The Fiyero Collection

Doom and why you shouldn't steal eggs

To any one on Earth the thought of riding a motorcycle through the jungle while being chased by a giant Tyrannosaurus-like creature was something reserved for the movies. However for Doom this sought of thing happened a lot, although he probably could have avoided this by not picking up the creature’s egg to be sold in some strange market place. Well what are you going to do?

That was another thing he often had to do. Think about how to get out of life or death situations, which would make even the most brilliant writers, use a Deus Ex Machina. Thankfully he was smart, and he used this to get out of such predicaments.

As Doom thought once more about his own brilliance the large reptilian monstrosity travelling at around 60 km per hour was catching up to him. It didn’t help the fact, that a motorbike of any kind needs good ground to drive on, whilst this creature had the strength and grace of a bulldozer. It also didn’t help that this particular bike was probably about 20 years old and heavily rusted, the fact that it still worked was partly to luck, partly to genius and partly because a omnipresent creature that surrounded and permeated the planet was personally quite interested in Doom seeing as the next most interesting thing on this planet was as stupid as a slug.

After a couple of reckless (and highly illegal) turns (which really doesn’t apply on a deserted planet) Doom managed to come across a large relatively flat “road” to drive upon. Gazing back he saw the beast burst from the undergrowth and it was at that point that Doom got his first good look at it. It looked more like an Iguana than a T-Rex, although the head was most certainly from the late Saurischian. It was immense; its head about 5 meters from the ground and probably about 20 meters long. This got Doom off self reflection.

“Ok think, Doom. What can you do to get out of this?!” He roared this but it could not be heard over the sound of the small, rusty motorbike and a giant reptile running behind him. Normally he would just teleport out of the dimension, but the problem with that scenario is that it took the device 1 minute to warm up and he had to press a lot of buttons to make it happen. So it wasn’t exactly easy or safe to do on a motorbike.

However there were other ways to dimension hop, but they were so dangerous that a sane person wouldn’t even think about them. Naturally Doom decided that they would be the only (and most entertaining) way to get out alive.

His gaze snapped down to his wrist after he carefully checked to make sure that he wasn’t going to crash into something for the foreseeable future. Taking one hand of the handles of the bike he opened up a small panel on his wrist watch (which looked more like someone had strapped and Iphone to their wrist and called it a watch). Instead of the usual computation of hundreds of delicate mathematical formulas, Doom when straight for the most dangerous device ever created.

Normal dimension travel involves carefully removing a chunk of one universe and inserting it into another. This was safe and incredibly complicated, and it therefore required a lot of time to do it properly. The method he was about to do involved smashing two realities into each other and going through the hole it leaves behind. One of the biggest problems with this method was that one of the million possible side-effects was the possibility of destroying whole universes. One of the much more realistic problems was the one that always happened. And that was leaving a gaping maw in between the two realities allowing widespread contamination of both worlds.

Sometimes these portals closed, sometimes they didn’t. Doom not being the massive humanitarian that wise characters are often portrayed to be, decided that he needed to survive above all else. That and the odds of the world being inhabited are miniscule he thought. “Goodbye behemoth!!!” He roared at the top of his lungs, and then pressed the button on his watch.

A huge blue pulsating portal opened in front of him and he smashed right on through it. Thankfully it was largely just showy lights that were probably more important in amusing the creator than actually doing anything. After a moment of weightlessness he slammed his bike into the tarmac of a highway. Not a post-apocalyptic highway either. Nope. A fully fledged highway, being used by about 1000 cars at the present point in time. At least it was in a desert and not near any suburbs.

He kept driving ignoring the angry shouts of the drivers surrounding him, each of them driving a lot faster than he was and angry that he was hogging the road. Unfortunately cars were still coming from behind him as portals only existed on one plane and therefore could only be entered from one side. This was the side he came out of. This also happened to be the side that the beast burst from.

