"What country is this?" I asked the old man.
He shrugged, unable to understand me.
I approached a little village of wood.
The locals seemed to avoid my presence.
I asked if anyone spoke English well.
An old woman raised a hand of wrinkles.
I inquired again about the land.
She claimed it all belonged to Lord Brimstone.
I said I wanted to meet this famed man.
She said he is not a man or woman.
He is neither plant, animal, or human.
I told her I had business to conduct.
She tried to convince me not to see him.
I laughed at her fear and continued on.
I reached the mansion belonging to him.
My eyes caught a glimpse of a tall fellow.
He somberly took me to Lord Brimstone.
I was stunned when I finally saw him.
His eyes were insect like, round and bulging.
No pupil, just blue with crisscrossing lines.
The lower half of his face had a mask.
His mouth was bulging underneath the cloth.
When he tugged it down, I saw tentacles.
Yellow things going in each direction.
Somehow, this unearthly creature could speak.
It asked me about my journey to him.
It asked about life in my own country.
It offered me food, water, and shelter
I answered politely, fearing offense.
Lord Brimstone used its tentacles to eat.
They grasped rocks and crushed them into powder.
Then he would lean down and breathe in the stuff.
Brimstone's country had the best cocoa beans.
We were looking to make a good trade deal.
As we discussed terms, I tried not to stare.
He soon moved to drink a glass of water.
A tentacle dipped itself in the glass.
It absorbed the liquid like a sponge would.
Brimstone's physiology was quite strange.
Soon the being noticed I was staring.
"Does my appearance startle you?" He asked.
I insisted that it was no bother.
A high pitched laugh emerged from the creature.
It seemed to echo through his whole body.
"I used to look like any other man."
Brimstone explained how he killed local tribes.
He did this to control the cocoa beans.
He claimed an angry witch doctor cursed him.
Then he awoke one day and looked like that.
He unfastened his flowing purple cloak.
He revealed his yellow, deformed body.
No words could adequately describe it.
He had three shriveled arms, one in his chest.
His skin was a sick yellow with green dots.
His two feet resembled paws like a dog.
Half formed wings jutted out from his backside.
His skin clung tight to his skeleton frame.
I could not repress my frightened screaming.
Lord Brimstone banished me from his presence.
Needless to say, our deal was forgotten.
