Monuments in Flesh and Blood

10/31/1994 (recounting 10/30/1987)

Dear Diary,
A very strange, yet wonderful thing happened to me on the eve of my sixteenth birthday, which is tomorrow. It’s a day I will remember for the rest of my life. For it isn’t every day you come face to face with a legend. I know my tribe is full of secrets and there are some that have yet to be known to me, but when I finally sat next to Tyrus, a protector and ally to my tribe the Silent Striders, he became a rash on my heart. As I look back on what led to our chance meeting earlier in the day and speculating on what would lay ahead, I can only wonder when I’ll meet up with this dashing young man again. Oh, yes I almost forgot to tell you: he is a vampire. Now I know what you are thinking; that vampires and werewolves are supposed to be sworn enemies. Well, my tribe and Clan Gangrel never played by that one for we have shared a truce that has lasted for many thousands of years and benefited both our peoples. I have many friends from Clan Gangrel now. As point of fact, I’ve made friends with many vampires, one of which now has become my mate (but I’m getting way ahead of myself). I should go back now to the night before my sixteenth birthday, a night that would ultimately change my life forever.
For as long as I could remember, I knew I was different from the others in my tribe even from other children my age. My early childhood, from the time I was four years old to pre-teen, has become a complete blank to me. I don’t know how to explain it other than it feels as if that part of my life never existed. I know how strange that must sound but try to live as I have. I don’t really have memory of my parents, who died when I was very small. Just a vague, dreamlike recollection of what they looked like, smelled like, felt like. All I have are the stories that my foster parent has told me and the jibes from the other children who only knew part of their sad tragic story. My mother and father were the greatest vampire and demon hunters of their tribe. The story of their deaths, from what my parent says, involved an investigation that they were working on: a vicious Wyrm cult that ravaged the women and children of the village we lived in. My foster parent won’t give me any details of their deaths only to say that it was brutal, tortuous and it was just fate that I was able to be left alive to be found by him. I would ask him if they could have been saved. My reply was left unanswered, either he didn’t know or he wanted to spare me the truth. It was the hope that I would follow in their footsteps, especially my mother’s. Adept at witchcraft, she stunned our tribe by relating to them The Prophecy. A great evil was soon to encroach upon the world destroying all that was good and just and it would take more than our people to stop it. This event was bigger than the foretold Apocalypse and it would take the unity of both the vampire and werewolf races to save our world. This was met with great resistance from members of our tribe and the Elders even declared her insane. But a member of our tribe, Katrina although afraid of what my mother saw, was more afraid of what would happen if she were wrong. She became leader of our tribe after my parents died and Gaia made her keeper of Her Prophecy.
My vague memories of my parents were just as sad to me as the fact I vaguely remembered the kindly man, a close friend of my mother’s, who took in my brother Detlev and I and cared for us when our parents died. We knew him only as our Uncle Niki and he was a Nosferatu who lived in a cave in the Transylvanian Mountains near my father’s castle, Polnari Castle, in Carpathia, Romania. It would be Niki who would help Detlev and I leave Romania for America in order to escape our parents’ murderers. We had settled in a small wooded area near the Canadian border but not too far from Chicago, IL. Niki had to go his separate way to find his people in Gary, IN, while Detlev stayed with me in a small little bungalow on the lake nearby. I insisted we had to be as close to Uncle Niki as possible and I wanted to make it easier for him to visit us. The time finally came when my true nature was coming to light and he had to find me a place where I could learn more of my powers and this thing that had taken control of me. I was Garou, which was French for werewolf, Detlev told me one night, one of the Changing Blood. He told me I had to be with my own kind. There we would find the tribe of my people, the Silent Striders, who would now teach me what it meant to be Garou. Yet, even among my own kind I felt lonely and afraid. I stayed by myself most of the time. Sometimes I played games by myself because the other kids didn’t want to play with me. I wish I understood why; I think they could sense I was different but even I couldn’t figure out how. Most times I would read my books that my mother left for me, ones she hoped I would get into and learn from. I was proud of my books, for I was the only one who could read them. They were all in Romanian but I pretended they were in a magical language only I could read.
One day, I was reading one of my books entitled Science and the Occult, and one of the meanest and strongest of the boys, named Spetter, with the rest of his cronies, came over to me. Spetter grabbed the book out of my hands, almost tearing the page I was reading in the process. Another boy, Red Fang, made me stand up and pinned my arms back. It hurt so badly, but I didn’t cry out. Spetter thumbed through the book, looking at the pictures, “You know there’s no reading around here, dirty metis.” He threw the book down on the ground. He then pulled my legs out from under me so I fell on my back. The other kids gathered around and laughed.
“Did you know that your mother was a filthy little whore?”
“No, I don’t believe you”, I said, my voice trembling. I had a vague idea on what they were planning to do and I shuddered at the thought of it.
Spetter kneeled down beside me. “Everyone knows it. Your mother lay down with another of our kind and begot you. That means you’re a metis. You’re a disgrace to the entire tribe. You’re filth.” He smacked me across the face hard. The sound of the hit still rung in my ears and my cheek stung. I imagined the bruise I would have the next day.
Tears welled up in my eyes. I couldn’t say anything; his words about my parents stung and pained me far more than his slap across my face.
