PFC Episode 16: Vampires Make Ghastly Pets

Loretta discusses why vampires must not turn their animal companions into vampires and warns what will happen to those who do. She tells of the fate of two vampiric war horses, Nix and Fidelles and a beloved sheepdog, Dash.

Warning: Animal Injury/Death,  Animal Vampires

For more information or to ask Lady Loretta a question: please visit https://www.elizabethguizzetti.com/paperflowerconsortium or email her at info@paperflowerconsortium.com

Written and Performed by Elizabeth Guizzetti

Music:

Opening and Closing music: Loretta's Theme by Evan Witt.
Learn More at www.wittynotes.com

Transcript

Paper Flower Consortium: Episode 16: Vampires Make Ghastly Pets

00:00  : Opening

Intro Music: Loretta’s Theme by Evan Witt

VO: Paper Flower Consortium: Episode 16: Vampires make ghastly pets

 Recording by Loretta Fabron Onfoy, former lady of the Kingdom of France, current historian and librarian of the Paper Fower Consortium

00:33 : What Can be a Vampire?

Welcome back beloved initiates, tonight, we will discuss pets and the strict laws against turning animals into vampires. This is the story of two ancient horse vampires, so be warned, innocent horses die and are reborn in the telling. I will also touch our beloved, Dash, who met death. Though Derrik was tempted to transform her. So I understand if you fear to listen.  This is a terrible subject I know. However, I hope you listen carefully because this is incredibly important. 

I shall begin by reminding initiates since vampirism is a virus transmitted by blood and other bodily fluids, there are several misconceptions and even old wives tales. One of which is why most vampires don’t keep pets—especially short-lived pets. Some believe the animal will sense our predatory nature and run away, but that isn’t true. After all, in many cultures, humans also eat meat. Some eat blood. Humans are also predators, also hunters.

The reason most vampires don’t keep pets is the pain of loss.

Before the 1921 Initiation Laws forbade such things: History shows us that several vampires tried to transform their animals into vampires. So their sweet unconditional love and acceptance might be eternal as they. While some were successful, but most tried and failed.

Now the vampire virus does not seem to infect reptiles, or if they can be, they die quickly. Perhaps it is because they need the warmth of the sun to function. I have said before this is unclear to us.

History shows us small animals, mammals, insects, birds, bats do not survive the transformation. 

Though many think bats can be turned, these are tiny little animals. They die quickly.

 House cats and small dogs can be vampires, but their transformations have a high 83% failure rate. This is generally because, the vampire takes too much blood in the small little animal and the animal exsanguinates. 

 The animals with the best survival rate are primarily horses and large dogs. That is dogs over 100 pounds.

  I personally have only seen one transformed animal: a beautiful warhorse, once part of Roman calvary the magnificent Nix.

03:27: Fate of the Magnificent Nix

He was born as an animal who ate grass and grain, but death brought him back a monster. 

His eerie neighs and snorts reverberate into one’s soul. To see Nix in person, is to be dumbstruck, by his great beauty and terrible countenance. As a former warhorse, he was built for carrying armed men into battle, his muscles ripple under his black coat. Unlike a human-esques vampires, Nix cannot or chooses not retract his fangs. 

Yet: Gaius jokes Nix is a hidden unicorn. Indeed, he can be quite docile. 

 In 2019 before the pandemic shut everything down, Norma went to Europe on a job.  And she said the only sad thing about coming home was leaving Nix. She said his coat felt like the softest velvet. 

 And Norma isn’t the only teenaged girl, Nix loves. Even after Gaius stopped loving his former concubine, Julia, Nix never did. 

 For over a century, Nix allowed her to groom him and braid his mane.  Indeed, when he saw her, he would happily trot up to her and nuzzle her. 

 And sometimes I regret, that when I was a girl of seventeen and had the opportunityto the pet the beast, but I was still a human and frightened of those, stomping hooves and snapping fangs. After all, Nix eats only meat and drinks only blood and I was filled with both. 

 Imagine a giant dog who nips when he is happy, and you will understand my fear. Gaius was there so he would have ensured I was transformed. The Paper Flower Consortium’s relationship with our progenitor has always been complicated. I simply did not know Gaius well enough to trust him with my safety.

 And it is not just teenage girls Nix adores, Even though centuries ago, Jakub actually stabbed Gaius, Nix has always let Jakub touch him. 

It is possible with so many battles and violence of his existence, Nix cannot associate these two events or perhaps it is because Gaius forgave his progeny due to the circumstances of that event, Nix also considers Jakub forgiven. Obviously, Nix cannot tell us what he thinks, but he prances right up to Jakub. Jakub has always had a way with horses.

 Let us begin the story of Nix’s story who begins with the story of Gaius.

