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

— Kat —

Kat and Lily were back in the room with Eleanora in tow. She’d eventually found them and just sat around while they came up with wild theories about the hotel and enjoyed the pool. Eventually though it was time for dinner, at least according to Eleanora. Apparently they’d already missed lunch, but considering everything that made sense. Back in the room Eleanora presented them with a number of menus for nearby restaurants to look through, apparently everyone next door had the same lists. “Thanks for grabbing these Eleanora,” said Kat.

Lily, who was now in human form and scanning the list beside Kat on the couch, nodded. “Yeah this is convenient. Not totally sure what I want to eat yet… mostly because I question how fresh the fish would be… but yeah thanks for grabbing them,”

Eleanora bowed deeply making sure that Lily got an eye full of cleavage… well in theory. Lily’s eyeline was blocked by the menu and she hadn’t even noticed. “It was no trouble… mostly because all of them were in a stand over in the kitchen. It took me all of a few seconds to grab them and double check with everyone else that both rooms had the same menus. They weren’t making much progress but I think they’re just enjoying the argument,”

“Huh… well… alright then,” said Kat with a shrug. At this point she’d glanced over all the menus on offer but nothing had really stood out to her as particularly interesting. The closest they got were the Golden Goose’s Glove Closet but that shit was way too expensive to bother with and seemed more ‘weird and crazy’ than ‘interesting to try’. The real problem was that even if the ingredients were properly translated Kat had no frame of reference for what they tasted like.

For example, those frogs? Apparently they were rather popular on skewers or as a chicken substitute for higher Ranked individuals with money to burn… but she had no idea what normal frog tasted like let alone magical frog. There were a bunch of herbs and plants she’d never heard of either which meant the exceptional number of salads and other vegetarian options on offer didn’t sound appealing because she had no idea what the ingredients were! There were only a few here and there that made any sense.

“Eleanora got any recommendations? What do you normally eat?” asked Kat.

“I normally just eat whatever is being served at the barracks or go out looking for snacks. If it’s meant to be a real meal I don’t have too much of a preference I like just about anything, but if it’s special I prefer sweets so… I am really not the best person to ask mistress,” answered Eleanora.

“Of course,” sighed Kat. “Let me offer a different question, do you have any recommendations from these menus?”

“Hmm… what are you looking for?” asked Eleanora.

“Um…” Kat glanced over to the side.

“I’m looking for either a good fish dish or something with meat that’s close to raw. I’m fine if it’s completely raw and prepared well but I expect I can’t buy that here, or at least, not easily. I’ve only seen like two fish options and they… seem a little dodgy,” answered Lily.

Kat nodded, “For me I prefer stuff with a bit of impact. Spice and stuff as well as the actual heat of the dish. Oh and I like pears if I’m having them in a salad or something but I can also eat just about anything,”

“Hmm…” Eleanora considered what she remember of the restaurants in the area. “I don’t think there are any good places to get fish in this section of the city. We do get sufficient rainfall for a few rivers and we can get some fish here but the fancier places near the hotel tend to prefer importing them, which either means stasis enchantments or poor quality fish that’s been frozen.

“I think… for both of you? If you didn’t want to go to the Golden Goose I’d recommend ‘Spiced Paprika’ it’s not too far from here and they’ve got a decent menu. It’s that one over there,” Eleanora pointed out a menu that had fallen to the floor. Eleanora bent down to grab it and handed it over as she explained, “You’d probably want the ‘Flaming Flenice Flambe’ it’s got an odd taste to it and the use a spell to keep the food burning for a while. Makes grabbing take out a bit of a dangerous game but I can just use a metal plate to carry it.

“Lily would probably enjoy the… hmm…” Eleanora paused, clearly uncertain with what she was about to say.

“What’s the problem?” asked Lily with a raised eyebrow.

“I was going to recommend a dish called ‘The Bleeding Heart’ which isn’t actually a heart, just a rather lightly seared cut of meat that’s dressed up with a number of herbs that mix well with the blood. I find it quite pleasing… but the meat in question comes from a River Lynx and I’m not sure how you feel about eating feline meat,” explained Eleanora.

Lily considered it for a few moments. [Is it weird I don’t find the idea weird? Like… there’s no disgust response like I once got when I considered trying monkey brains after watching that one movie scene… and in fact I think I still find that idea disgusting. So yeah… lynx meat? Don’t think I care?]

*I have no idea if you should. The chance of you being related to a Water Lynx in any way is pretty remote… and I have no idea how often magical cats prey on each other. So… I dunno? I don’t feel bad about killing people on the odd occasion so I don’t think it’s my place to say if you should eat it or not.*

[This has become a weird conversation.] “They’re not smart right?” asked Lily.

Eleanora shook her head, “No, not at all. In fact they’re some of the dumbest cats I personally know of. The only reason they aren’t going extinct is that they breed more like rabbits than cats and can eat just about anything. I had a fight with a pride of them once and I killed three and then jumped up in a tree to avoid them…

“And they completely forgot I was there after a few seconds and started to eat the corpses of the first three I took out. I was just waiting for them to jump me to see if they had a bit of fight in them or some tactics… but nope. Dumber than a sack of bricks,”

Lily felt a twinge in her jaw. “Odd… I now feel more compelled to remove them from the food chain…”

Kat snickered a bit at Lily’s answer. “Think the others will be interested in going there?”

Eleanora shrugged. “I’m perfectly happy to make the trip to two restaurants. Even if I don’t con Malve into teleporting me around to them both I still have a personal artifact to do so AND I happen to be more than strong enough to just run there and back. I’m more concerned about accidentally damaging the pavement but I personally will be fine,”

Kat stood up, “Well we can ask what the others are going to do…” ask Kat said that she opened the door and nearly got a boot to the face. Instead, she slammed the door shut before it could get to her. The boot still making a clear ‘thunk’ sound when it made contact. “Well… apparently that escalated? Why were they throwing shoes around?”

Lily and Eleanora both shrugged at Kat’s question. Kat sighed, “Right well… how long do you two want to wait to order dinner?”

Eleanora shrugged, “I’m happy to go now and get food for you both and then make a separate trip if necessary,”

“I wouldn’t ask you to do that,” insisted Kat.

“And I wasn’t waiting for you to. I’m offering. Running around the hallways looking for you was interesting enough but I don’t have much of a reason to just stand around doing nothing if you won’t need me,” said Eleanora.

“You really trust this place that much?” asked Kat. “It’s… weird and the fact people go missing is a worry… but even with that in mind you still think it’s fine?”

Eleanora nodded, “Yup. The problems have gone down over the years and you kinda do need to go looking. Plus… the problems are mostly just problems for lower Ranked individuals. Even if you were hurt I’m sure your regeneration could take care of it. The main reason I’m here as a guard, aside from my own amusement was to prevent issues with the guard and they certainly aren’t going to bother sneaking into here,”

Kat glanced over at Lily who shrugged. “Right… well how about we give them like… thirty minutes to calm down? If after that they’re still arguing we can either order then or yell out to see if that stops them and if not just order for ourselves and get on with it,”

“Sounds good,” “I find that acceptable,” agreed the other two.