The Trouble With Youngsters (Anadwen!)

[DaGlobster]

Smack!

Crembor lifted his hand from his arm, turning it over so he could look at the squashed fly underneath it. He found himself in Tirial, of all places, trying to find a herb almost exclusive to this area. Normall, he'd buy it at Ketra's herbalist, but the man was closed down for the week, and Crembor was starting to run dangerously low on it. So, he'd traveled all the way to Tirial, in these gods-forsaken highlands, to get some himself.

Wiping the fly off on his robe, he resumed his trudge through the sparse forest, kneeling down every once in a while to pick up other, miscellaneous herbs. Unbeknownst to him, he was heading directly for an old, decrepit manor,

[Anadwen]

Shai was a good watchman.
She made rounds around the manor all night, her keen senses picking up the slightest whiff of the smell of any intruder, and her heavy boots stomped down the tall grass around the slowly decomposing walls. Crossbow in hands and eyes searching the lands, she was a formidable guardsman; though, compared to her master, she was just a little girl that had a fancy for human meat.

An alien smell caught her attention. This wasn't a fox or anything similar... No... It smelled like master. Old, and dark, and bloody. It smelled... Like a ghoul. There was another ghoul, but it was not master... No. Master was inside. This was an intruder.
Her hands clasped heavily around the crossbow, and she raised it, ready to attack, following the smell through grass, rustling under her feet. Yes, yes, there, there he was, an old man, but she could smell what she was, she knew, Shai knew. Her face remained as blank as ever, but she knew.

And before one would realize it, she stood before him in a battle-ready stance, crossbow loaded and ready to fire, but not attacking. Her face, the black eyes, the pale skin, thin lips, it was all eerily blank and emotionless.
"This is the Hirata manor. What do you want here?" she asked him in a very, very plain tone.

[DaGlobster]

Crembor continued to trudge through the forest, his pickings slim. So far, he found only a couple blooms of the plant he was looking for, Elfwrought, and it wasn't going to be enough. Curse his luck, at this rate, he should've just waited for that herb shop to open up again.

However, it was with some relief that he found yet another bloom of Elfwrought. Kneeling down over it, he began to meticulously trim the stem of its potent leaves with a knife. He was about halfway through, when he noticed something. A presence. Whatever it was, it was extremely faint, like it was meant to be concealed, but Crembor's ancient nose picked it up all the same. He got up and turned around, and that's when he came face to face with Shai.

Normally, he'd dismiss young girls that came to him in the forest, but this one had a crossbow, so he figured she had something important to say.

"This is the Hirata manor. What do you want here?"

"Hirata Manor?" He asked, and peered over her shoulder. Well, damn him if he hadn't noticed it before. There was a ruined looking manor off in the distance. Not too far, actually. At this distance and time of day, it was easy to mistake it for a rocky hill.

Returning his gaze to the girl, he played his usual routine, though something about her was immediately off to him. "I'm just an old man, young lady. Looking for Elfwrought in the forest. I didn't realize I was trespassing. If you'll permit me, I'll be on my way," He said, letting out a couple of pretty genuine sounding coughs to nail the whole "frail elder" thing down.

[Anadwen]

The pale girl flicked at the sound of his voice, the blatant lies obvious to her. She, too, was a ghoul; that much he could definitely smell, or not? But without any concerns about whether he could tell, or not, she kept the crossbow, loaded with a strong bolt, pointed at his head.
"Don't lie. You're a ghoul. You smell of dead men and bones. You come with me, and I won't do anything to you. Master will tell."

Waiting - not exactly patiently, but with a blank expression - she gave him time to get up and follow.

[DaGlobster]

Crembor dropped the act, frowning and straightening up. Giving the air a second whiff, he noticed that this girl was, in fact, a ghoul. However, she must've been a fledgeling, because he mistook her scent for just a mere presence, and she barely showed up on his radar at all.

"Very well, fledgeling. I'll humor you. And lower that crossbow while you're at it, show some respect for your elders. It's not like it'll help you. I can kill you before you pull the trigger."

He stood up, packing the Elfwrought in his herb bag, and following after her. Really, the crossbow was such an amusing little toy for her to be using against him.

[Anadwen]

"Master orders to take no risks. Strangers pose a risk." Shai spoke, but she lowered the crossbow, pointing the bolt at the ground. One of her gauntleted hands was placed onto the old ghoul's upper arm. Not tightly, almost gently, but it would tighten if he'd try to escape... Though, he was a strong one, that much was sure.
She led him towards the desolate mansion.

