Author's Note
So after I got my fire back I decided to do a little... story where a friend of mine kinda kicked off the idea and it kept rolling like a snowball before it became this!
Man, this was so different than what I'm used to doing for a first chapter!
I just wanna say that I really hope you guys enjoy this!
I do apologize in advance if I mistaken the MTG black/dark/swamp/undead type, I was told it's all the same.
Sorry, for the shorten-ish of this chapter, I wanted to try a different part 1/intro chapter than what I'm used to but still have something familiar about it.
Please comment below on what you think of this style of intro and if I should do it more often or not.
Btw I was listening to this when writing this chapter for some reason:
I guess it's since with all the undead and you know... guess this would contest for the theme if this story was greek mythos based story which it's not.
Part 1
"Oh hello!"
"Like my wares?"
"Yeah, you can say that,"
"Ahhhhh a classic. Feeling nostalgic?"
"Yeah I played Yugioh as a kid but this... this is a challenge,"
"I wasn't saying it was. I even used to play a game with Heisenberg a few times,"
"Who- Oh right my bad. But how much for the set?"
"Oh, that old thing? Let me think,"
"Ninety US, sound fair?"
"How about... Seventy-five?"
"Hmmm... Eighty-eight?"
"You drive a hard bargain dear sir but I'm not 'Ethan'... Seventy-nine?"
"Of course but still too low how about... Eighty-Five?"
"Ehhhhhhhhh... some of these are pretty cheap to get how about... how about a solid Eighty?"
"Oh hmmm,"
<"Eighty-two?">
"That is a fair piece we can agree on right?"
"Yeah, I do agree,"
"Then it's a deal. If Mr. Winters had your bargaining skill,"
"Hey, I'm a money guy... plus I played a lot of video games,"
"You strike me as a Fallout person,"
"Vegas. But I played all of them besides you know,"
"Seventy-six?"
"No, brotherhood,"
"Ahhhh a true buyer with good taste,"
"Here you go... thanks I can't let you know how much I appreciate this,"
"Don't worry have fun,"
"Not a problem-"
White as bleached bone...
Black as rotten flesh...
Red as dried blood...
You are to rise again!
The everfree forest...
Hidden under the vast green untamed trees, sat a dark corner sat a swamp.
The hollowed bark of trees long dead littered the barely lit swamp with water mudded and unsafe to drink.
Bones of all kinds were spread across the swamp, some bones could have been old as the swamp itself.
One of these bones rested in the clutches of tangled dead vines, the skull of a canine.
Large as a Diamond dog skull yet this one was longer and slimmer than any diamond dog skull.
But this skull wasn't lifeless like dead vines holding it, pushing forward the skull easily broke free of it's wooden prison as a body followed suit dressed in black robes that belonged to a mage. Standing up from the vines the creature's dark eye sockets lit for a moment like a spark, where two glowing pupils floated in the darkness of the eye sockets.
The creature looked at it's surroundings before looking down at it's hand before the glowing 'eyes' grew more as even the skull seem to change it's expression. It's black fur ears twitched before the creature held it's face feeling the exposed skull it had for a face before it gave an almost howl-like scream.
But soon the scream turns into laughter...
The laughter that belongs to a madman.
"I finally lost it..." Came a male voice from the creature's 'mouth' yet without lips the creature still had a tongue and spoke as if he both.
Laughing the undead-like creature held his skull face.
"This... can't be fake... this feels too real... or is my brain tricking me?" Moving his hands from his 'face' he noticed something glimmer in a small ray of sunlight breaking from the tree canopy over his head.
Reaching for it he pulled a leather strap off the top of whatever it was and pulled it from his belt before bringing it to his face. He didn't recognize the material the book's cover was made from, but it was some kind of silver like metal and black leather.
On the cover rested something he did recognize.
A skull...
A skull that belonged to a card game he enjoys.
The symbol for black mana.
Staring at the book for a moment before looking up at the swamp again, the 'skull dog' looked at the book again before pulling the buckle that held the book's cover together. A rush of air passed by him before he opened the book to look at the writing, it wasn't in any language that could have existed back home but he knew what it was.
Black speech.
That wasn't what he expected from a book with a symbol from the card game.
Yet he read it as if it was his first language...
From explaining how to summon lesser undead to perform rituals that could summon undead titans.
Closing the book with one hand, the skull dog looked to the swamp once again finally putting two-and-two together.
"Thanks, Duke," His sharp teeth on his skull moved into a smile.
Holding her arm out for Philomena, Celestia the princess of Equestria, the Eldest of two sisters, and master of the sun smiled while feeding her immortal companion.
