#centuriesago

Dracula - Son of the Dragon - is an ancient vampire whose existence pre-dates his supposed inspiration, the 11th-century Romanian ruler Vlad III the Impaler, by almost 1500 years. There is record of a Roman centurion in Caesar's legions named 'Draco' - Latin for Dragon - who is mentioned once as a commander of a special 'night legion' that Caesar deployed during his conquest of Gaul. There may be only one mention of it in the historical record, but Draculaura says this concerning her father: "I mean, he was already a vampire back when togas were still considered fashionable... sooo glad Father doesn't wear one anymore."

Draculaura may be one of the most forthcoming of all the ghouls at Monster High in the heartfelt way that only someone who is truly kind can be. Despite this fact, there is much about Draculaura that is Unknown, especially her early years. What is known is that she has been keeping a record of her life and unlife in the form of diaries since before she became a vampire.

Her collected diaries were written in Latin, the language of her childhood. When we first approached Draculaura to get her input for this project, we asked if we might translate and reprint some of those early entries. Draculaura's response to this request was to immediately leave the meeting in tears. This resulted in a very uncomfortable, for us, meeting with her father, who wanted to know what we did to upset his daughter. Imposing is an inadequate description of Dracula under ordinary circumstances; an angry Dracula is the stuff of legends.

Eventually, we were able to explain what we were trying to do and convince him that upsetting Draculaura was the last thing any of us wanted. After hearing us out, he said that he would speak to her, but the final decision would be hers to make, and if her answer was no, we were never to bring it up again. There was no argument in the room, but once he left, we all needed to take a little break.

Our next meeting with Draculaura was a much more pleasant experience. She apologized for leaving the way she did and explained that the thought of sharing those early years with anyone caught her unprepared. She agreed to let us read her early diaries, but she would have the final say on what we could use. Of course, that had been our desire all along. And then, to our amazement, along with her own diaries, she gave us a copy of her mother's... her human mother's.

Per Draculaura's request, we promised only to use the entries in her mother's diary to establish a historical chain of events in Draculaura's life and unlife. Perhaps one day, we may actually be able to share the entries in their entirety because they reveal a woman of great character and strength whose gracious qualities are mirrored in her daughter.