Post by Bellatrix Lestrange on Jul 16, 2006 3:08:12 GMT
Belle studied the ancient Bulgarian parchment she had "acquired" over a year ago. Through the past several months she'd crossed off various items listed on the parchment as she had "acquired" them. She was now down to two final items, both of which were in the possession of one Lord Vontessikan. Getting the artifacts from this so called lord was the easy part, the difficulty would simply be getting to him. It had taken over a week of planning before Belle was finally ready to go.
Dressed in a black dress, Belle sat in the back seat of a muggle taxi car as it drove along the old dirt road in a heavily wooded forest. It was by far the worst type of travel, but her destination was simply too isolated for her to have apparated and then walked into the village without drawing suspicion. As the taxi bumped along the dirt path the driver loudly passed gas and laughed as he turned up the radio. Nothing would have pleased Belle more than to hit him with a series of curses but that would have to wait until a better time, though she figured she could easily control the machine as it was a rather rudimentary skill. As the car bumped along she looked over her parchment once more at the two remaining items, the Book of Helgenstein and the dried blood of a Ljkervikain unicorn. The later had proved the most difficult to track down and this Lord Vontessikan was the only living member of that ancient clan. The fact that he also had the Book of Helgenstein was obviously no coincident, he too was after what Belle was.
After nearly another hour of sitting in the back seat, and being constantly offended by the foul odor of the driver, the taxi pulled up to an old wooden bridge. Slowly the taxi drove across as the worn wood creaked under the strain. Safely across, the taxi turned around to face the bridge once more before pulling over next to a tree where it stopped with the whistling of worn brakes. "Out" The driver said as he pointed to a decrepit house that was surrounded by weeds and thickets in places as tall as belle herself. With more of a grunt, the driver pointed further past the old home to where the outline of several other stone buildings stood, and behind them all on the hill was what remained of a stone fortress, presumably where this Lord Vontessikan resided. As Belle exited the vehicle she could feel several eyes watching her intently though the she couldn't spot them. "Pay" Grumbled the driver as he extended his hand out the window. Reaching into her pocket, Belle pulled out $100 of the local muggle money and tossed it into the car as she spun and headed toward the first home. "More" the driver said as he held his hand out still. Belle felt her temperature rise as she stopped and backtracked to the car, "ONE HUNDRED! IT'S ALL THERE YOU IDIOT!" She yelled while glaring at the driver. "More! I won't be home tonight, you pay more, I get room in hotel." With a sarcastic laugh, Belle crossed her arms and looked at the driver, "STUPID OAF!" She yelled and she reached for her wand, "should have thought of that before you agreed to one hundred! You get nothing more!" "No! You pay more!" The driver yelled back as he flung open the driver's side door but before he could exit, Belle forcibly slammed the door back shut with her wand while the man sat with eyes wide in terror. "Witch! Demon! Unholy!" The driver screamed as he dove for the glove box and desperately fumbled for what appeared to be a cross. Belle once more discreetly pointed her wand at the car so that the watching eyes wouldn't see. First the driver was suddenly struck unable to speak, then engine churned back to life, the doors' locks next snapped locked. Feebly, the man held up the cross in front of him and silently mouthed prayers, or curses, Belle didn't know nor did she care. "Put that away you fool, I'm not a vampire! And even if I was, you should know that crosses don't do anything!" Belle said in a mocking tone. Then with a sadistic smile on her face, the car's accelerator pedal was suddenly slammed all the way to the floor, sending the taxi racing ahead to the gorge they had just crossed. In a matter of seconds the taxi had crashed through the brush and headlong over the gorge where it plummeted several hundred feet to the riverbed far below.
Alone once more, Belle turned to walk toward the old village but instead found herself face to face with three of the villagers who had ventured from the first house. "What was that about?" An old man said as he pointed to where the car had crashed through the trees. "Cars are no good I keep telling ya! It's the devil's machine!" Said another man as he came hobbling up along the dirt path from further in the village. From farther in the village, Belle could see that many more of the town's citizens were now out and coming her way. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by nearly a dozen villagers all shouting about what they had just seen. Even without living in the muggle world, Belle could determine that this was a backwards village. The citizens obviously were living at least a century behind the rest of the world in every way. Their clothing was none that she had ever seen before except for the time she had broken into a muggle museum.