The doors, large wooden doors with black iron, twisting around their edges, were towering before them. They were worn, showing visible marks of damage - chipped, singed wood on the edges. Many windows were broken, and even more was nailed over. It did not look like the manse of a lord - it looked like a tomb.
Shai retrieved keys from her garb, and stuck one into the door, turning it around till it clicked, and one of the doors opened up. She stepped in together with the man, into a dark, wide corridor. The rushes were black as night, the tapestries mole-eaten and decayed, but it still had a sort of beauty to itself. A dark, despoiled sort.
"Wait in the hall on the other end of the corridor. Master will come." the ghoul girl spoke up once more, and turned on her heel, swiftly exiting, leaving him in the vast, dark corridor alone.

Nakahiro knew. He knew of her very well. He knew that she found someone in the gardens. As to who that someone was, he had no clue, but he would be awaiting his audience in the hall of the manor. Seated in a stone chair, with a cup of swirling red as the torches on both sides of the hall burned a venomous green, their light reflected off the beaten silver mirrors behind, making them twice as bright. There sat the high lord, all in black, in a garb as beautiful as any, two rows of silver buttons across his slender chest, a coat of embroidered velvet falling down to his feet, and tall, heeled riding boots resting on the floor of the dais above the room. His hair was almost the same blackness as his attire; in soft curls, it fell about his head, resting on his bony shoulders. Only his eyes were lively, a green as bright as the torches.
He was waiting.

[DaGlobster]

When Shai took his arm, Crembor tugged it loose. "I can walk just fine on my own, thank you very much."

He followed her, thinking that if anything, this would be an interesting little detour. A little romp through the daisy fields off the road. He knew his fist was going to be romping through the teeth of whoever derailed him like this.

Once they reached the manor, Crembor noted that the place looked completely, and irrevocably, like shit. Truly, this lord must have been quite the self-respecting gentleman, living in the lap of luxury like this. Crembor's house wasn't the model of cleanliness, but at least he kept it and his work areas tidy.

When she told him to wait in a hall, he scoffed, but he followed her directions nonetheless. He could smell him already. Another ghoul, considerably more powerful than the whelp that brought him here, but still hardly enough for Crembor. Entering the hall, he leaned on his walking stick.

He regarded this lord with bored eyes and his omnipresent scowl. Shifting his eyes about, he found the patience to bow his head lightly.

"Why is it you've brought me here?"

[Anadwen]

"Brought you?" Nakahiro's silky voice echoed through the hall, but he just shook his head. "It was my butler who brought you. She has an order to bring everyone that's in the gardens of my mansion to me, ser. I, by any means, do not mean to insult you by this distrust... It is only that humankind trusts us so little. Is that not true?" with a sigh, he lifted himself off his chair, his gloved hands now behind this back.

"I have to thank her, little hound as she is. I am honored to host an elder in my halls..." A solemn smile appeared on his thin lips as he bowed his head softly, and gestured for the tables, surrounding. "My name is Nakahiro Ketsukei no te Hirata. Please, be my guest in my manse... I honestly apologize for the unkempt manner it is in, but for the lack of... Willing personnel, I was not able to repair it yet."

This ghoul was old. He could feel as much... Old... And strong. What a curious visitor.

[DaGlobster]

"Butler?"

Crembor found himself smiling, looking down, and chuckling a little.

"Yes, quite the butler you've got. Seems more like a lap dog to me. Is this what the young ghouls are doing nowadays? Keeping pets?"

He let his walking stick drop to the side, and he straightened up, cracking his neck. He unbuttoned the top few buttons of his coat, giving himself some room to breath.

"Hirata...can't say its a family name I'm unfamiliar with, but I don't know that much. There's ghouls in your bloodline, passed down to you."

He supposed the young ghoul was polite enough, so he nodded gratefully, and walked over to the tables. "What are you, second, third generation ghoul?"

[Anadwen]

"She's a butler, a guard, and a pet all the same... A youngling, hardly past thirty." he waved his hand at the matter, and stepped towards one of the aged silver platters. He picked the cover up, but revealed nothing but old bones. "Sadly, I have nothing to offer you at the moment..." With an almost theatrical sigh, he placed the cover back down, putting the other hand at his bony hip.

"Yes, a second generation ghoul. Both my parents were ghouls." His face was utterly emotionless at the statement. His parents. He preferred not to remember them, but the past was in the past. It could do him no harm. The present was more dangerous.
"And you yourself... I do not know your name, but you're definitely one of the first ghouls I can feel as much in you. It is... Indeed a pleasure. What would bring you to a manor as humble as mine?"

[DaGlobster]

"Hell of a piece of work all this is."

He lifted the cover of another plate, finding a dried, dessicated hand. He found it curious, really. Curious indeed. And then, he asked him a question, and Crembor's expression darkened.

"Well, your servant brought me here. She was quite insistent, really. You're fortunate I didn't kill her. That being said, I suppose this place is...comfortable enough." He said, sitting down at the table with a tired groan, about two seats' distance from him. Although his nails looked normal enough, they left visible scratches on the arms as he laid them on it. "As for my name, you can call me Jacobod."

