Reunion with Romantic Interludes

[Krugor]

((Solo. Takes place right after the first round of the Cell tournament (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=1854&page=2).))

The crowd was roaring. After a somewhat slow start, this was turning out to be a bloody battle after all. There might even be some brutal deaths. One could see the bloodlust dripping from the spectators lips. They where all hanging over the balustrade, trying to get the best view possible of the ongoing massacre. Every time a single drop of blood touched the ground the crowd cheered, screaming for more.

Except one. A slender man dressed in a long brown cape, his hood resting on his shoulders. He wore a big, satin high hat on top of his head, a little moustache was showing beneath his nose and a thin beard starting at his ears all the way to his chin. He had his arms crossed and didn’t seem to enjoy the tournament at all. A little frown marked his face and his eyes pierced through the contestants, as if he was looking for someone, which seemed hard as all eight of them were fighting for their lives. The people seated next to him tried hard to look away from him, they didn’t want such a grumpy person to ruin their pleasure. Besides, it was the type of guy who could give the toughest of criminals goose bumps.

Once in a while the man grunted a little, as if he disagreed with what was going on. But that was probably the only sign of emotion he revealed. The man didn’t shout in protest, as others seemed to do, or cheered in happiness. He just sat there, watching the battle concentrated.

But, if one looked closely, you could see a slight smile forming, with the words “Well done!” slowly whispered after. That quick eruption of emotions happened when the small cage suddenly got filled with an enormous mushroom. The spectators where all relatively far away from the metal cage but the fungus couldn’t be missed even from that distance. The thing shot through the cell as if it was on steroids and as it went faster and faster the mysterious man could control his emotions less and less.

A loud shout echoed through the arena as the mushroom smashed into the powerful half-elf woman, known as Rheawien. She had been dominating the battle for a while know and the man couldn’t have dreamed that such a weak attack would hit her. Waving his hat in the air and stamping his feet on the ground he jumped around, looking somewhat like a little kid that just got his first Christmas present. Everybody around him looked at the scene in surprise, for they never would have thought that the man could be like that. “Seems you’re rooting for the skeleton, aren’t you?” a bulky, muscular man asked, as he stood way taller than the others. You wouldn’t want to mess with this man, so he looked, but yet he carried a very friendly smile upon his face. Tournaments like this got the best out of people.

“I am! I am!” the other man responded.
But just as quick as he turned into a happiness frenzy, he fell out of it. The skeleton he was cheering for got crushed by the warrior woman and the unknown spectator dropped back in his seat. “Damn you, Krugor” he mumbled. A little tear slid down his cheek.

And seconds later the crowd went totally silent. Only the loud snickering of the man could be heard in the arena. A dark elf fighter had just made the first kill of the tournament. The body of the undead shivered a little as it hang from the dagger that was jagged into his skull. “You’ll pay for this!” the man screamed, but his voice was swallowed by the sudden enormous roaring and cheering from all the spectators. This is what they paid for.

((Reading Krugor's history in his profile might help better understand the following posts.))

[Krugor]

It didn’t even hurt. The sharp knife penetrated his skull with ease and Krugor could feel the life flowing right out of him, as if the knife created an opening for all his will to live to escape through. Then the world slowly went dark. It was all over, this was the end.

It took a while before he opened his eyes again.

The world had suddenly changed drastically. The sun was shining more bright and everything seemed to be more colorful than usual. He was sitting next to a herd of sheep as they where chewing the grass beneath their feet. Krugor lay on his back and pondered where he might be. Didn’t he just die? The last thing he could remember was Izvilvin stabbing him in the face. Oh yes, how he would give everything to just take revenge on that Drow again.

In a split second Krugor sat up straight. He suddenly remembered; he had been here before! This couldn’t be! He jumped on his feet, holding his hand above his eyes as he looked closely along the horizon. Could she be here again too?

The skeleton started running, his hands sliding over the high grass which seemed to wave like a calm ocean. He could feel the excitement as he went faster and faster. She had to be here too.