 Gaius still claims he has had two great loves in his existence, one is his former concubine, Phillipa, a former witch turned vampire who eventually usurped him due to his cruelty to other concubines. And the other is Nix, his eternal companion.

 Now Gaius doesn’t quite remember the year he was born, but it was the 4th century BC.

 Gaius’s father was a senator and well known for breeding chariot horses. Gaius claims he had a happy childhood, he was well loved by his parents and siblings. At thirteen, he left to join the service and with his history with horses, he was sent to the newly formed calvary. 

 Gaius had already done one tour of duty when he returned home to his father’s estate and met the yearling, Nix. The black horse was originally planned for the chariots, but did not take to the training. And any good horseman knows you don’t force a horse to do anything. Gaius asked his father to let him take the horse for the calvary, which needed several types of horses, even if the foal couldn’t be trained for war. There were other jobs he might. Gaius’s father agreed and Nix flourished in the calvary.  The two, Gaius and Nix were inseparable brothers-in-arms.

 Gaius was an excellent general and won many battles or at least he won more than he lost. After several more accomplishments, Gaius was ultimately was given control over the Carpathians which were under Roman Rule for centuries. 

 As for the year they were reborn, Gaius claims Nix was ten years old, which would have made him close to thirty.

 One night. he became a vampire because he slept with the wrong woman. Phillipa even had warned him to be careful, but he ignored her good advice. 

 As a vampire, Gaius turned Nix along with the rest of his legion and his witch and concubine, Phillipa. He told his soliders to transform their horses.

Many did die, but at first, Nix had several horse companions too. 

In 1509, when Agata met them, only Nix and Fidelles had survived the lean years. The rest were dead, sacrificed to feed the other vampires. The soldiers and their mounts were immortalized for their service to Gaius, but there were also hundreds of the concubines were just bled and thrown into the sun.

 These multitudes of vampire death: solider, horse, concubine was why Gaius made the treaties with the counts stationing himself as a protector even after the Roman Empire fell. He became the Legatus of the Mountains and many more things happened during those centuries,  But this is the story of Nix’s fate, So let us go to the twentieth century and World War II. 

 Because of course, now people don’t ride horses into battle.

 Nix was left remain behind when Gaius fought with the French Resistance. Which was hard on the man, but even harder on the horse. Nix once had an existence, a purpose and it was gone.

 No one was ready for the destruction which World War II caused though Gaius and his legion saw it coming and tried to warn us and other covens. When the bombs fell, the elderly, women, and children killed by the thousands. Some of the impacts were so great, people were picked up into the air. Thousands more were injured. Millions were made homeless. 

 But let us not get side tracked, one night the town—which I will not name—was bombed and the structure which housed Nix collapsed. Nix brayed and kicked his way out of the falling stone and timbers. But now in the night, the poor brute was terrified, by sounds of other bombs hitting other buildings. By people screaming. He raced across town with other horses and rampaging livestock only to be met by machine guns. 

 You see German soldiers with mowing down fleeing civilians and their animals. If the bombs didn’t kill, the guns would, and for any who escaped, they would face starvation.

 We know from Gaius, Nix was hit with at least three rounds. 

 However, unlike other animals, Nix was already dead and could not be killed again. He reared up and his hooves came down upon his assailants. The machine gun was found crushed as was one of the operators, but the other was not found with the gun. 

 You see Nix had taken the other gunman, found himself a grotto nearby. He dragged the other gunman who into the cave and ate him in order to heal his pains. 

 Back in town, Gaius dug into the old barn with his hands and could not find his beloved Nix. Eventually, Gauis left his body and found Nix eating the solider. By the man’s defensive wounds on his hands, it was obvious the man was alive when Nix dug into his flesh.

 Gaius paced the day away. Then he heard the Germans whisper about a demon horse that had been shot, but would not fall. They planned on capturing it for Hitler. With very little fanfair, Gaius spirited Nix deeper into the countryside, which was still bombed, but to a lesser extent. 

 Of course, the law states if he bites anyone he will be destroyed. If he changes anyone, he will be destroyed. And now Nix was eating someone. 

 Gaius moved again and again to keep Nix safe and away from the bombing. After the war, Gaius returned to Hamburg to ensure they were on the West Germany side of the border.

 I was allowed to tell this story because Nix was tried by the council, but has been found innocent of the wrongdoing. He was simply defending himself. For Nix might not have human intelligence but he does seem to have horse sense and always knows an enemy. Gaius has wondered several times over the last century if he should destroy the animal and allow Nix to experience the freedom of death. 

