Tall, terrifyingly tall woman stood on the top of the hill. She was completely wrapped in a dark coat, not a piece of skin exposed to the sun. Behind her towered a castle, the kind of a castle you would see in movies full of monsters, evil and death. Only the most desperate of adventures would dare to visit such a place. Even the commonly found shot of lighting could be spotted during good weather.

  In front of the woman was a boy, currently preoccupied by watching a butterfly flying around him. The woman rested her gloved hand on his shoulder and fixed her red eyes directly into the boy’s innocent blues.

  “Ben,” she croaked, her voice closer to the crows scream than human speech. “Have you packed your launch?”

  “Yes mom.” Ben said, fidgeting on the spot. “Can I go now?”

  “Are you sure you wish to go alone? Without servants? There are unimaginable dangers out in the world.” The woman—Dolores—said, oblivious to the fact, that she herself was considered one of the greatest dangers in the world by most adventures.

  “It’s fine mom.” Ben said, putting on his most adorable smile. He knew his mom couldn’t resist it.

  “You heard the boy!” said the half-naked man next to them. His half-nakedness can be explained by the fact that he was a barbarian. The kind of people that believe armor is a nice decoration, but rather unnecessary during battle. “It’s fine honey.” The barbarian—Wulf—said as he put his hand around Dolores’ side and pulled her towards him.

  She frowned at her husband, but knew the battle was already lost. “Very well, then.” Dolores sighed. “At least, we should have Toby accompany him then.”

  “We talked about it, darling. Toby isn’t a good choice.”

  “Toby is the perfect guardian. He does his service well.”

  “That’s true…” Wulf said. “It’s his stealthiness that’s the issue.”

  “I don’t see why that should be of any matter.” Dolores said, but as they both turned towards a four meter tall skeletal beast, once maybe a dog, even she had to agree that Toby wasn’t the right choice. Toby just squealed and wagged his tail.

  “I am sorry, you are the good boy, aren’t you?” Wulf started petting one of the bones on Toby's legs. Toby happily growled, the dark green crystals in his eyes shone brighter.

  “Then how about Mar- Oh.” Dolores turned back towards Ben and realized he was already good a few hundred meters away. She watched him walk before she sighed and leaned towards Wurt. “Friends…” she mumbled to herself. Where did he get those silly ideas?

  * * *

  Ben scaled the hill and turned. His mum, dad and Toby were still standing there and watching him. He waved at them and tried to call out, but it was too far for them to hear anything. His dad waved back anyway and yelled something in return. Ben couldn't make out what it was, so he just waved again before he turned and continued on his journey.

  He was surprised they let him go. True—he had been talking them into it for a good month, but still…. He didn’t expect success for at least a year. His dad of, course, agreed right away, that was why Ben went to him first, after all. He just finished doing his pull ups and laughed after hearing Ben’s question. “Of course you should go! You can’t have adventures without comrades,” he said, still laughing. “I was even younger than you when I joined my first party. Good times, those were. We went to hydra the first time, sorta big dog with a lot of heads. Good times, yeah. Everyone was fine, except I guess… ehm…” His dad looked from side to side, scratching his hand. “You know… maybe it’s too soon for adventures. But comrades, yes, yes. You will need some comrades.”

  He was too worried to ask his mom alone, so Ben and his dad went-

  “Hey, you!”

  Ben jerked when he heard the voice. Someone was yelling at him. He must have completely lost himself in his memories. It happened quite a lot to him, now that he was thinking abou-

  “Boy!”

  Ben finally looked up and saw a lizard-folk, staring down at him. Next to the lizard was a human with a proper suit of armour and the same helmet as the lizard. “Ehm, Excuse me,” Ben said, putting on his most adorable smile again.

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  The two men exchanged a look, then the lizard-folk asked: “What are you doing here, boy? Are you lost?” Ben quickly shook his head. “Not at all, Sir. I- ehm. I am looking for comrades.”

  “Comrades?” the human asked.

  “That’s how my dad calls them. I think friends would also work.” Ben nodded towards the human.

  “Well.” the human scratched his head. “It’s dangerous around here. There are monsters and much worse… Are your parents somewhere around?”

  “They sent me this way.” Ben pointed at the road between the two men. “It’s towards the city, right?”

  “Sure…” The lizard-folk said, eyeing Ben. “It’s pretty close, and we are just done with our patrol… how about we walk you there?”

  Ben through about it for a bit and then nodded to himself. It did sound like a good idea, he could practice talking with them. Maybe it will help him when he will meet his real friends later. He wasn’t used to talking with anyone except his mom and dad. Or servants, but Ben wasn’t sure if they counted… they weren’t much for conversations.