After several minutes of running he arrived near a small wooden shack. This had to be it, it had barely changed from the last he saw it. The door made a creaking sound as Krugor opened it. The room behind it was pitch black for it contained no windows and there was not a single candle lid. The bony man felt his way around by guiding his hands over the wooden walls. He bumped against what seemed to be a small table and cursed loudly when the pain shot through his knee. “Stupid table” he mumbled before opening the little drawer inside it. Feeling around if there was anything that might give him some answers he grabbed a piece of paper. It had to be a letter, he thought, and made his way outside again. Holding the paper up against the sunlight Krugor could read the beautiful written letter, addressed to him;

Dear Krugor,

You left me without saying goodbye. I’m hurt yet I cannot stop thinking about you. Therefore I’m writing this letter in the hope that you’ll come back to this place one day and try to find me. I have some many questions, my love, please try to find me when you get here.

I’m only a day away!

The skeleton felt a lump in his throat and threw away the letter. She hadn’t forgotten about him as he had hoped. This was bad, he thought, but now he had the opportunity to set things right. He would find her, the hint was obvious.

And so he did, for just several hours later Krugor arrived at the small, red park bench. You couldn’t have missed the bench because it was the only thing in the wide, grassy field. Not even a tree was near, there was just the wooden bench breaking the consistency of the scene. And there she was, sitting there ever so delicately. Her long and curly blue hair barely reached over her shoulder, her lips looked silky smooth and her piercing pink eyes seemed to look right through you. Slowly, as if she was some sort of wild animal that could go berserk at any sudden movement, Krugor sat himself next to her. “H-hi, h-how are y-you?” he stuttered, obviously feeling a little uncomfortable.

And then it happened. Small rabbits, that had their holes near the bench, quickly sped away and several birds flew up from the high grass as the graceful woman opened her mouth. “WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?” she screamed at the skeleton, who seemed to be overwhelmed but not in the least bit surprised. “I’ve been waiting for you for ages! You just disappeared on me!”

“I-I’m s-sorry, my love” Krugor started “but I got resurrected and I couldn’t do anything about it, you know…” he said in a calm voice.

“No, I don’t know!” she continued her screams “This is no excuse, Krugor!”

He was about to say how they would be together forever now, he was about to explain his thoughts and vision about a bright future for just the two of them, when the unexpected happened. A loud bang broke the silence and a portal opened, sucking everything around it inside.

“T-this is not my doing, my love!” Krugor cried when he recognized the thing.

“It’s over, Krugor Vrath-darr! I’m not waiting for you again” the woman said, completing her statement by slapping the skeleton in his face. Krugor tried to call out for her as she walked away, but he couldn’t help it, he was getting sucked into the portal.

Everything went dark again.

[Krugor]

“How are you feeling?” a soothing, soft voice said.
“Must be hard to go through that again.”

The voice spoke yet Krugor couldn’t see anything, everything was blurry. It was only apparent that he was laying down, probably on some sort of operating table for he could see large, bright lamps above him. They shined right in his face and he covered his eyes as the blurriness slowly disappeared.

“I’m sorry for disturbing your eternal rest once again, but I really missed you.” the man said.

Krugor’s eyes widened to extremes and as he opened his mouth no sound came from it. This couldn’t be happening, not again. The skeleton tried to move but he was tied down to the table by his wrists and feet. “Don’t move, Krugor. You know the drill”. There was no mistake now, it was the same voice, with the same irritating remarks. “You-you…total crazy idiot! Get me out of here now!” Krugor screamed, kicking his feet.

A face suddenly appeared above, looking down on the skeleton. The man looking at him was wearing a satin, high hat and had a little moustache with a beard covering his face. He smiled widely and a row of rotting, yellow teeth showed itself. “I don’t think so, dear. You ran out on my once, it will not happen twice”.

“Talidus, you moron, let me go!” The skeleton lessened his struggling as he became more desperate than angry. “Please, I left you for a reason!”

