I needed to write something. It’s been that kind of day.
…This monster was currently striving mightily to look like just another passenger. But while it had gotten the form right, and even the clothes, the Ördög’s smell was distinctive enough for my superior nose – and the high-pitched giggle would have alerted anyone not half-asleep. It must have slipped into the spaces between the cars, where the wards were weakest; and now it, like me, was on its way to Kassel.
I almost decided that it was none of my affair, as long as I took care to disembark before the Ördög tried to. The Empire would have Inquisitors at the station, who would do their duty; and, really, was it my duty to kill random monstrous predators? Especially since, by the Inquisition’s admittedly fair standards, I was a monstrous predator myself? Not that I felt any sort of solidarity with the wretched thing; but what was the difference between it and me, besides the fact that I found it easier to hide among mortals?
But as I lounged in my seat, pretending to be engrossed in the latest Mark Twain conspiratorial romance (Huck Finn and the Blood-Plot of Alberta; inaccurate nonsense, of course, but entertainingly so), I saw how hungrily the Ördög looked around. They are not particularly strong-willed creatures, and being around so much potential meat was picking at what little self-control it had. If I did not do something, it might try to chew on a passenger – or, worse, the coffee steward. And what of my trip to Kassel then? For that matter, what of my next cup of coffee?