[outofcharacter]: I don't want any confusion to arise, so I will start a thread simply between Vlad and his own ring owner, until other groups are established. Then we can start up a new thread and all roleplay amongst eachother! :}

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He felt his chambers begin to shift. Blinking those crimson oculars, he cocked his jaw. Mentally, of course. He felt this action take place. Although, whilst in that certain bond, he was far from physical in shape. Yet he could feel those all too human gestures. The grunt to leave his jaws, the irritable furrow of his brow. Just what was going on outside? It was a racket disturbing his rest. Contemplating exiting the ring for a moment, he truly considered walking about. But he would cause a stir. He was a large man, adorning battle armor. And that was attention he did not need. Last he remembered, he had carried his own ring to some obscure area. But how long ago was that? Days, weeks and months blurred amidst one another. Even that of years seemed nothing more than an obscured section of consciousness.

The brute felt another rumble. And felt his temper peak. By now he knew someone had found his keep. And wondered if they were competent. Or if they thought his ring was some kind of toy. Ugh. The last thing the old King needed was a dog swallowing the item, or worse. Mentally rubbing at where the scruff of his beard took home, the man exhaled a grumble. Maybe it was time to show himself?

Again, he thought of this. Was it even worth it? He wanted to live again, yes. But having to tag along with some modern day cur didn't tickle his fancy. Finally, however, after thinking of the matter, he felt his mental being shift and expand. It was only a moment, before he stood erect. Boots crunching amidst the dirt terrain. Blinking slowly, the man placed a palm along his hip. Glancing about for whomever had disturbed his slumber and acquired his ring.

She had been shifting through a line of beets on her family’s expansive farm when she caught sight of a small glimmer of azure. Curious, her hands had reached out towards the shine, brushing away the light mound of dirt that had come to cover it. The dull shine of a sapphire ring met her caramel tinted irises, bemusement contorting her face as she gazed at it. She'd never actually seen the stone before, nor had she ever extensively cared for jewelry, but she could at least recognize it had value, however worn and caked with dirt it may have been. It made no sense to be on her farm, buried in the dirt of almost newly planted beets.

Perhaps someone dropped it? she wondered absently, moving one hand to gingerly grasp its metal band. Upon further expression, the girl noticed the stone to actually be quite large, with a much more intense gleam than she had originally thought. She was sure with a bit of polish, it could easily sell for as much as her monthly income was. The nagging voice in the back of her head was quick to chastise the thought, reminding her that it could easily have been a family heirloom or the like, obviously aged as it was.

Yet, who could have possibly dropped it so far from the city limits, besides herself and her family? She was quietly pondering this thought when a form covered in armor and towering high above her, made itself known. In surprise, she fell from her crouching position, landing ungracefully in the row of garlic behind her. Her expression was both fearful and disbelieving as she gawked at the figure, still lightly grasping the ring in her hand.

There was that infamous expression atop his features. Quite notably, the last many saw before meeting their end. But he could not do as he wished in his current state. And when his gaze landed upon the young girl, he quickly flickered his oculars to the side. His ring, indeed, was within her grasp. A twitch of his tiers commenced and the male kneeled to a single knee. Reaching out those monstrous digits, he captured the item and slipped it upon her middle finger. This action complete, it would now be confined there. No amount of tugging or ripping at the item would merit it's release on her. Standing upright once more, Vlad glanced about. He was on farm. How quaint. He could have noticed this due to the female's state and dress. Lovely. Why did it have to be some little girl to find him first?

It would have been much more easier for him, if it were a man. With notable physical attributes. What could this child offer? She could barely even stand correctly, in his eyes.

Now, after his moment of studying her, the man spoke. "If you scream, I will kill you myself." This out of the way, he offered her a rather devilish grin. "I am Vladizlav Tepes lll, King Vladizlav to you." Licking his tiers, he continued. "You, little girl, are owner of my ring and soul. And you will listen to all of my commands if you wish to live." He was already making friends. How coy. Shrugging his shoulders, the rather tall brute began to adjust his attire. The armor was irritating in all of this heat. Hefting aside the metal chassis, he continued on.

