Birthright

Chapter 1

Spike sat up, cursing a blue streak and nursing a tender elbow. He glared, his vampire features long to the fore as he searched out Ariana. Then with a yelp he sprinted for the trees as soon as he noticed the cheerfully sunny day he was sitting in the middle of. But his progress slowed as he realized he wasn’t going up in flames. There was no pain at all in fact, and the sun actually felt really nice on his skin. His sprint became a jog which ground to a halt as he moved his hand about in the sunlight before taking a look up.

Yep. Sun. Shining merrily down at him and here he was without a burn to show for it. Face screwed up in confusion, he took a look around, noticing a few of his things lying on the country road under his feet,” Things work differently here.”

He yelped again and spun away from the meddling wench, golden eyes narrowing,” Take me back.”

She shrugged,” Can’t yet. First I have to show you things.”

Growling,” How ‘bout I show you what your insides look like?”

He stiffened as she was suddenly behind him, blade to his throat and her voice soft in his ear,” How about I show you your’s?”

Reigning in his demon from much practice as of late, realizing he was both unarmed and because of the behavior modification chip in his head, he wasn’t entirely certain he could harm her,” Fine then. Tie it is.”

She chuckled, patted his shoulder, and sheathed her weapon, walking from behind him and discarding cloth as she went. He shook his demon off with resignation. Then he blinked in surprise to see a rather sturdy woman in simple pants and a tunic, knife through her belt and sword at her side. But no, it was her face that really threw him. She looked just like...someone...he just couldn’t remember who and he cursed his bad
memory.

She smiled a little at the confused concentration on his face,” Don’t worry, William, it will only come back when it wants to.”

Frowning,” Wha’?”

She smirked,” Your memory of course.” She made a small gesture in his direction and he jumped as his clothing shuffled, feeling like it was suddenly alive. Looking down, he blinked in surprise to see his jeans and t-shirt gone, simple spun clothing of dark gray in it’s place. But what really annoyed him was his leather trench coat, his
trademark, gone in place of a fitted long-tailed coat, black.

“ Oy! What the bloody hell?!”

“ Can’t have you sticking out, can we?” He looked back to her with a frown, thoughts and opinions in his head but he held his tongue. She tilted her head to her left to indicate a heading and without service started walking. With a put upon sigh he started after her, shaking his head in frustration but not seeing any way around this. As he walked in the black hide boots on his feet he unknowingly pouted, missing his Doc’s already.

Wherever they were, it wasn’t Sunnydale. Most probably not even the same dimension considering his lack of a sun allergy so at the moment Ariana was his only hope for getting back home. But he still actively took in his surroundings. They were both walking a well worn dirt path, obviously used by wagons and beasts of burden. To his left he saw woods as far as the eye could see, but it was to his right that perplexed him. Nothing but wasteland and ruin.

Frowning,” What’s out there?”

Ariana didn’t even have to look over to know where he was referring,” Where a great nation once thrived, before the royal families were massacred and the barons took over the lands. In a century they’ve managed to kill the soil and plunder the land of all of it’s natural resources. Now it’s the forest’s turn.”

Shrugging,” So why don’t the people revolt. Get a new king or what not?”

“ We are dealing with a generation of uneducated who know no better than the slaves life. Besides, law has long decreed that a royal must be of blood, not position or marriage. And the barons want it kept that way so only their lackeys sit in parliament to ensure there are no future kings. Hello Rej.” Spike jerked his head in surprise, not even seeing the humble man coming out of the woods with two horses, one on each side. Ariana sent him a wicked look,” I’ve spent many a year taking only one horse from this old coot. It’s kinda satisfying to take two.” Spike sent her a puzzled look but she didn’t answer him, merely took the reigns and easily mounted her stallion,” Your ride awaits, good sir.”

Spike sighed in irritation but approached boldly enough, taking the reigns. But the old man wouldn’t let go, instead gazing steadily into Spike’s face, searching for something. Whatever he saw in those clear blue eyes had him smiling in delight,” The lad’s got ‘is eyes!”

Ariana smiled indulgently and tossed Rej a small purse of gold,” Indeed he does.”

The old man caught it and scampered for the trees, not looking back but one more time. He locked eyes again with Spike before smiling once more and disappearing from sight. Spike looked over his shoulder at his riding companion, having yet to mount his ride,” What the bloody hell was that?”

She said nothing except to give her horse a small kick to get him started and Spike cursed softly, mounting his own steed and quickly catching up to her. He gave her a scowl and she tossed a laugh over her shoulder as she spurred her horse to a loping gallop. Spike showed off a bit of his own horsemanship, catching up to her surprisingly easily and keeping pace with her. But it didn’t take too long for his guard to drop again, feeling the wind whipping against his face and the sun. It was all rather refreshing.

They continued on at this pace for a while, the horses stopping on their own at the top of an embankment to graze. Glancing at Ariana, he frowned at the pained expression on her face and took a look for himself. If these were once great lands then it was impossible to see. There was nothing, the forest ending sharply to field after field of dirt and limited plant life. Both sides of the road, that seemed to continue on forever to the bottom of the mountain range.

Snorting indelicately,” Great lands my ass...”

“ Have a care, sir, you know not of what you speak.” Her voice was hard,
angered but not exactly at him. He noted the rather olden speak but held his tongue,” These were once prosperous farms. But with the barons came the greed of having everything now. Any skilled farmer can tell you that a farm must be cultivated, fertilized and most importantly, rotated to allow the nutrients to soak back into the soil. But they just wanted year after year of as many crops as possible, destroying everything the great kings have spent a millennium building.” She forced out a breath before pointing with her chin,” Our destination is a day and a half away. Down the path. We should reach the inn before dusk.” She clicked and her horse started walking, his following the lead of the other.