to the coffin shoved to the side. “The vampire is over there.”

“Then let’s finish this!” Gabriel said as he looked to his men. “Get everyone out of here and back home while we kill this creature.”

Right away, Sir Gabriel!" One of the knights said, giving a salute before going over to the captives with the other knights.

As soon as they had finished carrying everyone out, Gabriel waved Selena over to the coffin and grabbed the lid.

“Selena, can you hold onto this while I push the lid off?” He asked as he held the stake out to her. Selena took it without hesitation as he put both hands on the lid and pushed it off with some effort. Inside the coffin was the vampire, arms across its chest. Selena saw the mark across it where she had attacked earlier as Gabriel held his hand out. “Stake?”

“Here you go, father.” Selena said as she put the stake in her father’s hand who immediately raised and positioned it over the vampire’s heart. The next thing she heard was a piercing scream that forced her to cover her ears and look away as Gabriel plunged the weapon into the creature’s heart and drove it in as far as he could until everything fell silent.

“You can look now, Selena. It’s all over.”

Selena then turned and looked into the coffin, seeing that the vampire had a smile on its face combined with a look of peace. “That’s it?” She asked, feeling slightly underwhelmed as she was expecting more to the process than simply driving a piece of wood through its heart.

“Yes. As I already told you, simple but effective. Though I do wonder how it got here in the first place and remained unnoticed for so long. Anyway, are you ready to head home?” Gabriel asked.

“Sure.” Selena said.

With their work done, father and daughter returned to their home near the castle. Selena watched as her father was showered with praise along the way for slaying yet another monster and his fifty-first vampire, liking what she saw and imagining what it would be like if she was in his position when she was older. They had a fine dinner that night with Selena getting an extra helping thanks to her assistance in leading the way to the creature’s lair and being brave enough to have escaped in the first place, but it was during that meal that, despite being a girl born into a noble family, she decided that she would like to study the sword and other forms of combat so she would not be as helpless next time one of those creatures, or possibly something much worse, came around. Her elder brothers were more than happy to teach her the basics of combat given the circumstances, but, as she had once told me, it became clear fairly quickly and much to her own surprise as anyone else’s that this was going to be her way of life, so Gabriel took it upon himself to take her on as a squire for a time and would on occasion travel to distant lands to learn from great masters the world over in order to further hone her skills, usually on her own though on request from either her family or the king a few times. There were even times when she would be in charge of training fresh recruits. It is important to note that while female warriors were rare on Kothenus at the time, they were hardly unheard of. In fact, there was quite a long history of them.