Tizzle’s Journey

It was a long fall.

A cold sweat was carried off Tizzle's face by a gentle, cruel breeze. At his back, behind the sword, was a mineral-bedazzled stone wall. A few inches from his feet was a tremendous precipice. Tizzle watched the many elitist manors sprinkled along the volcano's vast slope. They looked like distant, sharpened imp hats, threatening in every aspect.

A smirk of mischief played on his face, as if he were trying to smile away the fear. Internally, this was not working. He was terrified, but he continued anyway, creeping on a ledge, outside a castle's uppermost tower, near the volcano's crater.

The things people did to save a princess. He thought, as he hugged his way around another useless pillar. Thankfully, his last useless pillar, his entrance came in sight. It wouldn't be long now, just a few- more- shuffles- aaaand-

*pop*

Tizzle flicked off the cork to a vial hanging off his waist, then aimed the opening towards the glass pane. A star shot from the vial and splashed over the window’s surface. A foundry of crackles and twinkles rung before the glass shattered all at once. Though, instead of descending, each broken shard hung in place, twirling in slow motion. Tizzle stepped through the frame while window shards peeled away from his body like a theatre curtain. He leaped down to stable, glossy flooring, boots clacking at contact, taking a stylish, single knee bow, and smirking with self-pleasure.

Tizzle rose his head, "Hello prince-" he couldn't finish that sentence, or rather- he should have ended the greeting right then and there, for the young man sitting casually on a throne, facing this window, was no princess. Though he was wearing a lopsided crown, so maybe...

"Are you..."

"The prince?" the man finished. "Hell no. I'm more of a messenger in cosplay playing dress up. They call me Skyss." Skyss nodded the crown off his head and spun the rim around his fingers.

Tizzle rose an eyebrow, but was now on edge, looking closer through the luxurious room, it was in shambled; silks and bedsheets littered here and there, wardrobe stuffing hanging out of their folders, lamps toppled over, chairs cut in half; this place was a disaster.

Tizzle took a step back and moved his hand closer to the sword over his shoulder. Skyss stood abruptly in response. "My master saw you climbing this way on her way out. She felt bad and sent me to inform you… that you're too late to save anyone." Skyss caught the poof of the crown in his palm the same moment Tizzle's hand wrapped around his hilt "And when I asked her what I should do with you afterward, she told me . . . . .

'Do what you want'"

In an instant, Skyss's crown morphed into a grimoire that floated and fluttered its pages violently. Tizzle swore under his breath, not expecting Skyss to be a mage. Colour, wind, and runes whirled in spirals all around the room, grimoire pages blocked Tizzle's view before a blast of wind knocked him off his feet, his back colliding heavily against the window sill.

The wind stopped just as soon as it started and when Tizzle managed to open his eyes again there was a girl standing behind a collapsing Skyss. She wore slim-fitted torso and waist armor under a cloak, with black arm and shin guards. All over her outfit were various daggers and knives of all shapes and sizes, and held in her right hand was a bloodied, polearm naginata dripping inches from the ground, beside the body.

The girl strolled over to Tizzle and helped him up. He coughed. "Thanks... but... who are you?" She stared at him for a moment then peeled off the mask from her nose and mouth, as well as the hood from her head, revealing a circlet and bristled, golden earrings streaming through her hazel hair.

"The princess, obviously." She answered.

Not a moment later, she leaped to the edge of the window. The glass shards had been shockwaved far outside the window's frame to float and twirl in the open air, decorating the background view he had of her.

Half-stunned, Tizzle blurted, "wh-where are you going?"

"Wherever the Prince is! I gotta save him!" And with that, she leapt out of the picture, leaving Tizzle to gawk at nothing, in a room of nothing.