The two humans did not come empty handed. William has two backpacks of different sizes in his hands, though both are much smaller than those we currently have, and Cassandra is carrying a black briefcase.
Welcome back. You have brought some things for us?
“We have,” William declares, holding up the two miniature backpacks. “This isn’t all of it though, we’re stacking most of it down in the lobby. I hope you don’t mind bringing it up yourselves since it would be quite the hassle for us to bring it up the stairs with the way they are now.”
That is reasonable. What have you brought then?
William turns to Cassandra as she places her briefcase on the table.
“Do you want to go first or shall I?” He asks.
“You might as well, you’ve got the simple stuff,” Cassandra replies.
“Alright then. As you can see, I have two options for backpacks; I thought we should bring some samples to test their fit before we start making any bulk purchases.
“This one,” he holds out the larger the two backpacks, “is designed for young school children. They’re more easily available in larger quantities. While this one,” he then holds out the smaller one, “is actually made for adults and I think was intended more for fashion than practicality. I wouldn’t even have wasted my time on it if I didn’t think that the children’s backpack might still be just a little too big,” William explains.
The larger backpack did look like a smaller version of the ones we already have, with wide, padded shoulder straps, one main compartment for storing most things and a smaller compartment on the back, both secured with zippers. The other was small and black, with only a single compartment and narrow shoulder straps that did not look like they would be particularly comfortable. But is it not me who would be wearing them, so I call Rose and Violet down to try them on.
While waiting for them, William opens the children’s backpack, revealing a number of items inside, the first of which is a pair of small black shorts that he pulls out and shows off.
“So this is basically just a prototype. It has a vertical slit here in the back to make room for a tail and this little strap here that goes over the tail to hold it in place. This one just uses a bit of velcro, but as long as the design is acceptable, we can probably have them made with something more secure later. We didn’t take any measurements last time, so I just had to guess at the size, so it might be a little off.”
Perhaps you should wait until the imps arrive before you go too far into explaining things.
“Oh, sure,” William acknowledges.
He continues to extract more items from the bag and place them on the table, but does not need to wait long for Violet to arrive with Rose and Coal following behind. It is not surprising that Coal followed Violet even though I did not ask for him, but I had to stop the other two teleporting imps from following him as well. The humans already know about Coal, but I would prefer not reveal that we have more just like him yet if we do not have to.
“Wonderful. Glad you’re here. We’ve got some stuff for you to try out,” William cheers upon seeing them.
William repeats his explanation of backpacks and pants and I translate for the imps. Violet takes the larger backpack and tries it on while Rose inspects the pants. Coal’s attention is instead focussed on the other time William had placed on the table; two small wooden boxes and a few paper bags. I do not have a sense of smell, but I assume that they contain food that he can smell. I cannot think of any other reason why they would hold his attention so firmly.
With the shoulder straps tightened as far as they can be, the backpack is still a little big for Violet, though it is still a great improvement on the ones we currently have. If the shoulder straps could be modified to be tightened further and maybe an additional strap across the chest that clips in the center, it could be secure enough that being a little large would not be a problem.
Rose closely inspects the pants and how they were altered to accommodate for a tail and nods approvingly.
“This looks like it could work,” she comments. Holding the pants against her waist, she notes that they are too big to fit her, so she holds them out to Violet.
“Here, try these on,” she suggests.
Violet takes off the back pack and reaches for the waistband of the shorts she is currently wearing to remove them, but is stopped by Rose.
“No. Not in front of the humans please,” she chides.
Violet glances at the humans, then back to Rose.
“Right, sorry.” She takes the offered shorts from Rose and heads to one of the bedrooms to change.
While she is gone, Coal taps Rose on the shoulder to get her attention and points to the paper bags on the table.
“I want,” he states.
“I’m sure we'll get to those soon, please just wait a little longer,” Rose assures him
Violet soon returns wearing the new shorts.
How is the fit?
“The pants are fine, but the hole for the tail isn’t quite right. If I pull the strap hard, it can just stretch far enough to attach it properly, but it’s tight and uncomfortable and will probably come undone if I move too much,” she complains
I relay the criticism to William who strokes his chin in thought.
“So my estimation of the width at the base of their tail was off? But what about the general design, do you think it will work?” He asks.
It should, when sized correctly.
“Excellent. We have a tape measure so we can actually take some proper measurements today, with your permission, of course,” he offers.
