Heavy wheezing merges with the roaring, burning winds of the scorched red mountainside. Nostrils flare as noxious smoke billows from them. “I…urgh…I gotta stop here!”
A light chuckle cuts through the maelstrom. “I don’t wanna hear it, Maek! C’mon, we’re almost at the top!”
With a groan as heavy as the very mountain, the panting blue monstrosity drags himself closer to the peak. He had done his best so far to keep his eyes ahead to the human that was leading the climb, but in his exhaustion his eyes now seem permanently fixed upon his own aching feet. For untold eons he’d been tortured by the denizens of the Abyss, and eons more he’d been torturing the souls of mortals.
“Just a little further, big guy!”
He’d become a master of his craft. He’d grown rich and content in his vast collection of souls. He’d even cut out a little slice of an empire for himself.
“Or are you about to tell me the mighty Maek'thryx is just gonna give up?”
Now he’d happily give up his kingdom and fortunes if it meant he could sit down for just five minutes. He coughs so hard he begins to dry heave, streams of acidic spittle leaving gouges in the stone beneath his forked hooves. This was it, he was at his limit, he would never see his throne again…
“Ah, look at that view, would ya?”
Maek'thryx recoils from the voice at his side. He sees the man who’d led him up the mountain sitting comfortably on the ground, and finally turns his gaze ahead of him. They were there. They’d reached the peak. His expression somewhere between shock and relief, he takes a seat next to him. While catching his breath he says, “I’m not sure…if you’re familiar with the concepts of sloth and gluttony…but this whole hiking bit isn’t exactly my thing.”
The human smiles and shakes his head. “Suck it up, Maek. You’re the one who asked for this.”
The pair laugh - Maek’thryx cringing as he holds a taloned claw to his aching ribs - and they both look back out to the apocalyptic landscape. The cities burn with eternal fire, and the air fills with the screams of the damned. “Well, you’re right about one thing…it really is one Hell of a view.”
The human shakes his head once again. “Alright, big guy. Just for that one, our break is over. Time to head back down. And this time, we jog.”
Maek'thryx grits his teeth and growls in frustration as the human stands promptly back up, taking a brisk pace down the other side of the mountain. Under his breath he mutters, “Damnation…give him a millennia or two? That man’s going to make an outstanding demon.”