Green Eyes and Blue Flames

Trouble

Back at the Forbidden Mountain, Hades was lounging on the throne and laughing his heart out at what he just did at Aurora and Phillip's coronation. He crashed a big party, scared an entire kingdom, and used a bit of dark magic all on his own; he had never felt so proud of himself, not since he almost succeeded in overthrowing Zeus and taking over the Cosmos.

"Oye vey, that was PRICELESS! Did you see the looks on their faces?!" Hades exclaimed, trying to catch his breath. "And the way I started that fire?! I don't even know how I did that! Phew! I had no idea dark fairy magic was so unpredictable. Did you?" He sat up straight and turned to Diablo, who was perching one of the arms of the throne of stone. The raven nodded his head. "Figured, since you've pretty much been the pet of a dark fairy your whole life, huh?" The bird nodded again. "Yeah." Hades then turned his attention to the scepter. "But that fire nearly singed my clothes. I gotta be more careful."

Then, Diablo got an idea. He flapped his wings and cawed at Hades.

"Ugh, what is it now?" He asked, wincing at the sound.

He saw that Diablo was pointing his beak to a hallway to the left; it led to the library. He stood up and raised an eyebrow.

"You... want me to follow you? Is that it?" He asked; Diablo nodded and cawed again. "Alright, alright. I'm coming, I'm coming. Sheesh!"

Hades followed the black bird down the hall until they reached the doors of the library. He rolled his eyes before he saw Diablo flying up to a much taller shelf and taking out a book from the very top with his talons. With the book in his grasp, he flew down and set the book on the desk. Hades made his way to the desk and looked at the book Diablo grabbed; it was jet black, trimmed with gold, and there was a large bright green octagonal shaped gem right in the center. Hades gave the raven an unimpressed look.

"It's a book." He said.

Diablo rolled his eyes and used his beak to open the cover, gesturing Hades to read.

"What's this? 'Discoveries of Dark Magic'." Hades read aloud; he turned to Diablo. "Are you saying you want me to read this?" Then he put two and two together. "Oh, NOW I get it! You want me to read this so I can have better control of my new magic!" Diablo nodded his head and gave a little hop. "Cool beans, way to go! You are a lot smarter than I gave you credit for, especially for a bird." Hades chuckled before he caught sight of another caption on the inside of the front cover. "Huh? 'Read at Your Own Risk', eh?" He scoffed. "Well... if the Mistress of Evil can figure it out, I can too."

He sat down at the desk and turned the page to what looked like a table of contents. "Okay, where to start? Transformations, hypnosis, brews and potions, charms of enchantment, hexes and curses, disguises... this all seems pretty basic." Then something caught his eye. "Well now, what have we here? Animation spells? Ha-cha-cha, now that's more like it! Page 159. Let's see what we've got." He turned to that very page and it read: "How to Create Your Own Monster". Hades smiled. "Now this looks promising."

Diablo's eyes widened and he started shaking his head and cawing hysterically as well as hopping up and down in protest; it was obvious that he didn't want him to read that chapter. Hades snarled at the bird and grabbed him by the throat, instantly silencing him; his eyes glowed again, just like they did back at the coronation. "I have had just about enough of you and your insistent squawking, you insolent little pest! Now, make yourself useful and GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

He then brutally tossed the poor bird to the side, causing him to crash into a pile of stray papers. Hades turned back to the book and began to read before he was interrupted by a slow dripping sound. He looked around and saw a tiny bit of tar dripping from the wall. He smiled wickedly, picked up the scepter, and pointed it at the part of the floor the tar was dripping on to. The gem started to glow.