Tales of Death´s Daughter

The beavers soon sent the message out to similar towns and began to paddle towards the dam. To demolish the dam in an orderly and controlled fashion, I allowed them to gather more beavers. It was a necessary risk, but one I was willing to take. I naturally spent my time in the background, hidden from these other towns as the village chief gave his best to convince his peers.

Needless to say, they were convinced as I entered their meeting largely unnoticed and showed them my true eye colour. I didn’t even know what vampires had done to deserve such a reputation so that even thousands of beavers didn’t try to resist me openly. But I also instantly noticed their hatred for me and their will to rebel.

After a few hours, I stood on top of the dam, a Damocles sword in hand. It was a torch, but that was all I needed to burn down everything until the pressure of the water did the rest. My real sword, although incredibly dull due to my climbing attempt, rested peacefully in my left hand.

Hundreds of beavers began their work in the night, only possible due to the crystal clear night and a few magical lamps that were hung up inside. Occasionally, I went somewhere else on the dam, knowing full well they could try to destroy the portion under me and kill me that way.

An hour of boredom later a few harpies circled above my head. The beavers obviously tried to shoot them down with their bows as these two races were apparently enemies. Interestingly, I haven´t seen any weapon except bows, meaning that the harpies were probably the only enemy they had to take care of. Strangely enough, a few harpies also carried a few pots and although I didn’t know what they were planning, I knew it was going to be interesting.

I stood there for a few more minutes, not really bothering to look behind me even as the sounds became irregular.

“Miss vampire,” I turned around as an old beaver approached me on all fours, just like the others did. After standing upright, they drew their bows to the fullest, naturally aiming at me. Bored, I looked at the completely useless betrayal and inched closer to the edge of the dam. “the beaver council has rejected your proposal and declared you as our enemy. Surrender at once. Your weapon is dull and you are alone.”

“Well, any piece of metal can be used for bashing a few beaver heads open. I guess I have no choice then.” I said and lifted up the torch. “You should have shot me as you still had the slightest chance.”

I jumped back over the edge as hundreds of arrows came flying at the same time. At first, I fell like a rock, but after a second or so, I hit the dam for the first time with my legs. I slammed against the wood, nearly losing my torch in the process. I slid down like this for a few seconds, leaving a trail of blood behind as the friction ripped off my skin at several places. It was a truly gruesome experience, falling freely with the end, a large waterfall spewing out of the dam always in sight.

A hundred metres after I fell, I angled the sword and began to cut open the wood, although less than expected. As I noticed how useless my sword became, I pressed my body against the wall as much as possible to create even more friction and finally succeeded as the sword dug through the wooden covering. Still bleeding and with wooden splinters inside my body, I waited to heal for a full minute until I held the torch against the wood.

“Fuck.” The wood wasn’t just insanely durable, but also fire resistant in a way I never saw before. No matter what I tried, the wood just couldn’t be lit on fire. It turned black, but that was it. Unable to do anything, I could only wait and press the torch against the wood.

My plan was a failure. I naturally expected the beaver´s betrayal and stood close to the edge to set an area on fire they couldn’t easily extinguish. If I had tried burning the dam right in the beginning, I may have acted differently, but I wanted to find someone to do the job for me, no I needed to. If my affiliation with the humans ever came to light, the elves would surely attack us right away, just after I drowned the human´s army. The white´s territory would be the first one to fall and I would be without a home, without any way to influence the greater world.

Thus, I wanted the beavers to do it. By holding myself in the background and leaving no traces behind, the elves would find fewer sources of information if they ever searched for the real cuprid. The average beaver would push the blame to their chiefs and they would point to me who not many did see. Chaos would ensue, but it wouldn’t be me who had to live with the rage of the elves.

But now, every beaver could look down the edge, to see a human girl clinging onto a sword. Frustrated, I hammered the torch against the wood as the wood to my right opened outwards tens of metres away. Three archers stepped onto the nearly created platform and aimed at me.

“By the gods. This isn’t just a dam, this is a damn fortress.” I and looked upwards one last time. Annoyed by the development, I pushed my feet against the wood and jumped away from the dam, arms and legs stretched out as far as possible. I left the useless sword behind and harmlessly threw the torch in their direction, sadly missing completely. It tumbled down with me, hitting the wood countless times while I fell downwards and tried to slow down my fall as much as possible.

“Wohooo!” Honestly, that was fun. Slamming into the ground wouldn’t be, but the fall downwards was. For a few seconds, I fell freely, the wind dishevelled my hair completely and the rest of my dress fluttered incredibly fast as I laughed and turned around to see the ground coming closer and closer. I began to hear the waterfall right beside me as I saw the fundament of the dam, the stonewall I noticed earlier that night.

“Do you want to die that badly?” screamed a familiar harpy as she grabbed my arms and extended her wings. My shoulders creaked under the sudden force, but I was still laughing like crazy. The harpy flapped her wings frantically and managed to stop the free fall a hundred metres before we hit the ground.

“Death is temporary. Can you bring me up again? My life depends on the destruction of this dam.”

“Are you insane? The wood is magically enhanced and there are hundreds of these mongrels inside. It´s not a simple dam, it is a city!” That would explain a few things, especially how these towns I saw on the water could create a massive building like this.

“Magically enhanced you say … can I remove that somehow?” I asked, already thinking about possible solutions.

“You …”

“can?” I ended the harpy´s sentence. I didn’t want to hear the impossibility of the situation, but rather what I needed to do.

“In theory yes. There is a mana source inside. You should know how this looks like when you see it.”

“Perfect, now I just need to get inside somehow.” Destroy the mana source, burn down the dam. It was a simple plan, but honestly the best I could come up with.

“There are hundreds or archers on top of the dam. It is impossible to enter through normal means.” She claimed and I had to agree with her. Even I wouldn’t be able to survive so many arrows.

“Agreed. But there is a way inside, isn’t it?”

“They open their embrasures whenever we come close to try anything.” The harpy apparently meant the opening in the dam that was suddenly created to my side as I dangled on the sword.

“Perfect. That’s my entrance. I need some of your friends to act as bait.” I concluded and waited for her answer.

“Alright.” I didn’t expect that at all. Shouldn’t she be more reluctant to act as bait?

“Why are you helping me?” I asked, not really understanding their motives.

“Generations ago, there wasn’t that much water here. It was a basin, full of wild animals and the perfect place for us harpies to live. But then, they started to build these things and the water level rose. We tried to fight them back, but their arrows claimed too many souls of my race already. The elders gave up and we fled to higher ground, only to see these places flooded after the next few heavy rainfalls. They destroyed our homeland.”

Her answer was satisfactory and although I didn’t trust her completely, I started to rely on them, at least for the time being.

After she carried me high enough for me to converse with the other young harpies who still had thirst for action and they showed me what they brought with them, a salamander which spewed fire after one of them squished him slightly and a lot of flammable sap, we formulated a simple plan to burn everything to the ground and reclaim the living space for the harpies, at least until the beavers rebuild the dam and water filled up the basin again. If they managed to stop the beavers from rebuilding or not was honestly not my concern, I just wanted to see a flood that drowned everything in its way.