Friday Fanfic

Buffy the Dragon Slayer

(An obvious continuation of last week's story.)

Chapter Ten-Beta

At that moment, on the other end of the village, a meeting was being held in one of the lower chambers of the local castle.

"This meeting of the Dark Brotherhood of the Wolf, the Ram and the Stag will come to order," said a shadowy, robed figure. "Baron Holland Mannering presiding."

A tall, grey-haired figure in a black robe rose up and asked, "Do our distinguished guests have anything to say about this latest development?"

A dark-haired woman in a black wizard's outfit who was standing against one of the chamber walls just shrugged. So did her companion, a black-robed man whose main distinguishing feature seemed to be the metal hand on the end of his right arm.

"I have nothing," said the man.

"What about you, Sister Lilith?" said Baron Mannering.

"Hey!" she cried. "This news took me by surprise as well."

Baron Mannering just sniffed. "You two are not being paid to be surprised. You promised us a dragon attack and then you promised us a rain storm to keep the Slayer at bay. How come you did not foresee this development?"

"The wizard is a freelancer," said Lilith. "Up to now we had assumed that she was working for the kingdom but apparently she decided to go all independent. I would not have expected it of a fellow graduate of Misanegra U but there you have it."

"And you two do plan to handle the situation, right, Brother Linden?" asked Baron Mannering.

"Of course, sir," said Brother Linden. "In fact, Lilith and I called in an expert to help deal with this situation as soon as we heard about it."

"And where is this expert?" asked Baron Mannering.

A man in white robes entered. He bowed in the direction of the Baron and then clicked his heels. "I am Professor Victor Piedrafranca, a former alchemist once attached to Professor Hohenheim's homunculus project."

"And you think you have what we need to fend off this mechanical dragon slayer Magdalena Walsh allegedly invented?" asked the Baron.

The man just smiled and made a gesture toward the chamber's open entrance. Five minutes later, a man entered the room. A large man. A man far larger than anyone else in the room and bearing more stitches than one would expect to see in a living being.

"Gentlemen," said Professor Piedrafranca. "Meet Siegfried. The answer to your dragon slayer problem."

"Not exactly a homunculus, is he?" asked the Baron.

"No, but he's survived a windmill fire, multiple attempts at drowning and even a hanging or two," said Professor Piedrafranca. "Plus he's organic in origin so he won't encounter any of the rust issues that Mistress Walsh's creation will encounter."

"Do you think he can handle a dragon as well?" asked the Baron.

Professor Piedrafranca smiled. "In his day, he has successfully defended himself against a werewolf, a vampire, gypsies and several armed mobs with torches. I think it's safe to say he can handle a dragon."

"Does he have any qualms about killing humans?" asked the Baron.

Again the professor smiled. "If he has, he hasn't mentioned any."

To be continued...