The thin wooden door that is the doorway to their inn room slams open as Ankorr, in the form of Lucille, walks in dejectedly.

Ignoring Windshaw, he plops down onto the bed with a loud sigh and hugs his tiny legs with small arms.

“You still haven’t found a way?” Windshaw asks with curiousity.

“No…” His girlish voice permeates the air filled with sadness “’It’ seems to take everything”

In the month after that harvest battle, Ankorr had participated in numerous bloody fights, resulting in wins at the cost much pain with no gain.

For a reason unknown to him, ‘It’ seems to gain all the xp he earns, while not losing any when the harvest comes.

Thus he is only level two at the moment which is very worrying to both him and Windshaw.

Windshaw stands up and with a ghostly sigh, walks out the room, stating “You’ll find a way” as he floats out the room.

Pulling the cover over the cute head of Lucille, he looks into the darkness trying to think of a way.

The room goes silent, deathly so as not even the sound of breathing permeates the air.

….

Windshaw floats across the alleyway, passing through the many individuals without care, causing many to shudder involuntarily at the touch of the ethereal.

He soon finds the grell he is looking for; an old thing with a slight tuft of hair under its weathered beak.

The grell leans against a wall in an alleyway; easily in view of the street, but only for those that are specifically looking for him.

Windshaw floats towards the grell, waiting for him to finish the brisk conversation between a hooded kobold, before looking down at him.

“What is the news Girchus?” Windshaw asks with a tone of commandment

“The House of Skalor seems to have gained a sudden windfall; blood flows thickly within their House. Van Krelich has become quite obsessed with her new ‘pet’, so far as to miss the harvest meal of the Houses and there seems to be a sudden increase in deaths in the portals, due to adventurers as the monsters talk” Girchus speaks with a slight squawk as he recounts the more useful information for Windshaw.

The two have known eachother for a while, so Girchus knows what information Windshaw would find worthy of his time.

Transferring a part, Windshaw doesn’t balk at the hefty price; since information is invaluable to him at this moment.

Floating through the streets, he takes out two bronze coins with jagged edges and drops it towards a small rat with intelligent eyes.

“Renold from the House of Skelor” Windshaw says to the rat and he watches it scurry off to deliver the coin and keep one for itself.

Continuing down the street, he soon reaches the dark, mysterious and quite alluring House of Sin, which has the odd customer walking in valiantly, or walking out in a deformed manner but with a happy grin on their face.

Floating inside, he nods towards the Drider clerk and she lets out a small screech, ringing in Windshaw’s head.

Soon, a small skull with a single pulsating gem for an eye, floats into the room.

“What is it Dyara?” Kariath clacks towards her

“Mr Windshaw is here” She points towards Windshaw, who waves back with a sleeve.

In a slight hurry, Kariath disappears, only to momentarily reappear with Mistress in tow.

“You” She spits out quite bitterly as she crosses her arms aggressively in front of her large bosom.

“Madame Krelich” Windshaw bows in mock politeness

“I knew vhen I saw my dear, you vould be coming round sometime soon” she looks and talks with a tone, less than pleased at seeing Windshaw

“Was two hundred and forty years not enough to forgive and forget?”

“Vorget, never. Vorgive, not in a million years” She stomps over to him and jabs a finger into his robe “I hope you have a good reason to come here, or I will personally drive you out of Hellderworld this time” Her threat is almost visible in her body’s aggressive positioning.

“Someone is coming for your pet in about an hour’s time” he says nonchalantly

Her eyes widen slightly in fear, before she gets hold of herself and grabs Windshaw’s sleeves pulling him down an inch from her face

“ou?” All her bloodlust is poured into that single word

“A child from the house of Dacul”

Mistress gulps audibly upon hearing that a noble vampire’s child is coming to visit, since vampires are one of the major houses in this realm, far above her own and if she were to annoy them, she would be murdered brutally and without a second thought.

“How do I stop it from taking my pet? Please tell me for old time’s sake” She almost begs Windshaw

His hood shivers somewhat, as if he had twitched in annoyance “Tell the child that it was transferred to the House of Skelor” Windshaw says after a small moment of thought

“Skelor?” She says almost shocked “yes…that vould vork well” she strokes her chin thoughtfully at the plan

Skelor, Dacul and Lith are the main three Houses in Hellderworld, and thus neither of the three can explicitly interfere with eachother’s household business. This is something Windshaw knows can be abused in certain situations such as this.

