CH 3: Books, Monsters, Bodies, And... Steak Bread?

After that pleasant introduction to the town and my new best friends, we, Me and Ada, went to the building next to the town clock, where the library was. Ada walks ahead of me and opens the door, leading me inside.

After stepping inside, even without looking around, I can TELL it's a library. The smell of books and aging paper is in the air. Its not that big for a library, but there's at least a good few hundred books scattered on the shelves, which thankfully seem to be written in… actually, I don't remember what I have been speaking, but whatever it is, it's the same language as the books thankfully. As we walk towards the cloth doorway on the other side of the building, I glance at some of the books, which included, but were not limited too:

A basic history lesson of the lands of Mondren, years 416-985

Noble Bloodlines years 1115 to present

Beasts true and mythical, a beginners guide

Wait, hold up, that last one looks nice, I'm gonna snag THAT

Ada: "What are you doing?"

Garem: "I noticed a monster guide book. We're hunting a vampire. What do you think I'm doing?"

I say sarcastically. Ada seems to notice my choice of book, and seems to not have any more complaints.

Ada: "Fine, but let's get going. Barins waiting for us."

With that out of the way, we went towards the local alchemist's place of business, opening the cloth door, and being hit with a multitude of smells and tastes… somehow. Like, the air tastes like fresh veggies somehow. It's a pretty simple set up actually, just a bench with a simple alchemist set up, some glasses with measurements, a piece of stone and a knife to grind or cut up the ingredients. No, what really stood out to me was the three bodies lying on mattresses on the ground, pale and breathing slowly, but heavily.

Garem: "Are these?..."

Barin: "Yes. These are the victims of the local vampire. All of them have had a large amount of their blood taken, but they will live."

Garem: "Wait, they are still alive? Why? Why didn't the vampire take ALL their blood?"

Barin: "A normal vampire would have, but this vampire is, or at least was, different from a normal vampire."

Garem: "Do you mean its age?"

Barin: "Ada has already informed you, that will make this simple to explain. Basically, the younger a vampire is, the less blood it needs to survive. Newborn, or young vampires require about the same amount of blood as would be found in a small dog or large cat, enough to cause harm enough to a human to go into a coma. No, the real danger has appeared now that our local vampire has become a real vampire, even if they are still a young one."

Garem: "Can one victim make them that more dangerous?"

Barin turns away from his patients for a minutes and says,

Barin: "Yes, it absolutely is. Because not only are even normal vampires much stronger and faster than normal men, they also require more blood, nearly all if not all the blood a person has in their body, killing them or worse…"

Garem: "Worse?"

I say, unfortunately having confidence in what he is going to say makes them worse.

Barin: "Yes, worse because those who do not die can become newborn vampires themselves, and without access to the bigger towns and cities militaries, or the fort's knights, this village will have no defense against a real vampire."

This doesn't seem good. No wonder these people felt the need to test me, I am basically their last hope against a being that they can't see that could be the downfall of everything they have worked for. Noting this, I remember talk of a Count earlier, and ask Barin,

Garem: "What about this count I have been hearing about? Why doesn't he take care of this?"

Ada seems to flinch a little, almost in anger, at my mention of the count, but Barin merely sighs and says,

Barin: "Count Renen claims that maintaining the border takes most of his men, as we are a territory right on the border, but…"

Barin looks at Ada briefly and seems to hesitate in continuing, deciding in talking any further on the subject, simply stating,

Barin: "That's not important though. The main point is we are on our own, and we have to deal with this problem on our own. Even if the Count was willing to spare some men, a grown up vampire is too much for anything except at least 4 knights, 20 fully armed soldiers, or a Vestigen."

Wait, what? What is a Vestigen? No no, it doesn't matter, even if I knew, they clearly aren't an option, let's focus Garem, focus.

Garem: "That doesn't sound good. What can we do?"