“Oh, I know that. And I’ve been working on that, I’ve changed. You’ll see.”

Krugor couldn’t believe what he was seeing and hearing. How could he possibly be here again? He had died in the Cell and gone to the other world. He had reunited with his girlfriend there and everything would be heavenly from there on out. There was no way he could be here with Talidus. Unless…

“Did you resurrect me again!?” Krugor asked in horror.
“I did. I guess it’s just Necromancer’s humor”. A sinister laugh echoed throughout the room after finishing that sentence.

“I watched your battle in the Cell.” Talidus said and suddenly the room went silent.
“Y-you did?”
“Yes, I did. And I must say, you started out great but you utterly disappointed me in the end! How could you die, Krugor? How could you disgrace me so much?!”

The necromancer adverted his eyes and Krugor knew the man was crying at this point. Several thoughts shot through his mind. His body couldn’t make up how to feel. Would he be sad for letting his creator down or should he be angry for getting resurrected against his will for the second time.

“I just can’t believe you lost!” a snickering Talidus said, sounding truly sincere.

“I-I’m sorry” Krugor replied. No matter how terrible it was that the man had neglected his opinion on the afterlife twice, this was even worse. Krugor let him down and he couldn’t stand to hear the man cry.

“It doesn’t matter anymore”, the necromancer wiped away his tears, “because I have brought you back and improved you. You’ll get your revenge and we’ll finally get our marriage.”
“You improved me? What are you talking about, what did you do to me?” Krugor replied, getting a little scared again.

Talidus stretched out his arm and pointed at Krugor’s body. He hadn’t noticed the sheet laying over him before. And this was in fact an operating table. “Talidus, please, what the hell did you do?” he asked, now completely freaked out.

[Krugor]

Krugor desperately tried to free himself, but the struggle was in vain, and in fact just loss of energy as he was too tightly bound to the table. “What’s this “improvement” you talk about?!” he cried out. Talidus wasn’t known for his common sense and compassion for others so if he said he improved something it could very well mean that he had totally destroyed it.

“You’ll see in just a second, my dear.”
“Don’t talk to me like that, Talidus, please!” Krugor hadn’t felt this bad in his entire two lives. Not even when Izvilvin stabbed him in the head, that was even pleasant compared to this desperation he was feeling. “And why, why o why, did you resurrect me again? Didn’t you know the monks at the tournament would do that?”
“Monks? No, I didn’t know that. Hmm...” Talidus held up his hand to support his chin as he carefully thought about what Krugor just said. “That would’ve been a lot better for you. But that would also have meant that we wouldn’t be together. So, I guess this worked out better.”
“What do you mean, that would’ve been better for me?”
“Well, I thought you knew.” The Necromancer looked surprised by the skeleton’s question but quickly started to explain and softly caressed Krugor’s skull;

“A Necromancer’s powers are limited. I can easily resurrect any creature as I see fit, but resurrecting a person that was already resurrected in the first place, like you Krugor, is a bit different. You see, a second resurrection leaves the person with a bit of a...weakness, shall we say.”
“Weakness? What do you mean?” Krugor was baffled.
“Please, let me finish. It means you return to this world weaker than before. And basically, I can’t resurrect you again. Next time you die, you die.”

“As it is meant to be” the skeleton mumbled, obviously very angry at what was going on.

But deep inside, where the anger made way for much more sincere feelings, he felt sad. Sad about dying, sad about living and sad about being with Talidus. And the man hadn’t even revealed his improvement yet. “This is, without a doubt, the worst day of my life.”

“Let’s not argue about this Krugor. I know you’ll be very grateful in a few minutes”
“About what, Talidus? Grateful about what?”

The man didn’t respond. He just filled the dark room with his sinister laugh again and turned away from his skeleton minion. Krugor couldn’t see if the Necromancer was walking away from him, for the bright lights prevented him from seeing far into the room, but after he heard a door slamming shut he knew the man had left. And that laugh couldn’t mean anything positive, Krugor knew.

