I watched you change

Griffeth burst from his front door only a couple of hours after sunrise. He sprinted to his neighbor’s. As he ran, his golden cloak flowed behind him, his light grey tunic and trousers ruffling due to his tiny frame. Griffeth was about eight years old. He ran around back and pounded on his friend’s window frame.


"Xiar! Wake up!" Griffeth pounded on his window frame, trying to coax his friend from his dreams. "Come on! Get up! We hav-" He was cut short by a rather haunting face appearing in the window.


"Griffeth.... I swear to god, I’m going to kill you if you do this again. I was up all night last night studying my necromancy and you wake me up only hours after I’ve gone to sleep…" Xiar rubbed his eyes and disappeared from the window, emerging from his backdoor in the same clothes as yesterday. He was wearing a black cloak over his plain black tunic and trousers, his dark brown shoes slightly sticking out. He was ten, two years older than Griffeth. Xiar stretched in his doorframe and walking out a little more, heading over to his family well and getting a drink, using some of the left over water to splash on his face his shaggy black hair being splashed in the front slightly. He had dark rings under his eyes. Griffeth ran over and patted him on the back.


"Well than just stop practicing so much. Why do you practice that crap anyway?" Xiar just looked back at Griffeth and smiled. "Because when were older, I get to learn how to make zombies!!" Xiar’s eyes lit up and looked through Griffeth, imagining his teenage self controlling zombies and having them wait on him hand and foot…literally; the limbs came off if they were decayed enough. Griffeth just kind of looked at Xiar with a concerned look. "Um, Xiar… Don’t zombies, like, eat people?" He laughed at his friends’ fantasy and beckoned him over to the front of his house. "Anyway, lets’ go." Xiar looked back at Griffeth from his little daydream and caught up with his friend.





They walked through the market, seeing what the merchants had that was new that morning. The streets were bustling with people buying food, supplies and leisure’s. Xiar stopped at a merchant that was selling dead things. Griffeth stood there, rolling his eyes and looking around at the shop. It contained dead animals preserved, limbs and hands, both human and animal. Griffeth’s eye twitched and his stomache twisted in disgust. He stepped back and looked around at the other shops. A merchant next to the dead things stand waved to him and motioned for him to come over. Griffeth eyed this man as he walked over. He seemed to be about six foot tall with a full grown brown beard. He wore a dark brown shirt and a white apron to put the money in and give change. Under it were tan trousers. He had a big belly too.


"Ah, so I see my friend over here.." He motioned to the dead things stand. "Does not interest you. How about LIVE things, comrade." Griffeth blinked and looked around at his wares. "Err… I don’t see anything live…" The man laughed at him and opened up his counter, motioning him to come to his tent in the back. At first, Griffeth was worried because he didn’t see anything, but then, the merchant lifted a blanket that covered a cage. It held a white wolf puppy that growled to its best effort only to sneeze rather cutely and fall backward.


"Oh my god! How much?!" Griffeth looked up at the merchant who smiled down warmly at him.


"For you my friend, she is free. Take her." Griffeth almost exploded from excitement as the merchant handed the pup to him. She growled at first, but after sniffing him some, curled up in his arms to sleep. He thanked the man and ran outside to meet Xiar.


"Xiar! Xiar! You have to see what I just got!" He stopped next to his friend who was lost in a monkey’s paw. "Eww, that’s gross, dude." Xiar looked at him to scold him but saw the wolf and looked up at him, smacking him on the head. "What did I say about stealing!? Go put it back! I KNOW you don’t have enough money for a wolf!" Griffeth winced at the pain and looked back at his friend. "No, no! The merchant next to this one gave him to me! See?" He pointed to an empty space on the ground. Xiar looked and walked over to the place where his friend pointed, standing in the middle. "What? Are you on drugs? Whatever, if you get your hand chopped off, I’m taking it for myself." He pulled his friend back toward their houses.


"But, but! There was a stand there! I swear!" Griffeth squirmed in his grasp, holding onto the puppy, who slept soundly.





Griffeth ran through the forest, the beast on his heals. It panted heavily behind him, almost able to nip at his legs. Griffeth burst into a clearing and skid to a halt, falling back so that it ran under him. He landed on his back and rolled to the side before getting up and heading the opposite direction. The wolf blinked and looked back. Se growled in frustration and sprinted after her prey. Griffeth laughed while he ran. He jumped over a log only to see the two story drop a little too late. He fell forward and did a rather poor roll into the fall, his face making a painful acquaintance with the ground. He moaned and rolled over to see white paws. He looked up to be nose to nose with the wolf, her eyes piercing into his.


"Uh oh…" He was about to back up when the wolf made its move, bringing it’s muzzle down to his face and licking him. He closed his eyes as the tongue moved up his face and wiped off the saliva afterwards.


"Ick… ok, ok Luna. I get it, you win." She yipped excitedly and spun around in a circle, doing her own version of the happy dance. Griffeth laughed at her and stood up, brushing the dirt off of his clothes. She barked at him and walked over to his side, nuzzling his hand. Griffeth bent down and scratched her sides and kissed her nose.


