No Trespassing (Bad Ending)
By:  Nocturne Duskclaw
	A small figure made their way over the ruins of what was once a city populated by wizards.  The figure was wearing a heavy dark blue cloak with the hood drawn up.  They have a slender body and under the cloak are wearing boots, cloth pants and a simple tunic.  Strapped to their side is a long dagger, the blade tinged with purple dust.  As they make their way deeper into the city, a breeze blows the hood of their cloak down revealing a young female mink.  She has black hair, snow white fur, a small pink nose, and large light brown eyes.  She looks in her mid to late teens as she bundles the hood back up, giving a small grunt as she climbs over some rubble.
	Her name is Melody, a mercenary and thief who makes her living taking odd jobs from people who seek her out.  She is at this city because she had heard there was treasure hiding deep in the city, and she was being paid handsomely for the job.  Any treasure she finds she can keep, just so long as she finds a certain spell book that is inside of a library.  She kept on her guard though, as this job seemed too easy for her to just walk in and take it, but the client, an older mouse wizard assured her that the city was abandoned long ago.  She thought back to meeting the wizard and getting the job from him…
	“So, you’re telling me that there’s no one in the city at all?  I find that hard to believe.”  Melody says, sitting in a tavern at a table in the back corner.  She is dressed casually in her tunic, pants, and boots, but her cloak hanging on the back of her chair.  With the cloak off, it can be seen all down the left side of her body, from her face and down past her torso, arm and leg are covered in black tribal tattoos.  They are very intricate in their designs, a holdover from when she was younger and lived in a tribe with other minks who were warriors.
	Across from her, sat an old looking male mouse with a long beard and old face, but intense eyes that showed he was still fully in his mind despite his age.  His cloak was a deep red in color, and he was sipping from a mug of ale.  “I promise you my dear, the city of Cassandora is long, long abandoned.  The wizards that lived there got into a civil war many years ago and wiped each other out.  Everything they owned is still there, laying about for anyone to claim.”  He says, setting the mug down.
	“Uh-huh… and if there is so much there to just walk up and take, why haven’t others taken everything already?”  She asked, looking incredulously at the old wizard.  “I find it hard to believe a city full of wizard’s riches that has no one in it hasn’t been picked clean already.”
	The mouse gave a sly smile and said “Ah, indeed it has.  However, there is one place that hasn’t been found yet, because I am the only one who knows about it.  It’s a vault deep in the city that was owned by the city’s arch-mage.  I have been searching for a way in for a long time now and have finally acquired a key.  And before you ask, I can’t get it myself because the city has a seal around it preventing anyone from casting magic.”  He reaches into his cloak and pulls out a large, black iron key and sets it on the table with a loud thump sound.
	Melody picks the key up and looks it over.  “So, what’s the catch old man?  I doubt you are doing this just to help out a mercenary.”
	The mouse laughs softly and says “You’re as shrewd as the rumors about you say.  Yes, there is something I want.  If you find the vault, you can have whatever you want from inside of it.  Any single item will give you the wealth to retire for the rest of your life.  All I want is a spell book.  It is black leather bound, with a green jewel set in the middle.  It’s the arch-mage’s personal spell book and writings of his.  I want that book, nothing else in the vault matters to me.”
	“Must be some book.”  Melody says, looking at the wizard.
	“Indeed.”  He says back and there is a moment of silence between them, the tension getting heavy in the air.
	“Okay, I will do this job.  The idea of being able to retire and not have to stick my neck out anymore is very appealing.”  She says, as she takes the key and puts it in her bag of holding.  “I will set out tomorrow morning to head for the city and look for this book of yours.”  She holds her hand out to the mouse, who smiles and takes it, the two of them shaking on it.
	“Here is a map to get you to Cassandora, and I have also paid for your room for you.”
	Melody smiles and looks at the map, saying “Thank you.  Meet me back here in four days, and I will have your book for you.”
	The young mink pushed her way through some more rubble, taking a step back to avoid some old linens tumbling down from a broken-down shelf as she made her way through the ruins of a house.  “What a joke, this place looks like it was a shithole before any war happened.”  She says as she gets though the house and finds the doors leading down to a cellar.  “He said the vault should be down here.”  She reaches down and pulls the door open and begins to slowly descend the stone stairs leading down.  She reaches into her bag and pulls out an ever-burning torch and gently taps it on the wall to make it gently light up, the flames crackling gently as she makes her way deeper and deeper. 
She gives a shiver as it’s cooler down here, and she can hear water dripping gently.  She sees the walls are hewn stone and the stonework looks very well done, possibly dwarven made.  She runs her fingers along the stonework a little as she finally reaches the bottom and sees a long hallway stretching before her.  She begins to walk along down it, holding onto her torch with one hand, and taking out her dagger to hold in the other.  “This place is creepy as a tomb…”  She whispers softly, and then freezes as she hears a soft clattering noise further down the hallway.  She looks down into the darkness, holding the torch out at arm’s length as she sees something slowly moving towards her.  Something tall and white, moving in a smooth clattering motion.