“Great. Revived with a weakness and improved by Talidus. Just kill me again...”

[Krugor]

The skeletal cook could feel the exhaustion overwhelming him and just when he thought about taking a little nap Talidus threw open the door again.

“Sorry for the delay, love, but I needed to get something of importance” he said, disgusting Krugor with his overexcited, naïve happiness.

“Damn you, Talidus. If you call me love, dear or honey one more time, I swear...”
“Take it easy, Krugor. You can’t run away like last time”

The Necromancer bended over the operating table and grabbed one of the four pins attached to it. With a quick and controlled motion he pulled it free. Soon the other three followed and Krugor could move his limbs again. Then the man removed the sheet covering the skeleton’s body and smiled widely at his creation.

“Well, what do you think?”

Krugor couldn’t believe his eyes as he looked upon his body. The last couple of hours he couldn’t think of anything but what Talidus had done to him, how the Necromancer would’ve switched his legs or how he would’ve attached a third arm but what he saw now was even worse. There was no difference with before at all. Krugor swallowed before speaking;

“I don’t see anything. This frightens me, Talidus”
“That’s the good part! Let me explain”

The old man walked over to Krugor’s left side and held up the skeleton’s arm, waving it a bit in the air as if he tried to get extra attention to what he was going to talk about.

“You see this? This is your left arm.”
“Yes, Talidus. I can see that, I’ve had that arm for all my life.”
“No you didn’t. You lost it in the tournament, remember?” Talidus said, showing a self-satisfied smile while stroking through his hair. “I re-attached it.”

“You what? How did you that, you know nothing of re-attaching body parts!”
“That’s true, but I bought this book about metalworking and...” the Necromancer couldn’t finish his sentence for Krugor immediately started talking and screaming when hearing the word metalworking;

“Metalworking?! I’m not a machine, fool!”
“Of course you’re not. But you aren’t human either, so there was no other option than to screw your arm back on. To be more precise, you now have three thick, steel bolts and three steel nuts jammed into your arm and shoulder. You can move it like there’s nothing wrong with it, though. Pretty neat, eh?”

Again that confident smile.

“I guess it’s better than no arm” Krugor softly replied, knowing there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

“But that’s not all!”
“Wasn’t mutilating my arm enough?” A sigh escaped the skeleton’s mouth.
“No, no, this is better. Feel your forehead and see if you notice anything unusual.”

Krugor raised his arm and stroked his hand over his head, carefully feeling if he noticed any anomalies and when he didn’t he adverted his eyes from his creator.

“What is it, Talidus?”
“Your wound! It’s gone! No more hole from the dagger, you’re whole again!”

For a moment Krugor felt happy again. This was indeed something to be grateful for. No wound, no scar...no hole. “How did you do that?” he asked, concerned if anything bad needed to happen to make this one good thing work.

“I don’t know. I guess it just happened with the resurrecting, but I take full credit for it anyway!”

Gracefully the cook jumped of the table and stretched his body. He couldn’t feel anything of the metal parts in his arm or the former hole in his head. At least there was something positive to this day. He grabbed his rucksack, which Talidus had stored on a shelf next to bed, and walked up to the only door in the room.

“Thanks for everything, Tali, but I need to go. I can’t stand being here any longer. Goodbye!”

But just as the skeleton opened the door the Necromancer spoke again, his low, evil voice shattering all thoughts of hope. “Not so fast, my friend. Walking through that door will kill you.”

[Krugor]

The door didn’t look very special to Krugor. It was your basic wood and metal combination with a handle covered in a layer of gold. How could this thing possibly kill him?

“Don’t try to scare me, you had to know I would leave you again.” The skeleton said, carefully observing his surroundings to see if his master was bluffing or not.
“It’s not merely meant to scare you, though that’s a nice little bonus. It’s in fact reality and meant to keep you here, because I indeed knew you would leave. I came prepared this time, dearest.”

