[Leela] Chapter 2: Contract

[Ella]

Leela Steading

It seemed like Leela would have to ask Zavan if there was a meal schedule for the imps. If there was not, that did not help the issue of food dwindling at all and she would have to set one up. They did not seem to have a concept of time, though maybe they did and their scatterbrain way of speaking just made it sound like they did not.

"From now on, Abi, you and I should eat together. Since you're my personal assistant and we will be making the contract, I will summon you when it is time to eat. Don't eat without me, okay?"

"It sounds like you guys do eat too much, if you're just eating whenever there is food around. But we can't let you imps do that anymore because we have limited food. That is why it is so important that you and the rest of the imps follow orders and don't eat food from the kitchens unless you have been given permission."

"Since we'll be eating together from now on, I will share with you even though you broke a rule." With that said, Leela gave Abi one of the pieces that had been bitten off of by the imp already. She then took a piece for herself and ate it.

"I want to compare tastes and textures. How would you describe the flavor and texture of the fruit we just ate?" Leela asked when they both finished eating the pieces.

[Throndir]

"Yes master Leelasama! Leelasama, I will not eat without Leelasama!" Abi said, saluting at the same time with a determined look on her face. "Do you eat a lot? I hope you eat a lot. I like to eat a lot! I hope I can still eat a lot!"

When you handed Abi one of the pieces, she took it greedily from your hands, giggled, and ate it in a single bite - it didn't even seem like she chewed on it at all.

"It was yummy flavored! Texture yummy too!" She exclaimed with joy.

The taste of the fruit was rather bland. This particular fruit wasn't juicy at all. If you had to describe it, the texture was wafer-like, and biting into it has a unique crunch due to its dryness. There was no flavor to it either, or at least, it didn't seem like there was. Much like the first fruit you had, this one tasted like water - nothing at all, or hardly anything. There was no sweetness or tartness to it. It was like a water-flavored wafer fruit.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Leela ignored the imp's questions about how often they would be eating. The young woman herself was not sure how often meals would be and she did not want to disappoint Abi by saying she did not eat much.

"I think it tasted like... nothing." Leela replied. She then proceeded to explain to Abi that "yummy" is not a texture and described the texture of the fruit. She chopped up the other fruits, asking Abi the same question for each one so she could compare and then describing how she viewed the flavor and texture of each so Abi could at least learn what texture was. She would be unable to teach Abi how to describe flavor until she was able to procure foods that actually had flavor. She was not willing to pull out one of her granola bars to start this lesson for fear that they would go missing.

As they tried each fruit, Leela either split evenly the pieces between them or would give Abi all the pieces for the ones the young woman decided she could not stand. Once their meal was finish, Leela rose.

"Abi, I need you to go and tell the Scavenger Hunt group meet me in the Great Hall as soon as possible so that I can give them their tasks. Also check if Kuki has found the items I told him to and have him meet me in the kitchen." She pulled the pages out of her sketchbook that she had drawn the items she wanted the imps to collect on and put everything back in her backpack, continuing to hold the now loose papers.

Once Abi poofed away, Leela made her way to the great hall. She wanted to lay out the pages on the table so the imps could go around and look at them all, but she was afraid they might poof into the room on the table and mess the pages all up, so she decided to just hold onto them.

[Throndir]

"Okay Leelasama! Leelasama, I will tell the Scavenger Hunt group to meet at the Great Hall! Kuki will be found too!" Abi poofed in a puff of smoke.



Once at the Great Hall, it seemed as if Lord Ghorat was still slouching in his throne. In his hand looked to be some sort of plush toy. It had horns on it, and the large demon was burying his face into it and seemed to have been crying.

Suddenly he noticed your presence.

"WHO DARES DISTURB THE GREAT GHORAT'S-" He paused when he recognized you.

"Oh... Great Hero Leela-sama..!" Lord Ghorat said as he quickly attempted to hide his plush toy behind his back. The man's face was already naturally red, so it was hard to tell if he was actually blush, but it wouldn't be surprising if he actually had been.

"WHEN WILL YOU SAVE MY DAUGHTER!?" The large demon paused again. "That is... WHEN WILL YOU SAVE MY DAUGHTER?! ... PLEASE."

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Upon seeing Ghorat with the plush toy, Leela could not help but feel bad for the guy. He truly was worried about his daughter. It was sweet that he would go so far as to promise her he would never leave Roshandan and try his best to keep his promise by summoning someone he believed was strong enough to get her back. As annoying as it was to have been summoned out of the blue to a horrible place like this where the skies were always grey and clouds and rivers were red and the food was the most tasteless food that ever existed... she hoped that the strange powers she had been mysteriously "blessed" with would be enough to rescue the little girl and maybe even make the humans into allies.

Leela decided it was best to pretend she had not noticed Ghorat and instead started looking over the pages she had in her hands to confirm everything was there. She jumped when he suddenly started yelling; she would probably never get used to it.

"Lord Ghorat, as I mentioned before, I hope to leave tomorrow if I can get everything prepared in time." He must not have been paying attention when she had been talking with the imps earlier. "Speaking of preparations, would the horses and carriage be ready to leave tomorrow with all the supplies we'll need for travel?" She hoped that she would not have to do all that by herself. Surely Ghorat or Zavan could handle taking care of that for her.

[Throndir]

"OF COURSE!" He exclaimed. "THE MARVELOUS STEEDS OF ROSHANDAN CASTLE ARE ALWAYS READY TO GO AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE!"

He paused.

"The supplies would probably be taken cared of by Zavan. PROBABLY! My last remaining general is always good with keeping things in order, you see..."

As if on cue, Zavan appeared from the opposite entrance of the Great Hall of Misery.