Barin turns to look again at the three victims, writing down something in a notebook he is carrying, placing some kind of paste on their foreheads, and continues,

Barin: "Put very simply, the vampire must be slain. While it is much stronger than it was even 3 days ago due to its awakening, this is the best chance we will ever have of slaying it."

Garem: "Ok, what's the plan. Is there anything specific we have to make? So herb or metal, or…"

Barin: "No, no, not in this case. Despite all the trouble they can cause, vampires thankfully are at least straightforward enough to deal with. Cutting off their head or enough cuts with a silver weapon should be enough. No, the trouble is in knowing where they will be. One of the few blessings in you showing up now is that in many ways, this is the best time to lure the vampire in."

Garem: "Do you mean because they will be more blood hungry?"

Barin: " Yes. Well, at least, that's what I have read. Let's see…"

Barin walks past me and goes into the library, seemingly to look for his source. After a few minutes when he doesn't return, I yell out,

Garem: "Hey! It wouldn't happen to be Beasts true and mythical, a beginners guide would it?"

Barin apparently heard me, because I could hear him scuttle back, with his face a little read from scouring through all the texts,

Barin: "You could have told me you had it, saved us both a little time"

Garem: "I figured when you said you were looking for your source, you weren't using something for beginners"

Barin snatches the books from me and retorts,

Barin: "Two things: First, I said earlier that monsters were not my main study, and Second, despite what you may think, this beginners guide is one of the best sources of magical beasts and creatures. It may not be as detailed as most guides, but it does give clear instructions on strengths and weaknesses, as well as habits at different growth stages,

Barin says as he flips through the book eventually stopping at what looks like a page about vampires,

Barin "... like here! According to this, after a Newborn Vampire enters the beginning stages of its adulthood, what our vampire is going through, it will become incredibly blood thirsty, doing absolutely anything to get it."

Hold on, this isn't adding up.

Garem: "How is that GOOD? Won't it be more likely to attack unpredictably?"

Barin seems to grin at me, like I have fallen into his trap before he says,

Barin: "That's where the rest of the guide comes in. One of the few positives of this early stage of extreme bloodlust is that one, it only activates at night, between the hours of 12 in the morning and 3, and they are attracted to the largest source of blood, not necessarily the smartest choices like a man in an alley or whatever. All we needed to do to prepare was kill 3 cows and drain their blood, which we just need to bring out at the proper time."

This seemed a lot simpler than I thought. It almost seems too good to be true! Which is why I had to ask,

Garem: "There's a catch isn't there? Otherwise you wouldn't have hired me."

Barin seems to sigh, as if expecting this,

Barin: "Yes. The catch is that even if the bloodthirstiness makes the vampire predictable, it also makes them much stronger than normal. If the vampire was both predictable and only 3 time stronger than a normal man, we would have handled it ourselves"

Barin admits

Garem: "But?"

Barin: "BUT, bloodthirsty vampires are supposedly 10 time stronger than an ordinary man, far more than even every villager working together can handle. So, we decided it would be wise to enlist the help of a skilled mercenary. And if Ada recommends you, I trust your abilities."

I will admit, I can see why these people seem so desperate. To anyone else, having to single handedly deal with a crazed, primal creature with the strength of 10 men would seem like an impossible task, but to me it seems like it is a pretty simple task. Although, that probably more has to do with me having the strength of 25 ordinary men, so,

Garem: "What do we gotta do?"

Barin smiles warmly, taking me towards a counter of what looks like a collection of bottles, and hands me one that looks like it's filled with like half a liter of some kind of clumpy looking dust. After handing it to me, he continues,

Barin: "Despite what much popular belief may say, garlic does not actually harm vampires. However, it does repel them, so your job while we are preparing for tonight is to hand this out to the villagers, then to come back to help set up a perimeter to trap our vampire. Good luck."

Taking the bottle, I turn to leave, but I hesitate. I turn back around and ask,

Garem: "Hey, if you wouldn't mind, can I take that monster guide? It would probably be a good idea for me to read up on vampires for later tonight."

