Prologue

Once upon a time, so long ago that people in the present day clearly can recall the tale. Two great Kingdoms were at war with each other. The war was so severe that a great famine came upon the land. Many of their citizens had started dropping dead due to starvation. Those who managed to survive ran away from their kingdoms to the neighbouring ones to start their life afresh. 

The warriors weren't left out as they started giving up the ghost one by one because they had no one to treat their wounds and they could feel the effect of the famine on themselves as well. Soon it was just a handful of the warriors plus their princes, Prince David and Prince Kieran who had led them to the war that were left alive. Never had their been two Princes who weren't as strong headed as these two. None was ready to surrender to the other.

Time passed with the men laying tired on the battlefield, none willing to admit defeat. In the end the two princes gathered their men and went their separate ways. Prince Kieran walked with his men towards the dessert while Prince David walked with his men towards the woods. 

Prince David and his men walked into the woods in hope of seeing what to eat or drink. As they walked the scary forest they weren't aware that a wild beast searching for its own meal was following right behind them. The beast pounced on Prince David that it bit hard into him, his men with the little strength they had gathered over the days attacked back luckily killing the beast, but it was too late. Prince David was already laying lifeless on the ground, they picked his body up and laid him to rest. Little did they know that something big would catch up with them. Prince David rose up from the shallow grave they had buried him looking so beastly and hungry he followed his men and bit all of them, turning them into what he had become.

At the same time, Prince Kieran and his men were hopelessly searching for even the slightest pond of water to drink from but not even a tree was in sight. They had walked a great distance for days until they sighted a tree which looked like it was almost dieing. Maybe all hope wasn't lost they believed, they quickly broke the bark of the tree which looked black instead of brown and ignored the fact the tree didn't have any branches. They didn't bother hungrily drinking from the extract of the bark of the tree. But the more the Prince drank the more he tasted something different. He stopped drinking and took a look at what it was they were drinking only to realize it was blood all along. 

Prince Kieran tried stopping his men, in hope of protecting them but it was already too late as they felt their bodies burning up. Soon they all passed out on the ground. Few hours later they woke up but this time they weren't the same. Their eyes had turned red and their skin pale. For a moment they felt the sunlight burn their skin but adapted to it. What was worse was that they craved the blood of the tree even more that day and kept drinking from it.

The men stayed around the trunk, feeding on it when hungry and learning their new abilities until one day, they woke up and the tree was gone. The prince knew it was time for them to continue on their journey and so with their heightened speed and sense of smell and fast healing bodies, their journey wasn't tiring as they fed on anything that had blood in it.

Not long again, the two Princes and their men met again, their hatred for each other still stronger than before. They were both ready to show off their new found abilities, the fight started again, going on and on for days and nights, with Prince David and his men looking like furry creatures while Prince Kieran and his team looked more like a preserved corpse though they had super speed and flexibility. None was willing to surrender to the other as they both were of equal strength. 

The two princes finally came to a conclusion, to each take his men and go, set up their own home and avoid the other. And so, the treaty was signed, the treaty that states they are not to engage in a fight upon meeting each other and to try to live peacefully. Although they honored the not engaging in a fight part, it was difficult to live peacefully and so whenever they crossed parts, they snarl and growl until the distance consumes them. They all went into the human kingdoms, making kinds like them, the men mated and produced off springs. They were so different that the humans noticed and so to protect their offspring, they moved far, far away from the human kingdoms where only ones like them were bred.

As the years rolled by, they picked up names for themselves, owing to the fact that they knew they weren't humans. Since Prince Kieran and his kind turned into wolves whenever they want and howled at full moons, they were called the Night Howlers and as Prince Kieran and his kind prefers moving at night and feeds on mostly blood, they were called the Bloody Night Walkers.

With the passing of the years, new things were learnt about them. It turned out the Night Howlers can grow old and die while outliving the normal life span of humans but the Bloody Night Walkers, not so much. And so when the first Night Howlers all died off, the First Night Walkers, fondly called the Originals, decided to do the same but nothing could kill them and so they went in search of the tree that made them what they were and by instinct, tried killing themselves with a sharpened edge bark and so it worked, they killed themselves at their own pace, except Prince Kieran.

Prince Kieran had watched each of his men find a partner and fall in love as well as siring offsprings, which he couldn't achieve. He had bedded a lot of females, both humans and his kind, but he couldn't release his seed into them for unknown reasons, thereby making it difficult for him to sire a child. It dawned on him then that he could only have a child by a woman he truly loves. Not ready to leave the world without experiencing that feeling, the Prince injured himself so that he would be in slumber and wait through the years for that one that would be his. With an emotion as strong as his, he was determined to wake up when the one for him would be born.

The End?