Chapter 2: Two

"Are you just going to stare at me?" Asked Rida, irritably. She was getting ready to leave, putting on a long coat and filling its many pockets with a variety of small glass bottles and vials, containing fluids of diverse bright colors. Janilari had no idea how she could find anything in the mess, but somehow the mage managed. 

"Yes." The demon answered, simply. "As I said, I want to have an idea of how your day-to-day is before figuring out the best way to help you." She smiled brightly, but her smile dropped when Rida turned to her with a sour expression. 

"I don't want nor need your help with my 'day-to-day'. I'll be glad if you just focus on aiding me in combat." 

"Technically not part of our deal." Janilari pointed out before Rida finished getting ready. Unlike other mages she had known, Rida didn't wear jewelry on her robes, nor had the collection of amulets, rings, and other trinkets that sorcerers always carried with them. Her robe was greyed out and she seemed to depend solely on potions. 

Rida grumped out something unintelligible. Janilari could already start to predict when the mage would do something like that. Rolling her eyes, she answered: 

"Can you speak up? Didn't catch that." 

Rida sent her a venomous look. Janilari just shrugged and smiled. 

"Come on, Rida!" She said cheerfully. "This is going to be so fun! Brighten up a little!" 

To emphasize her words, the candles around the room extinguished in a flash of light as soon as she said 'brighten'. The wooden window opened violently as the cloth keeping it closed shredded, and sunlight immediately filled the room, making the ambiance a lot less somber. 

Again, Rida paused at the display of magic, unable to hide her amazement. But she was quick to recover, and with a scowl, she moved to the door. 

"I'd just prefer if you focused on what's important." The mage argued as she left the room. The demoness was already in the hallway outside, and this time the sorcerer pretended not to be bewildered. "You should, if you truly want to help me."

"I do want to help you!" Janilari argued back. "But you are getting it all wrong, YOU are important, Rida!" 

The mage just stared at her with an unamused face, but this time the demoness' smile didn't waver. They spent a few seconds like this, but their silent tussle was interrupted by a cough coming from the other side of the hallway. 

They both glanced at the same time, finding a tall, heavy bald man crossing his arms and staring at them with a hard gaze. 

"Rida." The man said. "It's extra for having guests." 

The sorcerer sighed, lightly raising her hands. 

"I'm sorry, Galdio, it was just this one time." 

"Was it?" Asked the man, clearly not trusting the mage in the slightest. He spared a quick glance at the demon, then he stared at her for longer, and then his expression turned into horror. "Rida..."

"Listen, Galdio, I-" 

"You... Haven't paid rent in months!" He exclaimed. "And you decide to summon a fucking demon under my roof!?" 

"I-" Rida repeated, unable to explain herself. Janilari glanced a couple of times between the two. 

"Uhm... Mister... Galdio." The demoness started to say, ignoring the warning look of Rida. "How much extra is for summoning a demon?"  

The man stared back at her, a mix of horror and disbelief on his face. It was clear that a part of him was terrified of being addressed by a demon. But somehow, he got over it to discuss money. "Seven hundred, at least!" 

"Seven HUNDRED!?" Rida immediately complained. 

"Done!" Janilari said with an easy smile. At Rida's concerned sight, she added: "Give us a week. I'll make sure you get everything you are owed." 

The man blinked. Still horrified, but probably deciding not to argue back against a demon, he answered: "A week then. But if you don't..." He hesitated, and left the empty threat unsaid. "Whatever. Your friends are waiting downstairs, Rida." 

With that the man left, leaving Rida cursing under her breath and a pleasantly surprised Janilari. 

"You have friends!?" 

* 

To avoid a similar mishap to their encounter with Galdio, they decided it was best for Janilari to hide her appearance. Rida was about to go back into her room to get her some concealing clothes. Despite how adorable she found that, Janilari just stopped her and changed herself. 

Any demon knew how to change their shape. It really wasn't that hard. Changing the color of her skin, hiding her horns beneath her scalp, growing more human-looking hair, and finally, casting over herself another set of clothes, this time just a simple golden dress with a nice-looking belt around her waist. It merely took a couple of seconds, but Rida was speechless at what she had just witnessed. 

Throwing a knowing smile, the demoness turned on the spot. "Good enough?" 

The mage remained silent for another couple of seconds. Then, in a monotone voice, remarked: "You missed the tail." 

Lightly offended, Janilari sulked all the way down to the first floor, where an almost empty tavern was filled with the mismatched sounds of a loud conversation. The demoness' mood improved drastically upon seeing the group sitting at the only occupied table. 

When Galdio said "friends", she wasn't expecting four different people! Already very proud of Rida, who dragged her feet behind her, the demon bounced to the table with a happy pace. Her presence interrupted the story of the armored guy, who seemed to dominate the conversation, and all four of them turned to see her. 

"Hello, Rida's friends!" She greeted cheerfully. She barely heard the mage groan behind her. "Oh, I'm so excited to meet you all! I'm Janilari!" 

The armored guy waved at her with an awkward smile, while the other three looked at each other. Then Rida caught up, and they all turned to her. 

"Rida..."

"This is..."

"... Amazing!" Finalized the armor dude, standing up and clapping his hands. His gauntlets clung horrifyingly against each other, and the girl beside him fought against a shudder. "Welcome, Janilari, my name is Maesron! And this is Pendi!" He introduced the girl beside him, a small woman with fox ears who still hadn't recovered from the noise and didn't seem to appreciate Janilari greeting her loudly. A bow and a quiver rested on the side of her chair.

