Necromancy 101

Granny let Zeus and Azazel inside, where they took a seat around the small kitchen table. Granny planted a kiss on Zeus' forehead before she brought a kettle of tea to the table for the three of them to share.

"Is everyone still asleep?" Azazel asked as he poured himself a cup of tea. He took a few sips and sighed happily. Granny brews the best tea.

"Yes," Granny mumbled quietly as she sat down next to Zeus. "Emma fell asleep almost immediately. Blumbledore and George also fell asleep not long after."

Azazel nodded and continued to sip on the tea. He finished one cup and then poured another.

"Charlotte," Zeus began, as he looked the old woman in the eye. "I lost mah hammer. Someone stole mah hammer!"

Charlotte looked shocked whenever Zeus revealed his hammer had been lost. "You looked everywhere?"

"I did," Zeus said, shaking his head. "But it's nowhere in the village."

Azazel took another sip, then looked toward them. "I was thinking of asking Blumbledore if he knew a way to locate lost weapons."

Granny clasped her hands together. "That's a great idea. Go talk to him."

"I'll go wake him up," Azazel volunteered. He finished his second cup of tea, then he stood up and walked to Granny's bedroom.

When he opened the door, he witnessed Blumbledore lying on the bed in a prone position. His mouth was wide open, with drool dribbling out of his mouth. His snoring was hellacious—loud and obnoxious. Azazel had to plug his ears up with his earbuds and turn on some ambient noises.

Ah, the soothing sounds of nature...

Azazel bent over the bed and lightly tapped Blumbledore's shoulder, but there was no response. He then tapped both of his shoulders at the same time, with no results. He tried to lightly tickle the old man between the armpits, but alas, there was no response.

Why is everyone such a solid sleeper?

Azazel left the room. He looked at both Granny and Zeus. He shrugged when he met their gaze. "I couldn't get him to wake up."

Granny frowned. "Well, old man is 87."

87!? Jeez, surprised he can even get up and walk, let alone summon dirty magazines all day.

"We need to talk to him," Zeus sighed. "I have no leads on mah hammer."

Azazel stroked his right horn. "Just wait until he wakes up."

Zeus sighed. He then gave Granny a hug and walked out of the cottage. He was getting terribly frustrated with the situation.

"It's late," Granny began. "I'm sure you know how much that hammer means to him."

Azazel nodded. While he didn't believe the story, he was curious as to where the hammer went. Hopefully, it wouldn't cause them too much trouble to get it back.

"Well, I am going to go to bed," Granny declared. "Goodnight, dear boy, and stay out of Emma's room as I sleep naked and don't want any demons sneaking up on me."

"Duly noted," Azazel responded as he left the cottage. I will not barge in there, it seems...

When he made it outside, he saw Zeus headed back to his shop. Azazel followed him to the shop and poked his shoulder.

"I give up," Zeus stated in defeat. "My hammer is gone, and that asshole of a wizard won't wake up. He's old! He may never wake up again."

While he's not wrong, that is a tad dramatic.

"Just give him time," Azazel stated. "I will take a peek at the magical texts he gave me. I'll see if I can find anything in there."

Zeus's face lit up. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Sure." Azazel nodded. "I'm curious as to where that hammer went. Now I'm fully invested. You just get some rest."

Azazel walked behind Zeus, shooing him back to his room. Zeus looked up at Azazel and flashed him a thumbs-up.

"I'm counting on you, boy."

Azazel left the blacksmith shop and went back to the small cabin he was staying in. He took out the bag containing the books Blumbledore had lent him. He lit a candle, using a simple fire spell, before he set the books on the table and began thumbing through them one by one.

Looking in the index of a blue, dusty book, Azazel took note of some interesting texts. It appeared the magical book he was looking at had an entire section on beginning necromancy, hand-written by the 'wise' wizard. In fact, it seemed Blumbledore had authored every single book himself.

Impressive.

Azazel flipped through the sections until he found what he was looking for.

"How to control your undead creature."

