Shattered Fangs (Outdated)

Chapter Twenty Two

David

Maria wakes up and climbs out of her burrow, and we continue on our way to her castle.

I remember how my castle looked, large and regal, in the middle of a forest in England. I have fond memories of that place, having lived there for two thousand years.

I wish I could have stayed there, but after my bother and mother were killed, and my father captured, it was no longer safe in Europe, because of Seven Fingers. I remember that unpleasant day when I bought an airplane ticket to America and had to flee my home. 

Once I made it to America, I settled down in Washington state. Unfortunately, Seven Fingers followed me there and burned down my house, so I had to flee to Southeastern Pennsylvania where I currently live, ten years ago.

We make good time and arrive at Maria's castle in around thirty minutes. 

She forces the door open, and we go inside, ending up in the front hall. There are some humans around, cleaning, and doing tasks for the castle's residents. Maria points at one of them, giving the human orders. 

"YOU!!! Get me some blood, and fast, or else you will become dinner instead of preparing dinner!!!!" The servant flinches, and scurries off to a room somewhere, returning with several wine glasses and a pitcher full of blood on a serving tray. 

Maria takes the tray and sets it down on a side table. Then she pours herself a glass of blood and takes a sip. She smacks her lips. "Ahhhh. That's more like it. I'm tired of all that week old stuff that I've been living off of for the past month." 

She points at another servant, "YOU!!! Go tell the knights to go to the war room!" The servant bows deeply and runs off to fetch the knights.

Maria points at yet another servant. "Go bring the weapon selections to the war room!!" The last servant runs past a tapestry, and turns right, into a hallway.

Maria turns to me. "David. Would you like a tour of my home while we are waiting? I've redone some of the decorations in the east wing."

"Sure. I haven't been to your castle in over a hundred years, and it would be nice to see what you've done with the place." 

Maria leads us through the halls, pointing out large expensive tapestries that she has added, stained glass windows that she had put in place of regular windows, and large mahogany staircases leading to massive bedrooms. Maria has taken good care of her home.

We eventually come to an enormous stone archway leading into a massive room with large tables running the length of it, Maria stops us.

"This is the war room." She says, waving us in. "I had one of the servants bring some weapons for you to choose since you'll be needing any advantage that you can get against Seven Fingers."

I walk into the room and see a collection of blades set on the table. There are katanas, broadswords, machetes, rapiers, short swords, daggers, axes, spears, pikes, scythes, and more.

"Quite a collection of knives. I'm impressed!" I tell Maria.

"They aren't all mine, some of them I took from your castle after it was demolished by the hunters. I couldn't just let them rust away in the wet English weather, and I figured that you'd rather let me have them, opposed to letting them get ruined"

I pick up a sharp katana encrusted with gems, inspecting it. "This was my favorite sword when I lived in my castle. I'm glad that it didn't get destroyed." I take a few practice swings and nod. "I see you took good care of it."

She nods. "Yes. I had only the most experienced swordsmen look after it."

Claire walks over to the weapons and grabs a gladius sword. She turns it from side to side and says, "I like this. It's just my size, and fits perfectly into my hand." I nod. It looks like it was made for her.