The Tale of a Great Fixer Who Once Reached for The Dream, part 12 (after battle)
…….
For two hundred years... they tortured you...
My Father...
It is... not their Fault, Sancho.
The sin is mine to bear. The sin of dreaming an impossible dream...
You won't ever understand our unimaginable suffering. Comfy in that oblivion, which took even your instincts as a Bloodfiend away...
Our pain... of being deprived of blood... for two hundred years...
Our pain of having to stab our own Father with thousands of stakes...
But then...
... an answer to our prayers arrived.
From the heavens cascaded a light most warm.
Warmer than the light that was forever taken from us...
Gentler than my last memory of the sun as a human...
…….
Sansón.
Which Family is he from?
I don't know... Why should any of that matter? Family? Elders? All those meaningless concepts, washed away by two hundred years of pain!
What I do know, is that he saved us from this torturous hell.
That's... when La Manchaland opened once again!
It pains me terribly to see you in such dire states, my Relatives.
You all look... absolutely terrible.
Oh... oh...
Light... so warm...
Throat... dry... thirst...
Now wake up, everyone. We must prepare to greet our guests.
Gu...guests...?
Yes. Guests. Guests who will willingly supply their fresh blood for all of you.
Blood... I yearn for... blood...
So get a wardrobe change and freshen up. Let us start a festival louder, more flamboyant than before. Enough to captivate our new guests forever here.
Ah. The disgraced First Kindred. The Father of the Manchegan Bloodfiends, Don Quixote.
Have you any idea how saddened the other Elders would be to see the state you are in?
... Such a warm glow...
What nature of... light... is this...?
It is the light of a Golden Bough.
It will take root deep, deep within your heart...
... taking your desires, your subconscious as its nutrient...
Ah...
I... hunger...
The bough which your last Child will one day come to claim from you.
I... am now bound forever to this place, Sancho.
For that is best for La Manchaland, best for my Family. My responsibility as their Father…
There once was a time when you rather would choose death over causing harm to humans.
We... cannot defy our nature, Sancho. This is simply what we are.
Not even you, who left here to explore the world, an adventurer astride Rocinante...
... was fated to return here now as a Bloodfiend...
…….
Many... humans will loathe and abhor our very existence...
But... my Children must feed on their blood... and find... true happiness...
Here, at La Manchaland... where there is... only laughter...
Thus, dear Sancho...
Why not remain here with the rest of us...? Be with us who are cursed with the same sickness that ails you...?
And you're happy with this sorry state you're in?
Can't you see that... I am no longer the only one with claim to my body? It must be used... for the good of my Children who await salvation, protection amidst this terrifying world of misfortune...
Father. The guests who accompanied Sancho here... are here to lay destruction upon La Manchaland.
We will kill them... and feed you their blood.
You remember well, don't you? Blood untainted by pathetic begging and struggling... The blood of those who so bravely seek to kill us... boils much, much hotter.
Indeed... my Children.
You all speak true. Then please, kill them and lead La Manchaland once again into the festival of dreams...