The cars immediately surrounding the dinosaur-thing were thrown off the road. That and the fact that it covered the entire highway pretty much ensured that none of the cars were getting through. It lifted its head up from ground and took in big whiffs from the air. It caught Doom’s scent. Its large eyes carefully scanned the highway and the accelerating cars for the lone biker. It spotted him and immediately darted forward down the stretch of empty highway.

Back to Doom’s perspective. The cars in front were now far ahead of him, and no cars were coming from behind. He guessed that this was because of the dinosaur. He realized that at his present speed (which was flat out) the beast would catch him, even if it took him about an hour, however he would probably run out of fuel long before that. He needed a new plan.

This was when something VERY bad happened. About 200 meters ahead, a fuel tanker that was trying to get away from absolutely everything (like you do when a huge portal appears down the road) crashed into a car that tried to pull over. The tanker was going far too fast at the time of collision and just happened to crush the car and burst a couple of tires. The driver lost control of the truck and slammed into the cliff face to the right of road, while the tank smashed into the cliff face on the left.

Another car then slammed right into the truck’s tank. BOOM!!!!!!!!! The tank exploded in infinite might, causing fire to rain over a 100 meter radius and shrapnel to rip oncoming cars to pieces, which in turn caused a massive pile-up. This was all watch by Doom, 15 oncoming cars and a beast who didn’t seem to care.

Desperately Doom searched for a possible escape. But it was no use, the mountain range stretched completely across the oncoming landscape. He was plowing headlong into a fiery explosion and he could do nothing about it. If he stopped he would be eaten. If he kept going he would fry. He needed to think of something and FAST!!!!

He looked back to see the beast gaining fast. That’s what you get for slowing down he thought. “Ok Doom. You’re a genius. You should be able to get out of this. Think. Think. THINK!!!”

That got him thinking. The cars were piling up around the tanker. If he could just find one that could work as a ramp. And he saw it. A nice, shiny, new car lay upside down on an angle making it the perfect ramp. Flawing it once again he drove headlong into the makeshift slope, jumping a little to get onto the car. He drove right through the enormous fires licking the sky, and his only thought was I haven’t had bread in a while.

He slammed down onto boiling tar on the other side of the jump, and fell off his bike. Its tires burst and Doom had to roll from the initial carnage to prevent third degree burns. Once he was far enough away he leapt from the ground, and looked around him. He was met with the gaze of about 20 people all looking at him as if he might spontaneously combust or something. After quickly checking to make sure he wasn’t actually on fire he walked to the nearest guy.

“Ok, I sought of need to go to the hospital. So if you would be as kind as to...” This was as far as Doom got, because at that moment the beast smashed apart the remains of the tanker and looked straight at Doom. “Not good.”

Hundreds of people began to scream, Doom didn’t. Instead what he did do was jump into the guy’s car start up the ignition, did a hasty U-turn and drove as fast as he could. Thankfully there was no one else on the lane.

The beast knew what car he was in apparently. And then it did something really mean. It leapt about 200 meters forward so it was standing right in front of his car. He didn’t have time to apply the brakes, so he swerved; off the road and into a canyon.

He fell straight down and his car crashed head on into the ground. “Seat belts save lives” he breathed. Somehow he had managed to survive that, and he pulled himself from the smoking wreck and crawled along the river bank. THUD!!! Hearing the noise he turned back to see the beast standing over him, teeth bared. It seemed to be hissing.

“Ok, calm down.” Doom pulled from a small satchel he carried, a golden egg. It was roughly the size of a watermelon and gleamed in the sunlight. “You want this back?”

The beast roared so loudly that a bird 500 meters away turned its head to see what was happening. Unfortunately for it, it kept flying and ended up smashing into a tree.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He lowered the egg onto the ground and backed away slowly. His hand fell to his watch and he pressed several buttons on it. The creature slowly bent down and sniffed at the egg...before raising its foot into the hair and smashing it to pieces.

