Not many people know the true story Count Dracula. Most people didn’t even know that he ruled Transylvania. They know a different -- sort of legend you could say. I am going to tell you the true story.


*****


Hundreds of years ago in a fortress in Transylvania there was a powerful count named Vladimir Dracula. The count was well known all over Europe. He was handsome and had silky jet black hair that fell over his forehead in wisps. With his slightly tanned face he looked somewhat Asian. Vladimir had a small, pointy nose that looked like a shorter version of a crow’s beak, and a double chin. Dracula ruled Transylvania with an iron fist and always enforced his laws on everyone in the land.
Although Count Dracula was a cruel and heartless ruler, he was a Christian and the Vatican Church supported him. The count was a hateful person but the only people he hated more than the peasants of his nation and bats were the Tatars and the Ottoman Turks. Unfortunately, Transylvania was right on the border between the Muslim culture and Christianity, so there were always Tatars attacking, trying to expand their own empire into the Christian territory.

After a tiring day, the count was in his bedroom chamber when his head servant, Igor Vladmisnski, came in pushing the door aside.
“Tatars are attacking, Tatars are attack”, Igor shouted to warn the count.
“What! You cannot be serious. Ready the army; we must not let them have any Transylvanian land, otherwise they will overrun the empire little by little!
“As you wish my count; but the army will not be ready to battle in time. The Tatars are almost upon us.
Igor was right. The army was not ready in time, but the archers were able to hold the Tartar army at the wall until the full army assembled. Both militaries were fierce in numbers and neither of them spared any lives. The battle went on for days but the armies never serenaded.
The Tartars were very experienced in battle and had catapults and siege towers. After previous wars with the Transylvanians they also knew the castle’s weaknesses. The south wall was very hard to man and it would be the easiest to breach. If half of the army lured the guards to defend the north wall the other half of the army would sneak around the back of the castle to breach the south side. Although this plan would have fooled most armies, the Transylvanian army had a superior general who knew this battle strategy. His name was Alexandru.
The general shouted “Man the south wall. They are coming in from behind us. Archers, take out the cavalry before they get to the base of the fortress.”
Alexandru ran at the Tartars hacking them down as he went. The general showed great courage and never would retreat. The battle raged until the deadly foot soldiers of Transylvania overtook the Tatars. With that, the first forces of the Tatar army were destroyed, but Count Vladimir wanted to make certain the Tatars never would return. Dracula wanted to scare them off before they reached his citadel.

Count Dracula, being a professional at torture, decided to use his favorite torture technique on the dead bodies. The Count had all of the dead bodies on the battleground impaled. He stood the lifeless, bloodied bodies upright by the road into the city. If ever the barbaric Tartars attacked again they would have to walk through the Forest of Death, as Dracula liked to call it.

Sure enough, the Tartars attacked again, and this time with a force of 10,000 men - much stronger than the last force. As the second Tartar army approached the city, a shiver of terror rushed through their bodies. There was the smell of rotten flesh in the air. As the Tartar army came across a forest of impaled friends and comrades, they felt as if all hope had left them. They were petrified in fear; frozen in terror. Too scared to take another step into the Transylvanian County, the army ran in panic screaming.

After Vladimir's victory he sat in his bed chamber thinking about his future. He had rid his land of the Tartars. Now if only he could get rid of the weak peasants that roomed his land, he would have a pure and royal civilization. He slowly thought of an incredible idea. Since they had just had a miraculous victory, he would organize a feast in a large, old wooden barn and invite all the lower class.
When all the peasants showed up to eat, Dracula was thrilled and sure that his secret plan would work. When everyone was singing and dancing, the count snuck outside the barn and gave the signal. Archers with flaming arrows were perched on top of nearby buildings. Crouched like panthers ready to pounce, they lit their arrows and let them fly. The blazing arrows arched over the rooftops and landed on the wooden ceiling of the barn. The barn caught fire and blazed on into the night with the poor people trapped inside. However, not only peasants were attending this feast but also an aged and astute mage .His name was Kitrich and he had lived in the town for 158 years (of course we all know that obviously mages live much longer than humans). His forehead was wrinkled and had long gray wisps of beard hanging down from his chin. His large pointed wizard hat pierced the sky whenever he looked up.
When Kitrich saw the hay in the loft started to smoke and broke into a blaze, he knew it was some kind of evil trickery set upon by the treacherous count. The wise mage realized instantly that the count had ordered the barn to be burned down with the local peasant s in it. Hastily and carefully, Kitrich leaned down to pick up five pieces of straw. He ground the straw into a handful of dust, said a few words in a ancient, long-lost language and through the dust into the air. At that very moment the old wizard vanished into thin air, leaving the peasants behind, for he didn’t have enough energy to transport everyone out of the barn

When the count got back home from this massacre, Vladimir felt that he had made a kingdom a better place by destroying all the peasants of his nation. He celebrated with a bottle of champagne. But when Vladimir when to bed that night in all his joy, he forgot to close the window.
In the morning, Vladimir woke to the sound of the church bells chiming seven o’clock. But as he tried to get up, a sharp shooting pain shot through his neck. Directly below his chin near his juggler vein were two crimson red blood marks. When the count looked in the mirror, he could see two small piercings in his neck.
“Igor!” the count screeched. “Get the nurse in here immediately.”
“Right away, sir”, Igor replied. He ran down to the nurse’s room. “Elena, the count has summoned you.”

