Ditching the Demons

Why Demons Should Never Bring Things to Life

Why Demons Should Never Bring Things to Life

“What the bleep? Those aren’t my clothes.” A dripping wet Myra, clad only in a towel, stood nervously in front of the counter where she had left her kimono before entering the shower room. And Silversin promised me that there would be a barrier around the entire bathhouse, too, she thought with an indignant frown.

A muffled voice was heard from the other side of the door. “They’re travel clothes I got for you.” It was Lilla. “There’s no way I’m going to let you wear the same clothing you’ve been wearing for almost a week. And this outfit is really cute. I picked it out myself.”

“Are you sure these are appropriate for travel?” Myra asked in a skeptical tone while holding up the outfit. “It’s a long dress. And a big weird leather thingy.”

“The leather goes over the dress,” Lilla replied. “It’s the closest thing to body armor I could find for you, on such short notice.”

“Body armor? Are the Rossetti Mountains that dangerous?”

“Well, not usually. But Sam tells me that you aren’t that quick on your feet. So you might need protection.”

Myra scowled. “Not that quick on my feet? Is that really the phrase he used?”

“Uh, no comment. Hey, do you need some help getting that thing on? I really want to see you in it.”

Myra reached for the door, but froze when her fingers touched the handle. “How do I know that you are actually Lilla? For all I know, you could be Dru, using Lilla’s voice.”

“Don’t worry Myra. Not even Sam could get near this place without a sex change. And besides, I haven’t called you ‘darling’ even once during our entire conversation.”

“Good point,” Myra agreed while opening the door a crack to let Lilla slip inside. “I don’t think Dru would physically be able to do that.”

“Right. Now, let’s see you in that dress,” Lilla grinned.

Sometime later, everyone was gathered into a large courtyard just behind Silversin’s stately home. By then Myra decided that she really did like the outfit that Lilla had picked out. The under-dress was light and easy to move in, and the leather outer was a comfortable fit with beautifully decorated panels that helped cover the skirt.

Myra looked around at her companions. Everyone had on travel clothes, possibly all supplied by Lilla. At that moment Lilla herself was busily preparing a pack of provisions for each person to carry. Meris was sitting on the grass, using his teeth to help adjust one of the many straps on his sleeves. Dru appeared to be stretching, but it looked more like flirtatious posing. Sam was standing under a tree with his arms folded; giving the impression that he had been ready ever since he made his announcement the afternoon before. And Silversin was walking around, handing everyone a silver dowel. When she gave the last one to Myra, the girl looked questionably at the foot long pole. “What is it for?”

Silversin gave her a warm smile. “What ever you want. A walking staff, a silver rope, one of those…um, hard metal hat things. They don’t call me ‘Silversin’ just because of my hair, you know.”

A loud clanking noise drew their attention over to Meris and Dru, who had transformed their dowels into swords and were sparring all over the northeast corner of the court yard.

Myra turned back to her host. “Thank you for giving us those pills. They did a wonderful job to restore my energy, and obviously the others as well.”

Silversin chuckled lightly, “That’s because the pills make you feel like you’ve slept for 2 days straight, that’s about all you needed.”

“Could you give a really large dose to Sam? He could use it.”