  “Alright,” Ben smiled and followed the two guards into the city.

  —-

  The weather was quite nice that day; sunny with a warm wind and lazy clouds casting shadows on the road. Ben walked between two guards wondering how one would start a conversation with someone they just met… And as everyone else in such a situation finds, there is no possible way to do it without quite a bit of awkwardness. He coughed a bit. That didn’t seem to start the conversation, so he was about to cough again when someone shouted from the group of trees they were just passing.

  The guards grabbed for their weapons, but it was too late. They were already surrounded. A man by man jumped out from the trees, weapons in hands.

  Guards' weapons were soon on the ground and their hands tied behind their backs. They didn’t have a chance. “Run!” Lizard work yelled at Ben before one of the bandits slammed his head to the ground.

  Ben looked at him curiously. Was this how traveling usually went? It didn’t seem very comfortable, but he didn’t have much experience with the world outside the castle. “Our little friend isn’t going anywhere…” A huge man stepped beside Ben and put his massive hand on his shoulder. The man had grizzly red hair and beard, dirty with dust. He had a huge scar going over half of his face. But Ben didn’t notice much of that, he focused on the man’s nose. It was huge. Like a balloon. Ben couldn’t help, but stare at it. He has never seen a nose like this.

  “Are you scared little boy? “ The man said, his grin widening.

  Ben cocked his head to one side. “No,” Ben smiled.

  The man’s grin faded. “What are you staring at, brat?” He snorted. The bandit lifted his arm about to slap Ben.

  “No, wai-” Ben tried to warn him, but it was too late. As the bandit’s hand moved towards Ben’s face. A set of bones raised from the ground forming a protective coffin around him.

  The bandit tried to jump back, but skeletons were already climbing from the ground. Skeletal hands raised from below grabbing bandit’s leader's legs preventing him from running away. He yelled and screeched for help but to no avail. The moment other bandits saw skeletons they panicked and disappeared back into the forest. No one but Ben, tied guards and bandit’s leader were left on the road.

  More and more skeletal hands were growing from the ground, digging and scratching around the bandit, dragging him underground. Ben spun as he heard one of the guards yelp. Skeletal wolf stood above the tied lizard wolf, just about to bite his head off.

  “Stop it!” Ben called, then ran over and slapped the wolf over the head. Skull with empty eye lids looked back at Ben with a hurt expression. That wasn’t fair. The wolf was just doing his job… But Ben had none of that. He slapped the wolf again and pointed at the ground. “Back you go!”

  The wolf didn’t make a sound, but there was something about the empty eye sockets that made you pity the pup. Ben wasn’t there for it, he already ran back to the bandit, now half consumed by the earth. Ben stumped one of the skeletal hands. “You too!” He yelled. “Don’t make me say it twice.”

  The hands paused, hesitated, fingers quivering in indecisiveness. Then one of the hands slapped the ground and made the gesture to the others. Then they dug themselves back below the ground.

  Ben, seeing the danger passed, ran back to the bandit. “I am so sorry,” he said, a bit out of breath. “They get very possessive when someone tries to hurt me. I should have told you, I am so sorry about that.” He tried to help the bandit up, but as he tried to grab his hand, the man shrieked and jerked his hand away. He stared at Ben in panic, his lips shivering, eyes bulging. “Nec-” he tried.

  “Excuse me?” Ben tried to smile at him.

  “NECROMANCER!” The man screamed and launched himself away from Ben. He stumbled over his own legs and fell, got back up and kept on screaming and stumbling until he disappeared into the forest.

  —-

  “So, lad…” One of the guards asked. “You are sure you are not evil?”

  Ben sighed and nodded, he was getting tired of answering that question. Why did everyone think he was evil?

  Once he untied the guards, they quickly launched for their weapons, but calmed eventually when they saw Ben wasn’t trying to kill them. So far, they asked him the same question at least three times each.

  “No, I promise.”

  “Hmmm,” the guard said. “I suppose, you would have killed us if you were. But still…” he scratched his head. “Never heard about a good necromancer. Have you?” the guard turned at his colleague.

  “Never,” the lizard-folk guard shook his head.

  “Hm. First time for everything I suppose.” The human guard threw his hand in the end.

  “We gotta thank you then.” The lizard-folk smiled at Ben. “We may have died, if you hadn't been here.”

  “Not at all,” Ben smiled, shrinking his shoulders. “I am happy I could help.”

  “That you did, son. That you did.” The human clapped Ben on the shoulder as they moved towards the city.