Tale of A Slayer, Spirit.of.the.Stars. [children's books read aloud .txt] 📗

for any disturbance around her to spring her into action. Rhianne quietly stepped over a large, fallen tree branch in her path, muscles taut with anticipation and fierce determination, silently stalking the darkness.

From behind her, a twig snapped, its sound reverberating through the cold, starless night. Rhianne whipped around, her stake ready, poised to strike at whatever disturbed the silence. In the corner of her vision, something moved. That something stepped out of the shadows and leapt at her, its movements slick and lithe as a panther in the darkened night. Quickly reacting, the Slayer turned and blocked the attack with her arm and at the same time, kicked out with her foot at her assailant.

The vampire with its sharp, glistening teeth and glowing yellow eyes, hissed and snarled as it fell backwards onto the pavement, its head hitting the ground with a crack! But this did not deter the vampire and it moved to get up. Rhianne didn’t give the vampire the luxury of having another attack.

Whirling around in a circle-dance, she whipped out her leg and swiftly knocked it back over onto the ground. The creature staggered before it fell, hitting the cement with a thud. She leapt at it, brandishing her stake. But it must have been expecting this as the vampire rolled out of the way, her stake hitting only empty air.

Seizing the opportunity the vampire lashed out a punch to the Slayer’s face, leaving behind a trail of blood that oozed from her lips, a purple bruise starting to form on her delicate features. Rhianne was slightly taken aback, but dodged out of the way as the vampire lunged at her.

She swooped to the ground, legs kicking out in an arc that toppled her opponent. Jumping up, she straddled the vampire and planted the stake into its back, plunging it deep into its black heart. The vampire exploded in a shower of dust which sprinkled about in the night air, the dust swirling round in the glow from the moon before settling to the ground.

Dusting off her clothes and wiping her hands off, the Slayer continued her patrol. A couple more vamps came and she dusted them one after the other, a stake in each hand in quick succession.

As the Slayer stood catching her breath, the cool night air swirling around her with its gentle breeze, a flicker of movement caught her peripheral vision. Turning sharply, her eyes searched about for the threat.

Nothing.

Continuing to survey the area around her, she stood poised, ready to strike at any given moment for several minutes. Never let one’s guard down, she thought. Seeing nothing, but the hairs raised on the back of her neck said otherwise. Sensing something, Rhianne tried to discern where. Slowly turning, she kept her guard up, ready for danger.

Still nothing.

Relaxing only slightly, Rhianne continued walking, eyes flicking this way and that. A dark shape soon appeared, silhouetted in the branches of two trees standing close together. Feeling she was being watched, Rhianne scanned the darkness.

The arch-demon Borthezedar, regarded her with glowing eyes of red coal, his gaze piercing into her. Their eyes met and for one brief second, they stood in a staring match, calculating and sizing the other one up. His red eyes bore into her, as if reading her very soul. Rhianne felt a twinge of nervousness, but gulped it away, blocking out the feeling with a sense of calm collectedness.

Then, as quickly as the arch-demon appeared, he disappeared, fading into the blackness as if he weren’t there to begin with. Rhianne started but he had already disappeared before she could move to intercept him. Searching around for him, but with no success she reluctantly gave up.

Sighing heavily, she turned to go in for the night and get some sleep. The red, glowing eyes in the night watched her from a distance as the Slayer made her way across the fields into the small cottage where she stayed with her father.

Soon, he thought. Very soon. The Slayer would meet her fate swiftly as did her Watcher. Just have to bide my time, he thought darkly as the Slayer receded out of the demon’s sight.

XXXX

“One has to wonder what he sees in her.” the maid said, who was vigorously brushing Rhianne’s long, red hair in front of the gilded, oval-shaped mirror. “I mean, she’s not even that pretty. And oh, dear Lord, she’s barely of a mind to know when to stop incessantly talking. Not to mention those rumors……”

Rhianne was only half-listening to the constant drabble of her housemaid, who was excitedly chattering on and on with hardly a breath between words. Her mind was on more serious, darker things. Thinking about her stash of weapons which she hid very carefully in a secret compartment behind the dresser that no one knew about, she pondered which ones she should take with her for her nightly patrol. She would find this demon and put an end to him.

The maid was still chattering happily away about some town girl and a certain young man the maid obviously had a thing for. Rhianne could care less about the whole thing. Not wanting to appear rude and inattentive, she simply forced a smile on her face and replied, “Yes, I would quite think that she’s not his type. Not at all.”

“Oh yes, not at all, indeed.” the maid gushed away.