“Oh good I thought this ending was going to be as bad as Jurassic Park 3,” Doom raised his arm and pressed one more button on his watch. A red beam of light burst forward and hit the beast head on. Nothing happened. The beast just roared and tried to edge forward. Unfortunately for it, it couldn’t. “Haha. You’re stuck in your own little pocket universe, can’t get out of it either. However the watch can’t maintain that sought of power for long, soooooo...” Doom started to frantically press buttons on his watch, engaging several highly theoretical systems in the process. “Normally I would just send you to another reality, however seeing as you broke the egg, which is worth billions, I’m afraid I’m going to have to use the gravitron matrix of this reality to separate the bindings of your molecule structure so as this dimension will have a little hissy fit and send every atom in your body to another quantum world. In other words you’re going to go bye bye.”

The creature, not having that high an intellect didn’t understand any of this and therefore would have been surprised when he disappeared from this world. However this happened instantaneously and he could not enjoy the spectacle. Doom on the other hand loved it. He laughed at the top of his lungs and fell to the ground.

After about a minute he calmed down, “Ok, so let’s see.” Doom once more looked down at his watch which was showing the image of a flashing battery. “One of the advantages of using quantum worlds. Quick, easy recharge.” He failed to mention that a negative effect was the possibility of creating a black hole. One of the reasons he didn’t do it all that much.

Going into his world address section he scanned down the page to find an interesting reality. “Ooooh, Earth 473. Golden trees forests and oceans of diamonds.” He entered in the required equations and with a final glance towards the shattered egg lying on the floor he disappeared in a blue flash.

Not part of the Tales of Lucius

Now this isn't part of the tales of Lucius I just wanted to put it up on the internet, so please comment:

There is a well known fact about science that people find it hard to accept new ideas. This is in most situations a minor nuisance; however there are always stories about people who have been in fatal accidents because of such things. A good example of this is the fate of the scientific community on the planet Deis, a relatively Earth like planet with a race of humanoids inhabiting it.
This species had flourished for millions of years, into a civilization that was a perfect, peaceful Utopia. However there was a fatal flaw which was that no one had come up with a new scientific theory in over 2 thousand years and they were in fact so comfortable with their beliefs that they never changed them.
One day the radios of the planet all received a very unusual message. This message was from a super intelligent race of cat like creatures and the following is a rough English translation of what that message was:

“Attention lower life forms. We are the Jocain who have for billions of years inhabited this universe. Although we have seen much we are currently interested in a scientific experiment which should show us workings of a solar system. Unfortunately for you this experiment involves smashing your planet into another one. You have one of your weeks to vacate the planet before we smash these worlds together. Thank you so much for your interest. End transmission. (Long Pause) I can’t wait to play this game of yours; I mean pool with planets that is such a cool idea. What? We’re still on? Hracisopof (a word who’s meaning shall not be mentioned here).”

Now as it turns out the inhabitants of this world had been traveling in space for a while now but had never encountered an extra-terrestrial race before. Therefore all of the scientific community was skeptical. Not one politician or scientist thought that it was anything other than a hoax.
The next day a very strange thing was seen. Thousands of square kilometers of the planet had been painted white. Initially perplexed by the phenomena scientists decided to have a look at a satellite photograph and were amazed when they saw a pattern. It was shaped in an enormous character which they didn’t understand. In our numerical system this character translates to ‘8’.
The day after that an, even stranger phenomena was recorded. The rest of the planet was painted black and although this planet had no idea what it meant you probably do by now.
The next day they received another message from the aliens which said:

“Well I haven’t seen much evacuating so unless you want to die, you might want to get going.”

