Tarous

by Jeremy W Eason

  Luckily, no eligible young lady made her way towards me. In fact as far as these balls went the night had been rather slow. There hadn’t even been a single death, which was highly unusual indeed.

  A light tap on my shoulder caused me to jump. I turned to see a young demon girl with long blond hair and two cute little horns that poked out through her bangs. The effect was extremely cute. She was short, petite and her thin face extremely attractive. She pouted her lips as she looked at me.

  I didn’t see her approach me because of how tiny she was, barely making it to five feet tall. She was wearing a red dress that was scandalously short, not even making it half way to her knees. If the dress hadn’t looked so sultry I would have sworn it was made for a child.

  Though the way she looked was sweet and innocent, the words that came out of her mouth were forceful. “Dance with me now, rich boy,” growled the young demon girl as she forcibly dragged me by the hand onto the dance floor. She was rather strong, even for a demon.

  “Help,” I squeaked in a meek voice. My two bodyguards just snickered.

  The demon’s style of dance was rather forceful as well and when one couple got too close she kicked one of the dancers in the leg. There was a rather loud snapping noise and the dancer screamed, but the demon girl paid no attention as she continued her dance around the ballroom dance floor. I was rather unhappy at the way the demon girl dragged me across the dance floor. It set off another round of snickers between the bodyguards, and even a smirk from Tarous standing near them.

  Occasionally I could hear the other dancers talking. One was talking to his dance partner, dropping as many names as he could to impress her. I also noticed my father, Lord Rask, at the edge of the dance floor talking to a large group of guests. He was doing his duty as head of the family. My mother was with him. They made for a powerful pair. I felt a little bad for anyone that dared to challenge them.

  I was also looking around at the other dancers, trying to figure out a way to escape the demon girl. I felt a sharp pain shooting through my arm, like all the bones in my hand had just been crushed. And that was exactly what had happened.

  “Pay attention only to me,” she said in a cute growl while she continued to squeeze my hand. She really had broken all the bones in my hand. I snatched my hand from her grasp and gave it a few quick shakes before I shape shifted my hand, changing it into a hand without broken bones.

  With my newly healed hand I conjured a beautiful rose out of thin air. These small magics were easy for me. Rasks had magical ability in their blood though they rarely publicized it. I handed the beautiful rose to the demon girl.

  “Of course, I do apologize,” I told the demon girl in the most suave voice I could manage.

  She took the rose from me. “That was rather impressive.” She then inhaled the aroma of the flower, but she didn’t stop there. The red rose faded to grey and then black before it broke apart in her hand immediately turning into dust that fell to the floor. She had sucked all the life out of the rose. Apparently it had been delicious.

  I really need to meet a new class of people, I thought to myself. Then I noticed a boy across the room glaring at me. He briskly walked across the dance floor towards us. I immediately started looking for an exit.

  “I challenge you to a duel, Edward of the Rask family.” The one challenging me was a member of the Dreg family. The oldest son in fact, named George. He was tall, whip cord lean, and had the body of a fighter. He was both strong and fast, trained from birth to be a warrior. He wished to gain his family much honor by challenging a Rask. His family hated the Rasks, but the Rasks kept forgetting who the Dreg family were.

  “I will crush you! I will bring great dishonor to you and… Where did he go?”

  Poor Dregs, there was a family that had never opened a book. George was still scratching his head long after I had snuck away during his little speech. While the demon girl was distracted by the Dreg boy’s ranting I had thrown up an illusion around myself identical to my actual self. This wasn’t a magic spell, but a natural ability in illusions that my heritage afforded me. It would only fool them for a little while, but that was all the time I needed. The illusion wouldn’t move or talk or even blink, but it didn’t need to.

  I managed to make it to a nearby table before my illusion disappeared, although it still took George a moment to discover I was gone. He was just too caught up in his own little rant to notice. I watched the look on George’s face as he realized that he had been fooled. Tricking George was similar to tricking a particularly slow puppy, and I felt no satisfaction whatsoever from tricking him.

  A shadow descended on me, and a chill went up my spine.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Oh crap!” I was scared to turn around.

  Slowly I turned to see the Butler. There were a lot of really scary rumors about him floating around. I was more scared of the Butler than my own father. The Butler glared at me. Words were not necessary. That look spoke volumes.

  I smiled and the Butler continued to glare, his fangs showing. No one would ever ask if he sparkled. That would have been a very bad idea, the kind of mistake that you would literally never make twice.

  The Butler grabbed one of the chairs under the table and pulled it out. “Sit.”

  I sat.

  The Butler looked human, he always looked human, but his true form looked nothing like a human. He was bound by a contract to serve the Rask family for 500 years and so far he had served for over 300. Nobody was sure what he was exactly, except for Lord Rask. Most thought he was a vampire, but he was way too strong to just be a vampire.

  “Sit up straight, young master.” The Butler’s words were calm and almost seemed casual.

  I snapped to attention. When the Butler made a “suggestion” you had better follow it. My father must have assigned the Butler to me after my bodyguards had problems keeping track of me. The Butler would never have such problems.

