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

--- Lily ---

"So come on then! Hop on my shoulder!" said Marigold with a grin. 

"What?" intoned Lily. 

"Well it would be too risky to just hurl you forward right now, that's why I said I'd throw you UPWARDS not forwards. So instead of awkwardly timing our jumps so that neither of us gets stuck behind a basic shield we can jump together with you on my shoulder!" said Marigold. 

Lily considered it for a moment before shrugging and transforming. It was a bit of a strange idea, but if she was trusting Marigold this far there was no reason not to. *Though I do want to see if she can understand me like this.* Lily hopped up on Marigold's shoulder and meowed 'Forward'. 

Marigold gave Lily a strange look. "Ok… why could I understand that?" 

"Meow" 'I don't know' said Lily. *So it DOES work. I'm pretty sure this is new. I wonder if it works when I try to speak to everyone, or if there is some other factor. It's never been an issue with Kat because we can just talk mentally, but it seems… either I've worked out how to imbue meaning into my meows or D.E.M.O.N.S is now interacting with me more. That or I could do it the whole time and only just noticed, but that seems unlikely.*

"Yeah, I'd have gone for a princess carry in your human form, but I thought that might be a bit far when your girlfriend is already glaring at me," said Marigold with a grin. Lily frowned and looked over at Kat but didn't have the chance to look properly because Kat was teleported away to a challenge. 

"Meow," grumbled Lily. 

"Oh I'm sure she thought I had some devious plan for you," said Marigold. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, I doubt she'd get jealous all that easily. Just the feeling I get from her," 

Annoyed "Meow," 

"Well yes that IS the main reason I doubt she'd get jealous but that doesn't mean I'm wrong now does it?" retorted Marigold. 

Reluctantly accepting "Meow," 

"Hey that's insulting. Who wouldn't want to work with me?" said Marigold. Lily dug her claws into Marigold's shoulder. "Ah yes, harder," Lily instantly retracted her claws. "Pussy. Did you really think a little bit of pain like that would stop me from teasing you?" 

Resigned "Meow,"

"Yup, you're stuck with me now so…" Marigold was cut off by a question box it was another complex math equation. The elf was stumped for a few seconds until Lily meowed again, and the box accepted the answer. "See, what a good team we make. You answer the math questions, and probably a few others, while I can do… geography, history and some wildlife trivia? Plus a whole bunch of sexual and pain related questions, but I doubt those will come up," 

Exasperated "Meow" 

"Hey, you knew what you were getting into when you decided to team up with me, you can't complain now," Marigold paused in her explanation. "Ok I suppose you can complain, technically, but it's not going to do you any good. Kat is much too… hmm I'm not sure there's a good word for it, but she'd never betray anyone, and I doubt you'd do it either. Honour doesn't feel like the right word… innocent isn't either… hmm… well maybe innocent?" 

Somewhat Proud "Meow," 

"Wait Kat's straight up downed some fools? Permanently?" asked Marigold. 

Agreeing "Meow" 

"Huh, well… I guess that just goes to show you. I'm not totally surprised, but I am a little surprised. It does mean innocent is definitely not the right word," said Marigold. 

The conversation so far was less one sided then you'd think. Marigold understood Lily's intent quite well despite it just being a series of meows. It wasn't just tone and facial expression, there was real meaning there and part of why Marigold continued to ask questions was that she found the whole thing fascinating. 

Of course, that all had to be temporarily put on hold when they were both teleported to a challenge room. Marigold got ready to do the challenge on her own when… she felt a weight on her shoulder. "Wait you're still here?" 

"Meow," 

"Huh… I guess it wasn't really designed with this in mind… or maybe it was? Are you meant to be able to enter the same instance if you're touching the other person?" pondered Marigold. 

