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

— Kat —

Behind them a series of cages floated along as if attached by an invisible string, five of them, each with their own individual monsters. Kat heard Nixilei’s sharp hiss from behind her at the same time Skye cursed under her breath. Kat looked between the two of them a few times and while Nixilei was hiding it better than Skye neither of them looked happy. “Um… is there… a problem? I mean the fact that they have familiars isn’t ideal from a strength standpoint but…”

Nixilei was beat to the punch when Skye spat words laced with venom. “Calling them familiars is a disgrace. I struggle to believe any of them were acquired with proper methods…” Skye seemed both angry and disgusted at the sight… but didn’t explain further.

So Kat turned to Nixilei who grimaced and said. “The familiar ritual is traditionally…” Skye scoffed audibly and louder than strictly necessary to ensure everyone knew her disapproval. Nixilei glared over Kat’s shoulder and continued, “traditionally it is done by finding a monster compatible with you in some way. Perhaps you raised it from birth. Perhaps you entreated with it and earned its respect…

“Once secured you perform the binding. Something in the ritual… warns? Explains? Imprints the idea of? We are unsure but familiars do know what the bindings entail. Should they resist during the process the entire ritual breaks apart and it is not cheap to perform. Especially not if the monster is strong. There are simpler versions of course but they are much less reliable and often have side effects for both participants… that’s not what was done here… in fact…”

Nixilei paused unsure of her to word things. “If you… the ritual… the ritual responds not to… desire to be joined but… a lack of resistance. Which is a different thing of course…” [No!]

*What? Did you figure it out?*

[Kat it’s obvious! If the familiar just needs to not resist… then you can… well I might suggest that you can just have them be asleep or maybe drugged but… but based on Nixilei’s distaste I suspect the disobedience is… more literally beaten out of them.]

Kat grimaced and Nixilei, not quite paying her full attention attributed the grimace to Kat following her logic. “Yes… some people… well some trainers choose to instead break the will of the monster. It’s… much harder then it seems. Many monsters will simply get angrier and angrier and many will kill themselves rather than suffer. It’s… a delicate and disgusting practice,”

Kat swallowed. “So…”

“It…” Nixilei glanced at the sleeping monsters. “It’s not impossible that they were simply trained well. Theoretically the families would have the money… but… if this was a ‘short notice’ type of deal… it is very unlikely,”

[Disgusting.]

*You really feel that strongly about this?*

[You don’t?]

*I mean… they’re just monsters? They aren’t sentient and while I can’t say I feel great about it you guys are making it seem like they’re committing war crimes.*

[Kat… the implication is that those monsters were tortured in such a way to bring them into utter despair and then left with just a bare minimum of will to follow commands… and then ATTATCHING THAT TO YOUR SOUL. It’s like… like… it is a much, much worse version of devouring food from a garbage can instead of just going to the fridge.]

Kat shivered. *Alright I see your point. I wasn’t thinking it was a GOOD thing. It’s a really shit thing to do to something that’s presumably going to be a life long companion but… I didn’t think through the implication I suppose. Guess I thought you were mostly angry because it’s a dark mirror of what we have.*

[Oh don’t get me wrong. The fact that the familiar ritual has brought us such joy and they’re using it this way makes me furious… but that’s just the surface level stuff you know? It really is bad. Or at least… my understanding of the ritual makes it seem like it would be that bad. I… I don’t even know if it would be better or not to kill them.]

*Woah, hold up…*

[I mostly meant the monsters] replied Lily though Kat wasn’t entirely sure she believed those words. Still, Lily was right, or at least, Kat wasn’t going to argue and mostly agreed. What they’d done was likely quite monstruous but at the end of the day… there were better things to do with her time than worry about it. She was no soul expert but she could get a good look at the creatures.

The first one to catch her eye… mostly because it was the closest to the front looked a lot like a living dandelion. It was a puffy white thing all curled up in on itself. It had a long tail and leathery wings but the giant ball of fluff that made up most of its body was likely more responsible for its aerial abilities then the stubby little wings. It looked sort of like somebody had merged a beach ball and a bat.

Kat glanced over at Nixilei for info who sighed. “The first monster in line is called a Poison Puff. It floats around and drops bits of its fur on people with a potent sleeping poison. They’re rather susceptible to air currents but can stay airborne practically forever,”

The next monster was similarly meant for the skies but with a much different body profile. It was an aerial hunter. It looked a lot like a falcon though the secondary feathers were all a bright blue that glowed softly leaving little snowflakes even as it slept. The rest of the bird was shockingly normal in colouring. If the blue was hidden and its size would be halved it would be a perfectly normal falcon.

“Ice Strike,” continued Nixilei. “They like to hunt on the edge of arctic areas. Individually they aren’t too strong but a flock of them can ‘carry’ a snowstorm with them across impressive distances. They’re considered a major nuisance for towns and cities in areas they live because they’re smart enough not to get too close and risk retaliation from the settlements… but cheeky enough to make sure they have to deal with the increased snowfall they bought along. It’s a bit of a surprise to see one here actually… they are exceptionally proud birds and the… rougher techniques don’t tend to work,”

Next in line was a… worm? It was nearly the same size as the Ice Strike and had something that looked a bit like a drill on the front of its face. “Drill Worm. That front part doesn’t actually spin it opens up and the worms… they don’t really eat the dirt but they let it pass through them. It’s rather gross. They… aren’t all that strong. Easily the weakest monster in the lineup here. The rest are… Rank 2 and maybe 3,”

Kat nodded unsure and looked over to the second last monster. It looked like a sleek, tiny dragon with feathers on its wings. That was it really. Oh sure it looked cool and fancy, probably a great hit at dinner parties but for someone who had saved the world from a much larger and scarier drake not so long ago Kat couldn’t see it as anything other than adorable.

“That’s a plate dragon… not actually a dragon and known for being no bigger than a dinner plate. They’ve got a nasty bite and some flame breath ability but they can’t actually fly and mostly used as pets. Stronger then they look but…” Nixilei finished with a shrug as Kat nodded along.

The last monster though, that was something to behold. It easily towered over the rest of the familiars even with it curled up and sleeping. Heck, it towered over the rest of the dwarves and could probably ‘stand’ shoulder to shoulder with their human team member. It was a giant two headed dog with bone spikes sticking out around its neck like a collar. Bright green looking spit slowly leaked from its mouth and burnt the grass it made contact with.

“I… don’t know what that one is,” admitted Nixilei. The dwarves soon took their seats, picking the furthest table from the two teams already present and the cages continued to float nearby. At least until Long Crackfist stood up and walked over to the cage for the giant dog and swung it opened. The rest of his party didn’t react as he bopped it on the nose.

The dog sat up grogging and then immediately charged forward at him. Kat was worried for a second until it started to lick him vigorously with both heads. Long laughed at the display of affection as he rubbed the dogs two heads. “Sit boy, sit,” The dog cracked the ground as it forced its backside into the dirt. “Good boy. Have a treat,”

Long pulled out a whole chicken and threw it towards the heads which bit it in two and quickly devoured the remained. Nixilei looked like Long was the one she’d just seen grow a second head. “So… forced into the familiar bond ey?”

“I… I… I guess not? At least… not Long I suppose…” admitted Nixilei sheepishly. Kat shrugged in response. The doggo might be big and scary but clearly it was just a bigger than usual dog.