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toes. Then he'll eat your feet, even though you're still alive and screaming and
beginning him for mercy. But Kinderslüka has no mercy for wicked children
like you. After he's eaten your feet (so you can't run away), he'll eat your
ankles, dipping them in your blood for a special sauce. He'll take his time on
your shins and thighs, for he knows that’s where there is to be found some of
the strongest bones in the body and how he loves a good crunch! You'd think
he might next want to eat your heart, but he knows you'll be no fun after your
heart stops beating, so he'll move on to your fingers and hands, although he'll
be the first to admit he's not terribly fond of your knucklebones. He finds them
too tiny and hardly worth the effort. So if you plead with him 'Please,
Kinderslüka, don't eat my fingers and knuckles! I need them to play my lute
songs in praise of God, he's likely to let you keep them intact. Though little
good they'll do you once he's severed your arms and eaten them clear from the
wrist to the shoulder. By this time, you're likely to be dead by now, I should
think, so you might not bother making a spectacle of yourself pleading for your
knucklebones. Oh. I see I've made my point now, and you're obeying your
father. There's a good little boy.” Effective parenting, that.

But what your parents didn't tell you is that it doesn't matter whether
you're wicked or good; Kinderslüka the Monster is going to eat you. Think
about it: he's not eating children in order to help parents everywhere by
providing them with an effective threat to hold over your head; no, he's just
plain hungry. And if he finds you, he'll eat you. It's really rather simple. You
run, he finds you, you're consumed.

“But can't we hide?” the shivering children of Vierspitzen ask their
parents. No. Kinderslüka is a monster; he has the advantage over you. First
of all, he doesn't tire out like you do. He'll run all night if he needs to. But
more frightening and more unescapable are his eyes. You see, they're magic.
His right eye is made entirely of translucent ruby stone, blood-red, and when
he takes it out, you can see it's the shape of an olive, a dazzling red olive made

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