Tentatively Robin touched the the shiny black glass. Her fingers drew against it. It felt strangely like... like hot ice was the only way she could descibe it. She pulled her hand a way. The surface had felt just a little too weird...
Then she gasped in horror. Where her hand had touched was beginning to glow white, so bright it hurt the eyes. The glow spread to form a rectangle about three meters tall and a meter wide. It was obvious that it was a doorway of some sort.
Robin stumbled back and landed heavily in the grass. As she watched something started happening...
A... thing came out of the doorway. It looked generally humanoid in shape, though it was ten feet tall and a mottled cobalt blue. It was distressingly asymetrical too, it's right side sprouting a third arm while the left below the armpit was a confusion of spines and slender writhing tentacles. She heard a hissing and saw that the thing's tail sticking out from the loincloth that was it's only clothing was a living serpent, dripping venom. A double set of horns rose from a cruel almost-human brow a single hideous blue eye glared at her, seemingly striking into the depths of her soul. It took a step towards her.
Robin did the only sane thing a person could do under the circumstances.
She fainted.
Later...
It was impossible to know how much time had passed when Robin woke up. She found herself in a comfortable bed in a richly decorated bedroom - like she would have imagined a princess in a fairytale would live in. Beautiful tapestries and fine paintings covered the walls and a warm fire burned cleanly in a hearth. Robin rose and walked over to an ornate silver gilded window to look out. The view seemed chillingly out of place with the comfort and luxury of her room - it was the same desolate landscape she had noticed before, though she was plainly several hundred feet heigher in vantage point. A closer look at the black, glass-like walls confirmed her suspicions:
She was in the Tower.
Hearing footsteps coming up stairs she panicked. Someone was coming towards the paneled oak door that was the only entrance to the room. She grapped a beautiful gold candlestick, prepared to swing it if that... whatever it was appeared again.
The door opened. Robin fell deeper into panic, closed her eyes and swung as the door opened.
Something stopped her candlestick connecting. She had no choice but to open her eyes to reveal...
...the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life. He looked like a cross between a pirate and a nobleman. Rich dark hair tumbled down from his noble brow to his shoulders. An impressive physique was clad in flattering silk sur-coat and pantaloons, displaying a richly bronzed, muslced chest. One of his strong, yet smooth hands had grabbed her candlestick and now held the weight of her strike effortlessly. The man's strong jaw broke into a smile displaying beautifully white, straight teeth. A black silk eyepatch covered one eye, which lent him a rakish air that made him even more handsome. The other, a brilliant blue twinkled at her kindly.
Robin felt her arm grow limp and the man calmly took the candlestick and placed it on a nearby table. Then he turned that smile, a grin that Elvis would have killed for, on Robin again. He spoke to her in a rich baritone:
"Welcome to my kingdom my dear. My name is Balor, and I am king of the Formor. I hope you are rested after your... ah... tumble earlier?"
Robin could only nod. She was about to ask this Balor where exactly this kingdom was when she heard Katie's voice seeming to come from inside her head:
Robin! Don't trust him! He's Balor of the Baleful Eye! Run! Run!
Thu Aug 12 16:48:51 2004