by grymhood
Copyright 2008 grymhood
~ Book I ~
The Necromancer
March, 12, 1310
Today when I was walking through a desert, I saw ten holes. I watched them for a while and then I saw a tiny nose and two beady, little eyes poke up and look around. It had little feelers on the end of the nose like a mole. Actually, the entire head looked like a mole’s! The body had course, black fur and long claws on its hands and feet. It stared at me for a moment, and then it dove back into the hole. Later I found out it was called an Underling.
Chapter 1
The Ratling Hive
A Bof opened its beady eyes in to the wet grass covered valley. It had been hibernating in its den and it had felt the first warm breeze of spring. It yawned and stretched and walked out of the hole in the hill. She was a bear like animal mixed with a wombat. She had brown fur with two streaks of tan running down her back. Her big soft paws had short opposable thumbs. She started to lick the melted snow off the ground when it heard a loud “TTSSsssRREEIkkkkSs!” It turned around and there was a creature with a long neck with a human face and strands of wet hair on the top of its head. It had two bird like legs and a bean shaped body with a thick rat tail. It was running toward her. The Bof roared and sat down firmly waiting for the impact. What was this creature? She had never seen it before in her ten years. The creature jumped onto the Bof and started biting and kicking her. The Bof punched it and chomped at it. Finally after two minutes the Bof pinned down the unknown animal and roared in its face and let it up and chased after it, not noticing that they were being watched by a young traveler. The traveler had a black cap and a back pack. He had a note book and was writing and drawing what he saw. He wasn’t going anywhere particular; he was just trying to find out more about the world. He got up and put the notebook in his pack and ran down the way the Bof and animal had run. After a little while he could see the Bof lying next to what looked like a termite mound that stretched forty feet into the air, and was twenty feet in diameter, being swarmed by those creatures. The traveler looked horrified as they were all pulling the struggling Bof inside the termite mound. He then gave them a name. Ratlings. Were had they come from? He decided the world would be glad to here of this.
On a hill there stood a massive fortress: Staihark castle. It was the home of anyone who was passing and needed a home. “Excuse me?” Called a traveler from below. Matak the guard looked down at the traveler from his turret. The traveler had a backpack and a black cap. “Excuse me?” He said again. “What?” Answered Matak.
“May I come in? I would like to talk to the king.”
“What’s your name, traveler?” Asked the guard.
“Hatchet, sir.” “Okay, Hatchet, c’mon in…OPEN THE GATES!!” yelled Matak. The draw bridge lowered and Hatchet walked forward as the portcullis opened. “King Reginald, a traveler would like to speak with you.” Said a soldier to the king.
“Mmmm.” Mumbled the king as he stood up from his throne. He walked down the hall to the stairs and out in to the court yard. There was the traveler waiting for him. “Hello, sir.” Said Reginald. “Your Majesty,” Hatchet said bowing. “In the valley, there are strange creatures. They have the legs of a bird, the head of a man, and the tail of a rat. I have named them Ratlings. They swarmed a Bof and ate her.”
The king had a look of worry on his face. “What do you suppose I do? It’s not like they are attacking us. Why should we do anything?” Asked King Reginald.
“Well, I’d like you to figure out were they came from. I read in the stories that you were omnipotent and all knowing!” said Hatchet. “Well…well, oh…er, I guess I could send one of my naturalists, but he’s not exactly the fighting type. I’ll send a soldier with them…just in case.” The king thought out loud. “Yes, my lord…good idea.” said Hatchet politely. “Oh, and traveler. You will be going to, to show my men the way.” said King Reginald.
“ “ “
In the grave yard, there walked a figure of a man with a long beard and a ragged, old top hat. He looked around and wove a hand in the air. “Harrum farmentune.” he muttered. He waited thirteen seconds and then a skeletal hand reached up out of the ground and pulled the rest of its body out of the dirt. The head had small chunks of decaying meat around the jaw, which opened up and it gave out a low groan. This same thing kept happening through out the grave yard until a quarter of the bodies had been uprooted. “Scellow entoo mah.” The man said, this time louder than the last spell. The undead turned there heads (or what was left of a head) toward the necromancer and walked toward him. He spun on the heels of his boots, and walked through the dark, sleeping town. The skeletons followed him all the way to the mountain to which the man was taking them. They waited a few seconds and out of a huge shape crawled out of a tunnel in the side of the mountain and flapped down beside them. It was ZaiOli, a red dragon, and sister to Kaderolor…a black dragon. “Ah, I see you have brought my brother and I our troops. You know what this means, don’t you?” She said. She stuck out her finger and slowly waved it up and down. The necromancer waved his head up and down along with the finger. “Gooood. You get a reward. Now what would a human like you want from a dragon.” ZaiOli stood in mock-thought with a finger tapping her chin. How about some food. Kadorolor! Bring the necromancer some food!” She yelled up to her brother. In a few seconds the black dragon came crawling out of the cave carrying a claw full of meat and vegetables. He flapped down next to the man and set the food down in front of him. “You are released.” Said Kadorolor. The man fell to his hands and knees and gasped for air. “You miserable, lizards.” He sputtered.
“Now, now, Cornelius. You don’t want to anger us.” Said Kadorolor soothingly. “We are your only way to stay alive. Remember our deal?”
“I was a fool to accept. And besides, it was only a year you said. It has been three years!” Cornelius growled. “Let me go!”