Gently brushing her finger across the blazing orange feathers of the phoenix which the bird enjoyed before the door to her room was knocked causing her to turn from her avian familiar.
"Enter,"
As she said this a solar guard in golden armor stepped forward entering her room, bowing his head before using his free hand that wasn't holding his spear over his chest.
"Princess there is something happening within the mirror room,"
Looking at the guard she moved her letting Philomena fly over to his favorite spot before she walked over to the guard.
"What seems to be the matter?" She asked.
The guard looked up before moving his free hand to his side.
"You have to see for yourself, your highness,"
With a nod the two walked down the halls of the Cantorlot castle before not too long after making it to the 'Mirror room' two guards repeated the same salute as the first did before opening the double doors for her.
Upon entering, Celestia blinked in surprise at the mirror.
The usually reflective surface the mirror held was now a dark vanta black dripping with a black liquid down it's steps.
Keeping their distance from the liquid the guards all stood in a full circle around the mirror with their spears at the ready and even had their large shields held up. Passing by the guards to the mirror and to the strange liquid, never once has she seen the mirror ever do this or heard about it doing this before she found it.
This was new...
Looking at the liquid her horn glowed before a small spell bubble appeared in the liquid but before she could extract a sample to get a better look the bubble popped.
Baffled at the sight of what had happened she held her chin before looking at the guard from before.
"How long has it been like this?" Celestia asked.
"About 15 minutes my lady," The guard answered.
Holding her chin, she nodded her head before turning to leave the mirror.
"I need to send a letter to both Twilight and Starswirl... send for Sun Burst we need all brains on board for this,"
The guard placed his free hand over his chest plate before nodding.
"It will be done, princess,"
Going to follow his order, Celestia turned back to the mirror.
'Mother... I wish I was the one asleep right now and not Luna'
Walking away from the mirror to send those letters a small part of the liquid shifted unnoticed.
(Shortly after sunset)
Alastor sat across Ink-eyes in the cave while a fire burned in between them.
The two sat in silence as the skull dog flipped through the pages of his grimoire while Ink-eyes sharpened her blade while staring up at Alastor from time to time every time he flip a page.
A good sense of Paranoid has kept her alive before and during her service to the Oni, most of the time whenever she got an uneasy feeling or otherwise it was usually right. One of her pacts was with a goblin lord which didn't turn out well... for the goblin and his green horde.
Lifting the blade up she eyed the edge of the blade before turning to see Alastor had stopped flipping pages and was now inspecting a page. The self-trained Nezumi could hear him whisper to himself in a language she didn't understand before what she could guess repeat it back into something she could understand.
"This spell allows every the blood cells to morph together to form into any shape desired and then controlled for a period of time depending on the user's focus. But the blood must be of the caster's body," She heard him whisper to himself before holding his boney chin in thought.
That was when Ink-eyes began to wonder.
His 'face' was that of a werewolf's skull yet despite this he could change his expression without the use of magic, along with that even though his face was a skull he still had a tongue and flesh on the inside of his mouth. Ink-eyes began to think if he had something under his jaw bone, like a bone plate or maybe a black voice like with his eyes and nose.
The ninja was so deep in thought she flinched slightly when Alastor finally noticed her staring.
"Everything alright?"
Ink-eyes nodded while still studying his face.
"What is it?" Alastor asked.
"I'm curious about your unique facial features," Ink-eyes stated, she rested her arms on her legs while looking at him. "Your, not a werewolf lich that's you still have flesh and blood from the looks of it, nor are you a zombified werewolf you don't have the hunger for living flesh or appear to be rotting,"
The Nezumi held her chin this time.
"You are truly something new... that is saying a lot since I have seen more undead than any living being has ever seen before,"
Alastor gave a 'slight smile' at her words.
"Or maybe I am a zombie that's smart! RAWR!" He moved his free hand out into a claw before Ink-eyes reached for her blade causing him to hold out his hand in defense. "Calm down! Jeez! it was only a joke... and people say I don't have a sense of humor,"
The two just stared at one another before Alastor rubbed the back of his neck.
"Ummm... so then," Alastor asked to which Ink-eyes slowly moved away from her weapon before looking at the fire.
Throwing some sticks into the fire causing it to crack and echo though the small small cave, shortly after returning to his book Alastor began to think about something before closing his book and walked to the edge of the cave causing the assassin to watch him.
"What are you doing?"
Turning to her he held a bleached bone of a bird wing before speaking.