Maesron continued, his armored hand falling on the shoulder of a tall, muscular woman, whose oversized battle axe was laying on the floor. 'And this is...!'

"Brunai." The woman finished for him. She stared between Janilari and Rida with a smirk. "I see Rida has good taste." 

"Shut the fuck up, Brun." Rida spat out immediately, but the warrior just chuckled. 

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"And last, but not least, the great Huddinli!" Maesron finished, gesturing at a lanky-looking guy on the other side of the table. The pale young man seemed out of place around the three warriors, as he didn't seem to have any weapon, just a bag sprawled on the floor. 

"Oh, you are all so interesting!" Janilari remarked, still smiling. Maesron's own smile faltered at the strange comment, and Brunai frowned. "How did you all become friends?" 

Rida sighed in resignation and went to take a seat.

"Well, as a matter of fact, we are all part of the same adventuring company!" Claimed Maesron. Janilari slowly smiled. 

"Don't you say..."

"We are! Why don't you sit with us, I'll tell you everything! Did you have breakfast yet? Please Ayila, bring her something! My treat!" 

Of course, Janilari wasn't going to say no. She almost jumped into a seat. She saw Rida slump on her own, and exchange looks with the other members of the team, while Maesron started a full retelling of their story. 

* 

One thing was sure, Maesron loved talking. Janilari only had to ask before being presented with an endless amount of information supplied by the armored adventurer. She now knew many useful things, like: 

A) They were the only five members of their so-called adventuring company. 

B) They had yet to see any amount of success. 

C) Both of these facts were explained by their main policy: not hurting any living being during their quests. 

"That's an oxymoron." Janilari had pointed out. "Adventurers who are not allowed to fight?" 

"We are not that kind of adventurers." Replied Huddinli, displaying a surprising amount of backbone for a guy who only had a bag. 

"We shouldn't need to hurt anyone to help others or to further our goals." Agreed Brunai. 

"It doesn't matter what you think." Said Pendi, the foxgirl. "It's a question of principle. We'll never give up our morals." 

Janilari nodded slowly, glancing at Rida who was hiding behind a mug of beer. 

D) Rida's friends were complete morons. 

Now, don't get things twisted. Janilari could, at a certain level, respect the values some people decided to follow for one reason or another. But if your values were not hurting others, you are just gonna need a suitable profession. Wasn't the whole point of adventuring to cause chaos in the countryside, and kill any creature weaker than you for riches and other loot? 

"I'll admit, things are not easy for our company." Maesron lamented. "But I'm sure that if we keep trying, our luck will soon change. It might even be today! We are heading north to find a lost caravan!" 

"Today." Rida repeated. She was on her fourth beer already. 

"Yeah! Oh, Rida, sorry that I didn't warn you earlier..."

"Not your fault Maesron." Said Pendi in a cold tone. "Not when Rida spends all her time locked in her room." 

"Well, at least we now know she had good company." Added Brunai, looking at Janilari. The demon blinked and then smiled. 

"Oh, you are so kind!" 

"It's not like that." Grunted Rida, looking directly at Brunai. The tall warrior raised her eyebrows. 

"Then, what is it like?" 

"She's..." Rida hesitated, holding up her beer, but she didn't come up with anything so just took another sip. 

"Sadly, that's right." Of course, Janilari came to the rescue! "It's not like that." She pouted. "Not yet at least." 

Rida choked a bit on her beer, while Brunai looked at her with a smirk. 

"If you don't mind me asking, then..." Said Huddinli. "... How do you know Rida, exactly?" 

"Please, tell us about yourself, Janilari!" Agreed Maesron. Pendi's ears twitched, also showing her interest. 

"She is..." Said Rida before the demoness had an opportunity to respond. "Well... She's... The thing is..." 

"Here's your plate!" The innkeeper, Ayila, interrupted with a smile. Maesron thanked her profusely as the woman apologized for taking so long, jokingly blaming her pregnant belly (It was so weird how humans did that!). 

Janilari looked at her "breakfast", vaguely remembering how the thing worked. 

"Ah, food, right?" She looked up to Rida for clarification. "No, I remember this! You are supposed to..." Carefully, she grabbed a piece between two fingers. It was the severed leg of a bird, seemingly heated over a prolonged amount of time and sprinkled with small herbs and salt. "... Like this..." Raising it over her head and looking up, she dropped the piece in her mouth and swallowed it whole. 

She's sure that she would have remembered the experience that followed. Obviously she experienced pain before. Lots of, actually. But nothing quite the sensation of that section of bird struggling to go down her throat. When it was clear that it was physically impossible for the limb to force its way through, she had to make a conscious effort to widen her throat. Only then the "food" fell into her empty, forgotten stomach, when she remembered humans usually smashed their food with their teeth first. 

With teary eyes, she coughed a bit and looked down at the table. She could not quite describe the look of absolute horror on everyone's faces except Rida's. As a sort of explanation, the demoness clarified:

"Uhh... I forgot you had to chew."

The four adventurers stared at her, then at each other, and they all ended up looking at Rida in search of an explanation for the unholy act they had just witnessed. The mage took her time, finishing her fifth beer before talking. 

"Janilari is a demon." She just said. They waited for further clarification that never came. Again, they all, slowly, ended up staring at Janilari, who gave them an innocent smile. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you all!" She said casually, smiling at the once again horrified expressions around her. 

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