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

— Kat —

Thirty minutes of back and forth ideas that were never going to work later Kat let out a long sigh and said, “Alright enough. Clearly nothing standard is going to work. We checked and don’t have the materials to build anything fancy because of what it is. Does anyone have any ideas that have even the slimmest chance of working instead of being outright impossible?”

“Umm…” Kat looked over in surprise that it was Lily that spoke up. “Technically… I have spatial affinity and Thyme did give me a few hints about it… I think? I wouldn’t give it good odds but now that I’m Rank 3 and I’ve experienced a massive blast of time energy… well that and I noticed things about the space we moved through nobody else did… I might be able to use my magic to do something…”

“What’s the issue?” asked Meg. “Because there seems to be a massive but hanging around in those words,”

Lily sighed, “It’s… I don’t actually know any space spells. I have a few good guesses and I’m confident I can make something happen… but it might not be something we want and it certainly wouldn’t be ideal. My best idea would be to make a… a bag that can hold the rock inside it or perhaps shrink it down…?”

“And the big problem is?” asked Kat.

Lily sighed again, letting her shoulders and ears droop. It was adorable of course, but now Kat was getting concerned. “It’s just… not safe at all. This mist is bursting with spatial energy and anything I do here? Regarding space spells that is… well it would be magnified a ridiculous amount. Honestly?

I give it generous 50/50 odds of doing nothing or collapsing into a singularity,”

“That… well ok then,” said Kat.

“Yeah I’m going to put my foot down and say we’re not doing that,” said Meg. “I may not be too concerned with things most of the time… but yeah we’re not doing that,”

Kat decided to just ignore Meg and consider their options. It… quickly became clear they didn’t have too many. “So… I have another idea,” said Kat.

“And you didn’t suggest it before why?” asked Meg accusingly, as if she hadn’t been trying to delay then whenever she could get away with it.

“I hadn’t thought of it before. I was sort of expecting to find a more… workable solution involving moving the rock, and before that I had expected destroying it to be possible. It occurred to me that I needed a third option… and I have it. What if we leave someone, or someones behind to guard this rock while the others go look for the next piece and we pray that it’s smaller,”

“Oh? And how would you divide those teams?” asked Meg.

Kat shrugged and said, “The only way it makes sense. At least, the main part of the groups. Meg, there’s no way you would give up the compass,” Meg nodded, “and there’s no way you’d leave Hunter behind,” Meg nodded again, “so you and Hunter will have to go to the away team.

“For the ’stay’ team it should probably be me and I want to keep Lily with me. Technically our telepathic link means we should split up… but this is going to take days, maybe weeks though hopefully not quite that long. I just don’t want to be separated from her that long so I’m going to force the issue. Considering you’d be with Hunter I imagine you won’t object?” Meg nodded again.

“I wish to register my complaints,” added Hunter.

“Yes but are you going to do anything else?” asked Kat.

“No,” admitted Hunter.

Kat sighed and said, “So basically the same as agreeing. I get that you don’t want to and I understand you’d have complaints… but I don’t see any alternative that Meg is going to accept, and while you’ve complained and fought… it’s never something that’s escalated into a concern. So…” Kat finished with a shrug not sure what else to say on the matter.

Hunter glared for a bit but didn’t contradict her either.

“Right… so with that sorted? You’ve got two teams of two. Now, I imagine Bower is going to want to go with the away team. Both in case of something going wrong, and the also because if he was to wait around… well the town isn’t that far away so if he was staying behind I imagine the fact he has to camp out right on the edge of the mists here would be an irritant.

But I mostly thought he should go along for his knowledge,”

Bower gave a shrug Kat wasn’t really sure how to interpret… so she didn’t bother trying and simply continued on with explaining. “That just leaves Kamiko… and I’m not really sure where to assign her. If we want to split up evenly, three and three that’s fine but… well we’re not exactly expecting any issues.

I imagine I can fight off most anything that attacks us and I’m not even sure that my staying will be necessary anyway. I’d be more comfortable sending of the away team with four members but I don’t have too strong feelings on the matter. What do you think Kamiko?”

“Oh… um…” Kamiko mumbled as she looked from Kat to Meg and back again. Kat winced as she realised the concern was mostly from Meg. “I… don’t have a… well I can go either way I guess?”

“Kamiko I’m fine with you sticking with us if you want,” added Kat. “I wasn’t trying to get any alone time with Lily with this plan, it just seemed to be the best I could manage,”

Kamiko went bright red and looked to be about to say something when Meg cut in, “Nah she’ll be fine. I’ll make sure that nothing hurts Kamiko here,” Meg even walked over to pull Kamiko into a hug, pressing the smaller girl into her chest and making Kamiko even more uncomfortable. “I promise she’d be perfectly safe,”

*I’m not sure Kamiko is all that worried about her safety… and now I’m sort of regretting throwing her towards Meg. I… don’t really know what I was thinking? No that’s not true. I know I was thinking that Lily and I could start building a basic fort and that we could defend against, or run away if we really needed to as the only people here with flight capability… though Kamiko might have that now?

She hasn’t shown it off.

Um… anyway. Lily what do you think? I… yeah I feel kinda bad now but ignoring the… Meg issue I really did think it was better for Kamiko to go with them.*

[I think you’re right, it’s best Kamiko goes with the other group. Having more people could be useful, especially if they pick up more than one piece of the drake. That being said… I might only think it because, while you might not have intended this as some ’together time’ I quickly reached that conclusion and… I sort of would like it to be?

Kamiko is lovely and I’m not going to complain… but we haven’t exactly had much time alone on this trip and it would be a nice way to relax.]

*Lewd.*

[NOT LIKE THAT!]

Kat stifled her smile as Lily babbled mentally and tried to force down her embarrassment. With her focus returning to the real world, she could see that Meg had let Kamiko go… though she was sticking close. Kamiko didn’t exactly look comfortable but she seemed more determined at the very least.

Kat chewed on the inside of her lip for a few moments before asking, “So… is that the plan? Lily and I stay here and protect the rock here while you guys go looking for more? I trust you’d be strong enough to carry it? Though… Hunter can you carry stuff that weight? I don’t really understand the physics of… anything in regards to how you move,”

Hunter nodded, “Yes I can carry heavy objects though if it was such a large issue I may be better served building a sled and pulling it in my full snake form. It would likely be easier for Meg to carry it, but I make no promises on her behalf,”

“Hey, if I could save my Lil Sis from lugging around rocks all day I might just volunteer myself. We’ll have to see what it weighs though…” said Meg.

“Um… if… if it’s not too heavy I can make an attempt?” offered Kamiko. Meg patted the succubus on the head at the response.

“Aren’t you just adorable,” mumbled Meg.

“Any advice for Lily and I?” asked Kat hoping to pull some of Meg’s attention. “It’ll probably be fine but I mean… if you know anything might be best to speak up now,”

Your journey continues at empire

“Nah, we can talk about it over dinner ain’t no way I’m leaving early so get to cooking Kat!” insisted Meg.

Kat rolled her eyes but didn’t really care that much. “Dinner is still hours away… but I suppose I can do up something somewhat fancy you can have as leftovers. Or I could just do a whole bunch of food? Hmm…”