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

— Kat —

“So is this the place?” asked Kat. [Yup!] “What makes you so certain?” [The claw marks I left on the tree over there.] Kat glanced at the direction Lily was indicating with her shadows and saw some obvious claw marks in an ‘X’ configuration that clearly wasn’t natural. “Ok that makes sense… what exactly am I looking for here?”

[I’m not sure. It really was only for a few moments but I SWEAR I saw a door or something here. It was blended in pretty well but the handle was a flower and that really stood out to me but when I blinked it was gone.]

“Hmmm…” mumbled Kat as she jabbed her fingers into the mixture of dirt and mushroom ‘sand’. It was easy to disturb the ground here and even with the restrictions of the band in place Kat was able to easily upturn a good deal of dirt… but there was no door in sight. *Alright plans?*

[I’m not sure. This is definitely the right spot. The only thing I can think of if it’s not here is that I was imagining things or Thyme enchanted the entrance to move around… but if it’s moving why can’t I sense it? My spatial senses are… well they’re not amazing and certainly not up to Thyme’s level… but why go out of their way to intentionally hide from them?]

*No idea but that doesn’t really answer the question. Do you want to look around here more, or simply move on?*

[Urgh. I FEEL like there’s something here to find… but I don’t have any concrete evidence for that.]

Kat shrugged. *I think you’re probably correct but that’s not the question I was asking. I want to know if it’s WORTH messing around here and trying to find something that’s obviously trying to hide.*

Just as Lily was about to respond she felt a shift in the local space, right where they’d been digging. Lily sent a mental notice to Kat and they both readied themselves to catch what had to be a moving door. It appeared exactly where predicted, not disturbing the area at all, simply merging with it temporarily. Kat was about to open the new door in hopes it would ‘lock’ the thing in place temporarily when an elf popped out instead.

Kat locked eyes with Hedera or ‘better Green’ as Nixilei would call her. The elf stared back. This little staring contest went on for a few moments before Hedera grimaced. “SHIT!” and tried to slam the door closed. Presumably to run away or something afterwards but Kat just stuck her foot between the door in the ground prevented it from closing. [Did you just risk getting your foot crushed?]

Kat ignored her girlfriend’s worries as the door bounced back open to reveal Hedera running away down a tunnel. Kat hopped down after her and followed along. The tunnel was perfectly straight for the moment so it wasn’t hard to keep up. Kat found herself rapidly gaining on the elf who glanced back and winced.

She took out a bow and started to pull back, as Kat yelled out “Are we really just going to fight?”

“Well you scared the shit out of me! Popping up like that” hissed Hedera but notably, she didn’t fire the arrow just yet. Of course, her awkward posture was slowing her down and allow Kat to catch up more and more… Should I slow down a bit so I don’t scare her too much?

[Maybe a little? Just so we don’t catch up too fast. Still might be good to catch her though.]

Kat did as suggested and replied with “You were the one that came out of the ground next to us! How did WE pop up?”

“I don’t know alright? I’m panicking but you don’t SEEM aggressive and I sort of want to team up but I’m also scared to stop running you know?” offered Hedera.

“Well we can slow down and talk about this properly if you want?” asked Kat.

“Deal, but… keep your distance a bit,” agreed Hedera somewhat uncertainty. Still, they both slowed down, with Hedera leading the way and Kat intentionally matching the elf’s speed as they were moving. It ensured they were about the same distance apart and Hedera wasn’t feeling pressured. “So… how did you find me?”

Kat raised an eyebrow. “Lily here,” Kat raised her girlfriend up in her arms. “Noticed the door a while back while I was exploring elsewhere. Thing is… it vanished before she could get a good look at it. When I finished with my business we went to check it out. We’d just dug up the surroundings a bit and then you appeared in the middle of that,”

“Alright that makes sense…” mumbled Hedera.

“So… what was it like from your end?” asked Kat.

“Well… a bit like you. I noticed a door that just sort of appeared on the ground. It wasn’t there before, I was watching for stuff like that. So… I thought it was obviously something important and checked it out. It was just the same long corridor that you’re seeing a the moment but doors pop up every now and again. I wanted to see ‘the end’ so to speak and then backtrack… but popping out there lead me to you! I was so scared,” sighed Hedera.

“Am I really that scary?” asked Kat a touch confused.

“YES! Yes you are,” insisted Hedera. “I don’t know if everyone can feel it but I can tell you’re Rank 4! We’ve got no chance against someone that strong. I mean… I didn’t know it before because Thyme was EVERYWHERE and Thyme’s status as a Rank 5 sort of… blots everything else out but still! You’re a demon so it was already a concern,”

“Ok… and… you want a work with me?” asked Kat.

“Well I sure as shit don’t think I can defeat you,” said Hedera with a scoff.

“Oh? Didn’t you hear that I’m restricted to Rank 2?” asked Kat in return.

Hedera burst into laughter. “That’s… ha… that’s funny. Sure you’re strength is limited to Rank 2 but I refuse to believe that little bracelet is able to fully contain the might of a Rank 4 demon. If you tried you could surely break it, and even then… I’m willing to bet your demonic fire isn’t limited at all,”

“Most people don’t think of that,” said Kat with a shrug.

Hedera sighed. “Most people don’t know the sort of devastation it can bring,”

Kat raised an eyebrow, “Want to talk about it… and do you think it’ll be a problem for us working together?” *I mean… she seems scared but I don’t know that I really want to partner with someone just because they’re terrified of me. Makes it more likely we’ll get betrayed later I’d think… right?*

[Well… yes but also no? I don’t think Hedera here has any real hope to defeat you and she hasn’t considered what it means that I’m not bound in the same way that you are. Perhaps if she was scared in a different way, or more scared I’d suspect treachery but… well I se it as no more likely than anyone else we might team up with. This IS a contest after all.]

“No, and no thank you very much. We’ve just meet and I’ve got no desire to tell you about my past. Perhaps if we make it a few days together I’ll share some details… but I also know you demons can get some weird innate abilities so best to keep at least some cards close to my chest.

“As for the issues? I really will be fine. It was… a sight to see for sure but I wasn’t ever harmed by demonic fire and neither were my friends and family so I don’t think it will cause issues,” ended Hedera with a shrug.

“Right… so shall we discuss terms?” asked Kat.

“Terms? What do you mean? Aren’t you already under Contract?” asked Hedera.

“Well… yes but that’s not what I meant. My team and I realised that any alliance we make, even if they’re temporary, will be stronger if we set clear terms and limits at the beginning. Even if one of those terms is that we break the team apart after a certain number of days, with a grace period of six hours or whatever after that time. Well, that and loot distribution but that part seemed obvious,” explained Kat.

Hedera nodded slowly. “Alright… I can see where this is going. Hmm… I guess we didn’t think that far about it. I know I certainly didn’t. I thought we’d either do an ‘even split’ or ‘whoever finds it first gets it’ type of system but… yeah alright I see how this can get complicated. I also don’t know how long you’d want to be teamed up with me for… hmmm… hmmm…”

As Hedera was thinking her Timmy appeared from further down the tunnel and plopped itself down next to her. Hedera raised an eyebrow at it. “Alright that’s… is that meant to be a good sign? Would they be that blatant? Whatever… um…” Hedera turned to Kat. “Give me a bit to figure this out. I’ll think about what sort of terms I’d want…”