(no subject)

[bluediligence]

Who: Anyone
When: Day 49, Late afternoon
Where: Anywhere

[ If the morning's trial hadn't been miserable enough … ]

[ Now it's raining! And it's still so foggy you can barely see your own feet. ]

Comments

[bowtiedbones]

[her other familiar paces out from the other side of the fire, taking a lap counterclockwise to the other.

for a bonfire this big and on a day this wet, it's maybe strange that it's not putting out any steam or smoke.]

A hellhound.

[voreaciously]

[eh magic is weird and weird things happen.]

Why?

[bowtiedbones]

Because I want one.

[because they’re something from home, because it’s a piece of her favorite magic finally working again, and because nothing fucks with a full-grown hellhound]

[voreaciously]

That is the only reason?

[bowtiedbones]

Do I need another reason?

[voreaciously]

I suppose it does not matter. What is it capable of?

[bowtiedbones]

[makes a sign to her familiars and they both lie down, poised to spring and watching the center of the bonfire where the flames have started to gutter]

Mm... They're a type of black dog, but they have a much greater affiliation with fire than the other species. Most of their use comes in fire management, hunting, or guarding.

[voreaciously]

I suppose that is fine.

[says the girl who has historically been very, very opposed? to fire?]

Something is different about that fire.

[bowtiedbones]

The hellhound is sampling it. The fire has to be to its tastes for it to answer the summons and accept the contract terms.

[voreaciously]

[she is still hanging somewhere in the fog]

And if it is not to its tastes?

[bowtiedbones]

Then it'll move on. But this is the first kind of summons I learned how to do, so I'll get one for sure.

See?

[nods at the fire where there's now shadows moving in the heart of it, darkening into the shape of something large crouched among the timbers]

[voreaciously]

...

[she watches quietly from wherever she is]

I see.

[bowtiedbones]

[nods again, focused on the fire.]

Oh, one second, this part gets rough.

[another sign to her familiars and they charge the fire, sending the shadow twisting into the embers to try get away from them. there's a horrible snarling and three sets of giant snapping jaws, but it's all bloodless— no yelping, no bones crunching, just a lot of very noisy posturing for dominance.]

[voreaciously]

What is happening?

[bowtiedbones]

The agreement is being finalized. It's safer to have them do it, since they're more able to go into the fire, but they always have to be animals about it.