The Little Demon Who Couldn't

'You have no business being here, Gribon!' hissed little Murmur.

  Sitting on the floor behind the sofa in Murmur's living room next to him, the fair demon hugged his drawn-up knees unhappily. 'Where else can I go? Now that we have been expelled from school, I have nowhere but out in the cold. My demon family has disowned me; they will not have me anywhere near them!'

  'Well just go loiter in some thicket, why can't you!' Being utterly shamed was bad enough without having to look at such a sight as Gribon. The school refused to have him as a pupil. Demons with no tail and no hooves had no place at the school, Headmistress Hellic had told Gribon, her harsh screech loudly heard by Murmur as he waited outside her office.

  The little demon stuffed his fingers into his mouth. His teeth were chattering at the memory of Headmistress Hellic looking upon him with scathing contempt. 'You are the laziest, stupidest runt ever to have crossed the threshold of Hell's Gate!' she had shrieked down at the cowering demon. 'We have given you every chance to succeed; we have done everything for you! You have let yourself down, Murmur. You let down this school, and what is worse is that you have made me look bad! How dare you make me look bad! You disgust me; I can't stand looking at you-get out of my sight!'

  Little Murmur gave Gribon a poke with his pitchfork's melted prongs. 'I said, go loiter outside somewhere!'

  The fair demon squeaked like a mouse. 'If you do that again I'll touch you!'

  Murmur instantly shrunk back at this terrible threat. 'Alright, Gribon, stay if you want to,' he muttered, eyeing the fair demon warily. 'Why are you so keen to be here, anyway?'

  'The thing is, Murmur,' Gribon began reluctantly, 'my feet feel the cold rather?'

  Little Murmur stared back in horror. 'They?they do?' No demon felt the cold-not until now, at any rate.

  Gribon nodded miserably.

  The little demon continued to stare. The only things identifying Gribon as a demon were his slightly hooked nose, horns and pointy ears. Without them, he would have looked like a human boy. Murmur shuddered.

  'You really ought to have listened to me, Gribon. I told you we should not go near saint Kriztofer.'

  Hugging his knees even more miserably, the fair one nodded again. 'You are right, Murmur. Now I am an outcast.'

  'Let's go for a walk,' Murmur said after a while. 'We might be able to find you some boots.'

  Gribon agreed, and soon the demon pair was walking down the snow-covered street towards the centre of town. It was late afternoon, and on this winter day, lights already were glowing in the windows of the houses they passed.

  'How warm and cosy it looks in those homes,' said Gribon, gazing wistfully into the windows of a cottage near the street, where a tiny grey-haired woman was putting a steaming pie onto the table her beaming grandchildren sat at.

  Murmur tugged the fair one onwards. 'Come on, we will soon have some warm boots on your feet. Then you will feel much better.'

  Sniffing and pulling his cloak tightly about himself, Gribon trotted on. But his eyes remained fixed on the scene in the warm, golden kitchen until it was obscured by the hedge of the neighbouring house.

  When the two demons reached the town centre, Murmur was quick to spot a cobbler's shop.

  'Come, let's sneak round the back,' he said, pulling Gribon along behind him.

  With many a furtive glance and panicked start, the two crept around to the back of the shop and slipped inside. The smell of leather surrounded Murmur as he found himself in a small, dark room filled with ceiling-high shelves stacked with boxes and pairs of shoes and boots.

  'Quick, try these on!' hissed the little demon, seizing a likely looking pair of boots and thrusting them at Gribon.

  Gribon took the boots and hastily pulled them on his feet. 'They seem to fit,' he muttered, tugging and frowning at the new footwear.

  'Let's get out of here then!' urged little Murmur, reaching for the door handle.

  But Gribon loitered. 'I don't know?these boots are awfully floppy?'

  'I think I hear someone coming!' shrieked Murmur, and dived out the door.