Then he saw it.

It wasn’t the door that would kill him, but what was behind it.

“I see you I surprised you again” Talidus said “that’s nice. Meet my bodyguard, Krugor. I’ve raised and trained him just like I did with you. I wanted to make him your replacement but I realised I could never replace such a perfect partner as you, so I made him my guard to help me get you back into my life. And you see, it worked out just as I planned.”

The Necromancer really surpassed all boundaries this time. This was unbelievable. Krugor knew that if he wanted to get out of here he had to do battle with this “guard” and the other option, stay here with Talidus forever, wasn’t even something he wanted to think about. The cook took off his backpack again and grabbed his yew staff, preparing for the inevitable battle that would come.

“I see you plan on taking on my guard. A word of advise, my friend. I taught him all I knew, so you better be careful, because that means he knows everything about your fighting style.”

“Hey, why don’t we both get out of here? You don’t wanna live with that freak, now do you?” Krugor whispered to the guard in front of him, hoping he could get out of this without bloodshed.

”Kraaagh!”

Krugor was somewhat dumbfounded after this unexpected reply and wondered if this person wasn’t, how do they say it, mentally challenged. But all his doubts disappeared like snow to the sun once the “guard” stepped into the minimal light that came from the room.

”Kraar!” it said again.

The skeleton took a few steps backwards as the bodyguard walked into room, now revealing his entire true form. It had two, long legs with a bulky upper body covered in black and white feathers. It seemed to have wings but way to short to actually fly with them, Krugor noticed. From the upper body sprouted a long neck with a tiny head on top. A small beak and two big, green eyes looked his target straight in the eye.

“An ostrich? Talidus, you trained an ostrich?!”

But before the Necromancer could reply the creature charged forward, doing what it was trained for; defending its master.
The ostrich gave Krugor a charging blow in the stomach using its head and send him flying back a couple of meters until the skeleton bumped into the operating table and tumbled over backwards. Several pieces of operating equipment dropped to the floor as Krugor grabbed the sheet from the table to keep himself standing. It was in vain. He lay on his back, with his feet wiggling in the air as he softly cursed the ostrich.

[Krugor]

With some difficulty Krugor managed to get himself on his feet again. He saw Talidus’ guard standing in front of him, staring him in the eyes again. This ostrich sure was intimidating, he thought to himself, the man had trained it well.

Without hesitation the skeleton swiped his staff sideways, hitting the creature on the head. It moaned a little as it stumbled to the side. Gaining momentum Krugor continued his furious rage by kicking the ostrich in his side, sending it even further to the side until it hit Talidus and both of them smacked into the wall. The Necromancer pushed the bird off him and yelled at it somewhat. Then he faced Krugor and showed his usual irritating smile. “His name is Philippe!”

If the undead still had his eyebrows he would sure have raised one after hearing that ridiculous name. The ostrich didn’t gave Krugor the time to ponder about it though, for it quickly came back and leaped up, raising his two legs in front of him, stretched out. Before he could react Krugor was sent flying again, this time hitting a cabinet filled with bottles and potions. He was soaking wet before he fell to the ground a second time.

“I told you he would be good” Talidus laughed, enjoying the battle.

“Shut up you. This is between Philippe and me now!”

He grabbed his staff firmly, so hard that he could hear his knuckles crack before he swung around and the decorative mushroom on top fell off.

“Uh oh...that’s not the brightest idea, Krugor...” the Necromancer said, fear showing in his eyes.
Thinking he was doing the right thing by scaring his master Krugor continued the spell and the mushroom grew to the size of a chariot until it filled almost half of the entire room. Everything that was still standing after the two creations of Talidus had been kicking each other around the room was now falling over, the mushroom taking up most of the space.

Quickly it shot out towards Philippe, hitting it head on and sending the ostrich out of the room through the wall of the hall before it shrunk to it’s normal size again and found his back on top of Krugor’s staff. Self-satisfied he waited until the dust filled room became clear again so he could watch the chaos he had created.

