Three Little Demons
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Hi Sue: Thanks for inviting my flock (herd,
bunch, gaggle) of demons to your blog. I hope they don’t leave a mess.
I use lots of Persian mythology in “Faizah's
Destiny.” If you’d like to know more about the three boys and Faizah
standing up to the gods and demons, you can read the book, or check my blog for
a list of posts on different topics.
In researching the various gods and other
legends of ancient Persian mythology, I found the three demons the war god Dev
uses to tempt the teens to the dark side. My favorite source on all things
mythical, the Encyclopedia Mythica, (http://www.pantheon.org/) came through
with Aesma, Buyasta, and Nanghaithya.
Dev, like all gods of war in mythology,
wants humans to fight. His ultimate purpose is to to usher in Armageddon. Why?
Because war is his thing and wiping out all humankind is on his to-do list.
To that end, he sends three daevas (demons,
if you will) to turn Faiza’s companions on the quest to the dark side (sort of
a Darth Vader thing). Demons often represent a failing of humankind. We all
have our demons, but Faizah’s three friends have demons visit them in more than
just their thoughts.
Aesma
 |
| Aesma |
Aesma is the demon of lust and anger, wrath
and revenge. His wrath is mainly directed towards the cow (go figure). He is
the personification of violence, a lover of conflict and war.
Aesma appears to Parvaiz in the form of a
bear with a serpent’s tail. Parvaiz was a slave and has a mile-wide chip on his
shoulder. Aesma fuels that anger and convinces the boy the others are his
enemies, not his friends. Once sold on the idea, Parvaiz is told to wait for
Dev to call him into battle. And, of course, keep his mouth shut about the
little meeting.
Buyasta
An ancient Persian demon of laziness who
tries to prevent people from working. He is one of the Daevas.
Dev sends Buyasta in the form of a giant
spider to Bahaar, who has always dreamt of becoming a warrior. The demon takes
advantage of that dream to make Bahaar fall asleep (laziness) and dream of
himself as a mighty fighter in a huge battle. The good part: Bahaar is kicking
major butt. The bad part: The butts he’s kicking are those of his best friends.
Nanghaithya
An archfiend. Nanghaithya is the
personification of discontentment.
I really wonder how discontentment rates
the rank of archfiend, but if you think about it, much of the worst harm comes
from people not content in their lives. Nanghaithya has a little un-pep talk
(he’s a voice-over character) with Harib claiming that his friends all laugh at
him and only keep his company because his father is rich. The demon attempts to
make Harib discontented with his relationship with the others. Harib, however,
is having none of it. He’s the only of the three boys who stays true to Faizah.
This excerpt shows one of the
confrontations between demon and boy. I’ve selected Harib and Nanghaithya
because the scene is the shortest of the three.
Excerpt:
He heard the noise. A dry, rustling whisper
of sound. At first, he thought it was the wind. Looking up, he could see
nothing but blackness. The forest canopy was so thick overhead it blocked out
the stars. Harib had never seen such big trees before, and he’d wondered idly
what they might be. The thick, shaggy-barked trunks soared high into the gloom,
unbroken by branch or leaf. Harib had noticed earlier that where the branches
began, high above him, they had neither leaves nor fronds but instead were
covered with clusters of thousands of thin needles. Would the wind blowing
through those needles make the sound he heard? Don’t panic, he told himself.
It’s only the wind; it can’t hurt me.
The sound faded and then grew louder. Now
it sounded like faint laughter. “Great,” he said aloud. “Now, even the forest
is laughing at me! First I fall over a cliff and have the others haul me to
safety, and now I’m lost in the woods.”
As had happened so often lately, a dark
sense of his own worthlessness washed over Harib. He angrily scrubbed away the
tears stinging his eyes. How, he wondered, did the others put up with him? They
said they were his friends, but why? He was small and weak and foolish. Bahaar
was bigger and faster, and even Faizah was stronger than he. Smarter, too! All
he had was his father’s money, and they didn’t even want that. Many times, he
had tried to buy things for them, and every time, they spurned his offers.
Still clutching his blanket-load of sticks, Harib plopped heavily to the ground
and sat, head bowed, in the small clearing that held him trapped as surely as a
prison cell.
The sound came again, louder. More
laughter; then a voice, dry and rasping. “No wonder they laugh at you. Look at
you. You’re pathetic.”
Harib’s head snapped up, but he could see
nothing.
“You’re weak and slow. You can’t even get
wood for the fire without getting lost.”
“I know!” Harib groaned. He put his face in his hands and whispered,
“I know.”
“They make fun of you behind your back.”
“No!”
“They only put up with you because you’re
rich.”
“That’s not true! They won’t accept my
money,” Harib answered, willing that hateful voice to be wrong.
“They only wait for the right moment,” the
voice persisted. “Then they’ll take it all and leave you behind.”
“Never! They wouldn’t! They’re my friends.”
The whispered voice chuckled, the words
stabbing at Harib. “So you believe.”
“No!” Harib shouted, leaping to his feet.
“No, you’re wrong! I don’t believe you! I won’t believe you.”
Looking wildly around, still trying to find
the source of the voice, Harib spotted a small opening in the underbrush he’d
missed before. Heedless of the branches whipping him, he lunged through,
running away from the hurtful words as fast as the tangled brush would allow.
Perched upside down on the trunk of a tree,
Nanghaithya, the demon of discontent, bared his fangs and hissed at Harib’s
retreating figure. He had failed. Now he feared for his own life, for Dev did
not easily forgive failure.
* * *
FAIZAH'S DESTINY
The gods are at war and only a farmer’s
daughter can save the world from Armageddon.
MuseItUp (all ebook formats):
http://tinyurl.com/faizahsdestiny
Also available at Amazon, B&N, Nook,
and other on-line stores
Blurb:
The village magician has gone missing. His four pupils think he has left a clue to
his whereabouts in the Magicalis Bestialis--the book of magical creatures. They must seek the help of the elusive
Simurgh, the mythical birds who know all the secrets of the universe.
However, this is not an easy camping trip
into the mountains. Spirits, gods, and
demons confront the four friends, who are not aware they’re being set up by
otherworldly forces for a much larger task.
A farmer’s daughter, Faizah is chosen to
lead the humans in the battle. She must persuade a slave, an orphan, and a rich
merchant’s son to join in the battle on the side of good. Although divided by
Dev, the evil god of war, the teens must band together to find the Simurgh,
rescue their teacher, and stave off Armageddon.
Bio:
Marva Dasef lives in the Pacific Northwest
with her husband and two ungrateful cats. Retired from thirty-five years in the
software industry, she has now turned her energies to writing fiction and finds
it a much more satisfying occupation. Marva has published more than forty
stories in a number of on-line and print magazines, with several included in
Best of anthologies. She has several published books, including six since 2011
with MuseItUp Publishing.
Twitter
Handle: @Gurina