"SHUT UP!" Belle screamed as loud as she could to shut the group up of their annoying chatter. "The fool was a drunk, that's all, he drove off himself, forget it happened!" The phrase drunk had it's intended effect on the group as they all nodded began to murmur once more, all except one man, who was one of the first to show up after incident. "Not true!" The man yelled out causing everyone to be silent once more. "I heard him! He said you were a witch! He called you a demon!" He said while pointing a dirt finger at Belle.
"Oh great" Thought Belle as the rest of the villagers gasped and backed away a few steps. "Do I really look like a demon to you!?" Belled said as she eyed each villager, who in turn all shook their heads. "Demons can take the form of any person!" One person from the back of the group shouted, which led to more murmuring from the villagers. Further into the village, Belle could see that many more villagers were now heading her way. "Really? So you think I'm a demon? Why would a demon come to this pathetic little village? Tell me that? You have nothing of value! You are all pathetic outcasts of society! Wait, do you even understand me!?" Belle said with a sly smile as she eyed the group while reaching into her dress pocket for her wand. As more villagers joined the group, Belle felt that her words had won over the simpletons and perhaps she'd get to be on her way, when once more that first man spoke again. "Then why'd you come here then?" This got all the villagers to turn back to Belle with curious expressions.
"Lord Vontessikan is an old colleague of mine, I loaned him an artifact years ago and now I have come to retrieve it." Belle replied coolly, but inside her temper had reached the boiling point and the temple in the side of her vein was now throbbing. "Lord Vontessikan hasn't left the village in forty years! She lies! She's a demon!" The old man yelled and reached into his belt and pulled out a crude metal blade. Shouting erupted from the rest of the group as more villagers drew their crude weapons and cautiously watched Belle. With a savage scream, Belle drew her wand and squarely hit the old man in the chest with a curse that lifted him some 50 feet into the air before he was violently flung headfirst into a stone wall nearby. "Who's next!?" Belle roared as she waved her wand menacingly toward the rest of the villagers who all quickly dropped their weapons and fell to their knees crying out for holy help. "Tell me where Vontessikan is! Tell me KNOW and no one else dies!" Belle said as she aimed her wand at the nearest villager. "In the fort!" Came several shrieks and dozens of hands pointed the way through the village to the hill beyond. "Thank you" Belle said coolly as she walked past the trembling villagers, "And if I should see any of you following me, I shall return and kill every last one of you! Do you understand!?" All the villagers nodded feverishly and Belle laughed at their pathetic weeping before she walked on toward the fort.
"Stop there wench!" A voice shouted as Belle neared the large double wooden doors that led to the interior of the fort. "No one enters without permission!" The man now was visible as he stepped out of what at first had appeared to be an demolished side building but seemed to serve as his home. Quite aggitated by now, Belle glared at the man who appeared to be in his early 30's. With a quick wrist movement she had drawn her wand and instantly hit the man with a curse that sent him backwards several feet before coliding with the stone wall. "What did you call me!?" Belle shrieked as she stormed over to the man. In a stunned daze, the man was unable to answer which only infuriated her even more. "I'll show you who the wench is!" She screamed as she kicked the man in the stomach before aiming her wand at him once more. "Now you will open the door RIGHT NOW or I'll open it myself, WITH YOUR HEAD!" Groggily the man got to his knees and then hobbled over to the door and pushed it open, "My Lord Vontessikan won't be pleased with you for entering his house uninvited" the man said as he stepped away from Belle. "Oh well if he's upset, I shall tell him that I got in because you were drunk at your post, I bet he'll be pleased to hear that don't you agree?" Yet before the man could reply, belle hit him with yet another curse that knocked him backward and into the grass where he fell unconscious.