"My lord, and Leela-sama. I am pleased to report that the horses and carriage are ready to leave tomorrow, along with all the supplies for travel."

Lord Ghorat grinned widely as he gave his general a huge thumbs up. He stared at you proudly as if he had done the work himself, even though you were pretty sure he had been sitting in his throne all this time.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"That is good. That leaves giving the Scavenger Hunt team their job, getting Kuki started on his job, and starting the contract with Abi. Do you know how far Tai has gotten with his task?" There were so many more things Leela wanted to get done, but obviously she would not be able to do them all if she intended to leave in the morning. She already was not sure if she was going to get to sleep much before the trip started if forming the contract with Abi was supposed to take hours.

[Throndir]

"Ah yes, regarding that lady Leela-sama. I couldn't help but notice that Tai was hard at work... so I decided to help him, you see. He wanted to finish a couple more, but we should have enough."

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Leela stared at Zavan for a moment. This guy was supposedly Ghorat's only general, in charge of defending the land's borders. Yet he also somehow found time to sew clothes for the imps as a hobby and also seemed in charge of pretty much everything in the castle.

"Thank you..." She said, nodding her head at the information. "You like to keep busy, don't you?"

Spoiler

Waiting for the Scavenger Hunt group to arrive.

[close]

[Throndir]

"Of course, it's expected of Lord Ghorat's General..." He bowed.

Sometime after, some of the imps started appearing again.

"I found you Leelasama! Leelasama, I have Kuki in the kitchen like you asked me too! I like clothes do I get new clothes too? I also brought the Scavenger Hunt group! Tai has a lot of clothes made!" Abi said as she poofed in front of you and bounced around.

Other imps started pouring in too, and without fail each of them called out your name (or a variation of your name) in their squeaky joyous voice.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"I guess as long as you make time for yourself and don't overwork yourself..." Leela trailed off. She still didn't really know much about this world and its expectations. Did demons even need to rest?

Once all of the Scavenger Hunt group had arrived, Leela held up the papers and began to explain the items she had drawn on them. "These are the items that I would like you all to look for while I am gone. It is okay if you cannot find them, since your world might not have things that my world does, but I want to try so that we can all make good food for everyone when Ashaki is safe back at home." Things such as wheat, corn, herbs, edible flowers, mushrooms, aloe vera and other such things that perhaps might be found in the while were all drawn out with short descriptions. Since Leela was not sure if they could read or not, she made sure to go over each item's colors, textures, and how they might appear when not fully ready to be harvested as shown in her drawings.

"Is there a place I can hang these so the imps can look at them whenever they need to?" She asked Zavan when she finished teaching the imps about the items. "I don't have enough sheets for them all to have one and I don't want them to get lost or damaged."

[Throndir]

"Some sort of board, you mean? But of course I can do that. I'll come back with one." He bowed as he turned and began to leave.

The imps on the other hand, began chatting amongst themselves.

"Leelashama can draw very pretty! I like flowers!"

"No! I like flowers! You like flowers too though. What is this?"

"Master Leelasama says its wheat! And that's corn! Can we eat them?"

"I'm not sure if you can eat them, but I think you can eat them!"

"I like flowers. I'm hungry."

"This one looks like the food from the goblins! Ew!"

"Do you eat mushrooms? Are mushrooms tasty? I thought they are no no."

"Leelasama says food and says mushroom! You can eat them! I'm going to eat them!"

"Everyone! Are you excited? I'm excited. Our master is great, Leelasama! Leelasama you are wonderful!"

"I can't wait to find them. I'm going to find all of them!"

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"Yes, thank you." Leela replied to Zavan before turning her attention back to the imps.

"Everyone, do not eat the things you find. Just bring the things you find back here and put them somewhere for safekeeping until I get back. I will still need to study them to make sure they aren't poisonous in your world. Especially the mushrooms. Not all mushrooms are good, only a few are edible in my world." She was not entirely sure how she was going to test the things they might find. There was always using the imps as taste testers, since they apparently respawn, but she would prefer to avoid that if possible. Still... better them than her, since she was pretty sure she would not be able to respawn like they could... Unless... Gah. She wished she knew more about her mimicry skill. If she could copy their ability to respawn, she would not have to worry about such things. Perhaps she would do more research on that in the near future, too.

When Zavan returned with a board for her to nail the pages to, she hung them all up. After reminding the imps that they can come back to review the lists at any time, Leela sent them off to either sleep until morning or hunt, whichever they wanted to do.

"Zavan, I will go talk with Kuki and then will be ready for the contract stuff with Abi. Where should I meet you?"

[Throndir]

"I see... The contract will take a full night, so perhaps we shall meet in the hallway outside your quarters?"

In the meantime most of the imps were absolutely excited for the scavenging hunt. Many of them were already talking amongst themselves calling it a new game. Almost as an entire group, they immediately poofed out of the hall to begin their search for the items.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Ugh. The full night. There went any chance of sleep she had hoped to get. If she didn't think she would need to be able to summon Abi as needed, she would have decided to wait. Maybe she should just have Zavan come with so he could summon Abi when she was needed... But then who would defend Roshandan's borders?

"Okay. I'll see you and Abi there when I'm done in the kitchen." She replied before making her way back to the kitchen.

The things Kuki had found were not perfect mortar and pestle, but they would have to do until better ones could be found. She showed Kuki how to grind up the grains that they had in the kitchens, including how to sift out the husks and then grinding them into as fine of powder as was possible with what they had. She told him to grind as fine of powder as he could. She did not want to waste it if it did not work out, but she also did not want to not have enough if it did turn out, so she instructed him to fill one barrel with the powder.

Once she made sure Kuki understood what she wanted, she left the kitchens to meet up with Zavan and Abi.