VIII
Hyksohs
The night turned from bad to worse once they returned to Miller's Port. The red-haired half-breed mongrel they called Fearless led them back to the town, but at a speed that was obviously magical. Hysohs needed no special talent to see that.
When he got to the entry gate into the town, the guards came down in pairs and inspected them from head to toe. One of them had a rune-spell that allowed him to detect magical power and life energy. Hyksohs didn't have any Items other than his Talking Ring.
Once in town, an inhuman scream came from a nearby alley and two ghouls charged forward. These were newly made, from what he could tell. Thier hair had not started to fall out. But they still had that mad look in thier eyes. During his indoctrination, he'd seen ghouls chained to the walls at Veryq's keep in the Sed-La Mountains. He'd had to feed them, which consisted of throwing dead animals at their feet and watching as they ate like savage beasts, fighting amongst themselves for whatever they thought were the choicest parts. It was not exactly one of the more pleasant duties he'd been given.
"They come from hillzee place!! Hillzee! Hillzee!" The lead Ghoul screamed, which attracted 6 more of them. One of them munched on part of someone's cat, until it saw them. It then spat out the part of the cat that it had been eating and dropped the rest before advancing upon them.
How in the Known World did this mad thing know where they came from?
Did it matter?
"Run." Sebek said. Hyksohs wanted to say 'You came up with that all by yourself? Amazing!' but didn't want to get cuffed for being snarky so he kept his mouth shut.
They ran down one street and then another, but the Ghouls chased after them, until they got trapped in an alley that Hyksohs would have sworn had been open earlier that day.
The lead Ghoul charged them and Hyksohs took out his gladius, slicing at it's throat. The undead monster put his arm up to block the attack and he managed to lay open it's arm. It didn't even react, but simply kept advancing.
Hyksohs took a step backwards.
This one, like the others, was only slightly off color, as if he'd only recently died. The tips of his fingers were slightly darker than the rest of his skin, but one of them to the side had open toed sandals and Hyksohs could see that its toes had already turned black.
The lead Ghoul spat out a tooth. Something like mud covered it's hand, which Hyksohs realized was animal dung.
"That feelzz goood...little man-man...do it again!" It swung at him with it's filthy claws.
Hyksohs swung again, and laid open the monster's face. A claw from another Ghoul nearly caught him at his midsection. That one had once been a child. Next to it was what must have been it's mother. She grabbed him and pulled him back away from Hyksohs's sword, a protective measure remembered from when she'd been alive. The child-ghoul took a swing at her. She wrapped her arms around him and licked his face until he fought her off.
The Lead Ghoul cuffed the child-ghoul, and screamed some kind of gibberish at it, which reminded Hyksohs of his childhood with the drunken bastard that was his father. Of course back then he would've gladly taken the beatings over the near constant criticism. The man saw nothing but the worst in Hyksohs, and his mother was no better. She would have a roll with anyone who would pay her, so long as his father was out on a job. When he'd catch her cheating they would fight about it, screaming at each other until some neighbors would pull them away from each other. And of course her cheating was also Hyksohs's fault, just like eveything else in life.
