“What is he?” The words were out of Serenity’s mouth before he had a chance to think about them, but he didn’t regret them at all. He did want to know what Mischief was; he could smell that it was a demon, but what he could see if it looked harmless, possibly even helpless. He’d never seen a demon like it and the papers he’d recovered from the summoning in Kansas also didn’t list anything like him.
Aide had checked.
“Mischief?” The woman reached down and scritched the tiny demon’s head. It seemed to move up into her hand, like it enjoyed the contact, but it didn’t stop struggling. “It’s called an alilu, supposed to be a relative of the squirrel. It sort of looks like a tailless squirrel, too. They’re kept as pets somewhere in Asia, but only recently imported to the US.” She seemed proud of the creature she clearly thought was just an exotic animal.
Serenity started to try to figure out how to tell her that it might be dangerous when it grew up; he couldn’t think of any demons that were as small as the “alilu,” but he could think of demons that changed a lot as they advanced in Tier and became more dangerous. Guessing the alilu’s Tier was tricky since it was lower Tier than the woman who held it and noticeably weaker, but Serenity suspected that it was still Tier Zero. “Be careful with it …”
“I can find records of the sale of alilus for more than two years,” Aide reported in the back of Serenity’s head. “I don’t have a complete picture yet, but there are a number of alilu owner groups on social networking platforms. I am still looking for better numbers, but there are likely thousands of alilu.”
“Of course!” The woman grinned at Serenity. “I wouldn’t do anything else with my little Mischief!”
As she said that, her grip on the struggling bundle eased a little and the demon squirmed out of her hold and out of the fabric sling. For a moment, it paused on top of her arm, almost as if it was giving Serenity a good look at it. A tailless squirrel was definitely a good description of it as it stood on its hind legs and looked up at Serenity.
Mischief sniffed the air once more, then jumped towards Serenity. It landed on the ground closer to Serenity than to its owner and paused for a moment.
Its owner grabbed for it as it fell, but missed. “Oh no! Are you okay?”
Mischief darted towards Serenity. It barely evaded its owner’s desperate attempt to catch it, then hopped up onto Serenity’s shoe. A moment later, it started to climb his leg as if it were a tree.
Serenity sighed. It was a cute little thing, but it was still a demon. It was clearly going to make a big deal of his presence; all of the demons he’d met recently had. The question was what to do from here; should he try to get this demon away from the woman? Was there a point in trying or did he need to just figure out how to deal with alilu demons as a larger group?
The woman’s small dog shook itself, then made its way over to Serenity and sat on the foot the alilu climbed. It gave a good impression of curling up to go to sleep, but Serenity didn’t believe that for a moment.
The sharp nails on the alilu’s paws weren’t comfortable and they definitely snagged on Serenity’s jeans as it climbed, but it wasn’t really anything more than a small pinch. There were advantages to being at a significantly higher Tier, even without a shield and with human skin instead of his dragonhide.
Come to think of it, he should get back in the habit of wearing his dragonscale armor. He’d gotten out of the habit when he was on A’Atla since he had it on his parents instead, but he was too far away for that now. He ought to use it to protect Rissa and himself.
“Mischief!” The woman seemed a bit embarrassed at her pet’s actions. The alilu didn’t care; it kept climbing Serenity. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him, he’s usually a lot less interested in other people. Alilu are one-person pets.”
Serenity reached down and scooped the alilu up. It froze and looked at him, then chittered. Serenity could see why people believed they were related to squirrels; if he wasn’t able to smell their demonic origins, he’d believe it too.
No, there was no point in trying to take Mischief away from … whoever the lady was. He believed Aide’s information and one wouldn’t make a difference when there were thousands out there. He stared at the squirrel-like critter in his hand. “You’re just trying to come say hi, aren’t you? Well, I see you.”
Mischief chittered back at Serenity.
Serenity didn’t understand what the demon said, but he was certain it had said something. It seemed to be a smart little demon, far smarter than Lesser Wrath Demons. Without a better clue, he guessed what it might be saying. “Are you telling me you’re just trying to live up to your name? That’s fair, but don’t cause too much mischief. I don’t want you getting hurt, and neither does your human. You also need to be careful around her; humans are fragile. Don’t get her hurt.”
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Mischief chittered at Serenity again.
Serenity couldn’t tell if that was agreement or not, but the little demon wasn’t squirming anymore. He handed the critter back to the woman. “I think he’ll settle down for a bit, but I doubt it’ll last too long.”
“Well,” the lady shrugged with a grin. “He is my little Mischief. I don’t know what I’d do with him if the rascal wasn’t always trying to get into something.”