  “Rasks never run from anyone, especially monsters like them,” said the Butler gesturing towards George. He wrinkled his nose like he had just smelled something bad when he looked over at George.

  “How many young ladies have you danced with tonight?”

  “Only one,” I quietly replied with my head down.

  The Butler glared again. I knew it was my duty to find someone to marry so I could continue the Rask family line. There were no more of my kind, I now had to find a wife of a different species. Despite everything I loved my family dearly and wanted to do whatever I could for the family. The Butler did not need to yell at me, that one glare was enough to make me sit up straight.

  George Dreg suddenly appeared at the table, having been able to track me by smell. Unfortunately for George his ability to be at the wrong place at the wrong time was legendary.

  I laid my head down on the table and pretended to be asleep just to annoy George. I even began to fake snore to really mess with him.

  “Get up or I will kill you and your family and…” The boy named George paused as he saw the Butler staring at him with glowing red eyes. There were stories of people that had crossed the Butler and all of them had ended up dying in horrible and mysterious ways. Of course they were just stories, at least that’s what George kept trying to tell himself.

  “I mean…uh….please fight me…” said George as he cast his eyes toward the Butler and then to the floor, avoiding the Butler’s gaze. He began to tremble as he looked down at the floor.

  He didn’t want to die, he wanted to live. He just wanted to make his family look good and no one ever saw Edward Rask fight so he assumed he was weak. He had hired a mercenary group of werewolves to fight the humans. George just wanted to embarrass the Rask family a little to make his family look good. As the Butler continued to stare at him he started to tremble even more violently.

  I gave a loud fake snore as his response.

  My snore caused George to snap out of his daze and stop trembling.

  “Now see here�
�” George looked up and noticed the Butler was still staring at him. This caused him to stop speaking mid-sentence. George began to noticeably sweat. The trembling returned.

  “I think the young Dreg is lost, we should help him find his way home,” said one of my body guards, both of whom had suddenly appeared behind George. They each grabbed one of George’s arms and lifted him up off the ground and kindly escorted him to the far side of the room. His feet dangled above the ground as they carried him off.

  “Loser,” I mumbled between two fake snores.

  My fake sleep eventually turned into a real sleep. My bodyguards watched over me the entire time and not far away the Butler also kept an eye on me. The fact that I could sleep in a room full of so many powerful monsters sent a rather strong message to everyone, though unintentionally. The message was a strong “I’m not afraid of you.”

  At some point a maid came and took Tarous back to my room to wait out the rest of the ball. The younger of the two body guards kept flexing his biceps and admiring his own arms in a nearby mirror. He enjoyed looking like a small mountain of muscle. The older and larger of the two bodyguards shook me gently awake.

  “The guests are leaving, it’s time for you to fulfill your duty.”

  I rubbed my eyes and while still half-awake I stood and followed my bodyguards to the door. My father was already there saying goodbye to his guests. I stood by my father’s side and began to say my goodbyes to all of the guests as they left the party.

  A large black skinned demon with thick black horns stood in front of me. Easily over nine feet tall, his black skin pulled taut over his thick bulging muscles. Red cable-like veins covered the black skinned hand that he extended towards me. His claws were long and black, and they had blood caked under them.

  “Goodnight, young Rask,” said the hulky demon, his voice deep and loud. It was a voice that carried, but was calming at the same time. His demon hand was bigger than my entire head. The area around him smelled of smoke and sulfur.

  I stuck out my hand and shook the demons hand.

  “Goodnight Uncle Haz, travel safely.”

  Haz was a close friend of my father. Haz was so close to the family that I had always called him Uncle Haz.

  Haz looked rather sophisticated with his brown blazer and dress pants. He moved with a grace that wasn’t reflected in his size. The glasses on his face were black rimmed and his brown shoes were clean, giving him the faint impression of being a scholar. Haz was one of the few demons that performed magic openly. He ranked high in the demon courts. Despite his ferocious appearance, he had a rather incredible intellect.

  He bowed slightly, being careful not to let his glasses fall off his face. He then patted me on the head and ruffled my hair. His hand was large enough to crush my skull with a single squeeze. He removed a solid black book from his right coat pocket that had a golden pentagram etched on the front. The book’s pages were yellow with age, a few page corners had been slightly burnt. He began to read several strange words out loud and a circle of light appeared around him along with several strange runes that wrapped around the outside of the circle. A black hole opened up underneath his feet with a loud grumbling noise and he dropped into it. The hole disappeared, but the smell of sulfur remained.

  The lingering smell of sulfur didn’t bother me at all. At least Haz had a hand to shake, unlike some of the other guests. I had previously had to discreetly wipe the slime off my hand after one particular green blob had shook my hand with its…something.

  The next guest had black scales all over its body and when it offered to shake my hand an eye appeared on the back of its hand. The eye looked at me and then blinked. I quickly shook the creature’s hand, staring at the eye the entire time.

  A beautiful black haired woman with a slender yet muscular body walked up next and I bowed low to her, using as much grace and poise as I could muster.

  “It is a pleasure as always, my lady.”