It would not surprise me if they were just using this as another opportunity to gather more information on my imps, but I do not really have many options. If I want them to provide correct sized clothes, they need to know the correct measurements, so I agree.
“And what about the backpacks?” he inquires.
Before that, can we discuss the other items you have on the table there? I think Coal is getting impatient.
The humans look at Coal, who is fidgeting in place and still staring up at the paper bags, and William chuckles.
“Sure, we can do that. Since you said you wanted snacks, we raided a bakery today and bought out pretty much everything they had that wasn’t just bread. These are a few samples, the rest are down stairs,” he explains.
“The look on their faces was pretty amusing when you said you wanted ‘everything’, but maybe we should give them a little warning next time,” Cassandra says with a grin.
“Perhaps, yes, if we’re going to be making large orders like this in the future, we should let them know ahead of time. But anyway, here we have,” he picks up one of the paper bags and looks inside, “a cinnamon doughnut,” he declares as he extracts the circular pastry from its bag.
All three imps' attention is now focussed on the doughnut. Rose holds a hand out and William passes it to her. She holds the doughnut up to her eye and looks through the hole, eliciting a giggle from Violet, but Coal frowns.
“Give,” he demands, tired of waiting.
Rose breaks it into three pieces and gives Violet and Coal their share. Coal sniffs his piece at first, but Violet does not hesitate to eat hers whole. Rose holds her piece below her nose and inhales deeply, savouring its scent.
“It smells nice,” she says before popping it into her mouth.
“Okay, well next is a cheese and bacon roll,” William announces, presenting a round bun with cheese and small pieces of meat, presumably bacon, baked onto the top of it.
He hands it to Rose who once again divides it into three pieces to share. Coal likes this one a lot more than the doughnut and asks for more. Rose looks up at William and tries to relay the request.
“More…that?” She asks.
“More of the cheese and bacon roll? I don’t have another one here, but I’m pretty sure there was at least one more with the rest downstairs, as well as some other variations of basically the same thing,” William assures her.
“Next is…some kind of muffin. We got a few different types and I don’t remember which one this is, but I'm sure it’s good.”
Perhaps due to its shape and maybe also its texture, Rose finds it more difficult to divide the muffin into equal shares and one piece ends up being noticeably smaller than the other two. With a resigned sigh, she gives the larger pieces to Violet and Coal and keeps the smallest one for herself. She brings it to her nose to smell it and smiles.
“It smells a bit like the first thing he gave us, the round one, a little different though,” she comments and sniffs it one more time before eating it. “It tastes better than the first one.”
“Yeah, that was the best so far. I hope there’s a lot more of those,” Violet agrees.
When all the imp's attention is back on William, he opens the final bag.
“Finally, we have a sausage roll. It probably won’t be as good as when it was hot, but it should still taste pretty alright.”
This one is long and straight, so dividing it evenly is easy for Rose, though she notices as she breaks it apart that the outer layer of the pastry is flaky and several crumbs fall to the floor.
“I hope there aren’t too many of these; I can definitely foresee them making a mess,” she grumbles.
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Other than that one complaint, the three of them do enjoy it.
“Do my offerings please the council?” William Jokes.
I simply tell the imps that he wants to know what they thought of the things he gave them. Violet holds out one hand with an enthusiastic thumbs up and Coal copies the gesture.
“Good,” Rose confirms with a nod.
“Excellent. And since you said your non-imp creatures have a preference for meat, I found a local place that makes beef jerky; then I found out they also do pork. It’s a bit expensive, but I can’t deny the quality, and it even comes in a fancy box.” William picks up one of the boxes to show it off.
There is a picture of a cow that looks like it was burned onto the wood, with the words ‘Harten’s Premium Beef Jerky’ underneath. The lid slides off to the side, instead of lifting up, revealing a paper lined interior and numerous long strips of dried meat. He holds the box out so the imps can take some.
“Only one. We still need to share them with everyone else,” Rose warns as Coal reaches to take one first.
When all the imps have a piece, William replaces the lid and puts it back on the table.
“It’s good stuff, but I’m sure the DMO aren’t going to keep providing it due to the price. They’ll probably look for a cheaper alternative if you ask for more in the future.”
With the imps chewing on their dried meat, William turned to Cassandra, who had taken a seat at the table to wait while William made his presentation.
“Would you like to show off your stuff now?” He asks.
