The Crumbling Tower

To Grow Close, As So Apart

                  Kyran swings his sword through the air as he practices his swordsmanship. His head is a mess. No matter what he does to distract himself, the only thing, or person that is on his mind is Princess Amber.
              He can't get her beautiful eyes and the way she looked at him out of his head. He can't get over how she felt like a perfect fit in his arms. Her scent sings to his soul, and her lips calls to him to be kissed. And he almost answered. He wanted to answer. He feels a pull to her that he has never felt before.
             Kyran thrusts his sword forward. How can I serve and protect this woman when I am beginning to long for her?, he asks himself. He sits his sword on the ground and sighs. Out of all of the women to be drawn to, why the princess?
As Kyran raises his sword again, the sudden sound of a horn sounds off into the wind, blaring loud and alerting that danger is afoot. However, it is not just any horn. Each horn has a distinct sound, and this one in particular is alerting that somehow, some way, an intruder has entered onto the palace grounds. Kyran immediately thinks of the princess and takes off.
Royal guards are all throughout the palace getting staff to safety and making sure that the king and queen are safe while other guards are out on the grounds searching for the intruder. Kyran is making tracks towards Princess Amber's bedroom chambers when he runs into three of his royal guard subordinates, Stormy, Othello, and Celeste; who are looking a little panicked. "It's Princess Amber! She's not in her chambers!" Stormy exclaims.
            Before Kyran could say anything, his other three guards, Arkane, Vlad, and Morgana comes running around the corner and they are looking a little bruised, otherwise, okay. "The princess is in the garden with the intruder!! We tried to intervene but she's ordered us to stay out of it!" Vlad informs. Kyran's face twists in anger. "What do you mean 'she's ordered you to stay out of it'?". Vlad points towards the corridor window where flashes of light can be seen bouncing off the walls. "She wanted to fight the intruder herself!".

"She WHAT?!?!?"

Princess Amber stands across from attempted abductor. She cannot see his face due to the shading of the hooded cloak. So, she has no idea if the individual who tried to take her is male or female. And judging by the scent emitting from this individual, Princess knows right off the bat that whoever this is is neither vampire or wolf. The stench is very foul, like the combination of rotting fish, decomposing corpses, and a burnt chemical of some sort. Vampires are typically known as the creatures of the undead, but who or whatever this is clearly smells of it.
The creature is dressed in a all faded black cloak with its hood up. The skin on its bare hands looks moody and gray and it has long, but chipped rusty brown fingernails. Low growls are gargling deep from its throat. Princess Amber knows that it is about to attack and readies herself. She balls up her fists as bolts of lightening bursts from them. She's excited for this. She finally gets to use the full extent of her power and knowing this actually makes her giggle just a little.
The creature charges for her at full speed without its cloak falling back and revealing its face. The creature is quick, conjuring some type of purple-ish energy ball and almost landing a perfect strike on the princess, but Princess Amber is quick on her feet as well and side steps the attack effortlessly; catching her attacker at the back of neck and blasting it across the garden with a surge of powerful lightning.
A loud crash and a thud is heard across the garden. Princess Amber sharpens her eyes to zoom in on the creature quickly getting to its feet and zooming towards her again. She bares her fangs; ready for the challenge. She doesn't wait for the creature to run up this time and changes head on.
Princess Amber ducks and dodges every blow and manages to leave a strike each time her fist or foot connects; causing lightning to flash in the air. Her body moves as if she has become one with the wind as she avoid and evade each of the creature's attacks with fluidity. She sends one final kick to the chest that sends the creature flying through the air and slamming to the ground.
Princess Amber steps back and takes a stance, but is quickly snatched up by the back of her neck from behind. She gasp at the frigid hand that grasps her and her eyes grow wide as the collapsed body before her suddenly vanishes. Princess Amber wastes no time reaching back and clasping the wrist of the hand that is squeezing the back of her neck and letting the lightening radiate all of over her hands. The creature lets out a painful grunt and releases her by tossing her onto the ground. Princess Amber falls on her hands and knees, and quickly flips over just in time to catch the creature walking up on her, but not quick enough to counter it.
The creature quickly grabs Princess Amber by the neck and scoops her up from the ground and raises her at what appears to be eye level. Her body suddenly starts to feel cold and she is slowly losing her ability to move. What the hell is this?, she begins to panic just a little. Then, the creature pulls its hood back revealing its face. It's face is nothing but skull. It had odd eye sockets like animal of some sort with beady green and yellow dots in place where the eyes should be. It had the nostril sockets and skeletal teeth of a human and right above the eye sockets are horns. Sharp, pointy, black horns. Princess Amber has never seen a creature so ghastly in all of her life, except in her studies when she was young. She wished that it would put its hood back on. The creature suddenly began to open its mouth and a green smoke-like haze starts to seep out. Princess Amber screams.