When it makes a few more steps forward, Melody’s fur on the back of her neck stands up as she sees a skeleton making its way towards her.  This skeleton however wasn’t like others she faced before, which were the bones of people that had just been animated and carried swords and busted up armor.  This one was a foot taller than her, and in its ribcage was full of what appeared to be intestines dripping with a yellowish green bile.  One of the ends of the rubbery looking intestines coils around his neck and goes up into the jawbone, acting like a tongue as it hisses at her loudly.  Melody suddenly inhales sharply, the creature before her so jarring she wasn’t breathing for a moment as her heart thudded in her chest.  She was about to try and attack, but the creature suddenly lunged at her.
She yelped in surprise as the undead being moved much faster than something without muscle would be expected to as she jumps to the side narrowly avoiding it slashing at her with its bony fingers.  However, the slimy appendage lashed out and tried to wrap around her neck.  She quickly ducked; her cloak being pulled away from her as the tentacle squeezed tightly and pulled back.  She runs towards it as the cloak wraps around the skeleton’s head and it thrashes around.  She plunges her dagger into the squirming mass of flesh in its ribs and stomach, twisting the knife and pulling it to the side, making a large tear as the bile like fluid spills out onto her a little, making her jump back.  As the skeleton wails and falls to the ground, Melody looks down and sees the bile is slowly eating though her clothing.
“Shit!”  She exclaims loudly, quickly getting her boots and tunic off, throwing them to the side as they dissolved into nothing.  She leans on the wall, panting as the creature begins to crumble and melt away, leaving just a puddle on the floor.  She is now bare foot, her feet small and slender with three toes on the ends, and topless, her small chest heaving as she catches her breath.  After a few minutes, she stands up and says “I am going to kick that old geezer’s ass before I give him that book…  I just bought those boots.”  She sighs and continues to make her way forward though the cold tunnel, making her rub her arms and shiver a little.
After about a half hour of walking, she comes to an immense door that looks about ten feet tall and ten feet wide.  “This must be it.”  She says and takes out the key.  “That arch-mage must have been half giant or something…”  she muses as she walks up and puts the key into the keyhole and turns it with a loud thunk.  The door opens and she sees bright light pouring into the hallway from the room inside.  She gasps as she walks inside, and sees piles and piles of gold, countless gemstones, and many magical looking weapons, armors, and objects.  She walks forward into the room fully and says “T…there’s so much.  I can’t believe it.”  As she picks up a single gold coin and rubs her thumb over the front of it, tossing it into one of the piles.  She then shakes her head and says “Book!  Right, the spell book.”  She begins to search around the room slowly, not knowing she is being watched by something in the shadows.
“Found it!”  She says, picking up the black leather book with the green gem and sighing.  “That was a little hairy back there, but it was- “
“worth it…”  a voice softly whispers in the room, making her shiver as she looks around, the voice sounding a lot like hers.
“Who’s there!”  She shouts, as a black shape slowly begins to form behind her.  It is silent as it rises, forming a column of darkness that is swirling gently like a funnel.  At the tom there are a few tendrils, one of them having a blue crystal at the end like an eye as it lowers down slowly.  Melody looks around in front of her, unaware of the being behind her.  She then hears a soft sound behind her, and she turns, face to face with the blue crystal.  It begins to glow softly, swirling with colors.
She is about to scream but she sees the colors swirling softly and gently and it’s so pretty, so soothing.  “Wh..what’s going on…”  she says softly, her eyes wide as she looks deep into the crystal.  A small smile comes over her face as she drops the book and her dagger, sighing gently.  “It’s so pretty…  So blue.  Like the ocean.”  She giggles as the being begins to move backwards, leading her cross the floor slowly. Her bare feet softly walk over the stone floor as she feels more and more relaxed with each step.  “Don’t go… come back…”  she mumbles softly as she follows the darkness towards the back of the treasure vault. 
She begins to hear voices in her head, soft, warm, and gentle voices speaking in a warm chorus.  “Relax little one…  you’ve traveled so far, you’re cold and tired.  Join us.  You’ll be warm and safe, and you can sleep.”
“Tired… I… I want to sleep.”  she coos as her body shudders.  She steps onto a pile of coins and slips, her side hitting into the wall hard and making her cry out in pain, closing her eyes and tearing her gaze away from the crystal.  The dark being growls as she staggers to the left, the being lunging but missing her and hitting the floor with a wet splat noise.  Melody holds her side and looks up, growling as she says “You tried to…”  and she runs to the side as the darkness piles up onto itself to make another attack.  Melody looks at the things laying on the ground and she scoops up a short sword with a shining white blade.  A tendril lashes out at the mink, grabbing her around her arm and she feels the strength in her arm gently drain as it begins to pull her towards its mass.