He nodded and studied the texts in depth. It seemed the only option would be to test it out. He took out the Bokeball and shook it a few times. Both the wolf and Lacerta were summoned.

Before the Lacerta could begin attacking the wolf, Azazel swiftly stood from his position, waving his hand. "Halt."

Amazingly enough, both the Lacerta and wolf stopped their attacks on one another.

First victory.

It was a victory, but the wolf continued. It sniffed around the room. It found one of Azazel's shoes and began to intensely sniff it. It looked like the wolf was ready to chew the shoe to shreds.

"Halt."

The wolf halted its movements. "BllarrhhjsWarg," it whimpered.

"Sit."

The wolf sat down next to the shoe, curling up on the floor. Azazel inched forward and extended his hand. The wolf sniffed his hand and then allowed the demon to scratch it behind the ears, letting out a happy doggy noise.

"You stink, but you're kind of cute," Azazel hummed.

He started to wonder if the creatures needed to be fed. He walked to the cupboard. He dug around until he found some dried meat. He opened it and placed it in front of the wolf. The wolf sniffed it, then gobbled it up.

"BllarrhhjsWarg," it let out happily as it chewed the meat.

"I should get you a bone or something."

Azazel skimmed through the text and found an area about summoning only one creature at a time.

Do I have to say BllarrhhjsWarg to summon the wolf? Sigh.

He shook the bokeball, which caused both the Lacerta and wolf to go back inside their corpse container.

Azazel held it up, but instead of shaking it, he let out a terrible-sounding "Come, BllarrhhjsWarg" himself. Like clockwork, the wolf appeared, but the Lacerta stayed in the ball.

So the wolf is named BllarrhhjsWarg? That's the species?

It seemed absurd. He could just imagine what the adventurers who first discovered the creature were thinking when they came up with the name of a species of wolf.

Azazel sat down with both the candle and the stack of books on the bed. "Come," he said to the wolf, who then laid down on the bed beside him.

He made sure to give the wolf plenty of ear scratches for being such a good boy. After a few hours of studying the texts and petting the wolf, he was starting to go nose-blind to the stench.

Azazel continued to study the books until the sun rose. Apparently, he was a first-of-its-kind necromancer; at least he recorded documents, as most necromancers seemed to use spells to create the undead on the spot from corpses. Instead, Azazel injected venom into them and was able to contain them, which was not something the texts mentioned.

At sunrise, Zeus barged into Azazel's cabin.

"Any luck?" The old man asked him.

Azazel stroked his right horn and turned to Zeus, who had his gaze fixated on the undead wolf on the bed. "I got distracted."

Zeus sighed and took a step further, but he instead coveted his nose and stepped back to the doorframe to breathe in some fresh air from outside.

"Your entire cabin smells like a rotting corpse," Zeus frowned.

"Oh, yes, the wolf," Azazel snickered. "I couldn't smell him after a while."

Azazel petted the top of the wolf's head. "See? Isn't he a good boy?"

"No." Zeus kept frowning.

"What do you expect?" Azazel asked with a grin. "I am not a demon, but a necromancer demon."

Zeus shrugged. "As long as you don't bring him into my shop, we're good."

Azazel looked at the wolf and stated, "Hault." The wolf stayed in its place as the demon stepped outside. He closed the door and noticed Zeus staring at him.

"You stink," Zeus simply stated.

"I do?" Azazel questioned.

"Yeah, like that... thing, just not as terribly," Zeus scratched the back of his head. "There's no way Granny will let you back in smelling like that. Maybe you shouldn't cuddle the undead?"

Azazel thought about it. "Sound advice, but it's too late now."

"Put him back in the ball."

"No."

"You should."

"Never."

Zeus kept trying to demand that he put the beast back in the ball, but Azazel ignored him and swiftly walked to Granny's cottage. He knocked on the door. When Granny opened the door, she held out both hands, stopping him from entering.

"Take a bath first," she demanded.

"Fine," Azazel sighed.

It was at that moment that Azazel realized he really should just keep his cute, undead wolf in the ball.