Little sleep had been got over the course of the night the corpses seemed to probe the the protective bubble Meredith had projected every now and again a loud high pitch shriek rang out and whoever was on watch would flinch and look out.
“Vultures?” Gilnar asked nobody in particular as he looked at the large black birds far above the square, they seemed to circle the building the group had fortified they had the same red glowing eyes as the rest of the beasts. Primela was sat on the roof with her legs dangling over the edge watching the heaving mass writhing against the barrier.
“If only I had my bow.” She grumbled to herself and laid back looking up at the birds.
Erek was sat reading a pamphlet that was sat on the side. He squinted and pulled the paper closer to his face and mouthed some sounds then dumped it back on the table crossed his arms and leant back to look at the ceiling a sad frown on his face.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it” Gilnar said resting against the door frame. Erek nodded and they sat in silence as the sky began to gain the red tint of a rising sun.
Meredith was still kneeling in place as the sun rose she seemed like some kind of magical idol lips moving as though she was continously chanting or reciting a spell lost to the denizens of the sun lit lands.
As the group also rose they watched as the first sun came up, a black haze began to lift from the corpses and they let out an awful sound far more gutteral and unnerving then before they writhed and twitched and then they all fell silent and collapesed to the ground looking like the dead should.
“Are they dead?” Gilnar asked stallingly he scrunched his face up a moment as he said it.
“Well they dont’ seem to be moving anymore.” Flacidious stood looking out at the piles of corpses.
“Good to see them behaving the way a corpse is supposed to behave” Sial sighed.
“Here Mere, you can stop now.” Primela clicked her fingers a few times infront of Meredith whose eyes flitted back to normal she shuddered and looked around before she slumped to the ground. “I assume this is normal.” Primela followed up looking at Meredith’s unconcious form on the floor. The others watched for a moment.
“Must be tiring being some kind of walking temple.” Sial stood up and walked over to the door where he squated a moment and then stood back up and stretched his arms.
“Gilnar, you can do the honours, Sial, Primela go check that we’re clear” Flacidious took out his spear again.
“Did you see where those birds went?” Gilnar asked and looked at Primela.
“Birds?” Sial looked back with a puzzled look on his face.
“No, I got bored of watching them.” Primela pulled out her spear as well and joined Sial at the door.
Gilnar clicked his tongue and then picked Meredith up and flung her over his shoulder.
“How are we supposed to check if they’re dead dead?” Sial asked Primela turning to face her.
“I don’t know, offer one your arm?” She laughed and pushed him forward. Flacidious followed them through the door.
“By the way, we heading back now?” Sial asked.
“Yes, this seems rather to large for us to handle on our own and not at all what we expected.” Flacidious pulled at his goatie and grimaced.
“Wonder what happend to the other three.”Gilnar asked, they’d made it outside, the bodies were letting off a wretched stench and were piled up knee deep.
“If they’re lucky they made it away on horses, if not, maybe up a tree, if really not.” Flacidious shrugged.
“You think they got a bird off?” Sial asked as he nonchalently stuck a spear into a corpse, then another, and a few more for good measure.
“If they did then they may have a very incorrect idea of the situation when it gets back to the Black Fang.” Flacidious seemed to nod in approval as Sial looked at him, then Sial stepped into the collection of rotting flesh.
“Getting back by foot is going to take a long time.” Gilnar noted.
“It’ll be less time then if we sat around here.” Flacidious’s practical side showing as always.
The group stepped through the pile of corpses, they’d become accustomed to the stench over the course of the night once on the other side the turned and looked at the pile.
“Is it just me or is this pile smaller than the one we saw coming in?” Primela asked scanning the piles.
“Yeah, yeah it looks that way.” Sial joined her in staring at them.
“I’d reccon this isn’t even a quater of them.” Gilnar said and followed it with a heavy sigh.
“I’d second that.” Primela followed up and turned from the pile to look at the rest of the city and its high near impenetrable walls.
“Shit.” Flacidious cursed. The group started heading towards the gate a pile of gore on the road caught Flacidious’s eye but he turned away a moment later and clicked his tongue.
“Why do you think they stopped working when the sun came up?” Sial asked with an animated flip of the thumb.
“I don’t know, I skipped the day where they told us how to create the smabling dead at wizard school.” Primela said with a characteristic dry note.
