Billy the Kid Lich: Pt. 4
The Story Begins, The Plot Thickens
Sometimes I really just wish we had a signal for these sorts of things. So many stories start with a day that had been no more remarkable than any other. We can't just get a small warning? Maybe with the alarm clock? A little bird could say "Today will change the rest of your quasi-immortal life." But noooo, that's too much to ask.
Anyways, I was staying after school on this particular day. It was Friday, so a few clubs were meeting. I was in SECME, which has some long, complicated, boring, schoolboard name with something to do with science and engineering. We just called it "Sek-me" or "science club" like normal people... plus one lich.
Well, it turns out that Sek is a name slash title that the crocodile-god Sobek's name got shortened to around the time of or a little after Alexandrian Greece / Egypt's heyday. Sek was powerful, his staff was the mast to Ra's Sun Barge, and he helped control the currents and waters of Chaos to navigate Ra's Barge to the next day's dawn; no small feat.
Here's the thing. An Egyptian river god messing with a Nordic lich for no reason? Not likely. I bet you can guess what happened. Apparently, due to sheer dumb luck, my saying "sek-me" a lot caught his attention and being the meathead he is he took it as a taunt and challenge. So I'm walking home, alone, and it's about 6:00pm, dusk. Nothing good ever happens at dusk. Dusk is actually supposed to be a sacred time to us lichen and I still hate it. Ugh.
I'm on the sidewalk and there is this big ditch to my right, it's kinda like a sewage out, or storm drain. Next thing I know I'm surrounded by four huge crocodiles. "Crocodiles in Florida? I thought we only had alligators..." I say out loud to myself. Well I guess since Sobek is one of the most powerful of the Egyptian pantheon, he can transport himself, his crocodiles, and anything he touches through all of the world's natural waterways. Like through rivers and streams and lakes and oceans, things like that.
He emerges from behind the corner of these apartments that, for some reason, are painted hot pink. Not kidding. I stifle a snicker. "Sobek!" I say. "Long time, no see, buddy. How ya been? How're the croccy kids? Why, I haven't seen you since—"
"Since you broke into Ra's temple and stole as much precious treasure as you could carry." He sneers.
"...Oh, right, that. Well, um, really sorry, love to help you get it all back, but I already sold it! It's gone!" He knows I'm telling the truth. Suddenly his enormous half-human half-croc hand is around my throat and I'm pinned against a concrete pillar, lifted off my feet, my jaw holding all of my body weight. I fake like this is really painful, don't want him to know I'm actually quite comfortable after withering myself inside my clothes to be a light, mostly-hollow skeleton with a paper-thin layer of skin.
"Who?! Who did you sell them to?! Where are they?! What did they look like?!" He demands. "I—geez man, I don't know! I leave 'em at this tent for the black market, like a drop-off point, the guys inventory it on the spot and pay me for the previously agreed upon prices for each item I could nick. Why does this matter so much to you? You haven't cared about old fireball since he retired and left Egypt, no one's even seen him in centuries!" I'm out of breath. Being a withered skeleton has its downsides.
He gets right in my face. This is the first time I really get a good look at him. He looks terrible. His mahogany skin's army green scales are chipped, bleeding, or sometimes just gone. He has huge bags under his eyes. His lips are cracked, chapped, and dry. He has some vicious scabbed over deep claw marks on his neck.
"My God, Sobek, what the hell happened to you?" I'm astounded. He's always been so tough. A juggernaut, commander of one of the apex predators of the Nile River. He sighs. He puts me down. "Thank you." I say, and fill myself back out.
"I know you meant no harm. I know things can be difficult for you lichen still stuck in adolescence." "Okay, spare me the guidance counselor routine. What. Happened?" He looks like he's dreading delivering some very bad news because once he says it out loud he knows that makes it real and he can't pretend like it hasn't happened any longer.
"One of yours is working with one of ours. So far they may just be two. We believe they are trying to recruit more from every pantheon worldwide. We don't know why, we just know they purchased something very important under the name Yates Viled." He waits for my response. After some thought, I reply: "Weird name, anyhow what--!" My face goes white and slack with shock as I realize. "No, but that's... but he's... he's been sealed away for a millennium!"
"We have a guess as to who helped Set Evil Day escape his prison. And it would explain how they did it." I don't want to know, but I ask anyways. "Well, who? Who then? Tell me!" He looks me dead in the eye and says: "We think it was The Morrigan." "...Well, shit." End of Pt. 4
- Will P.
YOU ARE READING
The Kid Lich Awakens
Aventura#2 In greatstories! (At it's highest ever point) Everything was normal for Billy, or at least, as normal as life gets when you're a sapient undead. But when an angry and suspicious god comes knocking, Billy has to face the consequences of his wanton...
