Dragon's Mother

Chapter 4

"How is it so easy to get in here!" Ansel panicked, on the verge of a panic attack, but he had to keep his cool if he wanted to live.

After the knights had finally convinced the young man to infiltrate the castle, Ansel had made his way back into the demon encampment acting as one of their slaves doing the demons bidding. Washing clothes, giving them food and ale, regretfully massaging one's foot that had blisters and swelling flesh full of pus. Then, without even needing to do anything, Ansel found himself being corralled along with other slaves to boxes full of weapons such as swords, bows, lances and the like to carry them to none other than the castle itself. To Ansel's shock, it wasn't just in the castle wall like before but Ansel found himself inside the castle walking through the massive forty foot doors that were opened just for them until they were through the threshold. After that, they were ordered to put their load into the indoor armory before being separated individually to serve whatever demon got to them first. In Ansel's case, to his slight horror, he was ordered by some demon noble person to go get some wine from the cellar to bring to his chambers. Ansel was also ordered to help dress the noble with the demon's personal slave, which was a little hard for them to do since he insisted a royal blue dress robe he got off a elven king he had slain could fit him even though he was rather tall and had a fairly round gut sticking out, before Ansel was ordered to carry the bottle of wine while following the demon noble to... the king's chamber wing. Ansel couldn't believe his luck, or his misfortune if you asked for his opinion, and was trying really hard not to run away as the noble went on and on about how he and the demon king were such good friends. They stepped into a long corridor, a single set of double doors made entirely of gold on the wall to their right firmly closed with strange carvings in the surface that made Ansel shiver even though he couldn't explain why, and there standing outside the doors was a demon servant who served directly under the king who bowed to the noble demon before explaining the king was in his treasure trove... and that's how Ansel found himself climbing up many stairs in the highest tower of the castle following the noble and the servant clutching the wine bottle to his chest like his life depended on it.

"This is a trap. It has to be. They are luring me away where my friends can't possibly follow and they're going to kill me," Ansel thought to himself, trying really hard to drown out the negative thought in an attempt to convince himself he was practically invisible to them so he didn't matter enough for them to pay him any mind though even his own protests sounded weak to him.

The servant was leading the noble demon up the stairs, Ansel following behind them trying to keep up even with the rather large stairs that made it a little difficult for a human to scale, when the stairs cut off abruptly with a short hallway leading to a single, thick, metal door. Ansel had never seen that type of metal, a very dark ominous color that made it seem like a portal directly to hell, but it opened easily after the servant rapped his knuckles against the metal surface and waited patiently for a response. The person behind the door made Ansel quake even worse than anything he'd seen so far, Ansel bowing his head instinctively while the other two curtly inclined their heads to the demon.

To King Decal.

The man was a true demon with just looks alone standing roughly ten feet tall. He dwarfed the demon noble who was well over seven feet and the servant, who had to be eight feet tall at the least, stood up to his shoulder barely as he stood up tall and introduced the noble demon. This gave Ansel a chance to peek up and get a look at the King, the man who had singlehandedly united demon kind under his rule. Even without being tall, really tall, the man was an impressive sight to behold with lean muscles and a terrifying beauty to him. He had four dark blood red horns sprouting out of his head through his snow white hair, two larger in the front and two smaller in the back just above his forehead, and long bat like wings sat tucked in behind his back. There was a thin cord like tail slowly swishing around behind him, an arrowhead like tip at the end that was practically dancing through the air reminding Ansel of a cat ready to pounce on their prey, and lastly Ansel found the iris of the demon very shocking. A pale blue color, like fresh ice reflecting in the sunlight. It was so clear and pure that it was almost alluring in its sweetness even as the man scowled at the lot of them, his eyes moving from one demon to the other and briefly glanced at the human who flinched just feeling his piercing gaze on his person. Ansel bowed his head and kept it there this time, listening to the demon noble prattle on about how he'd like to drink with his majesty who listened with a slightly annoyed look on his face but listen on he did leaning against the doorframe. The demon servant was standing against the wall like a perfect statue, staring ahead of him with a vacant expression, and Ansel was resisting the urge to run like his life depended on it though whether that was actually the case or not hasn't been determined yet.