With a splat Oliver dumped his bag full of fish and his gear on the front porch outside his house. He could already smell the frying and spicing of meals going on within as the aroma wafted from the open window to the kitchen and he sniffed hungrily, holding back the urge to lick at his lips like a stray dog outside the butcher's.
The Iron Halo hummed softly, rotating slowly as ever.
From inside the house came a shrill voice, rising above the sounds of culinary magic and the clanking of cutlery to break Oliver from his trance.
"OIlie! Is that you? Are you back from the river already?"
Oliver sighed and rubbed at his face. His eyes scanned the landscape beyond the porch to find the newly risen tower and castle of bones not far from his street. His mother shrieked at him as if there WASN'T a terrible skeletal tower just a couple of blocks away.
"Did you catch anything? Don't bother coming in if you didn't catch anything!"
"Mamaaaaa," Oliver groaned, "Can you see the huge skele-tower or did you forget to open a window and fog up the windows again?"
There was a pause before the shriek came back louder. Boomingly loud. "Boy, you had best not be sassing me after all I've done for you!"
There she went. Off on another tirade about how she raised, clothed and fed him. If it didn't happen at least thrice a week, then he would have really been worried. "But Ma," He shouted back in the house, eyes fixed at the pile of bones and the... single snakelike skeleton slowly slithering down his street, "There are literally snakeman-skeletons in the street!" How did it get out this far? Was it lost? It didn't look friendly, by any means.
"Well boy," His mother replied, sending another clatter of pots and pans resonating out from the kitchen, "You'd best get out on that street and make sure they don't come dirty up my lawn! Or else there'll be hell to pay!"
"But Ma!"
"I don't hear bones rattling!"
Oliver's mother was a woman who was not often surprised by the more supernatural goings on of Megatropolis. She'd been living here too long to be fazed at this point. Oliver made sure his backpack and gear were secure before shedding his jacket and stepping into the street to meet the slithering skelesnakeman. The Iron Halo ceased turning at his back, as if waiting. With a clearing of his throat, Oliver caught the snakeman's attention and waved.
"Uh, hi. Listen, my Ma would really appreciate if you stayed off the grass and-"
The snake took the opportunity to leap at him. Oliver could only sigh as the Iron Halo began to spin wildly and screech before he swept his arm forward and it was sent careening toward the snakeman, sawing the poor undead thing clean in twain like a floating saw blade. The bones clattered to the floor, and Oliver retracted the Halo with a look back at the house. No point going home now, with his mother all steamed up as she was. He shuffled his hands into this pockets and took off slowly down the street, looking more tired than determined to save the day. Might as well check out this whole bonepile situation.
And hey, it looked like some heroes were already on the scene so how bad could it be?