Nonchalant about the entire matter. "Now, where can I get some food around here?" The man was blunt, sickeningly so. And the young woman would find this out. Very quickly.

Nostrils flaring, Vlad emitted a rumble. Running a palm through his shaggy tresses. He didn't feel any of the other rings near him. And that already was a bad sign. He couldn't get a break, now could he? Shuffling his feet, he growled. "Well?"

What was essentially a million thoughts fought their way through the girls frantic mind, her eyes trained vacantly on the large man before her as they did so. The most prevalent and reoccuring of these thoughts, was her doubt of his name. Vladizlav Tepes lll, more commonly none as Dracula or Vlad the Impaler in this day and age, had died a little over five hundred years back, killed unceremoniously by the Turks of the Ottoman empire. He had been a man renowned for his cruelties in other nations, but for her country in the past, presently Romania, he had been the only thing standing between them and a brutal takeover. To the people of Romania, he was hailed as a hero, no matter how much of a monster he may have been to the rest of the world.

This man couldn't possibly be that great man, no matter how intimidating, massive, and strangely dressed he might have been. He had to be...a cosplayer, or something of the like. Something that actaully seemed plausible. Perhaps a mental patient, given his harsh threatening of her life and oddly chalant behavior.

No matter whom, or what, he may have been; when he barked at her again, Daciana was quick to snap from her trance. If she had any intention of staying alive, it seemed she would have to cater to this strange man's whims. With a cautious tone to her words, she spoke, "I...have food back at my home. Or at least I'm relatively sure I do. If not, there are always beets, carrots, and turnips that are ready to be picked." She motioned weakly with a shaking hand to the silhouette of her families small, decrepit farm house in the distance, then to the field surrounding them, as she mentioned each. Hopefully, for both her own safety and her families, her father had actually managed to butcher a few pigs for the day, as she highly doubted the menacing man to be much interested in vegetables.

Pupils having contracted, the male exhaled. Vegetables? He could see them all about them. He wasn't some sort of dull-minded imbecile. He wanted meat, of course. And it was quite lucky for the farm girl, that she mentioned her abode. He wouldn't take any insolence or disrespect of any sort. Having 'invited' him, the male allowed a grin to spread across his features. "Your home it is, peasant." It would seem Vlad had given her a pet name in all this short amount of time. Again, coy. But, he did see the flicker of doubt in her eyes. Which caused him to flash those malevolent teeth.

Sharpened to points, nearly akin to that of a shark's. "Are you doubting me?" He seemed extremely angered by this. Having forgotten about food for a flicker of a moment, he set to removing the remaining upper portion of his attire. And she would be displayed a rather gruesome sight. Indeed, there was a monstrous hole within his abdomen. To which she could see another row of beets, right through the fatal injury.

"No doubt then? So bring me to your abode." Commanding her once more, he placed his palms along his hips. He would leave his armor and such there for awhile. He didn't quite feel like adorning it yet again. And soon, thoughts came to play. How was he going to locate the others? Bah. Once he ate, he would think of his next course of action. Likely being, a means of transportation. Hm. The one to bring his damned soul back did mention certain 'assets'. He would have to figure those out for himself later, once he quelled that voracious hunger of his.

I'll have to trim those later... Daciana assessed lightly of the beets, staring vacantly through the fleshy hole. Her mind was much too overwhelmed by the sheer impossibility of the happenings, that in an attempt to retain her sanity, it simply accepted all of what was happening as a usual occurrence. It just wasn't worth it anyways. With a dull, defeated sigh, she pivoted on her shoes heel, turning to face her shadowed house. She hadn't realized how late it was out in the field, it seemed she'd been out there for only an hour or two, not half the day.

Brushing the thought away, she briskly walked her way through the field’s breaks. Every so often she would gaze back to make sure the man, or King Vladizlav as she noted she should probably address him, was still following. Though she questioned why he shouldn't, considering how famished he seemed to be behaving.

