The next weakest of the demons are the quasits. Like all demons, they require being given or must create a body to truly interact on the physical planes. While small and weak, compared to other demons they are tricky and fast. They are able to use some magic though most of it aside from some ingenious use of illusion while tracking their query is of little use. Many of the fools who become demonologists or other practitioners of demonic arts bind quasits as familiars. The quasit is not too dangerous so long as it has not gorged or in a large pack. They still are one of the craftiest of lesser fiends. - Common Monsters
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Adrian
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After everyone eats the pasta I ended up cooking after finding almost all of the perishable goods had gone bad, I am sitting at the table thinking of where everyone will sleep.
When we were traveling still, the trio would just be with me but I have no chance of mom allowing that to happen. I’ll have to end up on the couch, and there is also the question of where Abagail will stay. Once Bryan wakes they’ll have the same problem I have.
I hear someone walk up behind me and turn to see a six-foot-tall woman with shoulder length brown hair, my mother. I stand up and she moves to hug me, she squeezes me as hard as she can and if my body had not been reinforced by all the dragon stuff I am sure I would not have been able to breathe.
After a few short minutes of her death grip hug and light crying she breaks away and looks around the room at my brothers, Abagail, and the trio. She ignores them for a bit after that and turns back to me. Her joy of her lost son coming home pushed aside she starts asking questions I know will end up with me in trouble. Should I lie? No mom always knows, and the others will probably be questioned after me.
“Where have you been? Are you okay? What were those red things? Who are these people? What did you do to yourself?”
Too many questions at once. At least I can pick which one to answer first. What is the best order to stay out of trouble?
“I’m fine mom, slow down.”
I push her towards the one empty chair left from the house and she sits down. This will take a while. There are so many days to go through.
“We will take turns telling you about what has been going on the last weeks. In short, the red people are demons, my hair and eyes are because of magic, and the four girls along with Bryan traveled with me here and we have been helping each other.”
“Don’t give me any lies. Magic is not real.”
I pull a bottle of apple juice from void cache and set it on the table. There is a look of disbelief on her face. That is not something that I could have had up my sleeve.
“Magic is real. Demons are real. That’s what caused all this mess we have right now.”
She still doesn’t seem to believe it but does not say anything. At least she is not like her sister Aunt Rida who would be ranting about how magic is satanic and how I need to repent now. Well, some of it is satanic so I shouldn’t judge her too harshly on that.
I turn to the girls and introduce them each by name, even getting the twin sisters names right. They are dressed differently today so that made it easier. This of course brought a question from my mom, one I thought my brothers would have asked first.
“Why do they have pointed ears?”
Before I can answer Talia does with a mostly real smile. She is irked that the first thing said about her is ‘her ears are pointy'.
“Sister and me are elves, mother in law.”
Both my mom and me just sit there stunned for a moment. She just implied that she is my wife, I never agreed to that. I don’t plan on ever casting her aside later though. My thoughts take a different direction as I see Abagail trying to hold in a laugh.
I don’t get the opportunity to act on my new idea before my mom runs over to Talia.
“When did you meet my son?”
“Just over two weeks ago.”
And my mom instantly begins to frown. That is far too quick in her mind, and I would agree. If we hadn’t been saving each other’s lives we would not have bonded as a group yet.
She then smiles at Talia, and turns back to me. “Why didn’t you tell me you brought home a girlfriend. She’s still learning English, right?”
Mom must have noticed Abagail’s laughter. I open my mouth, but find myself being glared at as one of my twin brothers answer for me.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Brother brought home three girlfriends”
The trio have a bit of pride showing during my brothers' statement. My mom turn to the four girls in the room other than herself and asks rather coldly “who are the other two girls?”
“Kythia and Lysan.” I respond in a near whisper as I know I am now in trouble.
“Speak up”
I repeat my previous answer a bit louder.
“Adrian go to your room. Everyone other that you three, go outside for a bit.”
I get up and slowly walk out of the room. Now she is going to learn that I’m sleeping with all of them. I need to hide my games or she is going to take them away.
I start stashing my computers and books in void cache, keeping them separated from Bryan’s.
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Kathrine Ravnos
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I have no idea what is going on. I woke up from a nightmare that my oldest son Adrian was missing for weeks and he came home while his little brothers were fighting some giant reddish person with lightning. I lost my arm before passing out as my son turned into some lizard.
I bolt up in my bed. A cold sweat dripping off my body. I am in a filthy shirt and pants, torn and smelling like that weeklong nightmare was true.