“You went to wizard school?” Sial asked a mix of shock and excitement as his eyes grew big.
“Wait there’s a wizard school?” Gilnar’s brow furrowd and he scratched at the scar above his ear.
“No, no there is no wizard school.” Primela said rolling her eyes.
“Oh, of course.” Sial said and stuck and swung his spear around a moment.
“Do you think there’s any supplies?” Gilnar asked looking around at the assorted borded up shops, the occasional burnt collection of buildings.
“This seems a lot longer walk then it did last night.” Sial said without much thought.
“We were running for our lives last night” Primela pointed out.
“Probably” Flacidious said taking a look at some of the shops.
“That is a good point.” Sial answered.
The conversations began to over lap as some looked to distract themselves and others looked to survival.
“The problem is we don’t have any horses.” Flacidious seemed to say with a touch of resentment.
“At the very least we need to pack traveling gear, we may be forced to move through the nights.” Gilnar looked back to where they’d hold up over the night and then at the unconcious Meredith. “We don’t know if she can do a repeat of last night.” He added after a moments silence. Flacidious nodded and the others seemed to only notice an important conversation had happend.
“Okay, we’ll have to find supplies, the bare minimum traveling packs. Shit I just remembered I forgot to eat.” Flacidious said as he looked down at his growling stomach.
“Something about being hounded by angry lumps of rotting flesh must do that to a person.” Sial said rubbing his stomach. Primela nodded in agreement and the four of them began to break into shops, they were speedy but cautious aware of the risk that darkness would surely bring.
“Do you think they stay active if they’re in the dark?” Sial asked as he stuck his head through the window of a general store and looked around.
“Let’s assume so yes.” Flacidious looked back.
“Let me go in.” Erek pushed past Sial and jumped in. Sial followed and the others waited outside watching for anything stranger then they had already seen.
“Do you think people kept moving to the Capital?” Gilnar asked. Primela and Flacidious just shrugged at the question.
Inside the shop Erek and Sial silenlty crept through the store front checking behind the counters and making peering through doors, it was dark but they were accustomed to such work, they sniffed the air and looked at each other. Nodded and then relaxed a bit and started checking through boxes of supplies.
“All clear in here!” Erek yelled and the others came in through the window and after about half an hour they were all had a pack of essentials. Dried foods, knives, a small pot, tinder, a rope, tarp, and other essential bits and pieces that the group would need for the long treck out of Vicini. Erek picked up a flier and looked at it a moment.
“Flacidious, what do you make of this?” Erek asked as he handed over the flier. Flacidious looked at and then walked to where the light was shining through.
“It’s a dooms day cult of some sort, they’re proclaiming that the end is here and the world will be swallowed by the patron of the dead.” He looked outside and then folded the piece of paper and slipped it into his small leather pouch.
“There was one of those back at the house aswell.” Erek said, Flacidious took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled and climbed out through the window.
Gilnar followed Meredith still fast asleep over his shoulder. The others quickly followed.
“Okay, quick march everyone we need to put as much distance between this city and ourselves as possible before the sun sets.” There was no arguement from the group as they began to march at a pace somewhere between a fast walk and a light jog. With in an hour they had put several miles between themselves and the town and were in the closing on the forest, as they past the area where they’d left the others they had seen scattered bird cages and little else. No body had commented, they continued their fast pace with steady determination.
After two hours the group slowed and consumed a bit of the food they had.
“You make a terrible horse” Meredith complained drowsely.
“Just be happy I didn’t leave you there!” Gilnar responded flately.
“You have my thanks.”
“Can I let you down?”
“Please do.”
Gilnar let Meredith go and she slumped down and wobbled on her feet for a moment.
“Here.” Flacidious offered her his flask and she took a sip.
“Thanks.” She looked around and tried to gain her barings.
“We’ve been heading out of Florens for about two hours.” Flacidous quickly brought her up to speed and she nodded and chewed on a piece of dried fish.
“So what was that spell?” Flacidious finally asked.
“It’s an ancient warding chant I learnt long ago, I didn’t know if it would do anything but I kind of felt it might, Iris be praised.” Meredith performed a small bow and Flacidious nodded.
“The twelve were fools it seems.” Flacidious patted his bag and looked at the road. “Well let us go, the suns do not wait kings let alone us.”
They all concured and began their fast march again.