Rhianne sighed. Another drab day of listening to the townsfolk and their “enlightened” talks of politics and the like, was enough to make her go insane. She never was much for politics to begin with and the conversations simply bored her to tears. Yet she had to sit like a lady, all right and proper and such, quietly sipping from her teacup and only speak if she had something useful to say. The townsfolk and their politics, she thought with a sigh.

Thinking back on her Slayer mission, her expression turned grim. Always would her mind return to that dark task she had to carry out, hardly giving her mind and body any decent rest. Because of this she had dark circles underneath her eyes, which of course the maid had to comment on, the maid rushing over to grab a container of powder and rouge to cover them up. The maid went on and on about how much sleep Rhianne wasn’t getting as she applied the powder and rouge carefully and painstakingly to the Slayer’s skin.

Rhianne gritted her teeth jaw clenching slightly, but plastered a fake smile on her face instead, swallowing down the words she really wanted to say. Instead, she simply nodded and said some mindless drabble about staying up late reading some epic novel by candlelight, not really focusing on what she was saying. Her mind was too preoccupied with dismal thoughts. And of course, the maid wanted to hear all about said book she was reading.

“Ooh, do tell!” the maid squealed with unrestrained excitement evident in her voice.

Rhianne sighed again. But thankfully her father entered the room, thus sparing her from having to answer the question. Her father ushered out the maid as he said he needed to discuss something important with his daughter. The maid obligingly left. Thank you, Rhianne thought silently to her father. She wasn’t sure how much more gabbing from the maid she could stand.

Rhianne slowly got up to face her father, her movements graceful and proper. Her father stood in the doorway, looking at her with a somewhat stern expression.

“Yes father?” Rhianne asked, wondering what this was about. Her father usually kept silent unless he really had something of importance to say.

“We are to have a special guest tonight”, her father started, looking at Rhianne straight in the eye. “A Sir Greenwald, of one of the higher classes of nobility, is coming for dinner tonight. He seems to have shown a great deal of interest in you and so I would like the both of you to talk and get to know each other better.” her father explained, still a slight frown on his hard features. Her father always seemed to have a perpetual frown no matter what the circumstance. It irritated her a little.

Rhianne carefully spoke up. “Yes, father I shall do my best to make him feel welcome in our home.” She almost gagged on the words as she said them.

Rhianne had heard of this Sir Greenwald before. He was certainly rich yet extremely pompous and uptight in his behavior. She wondered why he had an interest in her. Her father seemingly satisfied with her response, nodded and left the room.

Rhianne stood there a moment pondering how she would handle having this guest of theirs tonight. Since she had nothing else to do for the day until the evening, she decided to sneak out into the woods and practice her Slayer skills. One can never be too prepared, she thought. At the very least it would distract her from the thought of this guest of theirs coming for dinner that night. She so needed a distraction.

After grabbing some weapons and stashing them away in her bag, she quietly slipped out a back window and headed off to the abandoned shack deep in the woods on the outskirts of town.

XXXX

It was the following night.

Rhianne trudged back into her room through the back window of the bedroom, after another night of slaying. Latching the window shut, she proceeded to put away her weapons and get ready for bed.

Thinking back on the previous evening, of their “important” guest, Sir Greenwald, Rhianne tried hard to swallow the feelings being dredged up within her. Sir Greenwald had asked her father’s permission for her hand in marriage. Rhianne nearly fell out of her seat at this, but managed somehow to maintain a dignified composure. She didn’t particularly like this Sir Greenwald. Yet her father, after some discussion on finances and how it would be of benefit to everyone if the marriage were to proceed, agreed and granted him permission despite Rhianne’s meager attempts to object to this. How was she to handle marriage? She didn’t feel ready for it and with her role as the Slayer, it would make things complicated to say the least. Rhianne wasn’t sure what to do about the whole situation.

Well, I may not have to worry about it, if I don’t survive the confrontation with Borthezedar, she thought grimly. The idea that she might perish at the hands of this arch-demon downright terrified her. She didn’t want to die, yet she knew it came with the Slayer package. Train, slay, train, slay, die……. Swallowing hard, she forced the thoughts from her mind and proceeded to get some sleep. Another restless night, the Slayer thought bleakly.

Just then, there was a soft knock at her door and Rhianne paused a moment before heading to the door.

“Yes, what is it?” she called out, not really in the mood for conversation.

“Uh, Miss Rhianne? May I come in for a moment? I wish to speak with you.” her housemaid Lydia said in a cautious tone.

Rhianne sighed. “Yes, but only for a moment.”

The door opened and Lydia walked in, looking quite thrilled at something. “Oh, isn’t it wonderful! You marrying Sir Greenwald! He’s such a good man. And handsome