The Necromancer Queen

Obsadian doors and silver paint

The trees grew more and more bare as I travelled on, they turned skinny and burned up like. Then again, there had been a platoon of villagers trying to kill them or at least remove them. That would not of been pretty if they had remained.

And finally, after walking for a few hours, the trees dissapreared for good.

Then, empty space, and, the castle.

It was even larger than I thought it was, the walls where at least twenty-five meters tall, with the spirals probably at thirty meters.

I was in total awe, fore, even broken down and old, with no caretakers for years, it was majestic and wonderfully dark. I fell in love with the place instently.

Running forward, I stopped at the door, a huge iron door, black and somehow, shiney. looking closer I noticed that it was obsadian, protected with a few low level spells. The door itself was only three meters tall. Thick bands of iron criss-crossed all around the door, with a pattern of silver backgrounding it. If I stood back, the iron and silver made a tree-like shape, with wind fluttering the branches and leaves falling all around it. And then I saw something that made me gasp.

Blood. There was no silver on the door, only iron. Somebody had almost lined up the small bands of iron with the silver blood, but it was messy if you where close up. Reaching up, my hand shaking, my fingers grazed the blood-covered bands of iron, and I inhaled sharply, it was wet. And when something is wet, it is fresh.

"....Shit"

Okay, I probably should have just keep quiet and not said anything, I just notified anything with good hearing near me that there was a injured, powerless princess here. And then I realized something else, actually two things. One, my injuries where healed, and two, I felt a presence looking down at me.

I decided to look up first, because it is not unusual for me to heal that fast, even as terrable as my injuries where, and the person or thing could hurt me too or try to kill me. So look up I did, and I almost regretted it but not quite. There was a guy staring down at me, about halfway to a third up the wall, green and silver fluids were on him, and that was all I could tell at this distance. He looked at me for a while, and then dissapeared inside.

Swallowing, I looked at the door in front of me, no longer as eager as I had been to explore. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward, and pushed the grand door painted in blood open. It swung forward without a sound, showing a long dark hallway, with doors lining the sides. Steeling my nerves, I took a step forward.

"....You know you can come right in, correct?"

"SHIT!" I screamed, jumping backwards and succsefully banging my head on the door and pushing it closed, at the sound of the deep voice. Rubbing the spot that I had hit, I took a good look at the stranger in the castle.

He was tall, way taller than me, maybe six foot four, but that was standing fully up. He was crouched over, with an arm wrapped around his stomach, where silver blood was leaking past the makeshift bandage that was covering the wound. Green blood coated his hands and was dotted on his clothing, face, and hair. His hair was a blackish red, with, to my suprise, silver streaks in it, that was messy and all over the place, and slightly pushed back from his forhead at the same time. His eyes however, where red, my blood red. I could tell he was not human just by looking at him, he would look un-human even if there was no clues like his blood.

And those red eyes where staring at me, questioning how much of a threat I would be to him. Finally, he spoke, in that deep voice of his.

"Um....Hi? Sorry about scaring you earlier, It has just been a long day and I am very tired"

"...."

"Can you hear me?"

"...."

"Can you even understand me?"

"....Are you a merman?"

And there goes my mouth, but that was not exactly my fault. Mermaids/men have silver blood, the males with a blue tinged and the females with a pinkish look about it. And his accent, which was impossible to describe unless you had heard it yourself, was one of the mere-peoples, it was only slightly hard to understand and make out what he was saying.

I twitched under his stare, which had suddenly gone suspicious and cautious, so he must be a runaway or something like that. Then he sighed, and seemed to fold p on himself ever so slightly, before replying,

"Yes. I am a merman. How did you guess?"

He sounded defeated, like he was empty. Swallowing and hoping to not make the situation worse than it already was, I made a waving motion towards his stomach where he was bleeding. Looking down, he caught sight of the covered wound and winced.

"Are you okay? I mean, you are obviously not okay judging by the wound in your stomach but I mean, um, what do I mean, uh.... Do you need to sit down, want me to check out yur wound. I know some healing magic, but you don't need to say yes,..."

"Stop, you can stop talking. No I am not really okay, Yes I shall sit down, yes you can heal me, lets just find a more comfortable place okay?", Cutting my nervous babbling off, he interjected and held out a hand for me to take.

Breathing a sigh of relief that he was going to let me heal him, I stood up ignoring his had to help me, and instead taking it to drag him along behind me, asking for directions to where to go to patch him up. He just sighed and switched our postions so he was infront and leading me. We left the door open.