Edited 1/26/23
Once entering his private room, Rimmon slowly made his way to his bed, dropping flat on his stomach with a heavy thud, sighing loudly and long.
Peeking his head up and looking at the mirror standing against the wall near his bed, Rimmon saw himself in it looking tired. Questioning as to what he is even doing.
What have I got myself into. . .
Rimmon thought to himself rolling onto his back and staring straight up, file gripped tightly in hand. With another audible sigh releasing some of the building stress, Rimmon groaned as he sat up flicking the file open to read over the details of this job.
Possibly his last.
Closing the file, Rimmon looked over to the clothing he would travel in once leaving Hell, Rimmon did a fast wardrobe change enjoying the comfy looseness of them but also how they hugged his body in all the right places, the fake body.
One last thing for Rimmon to do as he walked closer to his standing mirror seeing his original self in it. Rimmon's reflection melted away compacting into a medium orb with a red-brown haze surrounding it. Rimmon dived his hands into the mirror as if he dipped them into a pond or a bucket of water. Slowly, Rimmon pulled the orb out of the mirror creating a water drop noise once the orb was fully out of the mirror.
Rimmon stared at the orb, feeling, himself.
Moving over to his desk laid a pocket watch on the top, but instead of a watch, it was a small mirror. The pocket watch popped open as Rimmon held the orb over it and carefully placed the orb onto the glass before placing his hands around the ball pressing on it, shrinking the ball of energy into the small pocket watch mirror. When the orb vanished into the pocket watch it shut immediately, Rimmon lit a black candle and used the wax from it to seal the pocket watch shut.
Rimmon's knees gave out and he collapsed to the ground breathing deeply, a pain in his chest, a missing pain ached terribly so for a few seconds before he felt, nothing. . .
Rimmon was a very talented demon, he may mostly do entertainment for others, but Rimmon is a master of disguise. All demons could change their appearance and smell, but Rimmon is the only demon to disguise or more like hide his entire power, so good that crosses and holy water did not affect him.
Now when Rimmon looked into the mirror, all that stood before him was Cozbi.
I'm Cozbi. I'm Cozbi, I'm Cozbi. . .
Rimmon repeated into his head grabbing his suitcase, "I'm Cozbi." Rimmon said lastly before leaving his room.
Cozbi quickly made her way through the pits of Hell reaching the ends of the pentagrams and stopping at a river. After a quick pay and ride on the fairy to the other end, Cozbi finally made her way to the location Ki sent her, hearing his voice up ahead. Cozbi looked at Ki who stood next to a hooded character standing about the same height as Ki.
"There you are Cozbi." Ki announced looking over to the sweet cat girl that now stood in front of him.
"My apologies for being late." Cozbi bowed.
"This here is your escort Cozbi, meet Jaheel." Ki gestured to the mystery figure next to him.
"Honored to meet you Lady Cozbi." Jaheel greeted taking Cozbi's hand in his and placing a soft kiss on the back of it. Cozbi was stunned by this interaction and intrigued by his smooth thick accent. From others Cozbi met with similar accents and their stories, she knew these accents to be called desert walkers.
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well Jaheel." Cozbi smiled shyly getting a smile from Jaheel.
"Jaheel will make sure you have a safe trip to Operiel." Ki explained to Cozbi looking at Jaheel.
"It is my duty to protect you till my very last breath Lady Cozbi, a hair will not be out of place." Jaheel knelt down before Cozbi, his accent amusing her.
"Very good." Ki joined in watching Jaheel stand before continuing, "These will be your emblems for entering and exiting through Gates, they will only be visible when you are near a Hell Gate." Ki reached his hand out to me. I placed my smaller one in his as he placed his other over the top of mine, a warm pinch made me flinch slightly. He released my hand and I noticed the upside-down pentagram branded on the back of my hand. Ki did the same to Jaheel. "I wish you both luck, and there is no room for failure. I need to get back to work now." Ki gave his encouraging last words before leaving the two at the Gate.
"Shall we." Jaheel held his big hand out toward Cozbi who grasped his before following him through the giant horror-looking Gate.
It started as darkness as Cozbi followed behind Jaheel.
SPLASH!
Cozbi's entire body was covered in a weird liquid that cooled her body from Hell's heat. Opening her eyes she was met with bright lights and colors all around her, though the image was blurry.
"Lady Cozbi!" Cozbi heard Jaheel's muffled voice as he pulled her up from the water.
Cozbi coughed and wiped at her eyes getting the liquid out of them. She squinted for a bit before she really took in her surrounding. Cozbi quickly looked around taking in everything, this was a once-in-a-lifetime image for her.