“Yes, however it would be safer if you do take your ‘pet’ away from the House momentarily, in case the child decides to have a wander. Somewhere remote like the forest of tears should do” Windshaw adds

“Ok Vindshaw, I vill take your advice. like old time eh?” She gives him a small reminiscent smile before remembering her lasting hatred towards him and then walks away with a huffy goodbye effectively sending him out the door.

Windshaw bows to the empty air and then floats outside, refraining from chuckling to himself till he is far away from the place.

A small rat bounds up to him and spits out a small jagged bronze coin; split in two.

Nodding thanks to the rat, Windshaw spots a familiar skeleton lounging a corner away from the House of Sin, wearing a long cloak.

Chuckling slightly, Windshaw sends a backhand wave to his friend before floating down the street, towards the inn and towards the next stage of his plan.

....

He soon opens the door to their room and spots Ankorr sitting passively on a chair, looking past what his eyes see, thinking deeply it seems.

“Ankorr”

He doesn’t respond, only focuses on the distance

“Ankorr” Windshaw says a bit louder

Ankorr snaps out of his trance and looks towards Windshaw, a confused expression embedded on his face.

“What is it Windshaw?”

“I have a job for you”

Ankorr raises a cute little eyebrow, questioningly.

“It will allow both of us to gain soul that can be harvested in the coming months, and with only a little work from you” Windshaw continues slowly dragging Ankorr into the idea

It works as his small, round face looks up with renewed interest yet distrust seeps in too.

“What do I have to do?”

“Simple, you must go to the House of Sin and ask to see a friend”

“A friend?” Ankorr’s tone seeps with hope

“An illithid princeling from the House of Lith. However he is hidden under a guise to his current host, as something else”

“What guise? And what’s an illithid?” Ankorr questions the information scrutinously

“An illithid is an Abberation of some sort, like that…corpse fucker you fought last harvest match. They have superior mental capabilities and thus can disguise themselves among the monsters by filling their mind with an illusion of their form. However as a Blood Drinker, you are not affected”

More like due to your dual soul situation, you are not controlled or maybe it’s the fact that you could be undead, but that is not a detail you should know, for many reasons.

Windshaw chuckles inwardly at the thought before continuing

“Thus, your job is to find this princeling and kill him”

“What for?” Ankorr asks, mildly shocked at the request

“Some reason or another, I do not really know as of yet. All I know is that a bounty has been placed on his head so killing him would reward us with quite a few parts”

“Oh, so it’s a simple bounty hunt?”

“Not as simple as you think, since the princeling is in guise and will most likely be hiding in the various Houses, so beware”

Ankorr looks down at the table pensively for a few minutes, before looking back up with a face filled with determination

“Tell me his name”

….

“Mmm, bloody thing, why are you so heavy!?” Kariath rants with clenched teeth as he drags the tied up body of the man through the back door of the House of Sin.

Luckily years of using nothing but his teeth to move things round plus the fact that he can use magic, has improved his strength to the point where he can effectively drag the man across the abandoned alleyways without too much of a problem.

The man is conscious, grunting at the slight pain from being roughly tied and dragged unceremoniously on the cobbled, bloody street. But apart from that, he does look slightly relieved and happy at seeing the bright red sky and not the dim dungeon he spent the past month in.

He is dragged for a good half an hour, through a mess of abandoned alley’s, undisturbed by anyone else, until they reach the foot of a blood drenched mountain.

More blood washes on the mountain as a sharp rock slices through the man’s face while he is hefted along the ground.

Dragging him up a small slope for a short while, the two finally reach a small plateau a few dozen feet off the ground.

Kariath drops the rope and floats lazily in the air resting his tired jaw.

He looks up towards the red sky, watching a horned demon gliding around in search of idiotic prey that try to fly in its territory.

However he is soon distracted by the frantic wiggling of the man, who upon inspection, is trying to wiggle to a more comfortable position.

Ignoring the man, Kariath goes back to watching the demon, as a bigger, more ferocious looking one flies up, rips off the smaller ones head and drinks from it like it would from a bottle.

