I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Demon King

Of course, why wouldn't the demon king's castle be in the middle of the desert surrounded by nothing but sunlight and golden bricks? It wasn't like Ergen had expected a gothic looking castle placed on the top of a tall mountain where lightning could strike behind it on a dark night to make it look imposing or anything. Nor had he expected it to be surrounded by both demons and lava with cages lining the path to it's gates with human skeletons occupying each one. No, rather, what he'd got was what seemed like a thriving desert city with happy beastkin people populating the majority of it's streets, all laughing, talking and bartering happily with each other as they continued their daily lives.

"This is where the Demon King lives?" Rae asked from on top of Ergen's head, speaking his thoughts once more before Farell answered as he walked in front of him with his guards.

"Despite popular opinion, demon kings are not aligned to the denizens of hell as most would think." Farell explained while gazing at several of the beastkin around them who had stopped their daily business in order to see the dragon walking down their streets. "The Kingdom of Ligan is completely full of zealots that consider both themselves and their kingdom 'Holy'. Therefore, anyone who opposes them must be a demon, and their leader is the Demon King."

"So who is the Demon King?" Rae asked.

"The former beastkin prince, Asal." Farell replied. "Apparently he took over the throne and defied Ligan when Emric had both his mother and father killed by assassins. Though he had done quite well for himself in unifying several races who were only months ago at war with each other."

"Oh..." Rae sounded somewhat disheartened, and Ergen wondered if he were being set up somehow. There was no way that this Emric guy could be such an absolute evil that he would be hearing things about the man nonstop. Either these people had very few things to talk about, or they were trying to implant an idea that the human king was evil into Ergen's mind. Or at least, he was suspicious that they were.

More and more people around them were stopping what they were doing to stare at Ergen, and he attempted not to show any bashfulness towards them as he followed Farell towards the low lying castle in the center of the city. A few people even screamed when they first saw him, but Ergen managed to maintain his pace as they finally passed through the busiest section of the city, only to end up in what looked like the rich person or noble's section. There seemed to be water fountains and small spots of preserved palm trees everywhere to decorate the city, once again making Ergen wonder just how anyone could ever think that this place was home to a Demon King before Farell's guards rushed forward to block the sides of the road ahead of them.

Stopping what seemed like an overly long and expensive looking carriage, the coachman was forced to stop thanks to the soldiers, and immediately a fat and balding catman scrambled out of the carriage with his face red with anger.

"Why are you stopping?! I need to get to my appoint- ment..." The man grew quiet as he saw Ergen passing in front of him. Though that was before he scrambled out of the carriage and waddled quickly so that he could catch up to Farell. However, despite the effort, he was stopped just short of gaining an audience by the guards who were already back in their positions.

"Sir! May I please have a few words with you?" The catman asked in a silky-sweet voice that bothered Ergen. It also almost certainly betrayed the man as a merchant as well, and a very wealthy one at that judging from the looks of things.

"What is it?" Farell asked in an impatient tone.

"I... I was just wondering if I could take that magnificent animal behind you off of your hands." The catman rubbed his fingers together greedily. "You see, I'll pay you well more than what it's worth, and I already know of several buyers that would simply jump at the chance to-"

"The dragon isn't owned by anyone, and is intelligent enough to be considered part of the mortal races just as you or I." Farell replied, surprising Ergen with his words before suspicion once again took over as this encounter could have been planned to make him let down his guard.

"Are you kidding?! It's just a dumb beast! A mindless animal that only holds concern for itself!" The catman laughed while looking between Farell and Ergen, and while he didn't appreciate being called a lizard, Ergen found that he disliked being called a dumb beast even more.

"You must find so much in common with it then." Farell answered, and Ergen snorted to stifle laughter at the comment, which unfortunately blew the substance that had been clogged in his nose all over the catman. Expensive looking cloths didn't seem to nice when they were covered in snot, and the catman froze for several moment in complete shock from what had just happened before Farell and Ergen continued their walk to the demon king's castle.

They'd now exited the city altogether and were currently surrounded by giant statues molded after what must have been either the previous kings or heroes as the continued towards the center. Ergen had to be careful not to destroy any of them with his tail as he followed the group until they reached a small flight of stairs that eventually led underneath an archway that allowed entrance into the palace, which Ergen now decided it was now as this structure didn't seem to be very 'castley' at all. It seemed more fitted for entertaining parties rather than holding back armies, and this was emphasized by the multitude of enormous sheets of silk cloth draped over the hundreds of ropes that were strung across the ceiling. The cloth seemed to be used to separate the single massive room that was in the palace's interior, and Ergen was led down a long cleared line in which he thought was a path that led to the Demon King's throne.

Sunlight was being let in through several reflective crystals that shined through holes in the ceiling, and Ergen was curious about them as he looked up to see that most of them were poised in the ceiling which had enough holes in it to seem almost as if it were a honeycomb. However, despite Ergen's interest in the infrastructure, the main event of his recent travels seemed to be beginning as he finally entered the center of the palace where the silk cloths had been cleared in a large area. And in the center of that large area was even more stairs that finally led up to a throne that appeared to be made out of the same sandstone or adobe that everything else was made out of. On top of the throne was the man the Ergen was supposed to meet, the 'Demon King' himself... or perhaps the man's son anyway as what seemed to be a thirteen-year-old boy was currently sitting on it.

"Where's the Demon King?" Rae asked curiously, apparently finding the boy to be the Demon King's son as well.

"You're looking at him." Farell stated while continuing forward until he reached the base of the stairs where he nodded shortly towards the early teen on the throne.

'This kid is the Demon King?' Ergen asked himself as he stepped farther into the room. However, no one ever had a chance to speak inside of the throne room before everything turned pitch black in Ergen's vision and everything faded from sight. Everything save for the Demon King, that was, as the two suddenly found themselves alone inside of what must have been space as there was nothing but void around them. There were no stars or objects of any kind, just a child and a dragon that were the only two things illuminated until two more figures appeared. Behind the Demon King, a shockingly tall yet thin man covered in skulls and bones walked up and stopped beside the child. And beside Ergen... he looked down and was shocked to see that a human-sized Echo had appeared.

"It's been a while, Vos." Echo greeted the tall man with a slight smile, and Ergen found that not only could he not speak his thoughts in this realm, but his normal dragon sounds were gone as well as he appeared to have become completely mute.

"And you as well, Echo." Vos greeted back with a slow grin beginning to spread across his features. "My goodness... It's quite a blunder we have here, isn't it?"