The doorway was now two times bigger and in the shape of a giant mushroom. The wall opposite of it also showed a hole, with a dizzy ostrich laying behind it, partially hidden beneath some rubble. But there was also a unconscious Talidus laying next to Philippe. Apparently the attacking fungus was so big that it took the Necromancer with him during its mad charging.

Realising this might be his only change Krugor sped out of the room, grabbing his rucksack on the way. He ran through the maze of hallways and massive rooms until he came near the main exit. The main exit was, just like the rest of the castle, decorated in medieval style, with a bear rug laying on the floor in the middle of the room and several statue’s positioned along the walls. An expensive looking chandelier hung from the high ceiling.

“It’s now or never. Talidus and his minion could be here any second.”

[Krugor]

”Kraagh! Kraaaarggh!”

Philippe screamed from the top of his lungs as he ran through the stone halls of the castle. The ostrich was now equipped with what seemed to be a saddle, usually used for horses. Talidus sat on top of the enormous bird and shouted something vague, probably cursing the skeleton who got away.

The odd couple spurted into the main hall, where they could see the massive wooden door still locked. “He hasn’t been here yet, Philippe” the Necromancer said to his transportation. The ostrich replied with his usual high pitched screaming. Quickly they moved up the winding wooden stairs, thinking Krugor might be hiding on the second floor.

Several seconds after Talidus moved to the floor above the skeleton came out of hiding. Krugor had hid himself behind a large, antique titanium armor. It was beautifully decorated and positioned so that it looked just like there was somebody in it.
Krugor took a last look at the door in front of him before running up another winding staircase, on the opposite side of the room from the one that Talidus had used. He could just walk out of the building and embrace freedom again. But the skeleton knew that the Necromancer would just find another way of reuniting with him, so there was no other option than to finish it once and for all. It needed to happen now.

The stairs led him into a small room, brightly lightened by numerous candle hanging from the walls. It wasn’t a wide room, Krugor noticed it would be hard for more than two person to be walking next to each other, but it was relatively long. The undead cook raced towards the door on the other end and crossed the hall on the other side. There he entered another small room and waited. It would just be a matter of time before Talidus would come searching for him here. And then he would be waiting. The tables had turned.

Krugor sat down on the ground, leaning back against the door. He sighed and thought about everything that had happened so far. How could that silly Necromancer ruin his love life yet again. Krugor had many loves in his life as a human, but Allyson had turned out to be the one and only for him. It had been a magnificent wedding, resulting in many years of romance and loving warmth between the two. Until the day came that Krugor had been found dead in the forest. It all spiralled out of control after that and he blamed the Necromancer for it. Talidus had bought his body, resurrected him and ruined Krugor’s love life for the second time. The skeleton had found another beautiful woman in, what some people call “heaven” but Krugor just referred to it as “the afterlife”, and Talidus had destroyed that relationship by resurrecting him. Then, after being killed by Izvilvin Krugor reunited with his decayed love but it all happened again, as if it was a movie played backwards. Again Talidus had vanquished Krugor’s chance for love, just because the idiot wanted to have the skeleton for himself.

“I’ll never love again, Talidus. You’ve ruined my life, my afterlife and my second life. I’ll never forgive you...”

A tear strolled down the skeleton’s cheek.

[Krugor]

Suddenly he could hear the ostrich speeding through the hall and Krugor woke up from his daydreaming. This was it, the final confrontation.

Philippe still continued his screams and Talidus called out for Krugor. It was apparent that they were getting desperate. The couple moved closer and closer to the skeleton’s hideout and the skeleton could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins, even though he had no more veins left. Sometimes he felt things he shouldn’t feel but Krugor didn’t pay much attention to it.

Then the moment was there.

Talidus was close enough.

Krugor threw the door open and the thick, with steel reinforced wooden thing slammed right into the Philippe’s face. The ostrich grunted in pain as it fell over, throwing Talidus off his back.

