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

Kat and Lily's pondering took them all the way to dinner time. The knock on the door signalled as such… but they were hesitant to simply go down. As Kat was walking to the door she asked internally. *Do we really want to do this? I mean… I'm not hungry, I don't really think you are either… but if they've made food for us it would be impolite to avoid them…*

[I don't think we have a choice. Kress is going to be an ass no matter what. We can count this as practice. If we can't even go a dinner without beating him into the floor what hope do we have once we're together in the tournament when tensions are running high?]

*Ok. I think you're right.*

With that decided the pair walked outside to find the corridor empty. Kat took another glance around but couldn't see anyone at all. What she didn't know was that the doors were enchanted. Knocking on a particular piece of wood in the kitchen sent the same knock to all of the bedrooms in the house. It was a more refined version of the dinner bell, so nobody had actually come upstairs at all. Kress had bolted straight downstairs to get a seat at the table first.

The pair shrugged off the 'missing' person, assuming it was Green and she'd used her speed to knock before dashing back down. When they entered the dining it was to see Kress glaring at an empty seat that had to be for Kat and Lily. The reason for this staring wasn't quite obvious until Kat looked closer.

Next to a seat at the end of the table, the opposite end to Kress and next to Nixilei was a thin pillow with an extra plate next to it clearly for Lily. Kat smiled at the thoughtfulness though Lily kept her eyes firmly planted on Kress. When they reached the table, there was a round of nods. Kat and Kress had nobody across from them, while Green sat next to Nixilei and across from Gareth who sat next to Kress. Kat was next to Nixilei with the pillow for Lily to her left.

Kat sat down gracefully, doing what she could to fit herself properly on the chairs as they didn't really make allowances for her wings. With the full arm rests Kat needed to open her wings and drape them over the sides. Still wasn't the most comfortable position, but Kat could ignore it easily. In front of them was a nice slice of meat with a bowl of salad to the side. The meat was blue in colour but that wasn't anything strange to Kat at this point.

Lily's plate was mostly the same though she didn't have any cutlery beside it, and her 'steak' seemed to be significantly less cooked, something Lily didn't mind at all. As soon as she sat down on the pillow though… "Why is the cat at the table?" groused Kress, clearly having waited until Lily had sat down to make the complaint for some reason.

Before Kat could answer Nixilei snapped out, "Because she's smarter than you and just as deserving of a spot at the table."

"It's unsanitary to have an animal at the table," responded Kress haughtily as if he'd just won the argument.

Kat, once again wanted to speak up for Lily but Nixilei beat her two it, starting not even a breath after Kress. "Perhaps if she lacked proper manners or intelligence that would be true, but you know as well as I that she isn't an animal, she's a person that looks like one. Besides, if you really want to make the sanitation argument, it'd be unsanitary for her to eat on the floor."

"That's where a normal cat eats? Is she too good for that?" sneered Kress.

"Yes! She is! We already established she's smatters than you, and with all the spit your throwing about she's probably a cleaner eater as well!" said Nixilei, and at this point Kat and Lily were just watching the fight. Clearly it wasn't necessary to step in. Green and Gareth were completely ignoring the pair and just enjoying the meal as if a shouting match wasn't going on next to their ears. It was worth noting, Green's salad was twice the size with a only half a steak. Gareth had an extra half piece of steak and a much smaller salad.

"You can at least admit it's gross to look at," said Kress, loosing a bit of steam but still glaring at the three of them.

"She's just sitting there," returned Nixilei, "she has taken not a single bite. You cannot say it's gross with any sort of sincerity before she even tries to eat. You're just being petty now."

Kress mouth formed into a thin lie. He wanted to keep arguing but he was just smart enough to know Nixilei had backed him into a corner because he didn't think out his reply well enough. Continuing the fight before Lily had even done anything would indeed make him seem petty and he didn't want to push things too far at the moment when it seemed like nobody was on his side. Of course, that was because of his attitude and not his poor arguing skills, but that's neither here nor there.

After a few more moments of silence Lily decided to just ignore Kress and start eating. Contrary to what Kress had implied, Lily was actually rather delicate when she ate in Memphis form. A combination of instincts and a human mind let her eat quite cleanly as long as she was careful. She was also getting used to her new tastebuds and didn't have to fight part of herself just to eat a few pieces of a salad. Though she did thank D.E.M.O.N.S she was a Memphis instead of just a cat.

Kress ate grumpily, always glancing over at Lily as if he could potentially catch her leaving a mess. It didn't work, but it did slow down his own meal greatly meaning by the time he finished his steak it was cold. Not an ideal situation. For Kat, she just ate normally pretending that everything was fine and Kress hadn't been yelling a bunch before the meal started.

Green finished quickly and then took to leaning against Nixilei who just raised an eyebrow before continuing her own meal. Gareth finished quite quickly as well, though he ate at what seemed to be a more normal pace. Once he finished up he just watched Green sleeping with a happy smile on his face.

When everyone was done though, Gareth spoke up. "Tomorrow is the start of the tournament. We'll be heading out early in the morning but the actual tournament doesn't start till later in the afternoon. We just need to make it to the transport circle before lunchtime. Is there any questions?"

"Do we need to bring any supplies? It was rather unclear this time I believe…" asked Nixilei.

"Actually I did get a confirmation on that. We'll be given supplies when we get to the Tournament grounds. We've been rather explicitly informed that only our weapons and armour or other combat aids should be brought. They'll have other supplies for us… though I'm not sure what we'll need to do with them. I do know this round of the Tournament is longer than the previous one," said Gareth.

"Light or heavy breakfast?" asked Kress. The fact he asked this in a normal way was actually a slight surprise to Lily. Kat though had seen him act professionally a few times on her first visit and while she was a little shocked, it faded quickly.

"Not sure it matters…" said Gareth thoughtfully, "We do need to travel a good while but we'll arrive with time to spare. Maybe an hour or so before the meeting time assuming the roads clear. It's not like we're running anyway. Green's family left behind the carriage artifact so we'll be using that."

"Is there enough space for everyone?" asked Kress making a pointed glance towards Kat's wings as they were still spread out.

Gareth nodded, "Should be plenty of space. That's not counting the conductor's seat which has more room, or the fact some people ride on top of these kinds of carriages. They don't bounce as much as regular animal powered ones. Something about stabilisation. Anyway, yes Kress there will be plenty of space for everyone. Without luggage it will be no problem at all,"

Kress nodded with a smile but his eyes still seemed annoyed. With that question though, everything seemed to have been answered and the silence became a bit awkward. Gareth wanted to catch up a little more with Kat to try and make sure she felt included in the team… but with Kress' attitude before the meal he wasn't sure how well that would work out. He also didn't want to ask Kat any questions she would be reluctant to answer, he wanted conversation to flow and damming it at any point would be an issue.

Green of course was sleeping, Kress was eyeing everyone carefully and Nixilei was doing the same, though much more carefully. It was only because of Kat's eyesight she could tell, and for the rest it was from years of familiarity.

In the end… nothing more was said. Gareth stood up and grabbed a sleeping Green and carried her away. Nixilei followed behind silently, waiting for Kress to leave as well before heading up after him. Kat and Lily gave matching internal shrugs, as Lily still hadn't figured that one out for a cat, and headed to bed alongside them.