The Lake of Souls

The Lake of Souls is the first book in the Vampire Destiny triligy.

Summary
In the Lake of Souls, Mr Tiny catch up with Darren and Harkat at the Cirque Du Freak, and tells the Little Person that it's time to find out who he used to be. After learning that if he doesn't do it now, he will go crazy, he immediately says yes. Des Tiny creates a magical door way to another world or time, and Harkat tells Darren to stay and steps through. Darren makes a quick dicision and steps through after him. They appear in a desert filled land, and Mr Tiny explains what the pair have to do. He sankys to travel west, and to kill a panther, and they'll learn what to do next.

After two weeks of hard travelling, with only the odd water hole here and there, the desert slowly turns to jungle. But it's not a jungle as we know it, as the monkeys are yellow, and various other animals are different. When they hear a loud, screeching roar, they know it's the panther. They set a pitfall trap, with spikes at the bottom, and a deer to lure the panther in. After hearing another loud roar, they rush to the pit, but to see a baboon there instead, and then the panther pounces at them. With all three of them taking hits, Harkat wrestles the animal into pit, and kills it. They haul the body out, and spot a strange map on its body, and all the teeth have letters on them. On the map shows a cross showing where they were, and a circle with writing saying they have to steal gelatinous globes from the world's largest toad. They try rearranging the letters on the teeth, and get the words, 'Harkat Mulds', and thought nothing else of it. Now with the map and the teeth, they travelled on to find this giant toad.

Leaving the jungle behind, and entering the a swamp, they run into more strange creatures, including some vicious crocodles. Eventually they spot an enormous toad, surrounded with crocs, but they also spotted some small, green balls dotted around the beast. With no weapons to attack with, Harkat throws some small animals into the crowd of crocodiles, to casue panic, as Darren slid in to grab some of the gelatinous globes. But as the Little Person had ran out of animals, the toad turn to face the vampire. After being hit in the back by it's gaint tongue, Evanna the witch appears and calls on the animals with a spell. Having grabbed two arm fulls of the toad's globes, they returned to a small camp their saviour had set up. With a few days rest under their belts, they carry on travelling with their new partner.

Now having reached a vast lake, the three build a craft from a beached boat they find. Evanna now having to depart, she says to head to the Temple of the Grotesque, and also find some holy liquid, and a net that fishes for the dead. With this knowledge, Harkat and Darren take off across the water. Looking back at the panther's teeth, they notice that the 'K' was hollow, they didn't know what this meant, but they again thought nothing of it. After two solid days they notice an immense, winged creature high up in the sky. As it swoops to attack, the pair notice the creature is a of myth and legend, a dragon! It grabs them of the craft, and soars back to the sky, but Harkat wriggles free and drops into the lake. Darren, still trapped by the dragon's claw, shouts 'Let go of me you son of a..' and he drops, and blacks out...

He later wakes up in the water side shack house of Spits Abrams, an ex-pirate stranded in this land. With another few days rest, the group set out again towards the Temple. With the three now exhausted, they finally reach the Temple of the Grotesque. Spotting a small village, they head towards it, and also see some human like beings. They bost pink hair and bright, white eyes. They seem to be chanting some ancient ritual, and drinking from a pond full of water and blood. Then heading towards the Temple, a truely horrific creature emerges from within. It has a huge, bulging eye; thousands of hands moving it around, various ear s dotted around it's body and a vast, open mouth. A fairly young child steps forward, and it crushed and then eaten by the beast! It's poison was then milked through his fangs, and the beings returned to their homes, and the beast returned to it's temple. They realise the holy liquid is the poison of the Grotesque, and they go in to take some. However, Spits waits outside as he thinks the other two are crazy for going in. Darren and Harkat creep past the beast grab some bottles, and head for the exit. But they are spotted by a Kulashka (The name they give for the natives), and the whole village runs in, and the Grotesque wakes up. After several confused conversations with language barrier, Abrams runs in to 'save' them and throws a bottle at the beast. This sets of a huge explosion, meaning the three have to break through the floor to reach safety from the faling rubble. Dropping into a dark tunnel, they walk along until they find a twenty first century kitchen, waiting for them. In the room, Harkat reads some postcards on the fridge, and places them in his robes. After some more rest, now with all the items, they head on through the tunnel back out into the open.

Now heading for a valley, in which the Lake of Souls is located, with the panther's teeth, the gelatinous globes, the holy water and the net that's was used to fish for souls. Reaching the peak of the valley, they spot the Lake, but also five dragons around it. Realising, if they insert the liquid into the globes, using the hollow 'K', they can be used as bombs. Rushing towards them, Harkat and Darren, hold off the dragons with the bombs, while Spits carried the net. When they reached the waters edge, Spits told them that within eight feet of the Lake, they'd be safe, unless someone fell in. Now reaching the end of the quest, Abram tells the two what he used to do as a pirate. But they are shocked to learn he fished people out and cooked them for the other pirates. Now crazy, he runs at them with a knife, but strays out the eight feet zone, and is set alight by a dragon. As he thrashes, he falls into the lake, and the spell is lifted. With Harkat now fishing, and Darren holding off the dragons, he pulls out a soul, which turns out to be Kurda Smahlt, the vampire who betrayed his clan. Time is then frozen and Mr Tiny appears, and explains all. When looking for souls for a new Little Person, he discover Kurda, and he said he wanted to help his clan. So he made Harkat, to help discover Kurda's plan to betray the vampires. Also, with both of them existing with same soul, Kurda sacraficed himself to save Harkat.

After returning back to their own time, and three months have passed, and they're at the Cirque du Freak. But Harkat shows Darrent the postcards, and when they were written, twenty, thirthy, forty years in the future. So that weird, horrific land wasn't an alternate world or universe, it was Earth, in the future....