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

--- Kat ---

Kat looked at the Forest Village walls wondering how she ended up on the list for meeting with the mayor. Hunter had just vanished once the topic was raised, Meg used not having met them before as an excuse to avoid the job, and Kat wasn't going to push it off onto Kamiko… so that meant she'd be heading into town with Lily. *

EXCEPT LILY ISN'T HERE!*

Kat couldn't help but pout at that fact. She'd tried and failed to wake up her girlfriend this morning… but apparently needing to be active and paying attention to everything for days on end and through the night on occasion had caught up to Lily. Once they'd exited the mist, Lily had relaxed massively and after falling asleep she hadn't bothered waking up. Sure Kat wasn't as forceful as she necessarily could've been… but forcing the issue would've been harder emotionally.

Kat did debate over leaving Lily behind or taking her along despite the fact that she was still asleep. In the end Kat handed Lily off to Kamiko to watch over. It seemed rude to bring her sleeping girlfriend to such an important meeting after all. At least with Bower and Corela as the only people coming along they were able to make excellent time. It didn't even take them an hour to go from their current camp to the village. Now they just needed the gate guards to open up and…

"You're back!" said Stphn with a bit smile as he walked out of the village walls. "I hadn't heard from you for quite a while despite the reduction in monsters running from the mist so I feared the worst, or perhaps that you'd just left without telling us. Which would've been fine of course, but it would've meant…"

Stphn's word vomit slowed to a crawl as he blinked slowly and obviously as he took in Corela's full appearance. His heard carefully turned to Bower, then to Kat, then back to Corela. He tilted his head sideways to get a different angle on things as if that might suddenly remove the skin from Corela's body, or perhaps add some more scales to her appearance. "Please tell me she's not the dragon you were after?"

"What? No, she's not the dragon we were after!" stated Kat.

"Hmm… were you able to say that just because I requested it or is she actually not the dragon?" asked Stphn.

Kat gave Stphn an odd look as Corela stepped forward and said, "I can assure you that I am not nor have I ever been a dragon… but we do have some serious matters to discuss so perhaps it would be best if you led us to somewhere more private to have that discussion?"

Stphn ran a long hand down his face. "Urgh, why did you have to catch me just before my shift awake was ending. Whatever, my wife will be up at least so there's no need to wake her up. Oh, I have so many questions and things to say but I suppose I need to save most of them… well follow me I guess,"

Stphn waved a hand at the gate and a bright sigil lit up before the wooden palisade shifted and opened up. Stphn gestured for the three to go ahead of him as he followed along behind and shut once again. "Now, I get that you don't want to talk too much while in the open... but you aren't exactly hiding. Sure it's early but people are going to see. Oh, and can you confirm the dragon is dead?"

"It was a drake and yes it's-" Kat frowned as her words were cut off and Stphn paled rapidly. Kat didn't even know someone COULD pale like that with scales everywhere.

"Oh that's not good," mumbled Stphn.

Kat made a placating gesture, "Look, I do get why you're worried but it's like… 95? Maybe even 99% dead? It's not going to be a problem for the rest of your life, and probably a few generations afterwards and we ARE working on that issue… it's just not technically completely dead just yet,"

Stphn let out a long breath of air rapidly regaining some of that lost colour when Corela spoke. "I'm not trying to hide because the town will likely need to get used to my appearance soon,"

Stphn paled again, though nowhere near as much. "Right well that's not the best news I'm getting but I suppose I'll just have to deal with it. Hoo boy, you guys don't give me the easy things do you? Oh, and where is the rest of your group? Especially you're girlfriend. Wait, no don't answer that I figured it out myself. Or at least, I think I have a strong guess as to what's going on. I bet you lot didn't even have the decency of going ahead to give me warning and that they're waiting a few hours away?"

"You seem to be an astute individual Stphn," stated Corela.

Stphn shook his head, "Sometimes I really wish I wasn't. I can already see the headache this is going to cause me in the long run. I mean, I'll probably still be willing to deal. I can already guess that… but I do want to complain. I won't, but I feel like I should. Oh if only I could snuggle with my wife for a bit to calm my nerves,"

Stphn was quick to hop up the stairs once they got to the large tree that made up his residence. When he got to the floor with his apartment on it, he sped up a touch and opened the door just a crack, glancing in before nodding to himself and throwing it open. "Wife we've got visitors of the problematic kind,"

Kat could hear Mry sigh from in the room, "You know it's rude to say things like that. Especially when they're within earshot,"

"I feel like it's ruder to say it when they can't hear you," mumbled Stphn.

"Well if they can't hear you they can't take offence either so I stand by what I said, now please come in and I'll put on some tea if it pleases you," said Mry. When she spotted Kat she smiled and continued speaking as she turned around to get the teapot set up. "Ah Kat welcome back. That food you left for us was wonderful though if you were looking for some leftovers yourself I'm afraid it's long gone,"

"Ha, no I didn't come here for the food. Depending on how things go I might be able to make some more? I'm… honestly not quite sure how long we'll be around for…" said Kat with a shrug.

Mry nodded with her back still turned as everyone else sat down at the table. Mry joined them shortly once the kettle was boiling and said, "So what can I help you with? Assuming my husband hasn't already soured relations too much," ℟ά𐌽Օ₿Ëṡ

Corela let out a small life, "He is an amusing man and I took no great offense. I'm surprised how calm you're being about things. At least compared to your husband's reactions,"

"Well I always was the calmer of the two. It also helps that he sent me a signal to check things out on the way up so I could act less surprised," admitted Mry.

Kat raised her eyebrows. She hadn't noticed Stphn sending anything off. Kat glanced over at Bower… only to notice he he'd moved over to one of the more distant chairs on Stphn's side of the room. "He is rather nice if a bit chatty. I can see why you like him. If only I had a partner of my own," said Coreal with a sigh.

"I'm afraid that he's taken but I do appreciate the sentiment," said Corela with a smile.

While this was happening Kat sort of just sat around and kept quiet.

*Hmm… what does that mean? Does he just like that particular chair or is this a subtle indication of where his loyalties lie? I mean… if he's really lived in the town as long as he implied then I can see him being important and maybe like… a council member? Head of the hunter's guild or something?*

Kat squirmed slightly in her seat as everyone just sort of stared at each other for a while. Nobody saying anything else after Corela's comment. Even when the teakettle eventually went off nobody moved. When it became clear that nobody was going to move, Kat got out of her chair and grabbed the kettle, alongside the tea leaves that had been left out on the bench nearby.

Kat glanced around and didn't see any teacups but that was a simple matter and could be resolved without going through the cupboards. Bringing the kettle back over alongside the leaves and summoning enough teacups for everyone except herself Kat sat back down and went back to watching the awkward staring match. *

Should I like… do something or… wait or what?*

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