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

With that last statement Kat decided peace was no longer an option. This Thyme was being wilfully ignorant. Kat didn’t think it was possible to be so impossibly dense while fire closes in around them. Perhaps, in less extreme circumstances such foolishness could be fine, but all the Thyme in question had to do was pay attention to the sound of all the fire. Still, she was not willing to let three ’people’ die because one was an idiot. That and it would probably cost them some score at the end.

Kat pulled her head from the small hole and kicked down at the floor cracking the floorboards and causing them to collapse. The combined force of her strike and all the weight from the rubble was enough to widen the hole and cause Kat to ’fall’ in as well. She was ready for it of course and managed to slide down the small pile of rocks to end up right in front of Dad Thyme. She needed to crouch slightly, something she hadn’t realised before, because of her horns but that was only a minor inconvenience. ”Look, I’ve tried to be nice. I’ve tried to be reasonable about this but I will not have two kids burn alive because you can’t be bothered to get away from the fire. I’m asking one last time. Will you leave?”

Dad Thyme didn’t say anything. He simply crouched lower and shifted his shield, not to properly cover himself, but to cover the girls standing behind him. Kat even through the annoyance found the action kind of sweet. She did wonder why they were smart enough to protect ’his daughters’ but not to realise the danger of the situation, but Kat had done enough pondering about this idiot. Kat dashed forward summoning her fan in its closed position. She wanted to go for a simple chop to the head and knock the fool out.

So when, instead of the shaky uncertain movements she expected, Kat watched as the shield practically teleported into the path of her blow and PUSHED HER BACK. WHAT! Kat stared open mouthed at the Thyme who was STILL SHAKING. *What the heck? His stance is horrible, his hands are shaking and the grip on his sword looks like he wants to strangle the thing not wield it. Why is this Thyme actually a good fighter?*

”I knew it! You’re just trying to get to me kids! Well I won’t let you have them,” shouted ’Dad’ as they shuffled their feet around like they were trying to mimic a boxer. It took three seconds for them to nearly trip over five times and only the fact the Thyme with the pigtails held them in place stopped them simply falling over.

*Ok. What the heck is this nonsense? This isn’t realistic at all! Unless…* Kat paused as a strange idea came into her mind, *maybe it’s not supposed to be? Like… this is a challenge. The point isn’t to have realistic looking people, it’s to have realistic enough looking people with min-challenges involved to make them come with you. This isn’t a combat task and trying to make it one will fail. For the kid and his grandma… maybe I had to find them both else the kid would have gone back in anyway… or maybe not. Am I possibly overthinking this?*

*Well, I have time to think about it as long as I’m willing to burn a bit of demonic energy for the slowdown… but I don’t have any better ideas regarding how to convince this idiot to leave. I bet that if this is all staged there’s something here that will set off another explosion. If not that, something will get the fire down here. Hmm…*

”Is your Dad always like this?” asked Kat towards the older of the two sisters.

Ponytail shrugged and said, ”No not normally, why would he be fighting for his life on the regular? He’s just the local scribe.”

*Well if that didn’t confirm something screwy is going on here I don’t know what more I could want for a signal. Still… it doesn’t provide any good answers.* ”Right… well… do you believe what I’m saying about the fire? It’s clear your father isn’t going to budge on this for some reason,” said Kat.

Ponytail shrugged, ”I dunno. Dad does tend to be write, and he taught us everything we know… but you seem pretty polite so who knows,”

Dad Thyme glared at Ponytail for that. ”That’s how the devils get you. They sing sweet lullabies that sound good before ripping out your soul or casting you into despair.”

Kat sighed. ”Where do people get that kind of idea. Look, I can’t eat your soul and I don’t know how I’d even go about that if I wanted to. I just want you not to burn to death. Is that so hard for you three to comprehend?”

”Yes” said all three Thyme’s at once. Luckily for Kat, the floor decided to give up slightly for a moment and a flaming pile of rocks fell through the floor off to the side.

”Well what about that?” said Kat pointing to the mostly still on fire debris.

”Happens all the time,” said ’Dad’ with Pigtails Thyme nodding along as if that made perfect sense.

”You can’t be serious?” asked Kat pleadingly.

Just as they were about to answer in the affirmative, Kat heard another crack happen and watched in slow motion as the floor just to the side of the Thyme family started to give way. Kat moved to try and pull them out of the way but found herself once again blocked by the damned shield. Ignoring that after three attempts Kat pulled her wing up and around letting the debris slam into the tight leather skin scratching it slightly but nothing her regeneration couldn’t deal with.

”One last chance. This time I won’t fight you to save your daughters, I’ll just leave you here. I’ve been MORE than accommodating. If this wasn’t the last damned house in the street I checked I would’ve left you all by now. There are THREE fires happening at the moment. Every second you waste here fighting me is a second I’m not helping someone else. Now wake the FUCK up and look around you. If you don’t think your house is on fire then not only are you an idiot, but you’re also clearly blind!” growled Kat.

Dad Thyme still looked unsure but Ponytail Thyme ducked around his grip, something that should have been impossible based on his previous performance, but in the end she managed to escape past him to stand behind Kat. ”I believe her now Dad,” said Ponytail.

Dad Thyme looked very torn, glancing between Pigtails and Ponytail Thymes as if trying to make up his mind who to follow. Slightly weird considering the kids should be following him… but what did Kat know. At this point she was willing to just go along with however this scenario was going to play out and try to get them clear. The fact the fire took so long to spread to this room just implied further that Thyme was controlling everything so she might as well play her part.

”How can you trust her?” asked Dad Thyme, ”I bet she’s fire resistant that’s why she blocked the strike. This is just another trick to get us to leave the safety of this room!”

Kat rolled her eyes. *Oh no you’ve figured out I have fire resistance. Whatever shall I do. It’s not like I also stopped ten kilo’s worth of debris from falling on you as well. Even if I can just ignore the pain at this point doesn’t make it a pleasant experience. Plus, what the heck are you going to do once the room fills with fire? The floor is already collapsing!*

”Dad, we can just run away from her once we get out of here. At the moment, we’re trapped down here WITH her. If we get outside there’s more room to run away, and if she’s right about the fire we can avoid that too,” said Ponytail, though it was clear that even if there was ’more room’ they didn’t believe they could outrun Kat. Not surprising considering they’d already seen her speed and strength.

Dad Thyme grumbled a little bit more but nodded. FINALLY ”Alright, but we’ll be getting out under our own power,” NO! said ’Dad’ firmly.

Kat decided to ignore him and scoop up Ponytail before sprinting up out of the hole. ”GET BACK HERE FIEND!” said ’Dad’ as he chased behind Kat, scrambling up the debris before pulling himself up onto the street. Kat grinned as she ran away from the burning buildings and the Thyme followed her. She did watch closely and was happy to see Dad Thyme pulled Pigtail Thyme along as well. Kat was not looking forward to sneaking around to grab the little one if it proved necessary. *That was like pulling teeth.. Finally got everyone out of the damned street! Let’s hope the rest of the fire isn’t so bad.*