"I'm going to try something give me a second," Going back over to his spot by the fire he began to place down the bones of a dead bird, even though most of them were either from the wrong animal or were missing, but Alastor didn't seem to care too much.
Opening his book again to the page he marked, the skull dog grabbed his knife before cutting under his clawed finger to draw blood.
"Pi asht for mausan gijak granavuk lat nauk-biravh," As his blood was poured onto the bones, Ink-eyes studied the small magic spell in use.
She had no idea what he said but if she were to guess it was the language that book had.
In slightly surprise she watched while his blood began to pull the bones together as the bleached remains began to shift and pull at blood. Soon the blood began to form a dark red muscle and tendons dark flesh began to pull over some parts of the body before the bird like body was completely re-constructed into something different.
This new creature before her was like some sort of small chimera creature, bat like wings along with a long tail that held a stinger at it's end with the head of a wyvern.
"Hey there bud... welcome to the world," Alastor cooded before holdings out his hand to the creature.
Ink-eyes looked at Alastor thinking him a fool for offering himself like that to a creature that seemed to have a stinger dripping with a deadly venom. To her shock she watched the creature climb onto his hand before clinging to his bone fingers.
Alastor smiled at the sight of the creature before gently petting its head with his bone like claws.
"What in oblivion is that?" Ink-eyes finally spoke.
The necromancer looked at her.
"A reformed lesser undead... I just wanted to test the spell out with something small," Alastor let the creature climb up his arm like a bat to his shoulder before moving to his other hand and hanging from his wrist using it's stinger tail. "Heh... it's kinda cute in a way,"
While the creature nawed on the claw on his forefinger before he stood up.
"Alright little guy can you do something for me?" The skull dog asked his creation, causing it to move up onto the back of his hand as it gave a bat like nose. "Great... can you look around for us? Be our eyes in the sky?"
The creature gave the same sound before flapping it's large bat-like wings.
"Good boy," Release the chimera creature into the air out of the cave Ink-eyes looked back at him.
"You could understand what it was saying?"
Turning to her he shrugged.
"In a way..." Alastor stated before holdings his head. "I could hear a voice whisper when he spoke,"
Ink-eyes had to admit that was a cleaver move on his part sending a scout to find out what as around this area but his trust in that creature could have cost him his life. Still that spell wasn't what she was normally used to and this magic that he uses was very interesting, preharps this pact might not be a waste of time after all.
(Fluttershy's cottage)
Feeding the animals their dinner the element of kinds moved the feed bag back to it's spot she gently petted a stray cat who purred at her touch before going to eat the food she put out before her. Humming with a smile the pony got up to draw water for the night to spot something in the dark sky.
'Oh who might that be?' Fluttershy wondered in thought, all her usual animals were already here.
It wasn't migration season for any animals she knew so this animal must have been someone new who moved into the forest. That is when she watched it land on roof of her cottage, at first due to the creature's dark shadow she assumed it was a bat but before she could offer it anything the creature leap forward at a squirrel tackling it off the railing of the porch.
Mr. Squirrel screamed causing Fluttershy to zoom over but it was too late, the moment she saw it her blood froze.
Stabbing it's tail into the squirrel's neck causing the animal to die almost instantly before the creature began to skin it's sharp teeth into the creature eating it. Horrorified both Fluttershy and the animals didn't know what to do while the creature ate the remains of Mr. Squirrel before it turned it's lightly glowing green eyes at the element of kindness before hissing at her.
This caused her and the animals to scream and flee in terror into her cottage leaving the undead flyer of Alastor to feed on the remains of the dead squirrel enjoying it's first meal of being alive. After finishing consuming the liquidifed bones of Mr. Squirrel the creature took flight leaving the cottage behind and took to the sky flying to more lights in the horizon.
Author's Note
Part 3!
A kind of a semi-insight to Ink-eyes thoughts.
There is not much lore on her character so I hope I did well from what information I could find.
So yeah this is a short chapter which I don't normally do since you know I enjoy doing chapters over 1,000+ words by now.
To a certain someone who PMed me and asked: 'Is he like Talon?'...
I'm going to say this here so I don't have to repeat myself: Is Alastor like Talon from the lord of the rings shadow series?
My answer is: Yes and no...
There are some elements of Talon in Alastor but he doesn't have a soul bound to him, I was thinking more like a much younger 'the advisor' from Warhammer total feel.
But now that I was asked that I can't shake the idea of Alastor being similar to Talon, even though he's not a ranger.
Might have to change my plans for the future ever slightly.
Still, hoped you enjoyed the chapter.