When the nurse got to the count’s room the count showed her his scar. “It looks like some kind of bite from an animal with fangs. Probably a bat, but why would a bat. . . . .”
“A bat! No it can’t be. I hate bats. Heal it Elena! Can you heal it?
“As I was saying, bats don’t attack humans. And how would it get in here? It’s probably nothing to worry about.”

But Elena was wrong; very wrong. Within a few days the scar was less noticeable but every day Count Vladimir Dracula became more malicious and cruel. He had his servants executed if they made even a single mistake. Day by day, crazy things started to happen to him. His face became pale as fog and his ears started to turn into a pointed shape. His canine teeth also became longer and razor sharp. But the strangest thing of all was that he no longer hated bats! In fact he loved bats.

One night, several weeks after he had been bitten, Dracula awoke from a deep sleep. He felt odd and had the strangest craving for blood. . . . .He got up out of his hard bed and walked ever so slowly towards Igor’s room. He didn’t know why. Quietly and slyly the count slipped into his servant’s room, and walked up to Igor’s soft, hay mattress. Vladimir had no idea what he was doing but he couldn’t control himself. He leaned over Igor’s neck. The count tried to stop himself to stop and go back to bed but he was paralyzed. His red lips slowly opened to reveal his shiny, white fangs.
Igor stirred, and noticed the pale, black haired, crimson lipped creature leaning over him. “VAMPIRE!!!” Igor’s let out in a blood-curtailing screech, but before Igor could shout for help Dracula clasped a hand over his mouths and lunged for Igor’s neck. The count’s razor teeth seeped into the limp neck of Igor.

When Vladimir awoke the next morning he had no recollection of the night before. For some odd reason his sharp fangs where stained with blood. Within minutes nurse Elena rushed in. “Sire, its Igor. . . . . he has the same strange scars as you had!”
“Do you have any idea what it could be?”
“No sire, but his is remarkably weak. He can’t get out of bed.
Within a few days the same mysterious signs started to appear on Igor that had appeared on the Count a few weeks before. Igor revealed the razor sharp fangs as well. He was . . . . . a VAMPIRE!


*****



Now I’m sure your thinking that this is going to be the same old story where Dracula and Igor were terrorizing the town forever, but that is where you are wrong. The Count and his servant did continue to terrorize the town, but not without taking another hostage. This time the innocent victim was Elena. After most of the castle servants were followers of the Count, he started to attack the local citizens. Quickly people started to flee the village, scared to death of becoming the next victim. But this didn’t go on for long.
One night during one of Dracula’s evening strolls around the forest a mysterious event occurred. Kitrich, the wise old mage, had been observing the count from a distance ever since Dracula had stepped into the courtyard from his castle. Kitrich had found a way to destroy the evil being. As it said in the ancient texts that Kitrich had studied the night before “Thou can only kill the horrid creature, known by the men of ancient Europe as the Vampire, by summoning the same beings that brought the Vampire into this world”. Knowing this Kitrich followed the count and collected some herbs and magical plants that would be needed to complete his spell. After everything was gathered Kitrich snuck up behind Dracula and ground the herbs together with his hands.]. With a flick of his hand he through the ground mixture up into the air and shouted the word kelek, an ancient word meaning bat.
There was an eerie silence, and then in the night sky the sound of shrieking and flapping were heard. Out of the moonless sky came a swarm of bats by the thousands. They darted towards the count screeching thunderously. They surrounded Dracula and simultaneously attacked him. They beat him with their wings and bit him viciously. All of a sudden, a strong gust of wind came from the south and the vampire turned to dust. The strong wind blew his ashes away.

That was the last time any mortal man saw Dracula. But who’s to say that he is not still out there haunting the world. The people of Transylvania didn’t know what happened to Count Dracula. When they heard that he was destroyed they rejoiced for now they could live a normal and happy life.
As for Igor and Elena and all of Dracula’s other victims, they went on to live happy lives, because once a vampire is destroyed, all of his victims return to their normal state. As for Kitrich, he was elected by the citizens as the new Count of Transylvania.


The End