Jenni the Neon Necromancer

Poking at the wilting flower the young girl frowned as one of the gentle violet petals drifted down to the dirt it had been planted in.  Looking around the light seemed right to her, and with a quick sticking of her finger into the dirt, it shouldn’t be a water problem.
Frustrated she slapped the makeshift pot she was using.  With a clatter the jawbone of the skull come pot bounced and made a racket before stopping a few metres away from her.  Standing up and sighing she dusted off her knees, before going over and stopping just short of some poison trap with the jawbone precariously sitting on the switch plate for.  If she was clumsy and set it off, without a doubt she would be killed by it.
On the positive side, Jenni could be certain that a death so near the flower would cause it to come back to full health in a few hours or less.  The downside was such a pain for her, loosing two days just working her way through some deathless void and then a month of feeling like she was hung over.  Not something that she wanted.
Even as she gingerly plucked up the jawbone she couldn’t help but wince and shut her eyes as some part of her expected to be enveloped by the deadly gas.  After standing there tensed up and eyes closed she dared to open her eyes.
When she did she was met not with the empty dungeon she had closed her eyes to, but one with a skunk of all things just sitting at the far end of the poison trap, on its hind legs while cleaning its face with its front paws.
With its well-known stench able to turn even the dead, something she knew only too well, plus with it’s V shaped face and warning strips.  It was safe to say that Jenni had fallen in love with the precious little critter.
Slowly and careful not to scare off the skunk Jenni started making her way past the many trap plates that would set off the deadly gas trap. With each step the skunk continued to clean its face.
Nearly there Jenni raised her hands ready to snatch up the darling when she heard a clatter.  She’d forgotten about the jaw bone she’d been holding.  Looking down she saw that it was laying on the trap plate, hitting just hard enough to cause a hiss to start somewhere behind her. 
The skunk, evermore clever than Jenni could hope to be on the best of her days had already started to scurry off to higher ground. With the pastel plum coloured gas now starting to fill the section of the dungeon Jenni was suddenly filled with remorse over her hair’s nuclear yellow and neon pink highlights was clashing with the gas.  This is what drove her most as she chased the skunk and ran from the deadly gas that was only too happy to, for the moment, release her from her mortal coils.
Now running after the skunk, she came down the joining hallway of the dungeon with the gas nipping at her heels, and more importantly biting at her nose.  She watched as the skunk looked back at her as it stepped on a new trap plate, this time for an arrow.  Instinctively Jenni covered her head from the incoming shower.  She could feel the wet thuds against her forearms as she continued to run.  Once they stopped thudding against her she brought her arms down to find that she’d become a porcupine.  Normally she’d be aghast and stopped to correct this fashion faux pas, but with the gas behind her and the adorable skunk in front, she had to continue on, quills and all. 
She watched the skunk run in front of her, slowly she was managing to gain on it, each step taking her a few millimetres closer. She just needed to keep this up, and have enough luck that it not spring any further traps.
With the skunk’s path around the various raised stones in the dungeon floor Jenni found herself suddenly making even greater gains on it.  She was so elated she’d forgotten to watch her step and hit a trap plate with the heel of her foot, causing the entire section of the floor to crumble away into the spiked pit some ways below.  Hitting the wall of the pit she by some chance found her fingers grasping onto a small rock that would have made a good hand hold for any elf or halfling that had come in to be a nuisance to her.  She made a mental note to come back and check her pits for hand holds to be removed, even as she used it to save herself, pulling up and then using it to stand on as she hopped up to grab edge of the pit.
As she pulled herself out of the pit she could breath a small sigh of relief as the gas would take some time to fill up the pit, but there was still the matter of the skunk. She looked for it, and was greeted with its face peaking out from the next corner in the dungeon.
Slowly she started towards it, trying her best not to startle it. Closer and closer she got until she could almost feel it’s fir in her hands. But just as she was about to plug it up to cuddle with, it took off once more.
Cutting across the hall to the far side its plump little body hit one of this section’s trap plates.  Jenni could hear the trap starting into motion even before she could be sure that the skunk had hit the plate. The grinding of stone followed by the sound of a two metre high bolder rolling from behind her caused her to pause and look back.  The impending doom was of little concern to the skunk who was waddling down the side of the wall and had the boulder pass it by without having so much as a hair put out of place by the massive weight of the boulder.
With no time to think Jenni dove for the same corner the skunk has so easily scampered through. Her arm still looking like a porcupine it caught on something. Before she had a chance to move there was a crunch from her side as the boulder went by her. Caughing on the dust thrown up by the boulder Jenni looked around and didn’t see anything out of place until she finally looked down at her arm. The boulder had done a number on her arm, likely breaking every bone in it.
Normally she’d be upset at such a turn of events but that skunk was just so cute she’d let it slide.
Picking herself up once more and going after the skunk she was now accompanied by the ‘flap flap flap’ sound of her crushed arm slaping against her own body.
Coming around a corner she slid on her heels and saw the skunk sitting once more cleaning its face. She wouldn’t let it get away from her again. She ran, throwing all caution to the wind. Once she was close enough she lept into the air and landed nearly ontop of the skunk, her good arm half wrapped around him.
As she relaxed certain in her victory her chin pressed down on one of this halways trap plates. As she lay there still relishing her victory a buzzing sound could be heard from somewhere below her. A saw blade then popped up infront of her and the skunk who looked at it and with a simple hop, jumped over the blade, even as the sound of a saw moving through flesh came from behind Jenni. She had a sinking feeling as the sound faded. Once the buzzing was gone she did her best to get back on her feet but quickly found she could only manage one foot, while the other layed like a precious little angel on the ground, waiting for it’s own Dr. Frankenstine to come along for it.
This was getting redicoulous even for such a lovely skunk. Jenni’s only saving grace is that she had no beliefs about sunk costs so she was free to continue on after her lovely skunk.
Hopping down the dungeon she came to the next section, a place thankfully with no traps but, and she realized this with some concern for the poor skunk, some of the best skeleton warriors a necromancer could make.
Despite her worry what she found was not a skunk in any kind of mortal danger but rather a skunk that was rather content with itself after stealing the fibula from one of Jenni’ s skeleton warriors. Hopping over to the happy skunk, Jenni stole the hand from a different one of her skeleton warriors and offered it to the skunk.
As the skunk went to take the hand from Jenni, she slowly pulled it back so that it would have to come closer, until finally the skunk was pawing at her remaining leg. Its little claws tickled her skin causing her to laugh and fall over. The skunk seeing it’s chance scampered over her body to take the hand, and curl up on her while it chewed on the bone hoping for a taste of sweet sweet marrow.