“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Let’s have some fun with her, Spetter. We’ll take turns. Me first”, Red Fang said. He bit my ear hard. I yelped from the pain. He tried to kiss me and grabbed at my crotch. I tried to kick him and brush him off but he held me fast. He laughed at my tears and my feeble attempts to brush him off. Now I was afraid and wishing Detlev was here. I called his name in my mind to please come and rescue me.
“No,” Spetter said. “Let’s make a fire. There’ll be no more reading done this day or any day.”
“Spetter, please,” I pleaded, my voice weak and trembling with sobs. “You can do whatever you want to me but don’t burn my books. They’re all I have of my mother’s; please don’t take them from me.”
Suddenly I heard a growl from the trees in front of me. I knew it was a wolf but as I tried to turn my head to look, I couldn’t see anything; Red Fang was behind me. He was looking around too for the sound; as was Spetter. We didn’t see anything. Just then, it leaped through the trees and landed in front of us. Spetter fell back and inched away. It was the largest wolf we had ever seen, a black wolf with yellowish-green eyes. Although it was just prior to dusk, the wolf’s eyes seemed to glow a brilliant golden yellow. I was mesmerized, and paralyzed with fear at the same time.
I didn’t dare move. The wolf was so massive, so beautiful. It let out a growl so frightening and otherworldly, it made every hair on my body stand on end. Suddenly, it leaped at Red Fang who was still holding on to me, and knocked him away from me. The wolf then jumped between me and Spetter, and crouching low, was stalking Spetter who was slowly backing away. The wolf then leaped on top of Spetter and with a wide swipe of the wolf’s paw, claws unsheathed, slashed open Spetter’s chest. Spetter cried out in pain. At that point, the wolf got off of Spetter and transformed into a male human.
“You thought that was pain. You don’t know shit about pain, boy!”
Although naked, I saw that my savior was tall and muscular. His voice was powerful and commanding and he spoke with a British accent. He said to Spetter who was hunched over holding his bleeding chest and moaning with pain. “Now, cub let that serve to remind you that if you or your friends ever bother or try to harm this girl again, you’ll have to deal with---ME!!! From now on, you will not interfere with her for I will be watching. Now, GO!”
The man’s voice made the area of the woods we were in shake and Spetter, Red Fang and the others slunk away like frightened rabbits, leaving me and the stranger alone. I was still crying as I saw him pick up my book and approaching me slowly, knelt down beside me. He reached his hand up to me, to stroke my hair. I couldn’t meet his eyes. His touch made me tremble. Something inside me told me I shouldn’t be afraid of this man, yet I was.
“You’re safe now. What is your name, young lady?”
“Tatiana Onodi.”
“Are you hurt?” The man asked his voice soft and gentle. I knew at that moment I was safe.
“No,” I said. “I’m alright. Who are you?”
“I’m Tyrus of Clan Gangrel. I think this belongs to you.” He placed the book in my lap and my eyes met his.
“Tyrus?” At first, I didn’t recognize the name but then I realized who I was speaking to. “You’re the legend!” I quickly turned away from him, frightened.
He laughed at me and turned me to face him. “Come on, now. I thought you would be happy to see me.”
“I am. Please believe me. I’ve heard so much about you. It isn’t every day a legend comes to your rescue.”
“You have heard of me?”
“Yes, the Elders of my tribe have told us cubs stories of how you’ve helped us. I thought they were made up, but they aren’t, are they?”
“Your Elders are right. I’ve helped your tribe from time to time, when it is necessary and I’m needed. My clan and yours have a truce and we’ve found it within our mutual best interests to keep it.”
“You didn’t have to do what you did. I’m unworthy of your attentions, Tyrus. You heard what the other cubs called me.”
“They called you a metis”, Tyrus said. I only nodded and looked down at myself. “I don’t believe I know what a metis is. Suppose you explain it to me.”
“A metis is what you are called when you’re parents are both Garou, eh---werewolves. I’m constantly teased about it. I wish they could just leave me alone,” I buried my head in my hands and wept. I was so ashamed. He held my head in his gentle hands and brought it up to meet his eyes.
“Do you really believe that about yourself?”
“If they said it, it must be true,” I said, still crying.
“No, it is not. I don’t feel that about you. Do you know what I feel? I sense gentleness in you that I don’t feel with the other cubs. You are gentle, kind, and capable of feeling compassion for those not of your own kind. These are rare gifts indeed, for not many are blessed with them. You say you are not worthy of my attentions but you are. I’ll be watching over you, Tatiana, protecting you forever. The other cubs will never make fun of you again.”
He pulled me gently to him and he held me close. I felt his strength flow around me like a warm blanket and I closed my eyes, listening to his kind words. I’ll remember them always.
He said: “I’ll always be with you, Tatiana. Although I can’t all the time, there will always be a part of me left behind to protect you, my special friend.”
With that he disappeared, as suddenly as he came. For a while, I thought I dreamt the entire thing but when I saw Spetter and his buddies again later on in the day, they left me alone. I knew then that it wasn’t a dream. It didn’t matter what or who Tyrus was, only that I knew he was somewhere watching over me and keeping me from harm. It is such a wonderful feeling to know you have your own guardian angel, even if that angel happened to be a vampire. I’ll remember this day for the rest of my life.