[Anadwen]

Ah, Shai. She could really do well to learn some manners, if she just wasn't so stubborn... Truly, she was worth more as a lap dog than she was as a butler. A small wrinkle formed on his brow, and he shook his head. "I apologize for the ungainly manner in which she takes guests. She is only obeying orders the straightest way she knows." he uttered on her behalf, and seated himself opposite the old ghoul.

"I do hope you will enjoy my hospitality. It had been long since I last had a guest..." His eyes, as green as the torches, had a hungry look in them as he smiled slowly, but for what he hungered was difficult to determine.

[DaGlobster]

"Is that what you tell every person Shai brings?" Crembor said, an unamused chuckle leaving his throat.

"You should keep a closer eye on her. One of these days, she's going to smell out someone who'll kill her. Believe, me, it's going to happen. You're not the first young ghoul holed up in a crumbling ruin with a young little pet."

[Anadwen]

"If she dies," all of a sudden, Nakahiro's voice was icy, "I will not be at fault, and I will feel no sorrow. What use do I have for a butler that cannot recognize what to anger, and what not to? You could have killed her and had a good dinner, for all I care. Though, I do appreciate you did not do so." The smile that set at his lips was cruel.

"I'm not the first, and I won't be the last. It's difficult to be first at something." He reached onto one of the platters, picking up a dry, withered bone. It seemed tough, but snapped easily in his fingers without as much as a shred of effort, and he licked at the dry marrow inside it. It tasted like ash... And it smelled of death and fear.

[DaGlobster]

Crembor only found himself disliking this ghoul even more, yet...Playing along might just get him something out of this. He opened the cover to the plate in front of him, noting there was a similar bone as Nakahiro's. As he studied it, he talked.

"Have you used that pretty young thing for anything other than sentry duty and servitude? A ghoul like you must get lonely in this castle."

Taking it up in his hand, he bit right through it, as if it was made of paper. Something flashed in his eyes, something deeper and darker than anything Nakahiro had ever seen.

Grimacing, he swallowed, before he set the bone down. "Having a bit of a dry spell, I take it?" He asked, placing the cover back on the plate.

[Anadwen]

"Lonely? Oh, no. Never. A lord ought to have... Audiences of different sorts. Besides, I wouldn't sink as low as to bed a dog." the young ghoul replied, almost nonchalantly, twirling the bone between his fingers as it crunched, chewed by his sharp teeth.

"There's nothing that doesn't run with fear at the nearest shadow in the surrounding villages, sadly. And travel would be too... Lengthy, though I have been meaning to visit the libraries of Arca as of late." he shrugged apologetically then, excusing his lack of better provisions. This dry bone, though, it was beginning to anger him somewhat.
With a sharp snap, he smacked it against the silver plate. It cracked slightly, but did not break, and a thick black liquid begun slowly flowing out of the cracks. It was almost like tar, but with a completely different aroma; the light of the green torches gave it an odd sheen.

Nakahiro's tongue curled around the blackness, biting a chunk of the bone off, and a soft smile curved his lips upwards. It tasted much better that way.

[DaGlobster]

"Well, it's a shame you don't appreciate her the same way I do. But, what can I say. I'm old and wrinkled. Hell of a thing, isn't it? We're immortal, yet we still age. Slowly, but surely..." His voice trailed off, and he glanced around.

"So, is she a thrall of yours, or just blindly obedient? I can't tell with her, thralls are usually all over their masters..."

[Anadwen]

"Perhaps a part of both. I raised her and took care of her since she was a child..." Giving another shrug, he kept licking at the black liquid. It tasted delicious; not wholly like blood, but not wholly different, either. It wouldn't give him much nourishment, sadly.

"Ah, we are immortal... But only those that give up on consuming the strong and taking in sustenance often age. If you eat regularly, a lot, and pick strong, healthy meals, you will preserve all your youth and power, and it might yet grow. I've been past two hundred years, yet I still feel as young as I ever was, if not more. You should try it."

[DaGlobster]

"Oh, my poor boy. Is that what your parents told you?" Crembor asked, leaning back into his chair.

"Once you reach a certain point, you start decaying, but you get more powerful, the most powerful you've ever been. Nothing lasts forever, Nakahiro. Would you like to know how old I am? Over three thousand years old."

He cracked his neck, smiling.

"Besides, I'm not even a generational ghoul. I was struck by the curse. I'm a Sire, the kind of ghoul that sits at the very beginning of your family tree."

[Anadwen]

"No, it's what they showed me. My father was millenia old... Yet, he never aged a day. He was a Sire, too, but he was a sorcerer as well. There's the trick." With a wave of his hand, he swallowed the last piece of the bone, and leaning over the table like a black snake, he reached one of the other plates, to retrieve an entire dried arm.

"Off course, it takes constant effort, and a considerable amount of it, to preserve one's youth. I saw it with my very own eyes."