On the Efreet

Too much attention from Summer leaves a sensation akin to being scorched by an unrelenting sun in a waterless desert. Indeed there are places in Faerie, where Summer dwelt too long, leaving behind only dunes and rocky crags, bereft of all vegetation. When the difficulty of its task threatens to overwhelm it, the Efreet comes to these solitary places and replenishes its spirit. "While it is true," the fire spirit reflects, "that I have not yet returned with the azer (for that is its word for the fire dwarf), it is not altogether unreasonable to consider my failure to date as a demand for an extension of my stay in Faerie and a continuing reprieve from the boredom of my overseer's station in the smithies of Hell." It is dangerous for the Efreet to dwell overlong on this train of thought for if it allows itself to be consumed by its reluctance to return to Hell, it might well abandon the hunt for the fire dwarf entirely, at which point it no longer has any purpose in its existence and may well vanish instantaneously from Faerie. Such spontaneous disappearances have been known to occur.