While Marigold did that, they were both looking at the room they were stuck in. It was a room on the smaller side of things completely covered in a checkboard pattern of white and black. At least, almost completely, if what's on the sign is to be believed. It read 'Find the thing that doesn't belong' 

*Well this is dumb.* "Meow," 

"You said it Lily," chuckled Marigold. "Can your fancy cat eyes see anything out of place?" 

Lily looked around the room, searching for some sign that that something was off. All the black tiles looked… well black. The white tiles looked the same… though… Lily looked it all over again and noticed that the tiles on each surface was different. The ones on the floor didn't quite match the ones on the ceiling and all of the walls had some slight change to them. 

Very annoyed "Meow,"

"Oh that's just evil," said Marigold. "So everything is different and yet nothing is right?" 

"Meow," 

"Ok this… yeah this one really sucks. What sort of a challenge is this!" Marigold walked them over to the wall and grabbed Lily to raise her up to the top of the wall. "You see anything wrong up there? I'll check down below while I'm holding you up," 

"Meow," 

Marigold and Lily got to work looking over the tiles and failing to find anything that looked out of place. After a full minute of looking Marigold said, "We have to be missing something," 

Agreeing "Meow," 

"Yeah, yeah, but the only thing that doesn't fit so far is…" Marigold trailed off. 

Confused "Meow," 

"Oh that little shit," said Marigold as she placed Lily back on her shoulder and strode to the middle of the room. A moment later she unleashed a powerful kick on the sign splintering it… and completing the task, removing them from the room. 

"MEOW" 

"Yes I know Lily, I'm angry as well. We should've seen it, or maybe I should've seen it. Dammit that's already cost us a lot of time," grumbled Marigold. 

Despite their shared annoyance, now wasn't the time to complain that would just lose them more time. The pair jumped forward and had a nice run of mostly normal platforms. The only shock was the one that turned into vines that tried to grab at you but they were already on the next platform by the time the vines had fully formed. This run continued almost all the way until the start of the upwards spiral. 

Just three platforms shy of their temporary goal they got stuck in a question box. This time it was 'Name three settlements under dwarven control with more than fifty thousand people' "Oh that's easy," said Marigold. "Um… so the capital, obviously, Heartforge, then I'm going to say… BrokenMine, and… Stoneworks," 

Marigold nodded as the box trapping them in vanished. Marigold smiled and jumped forward… only for them to be teleported away to another challenge box. This one had a sign in front of a garden that says 'Remove all the weeds without damaging any useful plants'. 

Lily transformed and went to get started when Marigold's hand shot out, blocking her path forward. "I think I know the trick here. Just at a brief glance I'm pretty sure that none of these plants are weeds. I'm wrong, obviously because otherwise the challenge would be complete… but I think that only one or two of them are weeds in truth that need removing. I just need to work out what which ones those are," 

"Meow,"

Marigold glared at Lily. "While it's impressive you can even DO that while looking so human, if you've already transformed just speak normally," 

Marigold gave an awkward cough and said, "Sorry it was just sort of funny for a while there. Heck I'm not even sure HOW I was able to meow like this. I mean, obviously my voice box has been altered in the transformation… so why did that work?" 

"I don't know," said Marigold as she carefully studied the plants, trying and, mostly, succeeding in recalling all the ones she could see. The only three she didn't immediately recognise was the thick leafed plant on the side with small blunt spikes on it, the cabbage looking plant that looked to be an ominous red, and the beautiful looking purple flower right in the centre of the planter box. "I've never really looked into beastkin. Though… can your nose tell anything about these plants?" 

Lily sniffed and zeroed in on the spiky plant, "Oh that's aloe vera, it's good at hydrating the skin if you crack it open and especially good for sunburns,"

"Ah, yup that would be why I don't recognise it… what about the other two?" asked Marigold. 

Lily sniffed again. It was a bit hard to differentiate all the scents with them packed so close together. Still she managed it after a few moments. "Ok so the red one smells of rot and decay while the purple one… honestly doesn't smell like anything," 

"That's the one then," said Marigold as she reached over and ripped the purple plant up from the dirt.