“Sure, if Magentam is ready for it,” she replies.
I am actually quite curious.
Cassandra opens her briefcase, which catches Rose’s attention. She pauses gnawing on the meat long enough to climb onto a seat on the opposite side of the table so she could observe as Cassandra pulls out three folders, one red, one green and one blue, and places them side by side before her. The red and green folders appear to be roughly the same thickness, but the blue one is much thinner than the others.
“We compiled all the biological data we have for the other demons. Unfortunately, the information we have on the sucubirus is quite limited,” Cassandra begins.
“Which is a little ironic, because if our assumption about the connection between sucubirus and imps is correct, that data would probably be the most useful to you,” William interjects.
“Yes, well, I have put in a request to try to get more, but that could take a while. However, when comparing the biologies of the vak and the brutes, while there are some distinct differences, their overall anatomies have more similarities than not. The same will likely also be true for your imps, so I’m sure at least some of what's in here will be relevant,” Cassandra continues.
Rose points to the red folder and looks up at Cassandra.
“Give,” she says.
Cassandra pushes the folder across the table and Rose opens it and flips through the pages. All the words are written in English so she does not linger on those, but there are also detailed anatomical diagrams that she takes some time to look over.
“Will this really be helpful in some way?” She asks.
Having a better understanding of biology should provide a foundation to improve your healing.
“But this is about vak, how will it help me with healing imps?” She argues, pointing to one of the images that clearly depicts a vak.
I reiterate what Cassandra said about there likely being more similarities than differences so it will still be useful. She accepts that explanation after some contemplation.
“How do I thank her in English?” She inquires.
I instruct her on what to say and she looks up at Cassandra again.
“Thank you,” she says.
Cassandra and William both perk up, seeming genuinely surprised to hear that. It does make sense though, considering how Rose has behaved towards them in the past, they probably never expected that she would thank them personally.
“You’re very welcome,” Cassandra replies.
“So, now that the snacks are dealt with, how about we get back to deciding on which backpack you like better, then we can take some measurements for the clothes?” William suggests.
Violet, having finished her piece of beef jerky, picks up the smaller backpack that she had not tried before while Rose jumps down from her chair to try on the larger one. Coal, on the other hand, stares up at the wooden boxes on the table.
“More?” He requests.
“No. Not right now. Later, when we can share with the others,” Rose refuses.
Coal frowns, but he does not try to argue. Instead he walks over to the couch, climbs up to sit on it and pouts as he watches the other two imps.
Violet pulls on the smaller backpack and as expected, the shoulder straps are way too long. She bundles up the excess length in her hands and pulls it tight. Other than the length of the straps its size actually does look like it would be a good fit, but Violet disagrees.
“I like the other one better. It’s more comfortable and it’s bigger, so I will be able to fit more stuff in it,” she declares.
Meanwhile, Rose is trying on the larger backpack herself. It hangs pretty low, reaching to a little below her knees, but it is not touching the ground and that is what matters and if the shoulder straps can be further modified, then it will sit higher.
“I agree, this one is preferable,” she states.
I relay their opinions to William and add my suggestions for modifications and he agrees that they are good ideas.
“Well, let’s get these measurements done then,” William suggests.
Cassandra reaches into her briefcase again and extracts a tape measure, but this one is not like the stiff, metallic extending tape measure that we have. This one is made from a more flexible material and has a set length and no hard casing.
“Would you like me to do the measuring, or would you prefer to do it yourself?” She asks Rose.
Rose narrows her eyes and holds out a hand to take the tape measure.
“You’ll need to measure the diameter of the base of the tail. Do you want any long pants or just shorts?” Cassandra questions.
“Just shorts, long pants are restrictive and impede movement,” Rose answers.
“Do you need shirts as well or just pants?”
I confer with Rose and Violet and they agree that there is no problem with the shirts they have, it is only better pants that they need.
At Rose’s request, Violet stands still as Cassandra gives instructions on what measurements are needed. Cassandra understands numbers in Balkret so I do not need to translate as Rose measures and she writes the figures down in a notebook.
Rose calls Coal over to measure him as well and then has Violet take her measurements.
Most of the imps are the same size as Rose and we only have a few in Coal and Violet’s sizes, so please organise the products accordingly. I inform Cassandra and she writes some more notes in her book.
