The God Who Grumbled

"And who wants to watch Dyybuk eat that stuff anyway?" Added Hector. Loki nodded. Dyybuk was a really messy eater even for a god. Wasn't really his fault, when the ancient Jews envisioned him, they have him a three jawed face. Trying to eat a burrito with three incompatible rows of teeth was a spectacle even the other gods didn't like. That included Ra, who often ate out of dog bowl.

Loki managed to squeeze in a rebuttal. "He's been banned from the meeting."

Hector frowned. He gave Loki a confused look. "Banned?"

"Christian god made a motion at last month's meeting." Loki explained.

"Hmmph." Grumbled Hector. "You mean he used his three seats to bully him out. You know that the big guy started two additional faiths just to have extra votes." He gestured to the Ice Cream guy for a cone with two scoops of bubblegum. The guy was about to complain he was out of cones when he spied some extra ones in his overhead bin. "Not that his followers ever stop long enough to realize that."

A mother went running by. The panicked look on her face made Loki realize she had lost sight of her kid. A moment later the little girl came running by, chasing a red balloon that for some reason kept drifting low to the ground. Loki rolled his eyes at the contrivance. "C'mon, the balloon chase?"

Hector smiled for a moment as he got his cones from the ice cream vendor. He shifted into a grumble. "That's the problem with you youngsters." He handed Loki a single scoop. Loki wasn't in the mood for ice cream, but grudgingly took the cone. "No appreciation for the classics."

They started walking down the street. Hector cast his eye around. His eyes caught a bird pecking around the ground for food. He gestured, but caught a subtle gesture from Loki out of the side of his eye. Hector snapped his eyes back to the bird. It seemed to be pulling a worm out of the ground. It was supposed to be an earthworm, but a quick look by Hector confirmed that it was a gummy worm. He turned to Loki with a stern look.

Loki adopted a look of pure innocence. "What?"

He was so good at that look even Hector doubted himself for moment. He shook it off and started walking. "Youngsters these days."

Loki basked in the implied comment. Earning Hector's praise was a rare thing. "So, are you going to-" He broke off as he saw another god walking by. "Hello, Grim."

A lanky unassuming man turned to face him. To a human, he looked rather like a accountant who was in a hurry. The PDA in his hands seemed to bolster that impression. The fact that the suit appeared to be at least a size too big sealed the deal. On the plus side, the hair looked impeccable neat. It was a pity he had a pronounced widows peak. The man turned to look and saw Loki and Hector. He adjusted his glasses and replied. "Hi, Hector. Loki." He started walking.

"The Grim Reaper himself." Grumbled Hector. Grim turned to look at him. "Off to ruin someone else's day, are you?"

Loki braced himself; this was going to be interesting. He had long ago made a list of all of Hector's grumbling tones, and this one appeared to be number one hundred and eight: Time for an Abject Lesson.

Grim, however, either didn't recognize the tone or didn't care. He was always in a bit of a hurry these days. Since Earth crossed the four billion inhabitants mark, not to mention the trillions of insects, dogs, cats, and such that were already there, his job made him way too busy to really keep up anything. Grim did have the foresight to appoint a few thousand demigods to help with his collection duties, but they tended to dress in a long black hooded robe. Since Grim was rather fond of modern fashion, he considered this partially humiliating. "Hector, I really don't have time to chat right now."