Friday Fanfic

Buffy the Dragon Slayer

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

Chapter Ten-Gamma

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 vampire was apparently operating on her own," said Lilith. "We have no idea why she decided to help out the dragon slayer. After all, up to now, she has been decidedly very pro-dragon. But now she has apparently switched teams. Plus she got backup from her boyfriend. Granted, he is not a major player in the upcoming apocalypse like a certain acquaintance of ours but he is fierce enough that no one in his or her right mind would mess with either him or her."

"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 Rappaccini, a former alchemist attached to the mayor's office."

"And you think you have what we need to fend off this dragon slayer and her two vampiric protectors?" asked the Baron.

The man just smiled and made a gesture toward the chamber's open entrance. Five minutes later, a dark-haired woman entered the room. She wore a dark brown dress and had an angry look on her face that made most of the men in the room want to avert their eyes.

"Gentlemen," said Professor Rappaccini. "Meet the mayor's adopted daughter. Her family was killed by vampires so she has no love for their kind and she has a history of obeying any command given by me or her adopted father the mayor. She is the answer to your dragon slayer problem."

"Not exactly a dragon slayer, is she?" asked the Baron.

"Oh, she's better than a dragon slayer," said Professor Rappaccini. "She's a poison damsel. Only a handful of humans in this world are immune to her breath or her touch and the vampires killed three of them. Her official name is Beatriz Alraune Rappaccini but she still prefers to go by her childhood nickname."

"And what's her childhood nickname?" asked the Baron.

The professor smiled. "Well, before they were killed, Beatriz had three older sisters named Faith, Hope and Charity. Guess which one of those names she prefers."

To be continued...