Short Story; Yuri

Credits; Petra,

"Who's that in the wierd outfit?"
"Yuri, they say he's got some kind of skin condition."
"I hear he's a vampire."
"That's silly, there's no such things as vampires."
"Is so! My grandmother killed one once."

Yuri Sveldana was actually pretty normal looking; per his people's conception of normal at least. Black leather was always in vogue, whatever the other students said to the contrary. As were sunglasses; although even he'd admit the black handkerchiefs covering his hair, mouth, ears, and forehead probably did look out of place in the midst of the simple hairstyles and illusion spells that the other students wore. For his people, this was downright classy for outdoor wear.

"Mr. Sveldana, how's your father doing?"
"He's visiting Professor Igor this week. He should be back on saturday."
"Minion problems?"
Yuri shrugged, "I'm sure there's some isolated mountain village wishing they'd go away that's for sure."
"Tell him I said hi."
"Alright Professor Zinksfeld. Anything special planned for class today?"
"Only for my best students; If you've got any fight in you, bring it."

Yuri sat down; the cafetieria at the academy was larger than it had been in his father's day, but the social air of the place hadn't diminished. He sat by his cousins; no one dared cross them, so he was safe from unwanted questions.

"Hello Yuri." the twins called from the end of the table. Masne stared at him for a while from across the table for several minutes before speaking.
"Did you?"
"No, she's in detention."
"Drat, I was looking forward to a good stake 'n bake."
"And yet you never so much as give me an off glance."
"You're blood; Mum would disown me if I so much as touched you funny."
"What's this about Mum?"
Malley, his oldest cousin had just arrived at the table. He was the popular one. Looks, strength, and the lack of mind to match; he had everything most humans looked for in a leader. He made great bait for the hunt.
"I was just telling Yuri how much Mummy loves her sweet little Malley-cakes."

Masne would be the noble. They all knew it. She was smarter, faster, and able to show complete disdain for anyone no matter how much she cared about them. It was distancing for most, but the Tarans didn't want a personal noble. The Tarans wanted a noble who could mind her own buisness and control herself three nights out of the week. In that regard, she was perfect. In twenty-eight years she had a full moon-to-accidental attack ratio of zero; she always killed, and she always meant to. In some sick way, the Nielda could respect that. A Nielda would always take a clever war cirminal over an accidental hero to lead them; luck was unreliable, evil was persistent. It had lead them to sevral wars that, while frivoulous, were quite easily, and profitably, won.

"Than her letter came! Did she send any choclate this time?"
"Yes, you've already eaten it."
"Really? I don't remember anything before charms today. We must be practicing memory modification again."
The twins laughed; it was an old trick. It was sad how often he fell for it, but they seemed to love it every time.

The twins were Jessrel and Jarel; due to an unfortunate attempt at time travel they were 17 and 25 respectively. They were the perfect audience for Malley's stupidity and Masne's day-to-day cruelties. They'd only been in school for a year now, but both showed promise at illusions and summoning. Masne had commented privately that she might keep them around as the fun aunt and uncle once she became queen.

Malley wandered off to a group of the more popular human girls. The twins kept chuckling as they watched him.
"So what did you do then?"
"It was a date Mas, we went to the movie and then I took her home."
"That's boring; Did you at least kiss?"
"No, you know how hard it is to control myself. Don't you remember Hanna?"
"Of course I do, I never forget a good juicy stake. And I had to move a few things around to make room for her femur in the stash."
"Shh! Someone died Masne, you shouldn't joke about that sort of thing."
"I enjoyed it. I hear most of your kind do it all the time."
"Well I'm not them. Dad's been working to try and change that. I can't go and make him look bad like that."
"I do it to mum all the time."
The twins giggled.
"Aunt Mavei makes herself look bad. There's a reason the people consider someone as disdainful and violent as you a better leader than her."
"Your completly right, Mum's a terrible ruler. She's an even worse wife, and I can't figure out how she became queen in the first place."
"Only child."
"That's a terrible reason to be the best candidate for heir. Someone should have made Grandfather..."
"Kept birds."
"Oh right. In that context I have nothing to live up to then do I?"
"Aunt Niste."
"Dad says we can't talk to her."
"She's the leader you should live up too."
"Dad says she'd have never made it without your mother."

His mother, Dad spoke glowingly of her whenever asked; everyone did. He'd never met her, she'd left days after he was born. Under duress, in the form of a pit trap with stakes, he'd admitted that had it been up to her he'd have never been born. He'd never met her, and it seemed like she never wanted to meet him. Yet no one else could come up with any personality flaws. She was independant, brilliant, even the teachers said she was the most powerful person they'd ever met; most of them did anyways, Professor Zinksfeld insisted that she could beat his mother in a fight. And she was brave, she'd turned against her father to save the empire; setting Aunt Niste on the Sprite's throne. She'd abdicated the heirship to do it. He hoped to meet her one day and find out why she'd abbandoned him.

"Don't try to be my mother. I have few enough frinds as it is."
"I'm... well you shouldn't have lead me to it. I'm a victim of your conversational contrivances."
"Apology accepted."
"Jerk."
"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"

Vestine Spielgan was Yuri's date of the previous night. They'd been seeing each other for several months. Masne insisted that she wanted more than a nice evening out of the relationship by now, but Yuri was fine with how things were; especially considering his own condition.
"Hello Vesti, how was the movie?"
"Lovely milady, Yuri took me to see Nightfang. It was much better than the trailers made it look."
"Glad to hear it. What was it about?"
"Oh you know, boy meets girl, girl hunts boy, boy dies, and they undie happily until my father finds them a month later in an ruined old castle. I saw him in the credits"
"Never would have guessed Charlotte was a vampire, she was always so loud and obnoxious."
"Does explain where Rick went though. You two do anything else?"
"Yuri walked me home, we talked for a while."
"One of these days I'm going to make the two of you watch a real date."
"You have one on friday don't you?"
"Yes, the moon is expected to make friday very romantic."
"Masne, I'm not fixing your bike if you destroy it again."
"Relax Vesti, We're taking his car. I'll see you saturday morning and there will be no physical or anecdotal evidence; just like every...well most of the time at least."
"Well I have to go get ready for Slayers Club; see you then sweetheart."
"Bring your sword, Professor Zinksfeld implied fitghing today."

"Are you going to tell her?"
"Not if I don't have to. Think about what her father does for a living?"
"Yea, think about what your father does for a living? Who do you think is in more danger here, you or her?"
"I suppose you're right. I just don't want to ruin a good thing."
"And I don't want you getting between me and a tasty hunk of hunk; doesn't stop you from trying. Tell her by friday or I'll bite you."
"And I'd bite you right back Mas; And we both know which of us barks, and which of us bites."
"I suppose you just want me to.."
"Tuck your tail between your legs and leave it to my sound judgement? Really Mas, it would be a waste without the twin's attention."
"Friday, or I'll bat your belfry."
"And I'll scratch behind your ear. Fine, I'll tell her after Slayers."
"I want to watch."
"If you do I'll kick your mutt."
"Drat, you win this time. But one day I shall have the last thematicly targeted joke; then we shall see who is truly down with the count."

They began walking towards Slayers Club.
"I honestly hope it's Vestine. She's a nice girl and the two of you are so cute together."
"I thought you were supposed to be cold-blooded about this sort of thing?"
"You would know all about that wouldn't you?"
"Enough with the jokes! You've made your point."