The Lonely Princess

On a night during that time that marks the shifting of seasons, the time when the callous hands of blazing summer clash with those first feminine caresses of autumn, a loud scream pierced the torch lit hallways of a kingdom in a time and world long forgotten.

This agonized cry was the sound of labor and the birth of a new life. Soon the auditory assault ceased and silence took its place, but only briefly.

In the place of the vocalizations of birth pains rose a single shriek. It was a shriek that crafted a frozen tundra of the blood of all who heard it including the knight making his rounds through the shadowy halls.

In the bed chamber of the royal couple the scene was grim. The midwife, doctor, and several servants looked on in horror at the thing in the doctor's hands. Even the queen shivered and looked at her ghastly offspring, unsure of what to make of the thing extracted from her innards. Only the king regarded the proceedings with stoic composure,the shadows playing on his black bearded face like children in a school yard, as the child cried as all newborns do.

The child had been born with a light blue complexion. At first the midwife and doctor thought it was from a lack of oxygen.

Further examination had led to the terrible vocalization from the midwife.

In addition to the skin color were other less than natural features: two nubs on the forehead that marked the beginning of horns, ears that tapered upward to a point, eyes that shone like twin suns in the dim lighting, and a serpentine tail that ended a flat triangular point.

The only human feature seemed to be the light blonde locks of the baby's hair. The unsightly infant led one servant to utter, " 'Tis the doings of witchcraft, the work of some black art."

The servant in superstition spoke truly. The king knew exactly what had happened he was there. No one questioned his victory over the southern raiders though they out numbered his men a hundred to one. They chalked it up divine intervention from Korobon who made all and sees all.

The intervention was far from divine. In desperation the king turned not the light but to something darker and more occult.

On a night when the lines between the seen and the unseen cease to exist and the ancient devils and dark gods prowl the earth, communing with, coupling with, and terrorizing the dwellers of the mortal plane he made a bargain with one such entity. Victory would be his at the cost of the tainting of his heir.

"This is her doing," he suddenly bellowed pointing a finger toward his wife, the queen in the manner a huntsman points a crossbow at his prey. " She is in league with devils. Clearly she has taken one of Lilith's sons as a mate and has brought this blight upon my house!"

"But, Dear, I have done no—"

"Silence whench! Do not add lies to your devil crafts."

The matter was settled. The queen was tried a kangaroo court and burned at the stake.

As for the child, a girl,she was not destroyed but made an outcast. She was taken to an isolated tower on the northern most edge of the kingdom. A maid servant who always suspected there was more to the story volunteered to raise her.

So time passed as it always does. The poor child grew into womanhood within the confines of the tower. Those nubs grew into a regal set of horns protuding from her forehead. They were a dark violet color. Her locks were now long and rich and she often wore them long and braided in the center.

Her foster mother tended to her education in academic and spiritual matters and despite her fiendish form her belief in Korobon was as deep as her bosom.

She whiled away the days reading and longing to taste the outside world. Her dear caretaker had educated her well enough that she knew she wouldn't last long out there. "Oh Korobon, why must I suffer for my father's sins?" She would often pray.

Among her collection of literature was a generous amount of romantic novels. She'd read these poems and prose and something in her longed for a champion. Someone to lover her as these valiant knights did their ladies. Much to her foster mother's dismay she'd spend long nights in the depths of sorrow crying herself to sleep.

She was rejected, cast out and unloved by all except her caretaker. But Korobon made all and sees all and hears all the prayers made to him, especially those of a devilish girl with a shattered angel's heart.

His skin was tanned from days in the sun, his frame was solid as a rock, his chin was square, the face weathered but handsome, his eyes deep blue, his hair cut short and black like a crow,and his overall physical appearance was just shy of godlike. A necklace of wolf teeth hung about the thick neck. Sweat glistened on masculine pectoral muscles.

A mass of stubble stood out on the tanned face like a coat of dust on a piece of ancient furniture. The meaty hands capable of killing men held a double bladed battle axe. Black breeches adorned his lower half leading to buckskin boots.

All in all Ervin Craddock made for an imposing figure of a man.

He was a mercenary. He had made friends and enemies in several Kingdoms as a result. He walked through a wooded trail that gave way to a clearing.

Within the clearing was an encampment of hardcore men and a few women with swords, knives spears and other tools of death in hands and on hips or the sharpening wheel. Craddock sat down on a log by the fire pit and was greeted by Gu, his most trusted friend. He was far lankier than the barbarian but no less fierce.

"Greetings fearless leader. We were expecting you last night," he said with concern, "What held you up, Friend?"

"I grew weary and spent the night at an inn. I shared a few drinks with some old guy and Korobon, what tales he spun."

