Lokus sighed. There really wasn’t anything he could do about it. Maybe he could find an antidote or something once he entered the city.

Speaking of…

Lokus hauled himself to his feet, scooping up the bag of demon claws the cloaked woman had given him along with the fire poker and eyeing the demon’s remains.

‘This would probably be worth some coin in the city. Or claws, I guess. Too bad I can’t carry all of this on my own. Or can I?’

Lokus went to the pile of bones, scratching his chin as a plan slowly formed in his mind.

‘First thing’s first,’ he thought, bending down.

He took the twenty claws from the demon, each of which was around the size of his index finger, and set them into a pile. If these things were the currency in this world, he didn’t want to break them if he could help it.

Next, he pulled the demon’s ribcage out of the pile of bones, inspecting its condition before giving an approving nod and reaching for the piles of fur.

Because he had stopped cutting into the meat a few bites in, the hide was mostly intact barring the first incision and the stomach area. He laid this fur on the inside of the rib cage, filling in the gaps between ribs and creating an area largely devoid of holes.

It was an ugly creation, and the hide didn’t fit properly within the rib cage, leaving many parts of it poking out or drooping down, but it would do.

Next, he began stacking the other bones inside of the rib cage, spending over an hour finagling them so they all fit inside.

When he finished, the furry hide bulged out in between the ribs as bones pressed against it. This, along with the small pieces of meat still attached to the hide and bones gave it a grotesque appearance, but Lokus wasn’t going for aesthetics.

With that done, he stuck his fire poker in between some of the bones and placed the demon’s claws and the bag containing more claws at the front of his haphazard tower, for easier access.

Taking a step back to examine his work, he grimaced. It smelled horrible, although truthfully that might have been him, and it looked just as bad. But if it worked, that was all that mattered.

He grabbed the thing by the protruding spine and started to pull. He used the hill the demon had come from as a reference point to orient himself, dragging his creation along behind him and hoping that the spine wouldn’t fall apart.

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………

‘Finally.’

As the strange green sun began to crest the horizon, Lokus finally laid eyes on his destination.

Against his expectations, it wasn’t some sinister construct of towering black, blood-soaked walls with pike-mounted heads in front, nor did it have moats of blood and snapping, angry abominations standing guard at the gate.

If anything, it almost looked… normal.

The walls were tall, yes, but instead of a grim black, they were the light gray of average stone. There were no mounted heads or chained abominations in front of the gate, chomping at the bit to devour unruly passersby, only a calm and orderly line that stretched back from the gate for a few dozen meters.

While guards manned the top of the walls, and everyone in line, including the scant few children, had some manner of weapon at their hip, everyone was quite relaxed. Lokus couldn’t help but wonder, was this because they were so close to the city? Or because they had faith in their own strength?

He stepped into line, dragging his makeshift sled behind him. Those in front of him glanced back with wrinkled noses, but when they saw the mountain of bones and fur next to him, the white hair that was so out of place in the assembly of otherwise natural hair color, and the bloody appearance he bore, they wisely turned away and said nothing.

It was two hours before Lokus got to the front of the line, and when he did, the two guards at the gate scowled distastefully as an unpleasant smell assaulted their noses.

There were two of them, each wielding a spear. They were unarmored, save for a bowl-shaped helm, but they oozed the authority and confidence of someone with an entire city’s power behind their decisions. They didn’t even pause to gawk at Lokus’ hair, they were so sure of this power.

“Fucking hell, kid,” the older of the two said, looking Lokus up and down. “What did you do, cut your way out of some demon’s stomach? Ever heard of a bath?”

“How much to get into the city?” Lokus asked the guard, ignoring the pointed questions. He didn’t feel like regaling them with the tale of how he slew this beast.

“Ah, one of those ones,” the guard grunted, shaking his head. “We stand out here for hours at a time, you know. The least you could do is humor us when we try to start a conversation. This idiot here isn’t exactly a master with words.”

“Hey, that’s just not fair,” the other guard protested. He was much younger than the first, perhaps only a few years older than Lokus. “I have loads of stories.”

“Your weekly visits to a brothel don’t count as ‘conquering a woman,’ you dope,” the older guard sneered, before turning back to Lokus and leaning on his spear. “Now, tell us. What happened to you? It got anything to do with that corpse you’re dragging along?”

“It attacked me. I killed it.”

“I take it back,” the older guard said to the younger one. “You’re not the worst storyteller I know anymore.” Turning back to Lokus, he said, “Five lesser Prince claws for entry.”

Lokus extracted his bag of claws from the sled and tugged open the drawstring, peering inside. Taking five out at random, he proffered them to the guards, who gave him a blank look.

“You do know how to tell the value of a claw, right kid?” the older guard asked him.

‘Oh,’ Lokus thought. He had forgotten about that.

“We aren’t an accounting service,” the younger guard said. “If you can’t give the correct amount, we’ll have to ask you to step out of the line until you can.”

Lokus grimaced, recalling the hours-long wait, but since the guards didn’t look like they were going to change their minds, he reluctantly stepped out of line.