The story of the first mermaids.

Once there was a girl who was born the only child of a retainer of the Emperor.  He was a mighty warrior who it was said fought in a hundred battles while her mother was pregnant.  When she was born her father had become so desired by the Emperor that he took control of her life.  First by giving her two bottles elixir of life so that she would no longer age past the prime of her life.  The second way was to engage his second son, a man that would never find power, glory, nor nobility, to her, and demand that she present him with a dowry of the second elixir of life so that she would be bonded with him forever.

When she was young the Emperor had her sequestered away in a forgotten castle so that she may grow into a woman that his son may marry while allowing her father to continue fighting in the wars of the Emperor.

One day as she watched the bunny in the moon she heard a little scratching at her window. When she opened it she found herself with a noble little demon otter with a crown made of rice stocks.  Soon after she would leave her window open allowing the demon otter to come and visit her in her lonely home whenever he could.

The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into month. The two would talk and the princess was falling ever deeper in love with the otter’s whit that had sharpened over the time they spent together.

One day she heard news that her fiancé was returning to fetch her.  This was a man that had seldom written her, and when he had it seemed to her that those words had been only sent under orders from the Emperor.  She cried deeply when she realized what this would mean. Under the moon light her tears turned to pearls, but once they were out of the moon’s gentle glow they once again returned to water.

