Dark Prince: The Death Realm

Chapter 16

Zekrin opened his eyes to see something surprising; he wasn't in the midst of a cave in Kalik's maze in the midst of the death realm. He didn't understand why, but suddenly he was back on the floor of the old fae's cottage. It smelled of herbs, poison and... well, it smelled like death.

Is it the smell of my death or someone else's? How many other people has she done this to? He thought. The dark prince gave a quick glance around the room before standing up, using the edge of the table to stand up. There was no one else in the room and, to be honest, it looked quite deserted. It appeared that she hadn't touched the room since he had died.

The layers of dust were thick enough to see and definitely thick enough to sneeze at. He walked quietly down the stairs, trying hard to not make a sound, but he doubted that there would be anyone in the house anyways. But it had never yet hurt him to be cautious. He didn't go anywhere unnecessary within the house. He simply crossed the house from the stairs and straight to the door with the short amount of detours possible.

He closed the door with a nearly silent click. The forest itself was very quiet, quite empty as well. The werebeast crept out among the trees and the very sparse wildlife. He looked out into the glen and saw his wife wandering around in the near emptiness. From the look on her face, however, he was sure that he shouldn't even attempt to make herself known. Instead, he thought, he should go to his own people.

He was reluctant to try to transform into his were form. All that kept going through his head was what had happened the last time that he Turned into his were form. The wedding. The attack.... The death. The grief...his death... his descent into the death realm. Their descent into the death realm.

Zekrin simply walked out, into the forest. He stopped at the edge of the forest, looking out at the castle in the moonlight as he shivered ever so slightly in his outfit of entirely black. He blended in to the night and he liked it. He watched the area around the castle, trying to figure out why there were so many lights shining in Lochdeer, why the castle was lit up like there was some kind of large gathering in the royal house, the house of the royals.

Then who is ruling now? I left no notice for who I really expected take charge after I was gone and to what those expectations were. Even though I was the one to control when I died, only one person got to know what I wanted, and even then, I couldn't say what happened.

I'm not sure what I can really do about this. All I know for sure is that the howling in the sky meant something bad. It wasn't a normal cry. It was a battle cry. That meant one thing: he had to get to them. And he had to get to them now.

They might not listen to an ex king, but they might listen to the ex dark prince. At least, that was what he hoped, however much he really doubted it and doubted himself. But he knew that the least he could do was try. The least that he could do was walk up to those people and scare the wits out of those who saw him and knew him to have been dead for a couple months, (probably longer, but that was his limited knowledge after being attached to that snake.)

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves that seemed so thin that they would snap at the lightest, tiniest bit of pressure. The dark king frowned, his mood darkening at the thought of having to deal with people again. Talkitive, lying people who were prone to starting rumors. He hated it. He hated the thought of it. But he also hated the thought of his kingdom going into ruins only months after his death without him having the slightest idea fof what was really going on.

So, out he went towards the kingdom, dreading every new step that would take him closer.

But the closer I get, the easier-okay, maybe just the faster-that I am able to talk to them and figure out what is going on. The faster I'm able to clean up the inevitable mess that the weres are in the middle of right now as I am walking.