Dead Men Smiling

6.0 JULY 13TH

A hero will let you burn as long as the paper prints their name while a villain will set the world on fire and you'd never feel a flame.

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The sun had risen, the birds were singing and a cute little house in the forest was shrouded in darkness.
The man within the house flipped the page of his latest novel and sighed as his eyes scanned the words of the thirteenth novel he had read this week. He knew he'd later regret wasting the 172 hours reading romance and not something he'd appreciate later for adding value in his life but he needed time to pull himself together after the dreaded night.

"At least I'm a professional kisser and sex giver and/or receiver in theory." He cringed at what he recognised as a sex scene. "People read this? This has got to be illegal; tentacles up a-"

He cut himself short to listen to the tapping noise that had been occurring for the past week and rolled his eyes as he got more comfortable in his couch knowing that the bird would stop after some time.

The bird, however seemed to have other ideas.

He dropped the book in shock when a thud sounded against his window followed by three more. He grit his teeth. "What in the name of the King is happening?"

After gently closing the book and setting it on the table, he walked to the window and opened it, only to be hit in the centre of his chest.
He doubled over in pain and caught a delirious looking bird with a slight groan. "Why do I feel like you knew what you were doing?"

He set the bird on the table and went to the kitchen to get sunflower seed and some water which he gave the winged creature.
He then let out a sigh as he made himself comfortable and reopened the book in hopes of finishing it when a new disturbance made itself known.

A new very disgusting disturbance.

He closed his eyes and counted to ten, knowing exactly what had just happened but trying to control his reaction to the situation. He glared at the bird perched on the book and met its eye. "What do you want?"

The bird opened its beak. "Honestly dear, pull yourself together. Just because one thing went wrong doesn't mean that your whole life should be on hold."
with those words, it pooped on his book again and flew out of the open window, leaving him with a slight smile. "Thank you."

Two hours later, the house was clean and instead of sappy romance novels, the male was reading old legends and spell books, taking note of different things that would help him with the dagger but sadly none of the books had anything on Crystal runes.
He froze when an image formed in his mind's eyes: a hand clawing at vines and soon a face he knew too well was showing amongst them despite how quickly the vines grew over the damaged parts.

He let out a breath and stood to his feet, summoning satchel with what he considered important: Crystals, money books, shrunken potions & cauldrons and even his book retriever.

A mask with cross eyes and a smile flew in hands and was soon secured on his face. He waved his wand again, smiling as his pjs turned into ripped jeans, a dark blue dress shirt hat was rolled up at the sleeves and untucked, a dark blue cape with a hood and a pair of black riding boots.
He then sheathed the dagger on his left leg and wand on his thigh and left the house.

He once again found himself holding a small box with his shrunken house in it and slipped it into his pocket with a small frown.
He held his cape open like a curtain and smiled when a white panther and a black wolf walked out of it and gave him curios stares.
"Malum, Reign, looks like we're back to having adventures and running from the past," he said with a low voice as he bit into a crystal.