By this time the political establishment was ready to accept that this was not a hoax. They had spaceships lined up all over the world preparing for evacuation of the population. These were due to fly the next day. The majority of the scientific community still did not believe that there was an actual alien civilization. They cited many reason including “Why on Deis would an alien civilization who could cross the vast distances required for space travel play pool with planets?” However the main reason was that they believed it wasn’t possible for there to be life on other worlds and nothing would change their minds. It probably wouldn’t have comforted them to know that the aliens in question were actually college students on their version of spring break.
The next day the space ships left the planet with the populace all intact. Except for the majority of the scientists who decided that it was pointless since it was all a hoax. The people who left would live for a couple more decades. The scientists would not.
The day after the scientists decided to do everything they’ve always wanted to but never could, such as insulting religion, nude runs and of course wild rave parties (which weren’t technically prohibited but were rather embarrassing to be caught at). Thanks to the ships taking only the essentials there was quite a lot of alcohol and party food left over. This may have accounted for the fact that none of the scientists saw the giant space ships in the sky each looking vaguely like a vase.
The next day the planet was moved into position along with many other planets into a big triangle. To prevent gravity from destroying the set up several anti-gravity shields were positioned around it. The aliens were very anxious to get playing. The scientists were very busy trying to come up with an acceptable solution for why the planet had just been moved.
And then the frozen planet of Hoth was launched at the formation of planets and smashed them off in all directions. Unfortunately the planet of Deis fell into one of the 6 black holes stationed around the arena and all the inhabitants died. They were not a great loss as they were all idiots who basically maintained that nothing was happening right up until the end. The real tragedy was that the Deis was sunk straight after launch, meaning that the game ended in the first round. The aliens, very disappointed, went off to find a new planet to make into a ball.
This story has two morals. One, accept new ideas if enough evidence points towards them. Two, if you are going to play a game use readily available resources like balls. Planets take a while to replace.

Message 2

I don't really like this chapter. Don't let this deter you.

Chapter 4

The next few days went by without much occurring. They ran for about 7 hours each night and covered about 70km. The rest of the time they hid in the leather tent which was almost completely pitch black. Cipher for some reason had a problem with this and made sure a lamp was on at all times.
Whenever Lucius asked him about it he would simply reply “I’m not letting the grue get me.”
Although the nights (which were technically days) were boring the rest of the time Lucius managed to see some very interesting parts of the world. The landscape was flat and the ground covered in loose sand.
Grass managed to survive here but it was mostly yellow and unkempt. Trees dotted the landscape somehow scraping out a living in this arid environment. These trees were covered in a grey bark and there leaves always had a yellow or brown tinge to them.
After 7 long days, Lucius and Cipher arrived in the town of Maylin.

