Miranda's New Life Part 8

Slithering her way along as fast as she could, Miranda quickly found her way through the town and onto the other side of town without anyone really paying attention to her.  Thankfully so, she wasn't paying too much attention to the people and things around her.  

Slithering into the countryside Miranda felt her sense of panic fade away, she felt like she was safe.  The countryside was filled with tree groves, vast grasslands, and old mansions.  The open spaces, the clear night air, and the building moister in the air soon started to calm Miranda down.  She even started to smile for the first time in a very long time.  Slithering through the moistened grass Miranda felt the grass through her tail.  The feeling itself seemed to be such a primitive feeling but gave Miranda such pleasure.  She never was able to feel the grass through her bare feet like she did with her scaled snake tail.  The feeling was different as could be.  With her tail the grass itself felt more alive than it could have possibly have been with her human feet.  Gliding over it allowed her snake skin to touch the ground in no way that she could have as a human; it was more like a hand caressingly moving over her body than a clump of earth that she would step onto.  

Allowing the pleasant feelings influence her judgment, Miranda crossed her four arms across her chest in a sense of bliss.

"Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha,' laughed an echoed male voice.  'You are such a fool.  How can a freak like you find pleasure in the form you are in?  You are nothing compared to me."

Breaking out of her near sensual thoughts Miranda looked in the direction of the voice.  She saw the man she had face several nights before.  Anger boiled over and Miranda hissed at the man.

"What is your name?  I must know who I am fighting against," hissed Miranda.

"I am your worst nightmare.  I am the knight of Death.  I am Dissention.  Now hear my name again, I am Dissention.  Learn it well because it will be the name that is the last thought that goes through your dying mind.  I will take your soul for my own.  Just like I did your mother's," the man stated heatedly.

"You forget your place evil man.  I am here for the benefit of good.  I have more strength that you give me credit for.  I have strength in my arms times four.  You will not succeed in killing more innocent women," spat Miranda.

"Ha," responded Dissention with a great big smile of self-confidence on his face.

Infuriated, Miranda lunged at the man.  She grabbed him before he could react and started to strangle him with all four of her arms.  

In a very raspy voice Dissention stated, "Little girl, you do not have the first concept of reality.  You don't have the first idea of what evil and good truly means.  I can show you these things if you could just give me the chance."  

Miranda responded by whipping her tail towards the man.  Hitting him straight in the hip; knocking him off balance.  

"Ah," stated the man, surprised with the power that Miranda just hit him with.  

Composing himself in the next second the man gave Miranda a devious smile.  "You'll pay for that little girl.  Mark my words."

Blinking once, Dissention's eyes became pitch black.  Dark energy started to gather in swirls around him.  Directing his focus on Miranda he released the gathering energy towards Miranda in a whirlwind of condensed energy.  

All Miranda could do was raise her four arms up and cross them in front of her body. The energy slammed into her half a second later.  Pushing her backwards, Miranda realized that she had not been knocked down or harmed in anyway.  Opening her eyes she realized the energy was being dispersed in all directions once it hit her arms.  Gaining confidence, Miranda gained some traction with her tail and push against the energy.  Pushing forward she started to gain some ground that lay between her and the man.  

"No! This isn't possible.  You should be dead," a shocked Dissention said.  The energy blast stopped.  Fear crossed his face.  Miranda noticed this fear and smirked in confidence.

Lowering her arms, Miranda stated, "You aren't as powerful as you thought".

With that he took off in a dead sprint.  Miranda immediately slithered after him at near top speed.  They were head towards the closest mansion, which until that moment neither one of them realized they were very close too.  Within a 100 feet Miranda caught up to the evil man as they past next to the house.  Diving into him, they crashed through one of the windows of the house.  

The two hit the ground hard.  But before Miranda could gain her bearing she felt 6 cold arms grab and pull her off Dissention.

"What business do you two have here in my own home," stated one of the women.  

Looking up at the pale woman, Miranda gasped in surprise and confusion at the marble white beauty that held her against her will.  "He ruined my life and other people's lives as well and he needs to pay."

With that the man chuckled and disappeared, seemingly in the grasp of the other very pale woman.  "Wait, What?  That woman there has four arms too!  How could this be?  I thought I was the only one who had four arms," thought Miranda.  "You let him get away," stated Miranda harshly and with as much venom in her voice as she could muster.  

"Tell us who you are and we may let you go," stated the woman who was holding Miranda.

Struggling, Miranda responded, "My name is Miranda.  Now let me go!  I can help you if you can only trust me."

What seemed like several moments, the woman finally let go of Miranda.

"I trust you for now.  But I have a few questions for you.  Like how did you get your tail and your four arms? Answer me that," asked the woman.

"I don't know how I changed.  I just did.  I met ghosts, including my mother's. They said I was changed because I was the chosen one to face a great evil.  An evil you let go.  Answer me this, why are the two of you so pale and why does she have four arms like me?  I want to know what the hell is going on here before I answer anything else," responded Miranda.  

"I am Athena and this is Marissa.  I am sorry I have been rude to you.  But we cannot trust anyone with our secret.  I can tell you that we are people who are of the night.  But I cannot tell you just yet the whole truth because I do not know if I can trust you enough for the information of the truth," respond Athena.

"Well that is a start.  Again, I am Miranda.  It is nice to meet you two.  I must ask though, do you know anything about an evil being named Dissention? That was the man you saw a second ago," asked Miranda.

"Never heard of him," said the four armed Marissa.

"I can't say that I have,' stated Athena.  'But if you would like I have an extensive library that you could at least try to find out something about this evil man you speak of.  I can show you were it is if you would like."

With a smile, Miranda responded, "I would love to get my hands on several old texts."

"Great, I will show you," said Athena as she signaled Miranda to follow her.

Slithering behind Athena, Miranda was still curious about who she was and why these two women had pale, almost marble like, skin.  She wanted to ask again but didn't know how to, so she just followed Athena to the basement.  

"Here is everything you need.  I don't expect you to take the best of care of the information in these halls but I do expect you to show enough respect for our history and culture," Stated Athena.

"I understand," responded Miranda.  With that Athena bowed her head and left.  For many hours that night Miranda went meticulously through the information and nothing had turned up.  By the time the sunrise had come, all the vampires were all asleep.  Sleep during the daytime is like people sleeping the nighttime.  

During the night Miranda took very few breaks.  She wanted to learn as much as she could.  Miranda caught Marissa spying on her in awe several times.  Miranda was as intrigued with Marissa as well as Marissa was intrigued with Miranda.  During the few breaks Miranda took she and Marissa talked about what had happened and how they became what they have become.  A friendship between the two had blossomed.  

When the morning sun had finally come, Marissa had already taken to her sleeping quarters and Miranda had learned a great deal about her enemy; as well as her knew form.  She found out that this evil being, Dissertation, was an ancient being that feed on the lives of women for his strength by taking their souls and feeding on them.  The one being that seemed to have the immunity and strength to defeat him was a woman in the form of a naga.  A quark in the magic allowed the snake half to harm the being and ensnare him in death, sending back to his alternate universe.  There he would be trapped for several generations before he would gain enough power to enter our world once again.  Having four arms completed the four directions; North, South, East, and West.  Completing the connection and flow of magic through all of the directions; allowing her to defend herself against the magic of Dissention.

Pulling herself away from the books scattered across the room Miranda felt her eyes become very heavy.  She had the strength enough to pull herself onto a comfortable cough in the library and fell asleep, just as the sun completely rose above the horizon.  Her dreams where once again chaotic, trying to make sense of what she had just learned.