Melody grunts as her left arm goes limp, but she grips the short sword in her right hand and turns, thrusting it forward.  The blade plunges into the black mass, sinking in as a second tendril wraps around her forehead, squeezing gently as she suddenly feels very dizzy and tired.  She groans as she weakly pushes the sword deeper into the black mass and feels the point of the sword hit something solid.  Her eyes flutter as she gives one final push, her vision darkening slowly around her as the tip of the sword pierces the mass and she fully blacks out, her last thoughts being her leaving the city and returning with the book, a smile coming over her face as she feels like she is sinking into darkness.
The dark mass screeches loudly as its core its pierced by the holy sword, the sword flashing in a bright white light that engulfs the creature ad burns it away into nothingness.  The blue crystal that was its eye falls to the ground and shatters as Melody falls to the floor with a soft grunt.  She lays there for a few moments and then groans, holding her head as she gets up slowly.  Her arm is still numb and hanging limply at her side as she sits there, shivering at how close a call she just had.  She takes a few moments to try and calm her breathing, but she is shaking like a leaf, and it takes her a few hours to finally calm herself down.
“That was too close…”  She says softly as she gets up and gets the book, putting it into her bag of holding.  She gets as much of the gold and items she can carry, her big able to take almost everything inside the vault.  She finds a pair of boots and slips them on, also finding a shirt and cloak to wear.  She sighs, not feeling so naked now as she begins to make her way out of the vault and the ruined city.  After the fear she had before, it begins to give way to relief and giddiness as she finds herself laughing and unable to stop for a long while as she heads back to the tavern in the town of Naal.
A few days later the old wizard made his way back into the town of Naal, towards the tavern.  Once inside he saw Melody sitting in her usual spot with a mug of ale.  He heads over to her and asks, “Did you get the book?”  She looks at him and puts it on the table.
“Here’s your book.  I nearly died getting it, thanks for not warning me about the creatures in there.”  She says, scowling at him a little.
“How was I to know?  Besides, you survived did you not?  You got me the book and I’m sure you got enough treasure to last you a lifetime.”  He says, holding the book to his chest.
“Whatever, you have your book, now go.  I’m sick of looking at you.”  She says tersely, looking down at her drink.  The wizard just leaves as she gets up, going up to her room.  She sits down on the bed in the room, having rented the most expensive room so she could have a hot bath.  She walks into the bathroom, the tub already full as she undresses and steps into the water, sighing and sitting down in it, leaning back, and resting her head on the lip of the tub.  She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, mmming as she lets the water soak into her.  She feels so tired suddenly, and the bath is so relaxing.
She looks up at the ceiling and smiles, letting her eyes close as she feels very exhausted for some reason.  She is a little confused by this at first but ignores it as the bath is so warm and cozy.  Once her eyes fully close she starts to sink into the water, mmming gently as she slips under the surface, bubbling softly as the water closes over her head.  Bubbles pop gently at the surface as she lays there at the bottom of the tub, so heavy and tired feeling.  A part of her mind is questioning what is happening, but it is softly silenced as the mink just lets her tired mind relax and drift….
Deep in the treasure vault, Melody smiles softly as the dark creature rises and looms over her, the darkness gently picking her up and engulfing her into its body.  Her face and head are drawn up into it first, the tendrils gently slipping down her slender frame and over her soft breasts, her upper body being drawn in.  Her legs hang down limply as her pants are slid down and removed.  The darkness seems to swallow, her waist being pulled up into its mass, her legs and feet just dangling down limply.  The darkness straightens up and lifts her up off the floor, her body vertical as her round butt gently slides in, followed by her slender legs as they are pulled down into it.  Her feet are last, weakly kicking as they are drawn in fully.  Once fully inside, the dark creature begins to drain her energy.
Melody curls up inside of the darkness, a smile on her face as she is slowly drained, the creature feeding on her life energy.  As she is drained, she dreams and is deep in her fantasies.  Lost in them as things slowly become more and more hazy and faded for her the weaker she gets.  The voices speaking softly to her, telling her to just relax and give in.  Melody’s body shudders as a white light begins to shine and get pulled out, her soul being drawn from her body and pulled into the darkness.  Her soul is pulled into the swirling black vortex of energy, the light slowly fading and turning black.  In her dreams Melody feels more and more tired, finding a huge bed that she crawls into and sighs closing her eyes one final time as her soul is pulled into the blue crystal of the creature.  It joins the countless others, just floating in an endless blue and being contained.  Another victim claimed by the guardian of the vault, trapped forever and dreaming endlessly.