Balisa

Summary: A dark presence has been terrorizing the isolated village of Balisa for over a hundred years. No one has seen it except for the Lord Bu'man, but it has haunted the woods and mountains surrounding the village and kept the village from outside contact for decades. But it soon will not be such a mystery. When Jerik is taken by the dark being, Branon gets a brief glimpse of it, and is horrified by what he sees. He alerts Lord Bu'man, who dismisses it as a bear or wolf. But Branon knows it is something else. So he decides to go hunting the creature himself. Following the bloodtrail of a recent victim, he comes upon a castle in the mountain, where he discovers the true nature of the haunter. A vampire! He barely escapes with his life. Now that a living man has seen him, Count Shlobúl will not tolerate the village any longer. But is is Lord Bu'man who must face him in the end, for it was he who killed Shlobúl when he was yet human.

Chapter One
The woods surrounding the village were silent, cold and dark. Virtually nothing stirred. Young Branon and his friend Jerik felt a cold something around them. "I don't think we should have gone hunting tonight," said Jerik, looking around anxiously. "They say that on nights like these, Micesia comes out!"

"Don't worry about that," said Branon, huffing. "No one's ever seen him before, whatever it is."

"Lord Bu'man has," said Jerik. "He won't tell anybody, though. My family's the only one outside of his to know. He's never described it."

"Just a fairy tale," said Branon, waving it off, and still holding his bow out, ready to shoot anything that should come along. "I'm sure it was just a wolf or something."

"It wasn't a wolf," said Jerik. "He said it was like the devil himself! No wolf ever felt like that."