Serenity smiled at that and handed the little rascal to the woman. Mischief was surprisingly docile during the exchange and didn’t struggle, even when the woman tucked him back into the constraining fabric sling she used to carry him.
Or perhaps it wasn’t that surprising; he was a demon and Serenity thought there was a decent chance he’d understood at least some of what Serenity said. If Serenity was the reason he’d tried to get out, it made some sense that Serenity was able to put him back as well.
The woman leaned down and ruffled the fur on her dog’s head. “C’mon, Duke. Let’s finish the walk.”
Serenity headed back to his SUV as the lady moved on. He didn’t think he’d learn anything more at this location until nightfall when he could explore it and search for a crystal without being seen. A phone call to Russ seemed to be in order, once he told Janice to head to the next house. The other one without a ley line nexus was definitely next on his list.
Russ picked up after only a couple of rings. “Serenity? What is it?”
“Have you heard of alilus?” Serenity watched the scenery move past him slowly. It was nice to have someone else do the driving, even if it was still more than a bit strange.
“Alilus?” Russ sounded surprised by the question. “You don’t mean that new pet that became popular a couple years back, do you? I don’t know where they’re all coming from, but you see them all over the place. Phoebe looked into getting one, but decided she wasn’t really ready for a pet.”
Well, at least that was one worry off of Serenity’s shoulders. If they were that common, however, Serenity wondered why Aki hadn’t noticed.
On second thought, maybe it made sense. At Tier Zero, they weren’t monsters and they were always with a human; why should she think they were anything other than an odd pet? Aki couldn’t sense demons the way Serenity could. The only way she’d sense anything different would be if one of them managed to Tier up in her dungeon.
It was only a little surprising that there weren’t any in the dungeon that had been abandoned by their owners, but maybe they were a little more valued by their owners than other pets; they were certain to be less common than cats and dogs, after all. Alternatively, maybe they were simply being left in places where they didn’t get to Aki’s dungeon.
Serenity made a note to talk to Aki about abandoned pets. He didn’t know what, if anything, she did about them and he kind of wanted to know now that he’d thought of it. With his luck, it wouldn’t be as simple as turning them over to someone who would take care of them; she probably made them monsters down in her dungeon or something. He hadn’t seen any cat or dog themed monsters, but he still wouldn’t put it past her.
Serenity shook himself and made himself return to the topic in front of himself: alilus. “They’re demons. The smallest, weakest demons I’ve ever seen, but they’re still demons. Tier Zero, I think. The one I met was nice, but…”
“But you don’t know how they behave around other people,” Russ finished for Serenity. It probably wasn’t quite what Serenity would have said, but it got the idea across. “I haven’t heard anything; they’re supposed to be really good pets. I also haven’t heard anything about them becoming anything else or even getting bigger than about a couple pounds, but I’ll ask around.”
That was the moment that Aide picked to show Serenity a picture of a giant flying squirrel that could reach over four feet in length. That was well into the size range Serenity expected for a lesser demon, which didn’t prove anything one way or the other. Maybe they were just a demon type Serenity had never seen, even as Vengeance, or maybe they simply took time to become a demon Serenity was aware of and he just wasn’t making the connection. There were a lot of demon types, after all, and while many demonic advancements were simply a size change, some could be far more significant.
The possibility Serenity didn’t pay much attention to was the thought that they might not be demons at all. They smelled like demons. It was more likely that they were one of the species that were part of demons’ makeup, like the Suras, but Serenity doubted even that explanation. He was fairly confident they were demons.
The fact that they smelled like demons wasn’t the only reason Serenity was convinced. “Is there any way you can track where they’re coming from? A- that is, our opponent likes to use weapons I’d call biological.” The Eaters flashed through Serenity’s mind as he spoke. “I think we may have it backwards, that the new easy way to summon demons might be an attempt to speed things up rather than an attempt to get demons into the world. If he’s the one that introduced the alilu, he already has demons all over the place; they just aren’t very strong.”
A sigh echoed across the phone connection. “You always have such hopeful ideas. I’ll see if we can find out how they got approved as pets; I’m not sure how that works.”
“Neither am I,” Serenity answered, “But Aide’s found some information that makes it look like rodents from anywhere other than Africa might be permitted?”
“A demon that looks like a rat.” Russ didn’t sound thrilled.
“Squirrel,” Serenity corrected his father in law. “They look like squirrels without tails.”
“Huh. I’m not sure that’s better. I’ll still see if I can find out something; it seems like someone should have noticed if an animal that didn’t exist was being offered for sale.” Russ hung up; Serenity guessed he was probably about to call one of his liaisons.