I do not actually know how long it would be appropriate to wait before summoning new creatures to replace the ones that died. I do not feel like two days is enough, but we need to bolster our defenses. If more attacks like that are going to happen in the future, we will need more strength to repel them. Preventing future casualties is more important than mourning past casualties.

Starting with a hellhound. The male that appears is a bit larger than Spiky was, but still smaller than Noctis, of course. He looks up at Noctis and growls, eyes flaring. She responds in kind, her eyes erupting into a furious blaze. As she growls, flames can be seen flickering from the sides of her mouth as well. The imps, who were already keeping their distance, moved even further back.

The male stops growling and lowers his head. Noctis lets out a little puff of flame and radiates smug satisfaction. Two of the spikes in the middle of the male’s back are broken, missing roughly a third of their length. There is a long scar running down his right side, evidence of a previous injury, black skin visible where the fur did not grow back. I suspect this male is no stranger to fighting, yet he does not wish to challenge Noctis.

Calla steps forwards and holds both her arms up towards the new hellhound. He looks up at Noctis who just huffs. He slowly lowers his head down to be within Calla’s reach and the little imp wraps her arms around his muzzle. Violet approaches his side, inspecting the scar.

“That must have hurt.” She says. Calla perks up and releases her hug. She circles around the hellhound to stand at its side next to Violet and stares up at the old wound.

“Oh no! You hurt.” She gasps in shock. The hellhound turns his head to look at them, moving its body away from them a little.

“Don’t worry. That injury is long healed, I’m sure it’s not hurting him anymore” Violet reassures her. Calla looks up at him.

“Down?” she asks, pointing at the floor with one hand. He looks up at Noctis again who lets out a small bark. He lays down and Calla moves to his side once more. She traces a hand along the scar.

Violet reaches up to touch the broken spines on his back and he growls at her. This elicits a more menacing bark from Noctis. He stops growling, but Violet still got the message and takes a step back. Calla spreads her arms wide and presses herself against his side, planting a gentle kiss on the scarred flesh.

“It okay. No more hurt.” She whispers. She steps back and moves to place a hand on his nose. “You name Scar.” She declares. “Come, we go outside now. I show you.” She races out the door, followed by the other three hellhounds. Scar does not react for a moment, then quickly scrambles after them.

Lily looks exasperated as she watches her daughter running off with the hellhounds once again. Calyx chuckles and tells her that she can go rest and he will look after their child.

What an interesting turn of events. Does Calla command the hellhounds now? They all seem to listen to her, even the one that just arrived. She does seem to have a much closer bond to them than any of the other imps. It is rather entertaining to think about the hellhounds, big as they are, obediently following the instructions of such a tiny imp. I am interested in seeing how that bond develops in the future.

I ask Rose and Igneous to head out to the armored car to give it a thorough inspection and bring back anything of interest. Half of the other imps follow along, including Violet. That is far too many imps for Igneous to carry so he will have to walk, or at least fly low enough and slow enough that the imps do not lose sight of him. It is only a few blocks away though, so they are not going far.

When they come back, they all have their hands full. Two of the imps are carrying shotguns, Violet and one of the others look to be carrying an esky between them, Rose has a black, square plastic box and Igneous has a similar looking box, only his is much longer. The boxes and esky are left in front of my chair and the guns are taken to the storage room. Rose says there is more to collect as they all leave again.

It takes a couple more trips to get it all, but the final tally in the end is three shotguns, two assault rifles, three pistols, one knife, a few boxes of ammo for each type of gun, one more full set of armor and a large bag of pretzels in addition to the black boxes and esky.

Rose reports that there was also a solid metal cage in the trailer, though it was empty. It was bolted down so they could not bring it back. That is a little chilling to think about. Why would they have brought a cage unless they were planning to try capturing something alive?

But all the weapons we found on them were of the lethal variety. They did not have anything for simply subduing prey without killing them nor for restraining a living creature. So how were they planning to get anything into the cage? I am glad we did not have to find out.

