Alexander & The Hunter Princess

Alexander walked through the hallway that led to the throne room with his heart in his throat. Hunters always got missions from the Council of Dora, a council of immortals that created the Hunters to hunt down foul beasts. No one got summoned by the King of Hunters in Biafra, a title granted to the Hunter and his children after due to the fact that he had killed the Vampire King 500 years ago, not unless you had been found wanting. Hells, being summoned by a Hunter King was in itself a strange thing, especially since he'd just graduated from the Academy a few days ago.

Ignoring the looks he received from the guards, the 21 year old Vampire Hunter, fresh out of school whose greatest kill was a newly minted vampire, kept putting one foot after the other valiantly suppressing his fear at being escorted by veteran Hunters.

Oh God, what have I done?

At last the doors opened and through them he walked into the throne room like some lamb to the slaughter. The room was filled with Veteran Hunters who’d killed centuries old Vampires for breakfast and few had killed many more for dinner. It didn’t take too much brainstorming to realize that he was in a room filled with the Big Leagues.

The Hunters were speaking with one another in angry voices, almost as if they had failed to kill a major Vampire terrorist that had raped a city. Alexander scanned the room from the corner he hurriedly placed himself in, the social air was too much for him to handle at the center of the room, and noticed the Royal family looked distraught, the absent Princess was silently noted by him.

“Hunters, please I need silence for us to discuss the next course of action. ” King Azubuike said from his throne in a determined voice. Suddenly everyone kept shut, even a feather could echo in the room. “My daughter has been abducted from her visit to UBN to see a friend and since I need her back before unspeakable things happen to her, I need ideas from you all. ”

“Shouldn’t the Council be present in this meeting? ” A Veteran Hunter asked in a rough voice, his scar that cut across his eye was quite deadly looking, Alexander could bet the man was a fearsome Vampire Hunter.

“Right now they are looking into suspicious movements of Vampires in Afghanistan. Since they believe they might be planning something against the residents there and probably all humanity, they would be unavailable for this meeting. ” Azubuike replied.

“Well then where was she taken to? ” Another asked.

“The closest place to UBN for them to hole up in is Fort Crag. ” Prince Afamefuna said from his father’s side as he sent a map from his phone to the wide screen at the center of the room for all to see. Green dots signified human civilization the red dots signified Vampire Strongholds.

Everyone knew what Fort Crag was; the most impregnable Vampire Stronghold in the whole continent of Africa. It was rumoured to have repelled 18 separate seiges laid by Hunters over the years and all failed simply because no one knew just how many Vampires were inside or the kinds of weapons being worked upon in there that always laid waste to the Hunters. And now the Hunter Princess was there?

If the Hunter Princess was taken there, not even the entire Hunters in Africa could rescue her, the casualties would be enormous and not for the good guys. That must’ve been why those who abducted her took her there. One could only imagine what evils they planned to dole out on her in a bid to punish her father and the entire Hunting Community. This was a catastrophe that would involve many other Hunter Kings in the rest of the world.

“Forgive me your grace but I believe an attack on Fort Crag is a White Elephant Project. Everyone in this room knows about Fort Crag and how futile an attack on it would be.” A Veteran said with a deep bow.

“We can’t just leave her there to become whatever they wish! We must save her. ” The King replied with a determined voice.

Silence followed his outburst as every Veteran Hunter chose to keep their eyes away from their king lest he saw their resignation to the Princess’ fate.

“We suppose you have a plan? ” One of them boldly asked.

Then the King relaxed at his question and gave a firm nod before he scanned the crowd and landed his eyes on... Him? What the..

“Alexander here once wrote a theory of making humans seem like Vampires amongst the Vampires. To the extent that not even the Vampire King would be able to tell the difference.” The King said and pointed at him.

Alexander’s throat dried up as every eye in the room landed on him. The looks he received varied from surprise that he existed to downright condescension. The already overwhelming situation had become even more so. Looking at the faces of the Veterans reminded him of a scene between David and Goliath, but in this case, there were over a dozen Goliaths.

“Uh... Hi?” He said with an unsure smile as he waved a little, uncomfortable with the full on scrutiny by some of them.

“So our grand plan is to send some green boy into Fort Crag to do the impossible?” A female veteran asked with a chuckle. “Forgive me your Grace, but surely this isn’t the plan.”

“We are using his theory not his skills. All he would do would be to perform the procedure on the Hunter Lord we would send and he would return for much safer tasks. ” The King said before nodding to his son, which turned all eyes to the Prince who already had the satellite imaging of Fort Crag.

“Now Fort Crag as we all know it is quite impregnable, but if we are able to send someone in who could figure out a way to get my sister out, perhaps we would succeed. All we’ll provide the Brave Hunter would be reinforcement to ensure my sister got back safely.” Prince Afamefuna said before presenting a 3D image of the fortress on a table.

“Who would we send? Almost everyone here is a notorious Vampire Hunter who could get sighted immediately by the Vampires in Fort Crag. ” Another veteran said.

“Let’s send Lord Caleb. He’s a newly minted Hunter Lord who hasn’t gotten on the Vampire’s Most Wanted List.”

“Or perhaps a female will do. Maybe Lady Ayomide will do the job well, she has equal credentials with Caleb. ”

“We will put that to a vote. ” Azubuike said in a decisive voice that brooked no further debate.

