Legacies: Inari Rising (A TVD Universe Fanfic)

Battle of the Beasts (Pt. 1/2)

Apologies for the lack of updates, and the two-parter chapter but the original draft was almost 10K words long! Part Two of this chapter will be released later in the week. 

I also apologise if this chapter seems rushed and for changing some scenes around but this was to make the story 'flow' better and to jazz it up a bit - since I'm sure you guys have read the same chapters again and again in these fics so...yeah :/ If you want me to keep the normal 'true to episodes' stuff, just tell me in the comments. 

But apologies aside, hope you enjoy the chapter  ;) 

SALVATORE BOARDING SCHOOL - 9 YEARS AGO

Cough. Cough.

Nolan squirmed under his heavy bedsheets, his tiny frame shivering as the strange woman unfurled a cooling patch.

"Hey," the woman soothed, her brunette hair hanging down in a short bob. "C'mon, Nolan. You need to get some rest."

But Nolan shook his head, bunching up his bedsheets under his chin.

The woman sighed. She was a lithe woman of medium-height, her olive-skin contrasting with her sky-blue nurse scrubs and white cardigan jacket. As she moved away from Nolan, a hospital pass dangling from her waist caught Nolan's eye.

'ELENA GILBERT,' it read. 'Trainee Nurse - Whitmore Hospital.'

Nolan skirted the edge of sleep once more, his eyelids heavy and his vision swirling as if stuck inside a hamster wheel.

Until the door opened.

Alaric appeared in the doorway, his breathing ragged as sweat patches pooled on his red polo shirt. As he moved inside, a tiny figure followed in after him, quiet and shy as a church mouse as it clung to Alaric's jeans.

...Josie?

"Elena." Alaric breathed, either out of exhaustion or surprise. "I came as soon as I could. What happened?"

Elena tucked her hands into her back pockets, shaking her head. "I don't know, Ric. Jeremy and your friend Dorian called me, saying that they and a group of witch kids saw Nolan have a fit."

Alaric knelt down beside Noel, looking at the boy as if he were some strange artefact.

Nolan's shivering had subsided, but the boy was feverish and barely awake - heat rolling off his forehead as if it were a radiator.

A fit? But that didn't make any sense! Alaric might have only known Nolan for a year or so, but he had never had anything like this happen.

"D-Do you know what caused it?" Alaric asked.

"I don't know." Elena shook her head. "From what Jeremy and Dorian told me and his symptoms, I think I can rule out seizures and epilepsy. And there's nothing in Nolan's school files that says he has a pre-existing condition."

Elena drew a sharp, uneasy breath.

"But..."

Alaric raised an eyebrow. "But?"

Elena urged him over to the other side of Nolan's room with a subtle jerk of her head. As the two adults stood closer, Alaric took in the bareness of Nolan's room.

Thin layers of dust were forming on the window panes near the back wall, casting sunbeams over two featureless walls and an empty, four-tiered bookshelf. Were it not for the matted cream rug on the floor, or the tawny-brown end-table at Nolan's bedside, one would assume that the room hadn't been lived in at all.