BLOOD FESTIVAL

Meanwhile, in the castle training grounds, a young boy with dark hair fought punch for punch with an older boy who looked to be in his late teens. They both kept up the fight until another boy walked in, he too appears to be in his late teens.

"Damien enough training. Father wants us dressed to accompany him to the feast tonight", immediately he said that Damien glared at him with his dark wine-red eyes and walked away through the entrance.

"Good afternoon master Vesper", said the young pointy-eared mentor.

"He is not a child stop going easy on him", said vesper in a calm yet stern tone." I know your lot ages slowly but he is so calculating and destructive it creeps me out. Frankly, I'm scared to teach him anything that could hurt me", said the young half-elf as he smiled awkwardly at his teammate.

Vesper tucked some strands of his pitch-black hair behind his ears and said "I recommended you to my father because I wanted to personally monitor my little brother's training don't fuck this up Stephan", said the young master as he walked away leaving Stephan to contemplate on how to go about Damien's training as he had never trained anyone before thoughtless of a true vampire.

After leaving the castle through the route in which the castle servants take, the orphanage children made their way to the village that surrounds the castle. It was a small village that was filled to the brim with humans as most villages in the vampire kingdom of Grimborne were. The vast majority of people living in vampire territory were human because only those of true bloodlines were born vampires and the ones that were turned were usually turned to join some sort of military force or to serve a specific purpose to the vampire nobility because only true blood can turn humans.

The children smiled as they approached the village from the dusty path that extended from the castle. They had been looking forward to the blood festival for months because of the annual village Blood festival fair. the village created the fair on the day of the festival to advertise their goods and services to attract foreigners for a good payday.

"I'm gonna go find a vendor who sells fairy floss", said Gerald.

"Oh no not so fast buddy, lady Elissa said I'm in charge so no running off on your own and getting us in trouble. we'll have to move around in a group", said Felix.

"Actually, lady Elissa said we're both in charge. so, I say we have fun", said Amethyst.

"Uhhh whatever just don't get yourselves in trouble", said Felix.

"I actually wanna see the lanterns go up later this evening", said Illira as she saw some of the shopkeepers who were trying to sell some Blood festival lanterns.

"No, Illira that's past our curfew", said Trevor disapprovingly.

"ooh let's go to the town hall to see the new performer, I heard from the gardener she is the best in all the nations", said Naomi in a timid voice.

"Yeah that good Idea," said Illira who was holding Naomi's hand as they walked.

"I'm not going to that", said Felix

"Fine then let's take a vote. raise your hands if u think we should go", said Amethyst.

Four of the kids raised their hands except for Gerald and Felix.

"it's settled then", said Amethyst with a smug grin on her face.

"Gerald we can get your fairy floss on the way", said Illira as she received a smile from Gerald

"Fine then you all can just go without me", said Felix.

"What happened to Mr ' let's stay in a group'", said Trevor mockingly.

"Fine whatever let's just get this over with", said Felix feeling defeated by his own words.

After a short walk, they made their way to the village square where were people of different races were gathered to see the 'Blue song bird' as it was written on the banners all over the square. After squeezing through the huge crowd to find good places to stand they watched as a beautiful dark-skinned woman with long curly black hair walked in from the giant wooden stage that was mounted by the villagers the previous day. Immediately she sang the first note it was like her voice created a wave of energy that warped her surroundings creating beautiful lights and an ocean-like scenery around the stage that swirled around as she danced. The stage was beautiful but not as beautiful as her voice. After the 10-minute log performance was done she suddenly vanished in a swirl of light which amazed the audience as they began to applaud.

"wow what was that", said Naomi.

"I think that was sound magic", said Illira who still held Naomi's hand.

"That would make her an arch-mage of the council", said Felix.

'Whatever you say nerd", said Trevor with a smug look on his face.

Meanwhile, in her tent, the songstress was changing out of her dress after the performance. when a man from the council walked in and said, " Arch-mage Aditi, the council summons you to the Acelin castle right away".

"No please, walk right in while I change", said Aditi in a sarcastic but annoyed tone.

"I'm sorry Milady", said the young man.

"Just get out, and tell your superiors that I'm on my way there", said Aditi.

"Idiot council lackeys won't give me a break today", said Aditi as she mumbled to herself.

A couple of hours later, Elissa stood dressed in her finest clothing next to lord Nikolai and another woman who was dressed even more lavishly than she was. They stood in front of the large door that marked the front of the castle grand hall ready to greet the guests.

Wanting to inform lord Nikolai about Illira but not knowing how to go about it, she eventually decided to just blurt it out."lord Nikolai, I would like to ask you if you approve of the elven girl I recommended for master Damien's blood bond".

He looked at her and said "what elf?". Upon hearing their conversation the other woman frowned.

"The girl under my care", responded Elissa.