A hastily done voting made Caleb the selected candidate for the job and with few words of caution and official declarations of a reward, he left the hall with his squad. Maybe for more planning, maybe for a drink. Who knew what Lord Hunters did after being given a mission.

“Ehem.” A bald old veteran cleared his throat before pointedly looking at him and then the direction Caleb had gone. Getting the message, he went after Caleb.

If the walk to the King unsettled him, well this one dropped his plane from the sky! He could deduce why relatively fast, obviously he could no one knew him better than himself. His result after self therapy was that he was in an unplanned situation, and if there was one thing Alexander avoided with all his might... it was unplanned situations. They made him feel out of his element, they were out of his control, so beyond his realm of foresight!

“You should relax a little genius, we are not walking you to your death.” Caleb said to the mirth of his squad members who outright laughed at him.

Well who are you to predict such an optimistic future?

“This is my first mission, so I’m a little nervous.” Alexander said before he had to force his tightened fists to unfold, he wouldn’t let nerves get the better of him.

“All you are to do is what you’re comfortable with, you make me seem like a Vampire, and my team handle the rest.” Caleb said in a reassuring voice that perhaps was intended to calm him but did nothing of that sort. He would only be calm when he got this situation under his control.

Soon they arrived at Caleb’s guest room to make plans for breaking Princess Mmachi out of Fort Crag. A mission which Alexander honestly believed wouldn’t work as fantastic as the King had made it seem. There were so many unpredictable events that could occur, for all they knew, Lord Caleb would have to do some things the Hunters might not agree with. What then would be his recompense?

With a sigh, he brought his mind back to the present as the Hunters moved around the room, big enough with a projector and a screen, to actually make a plan, hopefully they thought of contingencies. Taking a deep breath, Lord Caleb calmly switched on the computer and projector to begin his presentation of a plan.

“Now according to the satellite imaging, there is only one way in and out of Fort Crag. This entrance is heavily guarded which makes sneaking in impossible. You can’t attack there either not without being exterminated in seconds due to their number and unknown weapons.” Caleb said as he showed them the pictures of Fort Crag with the numerous Vampires at night.

“In the day everything is locked down. The gates seem to be firmly fastened to the ground and its walls are triple reinforced so no forceful entry, at least not without wasting considerable time only to get sniffed like a candle. Climbing seems possible as well, there are motion detecting automated machine guns that looking at the shape and size, can fire so rapidly even a Vampire won’t dodge the suspected silvered bullet. So no climbing over either, which leaves us with one way in.” Caleb paused for dramatic effect before looking at him. “As a Vampire, and that my friend is where you come in.”

Alexander nearly raised his brows at the half baked plan set forth by the Hunter Lord, which wasn’t even a plan. How did Hunters even survive with their squad leaders, called Hunter Lords or Lady, making such hastily put together words declared a plan? Suppressing his urge to comment, he nodded his head in agreement. Giving his own suggestion might be viewed as an insult anyway, best to keep it to himself. His mission was to make Caleb seem like a Vampire not to break into Fort Crag on a suicide mission. At least the man was smart enough to figure out a way in, surely he would figure a way out; why else was he chosen?

“Well there are certain items I would need for this mission.” Alexander said once Caleb was done.

“We will provide them for you. Once your part is done, you will return to the Academy, safe and sound.” Caleb said.

Alexander nodded his head before he turned to leave the room. “Good thing I won’t be doing anything dangerous, the number of holes in this plan makes me want to jump into lava.” He breathed out as he got to the door, better to leave now before he inevitably said the actual things he would say whenever he was met with plans so riddled with holes he wept for man’s ineptitude.

“Excuse me?” A female hunter asked. Slowly turning around, he saw her looking at him with a stern look. “If you have something to say, share it with the class.”

“If you insist.” He said as he fully entered the room to sit down. “Look, since this is a very important mission, shouldn’t you at least have a back up plan in case you stay too long in there and are unable to get out? The way I see it your plan is to go in and not come out?” Alexander couldn’t stop the barrage of words that kept coming out.

“Davina, let’s hear the boy out before you kill him. Hmmm?” Caleb asked Davina who looked insulted on Caleb’s behalf. His eyes lingered on her for a while, before he turned to look around the less intimidating Hunters instead.

“Why don’t you have a signal which you will release every three days to let your crew know you live, then have a special one for when you are breaking out in a few moments. That way they could assist you in escaping, I’m certain the Vampires wouldn’t simply let you go once you steal their jewel.”

“What you’ve suggested is quite smart, however letting out signals is a bad idea genius. So why don’t you just focus on all you have to do, which is to make Caleb seem like a Vampire; leave the actual work to the rest of us.” Davina said.

“My suggestion about signal aside, shouldn’t you at least have contingencies should the Prince arrive late?” He insisted.

“Didn’t you learn anything in the Academy, hunting is teamwork. We do our part and we let others do their part.” Davina replied.

Alexander looked at her in surprise, surprise about how much they actually thought when it came to contingencies. It was like they had a blind faith in whatever plan they made on the spot.

“Well, what do I know anyway, I just graduated from the Academy like a week ago? I’ll just go get my stuffs and I will return with a list of things I will need which I don’t have.” He said before he left the room.

So, what do you think guys?