Once the weapons and armor are stored, all the imps present sit together in the middle of the room and share the pretzels among them. Igneous tries one as well, after sniffing it cautiously, but he is not thrilled by the taste and goes back to his corner. The imps seem to like them though. Maybe I will ask William if he can bring more. Then again, I may be relying on William too much already when I have not even decided if I can trust him yet.

While they are eating the pretzels, Violet suddenly jumps to her feet and rushes to the esky. She opens the lid and reaches in, pulling out two glass bottles.

“We have drinks!” She announces. She is holding the bottles above her head with a beaming smile. It is beer. I guess the humans were planning for a celebratory drink after their mission. The bottles have water dripping off them, but when I look inside the esky there is only a little bit of water left in the bottom. They probably dumped the water before trying to bring it back.

Violet distributes beers to all the imps and even brings one over to Igneous, who is currently in his rock form. He does not respond when she offers it to him. Either he is sleeping or is just not interested. Violet shrugs and heads back to the others.

Are you all going to be alright drinking that stuff? I ask Rose.

“Why, what is it?” She asks, looking down at the beer in her hands.

It is an alcoholic beverage.

“Oh, it should be fine then, unless it is particularly strong?”

No. It should be quite weak.

“Then it shouldn’t be a problem. Imps have a pretty high tolerance for alcohol.” She twists the lid off and takes a sip. Her face scrunches up in disgust. She holds the bottle away from her and stares at it.

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“That’s terrible. Why would anyone drink this?” Looking around, a couple of the others had a similar reaction, but most seem to be enjoying it. She places her beer aside, not interested in drinking any more of it. She still enjoys the pretzels though and she actually hangs around to chat with some of the other imps besides Violet. That is nice to see.

Coal is biting the top of his bottle, apparently not understanding how to open it. Violet stops him and slowly demonstrates with her own bottle how to twist the cap off. He watches intently then imitates her, twisting the cap off his bottle. He cheers triumphantly then takes a swig. He makes a funny face and sticks out his tongue. I do not think he likes it much, but he continues to drink it anyway.

I would really like to know what is in the black boxes, but I do not want to interrupt everyone while they are having fun so it can wait until later. The impromptu beer and pretzel party is still going when Calyx, Calla and the hellhounds return. Violet brings them both a beer leaving one left in the esky.

Calla can barely even hold the bottle so Violet finds her a cup and pours some of the beverage into it. I am not sure it is wise to give her beer, even if none of the imps are questioning it. It does not seem appropriate to give a child alcohol, even if it is weak.

It is not an issue though as Calla only takes one sip before spitting it out. She dislikes it even more than Rose. She offers the cup to Noctis, who sniffs it first then starts lapping it up. Calla giggles as she hold the cup for her. This, of course, attracts the attention of the other hellhounds who are dissatisfied that only Noctis is getting a treat.

“Help find bowl?” Calla asks her mother. Lily sighs, but gets up to help her daughter find something to pour the beer into, the hellhounds following them the whole time they are searching.

They find a bowl and a pot. Laying them down, they pour out the rest of the bottle that was given to Calla and open the final bottle for the hellhounds as well. They do not hesitate to stick their heads into the dishes to get at the beverage.

With this many imps, it is not often they are all gathered in the same room to have fun like this. Some of them are running, jumping and tumbling around while others tell animated stories of past exploits that may or may not be exaggerated. None of this is unusual behavior for them, but it feels different when they are all together. Like they are all more connected.

They do not seem to be noticeably impacted by the alcohol as far as I can tell. Sure, beer may not have a high alcohol content, but they also have small bodies so it should not take much for them to become intoxicated. I guess Rose was not exaggerating when she said they have a high tolerance.

I find myself enjoying the scene, but I wish I could be more a part of it. I can not partake of the food or beverages that they can enjoy. Nor can I participate in their games. I do not even have any stories to tell as everything I have ever known exists within this room. I can only observe and listen. When I think about that I feel a little empty and a little lonely.