 Nix exists in a comfortable treed pasture and attached barn outside an unnamed European city. Gaius’s legion does not understand why Gaius keeps the lovely creature, but Nix loves Gaius. And Gaius loves Nix. He has been stabled at times, so the stable doesn’t bother him, but he is alone, except when Gaius is home and comes for their nightly ride. Just as a side note, Romans rode their horses at the time without stirrups, which would come later from Asia, so Nix does not like stirrups which is one of the reasons he will not let most ride him. 

 Perhaps that’s why the old stallion likes young women and girls, his horse sense has taught him that they want to pet him and give him bits of meat. They don’t tend to threaten him with machine guns and bombs. But it is a sad existence for a horse I should think.

 And now I shall tell even a sadder story, In 1509, when Phillipa usurped Gaius, the two vampire horses were split apart. Nix is an expensive pet for eternity, but what happened to Fidelles was much worse. 

 14:05 Fate of the Wild Fidelles

And in this I speak of Agata’s vengeance against the vampire who infected her with the vampire virus and destroyed her beloved life. 

Nicheloa was a cruel letch of a man and this ultimately got him killed, as Agata saw the only way to regain her honor was through vengeance. Agata would have her vengeance against Nicheloa, but there were costs. And part that cost was paid by an innocent beast. 

For his cruelty and lechery, Nicheloa was cut into small pieces, doused in oil and burned. Then his ashes were burnt six more times in hot flames. 

 Agata, too, felt the severing of the bloodline and she suffered, but at least she understood what was happening, poor Fidelles did not.

 While this was happening, though in pain, Gaius escaped with Nix and rode away before any of his vampiric concubines or human servants tried to kill him. Fidelles, who was panicked as he experienced the dying of his creator, Nicheola, was left behind.

 Once Fidelles recovered the severing of the bloodline, though he did seem to wander from time to time looking for Nicheloa, Gaius, or Nix, he seemed happy enough racing through the mountains with Sylvia. As the vampires had for centuries, Sylvia kept the pacts with the surrounding counties who gave them sacrificial animals for protection. 

 However, after the Ottoman Empire moved west, eventually the old pacts between the Counts and vampires dissolved. The vampire coven no longer had soldiers, as Gaius had eaten them in the lean times. And though Sylvia was a strong horsewoman, none of the women were fighters. They only had one man servant and some children at the time, so they did not even have a human who might negotiate with the Ottomans. 

 The old pacts fell and food grew scarce, Sylvia took to hunting humans for food which Fidelles loved, however, eventually they closed their doors to the outside world, locking in a few humans with them.

 Fidelles’s territory was now just the courtyard of the mountain fort.  And apparently sometime in the early seventeenth century, he rebelled from his existance. He could not stay trapped in the forts gardens. 

 The poor horse kicked out of his stable several times until it got out during the day and tried to immolate himself. 

 I will repeat what some people have forgotten the first thing I told initiates: vampires cannot have an easy death. Vampires can be injured beyond any human measure, or in this case horse measure. As I’ve said vampires may be roasted by the sun, but unless it burns everything we regenerate, reanimate.

 And what does this mean? Apparently, night came before the giant war horse found final death. 

 His once beautiful grey coat was burnt and smoldering, exposed patches of scorched, blistered flesh underneath. Foamy saliva dripped from his mouth, his hooves were cracked and torn. And this went on for days and nights.

 Sylvia and Julia tried to make him comfortable, tried to make him understand that he must stay within garden. As Fidelles is only a horse, he could not. In the night, he began to heal, in the day, he would burn again.

 Perhaps on the longest summer day, he might have been able to succeed, but not that year. 

 His eyes grew filled with rage and pain. Andrillinen coursing through his veins, he reverted to wildness. And as all vampires do when they get hungry lust over took him. He jumped over the stone wall. He topped down to the other side, the sound of his cracking bones were horrifying. But as he was a vampire, he shook himself off and limped away into the darkest forests.

 Sylvia killed a man and tried to tempt Fidelles home with the corpse. At first, it look like as if she would be successful and indeed, she almost snapped a bridle on him, but he bit off her hand—which thankfully though mangled, but complete and was reattached later.

 Fidelles bolted. 

 Sylvia along with Julia hunted him and knows where and what he is. And Gaius has looked down the bloodline and found him as well.

 He is now a beast of legend: a land-based kelpi if you will. He sleeps in the caves, but if anyone or any animal comes near, he tempts those he sees and drags them back to his lair.  

 Thankfully the land he lives on has fallen into a nationalized trust of Romania, let us hope it stays that way, because it means human prey is rare. Whatever the species, if they are lucky, they die quickly, we have heard Fidelles loves to rip the soft skin of the cheek first and delights in squishing eyes between his teeth. 