The town of Maylin was not fancy or even modern for a town of fifteen thousand. The houses were all wooden with dusty tin rooves. There were a few houses with gardens, but the majority were of the dusty variety.
Cipher wandered forward slightly before saying “Why on Earth did you want us to come here.”
“I don’t know.” Lucius said cautiously.
“So you agree that this place is hell.”
“No. I just know I’m supposed to be here, but I don’t know why.”
“Ok, crazy-psycho-vampire. We might as well make the most of it.” Cipher began to roam through the narrow streets and Lucius followed him. Although it was initially ok, Lucius smelt a smell so sweet it hypnotised him. The pain then began rack his chest.
“No. Not now.” He snarled.
“Yeh I know what you mean. I haven’t had anything to eat in week, and you are a newborn. You must be ravenous.”
Lucius tried to ignore the agony in his chest. He knew that he could break into any of the flimsy structures in the neighbourhood and sate his thirst; but he withstood. Cipher just sighed and leapt onto the nearest roof. He darted away before Lucius could ask him what he was doing.
As he stood their clasping his chest, Lucius wondered what Cipher was doing. And that’s when a screaming man was thrown into the wall from over the roof.
He was clad in shiny silver armour. A sturdy build and a deep tan made up this warrior who took a moment to get back up. This was surprising considering he was just thrown into a wall at, at least 30km per hour. Just as he got up a second, similarly clad man was hurdled into the first. He was closely followed by Cipher.
“Hey Lucius. You still hungry?” He asked as he leapt off the roof and onto the narrow street.
“I won’t eat them.” Lucius growled, although the pain in his chest made him hesitate before saying this.
“Who said anything about them? One is for me.” He said bluntly.
“You know what I mean!”
“Unfortunately I do. Normally you would just find a criminal. But you are too hungry for that.” Chuckled Cipher as he darted at the man and pulled him up to his mouth.
“Do NOT eat him!” Roared Lucius, his words laced with what he hoped was authority. Unbeknownst to either of them the 2nd guard began to sneak up on Cipher from behind.
Cipher sighed once again and threw his hapless victim into the wall. “Look these people signed up for this sought of thing. They’re guards. They face death every day. We are just going to give it to them.” At this point the other guard stabbed Cipher from behind. The sword’s point burst through his chest and Cipher looked down at it with disdain. Turning around he exclaimed “Ow.”
Faster than the human eye could see he leapt behind this man and bought his teeth to his throat. His normally pretty-boy-type face, transformed into the masquerade of death. The poor man struggled for a little while before going limp. Lucius watched on in horror, yet the pain in his chest made him want it.
After throwing the corpse from his side Cipher glanced back down at his chest, the protruding sword glistened with his blood. He then proceeded to push the blade backwards through his chest. As it hit the ground Cipher examined the gaping wound in his chest. Lucius watched in awe as the hole miraculously healed.
Upon seeing his expression Cipher just laughed and said “It is but a flesh wound.”
“That should have killed you.”
“No. The only things that would kill us are chopping off our heads, stabbing us through the heart with silver, or by setting us on fire. And sunlight.”
“Are there other things I don’t know about?” Asked Lucius angrily.
“No. Not that I can think of.”
“Void spawn.” Spat the first guard back against the wall. He was trembling violently, and looking for his weapon.
“You are going to kill him.” Asked Cipher. It wasn’t a question.
Lucius didn’t want to, yet the agony drove him forward. He walked menacingly towards the man. The man attempted to fight Lucius off, but it was easy for him to parry the blows. Lucius slammed him up against the wall with bone shattering force. CRAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK.
Lucius’ face turned into that of the demons and he bought his teeth to the man’s neck. Just before he bit down though the guard cried “The guards will make sure all you void spawn burn in Tarturus. They’re onto you.”
“Wait Lucius.” Cipher called.
Lucius barely managed to restrain himself from biting down onto the man’s neck. The blood pulsing underneath it had increased and Lucius could smell. The pain in his chest made it all the more difficult. But he managed.
Cipher walked up to the man and said “We only just got here. Who are you looking for?”
