Castlevania: Souls Divided-Chapter 2
By Moiraine

     As the two young vampire killers continued their walk, Celeste smiled to 
herself, pleased to have a companion to explore the castle with. She and
Reinhardt had made friends quickly, and already Celeste wasn't as afraid of
entering the castle. Not that she ever would have admitted fear, of course.
Celeste was impressed with Reinhardt's skills and dedication, too. *If he'd
had his guard up, I never would have been able to sneak up on him,* she
thought to herself. Putting her thoughts aside, she glanced around the
forest. Few demons had attacked them, and the ones that had attacked were
minor, skeletons and goblins. Celeste didn't trust the calm; it reminded her
of the calm before a nasty storm.
     Seeing a fain shape ahead, she trotted forward. After a surprised pause, 
she heard Reinhardt follow. Then she stopped and looked around, cautious.
They were in front of an open gate. Celeste could not see far beyond the
gate; a fog had risen in the past hour; but it appeared to be a large open
area. She didn't like the look of it.
     Reinhardt stopped beside her and looked around. "I don't trust this," he 
murmured to her, "It's too convenient." He glanced at her for her reaction.
     "Nor do I. But I see no other choice." With that, both of them started
to prepare for a fight, Celeste shoving her staff into a holster on her back
and readying her crossbow while Reinhardt pulled his whip out of his belt.
While they prepared, Reinhardt noticed that Celeste's arrows were tipped with 
iron, a metal known to be able to repel and kill vampires. *Someone taught
her well,* he thought, *I wonder who?* Just then, Celeste looked at him and
nodded, ready. With that, they started to move slowly into the fog, but
quickly sped up when they heard what sounded like a human scream from inside
the fog. They both rushed forward, searching and hoping to get to the voice's 
owner before it was too late. 
     The enemy blended into the white fog so well that Celeste and Reinhardt
were nearly on top of it before they saw it. It was a giant skeleton, holding 
a bone club in one hand that it swung menacingly at the two fighters. In its
other hand, Celeste could see a young girl with blue hair, struggling
bravely.
     Celeste fired her arrow at the skeleton's face as Reinhardt whipped it,
stunning the monster for a second. Unfortuneatly, the thing recovered
quickly, and swung the club in her direction. As she dodged, she heard
Reinhardt's whip crack again and saw the girl fall to the ground a few yards
away. She ran to the girl and helped her to her feet, but before she could
tell the girl to run, the skeleton swung again, hitting Celeste in the back
and knocking her to the ground. Rolling quickly, she got up and fired another 
arrow at the skeleton's face. While the skeleton was stunned, Celeste quickly 
ran under the skeleton, pulling her staff out of its holster. She skidded to
a stop, planted her feet and swung the blades of the staff at the skeleton's
ankle joint. The blades neatly sliced through the bone, and Celeste started
to run out from underneath the skeleton, slashing through the other ankle as
she went and getting out just as the skeleton fell onto its chest.
     Reinhardt, who had stopped whipping the skeleton to keep it from losing
its balance and falling on Celeste, started to whip the skeleton again in the 
face, who appeared to be rapidly weakening. Celeste readied another bolt, and 
just as she was about to fire again, a ball of what looked like pure light
flew past her and struck the skeleton directly in the face. Immediately, the
skeleton fell to pieces. Startled, Celeste and Reinhardt both turned and saw
the blue haired girl standing there behind them, her hands glowing with
purple light.
     She could not have been very old, and was a few inches shorter than
Celeste. She carried two bladed rings at her sides and a pack on her back and 
looked ready to travel. Her red eyes were clearly uncertain as they sized up
Celeste and Reinhardt. She stepped forward uncertainly and extended her right 
hand.
     "Thank you for saving me. My name is Carrie Fernandez," as Reinhardt and 
Celeste shook Carrie's hand, she continued, "I was concerned about going into 
the castle alone. Maybe I could go with you two?" Celeste and Reinhardt
exchanged a glance. *She lookes so young,* they thought almost in unison,*But 
she did blast that skeleton...*
     "My name is Celeste Trakand, and this is Reinhardt Schneider. I don't
see why you shouldn't go. But do you mind my asking why?"
     "Not at all. One of Dracula's demons killed my mother. I want him to pay 
for that." Neither Celeste nor Reinhardt could argue with that, and so it was 
decided that Carrie would join them. As they stood there and looked at each
other, they heard chains rattling and turned in time to see the drawbridge
and portcullis looked uncomfortably like a mouth with sharp teeth inviting
them in, and then they all started to walk towards the bridge. Carrie caught
up with Celeste.
     "Um, Celeste? What kind of staff is that? And why is the stone glowing?" 
Celeste noticed Reinhardt falling in with them to listen as she said:
     "It is magic. It's a very old family heirloom, given only to the oldest
child of the family. The blades will never nick or dull, and the crystal will 
turn red if there is evil nearby me. It was passed to me by my father, and he 
taught me how to fight and use superstitions to fight vampires and other
evil."
     "Oh. That's really neat. What about you, Reinhardt? That whip looked a
lot like the Belmont holy whip."
     Reinhardt chuckled. "It is. I'm of the Belmont bloodline, even though I
didn't inherit the name."
     "Oh. Well, I come from the remains of the Fernandez family, descended
from Sypha Belnades, the great vampire hunter. I inherited magic powers. My
orb, teh one you two saw me shoot at that skeleton, can track evil and hit it 
anywhere it is, as long as the evil is within my range." Suddenly, Carrie
yawned, closely followed by Celeste. Reinhardt started to chuckle again, but
his voice was abruptly cut off b a yawn of his own. All three, realizing how
tired they were, they walked into teh castle. Ahead of them, another
portcullis blocked their way forward, while the drawbridge and portcullis
behind them closed, blocking them in. They were in a large stone room with a
couple of large pillars in the center, lit by torches on the floor.
     "We can stay here for the night. As it is now, all of us need a little
rest," Reinhardt said,"I'll take the first watch. Celeste, you take the
second, and Carrie, you have the last." Celeste and Carrie nodded numbly, and 
pulled heavy cloaks out of their packs, and lay down to sleep as Reinhardt
watched the sunset and guarded them.
                                *****

Another chapter, another 2am-in-the-morning typing session. Send any comments 
or mistakes you noticed to moiraine@apexmail.com. I'd appreciate the comments 
especially, good or bad, but please try to be considerate, since this is my
first attempt ever at fanfics. So be nice!

Thanks for reading!
Moiraine