Barin seems to nod in agreement, grabbing the book saying,

Barin: "It starts on page 306, the beginning of the humanoid section."

I grab the book from him, and finally leave. As I am exiting the room, I see that Ada is getting comfortable reading some books from one of the shelves. Seeing as I would need to talk to her later anyway, I open the bottle and ask her,

Garem: "Hey, Barin told me to give this to people to help repel the vampire. Actually, why didn't you guys use this earlier?"

Yeah,  after thinking about it it doesn't make sense to me why they didnt use this incredibly useful sounding stuff earlier. Ada responds,

Ada: "Honestly, if it wasn't for two things, we probably would have. First, how long it takes to make it. To make one batch that is enough to last the village for a day, it takes at least a week's worth of work, even with all of the ingredients being available."

Garem: "And the second reason?"

Ada: "It only works in a set area. As in, all it can do is set a perimeter that can not be crossed, it wont do anything for people outside those perimeters. Before, with all of the vampires victims being outside, it didn't seem like this repellent would help."

That makes sense. After getting my question answered and handing Ada some of the repellent, I headed out, leaving the library. Unexpectedly, I found Jern waiting outside with his arms crossed. After a awkward staring contest, he starts talking,

Jern: "What are your intentions?"

That's… actually pretty fair. Anyone with any kind of rationality would question why a random stranger would show up out of nowhere to decide to help this random small village. Especially one who was clearly stronger than someone like twice your size. Wait…

Garem: "Do you think I'M the vampire?"

He seems to look at me for a second, but shakes his head and says, 

Jern: "No. I can tell. No, what I am curious about is why YOU would help. I have seen when people are hiding their strength with my training as a squire."

So it's not my intentions he doubts, it's more WHY I have these intentions. I was about to respond with some wishy washy reason, like, "it's the right thing to do", or whatever, but instead, decided to tell him the truth,

Garem: "Because it was an available opportunity."

And I wasn't lying. It's not that I didn't want to help or do the right thing, but I was still somewhat realistic. I understood that even if I wanted to help people, I had to have food on the table and take the opportunities I could get before I could worry about being able to help others without payment.

Jern stares at me, seeming to digest my answer before smirking slightly, responding,

Jern: "You're honest at least. Come with me, I'll help you hand out the repellent, and we'll share notes."

I follow him, and we go door to door, interacting with the villagers, telling them to remember to line their doors and their windows with the repellent before night. After about 12 houses, we appeared to be almost out of the repellent, we came up to what I think is the last house.

Jern: "This is my family's place. Since you dont got much to do until tonight, how about you help us set up?"

Garem: "Wait, we who?..."

?: "Us!"

I turn and see two people, a young woman and (I think?) an 8 year old kid walked into the room from the hall.

?: "Well Jern? Are you gonna introduce us to your new friend?"

Jern seems to get a little embarrassed, saying,

Jern: "Sorry. Alya, this is Garem, Garem, this is my little sister Alya and little brother Jarn."

Not really knowing what to do in this situation, I hold out my hand out, and introduce myself,

Garem: "Its nice to meet you."

Alya immediately grabs my hand and shakes roughly, returning my shake in kind,

Alya: "Pleased to meet you! So your the one thats gonna slay us a vampire, huh?"

Garem: "If things work out, yeah. I hear you guys might need help setting up the perimeter?"

Alya looks at Barin for a second and back to me and says, 

Alya: "Yeah, I guess we could. After which, I was planning on making my famous steak bread."

THAT got my attention.

Garem: "Wait, did you say Steak bread?"

Alya seems to see my excitement, and responds,

Alya: "You are gonna have to wait, like you said, we gotta set up the perimeter."

After saying that, Alya nabs some of the repellent and takes her little brother to probably deal with some of the other windows, leaving me with Jern. We kind of just stand there in silence for a bit, until Jern speaks up,

Jern: "Well, we better get started."