previous part: https://jordynsaelor.com/2025/11/20/bed/
all parts: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/
***
Percy was God.
Whoever Percy was.
The salamanders and trees
were his forces
who braved the Dust Seas
to either kill demons
or save innocents.
The dust storm overhead
happened regularly.
Percy’s Keep
had no invisible roof,
it simply
repelled evil and nuisances
and attracted good.
The codependent demons
I’d come here with
had already been taken
deep underground
in isolation from each other.
So I needn’t fear,
they never came anywhere near
the keep.
But me,
they needed to know
if I’d been “tainted”
before doing their cleansing prayer on me,
since a hapless mortal
would die from the prayer
if I’d tasted
the codependent demon first,
so they would’ve had to perform
a pre-cleansing ritual
to cleanse the demon from me
before doing the cleansing ritual–
and by cleansing ritual,
the creature meant
“knock you out so we can steal your clothes;
also, you’re stuck blurting the truth all the time now.”
It was about then
in the creature’s explanation
that my stomach growled
and the creature frowned
then said
oh
you’ve lost your blanket
and it oh so kindly
fetched it out of the water,
dripping wet
in its mouth.
“Why do I need that?” I asked
and the creature jumped
abnormally high for such sticky legs
and tossed it on the bed
then said, “It’s
a light feather blanket.
It absorbs light
and feeds energy to you
through your skin.”
And I blurted, “Calling it a light blanket
is confusing,
that’s the opposite of a heavy blanket,
like an extra warm one for the winter,
you should call it an energy blanket instead.”
And the creature ignored that
(it probably had that skill,
ignoring truth-blurters
who couldn’t stop themselves)
and continued telling me
how fortunate I was
that I hadn’t lied
when I was still able
about taking a bite of the demons
otherwise I probably would’ve died
(because a pre-cleansing ritual on someone untainted by a demon
would destroy them
and a regular cleansing ritual on someone tainted by a demon
would destroy them)
and I put the blanket on my legs and slowly quit feeling hungry
then somewhere around
the creature’s
explanation of how Percy
would help demons if he could
but he couldn’t
I blurted, “What’s beyond the Dust Seas?”
and the creature continued
Percy’s sob story
about accidentally killing a demon
(“demons are immortal” I said, and was ignored)
by trying to help it
so then Percy realized
demons had no goodness in them
and could only be destroyed
(“demons can’t be destroyed,” I said)
and Percy in his good godness
had sworn to clean the Dust Seas,
and thus began
his eternal battle;
for the Dust Seas went on forever
and nothing lived here
except the trees
with deep roots
and salamanders
who lived in their hollow trunks
and stray demons.
But really
nothing lived here
until Percy arrived
and pulled clouds
together with his goodness
and brought light to them
with his goodness
and brought water to the dust
with his goodness
and Percy made
Mrflfip and his kind
from the mud
but mostly
his goodness
and invited the trees and salamanders
to partake of his goodness
and began to hunt demons
who lacked all goodness
and I interrupted again,
“Where’s this Percy fellow,
so I can punch him
for having a stupid cult?”
And Mrflfip
gaped
aghast at me,
so, great,
I guess he could still hear me
and I said, “What?
You’re the one who put this truth spell on me.”
And he huffed
a great huff
and said, “Mortal,
it’s not a spell! It’s Percy’s–”
“Goodness, yeah, I got that. Can you take me to him?
I want to ask if I can leave.”
Mrflfip stared
and by stared I mean,
it didn’t have any eyes
but it sure seemed to look at me somehow,
and it said, “Mortal, one does not approach God–”
So I hopped off the bed and rushed for the hole it came through
and shouted, “Okay, I’ll just annoy everyone here
until someone shows me to him!”
***
happy thanksgiving:)
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Jordyn Saelor 