Demons

" Oh." Rumius realised. His master had already moved on silently while he had been frozen in place at the sight. Rumius scrambled to catch up to her. 

" Is that.."?" He asked, finishing sentence only in his mind as his slacked jaw refused to operate. 

" Agravoss. The city." Master Isadora replied. " I told you we were in demon territory." 

" But why are we going to the city? Isn't our destination still across the desert?" Rumius asked. " Are we getting supplies?" 

" Supplies? Bah! Think before you talk. If it were a matter of supplies then we could have restocked anywhere else. Do you see us carrying any extra bags to house such..' supplies'? Master responded with an exaggerated singsong tone. Yet Rumius still couldn't think of anything other possible alternative.

' Not supplies? Then..why?'

As they walked down the hilly road to approach the city, Rumius began to notice more differences in the people who made up the queue. There were those built like giants, with skin as black as night and bodies sculpted like pieces of marble art. They wore little to cover their bodies and had ox heads on their heads for helmets. They were obviously showing off, and were probably some kind of tribal warrior who came from the surrounding areas, Rumius thought.

The rest dressed like relatively normal people but Rumius noticed how they all wore a kind of peculiar headwear of their own. Rumius saw armoured warriors wearing light plate over silver mail and ladies who sat in carriages pulled by horses, guarded by said warriors. Though his eyes kept shooting up to their strange headwear. They were largely horned masks, but they all had different shapes. Some were painted blue with large gleaming horns while some were a pale white that seemed to fuse with the skins of their wearers to create a supple layer that was as white as snow. It even rippled realistically as they moved their heads and as they talked.

' They're all so well made..' Rumius couldn't help but admire as he got close enough to see the details. ' Some kind of magic was definitely used in this.'

Master Isadora was silent the whole way, even as they drew up behind a pair of Ox headed warriors and joined the queue to enter the city. Rumius gazed at the intimidating grey walls of the city gates and let out a small sigh. They would be here for quite awhile. Then out of seemingly no where, Rumius noticed that his heart had started pounding. It came softly at first then next thing he knew, it was hammering away.

A trickling feeling slowly crawled through his body like an insect beneath his skin. His hair stood on end as goosebumps dotted his skin.

' THUMP, THUMP ' 

Rumius's eyes widened. He swallowed hard and looked around furtively with only his eyes. There was nothing on both sides. The line was relatively neat, a single file. There was no one on his left, and Master Isadora was on his right. 

' What's happening? What's going on?' 

' THUMP, THUMP '

Rumius glanced up at the sky, for no apparent reason and then cast a quick glance behind himself. There were people there, but they weren't even looking him. A pair of tall figures were there with milky white masks that carried long straight horns. The masks had empty eye sockets which perfectly hid their actual eyes in shadow, leaving a black abyss where one's eyes should be. 

Rumius turned back. They weren't even doing anything so why was he looking at them? 

' THUMP THUMP '

Rumius started sucking in deep breaths and resolved to look straight ahead. 

' Maybe it's something in the air.' He reasoned. ' There nothing around to be afraid of. Everyone here is minding their own business. I should probably just drink more water.' 

Rumius turned to Master Isadora, asking her for a water skin. And that was when he realised that there had indeed been someone looking at him. 

' THUMP, THUMP THUMP. ' 

Rumius went rigid as he was seemingly sucked in by the pair of yellowish eyes in front of him. One of the ox headed warriors had turned his head around. The masterfully crafted Ox mask covered his entire head. Rumius could even see the hairs on the surface of the skin. There was no break in between the mask and the rest of his skin and the black surfaces fused in seamlessly even in the bright sunlight, just like it did for the masks of everyone else.

' THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. ' 

Rumius smiled nervously and raised a hand. He waved uncertainly. It was when the man smiled that everything started going wrong. The facial expression crept up from his neck. Rumius could almost see in it slow motion, how the veins bulged as his jaw kicked inwards to reveal a set of uneven yellow teeth. The only problem was that the ox face had smiled with him. From the eyes to the teeth to the grin. They all belonged to the ox. It was as if the ox head was actually his face.

Rumius's heart left to his throat as a shocking revelation made its way through his body. His heartrate immediately exploded through the roof as alarms went off all over his head.

His mind simply couldn't comprehend what was happening. Two logics were conflicting at once. ' Ox mask…O-ox face…?' 

Inadvertently, Rumius staggered backwards and stumbled into the duo behind him. Rumius looked up instinctively to apologise and met the pair of black abysses glaring at him. Their mouths opened and a slithery wave sound reached his ears. The abysses held no expression. Their milky faces reflected the same.

Rumius let out a small shriek as he tumbled back in the opposite direction, driving into the muscled black legs of the men in front of him. This time, both the ox-men turned around. They stood easily three times his height and towered over him like entities of the night manifested in daylight. A menacing axe rested in either of their hands which were as large and as wide as a tree trunk and which looked sharp enough to cut one down just as easily. 

Rumius reeled backwards. His panic overflowing. A thin hand suddenly shot out and grabbed his wrist. It firmly pulled him to the right and Rumius could only see blue as the monsters disappeared behind his Master's sweeping cloak.

One of the Ox-men stepped forward. *" Is he yours?"* he asked with a mild annoyance in his voice. 

Rumius was shocked when his master replied in the same slithery tongue.

*" My apologies for the trouble."* she said.

*" Trouble? Hahahahaha!"* The ox-man threw his head back and laughed. *" No, no, no. I was simply surprised to see humans here of all places. And you speak our tongue well, though…heheh..you're quite far from home." *

Rumius saw Mistress Isadora shake her head. 

*" Quite the contrary. We've been away for the past months. We're going home now."* She nodded towards the city gates. *" There isn't any one better out there who can get us across the desert."*

The Ox-man's seemed to realise something as a brief look of surprise flashed across his face. His yellow eyes narrowed in an interested expression. 

*" Oh? Limians aren't we?"* 

"..."

*" And one who is not very fun to be around to boot."* The Ox-man and his companion sniggered. 

Master Isadora shot them both a cold look. 

*" The line is moving."*

The Ox smirked. *" And so what?"* 

"...." 

Rumius could feel the latent anger bubbling in Master Isadora yet she still said nothing. Moment after moment of silence passed. Grumbles started to rise from the occupants at the back of queue. They had gathered to watch the little drama unfold but now, it was proving a hassle to them. 

*" Oi! Move already!"* 

*" Yeah! Stop holding up the line!"*

Master Isadora titled her head to one side. *" You heard them."* she said, smiling a smile that did not quite reach her lips. 

*" Yeah, yeah I know. Heh, I suppose that is enough fun for one day. You'd best watch your back while in the city little miss sage."* He shot the hiding Rumius another discoloured display of teeth before turning around. It felt more he was baring his teeth than smiling.

*" And careful with that kid, it'll be oh so sad if he goes missing." He giggled, spit flying. " You have no idea how fresh your younglings tast-!!!"*

The moment the his mouth uttered those words, his body sank into a sinkhole so deep only his eyes were left above ground. And in an instant, purple lightning streaked from the heavens.

" BOOOOOOMMM!!!" In a flash, there was nothing left of the Ox-man but a smoking crater and the smell of charred meat.