  Gribon followed instantly, and the two demons bolted out into the lane. Then Gribon seemed to get his feet all tangled together and fell flat on his face in the snow.

  'Get up, fool!' shrieked little Murmur, who had lost all calmness and boldness. He was gripped by panic. The dresser in the attic beckoned.

  Gribon scrambled to his feet. But only a few moments later he was down again.

  'It's these boots!' he gasped. 'They are flopping about and the trailing laces keep tripping me up!'

  Murmur roughly hauled Gribon up by the coat. 'Tie the laces together like humans do, fool!'

  The pale-haired demon hastily bent down and did as Murmur suggested. The little demon kept running on the spot as he waited, darting his fearful beady eyes hither and thither all the while. 'Hurry, hurry!' he gibbered, tugging at Gribon.

  After only a few seconds Gribon seemed done. The demon pair was off. But something was wrong.

  'Why are you running as if you are in a sack?' Murmur shrieked at his oddly hobbling companion.

  'My feet-they are all stuck!' cried a wild-eyed Gribon, doing his best to keep up with the rapidly bolting Murmur.

  'That's because you have tied your bootlaces to each other, fool!'

  'You said to tie the laces together!'

  'Tie up the two ends of the laces on the same boot, not the laces of one boot to the other, fool!'

  'Don't you keep calling me a fool-' But suddenly Gribon stopped screeching and went paler. 'It's Saint Kriztofer!'

  Murmur looked to where Gribon's shaking finger pointed. At the door of the house they were passing stood the saint. He appeared to have just knocked and now was waiting for an answer.

  Murmur let out a squeak of terror and bolted, zigzagging from side to side like a panicked rabbit as he went. Gribon followed, in an even greater panic than Murmur. He zigzagged too, but kept falling and tripping. Every time Murmur dragged him back up again. When the demon pair reached the end of the street and turned the corner, they stopped darting from side to side and just ran straight. Gribon fell twice more. Murmur was really beginning to lose patience with the fair one.

  Then Gribon fell flat on his face yet again.

  'Just pull the boots off, fool!' shrieked Murmur, shaking his fists in the air and hopping with rage. 'Get them off!'

  Gribon still lay sprawled on his front in the snowy alley. He was staring down at the ground with a strange look in his eyes. 'The?Cross of Darkness?' he faltered.

  Little Murmur snapped his beady eyes downwards. There, shining through the white snow, was a Cross of Darkness.

  Then a whisper reached through the icy, still air. 'Come to me, demon. Come to your master? I summon you; appear!'

  The little demon uttered a shriek. It was the alley-the alley where they had scratched the circle and sign! Suddenly Murmur and Gribon were airborne, flying high above the snowy town. Their flight became faster, and the winter-gripped town's snow covered rooves and streets faded from view. Dark, turbulent seas now raged below, foaming and tossing.

  Faster still they went. After a while, the ocean below became still and serene, shimmering and rippling beneath a cloudless blue sky and brightly shining sun that made Murmur's eyes water and sting. The clear azure waters now met a shore of white rocks and golden sands. Over passed the demons, and the land became a patchwork of lemon, olive and orange groves, shady bowers, and glinting silver streams that twisted and glided past fields, pastures and woods. Here and there was a white-painted stone farmstead or marble villa, and occasionally a little church.

  Then the land became drier and rockier. Herds of sheep and goats roamed below, and the few streams were at the bottom of steep canyons. The voice in the wind was becoming louder now. The two demons clung to each other in terror-Murmur had forgotten altogether to be repulsed by Gribon. On the flat plain they now flew over, a great city shimmered in the hot sun. Minarets and domes arose from the cluster o
f white stone buildings and from the three magnificent blue-tiled mosques gracing the city.

  The terrified demons then found themselves swooping quickly downwards. Murmur could not bear to look, so he shut his eyes. With a thud, the demon flight ended, and Murmur was sprawled on his face on a Persian carpet beside Gribon.