“The rest of the vampyra. They inhabit this entire region in huge numbers.”
“Thank you. Lucius you can kill him now. I’m bored.”
Lucius didn’t even wait until he had finished. He bit into the neck of the poor individual before him and the blood poured into his throat. The man whimpered a little before he finally stopped moving. Dropping the corpse to the ground Lucius turned back to Cipher. The pain was gone now and he didn’t feel guilty. ‘Now that’s weird’ He thought.
“Now I know he’s lying.” Exclaimed Cipher as Lucius’s face reverted to its normal angelic form.
“How do you know that?”
“Because our kind only ever go to places where there is already an existing population. We never set up new colonies.” Cipher explained in an intellectual manner completely dissimilar from his usual vain attitude.
“Well maybe they changed.”
“Vampires are immortal. We don’t change.”
“New blood?”
“Well whatever it is, we’re going to need a place to rest. Sunlight will be up soon, that and I look terrible without my beauty sleep.”
“Maybe I should just call you Captain Masculinity.” Lucius said, his mind still trying to figure out what happened to his guilt.
“Why thank you Lucius. But I think we should find a hotel or something.”
“Sure. Why not?”
They wandered through the stuffy streets of Maylin for about 10 minutes before finally finding a hotel. It wasn’t a brilliant residency, not even close, but it’s wooden frame seemed sturdy enough to stay together. They entered through the double doors at the front and found a small desk to the back of the room.
Walking up to the desk Cipher tapped a small silver bell on the desk. From it came the sweetest note he had ever heard. Less of a bell and more like an angelic choir. Lucius pondered this for a moment, but he was quickly distracted by an even more amazing sight. It was her.
The same girl he had seen in his dream only a week before. The same long brown hair, the same shining brown eyes. She was the exact same person and despite the late hours, looked completely a wake.
“You need a room.” She asked in a voice that sounded more like singing than a language.
“What else would we be doing at this hour?” Said Cipher in such a way that Lucius thought he might be flirting with her. “Sweetheart.” Yes definitely flirting.
“Two beds?” She asked.
“Oh so you automatically assume that we want two beds.” Said Cipher.
“What?” Asked the girl.
“What?” Asked Lucius rapidly.
“What? This side of the world isn’t very open minded. I just want them to know that it’s ok. There is no need to hide.”
After a moment’s pause the girl asked “So one bed?”
“Oh, no we’re straight. Two beds will do fine.”
“Wait, what do you want?” She asked stunned.
“Two beds. Honestly aren’t the people here slow.” Said Cipher in disdain.
“Ok. I’ll just get you your keys than.”
“You do that darling.”
After the girl had left the room in search of the keys, Lucius asked “Why on Earth do I hang around with you.”
“Well hopefully it isn’t just for my dashing good looks.”
Under his breath Lucius whispered “Captain Vanity.”
“I heard that.” Cipher chuckled.
The girl came back into the room holding a small wooden key. “Ok that will be 15 pounds.”
“No discounts for looks?” Asked Cipher.
At this the girl smiled. That smile that so in tranced Lucius, that could hold the gaze of everyone in a room. Than she grabbed Cipher’s head and smashed it down onto the table in one startling fluid motion, like a snake catching a mouse.
Roaring in pain Cipher brought his face back to the demon once more “You are going to regret that bitch.”
Grabbing Cipher by the shirt she through him against the wall knocking half a dozen books from shelves all across the room.
“Can’t we go somewhere and just make friends?” Asked Lucius as he struggled to keep a straight face.
“Not now.” Spat the enraged Cipher as he stumbled to his feet.
“You should listen to your friend idiot.”
“Honestly what are you 12 years old?”
“Try 150.”
“And yet you look so young.”
“Save the nice talk for someone who cares.” Said the girl as she smashed Cipher to the ground.
“Wait!” Roared Lucius; stopping both contestants instantaneously. Cipher was trapped in a comical head lock.
Dropping Cipher to the ground the girl said “I agree. Anyway I wanted to bring you here.”
“See I knew she liked me.” Said Cipher as he staggered to his feet.
“Well actually I just needed Lucius. You were just the bitch who followed.”
Before Cipher could respond with a terrible retort, Lucius asked “Why?”
“Because something is happening and I need your help.”
“Ok, but I think we should know your name, if you know ours.”
The girl snickered before answering in almost a child’s voice, “Rhea.”