I do not wish to mention that Violet is unique or reveal exactly how many imps of Coal’s size there are for now, so I will keep it vague. Violet will just have more options to choose from as a result. But then it occurs to me that there is one other imp whose size is unique.
What should we do about Calla? She will also need clothes, but asking for them will let the humans know that we have a child here. I ask Rose.
“They might already know about her. The other humans saw her before and might have already shared that information with the DMO,” she counters.
A good point. I will talk to her parents and let them decide how they want to deal with it.
Calla and her parents in the hallway on the fifth floor. She is sitting on her father’s shoulders while he runs along the hallway with Lily and the hellhounds following behind. When they reach the end of the hallway, they turn around and run back the other way.
Lily, Calyx, I have something important to discuss.
The imps immediately stop running and the hellhounds follow suit, though Fuzzy trips and tumbles over from the abruptness of it, making Calla giggle.
“What you need?” Calyx inquires.
The humans, William and Cassandra, are here. They are going to bring us better clothes in the future; they might already know about Calla, but if they do not, they will learn of her when we ask for clothes for her.
“Humans hurt child?” Calyx asks while Lily frowns.
I do not believe they will do anything to hurt her, but I do not like sharing more information with them than necessary.
“Human here?” Calla asks, looking down at her father.
Yes, there are two humans here.
“Nice human or mean human?” She queries.
I think these ones are relatively nice.
“Let’s go. Want see,” she commands, pointing towards the stairwell.
“No, humans dangerous!” Lily vehemently objects.
I can have Rose come up here to take the necessary measurements so you do not have to meet with the humans directly.
“Yes, that’s better idea,” she agrees.
“But want to see,” Calla whines, then after some contemplation, she points at Noctis. “Bring hellhounds. Eat humans if mean,” she implores.
Calyx looks at his mate with a sympathetic smile.
“Hellhounds keep safe. Rose too. It fine, right?” He proposes, holding out a hand for her.
Lily glares at him, still not fully convinced, but reluctantly relents and takes his hand and the three imps make their way down to the fourth floor, escorted by the entire pack of hellhounds.
In the meeting room, William and Cassandra were both now seated at the table discussing things in hushed voices. Rose had gone back to studying the anatomical diagrams and Coal went back to sitting on the couch, now with Violet beside him.
Noctis is the first to enter the room followed by her mate, then Scar and Fuzzy. Violet jumps off the couch and rushes over to give Fuzzy a hug.
“Hey, it’s the fire monsters. Nice to see you again,” William comments.
We call them ‘hellhounds’.
“Is that so?” He replies with a raised eyebrow and focuses his gaze on Noctis, who stares back at him and the fire in her eyes flares. “Quite fitting, I’d say,” he says with a small chuckle.
The three imps follow behind the hellhounds, Calla still riding on her fathers shoulders.
“Is that the child we heard about?” Cassandra notes when she spots them.
“Wow, it really is tiny,” William remarks.
So you did already know about her?
“Yeah, Jonathan’s party mentioned it when they told us about their last visit. Since we know how cagey you are about sharing information on your imps and other creatures, we didn’t want to bring it up unless you did first,” he explains.
I see. As I am sure you can tell, we are also going to need to take measurements for her as well, except she is going to need entire outfits instead of just pants.
“Those are clothes meant for infants, right? But it looks like even those don’t fit well because of the difference in body proportions. Well, it shouldn’t be a problem to have something appropriate made,” Cassandra asserts.
Calyx places his daughter back down on the floor as Rose approaches with the tape measure and explains what is needed and Cassandra instructs Rose on what measurements to take.
While that is happening, Scar stands and puts his front paws on the table and sniffs at the boxes. William reaches out to pick one up but Scar growls at him when he approaches. Violet rushes over and climbs up one of the table legs. She picks up the box with a picture of a pig on it, labeled as ‘Pork Jerky’, and slides the lid off. She holds a piece of the dried meat out for Scar and he immediately snatches it from her hand. Fire and Fuzzy are soon looking up at her, waiting to also receive a piece.
Noctis stays by Calla’s side so Violet jumps down from the table to bring one to her. She then offers one to Lily and Calyx as well and Coal also comes over to take one. She takes one for herself and waits for Rose to finish measuring Calla to offer them the last two pieces.
“What this?” Calla asks.
“It’s a snack. It’s made of meat and is very tasty,” Violet informs her.
While the imps are happily chewing in their dried meat, I turn my attention back to William.
So what about the other things I asked for?