Castle Vania: WHERE DEMONS REIGN
             Chapter 1    "Hunters"


         There was EVIL here. He could feel it in every bone
in his body. He was attuned to it like all Hunters of the Undead 
were. He was Sean Bolga'rrti, a 25 year old Killer of monsters. He had
fallen in with a band of Mercenaries set on eliminating all monsters from
Europe, and with time the world (Being paid very generously all 
the while for their heroic efforts, of course). He was 18 and at the time
and for the past 7 years he had trained to become a Vampire Hunter.
And now as Sean stood on a hill overlooking the carnage that was once 
Pondaslane Village he sensed such amounts of pure malicious energy 
that he knew that only one kind of creature could have done this 
much damage.

         "Vampire." That was Feirro. He was a strange, aloof, sort of
person trained as a Mystic. Sean had met him about a year ago.
         "I guess about 24 of them." And that was Theodore Dublowsk'i. 
He used to be one of the Count's Elite Guard.....
before the Count killed him. He was a Ghost now and used his powers
to fight the evil that infects Transylvania.
          "Closer 28," said Feirro.
          "Yeah," replied Theodore.
There was only one more member of their group. "Jenny can ya' do a Psi-Scan
for us? See if the Vamps are still around or if they left all ready."
          "I'll get right on it Ted," Sean started to smile
and then caught himself as theodore whipped around. Theodore hated
to be called 'Ted' but Jennifer Kain was the only one he would tolerate
it from. She pulled back her green hood so that the fabric wouldn't muddle
her readings. Jenny had Blonde Hair that reached to her waist. 
She had the most intense blue eyes that Sean had ever seen. 
Jennifer was very beautiful and Sean hoped someday to have a different 
kind of relationship with her than a business associate, but two things 
stopped him. One, the fact that they were business associates in 
Vampire Hunting and the rigors of fighting the Undead kept them from 
becoming too close to each other. Two: God help him; Sean could walk 
right into a Vampire's tomb, swim through waters infested with Fish Men, 
and go toe-to-toe with all sorts of Demon Spawned monstrosities but he 
couldn't get up the courage to tell Jenny how he felt.


          "I'm sensing something!" Jennifer exclaimed breaking Sean out of
his silent musings.
          "What is it?" asked Theodore looking around alertly.
          "It's hard to tell. The impressions I'm getting are confusing."
Sean tried to sense what Jenny was feeling but he was not an Empathist and
his powers weren't as advanced as the other's. "It seems like Were-Wolves
but... this is just so strange... they're above ground
level," Jennifer concluded. Sean as confused by this as she, looked around
for the tell tale red glow of Were-Wolf eyes. He also sniffed the air
searching for the peculiar scent that the shape shifting devils gave off.
But all he could see was darkness and all he could smell was the smoke that
rose from the burning houses as the bright, yellow flames licked eagerly
at the small remainder of unburned structures lighting the middle of the 
village. Feirro touched his right hand to his head and looked around.
            "There!" Feirro said pointing, at the form of a dark mountain in 
the distance. "I saw movement." Sean peered where the Mystic had indicated
but could see only the mountain. It was pretty hard not to miss something
that big.
            "Comin' over the mountains, eh? If you could see them buggers 
from such a distance then there's goin' to be plenty of 'em,"
said the ghost as he grimaced and drew his broadsword. His sword, 
Sean noticed, was semi-transparent and looked like
it was not really solid. In fact all of Theodore looked non solid
and translucent. He had shaken Theodore's hand before and Theodore had 
stolen his wallet before. Maybe his ghostly appearance was merely illusion
but Sean wasn't sure; the unreal look that Theodore had looked too real to
him. "All, right now. Everyone listen up, Feirro you get up on top of one
of those unburned buildings and keep quiet, Sean get that sword of yours out
and hide behind that tree over there, Jenny an' I'll set up a barricade out
on the edge a' town." Ordered Theodore as he set up for the battle to come.
Sean felt a twinge of jealousy at Theodore being paired with Jennifer
instead of himself, even though he knew that ghosts had no interest in
living women. But Sean couldn't help himself so just to spite Theodore as he
walked away he called, "Yes, Ted!" Then Sean ducked as the rock 'Ted'
had thrown sped over his head.

           As Sean reached the gnarled blackened tree he had been assigned
to, the Vampire Hunter remembered what Jenny had said about the Were-Wolves
being above ground level. Something about that bothered him. He couldn't
quite put his finger on it, but Sean knew there was something wrong with
that. He concentrated on the problem; if the Were-Wolves were ON the 
mountain then Jenny would have said their coming over the mountain, not
that they are above ground level. Above ground level implied something
else. It implied that... Suddenly Sean knew what was wrong, something
horribly wrong and potentially devastating. Something that might finally
kill their little band of hunters. "They're FLYING!" yelled Sean. "Those
Demons are FLYING!"