Chapter 3

“Lucius,” Said a raspy voice. An aged voice. “Lucius, would you please be so kind as to repeat what I just said.”
Looking up Lucius’ gaze fell upon an old man huddled over a large cluttered desk. The man was balding, and his face was worn with age. His hands trembled as he held the ink quill in one hand, but his face was twisted into the personification of rage.
“Sorry sir. What were you saying?” Asked Lucius, his eyes were drooping and he was a little dazed. He must have fallen asleep.
“So you can’t can you. I thought not; well next time you are bored of my classes please just draw in your notebook.” He spat these words at Lucius. “You’re classmates were distracted.”
Turning around he saw a giggling gaggle of girls at the back of the room. They were all wearing long blue dresses, which went down to their ankles. “Ahem.” Coughed the old man, the girls instantly fell quiet. Their heads twisted straight down, yet Lucius could still hear them conversing under their breath.
“Now if you don’t mind, work. I know I can’t stop you from talking, but please the cane won’t ever go away.” He snickered under his breath at this point, but this caused him to burst into huge bouts of dry coughs.
“Your dream nice?” Asked the tall girl sitting next to him. She had short red hair that went down to her shoulders, a rebellious act in these times she was often prone to saying. Her eyes were a greyish blue. She wore a rough white t-shirt and dusty grey jeans, completely at odds to the ball-room gowns that the other girls seemed to wear. She often stated that she hated the clothing that these woman were forced to wear in their society.
“Melinda, please tell me I didn’t snore?” Lucius asked half joking.
“No it was very discrete. I think the fact that your head crashed against the desk sought of gave you away.” She started poking him in the head. “Honestly it is like a rock.”
“Well thanks, I feel so much better.” Lucius said, the sarcasm ripe in his voice.
“You’re making a bad impression on the new girl.”
“Who?”
“Wow, maybe it isn’t like a rock after all. You were all over her before.” Teased Melinda. Seeing the blank expression on his face, she sighed and pointed to the far corner of the room.
What Lucius saw made him gasp. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. She was slender, with beautiful deep, dark brown hair. Her eyes were a startling luminous brown that seemed to light up the room. And her smile seemed to draw people towards her. All the other guys in the room were shooting looks at her every chance they got.
She got up, ignoring every other person in the room. Her eyes were intent on him and she seemed to glide through the desks in the way between her and him. She seemed to be ethereal; almost divine. Nothing but a ghost lost in the world of the living.
When she was standing right in front of him she whispered a single word into his ear “Maylin,” and then dropped a note onto his desk. She then flowed away from him and drifted through a wall at the end of the room.
Lucius picked the note up off his desk, which was a faded yellow, yet the writing was a rich jet black. It said only one sentence:
‘Come to Maylin.’
As soon as he had finished reading, the parchment vanished into a puff of smoke.
“Lucius what are you doing?” Melinda asked fear and concern crept into her normally unwavering voice.
“I was reading the note that the new girl gave me.” Lucius explained, feeling suddenly out of place.
“What new girl?”
A little bit dazed he said “Never mind.”
“Ok you can all leave the class now and return to your extremely wealthy families.” Said the old man; disdain clearly in his voice. Every one leapt from their seats packing up as they left the class room. The girls all seemed to move in swarms, while the guys tended to roam off by themselves.
“So what are you doing this weekend?” Melinda asked whilst grabbing all of her books off the table. Lucius was ready by the time she had packed away her quills.
“My father wants me to go with him to a book burning or something.” He said, disgust filling his voice.
“I do hate your father. I can’t believe he wants to get rid of the knowledge of the old ones.” She swung her bag over her back, and walked out the door, Lucius followed suit.
“My father believes they’re sins against the gods; but they tell us so much about our world. They found evidence in those books of a flying machine.” He said this with a deep expression of amazement.
“I don’t know why someone doesn’t send him a message to stop it.” She said this in a way that could have inspired an army.
“I have tried, but he refuses to.”
“Maybe I can send him a message.” This came from a colossal titan of a man behind him. He was covered in huge, bulging muscles and wore a huge metallic suit of armour. His face was completely enclosed in a massive knight’s helmet, giving him an almost robotic appearance.
He brought up a huge knife and burrowed it into Lucius’ stomach. Just as quickly he tore it out and darted away.
Lucius just touched the wound with trembling hands. The blood stuck to the tips of his fingers. It was his blood.
Falling backwards he landed on the rough tiled surface with a resounding THUD. Melinda crouched over him shouting for help. As he lay there he felt his consciousness slip away and his last sight of the world before he blacked out was the ethereal girl who only mouthed the word “Maylin”.

