"What are you so excited about?" I ask as I step up behind two giggling imps. Their large ears bend and sway with their movements, the purple imp on the left has half of one of his missing. I think I did that, but I don't really care to try and remember.
They skip around a hole dug in the black dirt and chanting, bearing crooked and broken teeth in mockery of smiles, giggling and clapping their bony, clawed hands that were bigger than their heads. At my voice their faces shatter into looks of terror, the remnants of the smiles vanishing into the ground, wiggling and writhing. I brush my heal over where the malicious glee had been, digging it in a little bit. Stupid little insects, they get so excited when it's not even them doing the work.
"Well?" I make my voice snap and drop an octave, just to watch them cower and squeal.
"Ah! Master don't be angry! Zizil and Kirml doing good!" screeches the green one, scuffling around and clasping his hands together. "Zizil got the hole dug before the soul is here! Kirml has the seed ready already! We does good!"
I forget which one is Zizil and which one is Kirml. It doesn't matter much to anyway. I peer into the visually bottomless hole, and see that there is a tear in the air. Purple energy frames it to keep the breech from ripping through the entire plane. I can see a room, brown carpet, dull green walls. The image is still blurry.
So, another mortal is going to off themself. The imps are preparing the hole for the tree to be planted in that traps the soul for the rest of eternity. I have nothing better to do, that lazy Dexmes is taking his sweet time on getting back to me about the runework I need to find the girl Elizabeth. I think he enjoys it too much when I have to ask something of him. Damn bookworms. I will rip his head off at some point and bind it so I can use his information anytime I want.
So I might as well see what kind of tree this new idiot will make. If it's any good I'll stick around and break its branches to talk to it. See what it knows.
The two imps huddle behind my feet, occasionally reaching out to hug my boot and I swat them away with the flat of my tail head. I can't stand grovelling. Waste of time, energy, and pride.
The image grows clearer. The first thing to show up is a picture of pale, skinny ladies with butterfly wings bathing in a pond. Must be a girl's room. Mortal guys wouldn't have naked butterfly ladies up on the wall. Under that stands a desk, made of dark, solid wood, and it is drowned in papers, note cards, and an army of differently colored pens. So this person likes to write. Probably going to kill themself because they can't get anything published or they write some abstract bullshit that no one understands. They don't get me. What shit. If people don't understand then make it fucking clearer what you want to say!
No one sits in the armchair, which is set askew so the arm of the chair presses against the lip of the desk. The image turns to locate the soul. I'm right, it's a girl. She's tall, her legs are really long. Thin though, she must look like a stork when standing straight, especially with the round hips that they connected to. Good handles.
Her hair is messed all over her face, head bowed. I can't see her face, but the base of my spine tingles. My tail curls up like a scorpion's. Shit.
It's Elizabeth.
I whirl and snatch up the two imps by the necks. Their heads enlarge as I clench my hands and their eyes bulge out from their weird skulls. I toss the green one up into the air and swing my tail, slicing through his pointed nose and cutting him clean in half. He didn't squeal. He had no time to. The purple one gasps and chokes, clutching at my hand as my claws dig into the side of his neck.
"Master, master Kirml does good! Kimrl does good just tell Kirml--"
I stick my tail's blade into his mouth and twist it before pushing it through his small body into his stomach. I flick my tail to knock the twitching mess off and to the ground.
That takes care of the imps, buying me marginally more time. I clap my hands together to brush away the grimy feeling of imp panic. The tear is still open, but the energy fizzles now that the imps were rebuilding themselves in their spawning grounds on another plane. I launch forward and dive into the collapsing rift.
No comments:
Post a Comment