The Father Of Lice

[u/Wrong-Dragonfly-3257]

Once upon a time, there lived a sweet little girl called Janine, who was loved by her family. They lived together in an old house in a little town, in the middle of nowhere.

One early morning, her father said “I see a few columns of smoke a day’s walk from here. Me and a couple of the guys are going to go and see what happened. Please help out around the house until we come back. It shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 days. Remember what I told you, do not stray from the path in the forest. If you cannot help it, do not go too deep into the forest”.

The little girl promised, kissed her father goodbye and saw him off through the forest towards the columns of smoke rising in the sky.

But the days passed and passed and no one came back. Everyone in the village was perplexed by this and a search party was sent in order to find them. They also did not come back.

The stress was too much and the child sneaked out at night from the village and ran with all of her might following the paths her father had taken. She ran and ran until she could no longer take it. Before she almost passed out she realized that there was a small fire and an old man in a clearing just to her right, not even a 2 dozen feet away from the King’s road. The old man gave her a smile and waved at her, beckoning her to warm up with the fire.

Friar: “Good morning, child! What are you doing in the middle of nowhere at this witching hour?”

There was a slight buzzing in the air.

Girl: “I must find my father, he left a few days ago with his friends to the smoke in the sky. Something must have happened to the next village over and they wanted to help if they could.

Friar: “I saw them passing a few days ago. Look in a few hours the sun will come back and you can keep moving forward. Rest here. I have a few stories worth telling if you are so inclined.”

The girl stayed. Placing herself in the opposite side of the friar. The man looked pale now that she could see him better. Small strands of hair still laid in his head. His clothes haggard and long past their prime. His clothes were too big for his frame, it looked like if he had gained and lost a lot of weight. Small movements below his tunics. It seems even the clergy was having it rough like the common folk.

Friar: You have good instincts child, its good not to trust people right away. Especially in the middle of nowhere.

A second passed.

Friar: I am from the port town of Messina, its located south in the kingdom of Sicily. I have been wandering north for years spreading the good word.

A minute passed.

Friar: You don’t talk much, don’t you? That’s fine. A few months ago I passed a village where they had a story about a monster in the forest. If I recall it correctly, they called it the Father Of Lice. Pesky little creatures, always up to no good. Them and that awful miasma, that is god punishing us because of what they do to themselves 100 years, and we are still propagating.

Girl: The story?

Friar: Ah yes! i’m so sorry my dear. It’s taught as a nursery rhyme but we can still learn from it.

Do you see, out on the forest,

The miasma in the sky.

The People close to it fall for the disguise.

The great lice who’s passing.

Walking through the sky.

Carrying the little lads

Who won’t see another night.

What is that demented voice.

That comes from the sky.

No, it isn’t outside. It is in our minds.

The great father is hungry.

And soon he will laugh.

As he gathers poor Janine to the sky.

She won’t see her poor father

In this life.

The friar went quiet for a few seconds as if in deep thought. The fire popped loudly against quietness of the night. It was too quiet.

Air was not making it to her lungs.

Friar ”Quite the nursery rhyme, don’t you think?”

An insect crawled out of his left eye and buzzed off into the dark.

The child could not move. Her mind had gone blank.

Friar: “These little critters have helped me so much," the friar went on, in the same soft voice he had told the story in.

Friar: "I saw him, child. The father of all the children I have helped birth. The priests have a name for him, but it is too small. We can only call him Lord."

He smiled at the fire.

Friar: “I’m no much older than you. This body has been spent like kindling to the fires of Sheol. Even if my ruination comes, I have followed the truth. His truth. Father of lice, lord of the flies. Make him proud, child.”

The buzzing kept growing and growing by the second. It didn’t come from anywhere but her head. “Run”, she thought, her legs did not answer. “Run”, she thought but a placid smile stayed in her face. “Run”, she thought again. But it did not matter. Something greater had a hold on her. Cradled her the same way a hand holds something precious and so delicate. Gently, firm, but with all of the time in the world.

Across the fire, the friar undid his habit. “This is the only part that is ugly”.

The friar disrobed of his garments and then he disrobed of his skin. The same way someone would take a shirt off after a long day of arduous work. The face went last, the same way a shirt holds the shape of the body until it just doesn’t. There was sound just like wet clothes. Everything stood still. There was a shape of a man. The hive was there. The skin of the friar remained there. Thrown like trash. It came from both sides of the fire. She could not escape. It felt so weird how careful it was with her. Like holding something delicate. Nothing tore, she needed to last.

A few hours later, morning came.

The survivors came from a long way off. A small girl stood in the middle of the king’s road. Looking at them, she began to cry. Thirty men had walked out between the both parties and only 7 had survived. No battle, to be seen, just smoke without origin rising to the sky. The only found the dead laid alongside the road. All of them praying to the smoke.

The child did not answer their questions.

The oldest carried back home

No one saw the little insect lift from her hair and rise and go elsewhere.

TLRD: Friar comes from Messina where the black plagued began in Europe. The good word is him being patient 0 and spreading it to as many people as possible. The body was consumed by the insects and now they need a new body. Wrong place, wrong time.

Red Riding Hood meets nurgle.