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

Kat had no interest at all in whatever her friend was doing and decided to instead focus on the city they were flying over. Once it came into sight, Kat realised the city itself was huge. Not quite as large as the city of water from Apep’s dimension, but certainly the second largest she’d ever seen. The city was built… or… perhaps that was wrong, it might be more accurate to say that it was carved out instead.

You see, it was clear that the mountain elves had started with a mountainside and then dug down. Not into the earth, as you might image a cave dwelling species would attempt, but they carved around what they wanted, fashioning houses out of rock not by building up the house but by digging down and carving away nearby rock and earth, before hollowing out the remaining structure into rooms.

It made for a rather interesting style where the tops of pretty much every house was matched with the nearby mountainside. The house slowly angled there way down following the curve of the mountain rather accurately, with only a few notable ones standing taller. Kat wasn’t sure if this was a natural formation, simply using rocks that had jutted out once upon a time as the foundation for their home… or if it was instead the excess rock that had been carved away from the streets or internals and then piled high.

*Actually. That’s a question I’d love to know the answer to. What happened to all the extra material? The edges of the city don’t seem to be any higher then the roof of the nearest houses. That seems to imply that they aren’t just dumping the dirt on the edges of the city. Which, would be dumb but not surprising. So where does it go? Lily?*

Kat waited a few moments… but got no response. Turning more of her attention to the link revealed that Lily had managed to fall asleep at some point during the flight. *Oh… well… that’s not ideal but I mean… huh I guess I’ve gotten a bit too used to Lily being around to talk to… or at least noticing when she goes to sleep. Then again… when we were on Earth she normally warned me beforehand. Hmm… is this a bad habit Lily formed going on missions? Just sleeping all the time?*

Kat of course didn’t have anyone to answer her. Sure she wanted to talk to Lily, but not if it interrupted her sleep. The problem was… now she was flying and had nobody to talk to. Sue was busy seducing Hughlfe, pretty successfully if the fact Kat hadn’t heard any complaints said anything. Sure flying itself was fun… but not when she was in the mental equivalent of cruise control.

Hughlfe was flying so slowly, and he didn’t seem effected by the air currents at all. So now Kat had to follow him, slowly, but without turning her brain all the way off in case the wind started to cause troubles, either sending her into Hughlfe or slowed her down enough to require more effort to keep up. Perhaps it was a little demanding of Kat, but it just wasn’t a relaxing situation.

*Ugh whatever. I guess I’ll just entertain myself. Kat nodded. Right. With that… back to my previous question. Where does the extra dirt go? They’ve got to have what’s practically a city’s worth of dirt just… sitting around somewhere. I’d like to know what exactly it is they did with it all? Based on the nearby terrain it doesn’t seem like they just dumped it nearby. So we can rule that out…

.....

And there isn’t anywhere near enough ‘taller’ houses that they could have used all that dirt on. Even if every single one I can see was added to with extra dirt I’m sure they’d still have tonnes of the stuff leftover. Hmm… could they just have it all stored away in storage artifacts?*

Kat pursed her lips, feeling particularly displeased with that thought. The fact that it was quite possibly correct only served to make Kat more annoyed with it. It made a bit too much sense to ignore, and it was a rather simple and easy way to deal with extra dirt. *It’s just so mundane though. It’s the magical equivalent of ‘eh I’ll deal with it later’ and that’s just disappointing.*

*I’d somewhat hoped this thought would keep me occupied for a bit longer. The only other thing I can consider is that they used the dirt to build up a garden inside some rings but the problem with that is there’s barely anything growing around here. The idea that the reddish dirt is actually good for plants is ridiculous… unless….*

Kat moved her attention to her wings, feeling all the dirt particles constantly battering against the somewhat fragile leather. At Rank 3, her wings were tough enough that the constant barrage of sand wasn’t hurting them. She barely noticed it until her thoughts turned towards them… but it did let her continue to ponder the current topic.

*Could the wind be the real issue? I don’t exactly have anyway to prove it one way or another but it could be somewhat of an explanation? No wait… most the houses I can see don’t have a garden and those that do are all pot plants. Nothing seems to grow directly in the ground. Seems that line of thinking might be wrong then? I don’t really know how much wind gets down there…*

Kat continued to ponder the issue as the got closer to their destination. It was easy to pick out once Hughlfe aligned himself directly with the building in question. It was built near the side of the city with a rather respectable amount of land cleared around it. It was a big rounded mansion sized structure. Well, it was on the smaller side for a mansion, but it wasn’t small by any means. The weirdest thing about it really was all that free space around it.

Well that or the building that was created nearby. It was out of the elf-made crevice that most of the city had been carved in. The building was large and squat, but clearly not natural and it was the only thing Kat had seen that wasn’t carved down. Kat didn’t know why that was, and after spending some time on a guess, she decided it might be the sky boat docking area. It was the best guess she could find after a good thirty minutes of flying.

When they finally touched, Kat had a moment to smile before irritation reared its head. Hughlfe gave a very short, “This is where you’ll be staying until the sky boat leaves. I’m sure you can find your own room,” and then he took off again, Sue in tow.

Kat stood there, dazed for a few moments. There were no guards around the edges, and the front lawn was completely flat. If there was anyone inside the house currently Kat could see no sign of them. The grass, if it was grass, was at least interesting but… “They just left me here?!” hissed Kat.

*The nerve! I’m pretty sure Sue will apologise when she gets back but that doesn’t mean I’m not annoyed about this. How do I get inside? Do I just open the door? The place is huge, where do I find my room? Do I need to be present at meal times? Am I responsible for my own food? Is there someone I could ask about all this?*

The answer to all of those questions, was of course, ‘I don’t know’ because there was nobody around to answer them. Kat suppressed her budding annoyance. It was easy to calm herself down, especially with a little help from meditation… but part of her felt she had the right to be annoyed. *I wonder if it’s worse because I know neither of them meant to cause me so many issues?*

*I think it is. I think I’m more annoyed by the thoughtlessness of it all. Hughlfe is clearly just thinking with his dick at the moment… which… fair enough, Sue is trying to sex the guy putting a good deal of effort into making it happen. Sue… well honestly she’s not any better. She just wants the D and isn’t really thinking about what might happen to me in the meantime. Hmm… I wonder if she’s ever be on a mission with friends that she isn’t competing against? Something to ask I suppose.*