In a small and orderly room... Within the Dark City of Ziligish…

“Wait… Wait… Calm down.” The Captain of the Ziligish City Guards, Gral, the gruff man sitting at a desk raised his hand to the young gate guard. “So, yer telling me what!?”

He would go slow this time, “So I was outside on duty at the gates like normal…” Gral gestured for Pecker to continue.

The young-man took a breath. “Then the skeleton, out of nowhere, screamed and ran-off!…”

The guard captain leaned back in his chair. “That’s never happened before.”

“Yeah. Um… Who made it?”

“Just some low-rank necromancer. No one special really.” The Captain’s expression when he said the last part was one Pecker had seen before.

He knew, but he just had to ask. “The gremlins get him?”

“Ooh, yep.” Gral nodded before taking a sip of tea and went on. “He was found naked in an alley, with an anise redder than the Crimson Star…” He pulled a strained expression. “Poor bugger was so traumatised, to the point, we gave him to Ziligish Academy; at least he’d die good use in an experiment, rather than as a gremlin’s plaything.”

(Gremlins: Their teeth made of metal; Eyes full of madness and mischief. Skins of many strange variety: blue, green, purple and etc… Nasty little pointy-ear’d twats. Their like chimpanzees that fell on their head as child and got shoved into a blender with, a party animal, a sex-addict, and a ‘git.)

The captain sighed and looked at the young-man, “Anyway. I guess one loose skeleton couldn’t cause much trouble, er?”

“A Garm, or a Barbedtooth will probably get it.”

“Yeh.” Gral sniffed, “Now get back to the gates. I’ll get another low-rank necromancer to make a new undead guard-buddy for yer. Oh, and tell yer mother I said: hi.”

“Eh...” He nearly forgot the Captain was interested in his mother “Right... See you later, boss.” And with an awkward smile, Pecker, left for the gates.

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Elsewhere... In plains wrapped in shadow... A certain-skeleton walked along in search of a Labrador.

It had been walking a fear while and had time to ponder on some things. An example would be: what would it do when it found the Labrador, it really had no clue. All the skeleton knew was it needed to find the Labrador, no matter the cost; this was its own command, and it knew commands were an important thing to have. Whatever would it do without commands?

The skeleton only gained the power to question its commands recently, and that had allowed it to change its commands from ‘stand guard’ to ‘find Labrador’. This is something the undead aren't meant to do, but this undead had done—something miraculous.

There were also strange things whirling about its head now: Emotions. There was also a strange whispering voice. But for the time being those things did not matter to the skeleton, only the Labrador mattered. Such a strange anomaly in these harsh lands.

“Grrrarara!”

The skeleton paused and looked about at its surroundings. It saw a hulking dog-like beast step into view. Its four fiery orange-eyes gazed down upon the skeleton.

Oh dear... Wentthe whispering voice in the skeletons head.

(Fuse a genetically altered Super-Pitbull with a Grizzly bear, and then have it mate with a Hellhound and you get: a Garm. Four hellish eyes. Two demonic-horns. And saliva that burns like fire.)

What should the skeleton do? Its order is to find the Labrador, not this stupid bone crushing mutt.

Hm, why’s it drooling so much? Ah!... The skeleton in realization tightened its grip on the spear it carried. It needed some new commands—of course the Labrador was its ultimate priority, but subcommands are necessary to the grand scheme of anything.

So, the skeleton made a subcommand: ‘Kill anything that tries to make us into a chew-toy!’ A fine command indeed.

The skeleton took a stance, its spear at the ready. The green-flames that are its eyes, both thinned into a line as if it was squinting.

The Garm growled and hissed as it readied to pounce.

A few moments passed they stared at the other, waiting for ‘the first move’.

The whispering voice was silent in the skeleton’s head, but when the beast twitched the voice shouted, “NOW!” and the skeleton rushed forwards, sliding beneath as the Garm jumped over and then thrusted its spear upwards through the beast’s chest, directly through the heart.

"........!"

And there the beast hung struggling in agony, before finally stopping and going limp. Burning blood dripped down the skeleton's spear.

The skeleton lifted the hulk of muscle and meat off to the side. It felt something strange in its chest, though there was nothing there it felt something of a phantom beat. It heard an echoing ‘thump-da-bump’ repeating in its skull.

It took this fearsome beast down with a single thrust of its spear, and it was… proud?

Yes. The skeleton was proud.

Incredible…The whisper said. Yes. The skeleton is incredible, isn’t it.

It felt… happy about that.