Chap. 2 Incentive
Aerandir awoke to the sounds of screams in the morning. He quickly jumped out of bed, threw on a shirt and some pants, and ran out the door to see what was up. What saw him chilled him the bone. Outside, ridding slowly towards his house was a rider on a horse, holding the reins of a second, empty horse. It was the rider that scared him. It was both there and not there. It was black, the kind of black you are scared to death about in your childhood, the kind where light doesn't ever even seem possible again. It had white slits for eyes, with no apparent pupils in them.
It had no solid form, it looked almost like fire, it was burning, and never was the same shape for more than a second. It rode a tall black horse, which was dressed in some sort of battle armor. The one that held off to the side like wise. When it came within five feet of him, it stopped, and opened what appeared to be its mouth, and a raspy voice came out. "Get ready, we leave now."
Suddenly, everything came flooding back to Aerandir. Everything that had happened last night, and most of all that voice inside his head. He realized instantly that this was the rider the figure had promised to send, come to collect him for his service. He didn't know what to say, then slowly he decided that he could not possibly go with this thing, no matter what. He told it just that, and its eyes narrowed dangerously with every word that he spoke.
It turned towards the crowd of people that was by now watching, and slowly extended its arm, hand shaped in that of a cup, as if holding something. It hissed something demonic, which sent shivers down the backs of everyone present, and suddenly, with a shriek, a girl that couldn't have been more than eight suddenly flew through the air, stopping in his fist, her neck firmly held onto by the creature. Her scream was immediately choked out, as her windpipe was half shut by demon, now apparently choking her. Very slowly, blackness started creeping off from the hand, onto the girl herself, as it passed, you could almost see the skin rotting, giving way to bone and death. The mother of the child screamed, and ran towards the demon, trying to get her girl back, but the demon merely raised his other hand, and she was suddenly frozen where she stood.
Seeing that the girl was very soon going to die, if she hadn't already, Aerandir quickly told the demon that he would go with it if he put down the girl. The demon complied dropping the girl right where she was, and simultaneously releasing her mother from his spell. "Come." Was all it said, now looking at Aerandir directly.
"J-j-just a sec." Aerandir managed to squeak out, while quickly running back into his house, he threw on his boots, grabbed his sword and scabbard, and quickly ran back out, before it did something else crazy. He nervously walked over to the second horse, and after giving what he hoped was reassuring pats on the back, he climbed aboard, and took to reins from the demon, careful not to touch anywhere close to the demons hand.