Chapter 5: Panic and…

Lily groaned, rubbing the back of her head as she turned to the side. Her memory was a bit foggy. Opening her eyes to stare at Ka, she said, "W, what are you doing here, Kat? Hang on… wait, don't tell me something important, Gramps… no, um,, tail… Wait, you have a tail!" Lily finally noticed the swishing tail behind her best friend. "Ha, ah, ok, you're messing with me, you heard me go on about demons yesterday for so long, and this is my punishment. Honestl,y the tail looks good on you, but surely something that moves so well would have cost… Oh no."Realisation dawned on Lily as it occurred to her that even if Kat did have access to that kind of money, never would she spend it on something for a poor joke. "Yes, Lily, we have a problem. The tail behind me is real, and I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do about it. Can I still say hell? Hey Lily, what are the ethics of a demon swearing about hell?" Kat asked. "Wai, are you sure that's a demon tail? I me, plenty of other things have tails, and oh no. The end is a spade. Ka, please tell me you aren't a succubus." Lily pleaded. "How should I know Lily? Just because I woke up like this doesn't mean I have any more of an idea than you do. I don't feel any different besides the tail, if that helps. It seems to have screwed with my balance, my brain seems to be wired to compensate for it now and wrapping it around myself to hide it caused me some minor balance issues running over here, and for now at least let's save the more questionable parts of this to the side. I'd like your help figuring out what to do with the tail, and then we can freak out about the future, alright? Is there anything special I need to know about it immediately?" "Oh," Lily said, struggling to calm down, "Can I just have a quick look while I think about this for a momentItit hasn't hit me properly yet." Kat nodded, and Lily walked over to her. Closely examining the area where Kat's tail merged with her body, she could find no discernible markings as if it had always been a part of her friend. Poking around the area slightly Lily began. "Ok well, first things firstI guesss that demons don't have a major weakness in their tails, the biggest issue you are likely to have is just getting used to it I think and maybe some people might target it because I'd imagine a tail is hard to defend but that's about all I have for you there." Taking a deep breath, Lily continued, "The real issue is the spade on the end, not because of the spade itself, but because of what it represents. You have to be some kind of succubus; no other demon ever really developed something similar to this. Some have more varied tails than others, but the spade shape marks you as a succubus, of that I'm mostly sure. The question is, what does that mean for us?" "What do you mean? Is there any problem with succubuses? Succubi?" Lily nodded at the second one. "Aren't they like beautiful women or something? I've never cared too much about my looks, but I certainly don't look horrible." Kat said. "Well… succubi tend to be, how shall I put this, a little sex obsessed normally. Now, don't get me wrong, some minor instances of them give them different roles, but things aren't quite in your favour after that one. Wait actually are you going to keep changing? Do you get the cool tail and that's that,t or is there more to this?" "We, I might have left out a few things, like the tunnel of magic fire and the demon summoning ritual. And the random floating t, text, but I don't remember it all too well," Kat said. "Kaaat, what did you do. Please don't leave out important stuff like that. Why didn't you tell me before?" Lily said. "Well, I mean, at the time, I mostly just thought it was a dream. I was curled up in bed, and I might have even drifted off to sleep for a bit, when all of a sudden, I was surrounded by all sorts of strange fire," Kat said. "Do you mean you were… in hell?" Lily asked. "No, no, it was just fire and none of it burned, but it sorta felt like some of it could? And there was a bunch of different colours all around as I rushed past, it was a complete rainbow and then some." Kat explained. "Ok, ok, keep going, Kat, please," Lily said. "Right, ok so, um I think there were some words that flashed around me as well and I think some of the text said something something bloodline, I don't remember exactly what else it said. I also seem to recall the text wishing me well at the end, I think, oh, and something about an awakening of some sort. But that it didn't happen or something? Look, I was waking up somewhat, and I wasn't trying to focus at all. I thought I was dreaming, and I was very distracted by the colours. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before until I met the wizard," said Kat. Lily just sighed, "Kat, please don't say that like it's completely normal. I'm struggling to keep all this straight in my head already,dy, and it's only so easy to believe you because you're my friend… and the tail is very distracting, so I can't forget that either." "Sorry,y sorry," Kat sat down next to her friend and continued speaking, all the while slowly moving her tail behind Lil. "So after the flames all died awa,y I was standing in a room with two guys, now to be hone,s t I didn't notice at first because the room was stacked with books, and I mean stacks floor floor-to-ceilinging bookshelves, and the place was at least ten metres tal,l you'd have loved it. Anyway, after the old dude started yelling, I started paying more attention to what was going on. So, there was a funny circle around me and the younger one, let's call him Apprentice, telling him to cancel the summoning, and how everything had gone wrong." Said Kat. "Well, to cut the story a bit short t, tit turns out the spell was supposed to summon a weak demon with a calm temperament, and I'm not sure how they measure the strength of a demon, but I doubt I'm that strong if wizards can pull people across dimensions. Anyway like I was saying they thought the spell had fucked up because I didn't have any demonic features at all and that is supposed to take a very very high level of power which I don't have. Anyway, the Apprentice got all pale at that and did some long chant to send me back. Kat finished just as she got her tail to circle Lily. "Eeep, dammit Kat don't do that" Lily looked at her friend with a pout."A,w come he, re it wasn't that bad." Kat hugs her friend. "So what can you tell me?" Leaning into Kat's hug Lily replied "Right so, the important thing might be the text you were talking about, it seems like for whatever reason over the next however long you are going to turn into a demon, I don't know what the means really, maybe nothing, you will become a different person I just don't know. What I do know is that magic is real, and you likely have to deal with it. Demons are supposed to be summoned routinely, so my best guess is that sometime soon, you will be summoned again. If nothing else weird happens before next Saturday, we will evaluate that, but I have no reason to think this will be the only time. Hone, STL,y Kat I'm somewhat a . Loss, I don't know how I can help you here." Kat leaned in and hugged her friend close. "Honestly, this has helped a lot already. I don't normally get flustered about things like this, but you also don't normally wake up with a tail, who knows. I guess the only question now is what to do when I'm changing for gym class…" "Kat, we don't have gym till next we," Lily replied. "Oh, well, help, then it's not my problem. Do you want to do a bit more research together before I have to sneak out to avoid your parents?" Kat said. Lily looked like she wanted to contradict Kat, that her parents weren't that bad, but Lily's parents did like to go out of their way to make her uncomfortable. And so, they spent the next few hours doing research, uncovering little of note before it was time for Kat to leave. , Oh, one more thing, I'm probably going to tell Sylvie about this. She somehow managed to figure out something was wrong already, and I can't resist those eyes of hers. Maybe she's the one with bewitching power," said Kat. "Look, it's not my business who you te,l l and I don't think it will be an issue to tell Sylvie from what I know of her, but be careful." Lily said, "The school isn't that religious considering its name, but you have a real honest to god tail, Kat, who knows what they'll do." "I know Lily, I know." After a short journey home and a rushed lunch, Kat got started on the weekend cleaning. Every Saturday, he orphanage expected everyone to clean out their rooms as well as the dining hall, or more accurately, the three stooges in charge of keeping everyone organised were supposed to be in charge, though this was not to be. Instead, Kat stilled the cleaning efforts, cleaning the hen room first before rounding everyone up and instructing them to tidy before handing out buckets and then spending the time bouncing between helping the other kids clean and cleaning the dining room. And yes, technically,y the oldest was in charge of the orphanage cleaning, that's how it had always been. Over the past six months, Gramps had been encouraging the three teens, Sarah, John, and David, to be in charge. They always complained that Kat was still the oldest, but Gramps intervened, stating she had done those duties for 7 years, longer than anyone, and it wasn't her responsibility anymore. That's what Gramps said. Reality begged to differ. Kat was the one making sure to wipe down the tables in the mess hall. *If this demon summoning stuff becomes a big time sink, I'm going to have to force those three ty do their dammed jobs. For now, those three, Gramps and I, have an uneasy truce. I still do most of the work, but mistakes are on their head, not mine, and someday soon, they need to completely take over. Hopefully, they can sort themselves out quickly.* After the cleaning,gKat had her evening meal with Sylvie and assured the little girl that tomorrow she would tell her everything, she just needed to ask, and while that had seemed to put the girl at ease, that didn't mean she had completely let the matter drop. Sylvie occasionally stole glances towards Kat as if, in some moment of hesitation on Kat's problems would become completely obvious to the little girl. Going upstairs to shower, Kat decided to go to bed early. lly need the sleep. I was up last night being summoned to who knows where, and after the cleaning, honestly, I could use the extra sleep.* A quick shower and change late,r Kat found herself drifting off to sleep, hoping that tomorrow wouldn't be quite so tiring.