As she cried on the ground she heard the rapping at her window she had not heard since she had started leaving it open for the demon otter.  And despite that fact that she had left it open as she had for so long the otter was there in his little rice crown racking on the window with one of his claws.

He was about to sweep her away, but she stopped him, and ran to retrieve the wedding gift she had been given for the Emperor’s son.  She presented it to the Demon Otter King right then and there.  Not even a whisper of doubt in her heart.  He drank it then and became like her, freed from the bonds of life able to live together for as long as the sun and moon stayed in the sky.

When the Demon Otter King took her through her window she heard the distraction caused by the otters who had been so loyal for so long to their king.

The two ran off to a far away to live in a kingdom of rice fields. In time they had many children together.  These were the first mermaids.  So loved were they by their parents that the Princess and the Demon Otter King gave a part of their very essence to these creatures so that they may choose if they wish to be otters, mermaids, or humans.  Even though they knew that one day they would no longer have any essense to give to their children the two keep giving the gift of their forms.

Until one day the two called all their children before them as the princess held her newly born child and spoke to them. She told them that they would have to be saying good bye to all of her beloved children.

All of her children cried at this, and despite the moon not being out each of their tears turned to pearls as she smiled at them. With her gentle smile she told them that so long as she loved them their tears would become pearls no matter if the moon was in the sky or not. Smiling at all of his pride and joy standing before him the Demon Otter King told his children to value the youngest as they are the ones who will one day lead.

With that the two gave the gifts of their forms to the newly born child.

The Princess and the Demon Otter King passed away their own forms fading as they became water in the rice fields and mixed together.

The tale of the Mad Demon Otter King

Many years ago in a bog there lived a demon otter who fancied himself a king, and had even convinced the other otters to follow him under such a title.  From his home he could spy upon a castle of the Emperor.  In this castle lived the daughter of the Emperor’s mightiest retainer.

A girl who through her own acts had been elevated to the rank of princess of the empire, as well she had been given many other gifts by the.  The second greatest of the gifts was to allow her two drinks of the elixir of life so that with the first she may live forever, and with the second she may give to the man she would marry, the emperor's own child.

For many years she lived in the castle waiting for her fiancé to come and bring her to the Emperor’s most magnificent palace.  As she waited the evil otter would climb up from the bog and find his way to her window.  From there he would speak to her, telling her lies of his grand kingdom and all the treasures that were contained within it.  When in truth there was not a single spec of gold that he would speak so glowingly of.

The Otter proved himself to be a clever demon, with each word that he spoke to the princess confused her mind ever more.  Until she could no longer tell what was the kingdom of her benevolent Emperor and what was the rotten swamp that the demon otter called his kingdom.

One day on his way to poison the mind of the princess ever more the otter heard a pair of servants speaking of the Emperor’s second son coming to finally to take his bride back to the imperial capital and marry her.

This threw the otter into such a rage that he returned to his swamp that night and rallied the other otters to attack the castle and cause as much chaos at the castle as they could.  As they rioted on the far side of the castle the demon otter stole up to where the princess was asleep and kidnapped her.  In addition to the taking of the princess the otter tricked the princess into revealing that she was to present her fiancé with a gift of the elixir of life when he arrived.  The demon otter stole the elixir and drank it right then and there, freeing its very soul from the punishment of death that it so deserved.

The demon otter whisked the princess to a far away land and took her live among rice patties.  Without the staff of the castle to give her reprieve from the demon otter’s silver tongue she was tricked into believing she loved the vile Demon Otter King.

In time the two had children.  When their children were born each was hideous, having a tail that even though it was the tail of an otter many saw the tail of a fish.  Like their father these children were conniving and greedy stealing the forms of both their mother and father.  Each child took a little bit of its parents’ life, until finally one child was born so hungry for the life of its parents that it killed both. So thrilled by this act the other children declared this child their new king. The king of the mermaids.