A marching mob, thirteen hundred feet hit the pavement in perfect unison...
"Saetos... Saetos... Saetos..."
Waves of panic... a man struck numb by the chant...
"Saetos... Saetos... Saetos... SAETOS!!!"
An upsurge of fear, of anguish. Pain... unbearable... ...
SAETOS!
"... wha...?"
A young African-American man named Ron "Saetos" Frederickson opened his eyes. That chant... he'd been dreaming about it before, a mob of blue-shirted people waving pitchforks, swords, and the leader of them all weilding a huge sword, chanting his name...
Slowly his pulse rolled down. On his hologram watch he found that it was nearly the afternoon. He had been tired after running from the sixth sandworm of the day in the Temple of Three Winds. The idiots. So, he thought a nap would help, and subsequently.. there he was.
Every night after dying at the temple, he'd dream about the cultists of that canabalistic religion... if you could call it religion. The nightmare was always the same. And it scared Saetos. Aztur the Immortal was not one to be taken lightly, having been fallen at the hands of Aztur about... oh... ten times, and wondered vaguely why Omni-Tek assigned the doctor to assist the fall of Aztur. It had no point. Aztur would reappear. He was "immortal" after all; didn't Tarkhan Zora recognize the word "immortal!?" ...
The watch beeped.
Saetos pressed a button on the watch. He was glad he knew what all the buttons did... because the watch seemed to be made of nothing but buttons.
"Saetos?" a female voice rang out of the watch. He recognized it as Iskkira, a Clan adventurer who had been beside Saetos' side in the Temple.
"Mmm?" Saetos said, still a bit bleary. Vaguely he registered a feeling of contentment.
"I really need those Tears of Uklesh. I'm assembling a group; can you meet me at..."
"... the temple?" Saetos finished. He sighed. "Well... all right... but let's not get myself killed again; I need time to recharge my nanobots, and does anyone listen?"
Iskkira laughed. "I guess not. Well... you know what to do."
Saetos, dreading what would come tonight, walked out of his apartment and headed for Rome Green.
[Chapter 2 will follow. ]