"Good girl." He stood up and gave her one last pat before leading her back to his house.


As they walked up they saw Xiar out in his front yard, still decked out in his all black outfit as usual but he had a big leather bound book in his hand, reading and mumbling something to himself, his hand hovering over a body of some animal. Griffeth looked over and told Luna to wait, walking over to him.


"Hey, Xiar! What are you doing?" He inspected the dead heap of fur on the ground and couldn’t make out what it was. It stunk, badly.


"Eww. It smells horrible, what is it?" Xiar sighed at his friends question and closed the book for a second, marking his place. "It’s a bear. Well, what’s left of a bear. I’m resurrecting it." He opened his book back up and started chanting some more, concentrating and swearing occasionally as the spell didn’t work. He closed the book and sighed, then bowed his head and leaned down, touching the fur. Griffeth looked down at the bear curiously. Luna began to growl and he looked over at her, petting her head to try and calm her down. He looked up at Xiar, who was now kneeling down besides the bear, with a huge grin on his face, almost…no, defiantly evil. Xiar stood up and laughed hysterically. The bear stood up and exhaled a nauseating green cloud, then it roared and went over to Xiar and nuzzled him, showing that he was the bear’s master. Xiar reached over and pet the bear, then up to his left arm sleeve, tearing it off to show his bare arm. Griffeth looked at Xiar like he had lost his mind. Then again, maybe he had. Xiar looked over at Griffeth, smiling widely and grabbing a chunk of skin, and twisting. Griffeth stood there in horror as the skin ripped off his bone, the muscle and all other meat coming with it. Xiar seemed to moan in pleasure as he did, then peeled it off to his shoulder. His skeletal hand flexing in front of his face. He smiled then looked over at Griffeth.


"Feast your eyes on this, Griff! This is what us necromancer’s dream of achieving!"


"And what is that…"


"Death, my friend! Death!" Xiar reached up and grabbed his lips. Griffeth looked away before he saw what happened, guessing the worst as he heard stomping of a bear. He looked around to see the undead bear launching at his face. Griffeth’s hands flew up to protect himself, but Luna clipped it in the side. He looked up to see Luna and the bear fighting on the ground, he bent down to help her, kicking the bear off. A chunk of flesh came off as it roared and charged after him again. Griffeth screamed as it bit down on his forearm, attempting to gnaw the limb off. Luna jumped on the back of the bear and tore it off of him. They fought in a fury of fur and fangs.


Griffeth stood up, his arm limp at his side as he glared at Xiar.


"What are you doing!? Why did this...this "thing!" attack me?!" He looked at his friend, desperate for answers as Xiar just laughed and in a blur, was to the throat of his "best friend"


"Well, in order to become a full blown necromancer, and finally awaken as the top rank, Lych, I have to do one more thing...though most don’t do this because of their "conscious " that most people have. I have learned to ignore it."


"And what may I ask, is that?" Griffeth breathed through gritted teeth as his friend answered. "Why, to kill my best friend!" Xiar’s skeletal hand reached up and gripped Griffeth’s throat, squeezing. He felt burning and incredible pain as his body and muscles seized up. His eyes turned almost white as he felt burning fire and excruciating electricity throughout his body. Xiar smiled at this, shuddering at the thought of him being an undead lych. He laughed and squeezed tighter at his "friends" throat, enjoying his squirming.


Griffeth screamed. No, he didn’t just screamed, but he wailed, he screeched. A sound came out of his mouth that was pure and total hurt, pain and betrayal. Tears began to roll down his face as memories of them together ran through his mind. As darkness crept over his vision he was released. He felt the ground as it rushed up to meet him. Griffeth’s vision came in bursts. He saw Luna on top of Xiar, then biting at his skeletal hand, then ripping into his stomach. His last image was her walking over to him and licking his face to comfort him. Griffeth sat up, with Luna’s help of course. He looked over to see the bear motionless like it was supposed to be and Xiar laughing as his guts spilled out of his stomach.


"Thanks for helping me achieve more than I intended." He sat up and tied his guts back in with his cloak. In another blur he was at Luna, kicking her into the air and casting her aside with his hand. She smacked hard enough into a tree that blood splattered against it. He laughed and gripped Griffeth again, black veins creeping all over him.


"Griffeth, my friend. This is a high level curse called Blight. It basically rots you from the inside out, enjoy." As he was about to finish casting it, a blur of white fur shot in his vision, grabbing Xiar’s arm and tearing it from his body. He screamed in pain and shot something from his palm at her. It was black and inky, covering her body as she just slumped to the ground, motionless. Griffeth slumped to the ground, holding his beloved Luna in his arms and looking up at Xiar through tear streaking eyes.


"What’s wrong with you!? Why did you do this to me!? I thought I was your best friend!" Xiar laughed at Griffeth and replied rather nonchalantly.


"Things change. People change."


"And some have to watch it happen." Griffeth choked out after Xiar’s sentence. Xiar laughed and walked up to his old friend, kneeling down to be eye to eye. "I know Griffeth. I know."


And with that, he placed a hand on his friends face and over his eyes, knowing that his friend wasn’t going to be waking up early in the morning, ever again.