As the creature drew further away it yelled back. "Are you coming or not."

Another deafening howl soared through the air seeking its prey and he wondered if it would be wise to follow a demon or try to escape on his own, the chilling howl abruptly ended and Aaron made up his mind, quickly he hurried after his would-be-kidnapper yelling. "Wait up."

Hurdling fallen chunks of wall and pieces of once elegant furniture Aaron caught up with the demon. "I thought you wanted to." He thought about his question for a moment and decided that if the creature had wanted to kill him he'd probably be dead right now so changed his question to. "Why'd you kidnap me?"

The odd beast continued to run in silence until Aaron thought it hadn't heard him and he was about to ask again when it spoke. "It was not my choice." Aaron wasn't sure that he believed the words, but when he glanced at the creature's face he saw pain enough to believe that the demon was as much a victim as he was.

"What's your name?" He asked the question in all innocence not knowing exactly why but the creature turned on him viciously, shoving him against the cold grey wall of the corridor, it held one razor sharp blade to his throat. "WHY WOULD YOU ASK SUCH A THING." Its voice was momentarily returned to its former fury leaving no doubt in his mind that it was the source of the voice from the night before.

Aaron withered under the gaze he was receiving. "I-I, well." He didn't know what to say, he hadn't meant to insult the creature so he replied. "Mine's Aaron."

"You trust me to know your true name?" The creature sounded astonished as though nobody had ever told it their name before.

Aaron thought for a moment but couldn't come up with a reason why he shouldn't so he replied "Sure, unless you want me to pretend it isn't."

The demon looked at him for a moment more then withdrew the knife-like appendage from his throat. "Mine is Azenlond."

Another howl filled the musty air, louder and more terrible than all the others but unlike the previous howls it was no longer a howl of the hunting it was a howl of triumph.

"The Hell beast has found us, you must leave now." The creature actually appeared fearful, almost terrified even.

"Ha, I wouldn't leave you to fight whatever a ?Hell Beast' is, I can see your scared of it and that probably means it could ki-." He didn't seem to be able to keep his mouth shut, words just kept spilling out of there own volition, luckily he was interrupted by another ferocious howl.

"FOOLISH HUMAN, you must run now, what do you think you could possibly accomplish against the Hell beast."

Aaron didn't really have an answer for that, he knew that whatever it was that kept howling, it wasn't a small whatever, but he knew that if he left he wouldn't ever be able to forgive himself, no matter how badly the creature had treated him.

Growling in frustration Azenlond turned back to him. "Take this." The creature unstrapped the belt on its right arm and handed it to Aaron who began to tie it around his waist.

"Listen carefully, there are some items in that pouch that if you tell someone about, you'll be dead within a day but there are also some things in there you will need. Now run."

As he struggled to secure the pouch Aaron replied defiantly. "I'm not just leaving you here."

"Two things boy, A; When you get out of the castle head east or towards the rising sun whichever you can find the fastest, B; when you reach the village at the foot of the hill covered in forest, ask the residents what the price of inter-dimensional travel is, then you can decide whether or not you should have left me here."

As Aaron finished buckling the pouch around his waist he looked up in time to be slapped, hard by the flat of the demon's right arm's scorpion blade, suddenly his face felt far to heavy to be his, hesitantly he reached one hand up and found a hard, stone cold surface, as he began to move his hand away it froze in place directly infront of his eyes and revealed exactly what was happening to him.

Crawling up his palm just reaching the fingers was a shining black wave of polished iron, it wasn't paint or anything of the sort it was his body, his own skin, he was turning into an iron statue.