The Little Humpbacked Flu Devil
The Little Humpbacked Flu Devil makes a home on the upper plateau of roachy buildings that have been built one on top of another like garbage is tossed in a pile, back towards the Eastern wall of the city Ravenhölme where all the gates are shut and bolted and hung with chains and signs threatening dismemberment for trespass so that his cousin devils that forment a thousand malignant plagues will not be let in but sit in the stink and rot of decaying vegetations, muddy pools and meditative lizards of the eastern swamp Lakthansay, all while dreaming of one night on the town.
The upper plateau of roachy buildings, most sought after in the section called Quadrazjin of the city Ravenhölme, inhabited by beggars and thieves and others who have found gainful employment in the rest of the greatest city in Phantaz.
He sits and complains “It is either hot or it is cold, never in-between, but always one or the other” and draws close his wool jacket while sipping like an old lady with rheumatism his Melkenwair tea.
“How do my horns look?” he asks the brown-bodied boy Alket, who pickpockets at fairs and is the Devil’s only friend.
“They are icy-blue, I think they must be congested”
“They are, they are congested, curse them. Why could I not have been my cousin The Big, Black-Faced, Thousand-Jawed Rabies Devil Who Falls Like A Bat On The Backs Of The Unsuspecting!? Ah, how energetic I would be and with a really impressive name!”
“Yes, but then you would have to run with wild dogs, smell bad, and scratch your rump for fleas until your talons gouged loose long strips of flesh — and I would no longer like you.”
“Of course you would not like me,” whined The Little Humpbacked Flu Devil in what he thought was a snarl “For I would kill you” he sniffled, woefully short of menace. But the boy Alket only laughed, for he had long ago grown immune to The Little Humpbacked Flu Devil and so did not respect him the way a devil should be respected.
“It is either hot or it is cold” the mournful little voice whined on.
This story was written by IG Agent 71 and is one of the stories in the forthcoming Chronicalia Of Phantaz.