 Of course with this social media generation, some have tried to find him. Such easy prey even stands still while they try to capture photos or video. And by the time they do see the danger, it doesn’t matter, because a horse can outrun a human, and a vampire horse can outrun a human on uneven ground even when they have a motorized mount. Fidelles cannot be fooled by any human trickery.An ancient vampire can hear a heartbeat over a motor.  A vampire horse knows no mercy. If you are wise you will never try to find him and if you are not you will die.

20:47 : Fate of Dash

 Finally, I will make a personal observation. I thank God though Derrik was tempted to transform our old sweet sheepdog, Dash—which was still legal at the time—he did not. 

 Dash originally belonged to Jakub’s enthralled human, Luc. She came with us from Europe to America.  After Luc’s death, Derrik who loved the sweet creature took her on. Though she was friendly to all of us, she loved Derrik best. She aged alongside him as he grew into a man. She slept with him in his coffin and after he and Pascaline married, Dash slept between them each day. 

 If you remember our sixth lesson, it was Dash who comforted Derrik when he transformed into a vampire and his telepathy battered his brain.

 When Dash turned eleven, but still quite spry, Derrik began to see the signs of aging and knew she would not have long on this world. 

 Jakub understood as he went through the same process with his warhorse Castor. He ultimately gave Castor the gift of death and suggested Derrik do the same with Dash. 

 Dash lived two more years and as her coat grew more white and her running pounce became a walk, Derrik grew more tempted. One evening When Dash was thirteen, , she could not rise out of the coffin.  Derrik had to lift her out. Agata rubbed her legs and Dash was able to temporarily walk again, but by the end of the night, she was immobile again. The next night, the same.

Derrik asked to be left alone as he brought Dash into the pasture where our dog had enjoyed running. He bit into the dog’s artery, she halfheartedly snapped at him in animal instinct. 

Every second, Derrik was tempted to cut open his wrist and give his blood to the dying creature. Then Dash’s heart stopped and she breathed her last. Derrik wrapped the dog’s body in a quilt. He dug the hole and prayed over the body, it was the last hole, indeed the last manual labor, he ever did. His last link to his human life had been snuffed out, but he said he was glad, he had not acted in selfish depravity.  Yet he mourned her for a long time after. Indeed, though he has never shown any unkindness towards an animal, indeed he is very gentle with them. He refuses any pets in his home – when she was a girl, Norma wasn’t allowed an animal companion, and even now his enthralled humans aren’t allowed to keep pets other than fish. 

 Some call this heartless, but for Derrik, the temptation of transformation is too great. 

 The decision to keep pets or working animals is a personal one, all vampires must decide for themselves if they can overcome that temptation with the understanding, the coven will not be merciful to those who break this law.

 And now a word from our sponsor. 

23:50 :  Sponsor: Norma's Cleaning Service

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 24:23 : Question with One Answer

 There will not be a question or answer period tonight, because any question you ask on this topic has one answer. 

 Since 1921, a vampire cannot make a vampire out of anything other than a consenting adult human over twenty-five years following coven and international guidelines. Even if it is accidental, we will destroy any coven vampire who converts anyone outside of the guidelines. 

 It is ultimate cruelty to turn anyone without permission. Though animals love us with a full heart, they cannot consent. 

Fidelles loved Nicheloa, he would not have wanted to be parted from him in death, yet eventually they have been parted. And now the world has turned away from working animals and to machines. I fear—as should you--what Nix might become if anything ever should happen to the Giaus. 

 I will also add, children and adolescent humans cannot consent. Norma herself admits she got lucky Derrik and Pascaline raised her with kindness and the coven paid for her education otherwise she might have faced the fate that other vampires turned too young, faced. 

A different girl from a different time or culture might not have survived.  I have a number histories of girls and boys who have cast themselves into the flames. Even if you are one of my children, I will not show you mercy.

 Before I close I repeat one more time: we will destroy any coven vampire who converts anyone outside of the guidelines. Please refer to the lesson: Lies of the Creator for exact details of what we did to William.  

 26:03: Closing

So that’s all there is for tonight:  Next time I will speak of the shock of losing one’s reflection. 

Good night beloved initiates and sleep the sleep of the dead. 

Outro: Loretta's Theme by Evan Witt 

VO: If you have questions or comments for Lady Loretta, please contact her at info@paperflowerconsortium.com or through the Paper Flower Consortium Patreon. And check out upcoming topics there or at the website.

 If you love this podcast, like and share this episode. Please consider donating either onetime or through the Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/paperflowerconsortium

 The Paper Flower Consortium Podcast was written and performed by Elizabeth Guizzetti. You can learn more about her books, including the books featuring vampires in the same universe, by going to www.Elizabethguizzetti.com.

 The amazing intro and outro music was written by Evan Witt and you can learn more about his music at www.wittynotes.com.