When they reached the white oaken door, Daciana fished a hand through the pockets of her worn jeans for the set of keys. Part of her was only preying that she hadn't dropped them again, fearful of trying the man's patience any more than she already had. Her fingers grazing against the cold bronze key, her face lit up ever so slightly, gladly pulling the small ring of keys from her pocket. Barely containing her relief, she unlocked the door, flinching away as she pushed it open. When she noticed no one around, and her parent’s shoes missing from the hallway, she issued yet another sigh in relief, moving to take her own shoes off as well. She wondered for a second whether to ask Vlad to take his own heavy boots off, but decided she would much prefer to not die and merely led her way into the kitchen a room away.

Another victory awaited Daciana there, one of her father’s messily scrawled out notes stuck to the fridge explaining that not only had he and her mother gone to drop of a shipment of produce, but that her mother had left her a rack of lamb for lunch and dinner. Of course it wouldn't be going to her though, but to the ravenous man she had led inside.

"Is lamb fine with you? It's incredibly fresh," she called lightly, adding the extra comment in hope to make it slightly more appealing. She had absolutely no desire to feel his wrath, after all.

Light shifted through the high windows of the library creating visible pathways in the book dust that seemed to always float on the air. There wasn't even a dull whisper at the moment as there was no one in the library, not even the pesky kids who got their parents to drop them off before heading in whatever un-approved direction they really intended to go. Sam's armful of books leaned awkwardly as she attempted to move them onto a table before they ended up on the floor. Dusty light glinted off her crystal ring and for a split second Sam almost thought she saw something or someone in the depth of the stone, but it was probably just a strange distortion of her own reflection.

How are there so many books to put back? even Sam's thoughts sounded non-plussed about having the put back the looming pile of books. No one has been here to so much as look through the books in the past three days. The usuals have come in but they don't glance at books like these. A majority of the absurd pile was trashy romance novels that Sam wished she could get rid of instead of restocking the shelves, the space could easily be used for books of better quality.

Why was there so much movement? Elizabeth could feel her world of stillness stiring around her. She had been enclosed for so long. Those rebels had bricked her into her own room, a prisoner in her own castle, thinking they could hold her there. Her last memory of human faces had blurred away in her mind. A light shone into her conciousness.
How strange...
There was no light in a room surrounded by bricks. Elizabeth pushed upwards and felt a strange release as if she were surfacing from water then everything changed. Shelves of books rose up around her. There were no book shelves in her room. For a moment she was confused, the changed setting, the light all threw her off balance but it didn't take long to compose herself. A girl was carring a pile of books, obviously she was the maid here. Elizabeth smiled to herself.
I wonder if she's a virgin.
The moment passed, there would be time for that later, now she had to work out where she was.
'Girl, could you tell me where I am?'
It was then she noticed the way the maid girl was dressed. The clothing was something she remembered vaugely but at the same time like something she had never seen before. Elizabeth's own gown was made of expensive silk and cloth with pearls sewn on the bodice. A ruff framed her slender neck and her sleves were the fashionable puff cut that tightened at the wrist. Everything about her said she was high born including her attitude. The sunlight sparked off a perfectly cut gem on one of the maid girls fingers and Elizabeth instantly recognized it as her own crystal engagement ring.
'Why do you have that? You're a theif!'
The anger was obvious in her voice.

In the quiet of the basically abandoned library something moved. A rustle, a breath and then a woman was speaking right behind Sam. The question was simple enough yet entirely confusing, who didn't know they were in the library when they were in the library? Turning slowly to face the owner of the voice Sam went slack jawed and wide eyed as she looked at... well she felt like she was looking at the living picture from a book she had just read a couple days ago about some of the most notorious serial killers of all time. Completely unable to form a coherent thought Sam merely stood there for another moment until the woman, The Bloody Countess if Sam remembered correctly, accused her of being a thief.

Doubting her sanity Sam slammed the books she was carrying back on the table and faces this woman full on. There were only a few things that bothered Sam one was people accusing her of something and people mocking the library by dressing up and this woman seemed to be doing both. "I am not a thief!" Sam whispered with force, unable to ignore the fact that she was still in the library. "You'd do well to remember that you are in a library and that you must keep your voice down in here, especially if you're going to make a fool of yourself dressed like that. How much did that costume cost you?"