Gu was interested now as one of the women brought a canteen over to the mercenary leader. He sipped it slowly. Once finished he was asked by Gu, "What sort of tales?"

"He said something about a demon kept in a tower in the north lands. Some drunken nonsense I suppose."

"If only it were,'' said the older, more slender man. "They say the queen trafficked in secret with fiends and summoned a demon into the kingdom rather than destroy the abomination the king trapped in a tower and cry's and wailing have been heard by those traveling the roads nearby and a horned face with yellow eyes can sometimes be seen from the top most window."

"He dares to let an enemy of the divine roam free? If he will not rid the land of this evil then I shall!" Exclaimed Craddock with righteous fury.

"But, my friend, to go against the king!"

" We pledge ourselves to no king except the one who pays the most and we haven't been hired out by this kingdom lately."

Gu saw no point in further protest and the next morning search of Ervin Craddock was gone.

After three days' journey the emboldened mercenary came upon the tower. From the road he was able to see the wall which faced north had only one window and the rest was the face of the wall. The ingress and egress must be on the tower's south side.

Having no desire for a clash with any guardsmen that might be present he approached silently like a panther. He scaled the tower wall with practiced skill and righteous determination.

At last he entered through the window & unstrapped his hearty axe from his back. He probed the room with his eyes and saw the thing laying in the bed against the wall. He jumped down from the window ledge and landed with a clomp upon the wooden desk below.

The sound roused the fiend and she sat up and stared at the intruder. Their eyes met. Shock filled Craddock. He'd not expected the fiend to be female in appearance. She looked beguiling but evil so often does.

"Vile devil spawn, the king may keep you around but I shall send you back into the shadows of the abyss!"

With that threat he swung his axe attempting to lop off her horned head. With a surprised shout she dove head long to the floor! The axe came to rest in the bed causing downy feathers to spew from the wound.

Not to be stopped in his crusade of righteousness he prepared for another swing. "Korobon, save me!" Wailed the girl, her burning yellow eyes streaming tears.

"You dare let the Holy One's name pass your friendship lips, you hellish vixen?"

Just then the door to the small bed chamber burst open and in walked the aged servant who'd been the princess's mother for twenty five long years. She regarded the bare chested man with horror and contempt both. "Put down that axe you brute!"

"Why are you the witch who conjured this succubus? Were you in league with the queen?"

The aged woman was incensed. "I do not know what you have heard of us but it's fools like you that have caused my lady here to never roam the outside world."

"Please sir, if you are as righteous as of a man I believe you to be please hear out my mother if you won't here me! Then decided whether to execute us or not."

A rapping at the door halted all conversation as a deep voice demanded to know what the ruckus was about.

"Nothing to concern yourself over, Sir Knight."

"Very well."

With this brief interruption over Craddock agreed to hear out the two women. They told him the story as you've already read it. After this he offered his apologies. He would go out the way he came and he would be leaving a wiser man. Names were exchanged the devilish princess was Ivy and her care taker was Clory.

Back at his camp he his thoughts were of Ivy. Now that he knew her sad tale she was not repulsive. In fact the marks of whatever deviltry– & this he now suspected was on behalf of her father not her mother– had tainted her birth had left her with traits that gave her an exotic beauty. What was this; was he falling in love with a woman with horns and tail? But those eyes, like stars. The blond locks that framed her demonic visage. Was it love or lust or both?

The princess's thoughts were of the roguish warrior so devoted to his faith her would have slain her thinking her to be an unchecked evil. Was she falling in love with a man who'd swung an axe at her head?

It goes without saying a romance did blossom between the two. They had many secret rendezvous in that lonely tower which didn't seem so lonely anymore.

One day this romance reached its climax. Clory burst into the room just as the two were embracing. The wretched woman was out of breath. "My lady I've just heard dark news from the castle the prince has been coronated and he's sending me to slay you as a pennace offering to Korobon!"

"We must flee this place!" said Craddock. Just then a swarm of gaurds stormed into the room swords at the ready. They sold there in chain mail and black tabbards with a gold insignia. The Merc knew of them,the Holy Slayers.

He brandished his axe. "Blast that's Ervin Craddock," one of them exclaimed. "Watch 'em boys!"

He advanced like a mad hornet and swung that axe in a warriors fury as he commanded the women to stay behind him. One by one they fell until they were mangle, bloodied imitations of humans.

"Turn the bed sheets into a rope were getting out of here," Craddock said as he unceremoniously shove to the floor a knight that had fallen on it in death.

By the time other soldiers arrived to see the carnage. The mercenary was walking toward his camp with his love in his arms, her own arms around his neck. She nestled her face upon his sinewous chest. She was leaving her books behind she didn't not need them now. She had a champion and she was his fair lady and outcast no longer. They headed to their new life together.

The end and beginning.