@etienneulven location: Silverlands notes: i tried really hard to think of one where he'd be shirtless, but I couldn't, so you get plaid in the woods to compensate.
Beneath the Silverlands was an ore considered precious to the elvhen, orichalcum was the make of so many of their weapons and armaments, but more interesting was the impact it had on the natural world. Duly named, the trees of this realm held a distinct, silvery hue- the canopy glistened with the light from the waning sun. It case gold through the leaves that looked as though it had set each blade on fire.
Sinewy bark in deep lines held veins of the same make, though it ran deeper than the outer layer looked almost gray. Nestled within this enchanted forest, Caer Glas Keep had been reopened to the Legion of the Dead as a bastion against the blight. Tales of what had occurred at Nornwatch Tower and Isengrim's Embrace had spread, but to most, they remained the harrowing tale of a far-off problem.
In the evening air Alucard wandered, uncharacteristically on foot, he marched through the tree line and surveyed the land for any signs of corruption. According to reports from the locals, the princes of Avalon and Lysara had sealed the tunnels below Caer Glas Keep when they discovered darkspawn below... But as they'd come to know, tunnels like those were often deep, and expansive.
As he wandered, as did Alucard's mind - this walk less official and more warranted as now and then he felt... Absent. Pulled in a variety of directions; there was still no word from Ankhuria, and now, so close to his father, he could feel Vlad through their connection more prominently than ever.
Stopping at a river, the scent of the water across the rocks, the moisture in the air, the sound of the distant waterfall- Alucard took them in and tried to focus on something other than what he was missing. Through it all he heard something familiar, the scent followed. First the steady but feathery pulse of the boy from the Wastelands, next came the smell of pears.
Alucard didn't look, not at first, he waited a beat as his usual dramatics gave way to the breeze off the river that tussled his hair. He spoke into the ozone as Alucard's red eyes gazed at a reflection of the clothes he wore and nothing more.
"Dhampirs never see their own face," Alucard admitted, "I never knew I had my father's eyes- that I looked so much like him-" except in height, "until he commissioned a portrait of me." When the dhampir turned around, he fixed his red eyes upon Etienne. "What do you see?"