“Ha ha! I’ve got you know!” Krugor yelled, trying to keep the upper hand.

In one smooth motion he took one of his razor sharp kitchen knifes from its container and held it up towards the Necromancer and Philippe.

“Don’t move!”
“Krugor, my friend. Please, calm down, lets talk about it.” Talidus cried out after realising the skeleton had gotten him totally by surprise. The man’s voice was a bit shaky and there was no doubt that he was frightened. But as time progressed the Necromancer seemed to get more of a hold on his feelings and he even attempted to threaten Krugor.

“How dare you talk to me like that?” the skeleton responded “Can’t you just realise that I have finally won. You stand no chance in your current situation.” He pointed at the ostrich laying on top of Talidus.

“I beg to differ.” In return the man pointed to a spot behind Krugor.

“WHAT!?” he yelled as he turned around “You have three Philippe’s?!”
“Of course not!” Talidus said offended “That would be silly. No, that one is Gaston and the other is Antoinette. Aren’t they cute?”

For a moment Krugor didn’t know what to say. As if one energized ostrich wasn’t enough he now had to deal with three of them. He continuously switched his view back and forth, trying to stay alert on both sides. But the skeleton knew there was no way he could escape this.

“Now, get off me!” the Necromancer commanded the bird on top of him.

”Kraagh!”

All three ostriches spoke at the same time, as if they where the same person. And they continued their, what seemed to be some sort of song, until Talidus rudely pushed Philippe of him and started yelling at his minions. Krugor hadn’t realised this before but now he could clearly see a twitch in the man’s right eye. Things weren’t going the way he wanted.

“Stop that! We talked about this! Take down that skeleton!”

But the birds had absolutely no attention for Krugor. They only had eye for...each other. Without any warning Philippe and Gaston started dancing around Antoinette. The skeleton couldn’t believe his eyes and needed to suppress his laughter as he watched the three ostriches with Talidus standing next to them, screaming at them and commanding them to do his bidding.

“Another failure, Talidus?” Krugor joked. “Didn’t you know it was ostrich mating season?”

[Krugor]

The human was too busy being angry at his birds that he didn’t noticed Krugor sneaking away. The skeleton quickly ran back the same way he came, through the hall, into the room with the staircase and down to the first floor.

“Talidus will be busy for a while, but I still didn’t get rid of him” he said to himself, somewhat exhausted. Krugor hadn’t felt this tired in a long time and he knew he needed to rest soon or he would collapse. This had turned out to be a very strange day.

He made his way back to the room where he woke up this morning and quickly scanned the contents of the cabinet with bottles. Most of them had been broken by the battle earlier but several of them where still intact. Without hesitation Krugor grabbed the bottle marked “Sleeping pills” and sped out of the room again. Having been the castle’s cook for many years the skeleton had no problem finding the enormous kitchen.

Once he arrived near the stove Krugor took the cooking pot from his backpack, together with some mushrooms. Throwing it all in the pot with some water and the sleeping pills he made a deliciously smelling soup, though the smell didn’t hid the fact for Krugor that it could be fatal when consumed. An unknowing person, though, might be tricked by this skilfully made dish.

Within fifteen minutes the soup was ready. Slowly he poured it into a small, glass bottle and left the kitchen. Krugor wondered why he hadn’t been detected yet, but didn’t plan on asking Talidus. Without interruptions he found the ostriches room, or better said, the ostriches pen. For the floor was littered with hay and there were three buckets nailed to the wall filled with water. The skeleton removed all the water and replaced it with his sleeping soup. “I’m sorry guys, but I can’t have you wake up for the next couple of years”.

After he made sure that there were no traces of his presence in the pen he ran over to Talidus’ bedroom, the only room in the castle he hadn’t seen before. And he wasn’t sad about that. Krugor carefully placed the bottle with the remainders of the soup on the pillow. Knowing Talidus as he did, Krugor knew the Necromancer was way to naïve to suspect anything wrong with a strange bottle laying on his bed. “This has to keep him off my back for at least a year. Those pills are strong!”

