That's So Wizard

Chapter 33 - Madness Unleashed

Poppet was frozen with fear. Around her neck, the unnaturally tight grip of finger bones squeezed as the tips began to pierce through her flesh. The smell—it was terrible. Rotting skin and ancient bones wafted a scent to burn her nostrils given her terrifyingly close proximity, and this was further scarring with the creature's jet black eye-sockets somehow still staring directly into her eyes. His jaw pulled open, and despite the lack of a tongue, or flesh whatsoever, a course voice came as freely as a man still living.

"You're tiny... like a baby," he grumbled.

Her eyes stayed staring. This had never happened before, but there was something about him that struck her silent. All she could do was mumble in response. There, balanced on her toes, she remained grappled by a nightmare.

"It feels like it's about midnight," he continued. "The perfect time for a snack. And I don't know about you, but," he said as he lifted Poppet closer to his face. "I. Eat. Babies."

"What are you doing?" shouted Renatta's voice from afar.

"Look!" came Daveon's voice. "That little girl over there. She's being attacked by skeletons! It might be demons. We've gotta save her."

Skello dropped Poppet to the ground. His spine cracked as his skull slowly turned to glare at the oncoming duo. With a single, boney finger, he reached up to scratch the inside of his socket—the finger plunging deep into his skull. He finally shrugged, and began to wander towards the darker depth of the cemetery, leaving Poppet and her skeletal companions to deal with the conflict.

"On the other hand, I shouldn't... I'm watching my weight," he stated as he continued on.

"Wha—Wait!" screamed Poppet. "What the heck? Are you messing with me? You're my slave, so come back here right now, and return my pendant. That's mine!"

But her attention was quickly stolen by Daveon and Renatta who were standing at the ready nearby. They looked to her, and then to the skeletons beside her, confused neither were actually moving. It looked to them like she was under attack, but after they arrived, they saw nothing was actually occurring.

"Who the heck are you two?" she snarled.

"We could ask you the same thing," Daveon replied. "I thought you were fighting demons over here. Are these skeletons yours?"

"Of course they are, you idiots! They're my slaves. And if you don't mind, some guy is getting away with my special necklace. So scram, or I'll sick my new slaves on you. Got that?"

Renatta looked to the druid. "She is so full of anger, but so small. I wonder if she knows Deena."

Daveon shrugged.

"I'm not joking here!" the girl shouted. "Damn it. He's gone. Where did he go? I need to track him down and get that back."

"You're puppeting people's corpses?" Daveon asked. "That's wrong for so many reasons. You must be a wizard, right? Surely you could do better than disturbing the dead. This is grave-robbing to the extreme."

"I can see you're both not going to stop annoying me. Cal, Fred. Deal with them," she hummed, and then strangely enough, started to giggle.

"They are moving, without any muscles!" called out Renatta.

Daveon nodded. "There's a magical force keeping them together, moving them around. I don't know how she's doing it so well without moving at all, but we better be careful. She could be a powerful witch."

Just then, the skeleton called Cal leapt into action. He moved with impressive speed given his skeletal figure, and soon enough, he was up at Renatta with fingers ready to grip around his victim. She was quick, however. The girl thrust a hand into his ribs. Clearly, a magic was bolstering these corpse's defences, or that strike would have clearly shattered such old bones to splinters, but he still stuttered his assault. Not singeing her flesh in the slightest, her foot burst into a flaring fury of intense glowing heat. She performed a movement similar to a pirouette, but this dance exploded against her foe's femur in a sparkling display of flames. The fire burst out like a shock-wave, and on impact, the bone shattered and the skeleton collapsed to the ground. It still moved, however.