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

--- Kat ---

After Kat’s ’close’ encounter with that boulder leaving the bubble wasn’t all that hard. It just took some more surfing and the beatdown of a few more sand-crocs. The odd shape that Kat had seen around never appeared after ’making contact’ with the boulder and while Kat and Lily were both certain it was real… perhaps the loud noise had scared it off somewhat permanently?

In the end, exiting the bubble was painless but when they did so it was clear they were alone and somewhat lost. None of the other groups were around and all they had to go on was the bangle as a rough guiding light. So trusting that? They started heading off in the direction it indicated.

It some days to meet up with everyone, though only about four hours to find the first group. Hunter was the first one they found and their groups merged more or less seamlessly. Hunter had been heading in Kat’s direction for a similar amount of time and once they all met up they simply combined into a larger group and let the bracers refocus on someone else. Once they’d done so, it was off again.

Kat and Hunter ended up camping out for the night. Kat stayed up and on watch and during that time Meg stumbled into camp with a grin on her face. Neoms, Brella, Grepnar and Chasen were much less pleased though. Those four practically collapsed as soon as they arrived at camp not even taking the time to get a tent set up or even pull out some sleeping bags. They just dropped to the ground and slept.

Kat tidied them up a bit and gave them proper sleeping bags, once removing the excess sand from them of course. Neoms turned out to be a light sleeper and woke up during the process but didn’t actually say much, just getting a bite to eat and some water before curling up and returning to sleep.

Bower stumbled into camp just as the sun was coming up. Well, stumbling was a bit unfair. He was actually quite graceful for most of the approach, dodging through all of the tripwires that Hunter had established around camp… only to trip over a rock that appeared near his feet just after escaping all of the traps. Experience more on empire

Now Kat wouldn’t swear that Meg was responsible for the rock moving. It definitely could’ve been there beforehand… but Kat also wasn’t willing to try speaking that answer out loud just in case. Besides, Meg was ’definitely’ asleep at the time and Bower seemed fine with things anyway.

Kat starting getting a little worried once morning proper was here and there was no sign of Kamiko and her team. Even after Meg ensured everyone was awake for breakfast… weather they liked it or not there was still no sign of Kamiko. Kat could tell via the bracer that and a short conversation with Bower that Kamiko was off to the side of them, and not in the direction they needed to go… which sparked some discussion amongst the demons.

"I say we simply keep heading forward. Kamiko will catch up to us and I trust her and Corela to handle any issues," this statement came, not from Meg as Kat might have expected but from Hunter.

"Wouldn’t it be better to wait for her?" asked Kat. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Hunter shrugged, "I trust Kamiko’s combat prowess and I suspect that with Corela to back her up there is in this forest they cannot overcome. I do find it odd that Kamiko seems to be so far off-course but simply waiting around for her seems like a waste to me,"

"Why do you think it’s a waste? She’s a good member of the team, and definitely my friend. If it takes a bit longer for her to get back… then that’s fine," said Kat.

"It is BECAUSE she is a solid member of the team and… perhaps not a friend to me but someone I think fondly of that I have no desire to wait for Kamiko. I could see sending a message to her being appropriate but we are likely to encounter bubbles in the future and be separated multiple times as we travel further ahead.

"I trust Kamiko to handle things on her own. If I did not think her capable then I would insist on waiting around to ensure her success by making up for any deficiency I have identified in her abilities. As it stands though, I am not concerned. They may be the only team not with us but that is likely to change in the future. If my own team was separated from you all I’d expect the same unless we were directly ’behind’ you perhaps," stated Hunter.

*Hmm… am I babying Kamiko too much?*

[I don’t think so. I mean, I was agreeing with the plan to wait… but Hunter does have a point. We’re planning to wait for Kamiko not because we feel like she needs it, but because it would be nice to be together as a team… and maybe a bit because we thought she might need the help.]

[Look… while I don’t think wanting to wait for Kamiko is wrong I do think Hunter has a point. I trust Kamiko, alongside that trust is the natural expectation that if she follows her bracer properly we’ll all end up back together without the need to wait… then it’s fine. My only concern would be if someone was injured by I expect that Kamiko would’ve mentioned that already, or when we state our intentions she’ll inform us that she’s been slowed down by something. Though I expect she can heal most problems away.]

*I guess. It just feels a bit too much like leaving Kamiko out of an important decision… but maybe it’s a matter of perspective? I don’t know if Kamiko would prefer that we took the time to wait for her… or if we gave her our full trust and allowed for her to catch up on her own time. Based on the fact Meg and Bower seem to be on Hunter’s side… I guess we can go along with it this time.*

"Alright, someone can message Kamiko and then we can all head off," agreed Kat with a bit of a sigh.

This lead on to a relatively uneventful morning in the forest then a slightly more hectic but still mostly quiet afternoon. Kat and her group ended up in a forest bubble that was super muggy and looked one moment away from turning into a swamp… alongside everyone else. That’s right, this time the bubble had properly taken in everyone nearby. Kamiko was still ’missing’ but the group hadn’t been split up again and that was something to be celebrated.

It also meant that travelling through the forest was no issue for them especially when they could see more than a few centimetres in front of them. With the full group around the biggest risk was the large puddles they occasionally ran into with leaves covering the tops. They acted sort of like pit traps only much less deadly.

Kat kept her team quite dry by physically pulling people who were falling, either via the rope or their outfits if she was close enough. Hunter simply pointed them out in subtle ways and if her group failed to take note of those pointers? It wasn’t her fault though Bower did his own less subtle pointing on occasion. Meg just let people pull themselves out of the water and didn’t even try most of the time.

There was exactly one exception. Meg physically blocked Brella’s path at one point to avoid her falling into a pit… and then did nothing else to explain why she’d singled out that one pond for Brella. It wasn’t as if the girl was dry. She’d fallen into a similar puddle a couple of minutes back… and it also wasn’t because she was the last to get drenched. Chasen took that honour… Kat decided to risk it and bother asking but Meg just replied with "Reasons,"

Kat might have been willing to take a chance asking once… but pressing once Meg had answered? Even with one that wasn’t all that helpful? Kat decided to just leave it. The guess shared by bother herself and Lily was that something had made its home inside that particularly puddle.

It wasn’t a bad guess. While the forest was somewhat of a walk in the park that didn’t mean there were no monsters… but with the lack of mist it was really easy for people to pick out the monsters even at a distance. A few even tried out camouflage tactics but Hunter, Meg, and even Lily on the odd occasion would pick them out.

When they exited that bubble not too long later… and there was still no sign of Kamiko, Kat felt a bit anxious. Then she checked with D.E.M.O.N.S and found out Kamiko had actually sent back a reply at some point. It read

Sounds fine to me. Corela isn’t exactly happy with the decision but she understands I think. We’ve got plenty of supplies and nobodies injured. Do you have any idea of when we’ll meet up though?

And really, that was all Kat needed to hear.