Rose approaches my chair and pokes my core.

“You're being awfully quiet.” she chides.

No more than usual I think. I do not usually have a lot to say.

“I suppose you’re right. But everyone’s having fun here, you should too. At least I think everyone...” She trails off looking towards Igneous. Some of the imps are currently engaged in a game of King of the Hill with Igneous being the hill. Violet is currently winning.

He can be a little hard to figure out.

“Especially when he dedicates himself to acting like a rock.” She says flatly.

How are you feeling there? Any complaints? I ask Igneous. What I receive in return I think could be best interpreted as ‘contentment’.

He says he is content. I relay to Rose. She raises an eyebrow before shaking her head with a slight chuckle.

“I guess that’s all that matters then.”

What about you? Are you content? For a moment, she is stunned by the question. She sighs, then actually smiles.

“You know what? I think I am.” There is a sudden shriek as Violet is pushed off the hill by Noctis, who drapes herself across Igneous. Indignant at being dethroned, Violet manages to organize the other imps to work together to try to push Noctis off. Rose actually laughs at their antics.

“There was a time in my life when I truly believed I would never be able to have fun like this again. Thank you for bringing me here. I know I’ve said it before, but I want to be sure you understand. You’ve changed my life in ways I never could’ve imagined.” She says, reaching out to gently stroke my core.

I am glad I could help you. And the others. I just wish I could do more.

“Please, you do more than enough already. You shouldn’t put so much on yourself.”

The imps have given up on trying to push Noctis off and are now just treating her as part of the hill. Violet and Coal are currently fighting to push each other off to claim the top spot. That is until Lily and Calyx climb up and take them by surprise, pushing them both off. At first it looks like they are planning to claim the crown together, but Lily pushes Calyx off and laughs as he looks up at her incredulously.

I envy them sometimes. Rose looks to my core with eyes wide and mouth agape.

“Why would you envy anyone? You can do so many amazing things. We’re just imps. What’s there to envy?” She asks in surprise.

Do not underestimate your value. I think imps are far more impressive than you give them credit for. You especially. But what I envy most is their carefree attitude. With just some beer and pretzels, they can set aside their worries and just have fun for a while.

“Is that really something so impressive? They’re just messing around and being silly.” She says, watching the others skeptically.

I believe it is. It is something I can not do. There are so many things that I worry about that I can not simply set them aside, not even for a little while.

“You should try sharing some of those worries. At least with me and Violet. Maybe we could help. Will you tell me what you’re worried about right now?” She implores.

I am worried about the many threats we face. There are humans who are clearly hostile towards us and their efforts to attack us are escalating. There is also William. Even as I contemplate his offer of peace, I worry about whether or not he can be trusted. Even if he can be trusted, what about the people he works for? There could also be more threats out there that I can not even imagine. Most of all, I am worried I will fail again.

Rose gently lifts my core from the chair and hugs it to her chest.

“Those are certainly valid concerns, but you don’t need to carry this burden alone. We’ve suffered setbacks.” She pauses, tears in her eyes. “And we’ll surely face more hardships in the future, but we’ll face them together and we'll prevail.” She assures me.

Thank you Rose. I am truly glad you are here. I do not know what we would do without you. She places my core back on the chair and smiles.

“I’m sure you’d get by just fine.”

Hardly. Do you think I could control this rabble even half as well as you do?

“Well, maybe not.” She says, smirking.

You should go have fun with the others. She looks over to the other imps again. Noctis decided she did not like being part of the hill and removed herself. Violet once more stands triumphantly atop the ‘rock’. Rose shakes her head

“I don’t think I’m suited for such silly games.”

Nonsense. I know you have been training a lot recently. How about you go flex some of your magic and show them who the true king of the hill is. After a moment of contemplation, she sighs then grins.

“Well, if you insist.”