[Krugor]

Krugor was really continuing on mental strength alone at this point and he could hardly get back to the main exit. He leaned against the titanium armor for a minute to catch his breath when he saw Talidus.

The man lay in the middle of the hall, completely ravaged. His clothes were torn, he had a bleeding nose and a black eye. The ostriches were nowhere in sight, Krugor noticed, so he slowly sat down next to his former master.

“What happened to you?” he asked curiously. The Necromancer coughed up some blood before responding; “Those stupid ostriches. I shouldn’t have trained them. Once they get mature enough to mate they completely forgot about their master and see them as an enemy.”

“The ostriches did this to you?” Krugor asked surprised.
“They did. But they went back to their pen so you have nothing to worry about anymore, Krugor. I guess you’re happy now.”

Talidus spoke with sadness dripping from his voice, he was obviously disappointed with how things ended up. Feelings of guild and regret shot through Krugor’s body, but he quickly shook them off. This was no moment to feel sorry. He’ll just take me back when he feels better, he told himself.

“I’m sorry, Talidus, but I can’t help you. You have ruined my life for far too long and I have to draw a line. Again.”

Krugor spoke as he straightened his back.

“Maybe I’ll see you again sometime, but I hope not”.

Without looking back the skeleton walked up to the massive door, that was at least three times his own size and pushed with all his might. It took him four, long attempts before the door finally gave in. Slowly it opened and the surroundings outside became apparent. It was sunny day, unlike the last time Krugor walked to this door, and he felt the bright rays of the sun touching his bones. The skeleton took one last deep breath and stormed out of the building, into the thick forest outside.

“Farewell!” he screamed, hoping Talidus wouldn’t be too pissed off at him.

[Storm Veritas]

JUDGMENT

Well, that was a terrific thread. While it was lacking in a few areas that I’ll expand on a bit, overall I just adore your style. Really funny, honest, and a refreshingly quick tempo. I even threw a teaser up on the front page announcement. This may not be a JC thread, but it deserves some acclaim because it is clever, hilarious, and easy to read.

Introduction – 7 - Quick, concise, and easy to follow, but clever. A bit simple, a bit lacking in back story, but that also saved me a lot of time reading meaningless junk. Your character history is wonderful, btw.
Setting – 5 - You were a bit lax here. Occasionally you’d throw in details, and there was enough to suffice, but I would think that you could immerse us in a really funky environment pretty easily if you paid a bit more attention to this. One of the rare opportunities for growth.
Character – 8 - You make a walking skeleton seem human. I actually whispered “Oh, come on, impossible!” to the thought of the skeleton cracking his knuckles (that comes from nitrogen bubbles rotating across the knuckle, encapsulated in muscle tissue and releasing vascular pressure). So I think the knuckle crack is far fetched, but you had me sold on a walking skeleton cook. Quite an accomplishment.
Dialogue – 10 - As good as it gets. Funny, relevant, and never wasted, no groaningly awful jokes or needless battle cries. Love it. The best part of your writing, and really gives feel to your storytelling.
Strategy – 6 - Simple but effective, not exactly a chess match here.
Rising Action – 5 - A really fast thread, but you could break posts up a bit better to set up the more dramatic components of the thread. You already do a good job mixing up post length, but don’t be married to anything consistent. One really short post to set up a long action item is not a bad thing.
Climax – 6 - The showdown was funny, and entertaining was the order of the day. I liked it, even if it was rudimentary.
Conclusion – 7 - Very good, an enormously entertaining end describing a really bizarre relationship between the necromancer and your character. Very easy to like.
Writing Style – 9 - I’m done kissing your ass for this thread!
Wild Card – 8 - No I’m not. Good work.

Total Score - 71
Krugor receives 730 EXP and 200 Gold.

EXP and GP added! - Zieg