Prologue

Berlin, September 21, 1679

At dusk, Talaan awoke to the sound of a horn. At any moment the vampire hunters, humans, would attack, so Talaan, along with all the other vampire soldiers, must be ready to fight. Talaan put on his armor and left his tent. Outside, all of the soldiers were preparing for battle at supernatural speed. Talaan is the commander of a group of soldiers consisting of three hundred vampires. As he was inspecting his men, a messenger came up to him.

"Sir! The general requests you audience." Talaan turned around. The messenger was small and not clad in armor; he must be a young vampire. "Alright. Take me to him." After crossing the vast encampment, Talaan walked into the general's tent and saluted.

"You wished to see me sir?" The general, a ragged older vampire, was sitting at a desk, shuffling through some papers. He looked up. "Ah, yes. Commander Talaan. At ease."

Talaan put his arm down while the general walked over to him. "Yes, I wanted to talk to you about a raid." Talaan looked at the general with a hint of anxiety and relief. "A raid sir?" "Yes, a raid. Talaan, I want you and your men to go to Frankfurt and stop a caravan from getting through there. The humans are coming from somewhere in the south and they are going to go north of Frankfurt. Surely they will stop there to rest."

Talaan was filled with anxiety. "Yes, sir! When am I to go?" The general walked to his desk and sat down. "You are to leave tomorrow night. Give word to your troops and get prepared. You will have to be gone right at sun down. And make sure you get plenty of rest while the sun is out, we don't want you tired during your trip." Talaan saluted. "Thank you sir." With a lazy wave, the general said, "You are dismissed."

On his way back to his tent, Talaan found the messenger he met earlier. "You! Messenger!" The young vampire immediately turned around and saluted. "Yes, sir?" Talaan waved his hand as a sign for at ease. "What is your name?" "I-it's V-Varhner, sir." The messenger started to stutter. "Well, Varhner, I need you to find my letter man and tell him to meet me at my tent." Varhner saluted again. "Yes, sir!" With that, he ran off.

When Talaan returned to his tent, he saw his letter man, Vodhr waiting for him. Talaan signaled for him to go in. Once inside, Talaan said, "Ok, I've just got orders from the general saying that my men and I are to raid a caravan in Frankfurt and we must leave tomorrow. I need you to write a notice for my men informing them of this." Vodhr stood up and saluted. "I will get to it immediately sir!" Vodhr then left to make the notice.

Talaan spent most of the night polishing his armor and practicing with his sword. Talaan is an excellent sword fighter and few could match his speed and skill. As the night drew on, Talaan got bored. So he walked around camp watching soldiers polish their armor and sparred with anyone you dared challenge him. After a night of sparring and walking aimlessly, the sun finally showed its rays over the mountains to the east. Relieved that the night was over, Talaan went back to his tent to sleep. He laid on his bed with a sigh of relief. Talaan instantly fell asleep and dreamed of war and victory.

The next night, Talaan woke again to the sound of a horn. He immediately got up with excitement rushing through his veins. Talaan then pulled out his armor and put it on. While belting his sword, he ran outside and saw his men gathered and ready to leave. Talaan got up on a platform and addressed the vampires.

"Listen up! We head for Frankfurt tonight. When we get there, we shall take the humans by surprise. Afterwords, we will raid their wagons and supplies. We take what we need and burn the rest. Do I make myself clear?" A roar of approval came from the soldiers in response. "Excellent. Now, let's move out." Talaan pointed in the direction of Frankfurt and all of the man ran that way led by him.

Author's Note

Like I said, this is my first attempt at writing a book. Tell me what you think.

Reviews

very good!