After walking about the fort for quite some time Belle finally found what appeared to be a study lined with several rows of book cases. Quickly Belle began to knock over shelves as she began her search for the Book of Helgenstein. After dumping the contents of two cases onto the floor a old man entered the room from a side door with a staff in hand, Lord Vontessikan. Before Belle could stand, a flash of red light erupted from end of the staff and Belle narrowly dove out of the way. "You'll suffer dearly for entering my home thief!" The man yelled as he sent another spell that hit a nearby bookshelf and sent a dozen books flying. Crawling along the tile floor, Belle could see the man walking toward her with staff in hand. Quietly she pulled a few books from the bottom shelf so she could clearly see the old man as he hobbled along. When he was in plain sight she unleashed a spell. The old man surprisingly reacted quickly to defend himself, but not quick enough as the spell hit before he could block and the force knocked him off his feet. As the old man reached for his staff, Belle kicked it away from him and aimed her wand at him. "W-w-w-what do you want?" The man stammered. "The Book of Helgenstein and Ljkervikain unicorn blood" Belle replied coolly as she held the wand in her menacing fingers. "You'll never be able to do it, I've studied for years and I'm not close to doing it yet!" Without a word, Belle hit the old man with a burst of crutio, "I told you want I want, I don't need your lecture, give it to me and you may live, with hold it and you will die and I'll still get it. Choose quick old man, I have little patience today." Slowly Lord Vontessikan pointed toward a portrait on the wall of a young man surrounded by books and scrolls. Belle grabbed the man's staff and snapped it in half and threw it to the corners of the room before walking to the portrait and ripping it off the wall, revealing a safe. With her wand she blasted the safe open and removed what she had been seeking, the Book of Helgenstein and a small vial of dried Ljkervikain unicorn blood. Walking back to the man Belle smiled at him, "Thank you, I'll put this to good use, too bad for you, you won't be around to see what becomes of it."
Outside the fort, the whole population of the village had wandered up the hill as their curiosity got the best of them. High up in the fort, several flashes of light had drawn their attention but it had since died down into a dark silence. The night's darkness was quickly broken by a flash of brilliant green light from a window high in the fort, and was followed by a loud *BANG* Then there was silence.
Dressed in a black dress, Belle sat in the back seat of a muggle taxi car as it drove along the old dirt road in a heavily wooded forest. It was by far the worst type of travel, but her destination was simply too isolated for her to have apparated and then walked into the village without drawing suspicion. As the taxi bumped along the dirt path the driver loudly passed gas and laughed as he turned up the radio. Nothing would have pleased Belle more than to hit him with a series of curses but that would have to wait until a better time, though she figured she could easily control the machine as it was a rather rudimentary skill. As the car bumped along she looked over her parchment once more at the two remaining items, the Book of Helgenstein and the dried blood of a Ljkervikain unicorn. The later had proved the most difficult to track down and this Lord Vontessikan was the only living member of that ancient clan. The fact that he also had the Book of Helgenstein was obviously no coincident, he too was after what Belle was.
