CastleVania: The Unfinished Symphony Chapter 1
Cries in the Night
By The Dark Requiem
The year: 1431.
The place: Sighisoara, a small town in Transylvania, just 50 miles north of the Carpathians.
Somewhere in the night, the painful cry of a woman is heard.
Midwives tend to woman, heavy with child and soon to give birth.
The cry comes forth again.
The woman, drenched with sweat, wears just a simple white gown, a far cry from the sparkling jewelry and fancy dresses that a princess normally wears. Under normal circumstances, this would be unacceptable. She would not wear such a simple outfit even to sleep. But she is in too much pain to care.
Another cry pierces the air.
* * *
Outside, away from the business of preparation for the birth, stands a man. He is listening to the cries of his bride inside the house, yet trying to drown them out. Unlike his princess, the prince is dressed in his royal garb. He would never be seen outside of it.
Not while he lived.
He stands facing the misty sky, his long black hair waving in the wind. He stares up at the sky…the stars…the moon…
He turns around, startled by a sudden noise. An animal, a wolf, is howling in the distance, not uncommon in this land. But this is not a normal howl. There is something in the howl that makes it different, unnatural. Not quite a growl, but with the same ferocity. It lingers on, carried by the mist, echoing through the night.
Suddenly he hears another cry. He rushes inside the house, for this is the cry he has been awaiting all night. He races up the stairs, pulls back a door, and stops.
There is his princess…and in her arms…a baby boy.
He goes to her, falls to his knees and kisses her hand frantically in his joy. Smiles are etched on both their faces. The innocent one in her arms just stares at them, unknowingly.
And somewhere in the distance, the echo reaches the ears of something black and jagged flying across the moon.
The woman: a Transylvanian princess.
The man: a Wallachian warlord prince.
The child: we'll soon find out…
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