Fan Fiction ❯ Hell's Bane ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

The halls echoed the silence all around him. He needed to hurry no one kept the master waiting. That's why he was scuttling along. Maseru come NOW! Yes, it was very unwise to keep the master waiting. He came across no one as he traveled the dimly lit halls. Any sane person would not come this close unless the master needed something. He started to feel a tingling sensation run over his body and stop on his back. Maseru screamed and broke into a full run. It didn't hurt not yet, but it was a good warning. Maseru had felt it before when his master's anger peaked. He came to the two gold doors and burst through them.

Azuolin, his master, waited patiently just sitting there as though he had not just been threatening Maseru. Azuolin's jet-black robes could hardly hide what lay underneath. Azuolin was rotting flesh on bones but Maseru thought that's probably what happens when you turn five thousand years old. " Yes master is there anything you wish of me."

"Maseru just in time, you know what happens when people dawdle, yes?"

"Of course your excellence I know." Maseru kept his head low and his eyes down so as not to upset the corpse.

"Good. Maseru report"

"Well uh, your excellence she got away."

" You let her walk away… I'm very disappointed in you Maseru. You know what happens when I'm disappointed don't you?" Azuolin said shaking his head.

"She started fading from the dream I-I tried to hit her but she left. I managed to get a dragon though and I stood there and watched her die and I told her that their reign would never come again I told her lord Azuolin in the grace of the light would destroy them." Maseru was shaken for he knew very well what it meant to have the lord Azuolin mad with you.

"Excuses, excuses. My, my I thought better of you. No matter the crime still deserves the punishment and you know I don't let people disappoint me twice. You know I have preserved myself since the dragons were banished to the wild. You know how hard I've worked." Maseru's head was bobbing up and down "I've seen empires rise and fall with the knowledge I have. I can rule the world… in fact I do. And I did not get here by being soft hearted."

"No of course not your excellence."

"Good then you understand." Maseru's head stopped bobbing.

Azuolin snapped his fingers and two figures appeared. They were the embodiment of all evil they might as well be death itself. They had spittle running from their lizard like jaws they were bare chested with tattoos everywhere they had a barbed frill running down their backs. Virtually no brain and tight leather pants with a black spiked belt they were the wiyer. Their serpentine claws reached out for him it seemed to take hours for them to catch him but in reality it took mere seconds. Maseru shrieked an unearthly cry that reverberated through the halls of the castle. In that moment all activity seemed to stop as the flesh was ripped from Maseru's bones while he lived. The screaming stopped as the flesh at Maseru's throat was ripped out the end finally coming as the wiyer feasted on his flesh, lord Azuolin laughing as he watched his assistant get pulled apart.

The forest soon gave way to the lush greenery of a fairy tale dreamland. The sun hit the ground at the perfect angle and seemed that the air shimmered with radiance. There was a mystical look about the place and every time Alex came here she felt healed some how. Lini had a small one-story house surrounded by rosebushes. Once when Alex was little she had come to lini's in the spring and the rosebushes were blooming. They were so pretty Alex just had to touch one. Lini warned her against it saying `no matter how beautiful every rose has its thorns'. She didn't think she would get pricked so she had reached out and grabbed the rose. She had pricked herself from then on she had regarded lini with more respect. Lini had sighed and shook her head, which had made Alex, feel worse for not listening. She wished Lini would tell her that she said this would happen or something but Lini just walked over and put some cream on Alex's finger and asked what lesson Alex had learned. Alex had said that you should respect other people and listen. Lini said that the lesson Alex learned was you could never judge something from what's on the outside but had also said that the lesson Alex presented was a good one to learn.

Cesar's sudden stop jolted Alex out of her daydreams. Alex dismounted leaving Cesar to stand and start grazing. She trotted up the stairs to lini's front door where she knocked. She waited a moment but no one answered. Alex started to worry because Lini never let people wait she was a very prompt person. Alex's mind wandered of to the dream. Could Lini be hurt? Maybe even worse. Alex burst through the door completely disregarding any thoughts of courtesy. She searched the whole house. There was no evidence anything strange had happened. She went out back. She sighed in relief when she saw Lini trying to catch a butterfly with a net. She knew that butterfly Lini had showed it to her once it had a special powder that you could get off its wings it could cure any poison. Lini's gray haired bun was in disarray as she finally caught the bug with a genuine laugh of triumph.

"Lini, oh Lini I was so worried."

" Why girl?"

" Lini I thought you had been hurt because I knocked and no one answered and I've just been on edge that's all."

" I'm not as fragile as porcelain girl… You've had the dreams again haven't you?"

" Yes and there getting worse." A sudden look of worry passed over Lini's face but it was gone in an instant if that had indeed been worry. Alex had never seen lini worry over anything she was always strong.

" Well girl, best we be inside to discuss it then." Lini said walking her in slanted swaying gait. Lini was by no means tall but when she wanted to she seemed to tower over even the tallest of people. She had brown tilted eyes that despite her age, whatever it may be, were sharp and focused. Alex didn't know how old lini was only that she seemed middle aged with her silver hair but then her body was as fit as Alex's not as young looking but fit. Her hair might just have a different color… but if knowledge came with age lini must be as old as the mountains. Alex entered lini's house with a familiarity. Lini went over and put her bug in a jar she had set-aside just for the purpose. " Sit girl, sit." Lini said ushering Alex to the table.

After Alex was done telling lini about the dream lini sat for a moment contemplating the story.

" So lini what do you think?"

"Well it's pretty obvious that someone is after you but who could it be? And why?"

"What should I do?"

"We need to leave. That should do for a time anyway. Maybe we could find someone who understands better. Go to the castle to get your belongings and anything you might need. Then come back here I'll be waiting."

Alex burst into her room at the castle. Gathering everything she could. Some traveling clothes, her brush, a mirror. Lini would get the food on their way out. Just in case she though she grabbed her purse which was full of gold and silver.

She ran out to the courtyard where she had left Cesar, Andrew was standing there. In a green coat that went about to the middle of his calves he looked fairly handsome. Cesar standing there was staring down at the prince as an executioner might stare at an execution, grim determination. Cesar didn't like this man one bit. Andrew noticing her turned " ah princess how good to see you… you look as though you're going somewhere?"

"No, no I'm not going anywhere unusual. Just going to stay with a friend of mine."

" If you say so although I don't think you should use this beast. He is hardly fit for a farmer much less the princess."

" Cesar will do just fine." Alex said putting her pack on Cesar and climbing up. She hastily gathered her reins and took off down the road.