I touch my left arm, the one lost as I tried to defend Frank from some red winged man bat. I stumble out of bed. I want to see my sons. Are they alright? I haven’t seen Adrian for a few days ever since the news had a report on monsters before the TV stopped working.
I should have drove to go get him. Why didn’t I go? Was it because the twins were throwing up or that Randy called and told me to stay home?
I walk into the hallway and find the lights are on. I thought the power was out. The sounds of people eating comes from the dining room.
I walk quickly and see my son, a bit taller and with the same black-blue hair that he had in my nightmare. I run up and hug him tightly, my boy is safe. A few tears of relief soak into his shirt unnoticed by us both.
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Adrian has gone to his room and the others gone as I continue to look at the three girlfriends of my son.
They are all pretty though the one who is not an 'elf' seems a little old to be dating my 17-year-old son. They must be why my son dyed his hair. He likes them, but I can’t just let them drag him into whatever deviancy that would get two teenagers to have plastic surgery on their ears.
“What are you doing with my son. Don’t give me any of this elves and magic bullshit.”
The twin girls look at each other in confusion, the older girl starts talking and begins to tell me a story of how their homeland was broken and destroyed so they came here and meet my son after he saved their lives from ‘orcs’.
He protected them from other people from their home? and traveled through several places that were dangerous. None of the descriptions I would have believed if the older girl had not started showing me more magic than just pulling an item from a sleeve.
My heart clenches and I am horrified by what my son had to go through to come home. I can’t believe my son who is so caring for his brothers and me when we have been sick in the past or when his brothers injured themselves in their rough housing could just leave others to die. I can’t believe that he would manipulate others into fighting and killing each other just to get home easier.
The ‘elves’ are real, after feeling their ears I can tell that they are natural. It isn’t a graft or synthetic prosthetic. All of it is real, that nightmare was real. Those ‘demons’, the locking myself in the cellar to die with my sons, all of it. I almost start to break down, but I need to be strong for my boys. I take a deep breath and turn back to the girls.
The three of them all seem to truly like my son but they know my son in circumstances of danger, not my little boy who just wants to sit around and play games or read. Now to ask the questions that I fear the answer to.
“How far have you gone with my son?”
There is a bit of confusion in their eyes as they do not immediately understand what I am asking about. One of the elf girls, Talia answers. Her own face and her sister’s turning red.
“We gave him our maidenheads”
Anger rushes through me. Adrian knows better than this. He should not have been in a relationship with all three of them at once and he knows that he is supposed to wait until after marriage. He is in so much trouble, the only thing I haven’t heard about that I would be upset by is how he lost his car and drugs.
My emotions must have shown because the elves seemed scared by whatever face I was making and the human woman started talking.
“If you mad at your son please don’t be. I know people here on Terra frown on having multiple mates but it was our idea and not his. . .”
“That’s not what I am mad about. It is but it’s that he’s sleeping with you. He knows he should not have.”
There is a bit of confusion, on Kythia's face though the elves seemed to understand this better.
“But my wolf listened to him and we are a mating pair?”
Confused by the reference to her wolf, I do not catch the end of the sentence.
“Wolf?”
“I’m a werewolf. My beast side submitted to him, so he is my alpha.”
I don’t even begin to try to figure that out on my own and turn to the elven girls. Luckily the shier of the two starts to explain it.
“For her pack that is the equivalent of promising to be his until death. They are more animalistic in their family units. If another’s beast submits then they will follow until death.”
The werewolf girl blushes a bit at this point. She didn’t bat an eye when I was told my son is sleeping with her but she gets embarrassed about this? These girls are strange and I do not think that they are being a good influence on my son. But it may already be too late, they all have the same twinkle in their eyes when talking about my son that I had when I looked at myself in the mirror while getting ready for Randy to take me to our high school prom.
They love him and he seemed happy eating with them. I don’t like it but my son’s happiness is more important than my own. I am still going to punish him for all this, but I won’t interfere too much. I turn to the elves with a question in my gaze.
“We agreed with him to stay with him. There are no required ceremonies for elves, we are his women.”
The shy girl spoke again, barely a whisper but I heard it. They are foreigners with foreign customs. How much does my son know about what these girls are thinking about their relations? I look the three of them in the eyes for a second before I leave to go punish my son.
I don’t like how the werewolf’s gaze met my own, she seemed to want to fight like a provoked dog. She is violent and I’ll need to see if she is hurting him too.