For Rimmon. . .
"Are you hurt?" Jaheel brought Cozbi back.
"Oh, no I'm fine. I must have tripped on something while we passed onto this plane." Cozbi replied with a smile looking at him.
Cozbi finally got a look at Jaheel, the man behind the hood, and it wasn't a man. Jaheel was quite a handsome man, scratch that, a very good-looking male. Jaheel's large muscular frame towered over Cozbi, she glanced over his brown strong arms where scars scattered across them. Following his hairy scarred forearms to his juicy biceps, Cozbi noticed how his plain black Tee tucked into his ripped black jeans above his combat boots hugged his bulging body from the water. Cozbi moved her gaze up to avoid looking at Jaheel's very impressive muscular body.
Didn't work.
Jaheel had a thick black full beard that lined his squared-cut jaw connecting to the mustache over his fine kissable lips. His beard connected up with his hair as well, Jaheel seemed to have slicked his hair back after it has gotten wet. Cozbi did notice that his eyes were hidden behind a pair of shades he wore, but his thick expressive eyebrows spoke for his eyes.
Lastly, Cozbi noticed pointy black hound ears sticking out of his head.
"Let's move out of this water." Jaheel offered holding his big hand out to Cozbi.
"Thank you." Cozbi said taking his hand.
Jaheel lead the way toward the shore of the small pond they were dumped in by the Gate. Jaheel lifted Cozbi up onto the edge before climbing out himself.
"You dropped this as well." Jaheel placed Cozbi's suitcase down next to her.
"Sorry, I lost my grip on it when I fell." Cozbi apologized.
"No need for sorry's, a weird spot for a Gate." Jaheel replied with a smile.
"I had no clue you had ears. . . And a tail." Cozbi noticed the tail mid-sentence.
"Correct, this is my human form to not freak people up here that much. My true form is a hound."
"You're a Hell Hound?" Cozbi asked in interest.
"At your service my Lady." Jaheel kneeled down again in front of Cozbi.
"May I touch them?" Cozbi's evil thoughts slipped out embarrassing herself instantly.
"If it'll make you happy my Lady." Jaheel replied staying on one knee.
Cozbi slowly and hesitantly moved her hand out reaching for Jaheel's hound ears. When her fingers found the furred ear, Cozbi was amazed by how soft his hound ear was, so much so that she went to town petting his ears.
"If I may Lady Cozbi." Jaheel's words brought Cozbi out of her amazement.
"Yes?"
"The sun is falling and we have a mile to reach the nearest Inn." Jaheel told Cozbi making her stop petting his ears.
Any longer and he wouldn't be able to stop his tail from wagging and groaning from how good it felt to feel her rub his ears.
"That would be smart." Cozbi coughed to herself looking over to the sun slowly falling to the mountains in the distance. "The sunset would be beautiful to watch." Cozbi added.
"Have you seen them before Lady Cozbi?"
"I haven't only read about them since I've been in Hell all my existence. Yet I have a feeling deep inside that I've seen sunsets but never seen one before." Cozbi mostly talked to herself near the end of her words.
"You can watch the sunset as you ride my back on our way to the Inn." Jaheel proposed the idea.
"I don't want to make you work that hard." Cozbi denied the request.
"It'll be safer and quicker my Lady, especially since we do not know the dangers that come with the night in these parts." Jaheel egged on.
"If you insist, I don't want it to be trouble."
"No trouble at all my Lady." Jaheel bowed his head before shifting into his hound form.
Cozbi felt the need to look away as Jaheel's clothing expanded and ripped apart as his big Hell hound body emerged.
"Just hop on my Lady." Jaheel words qued Cozbi to turn back around.
A large volcanic rock black-furred hound stood about her height, a few inches taller, eyes red and orange like the flames of Hell.
"How fun." Cozbi commented getting comfortable on Jahee'ls warm furry back.
"Hold on Lady Cozbi." Jaheel waited till she motioned him to start on his way.
The two made it to the Inn in no time, Cozbi really enjoyed the forest that surrounded them as she relished in the wind that danced through her hair and tickled her face as Jaheel ran toward the Inn. The smell of pine and wet grass filled her nostrils, a first feeling for Cozbi while as before though, a very reminiscing feeling too.
"Time to spare, we can check in and find a way onto the roof." Jaheel said lying down for Cozbi to safely slid off his back, suitcase in hand.
"How will the owner react to you?" Cozbi asked since she knows that Hell Hounds don't just wander the living world normally.
"I can play off as your familiar." Jaheel replied, shrinking to an average Hound dog sitting by her side.
"Let's do this." Cozbi took a breath in and then took her first step toward the Inn.