“Hey…Kariath was it?” The man once again distracts him, with a peculiarly gentle voice, albeit cracked from lack of proper hydration.

“What is it?” He answers back without bothering to look towards him

“Could you untie me”

…

..

.

Kariath slowly turns towards him

“Are…you the dumbest shit on this dimension?” He asks, quite amazed by this man’s stupidity.

“Well, this is the best chance I’m ever going to get, and no harm in trying right?” the man fights back with a logical argument

“So…you think I’d just release you? Go against Mistress and release some ‘pet’?”

The man tries his best to shrug while tied, then goes back to wiggling himself to comfort

Kariath goes back to looking up in the sky, but another voice distracts him

Help

“Dammit sto-” he stops ranting at the man when he notices it wasn’t him who spoke

The man just raises an eyebrow

Help him please

The soft, melancholic voice reverberates lightly in his mind and he feels forgotten warmth wash over him, almost cuddling his head lovingly.

He ignores the warmth and the voice, looking up into the sky, though his single crystal eye doesn’t seem to focus on anything.

Don’t let him be like that, like us

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD” He shouts into the air, making the man jump slightly into the air from the suddenness of it

Oh sorry, did you not like being reminded? Remembering the pain that we endured and endure?

The voice turns sour, almost angry, reproaching towards him and the warmth rips away from him in a huff.

”I DON’T ENDURE ANYTHING, ONLY YOUR SILENCE! A HUNDRED YEARS, A HUNDRED. THAT IS HOW LONG I HAVE ENDURED YOUR SILENCE AND NOW, NOW YOU DECIDE TO TALK TO ME? FOR HIM? THAT…THAT ‘PET’!?”

That is because our happiness is long gone, but his is still fresh and more importantly still living.

“AND WHAT OF IT, WHY SHOULD I FUCK UP MY EXISTENCE FOR A ‘PET’ LIKE HIM?” The shouting continues, uncaring of the wide-eyed man who looks on both curiously and with fear.

Tell me, how did it feel to walk down that path? Would you want anyone else to walk down it again?

The voice is once again sweet, caring, calming. It no longer accuses, but almost consoles him, worried about him even.

“AAAAAARGGH…” He screams to the sky opening his jaw as widely as he can “FUCK IT”

He rushes over to the man and tears away the ropes, releasing him.

“I’M NOT DOING THIS BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU GET IT! NOW GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND!” Kariath shouts at the man and he quickly stands up, bows and starts running off in the distance, only stopping for a second to talk back.

“HEY KARIATH, WHOVER YOU’RE ANGRY WITH, JUST FORGIVE AND FORGET. A HUNDRED YEARS IS LONG ENOUGH TO DO THAT”

He then turns back round, trips, stands back up and then runs away.

Kariath watches the man leave, running into the distance and feels the warmth encompass him once more, as if thanking him, before leaving once more.

“You gave me silence for a hundred years and I hate you for that, but dammit , hearing it again made me so happy”

No sweet voice answers him and he chuckles sorrowfully to the wind

“I guess a hundred years is not long enough for you to forgive is it…” A slight crack appears on the gem on his eye, painless yet at the same time so painful.

With the wistful words on the wind, Kariath starts floating down the mountain, back towards Mistress and the fate he gave into on the whim of sweet words and to his sudden state of madness and anger and bliss.

He was so distracted; he missed a skeleton wearing a cloak watching from the distance.

The skeleton shrugs at the scene and disappears off, a happy cackle accompanying him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Corner:

Hey! new chapter out already! Guess i didn't have much to do today, or I was just Sooooo excited to write this!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and hope it was a nice fresh thing that cleared your mind after the last chapter

.

Apparently you males who read last chapter had problems.....*Bows deeply in regret* I'll try to refrain from scarring you/making you lose appetite any further....but then again those reactions were perfect and kind of what i was looking for(plus 2 out of 5 comments were describing their pain so good?(or bad i'm not sure in this situation:P)

ALSO, for some reason the views have died down quite a bit (possibly due to the fiction but also because i kind of had that giant 3-4 week hiatus...damn those exams), so go advertise and spread the love of this fiction(or horror mind you, but you know it's still a feeling :P)

Please comment, review and give some general love/hate/wtf is going on (ALSO THANK YOU RANDOM REVIEWER :* :* :* MUCH KISSES)

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD