Beyond Death For Love (solo)

[Krugor]

[ Many years ago… ]

“YOU IDIOT!” his mother cried out as she grabbed the boy by the collar. “Tell me you didn’t, just tell me you didn’t!” she said more afraid than angry, as she slapped the mud and dirt from her son’s coat. A quick feel in her pocket revealed a handkerchief and in one fluent motion she wiped the blood from his nose and the corners of his mouth. It wasn’t that uncommon for her son to come home all messed up, but this was truly something else.
Usually they would let him ago after pushing him around for while or maybe punch him in the stomach a few times, but never before did they lay a hand on his face. This wasn’t the usual beating he would receive from the village’s bully, she knew. He had been the victim of a planned attack and she knew exactly why. In fact, she could hardly blame them…

“I’m sorry, ma!” the boy said crying. The salty tears mixed with the drops of blood still on his face. He knew he looked awful, he knew they went all out this time. Most of the times he managed to get away before they got to the really hurting part, but this time they outnumbered him too much. And even worse, this time it wasn’t to steal his lunch money or just because they were jealous of his grades. No, this time they did it because of what he was, because of what he loved.
As his mother kept cleaning his dirty face with the now blood-soaked handkerchief and her spit, he thought about the days before. Didn’t his parents warn him of this? Didn’t he know this would happen? He knew, and he still did it. But if he would get a chance to go back in time and redo it, he would do it all again, just the same. In a heartbeat. Because he felt he did the right thing. It would tear him apart on the inside if he didn’t tell the world outside.

“Leave him alone, Lora” his father said as he stepped into the room. His father was a stern man, born and raised in Salvar, and obviously the harsh climate had influenced the way he looked at things. Just as the winters in the snowy region could be cold and unforgiving, so was his father. Only it never seemed to be summer, or even spring, in the hearth of his old man. He only respected those who took care of themselves, those who had the guts to take matters in their own hands. And Talidus was absolutely no such character. He was a wuss and he knew it. And even worse, he was something that his father greatly disgusted.

“It’s his own fault, Lora” the man continued as he grabbed Talidus’ mother and pulled her away from her wounded son. “Listen to me, you piece of shit” he said as he looked down upon his son. Talidus guessed his father was about three times his own length. Already quite an intimidating sight, but the veins pumping in his neck and the dark red color of his bloodshot eyeballs made him really pee his pants this time. “We told you to keep your mouth shut! But no, you had to run off and tell the world, disgracing your parents! Do you know how they will look at us now? Do you know how they will treat us now? Do you!?”

The man suddenly lashed out and slapped the boy across his face. Anger took full control of his father, Talidus knew. At this point it was best to let him be, there wasn’t anything he could say that wouldn’t make things worse. The fresh wounds opened again and he felt the blood entering his mouth for the second time today. His swollen cheeks and black eye felt excruciating and his whole head felt like it could explode any second. He wanted to cry, he wanted to scream. He wanted to lay down this very instance and never wake up. But none of those things would help him. Talidus could only do one thing. Face his father like a man. Never losing eye contact and never letting him have the joy of seeing him wet himself.
“You’re no longer my son!” his father yelled as he grabbed Talidus by his hair and threw him against the door. “Get out!” he said, “You’re no longer part of this family! We don’t have a place in this house for your kind!”

Talidus watched his father turn his back on him and his mother dropping to her knees crying. Suddenly he wasn’t so sure he did the right thing…

[Krugor]

[ Current time… ]

Talidus felt the bruises on his face. They were quite numerous. A small cut next to his eyebrow caused a slender line of blood to make its way down from his cheek towards his neck. Spit and blood mixed in his mouth and he noticed one of his upper teeth moving just a bit too independently from the others. They really messed him up. Talidus wondered why they arrested him with such force. Necromancy was illegal here, he knew that much, but it wasn’t that big of crime that he needed to be pounded to a pulp by five guards and then thrown into the deepest and darkest dungeon he’d ever seen. You see, when a taxidermist puts the deceased back on display, he gets a smack ton of money, but when a necromancer does it he gets arrested. Violently. This above all, angered him the most. His work was art, not a crime.

He coughed up a bit of the blood and send it flying against the wall. The whole room made him feel weak and powerless. He realized this was obviously the very reason they designed it so; to break the prisoner’s willpower, to ease their work in extracting a confession. Even the guards would get tired of the torturing sooner or later, so why not tenderize the victim a bit before getting to the real work?
Talidus sat with his back just a couple of inches from the wall, facing the massive, reinforced steel door. There was a small hole in the door, from which a tiny ray of light entered the room. There was only one other window, but seeing it was nighttime the peephole remained the only source of light in the cell so he decided it would be best to sit there, lest he be going crazy with the complete darkness on the other sides of the room.

Talidus had seen his fair share of darkness and disturbing sights in his life but there was something about this particular area that made him feel uncomfortable. The entire floor of the room was soaking wet and the walls were covered with what seemed to be tiny spikes or other steely pointy things. How many unknowing prisoners had lost their mind here, he wondered. If you managed to keep yourself from getting life-threateningly ill, which could only be achieved by not sitting down in the ice-cold water, you would just get yourself mortally wounded since walking around in this pitch-black room could only result in walking into the spiked wall sooner or later…

Talidus had chosen to sit down. He could feel the cold creeping up his spine and the water entering his pants and shoes. This is why they would dress their prisoners in rags; they wanted them to feel every drop of water against their skin. To feel the cold penetrating their bodies, to be fully aware of their heartrate dropping, to let confusion and disorientation sink in, to let them know there was no hope left. They would either go insane or die. He knew there was no way he would get out of here alive.

“Talidus Daryl Wolfe!” a deep thundering voice said as the door slammed open. A muscular guard entered the room and grabbed the necromancer by his collar. He pulled him up and held him just a few inches from his own face. Talidus could see straight into the lifeless eyes of the man. It seemed as if he had no neck, but that only made him more intimidating. Who has no neck? That’s truly terrifying. The guard was almost twice the size Talidus was and the necromancer’s head would fit multiple times in the man’s biceps. Talidus could feel the thick fingers of the man closing around his throat. The grip got tighter and tighter until he suddenly released his chokehold.
But before Talidus got time to regain his breath he could feel the enormous hand punching his stomach. In an instant the entire contents of his lungs were pushed outwards and Talidus dropped to his knees. One hand on his stomach and the other in the dirty water he tried to catch his breath. But again there was no time to recover for the guard bashed his knee straight into the necromancer’s face. Talidus could feel his nose breaking and his entire body was launched backwards. He screamed in pain as he realized the spikes on the walls now penetrated him.

“Stop…” he whispered so soft it would be a wonder if the guard heard it. The beast of a man grabbed Talidus’ collar once again and yanked him free from the spikes. The pain of the spikes leaving his body was almost as bad as them entering it. Instantly he felt blood running down his back. His attacker now forced Talidus onto his back and like you would carry of a bale of hay on your shoulders, the man swung the almost lifeless body of the necromancer around and carried him out of the room.

“You disgust me” the guard said as he carried Talidus and made his way up from the dungeons “If it weren’t for my strict orders I would’ve broken every bone in your body and let you lay there until you died a slow and painful death".

The necromancer could barely keep his eyes open as he felt like he could pass out from the excruciating pain any moment. But he forced himself to stay awake; he needed to know where they were going.
They passed through a hallway that didn’t leave much to one’s imagination. It seemed they had hired the same interior decorator for the hallway as for the dungeon cells. The pitch-black, tiled floor was cracked here and there and the rocky walls were completely deprived of any decoration, it made you feel as if you were heading towards your own death. At least the torches alongside the walls gave a sense of warmth that kept you from running to the end as quick as possible. At least those made Talidus feel like there was some hope left.

“If they, for some weird reason, find you not guilty I will hunt you down and enforce justice myself. You got that, you filthy maggot!?” the guard said as they came to a halt. He opened a door on the right-hand side of the hallway and announced the necromancer’s name with as much disgust and anger as he did when he entered the cell.

[Krugor]

“How do you plead?” the judge asked. The man was dressed in a long, blood red dress of some sort with what seemed to be a napkin around his neck. He was seated behind an elevated, massive wooden desk, with guards on both sides and overlooking the entire room. Everyone present had to look up to the man, obviously meant to symbolize the judge’s power. And there were quite some spectators present. Talidus noticed the benches behind him, filled with Elves, Dwarves, Humans and even a few Drow. It seemed as if everybody wanted to see what was about to unfold here. And still Talidus didn’t know exactly what he was being accused with. Talidus sat in an uncomfortable chair, with his hands and feet bounded to it. He realized he was the only one between the crowd and the judge. There was nobody to speak in his defense.

“Don’t make me repeat the question!” the judge said, a little bit cranky.

“Uh, not guilty?” Talidus said. The crowd roared and it took the judge a little bit of effort to regain control of the situation. Screaming ‘silence’ a few times and threatening with aggressive actions did the trick, however.

“Alright, let’s start this thing then” the judge spoke and almost instantly a man dressed in another blood red dress entered the room. This particular individual was much older however, and had long lost the color in his hair, as opposed to the young, eager looking judge. His face was wrinkled and he had massive bags beneath his eyes. The man looked tired. But with great determination he walked up to Talidus, stared him in the eyes for a few seconds and then faced the judge. “Your honor,” he started “this man is a monster!”

“Oh come on!” Talidus screamed, “You don’t even know me! What the hell is this all about anyway, I don’t even know why I’m here!?”

The necromancer felt pain shooting through his entire body when he spoke those words. The wounds were still fresh and if he got worked up too much the pain would be unbearable. They had quickly bandaged the cuts on his back and the one near his eyebrow when they put him in the chair, but there was still a bit of blood dripping down his face and back, he could feel it. The warm liquid almost felt like his only friend in this hostile, cold environment.

“You, sir, are being accused of necrophilia!”

It felt as if someone punched him in the face. Again. As if he fell out of bed after having a bad dream. Only the dream wasn’t over and he could still feel the bad taste in his mouth. Talidus wondered how they came up with such idiotic accusations, why they singled him out to be the victim of the day. And then it came to him. He stared blankly at the judge as he realized what they were referring to. He must’ve looked quite stupid, with his mouth wide open and his eyes gazing into nothingness, but he couldn’t help it. There was only one thing running through his mind…

“But I…that’s…how do you…”

“That’s seem like a confession to me, your honor” the elderly man said.

“No way!” Talidus instantly responded “I deny everything!“

“You deny being a necrophiliac? Haven’t you studied the arts of necromancy for your entire life?” the judge asked.

“Well yeah, I am a necromancer. I raise the dead. I chat with them, we have a laugh and sometimes we go out for a drink or two, but I never, ever, have sexual intercourse with them!”

The prosecutor now walked up to Talidus again and showed him a painting of a corpse. It was the corpse of young man, a slender Elf no more than 50 years of age, laying somewhere in the woods, with decomposition quickly setting in. It was quite a disturbing image and before Talidus could even ask why they showed him such a gruesome thing the man shouted;

“You deny being turned on by this? Aren’t you feeling a strange excitement right now? Don’t you want to have your way with him!?”

“Good gods, man! Take that away, it’s so gross! The only thing I’m feeling right now is slight nausea and the shooting pain in my back!”

“Very well. If you want to play hardball, we’ll play hardball” the man whispered softly as he turned away from the necromancer and faced the crowd that awaited the upcoming events anxiously. “Ladies and gentlemen, this man is a necromancer. You all just heard him confess he likes hanging out with the dead. This alone gives you the right to execute him, but for the sake of justice I shall uncover the very real and perverse intentions of this man!”
The man revealed a smirk as he eyeballed the necromancer, “Bring in the first witness!”

[Krugor]

[ Corone, a few days earlier… ]

“Roasted mushrooms with a fresh, garlic dressing. Here you go, uh…sir?” the girl said as she handed the skeleton the plate of food. Krugor observed the girl carefully, from head to toe and back up again. It was a gorgeous girl, like most of the maidens in the area were. Ever since he arrived here Krugor hadn’t seen a single ugly woman. Nor man, for that matter. It was as if you entered an alternate dimension, were all the ugly people had gone extinct. But the inhabitants of ‘Six Winds Beach’, as they nicknamed it, weren’t the only beautiful things you could feast your eyes on. Waves crashed into the beach, one right after another and the burning sun gave the entire area a warm, fuzzy glow. Palm trees were placed randomly it seemed, but always accompanied by a couple of chairs. Krugor smelled the salty sea winds as another wave crashed into the sand. It was always a strange sensation to smell and taste for the undead. One would assume the dead would have no use for these seemingly useless senses, but ever since his resurrection Krugor had been able to enjoy all five of them. He always thought the ability to smell and taste was due to magic, or an error on the necromancer’s part. Nothing to be worried about.
What did worry him however was the fact that the mind-numbingly beautiful waitress was making her way back to the restaurant.

“Uh excuse me, miss!” he said as she turned her back on him, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Seeing the skeleton waving his gold pouch in the air she realized what he was talking about. “Oh I’m sorry” she said, a bit nervous “That’ll be two, please”

Krugor knew exactly what happened there. He seemed to have that effect on women most of the time. Or men, for that matter.

“It’s okay…’Sandy’” he said as he handed over the gold and quickly read her name tag “I’m sure you don’t see a lot of good looking guys like me around here!”. He smiled as he noticed the confusion on the girl’s face. Of course it wasn’t because of that, he knew, but he wanted to feel alive again for as long as he could.

Krugor grabbed one of the mushrooms from the plate, took a bite and sank back into the chair. The dark glasses on top of his head dropped down, but found no nose to hang onto. The skeleton put the thing back on his head as he took another bite from the delicious fungus. He had absolutely no use for the glasses, imbued with protection from the sun, or so-called ‘sunglasses’ as the locals here referred to them; he had no eyes or skin to protect. But it was the thought that mattered. He was on vacation, on the beach and sunglasses were a part of that.

“Krugor Vrath-darr?” a sinister looking fellow suddenly asked. Krugor hadn’t even seen the man coming, but now he was standing right next to him. He could’ve been there for quite some time, as Krugor only had eyes for the sunbathing women in front of him. As a figure of speech, of course.
“You need to come with me” the man continued, not waiting for the skeleton to answer his previous question.

“Well, there’s no reason in staying here now since you’re blocking my sun!”

The man was huge, Krugor realized. Very muscular build, with massive biceps and apparently no neck. Who has no neck, that’s crazy, he thought to himself. This man was a force to be reckoned with so it seemed, for next to his two natural ‘weapons’ the man also wore a couple of huge battle-axes on both sides. The skeleton felt slightly intimidated as the man stood over him, but he knew better than to be fooled by appearances. He could take him out if he wanted to, sure he could.

“But what if I refuse? What if I order you to come with me? Let’s go skinny dipping!” Krugor said.

In an instant the man’s giant right hand grabbed Krugor’s skull. His entire hand fitted around the skeleton’s bald head perfectly and Krugor felt himself being lifted from his chair. As if he was a smelly, old piece of underwear the man held the skeleton in front of him with much disgust.

“You’re coming with me” he said, “You’re a key witness, you have no choice”

“I’m a what now?” the skeleton replied.

[Krugor]

[ Current time… ]

“Does he always do that?” Talidus asked his prosecutor as he watched the guard bring in the first witness. It was the same guard that escorted Talidus from his cell and just like he carried around the necromancer on his shoulder he carried a scrawny-looking man into the courtroom.
The comment fell on deaf ears however, as the prosecutor stared self-satisfied at the witness. Talidus followed the man’s eyes and realized why he was smirking like that. For the very first time since he had been arrested Talidus felt truly afraid. From the beginning he believed that the wrongs would be righted, that justice would prevail and this ridiculous claims about him would prove unfounded.
But now he knew there was no escaping executing. There was no way he could prove his innocence with him as a witness.

“Oh no…” he softly whispered.

[Krugor]

Krugor stood in his cell, his feet ankle-deep in the ice-cold water and his face pressed against the door. He tried to see through the small peephole, trying to figure out where they brought him. Things spiraled out of control after that beast of a man carried him away from his sunny vacation resort. The skeleton was taken to see an elderly man who asked him all sorts of questions. The man wore an awful looking dress, so Krugor had refrained from giving him the correct answers. He didn’t like him.
But that turned out to be not the brightest of ideas it seemed, for they threw him in a deep, dark dungeon after that. That dungeon soon proved to be a small, wet and creepy room.

“Hello?” the skeleton shouted through the tiny opening “Anybody there? There’s some minor leakage here!”

His answer came in the form of an angry man slamming his helmet against the door. Krugor hadn’t even seen the guard outside. “Shut up” the man said “They’ll come get you soon enough.”

“I hope so. This moist surrounding is ruining my coiffure”

[Krugor]

“Silence! Silence!” the judge shouted as he slammed fist on the desk multiple times “Guard, put that man back in his seat!”

Talidus looked even worse than before. Blood was dripping from his nose, the corners of his mouth and a single eyebrow. His cheek was swollen and a bruises appeared near his eyes. The necromancer couldn’t distinguish the old wounds from the new, he just knew they all hurt terribly. He didn’t have the strength to fight back, but even if he had he couldn’t. He was tied down to his chair and the witness they brought in had no restraints whatsoever. And it happened so quickly.

The man was placed in a chair opposite Talidus, with only a few feet between them. As if they wanted the witness to intimidate the necromancer, as if they wanted Talidus to really feel the despair and helplessness of the position he was in. And before he could even say something the witness had leaped from his chair and struck Talidus everywhere he could land his fists. Face, stomach and crotch all took quite a beating. The necromancer was nothing more than a pile of broken bones and sore limbs at this point.

“Damn you! If you ever aggravate a witness like that again I’ll have you spend a few more nights in the dungeons!” the judge said to Talidus. It was obvious that the man was rooting for the other team. Talidus had done absolutely nothing, the witness lashed out for no apparent reason and still they blamed him. They played their trump card with this witness and Talidus felt completely hopeless.

“What a-are you doing h-..ere?” he staggered softly. You could barely hear him and every word he spoke caused Talidus great pain, but the man facing him knew exactly what he meant. It was a man of age, with messy, grey hair and wrinkles all over his face. That this man had the power to lash out like that was unbelievable; most men of that age would be in a retirement home of some sort.

“Bah, there’s nothing that would please me more than to see you in pain like that. When they told me they were prosecuting a necromancer, that they were prosecuting you, I gladly offered my services, in any way I could.”

“I see you recognize this man!” the prosecutor said. “You won’t deny that this is your father than, you sick monster”

“I am his father, only by blood!” the old man shouted, “I had nothing to do with him and his vile, unholy acts.”

“Please go on, sir. What vile acts have you seen this…man… perform?” The man smirked as he asked the question, knowing perfectly well that no one would ever doubt Talidus being a necromancer and a necrophiliac with his father as a witness. His father would do and say anything to get him to be executed.

“This freak show you see here has had a fascination for all things dead and deceased ever since he was a kid. Playing with animal corpses, hanging around on graveyards, talking to departed family members, having tea parties with the remains of the dead! He likes them; he spends more time with them than the living! And that was even before that one crazy skeleton…”

This was it. His father would tell them everything.

[Krugor]

With a loud bang the enormous, wooden doors of the courtroom slammed open, fixating all eyes upon the person entering. Elf, Dwarf and human alike, all watched with anticipation. They had been on the edge of their seats for a while now, it wasn’t an everyday occurrence that a necromancer was prosecuted. And now this.

“Sorcerer’s balls!” the skeleton screamed as he was carried into the room. The large, bulky guard, who had thrown Krugor over his shoulder and brought him into the courtroom, dropped him into a chair and walked away. “Even though I’m dead , I’m still capable of walking for myself you know” Krugor said, not truly realizing where he was.

“Krugor Vrath-darr” the judge spoke, “you’re here to act as a witness to this man’s deeds”.

Slowly the scene around him started to unravel itself to the skeleton. He looked around and saw the room filled with people he had never seen before, from all over the land it seemed. The elderly man that had been asking him questions before was there too, standing right in front of him. Krugor giggled as he noticed the red robes, they were still silly. Next to him sat an another man, also dressed in robes, but this one seemingly more higher up in the hierarchy.
He sat behind a desk, a couple of feet higher than him, overseeing the entire room. The chair he sat in looked like a throne, decorated all over with all kinds of jewels and the seat made of shiny leather. This man was important, Krugor knew. The judge pointed towards yet another man sitting in a chair, next to the prosecutor, and more death than alive. He had blood dripping from his nose and eyebrows, and the rest of his face was more black and blue than peachy colored, as Krugor remembered human faces normally looked like. It took the skeleton a while before he finally recognized the man the judge was pointing to;

“Oh come on!” he said, “what in the seven hells do I need to do to get rid of you”.

“This wasn’t my idea, stupid” Talidus replied.

“Krugor Vrath-darr, this man faces trial today for acts of necrophilia. His father has already confessed to you being one of the victims of his filthy acts. Please share your story with us. What has this man done to you and where did he touch you? “

“Necrophilia!?” Krugor said surprised “excuse me sir, I never had sexual relations with that man! You know, I’m married actually”

“I see” the prosecutor continued “Then please share with us why you’re here”

“That big oaf standing outside kidnapped me..”

“That’s not what I meant. Why are you here, right now. Why are you still alive, while you obviously shouldn't be talking!”

“Well, Talidus raised me from the dead, but that doesn’t mean anything” Krugor said, knowing perfectly well were this conversation was going.

“Isn’t it true that this man, Talidus Wolfe, resurrected you after you died from eating poisoned mushrooms and used you for his own, personal pleasure?”

“No, I…”

“Isn’t it true that this man raised you to have a relationship with you! Isn’t it true that he confessed his love for on multiple occasions!?” the elderly man suddenly seemed to be possessed by some sort of prosecuting demon, for his eyes lit up and he raised his voice scarily high, “Confess skeleton! This man has brought you back from the dead to make love to you!”

“We never made love, you crazy old fool! By the sorcerer’s balls, I only did some housework and once in a while he bought me flowers, that’s all”

The old man grinned slyly, hardly able to hide his amusement. He had them right where he wanted, he would walk away victorious in a few moments.

“And isn’t it also true that this man here..” he turned around to face the audience, pausing for a second to make his final reveal more dramatic “That this man here, asked you to marry him!?”

“Well, I said no though” Krugor said realizing things looked quite dire for the necromancer. It was true that Talidus once asked his hand in marriage and it was true that Talidus had pursued a romantic relationship with him numerous times, but for some reason Krugor felt sorry for him. Yes, he did think of his former master as a kind of pervert, but he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve being beaten to a pulp and made fun of in front of all those people.

The audience gasped at the reveal of an almost marriage between the necromancer and the undead sitting in front of them. And within seconds the entire room was in chaos. Everyone started talking to each other in bewilderment. Some screamed obscenities, a younger woman even passed out, and a couple of men started to get aggressive. The judge slammed his fist on the desk multiple times, asking for order and silence, but to no avail. Only when the guards forcefully carried some of the dwarves, who were drawing their battle axes, out of the room and told everyone to settle down or be thrown in the dungeon, things started to settle down.

“I’ve heard enough” the judge said annoyed “this has gone on for far too long. Talidus Daryl Wolfe, you are found guilty of necrophilia and I hereby sentence you to death by hanging. Your sentence will be carried out at dawn. Now get him out of my sight!”

[Krugor]

It had already been a few hours after the unsettling abusive display of power in the courtroom and Krugor was still roaming the streets of the city, not really knowing how he felt about all of this and not really knowing what to do next. The death penalty was a tad too harsh for a necromancer like Talidus, he knew that much. Even though he had quite possibly murdered Krugor and resurrected him afterwards, made him his personal servant and asked for his hand in marriage, the skeleton couldn’t help but feel sorry for Talidus.
The necromancer never laid a hand on him and if you could get yourself over the indecent proposals every now and then, the man was actually a good guy. He didn’t deserve to die like this. Deep in thought Krugor kept on walking, not realizing he had been walking in circles around the dungeons all this time. He fiddled a bit with one of his chef’s knives, took a right turn into one of the many dark alleys, mumbled something to himself about forbidden fruits and love and war, when he suddenly slammed face first unto the pavement.

“Fungi fury punch!” the skeleton screamed as he jumped up and made some awkward arm movements, which looked nowhere near a punch. Krugor quickly glanced around the alley, looking for his, obviously, cowardly attacker. Pushing a man from behind is just weak and he would take on anyone daring to touch him in this emotional moment. The fact that he didn’t knew any moves called ‘Fungi fury punch’ shouldn’t hold him back from trying to. But after a few seconds of intensely staring into the alley he realized there was no one there.

Kraaagh!

The sound came from below and it immediately send chills down Krugor’s spine. That horrifying noise, that high pitched scream, that child-like battle cry could only come from one thing. And that one thing was something he would rather avoid meeting ever again.

“Philippe!” he yelled, more afraid than surprised, as he noticed a pair of long legs sticking out from under a pile of garbage. He had been so deep in thought that the skeleton hadn’t even noticed the creature sitting there, covered in trash, and as a result he had tripped over its legs.

“What are you doing here!?”

Kraagh! Graagh the creature responded.

“Of course. I should’ve guessed you would come looking for him”.

From beneath the pile of waste the creature rose, revealing a bulky, sphere shaped upper body, covered in black and white feathers. It had two wings that looked way too small to carry all that weight in flight. Atop that upper body stood a long, slender neck with a tiny head on top. A small beak and two big, green eyes stared Krugor right into his soul. Or whatever skeletons had that made them tick.

“Ostriches are renowned for their amazing sense of direction and loyalty to their masters” Krugor said, proving once more that he knew absolutely nothing about ostriches, “why didn’t I realize you would come for him sooner!?”

The ostrich known as Philippe was Talidus’ guardian and one of three of his companions. Krugor had encountered all of them before, when he was captured by the necromancer and forced to stay inside his mansion forever. Luckily for Krugor it was right in the middle of ostrich mating season and he had used the sexual prowess of the trio to his advantage and turned them against their master.
And now, the skeletal chef thought to himself, he could actually use this strange familiar again. With his fungi magic and razor-sharp wit and the ostrich’ raw power he could probably free the necromancer from captivity and save him from the noose.

“Alright Philippe, when you and I last met we were off to a bit of a rocky start. You tried to kill me, I poisoned your soup , but let’s not get hung up on those details. You and I are the only ones Talidus has left. Even his father wants to see him hang. So if we work together, we just might break him out of there.”

Philippe groaned and moaned a bit, and if Krugor didn’t know better he might’ve thought the ostrich actually showed disdain for the skeleton and his plan, but it seemed the beast understood. He let loose another one of his famous roars, but this time even more high pitched and more like a song. It quickly turned out to be a rallying cry for within moments two other ostriches came sprinting around the corner and into the alley.

“Gaston! Antoinette! I should’ve known you two would be here too, ostriches always travel in packs!” Krugor squealed. He truly did not know anything about ostriches.

[Krugor]

“So, we all understand the plan?” the skeletal chef asked his three ostrich companions, as they laid in wait just around the corner from the city’s dungeon. The night had turned pitch-black and most of the citizens had gone to sleep. Only those up to no good were out and about at this moonlit hour. The building in front of them didn’t seem to be guarded. Correctional Facility For The Deranged And Disturbed it read on the front.
Krugor still couldn’t believe they were going to hang Talidus. Deranged and disturbed he was, but what harm had the man really caused? He awakened men and women from their eternal slumber out of love, that should at least count for something. But the prejudiced, uptight people of Corone had convicted the necromancer to death. And now the Correctional Facility For The Deranged And Disturbed had made an enemy out of Krugor!

“I charge the door with my amazing mushroom, and you guys kick down any guards that might be present in the hallway. After that we go looking for Talidus’ prison, which I have no idea where to find, and we break him out. I jump on Philippe, Talidus gets on Antoinette and the five of us race out of there towards the sunrise. Alright?”

The three animals let out various shrieks and roars, making it quite clear they didn’t understand any part of the plan or anything the skeleton had just said.

“Okay then, seems we’re on the same page! Let’s do this!”

Mere moments after Krugor had spoken those words the mushroom on top of the chef’s plynt staff dropped to the floor. The seemingly decorative tip grew to the size of a horse and stood there anxiously, eager to charge. With a mild tap Krugor sent the enormous fungus racing forward, heading straight to the locked doors of the correctional facility. “This is it, guys” he said, “get ready to charge that hallway!”

Gaining traction and picking up speed, the mushroom sped towards building faster and faster. Krugor watched and couldn’t believe he was about to be part of a prison break. That door would slam open and there would be no turning back, he would be an accomplish to the crimes Talidus was convicted off just a few hours ago. He would be a wanted man.