A Vampiress' Story (Sigr x Poppy)

[Poppy]

The Trussaley Empire was a land full of harsh environments. The land was initially a place where all sorts of demons and other creatures called home. But, throughout the years, humans were doing their best to eradicate the plague and make the land habitable. Most of the terrain was rocky and unable to support crops or even small towns. The peasants crowded near the palace, as there was the only drinkable water and farmable land throughout the lands.

It was believed, thanks to their holy men, that if the scourge of supernatural creatures were eradicated, the lands would return to their natural state. There were grand tales of the Trussaley empire formerly being the home of lush meadows and plenty of natural water sources. But, no one had seen the land as such in hundreds of years, so the stories were now mostly relegated to the realm of children’s bedtime stories.

Thanks to the desolate landscape, the lands were home to some of the fiercest knights and warriors that the world had ever seen. Their skills were legendary, and it wasn’t strange for other kingdoms to hire out the men as mercenaries in their various wars. After all, without much farming or other job options open, there wasn’t much industry to profit from aside from war. Some men worked as weapon crafters, building impenetrable armor and deadly weapons. More mined the craggy cliffs, in search of the precious metals needed to make their weapons. No other land was so rich in minerals, which many thought was thanks to the volcanoes that used to commonly erupt in the lands.

Due to the terrible state of their world, the peasants believed in the Holy Church and their views. The supernatural creatures of the lands needed to be eradicated in order for the world to turn to right. The clergy’s numbers were vast, as many people decided to dedicate their lives to learning spells to protect them. The church encouraged the population to spread their seed and procreate, in order to provide the soldiers to defend them.

Unfortunately, handling the demon scourge cost the empire more men than they preferred to admit. But, if they didn’t handle it accordingly, their lands would be uninhabitable. The demons that lived in the lands were various sorts, some hulking beasts with teeth as huge as a long boat. They would rape women that they could steal away, leaving nothing but puddles of shredded flesh in their wake. Some fairies were mischievous enough to spirit off children, and strip their bodies of their flesh and ingest their blood, leaving nothing but their organs and bones. Spider women that would catch you in your webs and slowly mummify you, draining you of your blood over months. They provided a slow and agonizing death. But, the demon creature that the Holy Order and Crown both considered the most dangerous had to be the vampires.

The male vampires tended to be reclusive, preferring to take a few mortal women as their blood slaves and subject them to a life of servitude. The female vampires were the ones that were the real danger. They were like sirens, the most attractive of women, able to lure any man into their bed. And from there, the vampire would breed with the human, in order to create a child, to strengthen the bond between the two. The human would be considered trash at that point, to be discarded after drained of their blood. It was rumored that some vampires even enjoyed bathing in the blood of their male lovers.

There had been one particular female vampire that had been causing the empire grief for a few decades. She was one of the youngest vampires in the realm, but her ruthlessness and cruelty was unlike any others. She was once a Princess of the Empire, but had ran away from home to be with a knight that was beneath her. The knight had turned out to be a vampire, and had turned her in order to anger the King. She was his only daughter, and the spitting image of his wife who was taken by a Vampire. The King vowed to kill his daughter, in order to bring her relief. But that had not happened in his lifetime, and now his son sat on the throne.

Carmilla occupied a large castle, carved out of the side of a volcano. The volcano was still active, and she preferred the heat. It was nice to feel it on her cold flesh. The castle had belonged to the vampire that changed her, the man she thought she loved. But, in the frenzy of her bloodlust as a new vampire, she had killed her sire. So, the dark haired beauty lived a fairly solitary life, maintaining few humans as servants. Mostly blood sacrifices given from the closest villages, in order to keep her at bay. All beautiful women, young and now living their lives for her. They were now under her spell, and completely subservient.

She sat on a throne of bones, decorated with the weapons of the knights that her father had sent to try to slay her. Rarely did she wear clothing, but if she did, it was a red dress made of the finest silk. The red fabric barely covered her breasts, dipping so low that it stopped right below her navel. The slits ran up to her thighs, the fabric hanging between her legs and stopping at her ankles. The back of the dress scooped down, giving a peek of her plump bottom. The fabric was long enough to form a train that dragged behind of her, gorgeously embroidered with golden thread.

Her red eyes seemed listless, trying to cope with her immortality. Camilla’s beloved pet snake, which had belonged to her sire, wound around her legs. Shoes were pointless to her, so she instead went about her castle barefoot. The beautiful, large black snake seemed right at home in the imposing, decrepit castle. Carmilla sighed, frowning as she smelled something new on the air. It was metal, and sweat. The scent of a man. A smile crossed her full ruby lips, flashing some of her pearly white fangs. After a brief lull of warriors being sent her way, it seemed things were changing again.

 

[Sigr]

The clash of metal against rock didn't echo in the mines, hours after the shift had ended, as dark in the night outside as in the depths of the land. Only the whispers and whistles of the gasses welcomed Viktor to those stony innards, the young man knowing well the tunnels and crevices he worked on. A capable miner and more than decent blacksmith, Viktor was little more than a boy, still too young for human standards to call himself a man, and yet, no one called him a boy anymore. It wasn't just that the hard life on those parts forced a shortened youth, but also that Viktor by virtue of birth and hard work, was a boulder of a man, as strong and hard as the minerals he worked on.

And yet, he felt that he had failed. That he wasn't as strong as he could have been a few years ago. Leaving a heavy sack in the mine ground with a metallic thud, he could still remember that day like it was yesterday. The day he lost his older sister, the day he lost Alice. With their mother dead during childbirth, Alice had seen herself forced to adapt, having to take care of the young Viktor since she was eight years old, the age difference between them. Viktor was eight and Alice sixteen when that force of evil took her away, his hope of golden hair, surrendered to bloody Carmilla.

If it wasn't for the villagers, Viktor would had run that day after her, starring a short lived and hopeless rescue, but they kept him at bay. Another eight years had passed since then, and now sixteen, Viktor wouldn't wait no more. He didn't know what could have happened to his sister, if she was still alive, if she was still captive under Carmilla's charm, but he was thinking beyond that. If the chance presented he would rescue his sister or grant her eternal rest away from the vampire's influence, but if Alice was no more, he could at least end Carmilla and make sure she didn't take any more girls like his sister.

Disrobing under the flickering light of a lamp, Viktor stepped over a small crack in the rocks that expelled warm steam from the depths of the earth. In a land where water was a luxury, that was one of the few ways to clean oneself, and Viktor aimed to be as ready and pure as he could before facing his destiny. Viktor cleaned any remains of dirt and sweat, ashes and grime from his powerful muscles with a rag, his face one of a perpetual scowl, his eyes raw dark emeralds, absent of the gleam that was once present on Alice's ones. Clean and ready, he intended to exit the mines like a newfound man with a single purpose, and for that he would need the contents of the sack he carried with him.

Who entered the cave as the workers got out and the end of the shift may be a young man, one with hopes and dreams, but the one that went out, was a warrior of a single purpose. With his powerful physique clad in a heavy armor made by himself, Viktor was a juggernaut of metal torn from the belly of the earth, a presence that would give pause to any veteran knight and seasoned mercenary. Armed with a heavy halberd and carrying a few needed trinkets on his back like torches and rations, his leaden figure walked towards his objective like a presence that was just born from the mountain.

It took him several days to reach that unholy place, traveling through lands that got increasingly barren and dreary, but under the light of a sickly yellow moon, Viktor was standing at the very door of Carmilla's castle. The armored warrior decidedly went through the unguarded doors, no doubt in any of his actions, but the boy under all that metal was sweating, nervous about what he was about to face. The place was in shambles, how could anyone want to live there? Was a vampire's heart so twisted that foul was fair, while fair was foul? What kind of monster was that? What had Carmilla done with fair Alice?

Viktor traversed the place, inspecting it with care. He was well aware that stealth wasn't a knack he had, with his lumbering body and heavy equipment, so Viktor didn't bother being careful. To hell with that vampire, let her hear he was there, ready to face her. Viktor would end her depraved existence that night, rescuing her sister or not, that would be Carmilla's last full moon.

Or so he hoped.

 

[Poppy]

The closer the brave young man would get to her throne room, the more his scent permeated the air to the beautiful vampire. A part of her wanted to melt into the shadows right then and appear wherever he might be in her castle. But that wouldn’t do, as it would take away the tension that he was certainly feeling as he lumbered through every empty room, hoping that she would be in the next one. Carmilla had been so bored, it would be a treat to have someone new to entertain her. Her precious snake curled up closer to her, and she stroked the slick head affectionately.

As the armored knight entered the room, she sat up straight on her throne. There was no light in the room, save from the fires that burned behind of her throne, fueled by the natural gases and the volcano. The vampire queen didn’t step down from her throne, staying perfectly still and wanting to see what he would do. Perhaps if he didn’t carry such a frightening looking weapon with him, she would have allowed her dearest pet to slither up and say hello. But Carmilla wasn’t willing to risk the life of her beloved pet at the hands of this unknown man.

“What sort of crude armor has this human fashioned…?” The former princess of the Velmuri Royal family spoke, her voice sounding as smooth as silk as she rose from her throne. A small smile tugged at the corner of her painted lips as she watched for his reaction to her appearance. The pale woman walked down the steps carved from hardened lava, breasts swaying with every move. Just the way she walked was like an invitation, her hips swinging from side to side. Beside of her throne, on their knees, was one of her female blood gifts from the local village.

The woman had been considered the most beautiful of the village, but it was hard to tell now with all of the bruising bite marks that littered her flesh. The only thing the subservient woman was allowed to wear was a collar, completely naked, her long brown hair bound in a braid that was curled onto the floor behind of her. But the human was very happy with her lot in life now, not even needing to be restrained to the throne via chain. The human was happy to sit there and wait for whatever command her Vampire Queen might have.

The dark haired beauty stopped in front of him, more than a sword strike away. Thanks to her mental connection with her pet snake, the large serpent knew to slither away to the warm darkness, to wait until needed. Carmilla wondered just what the armored man looked like under the helmet ,and why he had chosen to invade her own castle. She had no idea that her father was now dead, and her youngest brother sat on the throne. Even though she had only been a vampire for a few decades, many of the humans she knew in her former life were now dead or quite old.

 

[Sigr]

"Coward... where is she hiding..." Viktor hissed between clenched teeth, searching the place room by room, finding nothing but rotten furniture and seas of cobweb. That whole section was abandoned, but if Carmilla didn't outright kill the ones she took away with her, there was bound to be a part of her hideout with a few commodities. She may be a monster, but Viktor was sure that the depraved creature would like to live as comfortably as she could, unless her values were twisted even further, beyond human recognition. Flickering gaslights alerted Viktor as he stumbled into a bigger room, illuminating the one he had come for.

Carmilla didn't age a day in those eight years, of course she didn't, but Viktor was no longer the same angry and scared boy that saw her took his sister away. His protector. His love. He was now a young and big man, one capable of exacting vengeance, but also someone appreciative of the sinuous figure he had in front of him. Swaggering as her serpent slithered, Viktor saw that Carmilla was not alone, and even if it was hard removing his eyes from her and the danger she represented, he noticed a naked woman lying at the feet of the throne. She couldn't be his Alice, just judging by the color of her hair alone, as her memory still endured on his mind, even if eight years had passed since the last time he saw her. Despite all, just thinking of her sister suffering that same treatment infuriated her. There, paraded naked, just a servant for that monster to feed upon.

It wasn't like Viktor never saw a naked woman before. His commitment to his cause, the trauma of losing his sister and his tall muscular physique had made him quite popular among the girls in town, women that were eager to offer solace to him. Viktor didn't often succumb to their charms, but once in a while when he felt weak enough, tempted enough, he had been carried to bed by some of the girls of the village. The ones he fell to were always the blonde ones. Those infatuations didn't last, as the homely girls that remained in the village ended up noticing that one thing and one thing only occupied his mind, and that Viktor's quest prevented him from being good husband material.

There were many things Viktor could say to Carmilla, many things he could do, but the first one that crossed his mind was only obvious. "Where is my sister?" he roared, his voice acquiring a metallic tint through the helmet. "What have you done to my sweet Alice?" he added, confronting Carmilla. She wasn't close enough for his halberd to strike, although he may as well charge her with all he had, but he wanted answers first. He wanted to know what had been of his sister.