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[44] Fanfic: Vampire Hunter D 30 Somethings: Into the Secret Garden
Title: Into the Secret Garden [Elysium 1/??]
Fandom: Vampire Hunter D
Author: von_uberwald
Pairing/Character: D
Theme/Prompt: #8 ‘Garden’ (Nights)
Rating: PG-15
Warnings: D-style violence, gore, supernatural horror.
Summary: D runs into one Noble’s utopia. It’s not quite of this world.
Notes: [zombie] Another multi-chapter. Doesn't look as though it'll be an especially long one though. Depending entirely, of course, on whether I regain interest in either past fanfics or get really good ideas for other present prompt tables.


He’d stopped to let the horse rest as the day grew hotter and had hidden himself in the shadows nearby, hat tipped down over his face as he sat back against a column adorned with crumbling sculpture. Reins trailing, the beast had wandered to the various patches of scrubby grass it could find and, scenting fresh water, moved towards the small mere to drink its fill. The dhampir was free for the moment to think about the job he’d picked up at the little village on the next island over.

Normally he’d turn down such a small fee, but as the village headman had pleaded his case, D had had to admit it was an intriguing one and business hadn’t exactly been hectic in this part of the world anyway. The parasite disagreed with the sentiment, vocally as always, protesting that this was entirely the wrong climate for one of D’s half-Noble stature to be hanging around in. He was predictably ignored and now they were on this fortified island, they were here to see this through.

According to the few fishermen who braved the lethal, infested waters of this area on a daily basis, lights had been seen burning in the windows of the lower levels of the fort and strange ghostly figures could be seen at night if there was no fog on the sea. These apparitions, said one, flew around the island, circling the topmost turret of the keep, as if someone was calling them. Ever since the first night they had appeared, only a few brave souls would continue to fish close to the island, but now they reported that there was no fish to be had at all in that area, where it should have been teeming with marine life.

There were a couple of largish outcrops from the mysterious island, full of old ruins and pools of clear water. The first thing D had noticed, the nervous ferryman urging him and the horse across the small jetty, was the quiet in the air. No birds, no rustlings in the undergrowth, nothing. In fact, the only life that seemed to be plentiful was the plant-life around the base of the fortification. The only place that as relatively free of the jungle-like area was a small hill, nothing worth remarking on ordinarily, with the remnants of a past civilisation hugging the sparse land. Even so, the growth of the vegetation obscured it somewhat from the physical sight from anyone living in the castle keep itself and there the Hunter had chosen to sit back for a while and expand his senses, looking for trouble. The parasite, knowing that D would need a certain measure of concentration, helped him out, sending out his own in search of anything that was living or not on the island fort.

After a while, perhaps ten minutes or a little more, D opened his eyes and stood up straight. He opened his left palm to face him and talked into it.

‘So?’ He asked simply. The grotesque face on the dhampir’s hand that was the parasite frowned thoughtfully.

‘Hmm, it’s barely there, but I can sense a lot of activity coming from over in the direction of the walls. It’s very faint though.’

D’s ever-present neutral expression didn’t fade. Instead, an intense focus came into his eyes as he stared up at the thick battlements on the cliff’s edge. ‘I’ve never felt this kind of presence before,’ he commented. Although his tone was almost casual, he walked purposefully forward to collect the horse and lead it into the cover provided by a large arch that had fallen into nothing more than a pile or ornate rubble. There he hobbled it, though it was unnecessary insofar as the programming of the beast wouldn’t let it wander off, and strode into the thickest part of the jungle that was near the base of the walls.

tbc

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I thought that I had better get something finished and posted and I was long due to fulfill a prompt. X-posted to 30_somethings, the Pit, LJ and this journal. Part of a pact I made with myself not to let a chapter be published with less than at least 700-1000 words. X[