“Lucius, how long have you been down here for?” Asked the most-un-welcome voice of Cipher. He was laying over Lucius with a deep sense of amusement hidden in his eyes.
“Damn, even being stabbed is better than this.” Exclaimed Lucius, half of his face carpeted in dirt from the now muddy floor. He pushed Cipher from him dusting his clothes off as he went. “I did get to see my friends again.”
“What? Lucius what are you doing down here?” Asked Cipher.
“I was burying the girl I...”
“You buried her!” Yelled Cipher in astonishment. “Honest to god you buried her?”
“Yes. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“How can you do that?”
“I had to bury her!” Lucius yelled back with determination. “She couldn’t have gone into the next life if I hadn’t.”
Cipher sighed before he said in fatherly tone, “Lucius I think we are going to need to have a little talk. It is apparent that you don’t want to kill humans.”
“Of course I don’t.”
“Yes, but we need to drink human blood, which usually results in their deaths. Look, I think the reason that you don’t want to kill them is you still see yourself as one of them, just maybe with a disease. You are NOT human. They are beneath us. Don’t let your conscience cloud your judgement.”
“But are we so different from humans?” Lucius asked in a highly sympathetic tone.
“Yeh, we’re undead.” Explained Cipher, as if he was pointing out the most obvious thing in the world.
“But...”
“Lucius, look I know you will never be one of the vampires who loves drinking blood. You’ll be those who will do it reluctantly once per month. And that is ok, but you do have to drink their blood. I’m sorry.” Cipher said in a solemn voice. Then in a cheerful mannerism he added “Now how about we go to Becca.”
“What,”
“Becca, the cradle of vampire civilisation. Nice beaches, fine women and lots of humans to eat. Plus they do have very good hair dressers out in the bay.” He tossed his rich blonde hair around as he said this.
“Captain Vanity in full swing. Wait didn’t this originally start off as a conversation about how you were going to be nicer about my love of humans?” Asked Lucius.
“Yes but you forgot one important thing.”
“And that would be?”
“I’m Cipher.” Bounding away from Lucius he darted from the basement, all the while shouting back, “I expect you up here in 5 minutes.”
After briefly giving his respects to the poor girl who lay dead in the dusty ground, he wandered upstairs to find Cipher. Ascending the rickety staircase that connected the basement from the 1st floor he felt as if a weight had been lifted from him. The guilt he felt for the girl’s death was still there, but it wasn’t killing him.
When he got upstairs he found Cipher waiting for him, carrying only a black leather bag, which he had slung over his shoulder.
“What’s in the bag?” Asked Lucius.
Giddy with excitement Cipher ripped the bag from his back and proceeded to tear it open. Tipping it upside down a huge leather tent fell out. “The pegs and rope are in another pocket, but this is a thing of beauty. Completely blocks out the sunlight, meaning we can sleep during the day.”
“Wow.” Said Lucius in a sarcastic tone.
“Fine, go burn in the sunlight. It will take us about a month to get to Becca.”
At this point Lucius remembered something. He did not know why he thought this but he knew it was right. “No. We shouldn’t go there.”
“Oh right. Where then should we go?”
“Maylin.” Lucius burst out saying.
“Maylin? That place is a dump. And the humans are all so scrawny.”
“Please. I have a feeling that we have to go there. And I am going out there whether you like it or not.” Explained Lucius.
“Oh fine. I just really wanted to go to Becca.” Said Cipher grumpily.
“Are you pouting?” Snickered Lucius.
“No.” Said Cipher too quickly.
“That is just sad.”
“Shut up.” He said hurriedly. Recovering he continued “Now it should only take us about a week to get to Maylin.”
“Ok fine. Are we going to take horses?” Asked Lucius.
“No we should be able to run most of the way. We don’t have stamina.”
Cipher walked outside the small house without hesitation. However Lucius wasn’t the same. Just before he left the house, he made the sign of Galinti, a 6 pointed star on the door. In this act he asked the gods to forgive all evil deeds done within it’s walls. He could only pray is prayers would be answered.

Message 1

Yes after about 3 weeks I have published the 2nd chapter, so I am beating you Millie. This chapter is definetly not as good so please comment.