D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

The group made the journey back into the warehouse, taking the other pathway this time. The journey seemed shorter to Kat now that they knew where they were going. Or perhaps it was that she had seen some of Chekov’s best work, and the other things, while well made, were rather plain comparatively. Compared to Lily’s desk, a simple well carved office desk with a few drawers was unbelievably boring.

Though… even with Lily’s desk in mind, when Kat finally arrived at Sylvie’s, she wasn’t prepared. It was so completely different in style and appearance that it took a few seconds for Kat to realise that it even was a desk at all. It was only the strange colouring on the piece along with the extra details that helped clear that fact up.

The entire structure of the desk appeared to be a small tree, only slightly taller than Kat’s own height when counting her horns. The colours were drastically different though. The bark was a soft white colour that matched Kat’s own skin shockingly well. The leaves at the top of the tree were also pale, but they had the slightest tinge of blonde and looked more like Sylvie’s hair than anything else.

Complimenting this, were thick green ’vines’ that wound around the tree and had various flowers that hung from them. There were so many and in such a vast array of colours that Kat had to wonder if she could only make out the differences because of her advanced sight. Not a single colour was repeated, each and every flower had some slight difference in both colour and appearance.

The colours, while splashed semi-randomly, did seem to trend towards brightening as they got closer to the top. The lowest flower, a large rose that sat off to the right, was a pitch black, with its counterpart on the left a grey lotus flower. Those were about the only ones Kat recognised by name.

The thing that Kat still didn’t understand though… was how exactly was this a desk? For all intents and appearances, it was just a small tree. A beautiful tree, and a work of art to be sure but just a tree. That was when Kat noticed Sylvie running up to it. Right in the very centre of the bark, and around the top of Sylvie’s current reach, was bright lily of some kind. It was mostly yellow with a stripe of pink down the middle.

Sylvie walked up the flower in question and grasped it like a door handle. Turning it, gave off a clicking sound and as Sylvie stepped back the tree split down the middle, opening up to reveal a new scene. As it did so, Kat watched Sylvie’s entire face light up, with her eyes going extremely wide, to compliment her huge smile.

Well, firstly it also revealed a desk which looked like it was covered in grass. Though, as Kat looked closely at it, she revised that idea. It didn’t look like grass; she was fairly certain it was grass covered in varnish. It was nice, but nothing spectacular for the tabletop. Especially not when comparing it to Lily’s elaborate library carving that included her friends.

Of course, Chekov wasn’t one to just slack off like that, and so it was another part that received his attention. On the inside of the doors as well as the backing wall, was a series of small houses that seemed to be set into the ’trunk’ of the tree. He had created a small village with around ten houses, and each being about the size of Kat’s palm.

There were rope bridges connected the various houses, as well as stairs that seemed to sneak into the bark and come out connected to other lower or higher landings. Kat traced a path through the village and found that it was rather well connected. The houses each had their own slightly different architectural style with each taking from their neighbours as well.

The first one was a mushroom house, that looked to be a very standard affair for fairies or something. Despite this, the windows were done in a more traditional Japanese style with paper covering them. This was because next to them, was what looked more like a traditional Japanese pagoda. The only difference was that the roof was covered in spots like a mushroom.

This blending of the styles continued, mixing and matching across the entire set piece. Just when Kat thought it couldn’t get any better, she noticed Chekov was crouched in the corner. She had been more than a little distracted. There was a small click with whatever Chekov was doing, and once the sound rang out, Chekov gave a nod and said. ”Pull lightly on that rope bridge”

Sylvie nodded, and gave the bridge between the first two a slight tug. When she did so, lights came on all over the desk. Each flower seemed to have their own backlight from what Kat could see, but that wasn’t what impressed her, it was the fairy village.

Each house now had its own set of light coming from them, as well as little coloured lights along all of the rope bridges. What the light did though, was reveal a number of figures across the houses, and Kat smiled as she started to recognise them all.

Each of the figures had been ’fairyified’ in some way but were all instantly recognisable. In the mushroom house was a tiny Sylvie with glowing eyes and tiny feathery wings coming out of her back. The little figure gazed at the scene in wonder.

Next door to that was the pagoda, which had Callisto in her signature maid outfit. Behind her back was two wings that floated near her back, but clearly separate. She also seemed to have lights that ran up her arms and flashed occasionally.

Next to that was a little cottage that was next in line and below the pagoda. It had tiles on the roof like the pagoda, but looked the most like a small house. Inside Kat could make out a number of bookshelves, and in front of them all sat a tiny copy of Lily. The biggest difference was that her glasses were much too large for her face, easily covering most of it. Her wings looked like they were made from folded paper, as if someone had made them with origami.

After that, was the very middle house. It looked like a tiny Taj Mahal, except the stone was completely black and it didn’t have any of the extra pillars. Each dome looked to be made out of paper with some writing on it, while the rest of the structure looked to be completely black. Inside was a miniature version of… herself. The only difference was that instead of one set of wings, she instead had two sets. That was all though, and Kat found that of all the small figures, she looked the most like herself.

Next to that was actually a tiny copy of Vivian’s house, and so it was no surprise that the figure inside would be Vivian herself. She was standing in the doorway looking to the side at all the others houses with a thoughtful look on her face. Vivian’s wings were a set of butterfly wings that must have had lights inside them as they seemed to shift colours extremely slowly.

The house after that was also very familiar to Kat. It was a smaller copy of the orphanage she and Sylvie used to live in. Looking through the window showed Gramps in his office surrounded by piles and piles of paper, with ’wings’ made out of rugs that seemed to hover behind him. Each seemed to just float behind him, and didn’t seem to care there was a chair in between him and the rugs. Gramps had the slightest smile on his face.

None of the other houses seemed to have anything in them except for the mushroom house on the very edge of the other side which seemed to be a mirrored copy of the first, fit with its own miniature Sylvie and all.

Kat was broken out of her admiration by Vivian’s question. ”This is fabulous but… Chekov, how would anyone actually sit down at a desk like that? There is no place for their feet”

Chekov chuckled ”You tink I would forget something that simple? Vivian you wound me”

Chekov shared a glance with Sylvie who nodded and slipped off to the side. Taking Sylvie’s old space Chekov bent down and reached towards one of the vines that covered the trunk. His finger slipped behind the vine, and the click that sounded out meant he must have pressed something.

Once again, the tree opened up. The doors this time weren’t as large as the one for the desk, only large enough for a grown person’s legs and not much more. However, inside that small space was a number of drawers. They were all really tiny, and set into either wall, but they covered the entire interior.

Sylvie smiled ”I never doubted you Chekov”

Chekov returned that smile ”See the little one believes in me!”