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

--- Lily ---

Lily couldn’t help but shiver as Meg acted like an upbeat, social, and relatively normal, if friendly person. She was going around and saying hello to everyone in the various camps, finding out what they did, why they were here, and if they had any cool stuff. Gently of course, because why would she use force when she can be nice?

It meant Meg didn’t get information all of the time. A couple of people were even quite rude in telling her to bugger off but for the most part Meg got all the info she wanted and left a favourable impression. It was… sort of horrifying. Meg had never really bothered playing the part all that well. Even with the dragonkin she didn’t exactly hide how malicious she was sometimes…

Meg simply was. She existed as she felt like. Being kind or callous as the mood suited her. She made it easy to forget just what she was sometimes… but never went too far in trying to hide that fact. Part of her normal act must have come from the enjoyment of seeing people realise just what she was… over and over again.

Here though? Meg was taking it a step forward. She seemed more helpful then Kat and more friendly then Sue… with less sexual undertones of course. Even still it was thoroughly disconcerting to watch. Lily was surprised at just how well Meg took some of the nastier dismissals, with barely a twitch on her face. She simply smiled and wished them a good day. Lily had no idea how Meg even got the words out.

Kamiko seemed to be in mostly the same boat. She was almost as uncomfortable as Lily… but her better understanding of demons and what they could be like helped prevent her from being too offput. She knew that many demons had a business face, or multiple faces if they felt the need. This was just taken to a bit of an extreme.

Julyn though? Her reaction was a bit of a surprise. Meg hadn’t tried to hide anything in the original meeting and as such Julyn should easily be able to tell it was a façade… and if Lily had to put money on it, Julyn had worked that out. She also seemed to be thoroughly and darkly amused by Meg making the rounds. Lily wasn’t sure what the joke was, and part of her hoped she never would. Though she had expected better of the merchant girl… apparently she had a sadistic streak. Whatever she saw in Meg’s actions, she clearly approved.

Right now the group was moving towards the argument that still hadn’t finished since they’d walked through the camps. It had calmed down a bit when they’d entered but quickly picked back up again as the people involved argued over approach Meg and Kamiko with questions now or later, as well as the old question of what was best for them to do moving forward.

From what Lily could tell there were essentially three main factions with some other people filtering in and out. The first wanted to bunker down and just wait for the snow to melt. That person was called Stocktn and they sold food or so the various insults claimed. Lily wasn’t sure if food was ALL Stocktn sold but they clearly had the most. So waiting things out and selling off stuff was probably good for them as long as things didn’t get too dire. Though from the sounds of things Stocktn did have good guards.

The next group was advocating they try to build some boats and sail across the river. It would likely mean leaving behind a lot of the wagons, or using them as materials to build the boats, but they said it was ’worth the sacrifice’. They were named Met, and of course… they didn’t actually own a proper caravan. They were an adventurer group that had been hunting in the mountains as part of a job and just happened to choose this side of the river as their hunting grounds.

It was all well and good for them to try and advocate for leaving across the river when they didn’t stand to lose much. From the insults the others were throwing at Met, they were more ’exterminators/pest control’ and were paid to keep the roads clear by a large settlement deeper in the mountains. They just needed minor trophies from the monsters to prove at least some of the kills. Something that could easily be carried across the river.

Sure heading away from the mountains wasn’t ideal, but they could easily pick up more work in other towns, and Lily assumed they could send a letter or something to confirm the job completed and get paid for it still. Nobody was bringing it up so that was more of a guess.

The other big problem, and one mostly brought up by the third faction which was another lot of merchants and run by an older woman called L’arc was that the river simply ran too quickly for boats to be of any use.

Instead, she advocated for picking up some shovels and starting to dig away at the snow blocking the path. Perhaps not clearing away all of it, but making some headway before it all melts would put them closer to the various towns and the one city up in the mountain. It could by them a few more days’ worth of food, by virtue of the fact there would be less distance to travel.

Of course, the other insulted her for just how much work that would be and how little distance would be saved even in the best case scenario. The fact that she was a water mage and could manipulate the ice somewhat didn’t seem to be helping her case at all.

This was all rather easy for Lily to pick up on. Her ears were quite good and it was… hard to simply listen to Meg sweet talking people. It was easier to just ignore Meg for the time being and focus on the yelling. Much less quietly horrifying.

Some other people would chime into the argument sure, but they never stayed long or at least, never said all that much. Lily was honestly a touch surprised by how strongly everyone seemed to feel about their positions. Lily thought they were just arguing to blow off steam… but they seemed pretty invested in it all as the group finally arrived.

The three were around a campfire. Stocktn was leaning against a stack of boxes that appeared to be blocking the wind, Met was lounging in an ice chair that had been covered by a tarp to stop his ass from getting wet and L’arc paced around a bit like a caged animal. Clearly restless in a way the other two simply weren’t. Even with Met arguing, passionately, that they should cross the river he didn’t seem nearly as… tightly wound up about things as L’arc. Lily wondered if there was something more going on with her.

Your journey continues with empire

"… tell hell with your bloody boat idea. Even if we scrapped the carts where are we meant to get the wood! There ain’t no trees around here boy!" hissed L’arc.

"If we prep the mushrooms properly, the large ones of course, they’ll serve us plenty well. It’s not the easiest technique but it can be done. Might take a day or two… but it’s quite possible that we-" Met explained only…

To be cut of by Stocktn, "Can do nothing boy. You might be able to turn those mushrooms into kindling, or food but you cannot turn them into a proper boat without some varnish or something. Even dried out and nearly ash, put those bloody things in a bit of water and they can spring back up. They’d never make it across the river,"

"Well at least L’arc and I are suggesting something! You just want to sit on your ass and freeze to death," shot back Met, the only one that was actually sitting down. Something Stocktn did notice if his chuckling was anything to go by.

"I might not hear my bones creek like the old man, but I suspect he ain’t wrong. Take some wisdom from those older then you… boy. The mushrooms aren’t for boat making unless someone knows some mighty fine enchantments and if they did? They’d not be in the middle of the fucking mountains, they’d be laughin it up back at the capital!"

"You aren’t even that much older then me granny!" hissed Met.

"Am I as young and inexperienced as you? Or am I a granny? Make up your mind, welp," retorted L’arc.

The argument was clearly getting nowhere and they didn’t seem to be stopping as they approached… but Lily did notice that Stocktn had definitely spotted them. He’d shifted his posture slightly right after turning his head in their direction, just a tad.

And of course, into that mess of an argument walked Meg. Lily didn’t know what would be more worrying. If Meg started to openly mess with them… or if she kept up the ’kind and helpful demon’ act that she’d been using so far.

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