Castlevania Nocturne: A Guardian's Tale (Part 1)

The Parting Storm

Vance didn't need to tell Emma that Richter slept in her bed last night. She woke up to him huddled next to her with his back turned. "It was cold last night, and you were warm."  The boy murmured when he got up. "You purr like a cat in your sleep."

Emma didn't know if that was a complaint or an observation. "Okay." She stretched and yawned, revealing her pointed canines that were too short  to be vampire fangs, but too long and sharp to be regular human teeth.

"Don't worry. I don't bite." Joked the vampire hybrid seeing Richter  staring . "Unless you're bacon, because I really love bacon." Emma scratched her head from her bungled attempt at levity.  "Why did I say that?"

A knock on the door signaled the breakfast tray. Emma put her cloak over her night shift and brought it in. They ate breakfast together in silence.

Emma  heard a small gasp from Richter watching  her peel her orange. "What?" She realized what she'd been doing and shortened her claw into a  fingernail.  "Long nails kinda run in my family." She remarked plainly. "At least one side of my family. No, I lie. Both...if you want to get technical."

Richter didn't comment, still watching her. Emma hated it when people looked at her.

"I'm gonna head up on deck for a while." She stood up, breaking the awkward tension. "If you don't mind."

"I don't." Richter answered.

"No I meant." She sighed and gestured to him to look away while she got dressed.

Richter dressed between the porthole and the drape covering it. He hadn't meant to peak, he thought she was done, but when Richter saw Emma unclothed , he couldn't help but gawk. Glyphs of an archaic language were tattooed all over her body ; coiling up her arms and winding down both sides of her torso before wrapping down her legs like a snake. Where her beautiful golden hair parted, two white patches marked between her shoulders.

"Hey, no peeking." Emma noticed.

"Sorry." Richter turned away with a blush on his cheeks. "I've never seen tattoos like that before."

"They're not tattoos. They're birthmarks." Emma continued to dress, regretting revealing that so quickly. She was never good at lying.

"Birthmarks?" Richter questioned suspiciously.

"Yes." Emma pulled the dress over her shoulders, fitting her arms into the loose sleeves. The patch on her back between her shoulders exposed.

"What are you?"  Richter's gaze on her was unblinking.

Emma knew he wasn't ready, he wouldn't believe her if she told him. In a world of vampires, mages, and magic, creatures like her were only recorded in apocryphal tales. Never mind that Richter himself was a descendant of one such being.  There was only one other of her kind to exist out of stories, and that was her brother.

Her half brother, fathered by a human.

"What did your mother tell you I was?" Emma had her back to him.

"She said you were a protector."

Emma sighed, looking away from him. "And that's what I am." She wouldn't reveal more about herself until he was ready, and he trusted her more.

Fat chance of that happening anytime soon...

"Can't forget this." She  strapped the sword to her belt. "Never know when you might need it." Emma turned and looked at the boy, about to ask if he wanted to accompany her before continuing onward. Her cloak materialized covering her sword.

The seas were calmer today, clouds patched the blue skies. The crew was busy at work, keeping the ship in good shape. ('Ship shape' Emma thought humorously.) "Another fine day at sea." Emma stepped into the sun. She greeted the crew a good day before standing at starboard, gazing over the railing and letting the spray of the sea into her skin and hair.