After nearly another hour of sitting in the back seat, and being constantly offended by the foul odor of the driver, the taxi pulled up to an old wooden bridge. Slowly the taxi drove across as the worn wood creaked under the strain. Safely across, the taxi turned around to face the bridge once more before pulling over next to a tree where it stopped with the whistling of worn brakes. "Out" The driver said as he pointed to a decrepit house that was surrounded by weeds and thickets in places as tall as belle herself. With more of a grunt, the driver pointed further past the old home to where the outline of several other stone buildings stood, and behind them all on the hill was what remained of a stone fortress, presumably where this Lord Vontessikan resided. As Belle exited the vehicle she could feel several eyes watching her intently though the she couldn't spot them. "Pay" Grumbled the driver as he extended his hand out the window. Reaching into her pocket, Belle pulled out $100 of the local muggle money and tossed it into the car as she spun and headed toward the first home. "More" the driver said as he held his hand out still. Belle felt her temperature rise as she stopped and backtracked to the car, "ONE HUNDRED! IT'S ALL THERE YOU IDIOT!" She yelled while glaring at the driver. "More! I won't be home tonight, you pay more, I get room in hotel." With a sarcastic laugh, Belle crossed her arms and looked at the driver, "STUPID OAF!" She yelled and she reached for her wand, "should have thought of that before you agreed to one hundred! You get nothing more!" "No! You pay more!" The driver yelled back as he flung open the driver's side door but before he could exit, Belle forcibly slammed the door back shut with her wand while the man sat with eyes wide in terror. "Witch! Demon! Unholy!" The driver screamed as he dove for the glove box and desperately fumbled for what appeared to be a cross. Belle once more discreetly pointed her wand at the car so that the watching eyes wouldn't see. First the driver was suddenly struck unable to speak, then engine churned back to life, the doors' locks next snapped locked. Feebly, the man held up the cross in front of him and silently mouthed prayers, or curses, Belle didn't know nor did she care. "Put that away you fool, I'm not a vampire! And even if I was, you should know that crosses don't do anything!" Belle said in a mocking tone. Then with a sadistic smile on her face, the car's accelerator pedal was suddenly slammed all the way to the floor, sending the taxi racing ahead to the gorge they had just crossed. In a matter of seconds the taxi had crashed through the brush and headlong over the gorge where it plummeted several hundred feet to the riverbed far below.
Alone once more, Belle turned to walk toward the old village but instead found herself face to face with three of the villagers who had ventured from the first house. "What was that about?" An old man said as he pointed to where the car had crashed through the trees. "Cars are no good I keep telling ya! It's the devil's machine!" Said another man as he came hobbling up along the dirt path from further in the village. From farther in the village, Belle could see that many more of the town's citizens were now out and coming her way. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by nearly a dozen villagers all shouting about what they had just seen. Even without living in the muggle world, Belle could determine that this was a backwards village. The citizens obviously were living at least a century behind the rest of the world in every way. Their clothing was none that she had ever seen before except for the time she had broken into a muggle museum.
"SHUT UP!" Belle screamed as loud as she could to shut the group up of their annoying chatter. "The fool was a drunk, that's all, he drove off himself, forget it happened!" The phrase drunk had it's intended effect on the group as they all nodded began to murmur once more, all except one man, who was one of the first to show up after incident. "Not true!" The man yelled out causing everyone to be silent once more. "I heard him! He said you were a witch! He called you a demon!" He said while pointing a dirt finger at Belle.
"Oh great" Thought Belle as the rest of the villagers gasped and backed away a few steps. "Do I really look like a demon to you!?" Belled said as she eyed each villager, who in turn all shook their heads. "Demons can take the form of any person!" One person from the back of the group shouted, which led to more murmuring from the villagers. Further into the village, Belle could see that many more villagers were now heading her way. "Really? So you think I'm a demon? Why would a demon come to this pathetic little village? Tell me that? You have nothing of value! You are all pathetic outcasts of society! Wait, do you even understand me!?" Belle said with a sly smile as she eyed the group while reaching into her dress pocket for her wand. As more villagers joined the group, Belle felt that her words had won over the simpletons and perhaps she'd get to be on her way, when once more that first man spoke again. "Then why'd you come here then?" This got all the villagers to turn back to Belle with curious expressions.
"Lord Vontessikan is an old colleague of mine, I loaned him an artifact years ago and now I have come to retrieve it." Belle replied coolly, but inside her temper had reached the boiling point and the temple in the side of her vein was now throbbing. "Lord Vontessikan hasn't left the village in forty years! She lies! She's a demon!" The old man yelled and reached into his belt and pulled out a crude metal blade. Shouting erupted from the rest of the group as more villagers drew their crude weapons and cautiously watched Belle. With a savage scream, Belle drew her wand and squarely hit the old man in the chest with a curse that lifted him some 50 feet into the air before he was violently flung headfirst into a stone wall nearby. "Who's next!?" Belle roared as she waved her wand menacingly toward the rest of the villagers who all quickly dropped their weapons and fell to their knees crying out for holy help. "Tell me where Vontessikan is! Tell me KNOW and no one else dies!" Belle said as she aimed her wand at the nearest villager. "In the fort!" Came several shrieks and dozens of hands pointed the way through the village to the hill beyond. "Thank you" Belle said coolly as she walked past the trembling villagers, "And if I should see any of you following me, I shall return and kill every last one of you! Do you understand!?" All the villagers nodded feverishly and Belle laughed at their pathetic weeping before she walked on toward the fort.
