#bulro

( based on this ) ⬇️ ♡

romania: I'd marry you, your yogurt-making skills don't matter to me! :D

There was nothing like the fresh grass underfoot and its sundry odors of earth, sap, and so much life as he left behind the house of the saddler and the sleeping village and went to quench the damned thirst that began to burn in the back of his throat as soon as the sun went down.

Valentin knew there was something unclean at work, something unhuman in him that made him sink his beast-like teeth into living creatures and drink their blood to the last drop. There was also something about him that he walked about at night and in cold weather in nothing but shirt and trousers and with bare feet, not caring for the cold and the snow. Whether he had not been baptized as a child, or his parents had not been wed, he didn't care much, and under no circumstances did he want to ask the priest, who was also a loudmouth. Didn't all men eat meat, what did it matter whether alive or dead, wasn't it all the same?

Now the moon was shining round above the trees, and Valentin made his way deep into the forest, where there was the most beautiful pond he had ever seen. When he came to the water he crouched down in the low grass, shook out the plumes of the birds he had caught before from his hair, and washed his hands and face, not noticing that he was suddenly no longer alone.

Then he accidentally lifted his head and then his blood froze.

On the other side of the pond, in the water glistening in the moonlight, stood a tall, pitch-black beast with the head of a wolf and a somewhat human body, on two legs, only much stronger built and covered with fur, ending in a long, bushy tail.

Now Valentin was really afraid, for he felt that with any ordinary beast he could have fought, but not with this one. He rose slowly to his feet, intending to run, but just then the wolf turned its head and looked at him pointedly, as if it had known all the time that the boy was there.

Then with a leap it was out of the water, now on all fours, and sprang forward. Before Valentin could take a step backward, the beast was upon him and slammed him to the ground, pressing his chest with its front paws. Claws dug into the boy's flesh, tearing a groan from his lips.

"You… you dared to cast charms on me," said the wolf suddenly, its large eyes shining like two cold, ice-blue fires, though his fang-filled muzzle did not move but only his voice echoed in Valentin's head in the strangest way. But even so, he realized that it was actually the voice of the Bulgarian master, as he spoke badly in his language. "People say that I killed a hundred Byzantines, but there were many more, and all of them I cut to pieces and crushed their bones, what do you think I'm going to do with you now? Or do you think I don't know why you braided your hair that day?"

Valentine could only think that the master was truly cursed and out of his mind, and that his hour of death had now come. That was his last thought before the other's teeth tore at his throat.