The Immortal | Prequel Story |

Chapter 32 ~ The Secret Library

Icy cold winds felt like stinging icicles on Mallen's face as he walked on the snowy land in the north. Though he wore a scarf underneath Iérti's coat, he still felt the low temperature. The land was separated into seasons: winter in the north, fall in the east, summer in the south, and spring in the west.

Mallen and Iérti lived near the west side of the land, but not in it. As seasons changed in the land, each part of the land experienced every season, but certain far areas remained the same season, thus the four major parts of the land experiencing only one season year after year.

Mallen was glad winter already started in his location; that way it was easier for him to acclimate to the colder temperatures in the north. He pulled his scarf closer to his neck, adjusting the coat jacket so it would try to keep out most of the prevailing winds. A human would've felt the cold creep through clothing, chilling them to the bone. A vampire felt the same cold but was able to withstand it better.

Nobody in the land knew the location of the only library in the land, nobody except Mallen. He had secretly unearthed it from a book, selecting which buildings he liked and wanted to bring to life. Mallen dropped book pages in the mystical water, watching as the mystical water source brought the buildings to life by materializing and moving the necessary atom particles and such to a certain location before materializing it fully. He had done the same with a few other structures and buildings, including the castle he lived in.

A human king previously owned the castle and had been materialized along with it. The king died under mysterious circumstances, his body found in a lake many distances from his castle. While many assumed it was suicide due to his irrational behavior, Mallen knew the dark truth: the king was killed by the cruelest vampire in the land.

The king's psychiatrist had seen Mallen draining the Bavarian king of his blood. The king was declared mad by government counsellors who wished to take him off the throne due to his excessive spending on luxurious castles, thus bankrupting Bavaria. The psychiatrist took the king far away from his castle in an attempt to kill him. Instead, a vampire killed the king before the psychiatrist could.

The psychiatrist froze in terror when he saw Mallen fling the king's body into the lake. Mallen's eyes were red and fierce, his fangs still stained with blood. The terrified psychiatrist turned to flee, but Mallen overpowered him in less than a second. It took him longer to die, since the psychiatrist struggled more than the king did.

After feeding on him, Mallen let the dead psychiatrist join the king's dead body in the lake. Mallen sighed deeply, wiping his mouth with his sleeve before heading for the castle and claiming it his own. He lived in that castle ever since.

Mallen remembered exactly where the library was located. He stopped when he sensed a large presence ahead of him, unseen in the heavy snow. Mallen could hardly keep his eyes open; the snow was falling so much. He moved forward, relying on his vampiric senses.

He sensed a high heat signature up ahead, indicating the creature had the highest levels of thermal heat. That's the dragon guarding the library, Mallen thought, knowing he would have to be extremely cautious. He took a deep breath, slowly approaching the dragon.

The dragon was asleep, his massive body as big as two full castle rooms. He was entirely muted purple with shimmery scales. Dragons were mostly purple in color, though they also came in blue, red, black, green, gold, or grey. All dragons had sparkly scales resembling fish scales.

Dragons were usually known to guard treasure, mostly gold and jewels. The library was the greatest treasure in the land because it held all the books they came from. They wouldn't have come to life had it not been for those books. Mallen had elected a dragon to guard the library, permanently compelling him and thus making sure nobody ever ventured in.