[center][h1]Heilong Yu[/h1][/center]

A final sickening crack echoed off of the cave walls, as bone splintered and a pool of blood began to collect upon the subterranean floor. Yet another vampire's thrall cut down, and a quick meal for sustaining its killer. The half dead thrall murmured out a few muffled words in his Slavic tongue, before the final breaths escaped him. On a few feet away lay the dismembered corpse of his fellow thrall; Yu knew not where this man had originated, she'd not heard him say anything before his demise. 

Falling to her knees, the vampiress took to lapping and sucking out the blood that was still in the bodies, tearing the flesh open and gulping down the pooling fluids before they left the slain opponents. When Volodymyr made mention of this place, he had neglected to inform Yu of the scarcity of suitable food in the area. For now, these thralls would have to do. 

Rising to her feet, the vampire's eyes caught sight of what was coming for her next. Zombies, and quite a few. She thought the thralls were just here as guards for their master, but clearly, they were closer to him than she anticipated. 

Grabbing tight to her axe, Yu lunged forward, tossing her torch forward, and with a twist of her hand, triggering the enchantment, detonating the light and showering the swarm of zombies with fire and pitch, before moving forward and cutting a path for herself through the burning undead. Leaping forward, Yu kicked open the door, running and leaping off a ledge, away from the fiery chaos of the zombies, before she came to a horrible realization. Below her, was water. 

"So," she thought, "this is how it ends". How could she have been so stupid as to make a mistake like this? Surely, water moving this fast would kill her. Closing her eyes, Yu braced herself for impact with the water. 

But no water came, instead, yu felt a strong pull, and then a heavy force as if she had been grabbed and pulled away. For a few moments, everything went black, only for her to come back into consciousness, the feeling of dirt under her, on her face and hands. She awoke to the feeling of someone touching her body, quickly jerking back up as several small children darted off into the twilight, making off with some various herbs and stones. 

[i]"Tarkan gza! Yěrén!"[/i] she muttered out, cursing them in the Morthal language and then again in her native Chinese. As the woman stood up, at first she thought little of what she saw. Poor folk, dingy homes, it looked not too dissimilar to one of the slums of Kyiv. But, then she took notice that this looked a bit...advanced...for Kyiv. Advanced for Constantinople or Baghdad even. 

"Ti!" she spoke loudly to one of the slum residents, walking quickly over to the confused man. "Da, ti. Gde jesme?" 

The man only responded with shrugs and confused stares. Obviously, he was not Rus'. 

"Izumėješi-li rúsĕsky? Ellenika? Arabiyyah? Fa-Morthal? Hanyu?" 

Nothing. Not a single language. 

Yu then noticed another problem. It was morning, and shelter would be needed before the sun was fully out. She turned away from the man and began looking for anywhere to stay until it was safe to come out again. Or maybe she could find a nice cloak to keep the sun off her skin, if she could find a seller who could understand a word she was saying. No doubt as well, that the queenly looking woman would get the attention of more than a few of the impoverished in this slum. The axe she carried would no doubt go for a good price around here.