The Skeleton Princess

Chapter 4 - Arrival

Luna, Max, and Lucy reach the Underkeep city gates, it's a large door like Lovic's with the pentagram, but the whole door is made of flesh and bone.

The sky is no longer purple but a light green with the natural black clouds flying across the sky, the gates open and three zombie guards run out to meet the three friends.

One of them see Luna and recognize her instantly, Luna says in a leader's tone "I am here to see the king of the Underkeep, take me to him."

The guard bows and say "Yes! Please follow me mistress Death."

As Max and Lucy are about to follow their friend, they are stopped by the other two guards.

The taller one of the two guards says "We can't allow you two to see our king, even if you are travelling with the princess."

Max and Lucy don't resist and watch Luna leave with the guard, she turns around and waves to her friends before she completely disappears into the muscle built streets.

Luna walks through the muddy streets and past skin buildings, this is no surprise to her since it is the city of zombies.

The occasional civilian zombie does a bow towards Luna knowing who she is, Luna keeps walking through the mud with her knee-high black skull boots getting dirtier the more steps she takes.

That is until Luna and the dead zombie guard reach a giant palace-like structure, but it is not made of wood or stone but of flesh and bone.

Luna looks in awe at the fleshy structure, she says only one word which Luna can describe it and that is "Cool!"

Luna and the zombie guard both enter the yellow-skinned gate and walk through into the giant hall, the windows let in the green light from the underworld's sky.

She and the rotting guard both enter the throne room, sitting on the throne is a dead zombie man wearing a crown.

He is a half bald man with grey hair and rotting skin, his eyes are silver as if he was blind and he has a very long white beard.

The zombie king rises from his throne and walks up to Luna with a limp, Luna doesn't flinch or back away from the dead king.

The king smiles and hugs Luna while saying in a crisp voice "It's been a long time Mistress Death, I haven't seen you since you were tiny. How has your father been?"

Luna with a sad look tells the friendly zombie king what has happened up to this point, after hearing it all the zombie king sits down on his throne, giving Luna a sad look of pity.

She smiles and tells the king "It's okay, I have adapted to what has happened. My friends have helped me, but thank you, uncle Gaius."

Gaius says with a tone of praise "You are a strong girl Kurt, no wait I'm sorry age got to me, I mean Luna."

Luna smiles at Gaius's mistake, she then asks "Do you know anything about the human's whereabouts?"

Gaius strokes his white long beard and makes an "Hmm."

He does this for about a minute, his face suddenly lights up and he says with a cheerful tone "You should go east of here and keep following the mountain side till you get to the blood river, then go over it to get to the witch village. They got to have the answers you're looking for."

Luna's face lights up and she hugs her rotting uncle, it's a very beautiful site if you don't mind the smell of rotting flesh and the massive amount of flies.

Luna runs off waving goodbye to the king and his zombie guards as she looks for her friends.

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Max and Lucy see Luna wave before she dissappears behind the skinned built buildings, Max looks at Lucy and asks "So~ what do we do now?"

Lucy answers in an annoyed tone "How am I supposed to know?"

Max feels as if something is bothering Lucy, he asks her in a tone of worry "What's wrong Lucy? You don't seem like your usual stupid self."

Lucy gives him evils and says "One I am NOT stupid and the reason why I'm acting like is that I don't like being here."

Max then asks the obvious question "Then why did you ask to come?"

Lucy looks down blushing while she says in a quiet voice "Because we don't get to see each other often."

Max couldn't hear Lucy's quiet voice so he asks "What did you say?"

Lucy answers instantly by saying "It's nothing."

Maxilla's eyes change multi-coloured which means confusion, Lucy then begins to walk to one of the bigger buildings with a sign that says "The drunken zombie" Max guesses that it's a tavern.

Lucy and Max enter the building and find hardly anyone inside it, it's a desolate room with one zombie playing solitaire in the corner of the room whereas another was relaxing with a drink in his hand.

There was a bartender who was scrubbing the same spot the whole time Max and Lucy are in there, Lucy approaches the bartender and asks for their best zombie beer.

Max was about to ask for one too but then he realizes he is a skeleton, who is unable to drink.

Lucy smiles at him realizing what he was about to do, she chugs the whole beer down and turns to leave.

When suddenly the bartender asks in a western tone "Hey lady, if you don't mind me asking but what type are you?"

Lucy looks at the bartender but doesn't answer, she just walks out with Max following with a confused colour of eyes.

Luna appears around the corner of the tavern and says in an out of breath voice "Where have you two been? I have been looking all over anyway, we have our next destination but I think we should rest here for the night."

Max and Lucy nod and head to the only building that wasn't made of body parts, it was the tourist hotel and the only building in the whole city made of wood.

The three friends rent a room and sleep through the dark green night.