What will you do if we don’t?” ZaiOli asked. “You are just a human. You are imprisoned.” As she said that Cornelius stopped what he was doing and stood to attention. “Now,” said Kadorolor angrily. “Go back to the grave yard and bring us more troops. Yes, that’s right.” The necromancer walked off.
“ “ “
“See? There it is.” Said Hatchet to the naturalist and soldier. The two men looked at it for a few seconds. Then the soldier walked over to a tree and sat down as the naturalist sat down were he was standing and took out a note book and pencil. A few Ratlings walked out of the hive and looked around. One stared right at the naturalist and started to run toward him. In not long at all it was jumping on to him. It knocked the naturalist over and jumped up and down on him hissing in his face. The naturalist just stayed calm and smiled and hummed to it. Hatchet’s and the soldier’s face of worry and horror changed into confused smiles. The naturalist started to pet the creature’s pale skin and as he did this the ratling calmed down to just a quiet growl. He got up gently pushing the ratling off him and pushed it toward the hive. It ran off. Hatchet stared at the naturalist for a few seconds. “He’s a netherling.”
“And what dare I ask is a ‘netherling’” asked the soldier.
“It’s a creature from a different plane in the cosmology called the netherworld. It orbits the plane of existence (the plane we live on) and every year the netherworld overlaps it letting the strange creatures that inhabit it pass onto our plane.” Said the naturalist. “These little guys look like they moved here two or three years ago. And we might be able to find some other animals that used to live in the netherworld not to far from here.”
“Well to bad we won’t look for them. Come on. Let’s get back to the cas-” Started the soldier but he was interrupted by Hatchet. “Wait, do you hear that? It’s like hoofs.”
And it was. Ahead of them was a dust cloud made by a black carriage. “Who’s that?” asked the naturalist. As it got closer, the three could make out three white horses pulling it and a very skinny man, with pitch black skin. He was carrying a whip and was yelling at the three horses trying to get them to go faster. “Giddeyapp!! Faster, you maggots!”
“I don’t like the look of those horses or driver.” Said the soldier hesitating.
“Why not?” Asked Hatchet.
“I think because they are skeletons. RUN!”
They all turned the opposite direction and ran as fast there legs could carry them. After about forty seconds Hatchet looked behind them. The horse’s skeletal legs were practically trampling them. The black Wight raised its whip and curled it around Hatchet’s leg and tripped him. The horses avoided trampling him, and he stayed lying down as the carriage went over him. After, two more skeletons jumped down from the top and grabbed him and tied him up and threw Hatchet into a barred cell on the cart that he had not noticed before. That was the last he saw of the soldier or naturalist for a few days.
“ “ “
Two Gnolls walked down the forest path. They were patrolling around there camp. They were the two scouts of the
“What? No. I don’t. What was it?” said the first one.
“Sounded like twig snap. Something follows us!”
Then the Gnoll heard it again. It sounded like it was running. He sniffed the air. All he could smell was the swamp water and steam.
The old crocodile could here the two Gnoll’s heart beats. They were fast. It growled and leapt at them. The two Gnolls jumped out of the way and drew their spears. The two Gnolls waved them at the crock. The giant crocodile roared. It raised its claw and swiped at Vulfgar’s and Crawstam’s spears which broke into. Crawstam looked down at his spear, dropped it and fled. Vulfgar looked around franticly for a place to hide. None in sight. The crocodile roared again and chomped down on Vulfgar. It grabbed his foot and flung him into the water. And then dove down after him. Vulfgar swam up to the surface and gasped for air right as a rope loop swung around his torso and hauled him to shore at Gerundi-like speed. When on shore, two furry claws slit the rope. Vulfgar looked behind him. It was Mistclaw, the main general of the blue mountain clan. He only half of an ear on one side of the head and an empty eye socket on the other. He growled. “Now, if you want to live through this, Swamp scum, you will have to follow what I say exactly.”
Vulfgar nodded then turned back to the water. The crock’s head was quickly moving toward them. Mistclaw stood up and drew his sword. It was jagged and looked like it had been through many fights…and won. “Now, when I say go, you jump into the water and make a distraction for the crocodile and I will stab its head.”
The giant crocodile jumped out of the water, and roared. “GO!!” Yelled Mistclaw. Vulfgar jumped up and down yelling like a mad cow. The Crock looked over at him and growled. It drew back to chomp but a sharp pain in its head made it stop. The Gnoll pulled the sword up then stabbed it back down again. The crocodile made a huge splash as it fell to the ground, dead. Mistclaw looked at Vulfgar and nodded then walked away.
“ “ “
The prison carriage came to a halt. They had stopped next to an enormous mountain range. He had heard of this place but never saw it. The
Its minions had a firm, tight grip as they led him up the path. As they walked up the rock stairs it got warmer and warmer until it was almost unbearably hot. Of course it didn’t bother the skeletons at all. Soon, Hatchet was standing right outside the cave in the mountains.
April, 17, 1310
I have experienced one of the most frightening things today. I was sleeping in an inn, when suddenly I heard a loud buzzing outside my window. I woke up and opened the shades. Outside was a blur of black and yellow. I immediately new what they were: Lighting wasps. And were right in the way of their migration path. I had only seen a plague of them once in my life, and that was from far away. I heard some cracks and zaps from outside in the swarm. And a few seconds later, when they were past, some people ran outside to put out some fires.
“ “ “
To be continued...
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