He was just about to turn around and go back, deciding there was nothing interesting in this region, when a softly glowing door that he noticed out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned around to look again at the door, but found only blank stonewall. That was strange. He’d been sure there’d been a door there a moment ago. He went to the wall and peered more closely. Wall all right, why had it looked like a glowing door?
Rupert allowed his eyes to shift even more, he then stared at the spot on the wall as if trying to see through the stone. Slowly a door began to appear, superimposed on top of the stone. The harder he looked, almost squinting, the more he could see it. After staring intently for several moments, it seemed to solidify and the appearance of stone behind it vanished altogether. There was definitely a door there, and it did glow. What was going on here? Some sort of illusion? Rupert wondered.
He examined the door with his hands. Yes, now that he could see it, he could feel it too, there really was a door here. It was, not surprisingly, locked when Rupert tried it. That was a pain. All that trouble and he couldn’t even get through it. Rupert thought for a moment. There was a very simple spell for unlocking locks that weren’t magical. Given that the door had been hidden though, it was probably magically locked as well. He shrugged, the worst he could do was fail.
Rupert opened the door carefully and peered in. It was a small room. The room was about fifteen feet on a side with a door on the opposite wall. The only furniture was a table with a small glowing ball sitting on it off to the left. The room was otherwise empty. Rupert slipped into the room.
He stepped towards the door on the opposite wall. As he did so, a glowing light appeared about two feet from him. Actually, looking carefully, the light was only visible to his special sight. Normally it wouldn’t have been visible. Suddenly there was a four foot high demon standing in the room where the light had been. This demon was visible to any sight.
The demon was red all over. He had completely human legs except that they ended in hooves. Actually, aside from the hooves, a horse’s tail, the traditional bat-like wings and ivory horns, the demon looked nothing so much as a fat, red, short human. He was also completely bald, but his ears were normal. He had rather chubby cheeks to go with his large paunch. Oh, he also had, Rupert noted, some rather nasty looking fingernails. The demon was wearing a small red loincloth.
The demon smiled evilly at Rupert. The demon had wickedly pointed fangs also. Short, but wicked looking. Actually, Rupert was only guessing that the smile was rather wicked looking. He supposed that it was at least supposed to be wicked looking, but Tom was much better at it. Rupert wondered if he should act terrified. He supposed that would be the appropriate human response, but frankly, even Tizzy was scarier looking than this fellow.
“Where do you think you’re going, little boy?” The demon chuckled, again in what Rupert guessed to be a suitably terrifying form. Maybe it would look better if he played along a little bit.
He supposed he should at least be polite to one of his fellow demons. He really didn’t know demon etiquette. That was one of the problems with a human upbringing, he supposed. If he’d grown up in the Abyss, with Tom, he’d probably know better how to handle the situation. “Well, I saw this doorway here,” he pointed to the one he’d came through. “It was rather curious, being invisible and all, and since it wasn’t particularly locked. I decided to check it out.” Rupert told the demon truthfully.
The demon stopped smiling, apparently, annoyed Rupert wasn’t a quivering mass of gelatin. “It wasn’t well-locked because I’m here to guard it.” The demon concentrated what Rupert guessed to be a stern/evil stare at him.
“Oh.” Rupert said matter-of-factly. “That would make sense. Why are you guarding it? Is there anything interesting behind that door?” He pointed to the other door.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, kiddie?” The demon snarled nastily.
“Yes, actually, if it’s not too much of a bother.”
The demon blinked. “Well kid, I’ve got orders to let no one pass. That includes you. I don’t like to have to kill kids... but I don’t see that I have an alternative.” The demon shrugged, flexing its claws.
Rupert frowned. “Isn’t that a bit drastic? I was just curious. I thought the council was supposed to be full of good guys? Killing an innocent little kid for his curiosity seems a little harsh and out of character.”