"Stop there wench!" A voice shouted as Belle neared the large double wooden doors that led to the interior of the fort. "No one enters without permission!" The man now was visible as he stepped out of what at first had appeared to be an demolished side building but seemed to serve as his home. Quite aggitated by now, Belle glared at the man who appeared to be in his early 30's. With a quick wrist movement she had drawn her wand and instantly hit the man with a curse that sent him backwards several feet before coliding with the stone wall. "What did you call me!?" Belle shrieked as she stormed over to the man. In a stunned daze, the man was unable to answer which only infuriated her even more. "I'll show you who the wench is!" She screamed as she kicked the man in the stomach before aiming her wand at him once more. "Now you will open the door RIGHT NOW or I'll open it myself, WITH YOUR HEAD!" Groggily the man got to his knees and then hobbled over to the door and pushed it open, "My Lord Vontessikan won't be pleased with you for entering his house uninvited" the man said as he stepped away from Belle. "Oh well if he's upset, I shall tell him that I got in because you were drunk at your post, I bet he'll be pleased to hear that don't you agree?" Yet before the man could reply, belle hit him with yet another curse that knocked him backward and into the grass where he fell unconscious.
After walking about the fort for quite some time Belle finally found what appeared to be a study lined with several rows of book cases. Quickly Belle began to knock over shelves as she began her search for the Book of Helgenstein. After dumping the contents of two cases onto the floor a old man entered the room from a side door with a staff in hand, Lord Vontessikan. Before Belle could stand, a flash of red light erupted from end of the staff and Belle narrowly dove out of the way. "You'll suffer dearly for entering my home thief!" The man yelled as he sent another spell that hit a nearby bookshelf and sent a dozen books flying. Crawling along the tile floor, Belle could see the man walking toward her with staff in hand. Quietly she pulled a few books from the bottom shelf so she could clearly see the old man as he hobbled along. When he was in plain sight she unleashed a spell. The old man surprisingly reacted quickly to defend himself, but not quick enough as the spell hit before he could block and the force knocked him off his feet. As the old man reached for his staff, Belle kicked it away from him and aimed her wand at him. "W-w-w-what do you want?" The man stammered. "The Book of Helgenstein and Ljkervikain unicorn blood" Belle replied coolly as she held the wand in her menacing fingers. "You'll never be able to do it, I've studied for years and I'm not close to doing it yet!" Without a word, Belle hit the old man with a burst of crutio, "I told you want I want, I don't need your lecture, give it to me and you may live, with hold it and you will die and I'll still get it. Choose quick old man, I have little patience today." Slowly Lord Vontessikan pointed toward a portrait on the wall of a young man surrounded by books and scrolls. Belle grabbed the man's staff and snapped it in half and threw it to the corners of the room before walking to the portrait and ripping it off the wall, revealing a safe. With her wand she blasted the safe open and removed what she had been seeking, the Book of Helgenstein and a small vial of dried Ljkervikain unicorn blood. Walking back to the man Belle smiled at him, "Thank you, I'll put this to good use, too bad for you, you won't be around to see what becomes of it."
Outside the fort, the whole population of the village had wandered up the hill as their curiosity got the best of them. High up in the fort, several flashes of light had drawn their attention but it had since died down into a dark silence. The night's darkness was quickly broken by a flash of brilliant green light from a window high in the fort, and was followed by a loud *BANG* Then there was silence.
