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Deception
Blike heard his footsteps echo in the hall as he moved from the second floor to the third floor. Behind him lay several dead or wounded monsters. Blike couldn’t help but think how many innocent people Gorfiend had transformed into his slaves. Blike was attacked by the images of screaming children, and it made anger rush through his veins.
Blike reached the third floor and saw that he was in a large open room. In the center of the room he could see what looked to be throne. Its back was facing the young mage, and Blike could see that someone was sitting in it. He slowly crept up to the throne, readying a spell. Stopped just behind the throne, and in one quick motion grabbed the top of it and pulled it back toward him.
Blike was startled by the sight of a boy, no more then eleven years old, sitting in the chair, sleeping. Blike wondered how the child got here alone and why he was sleeping of all things in a place like this. Blike put the throne back and slowly walked around to the front of it. He looked at the child and thought about what he should do. Blike got down on a knee and studied the child for a moment. There was something odd about the child, but Blike couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He reached out to see if the child was coherent, and its eyes flared open and fixed on him. He pulled his hand back as the child became suddenly animated and looked at him with some sort of relief. Blike again started to reach to the boy when he screamed and pointed to the wooden door behind the mage. Blike turned, readying a spell, but stopped as he was greeted with only the view of the large double doors. Blike felt a surge of energy from the child and turned just in time to be hit by a large burst of energy square in the chest. The impact propelled him across the room and through the wooden doors. Blike hit the wall behind the doors and fell to the ground. Blike looked up to see the woman from the courtyard floating next to the child. The boy looked up at her and spoke, “There, I helped, you said you would set me free,” the boy crossed his arms over his chest.
“My dear child, I never said ‘set you free’, I said ‘When you catch the mage, you can have your freedom’, it’s very different. You have not captured the mage; therefore, you have not finished your end of the bargain.”
“But, how am I supposed to ‘catch’ him?” asked the boy.
“I don’t know, put him in a cage or something,” the woman laughed.
“I can’t lift him, and I have no cage to put him in,” protested the boy.
“Then I can’t free you, but I can make it easier for you to lift the mage,” the woman laughed as she flew slowly away from the boy. The boy looked at her, fear slowly covering her face. The woman held out her hand, and a large ball of light flew out of her palm and directly into the boy. The boy’s body began to glow as he fell to the ground, screaming. He put his hands on the ground in front of him as they began to grow larger, turning a shade of green. His body trembled as his clothing began to tear. He slowly began to gain size as scales completely covered his body. A tail grew from his back as his face began to extend out into a muzzle. He looked at Blike, his eyes meeting the mage’s, and Blike watched as humanity slipped away.
The creature stood up and looked at the woman. “Grab the mage and carry him upstairs, the master is waiting,” she commanded and the monster obeyed. Blike started to pull himself to his feet, but the creature leaped through the air and slammed shoulder first into the mage, sandwiching him into the wall. Blike fell to the floor, his staff held to his body. The beast picked the mage up and carried him up the stairs, the woman floating behind.
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