A/N - So this is the prologue to a new story I'm working on, chapters are gonna be longer than this but it's a prologue, so hey. The tone will be very different from here on, pretty much, so enjoy. Oh and if you don't like grown up things like gore and the old bit of rated r action then click away this story ain't for you hunny.
The fire was stoked high in the hearth. The smell of burnt apple wood and cider wafted through the warm air carried by the heat. A man sat stooped opposite it, in a high backed oak chair. Wooden figures of serpents devouring each other stretched across the top their gold enamel glinting.
"You're about as loud as a horse." he turned his sightless eye sockets outward. Stepping beyond the cusp and into the light, she spoke.
"To be fair, it's pretty hard to sneak up on a blind guy." Her grey eyes searched his face and reflected the hearth fire back at him like two sharp mirrors.
"Well you got this far I suppose, and since stealth clearly isn't you're strong suit I assume all my guards are dead."
The dual metallic snik of a weapon being drawn was the only reply.
"You haven't even drawn your short swords up till now. My, my this is an honour." He turned his face towards the fire and smiled. The huge arched door trembled briefly and the sound of distant roaring was carried by the cavernous passageways.
"You haven't long now my suddenly silent friend they've gone and let my insurance policy out of its cage" He twisted the white furs tucked in his lap with gnarled wrinkled hands.
"I think we both know I have more than enough time to do what I need to." She took a step forward, purposefully loud on the stone floor.
"Yeah, you do. Enough time to make me suffer too. Not that I wouldn't deserve it, I've earned that a thousand times over. But let me take a little bit of bite out of this first, you've earned that a thousand times over too." He choked off a bitter laugh.
"The other thing you came for. You know the thing that isn't my head" he laughed again but this choked off not into silence but rattling coughs.
He gasped and she could hear the fluid in his lungs rasping painfully.
"It's in the hearth, up the top in a drawer. Even if it won't do you a damned bit of good."
She paused and then took another step forward, her blade hissing through the air like it was angry. Then the grip on the white pelt went slack and it slipped to the ground in a heap. Nestled in the soft folds of white was, as promised, its owners head.
A/N Next chapter should be up by Sunday but update will be sporadic so you've been warned.