  Her eyes were darker than black. She was more beautiful than the darkest night, but that only served to distract others from her power. I could feel the waves of magic power emanating from her body, energy that made me feel despair. She was the Queen of the Dark Elves. She had traveled a great distance to be here. She was from a dimension even farther away than the dimension of the demons. She was from one of the most ancient dimensions, where almost all the suns in her universe had already grown old and died. It was an ancient dimension, but it was also a dying universe.

  She wore black armor from a metal I didn’t recognize. It reflected no light, but seem to devour light instead. On her breast plate was etched the outline of a tree. The sword on her side was called wormwood. There was a golden star on the black metallic sword guard.

  I had heard the sword blade was solid black and made of polished wood, but a wood that was far harder than any metal and far more destructive. A sword that wept green poisonous liquid from the point of its wooden blade. It was one of the deadliest treasures of her kingdom, a sword worthy of a queen.

  I could feel the sword’s hatred and bitterness for the living. It was a cursed blade, one only meant for evil, only meant to live in darkness. I could feel it wiggling in its sheath, wanting to destroy everything. It hated. It hated everything and everyone and it wanted to escape its sheath and poison the world.

  I made sure to enthusiastically bid her farewell. I wanted to make sure to stay on her good side. She nodded her head towards me.

  “My fondest wishes to you, young Lord.” She turned and left, her own bodyguards followed her. Each of her guards were whipcord lean female elven warriors. I just knew they had to have abs under there armor. Each elven guard had an intense aura about them. They felt like coiled snakes just waiting to strike.

  I had done my best not to stare at the queen’s pointed ears. I rather liked pointed ears on a woman. Even monsters have fetishes.

  A creature that looked like a man but had flames for hair stepped in front of me next. There were no handshakes or hugs this time. He was a creature of fire, a Rask’s one weakness. We stared each other down and then just nodded to each other. I did not hate him, but my instincts would never allow me to be friends with him either. Afterwards he simply turned and walked outside.

  Standing where I was, I could see the flame creature meeting a horse with a flaming mane and wings outside the front door. Most of the other guests were climbing onto the backs of giant wyverns. Wyverns of all colors were shooting into the sky. Currently the preferred method of travel of the elite, they were merely the fad of the month.

  The next fad could be unicorns, I mused. No one knew with the way fads were. Though I seriously doubted that unicorns would be the next fad as most of the ladies of the court would be unable to ride a unicorn, even if only half of the gossip I heard was true.

  I turned back to the party as the last of the guests had just left. A black slimy creature, known as a Mog, slogged across the ballroom floor. Its black goo picked up all the garbage and devoured it. It was better than any human vacuum cleaner. This Mog, just like all of its species, had a human skull bobbing in the upper part of its black goo.

  Servants were cleaning off tables and carrying trays of food away. The unicorn horn salt and pepper shakers were carefully carried across the floor. They were very expensive and no one wanted to be the one to drop one. None of the food would be thrown away since my family required large amounts of food. It was one of the disadvantages of the shape shifting ability my family used. Protein was a must, and it was necessary for us to consume a large amount of protein to help fuel our shape shifting magic.

  The doors to the ballroom burst open, the sound of them crashing against the walls echoing in the ballroom. George Dreg strutted in with arrogance written all over his face. He was wearing silver armor and carrying a silver shield in one hand and a sword in the other. His breast plate was etched with the design of a fierce looking dragon. The tall boy stepped forward, sword already drawn, and already ready for a fight.

  �
��Fight me to the death, Edward, my sworn enemy, my greatest foe.”

  “Who are you?” I asked as I scratched my head. He did seem familiar. Try as hard as I could the identity of the boy escaped my memory.

  He did seem awfully familiar though.

  “HOW DARE YOU FORGET ME!” yelled George.

  George was so angry he was beyond fighting fair. Now he only wanted to win no matter what the cost. In his anger he threw down his sword and shield then unleashed the feared power of the Dreg family. His chest began to swell, his armor exploded into pieces, and then his entire body began to expand. The ground shook from the mighty roar that escaped from his lips.

  In seconds he had tripled in size and his growth showed no sign of slowing. Long claws burst out of his toes and fingers. His skin turned into golden scales that sparkled in the light.

  “Of course he would sparkle,” I mumbled to myself.

  The maids took off running, the power of a Dreg was really impressive.

  Standing where George once stood was a giant dragon. In truth all members of the Dreg family were powerful dragons. There magic was a unique magic which allowed them to shift into the form of a human and back again to their true forms when necessary. The room rose in temperature as smoke curled out from the reptilian creature’s nostrils. His eyes were slit like a snake and his teeth were long and curved.

  I couldn’t argue with the results. In almost all of the most powerful families, magic ran strong in their bloodline. No creature had more magic than dragons. Their very bodies extruded magic. I walked over to George’s torn clothes and looked down.

  “Tighty whities, why am I not surprised?” I shook my head side to side. I was in the process of silently judging George as the floor began to shake. The dragon let out another roar that caused the wall and floors to shake. Miles away his roar could be easily heard. He was not amused by my comments. Not amused at all. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a tiny brown book that was rather worn around the edges.

  “Now where was it again?” I mumbled to myself as I quickly flipped through the pages of the book. I knew the spell I needed was somewhere close to the back.