"Yes her, if no superior propositions are made tonight then sure", said lord Nikolai which made the woman face frown even more but she quickly regained her composure at the sight of the first guest approaching. It was a beautiful elven woman with long dirty blond hair and eyes that shimmered of gold and bright green. She walked elegantly past the archway and staircase with dryad guards following her every move. Once she reached the door lord Nikolai took her hand and placed a lingering kiss. She responded to his romantic gesture by rolling her eyes only for Nikolai to wink at her.

"Good day queen Ariadne", said Nikolai with a smirk on his face. She proceeded to nod and not respond.

After all the guests had arrived, it was time for the two brothers to join their father at his table.

As Vesper and Damien walked toward the door, Vesper looked at his brother and said try to smile Damien. Damien gave his brother the stink eye and forced a smile. They then proceeded to walk into the venue with all eyes staring at them as they sat in their respective chairs at the royal table.

"Good day father", they both said in unison. To which he nodded.

Elissa Seeing the three of them in the same room for the first time, she noticed how much they looked like their father they all looked alike especially Vesper who was his father's carbon copy. Damien looked a little different though his skin was slightly tanner than the lord and his firstborn's almost pearly white skin which gave her the assumption that Damien must look like their late mother.

A skinny-looking man with vibrant colored wings that had feathers that were shades of blue, red, and green in color hanging from his back walked over to the royal table with a big cage covered in an elegant-looking tarp.

"A gift for the young master, one from the emperor of harpies himself", said the man as he pulled the tarp and it was a golden ornate cage with a young girl inside. the cage had the inscription 'for your eldest son and our trade union'.

"See Elissa that's how you make a proposal", said lord Nikolai to Elissa as she stood next to him.

He then looked over to the man and said "your gift is well-received", as Vesper glared at him not wanting or even expecting to be taking part in the blood bond ritual again. other prospects came though as noble families from both kingdoms including Grimborne offered their children up to be turned down by Nikolai.

The long day of festivities had turned into evening, Damien watched as guest stuffed their faces with extravagant dishes, and his father smile as he was showered with gift after gift with a bored expression while wondering why Vesper was always smiling. He remained like that until someone gave his father a beautiful intricate bottle filled with a special drink called fae wine.

Fae wine is a strong drink that is intoxicating to vampires because it was made of the enriched blood of elves m fixed with a special grape only found in Moonvelt forest. despite being intoxicating to vampires most true vampires can control their blood lust at an early age but Damien for an unknown reason had never been able to control his hunger.

Lord Nikolai opened the bottle and poured two glasses and took a drink from one and gave the other to vesper, intentionally doing so to see what his last son would do.

Desperately trying to control his hunger Damien slammed his foot on the ground and asked his father, "can I be excused?" to which the Lord said "yes". he then left as he could knowing the consequences of what would happen if he lost control in a place like this.

He walked to the garden near the back of the castle and sat on a bench trying desperately to regain his composure.

The kids were returning home from the fair they had already made it to the kitchen door when Naomi realized she had dropped her teddy bear somewhere and started crying.

"What now?" said Felix as he put his hand on his forehead.

"I lost my teddy", said Naomi.

"I'll go look for it", said Illira hoping to sneak a peek of some of the lanterns at the same time.

"fine, but search for only ten minutes if you can't find it by then just come back it's already past our curfew", said Amethyst. Illira proceeded to nod and then left.

As Illira walked through the trail she saw someone in the garden that looked tense so she decided to go see if they needed help. as she got closer, she saw it was a boy with dark hair.

She began to call out "Hey are you ok", but no response.

She touched his shoulder and immediately without giving her time to react he tackled her to the ground.

He snarled at her with four pairs of fangs and eyes so deep red that they appeared almost pitch black, she was horrified.

She screamed for help and right when he was about to bite Queen Ariadne pulled him of her using her magic to temporarily sedate him while Vesper watched. He quietly carried his brother to his room and Ariadne picked Illira up. She noticed Illira had scraped her knee and it was bleeding which was why he probably attacked her.

She took Illira's leg and touched it for the injury to knit itself up as if responding to her presence.

Mildly surprised she pulled Illira's hair aside to see her pointy ears and nodded and said 'Don't you know it's dangerous for elven girls like us to be running around in a party full of vampires.

Illira smiled and nodded feeling a strong sense of security by just talking to Ariadne.

"Now go home ok," said Ariadne.

"Thank you", said Illira before she left.

"what's a pure-blooded elf doing here of all places", said a tan-skinned man dressed in a stylish suit.

"Shit! Irenaeus, you scared me!", said Ariadne.

He smiled at her comment and said, "just doing my regular snooping around".

"One of these days I'm gonna attach a bell to your feet. come on let's go back to the party", said Ariadne and both of them headed back.