Tarous, стр. 34

Vampires and werewolves walked right beside creatures made of fire and stone. Creatures of every size imaginable and of every color existed here as well. A rainbow colored slime was a rather interesting sight to behold even for me. Tarous went crazy over it, asking me a ton of questions.

Eventually we returned to the castle where we found the Lord Rask was waiting for us. He stood at the entrance tapping his right foot. I wondered how long he had been there. He looked rather upset.

“After you snuck out on May she decided to cancel your engagement.”

I honestly didn’t care.

“You have put us in a difficult situation. As a Rask, few monsters possess a significantly powerful bloodline to qualify for marriage into our family. We had to arrange a new marriage with another family. One we had hoped to avoid.”

At those words, I truly began to worry.

“They also arranged the marriage without asking their daughter’s opinion and I’m pretty sure your future wife has already hired people to have you killed. Despite that, you have left us no choice. You will marry her, no matter what the two of you want.”

My father turned and walked off. I gave chase immediately.

“Father! How could you?”

Lord Rask did not slow down as he kept walking. “You left me no choice.”

We arrived outside his office. He took out a key and went in with me close on his heels. He went and sat in his comfortable leather chair behind his big wooden desk. I placed my golden furred werewolf head onto the corner of my father’s desk because I was tired of carrying it.

I wondered once again about my obsession with trophies. Did I need constant validation or something?

“Have you ever heard of the Ice Empress?” My father interrupted my thoughts.

“Isn’t she the one that’s also known as the black widow because she has had every husband from every one of her arranged marriages brutally and horribly murdered?”

“So you have heard of your future wife,” replied my father with a big smile.

“Dad!”

“Why do the black widow’s parents keep arranging marriages if she keeps killing them all? Is that some acceptable thing here in the world of monsters?” Tarous asked quietly. It seemed like a rhetorical question, and everyone ignored him.

My father glared at me. “What do you want from me? Between you and your mother you’ve managed to run off every eligible female monster.”

The werewolf head had a lopsided smile on its face, and it seemed to be laughing at me. I backhanded the head, causing it to roll onto the ground. Tarous gave me a strange look.

“You have to learn to never take crap from anyone, even a decapitated werewolf head,” I said in a serious voice.

Tarous rolled his eyes again. At this rate they were going to get stuck.

The thick wooden doors of Lord Rask’s office exploded into a thousand wood splinters.

“MY BABY!” my mother yelled. She sprinted across the room and quickly wrapped her arms around me in a giant hug.

When she noticed the werewolf head on the floor she immediately covered my eyes with her hand.

“Don’t look, it’s horrible!”

With my mom’s hands over my eyes I replied while doing my best to remain calm, “Mom, I’m the one that killed it. I am fine, everything is ok, please calm down.”

“Of course you did baby. DON’T LOOK, it’s a gruesome sight.” I tried to get away, but it was a lost cause. She continued to keep my eyes covered with her hand. At this point she was almost hysterical.

“MY POOR BABY! I heard you had been attacked and I came right away!”

Lord Rask looked at my mother. “Dear, don’t coddle the boy.”

“HE IS MY BABY AND I WILL CODDLE HIM ALL I WANT!” she screamed so loud the walls shook. Small dust particles slowly fell from the ceiling. I don’t think that crack in the wall had been there before either.

Tarous took a few steps back in fear. He had almost died once and was currently being held prisoner in a world full of flesh eating monsters. He wasn’t accustomed to this level of insanity.

Lord Rask held out his hands in front of himself as a sign of surrender, or to shield his face. I’m not sure which.

“Dad, tell her I was the one to kill the werewolf.”

My dad grinned. “Sure you were.”

I couldn’t win for losing.

“Edward don’t lie about such horrible things! I’m just glad someone came by and saved you. My precious son could have died!”

I released a loud, slow sigh. “I’m sorry for lying mother. I will be more careful in the future.”

Tarous had his hands over his mouth and was doing his best to contain his laughter. His face had begun to turn red and his entire body was shaking.

“You’re forgiven son. I love you so much! I’m just glad you’re safe.”

Afterwards my father managed to pry my weeping mother off of me. He then escorted the weeping mess that was his wife out of his office and through the hole that once had a door covering it. I have seen tornados that are less destructive than my mother.

I sat down in my father’s office to reflect on everything happening in my life. I wondered who would kill me first, my mother by smothering me to death or my wife through castration. I know castration doesn’t kill and I can also shapeshift, but I just know somehow my new wife will find a painful way to slowly kill me. Not so different from the typical marriage, I guess.

It wasn’t long before my father returned.

“Edward, if you have a moment I wanted to speak to you. I’ve been thinking about something for a while now and I’ve finally made a decision. There is a place, one that’s designed to turn young monsters into truly retched nightmares. I’ve decided to send you to a school to make you more… more… fearsome. It will help to bring out your