A short while later, as Alesha continued to brood, she turned a corner and came face-to-face with another student's summoned demon.
Well, perhaps "face-to-face" isn't the right phrase for it. It was more like, "face-to-waist," because this demon was nearly twice her height!
Alesha stopped in her tracks and looked up. This was definitely not what she had expected from the first demon she met. The creature was 10 feet tall, by her estimation, and rather like a humanoid bird for the most part. It was covered in pinkish-orange iridescent feathers with a lighter coral underside, and the border between light and dark feathers was marked by groupings of individual black feathers. It had six large rabbit-like ears with black tips and a strange twisted unicorn-like horn. Its arms had stiff growths almost like whale fins but shaped to be more similar to feathers, so that the arms almost looked like a fusion between wings and arms. The hands were clawed, and similar to monkey hands except with only two fingers, aside from the thumbs. A stiff, thick tail was covered ¾ with an oar-like fin with the same kind of feather-imitation shaping that made it seem less like a fin. Its legs were exactly what you'd expect from an avian, though -- top half covered in feathers, bottom half scaly and ending in large songbird's feet. The scaly portions of the demon, including the legs, palms of the hands and the tail's oar-shaped fin, were a faded deep purple color.
The demon crouched down to meet Alesha's eyes with its own vibrantly yellow ones. This brought the creature's orange-and-white striped beak, sharply pointed but like a songbird's, into easy view. She hadn't noticed before, but the part of the beak closest to the avian demon's face was the same purple as the feet, though it faded quickly into white before the double and then single orange stripes at the end. The demon was wearing a ghostly red collar just like Alesha's around its neck.
Cocking its head, which sent its ears flopping comically, the demon spoke. "Hello, young one, I have a question for you. Are you like me?" Its deep voice was surprisingly melodious despite the demon's fearsome appearance.
"I, I'm not sure what you mean," Alesha managed to squeak out. Even though it was being courteous, this was the first time she was meeting something this much larger than her. Still, she wasn't nearly as scared of it as she might have expected. "I was summoned here by a student just like you were, is that what you mean?"
"Well yes, but no. I meant, you are also a being of Chaos, are you not?"
Alesha's jaw dropped. What? This avian creature was a Chaos Demon? "Uh, yeah, you could say that. Are you a Chaos Demon then?"
The demon smiled and laughed, the sound a lot like what a deep songbird's twittering might be. "I am indeed! Come, we have much to discuss! I didn't expect to find a human with Chaos Energy." He stood and turned, beckoning for her to follow him as he walked off in a certain direction.
Huh? She had used up all her Chaos Energy, hadn't she? Pulling up her status screen, she discovered that she had 1/10 Chaos Energy. That was strange. She'd been at 6 of 10 at Marshall's place earlier, then converted it all into Korak when it started to act up inside her. When had she acquired more?
[It accumulated earlier, while you were in the Summoning Circle. I think coming to this world sped up the acquisition of Chaos Energy somewhat. You should still only get one per day, though, just a little earlier in the day each time.]
Okay then. Well, at least in this case it had led her to meet what seemed to be a rather kindly Chaos Demon. What's more, he even seemed to see her as human! She wasn't sure if he was strange for believing her to be human despite the rather obvious Demon Contract Collar on her neck, or if he was the only rational one here, a place where everyone else seemed to believe that her slight differences from a normal human made her a demon.
She was so happy to be perceived as being human that she conveniently ignored her own private worries about how her deeper nature had begun to change. Right now, she was excited to meet with someone who could soothe her fears and tell her what she wanted to hear, rather than confront her with unwanted truths.
The tall avian demon led her outside to a large field of rolling hills, where trees dotted here and there, casting beautifully large shadows perfect for picnics. Seth hadn't covered this area in his tour earlier, so Alesha was seeing this beautiful area for the first time.
"Woah," she gasped, delighted.
He hadn't waited for her, however, so she had to scurry to catch up. It wasn't long before he chose a tree and they sat underneath it. Even sitting, the avian demon was much taller than her. "I apologize for my height," he said, "I know it probably won't be comfortable to look up at me the whole time. Unfortunately, I don't know any size-shifting magic, so I do hope you will be alright."
"It's fine," Alesha assured him. "I'll be alright. So you're a Chaos Demon?"
"Yes, a kind of Chaos Demon known as Beast Succubi. We're quite the animal tamers, you see. How about you? You seem human, but also not."
"Ah, well, that's kind of a long story… basically, I'm human with a Chaos Dragon bloodline."
This seemed to pique the demon's interest. "Really? The Chaos Dragon blood must be quite diluted, you don't look like one at all."
"Ah, haha, well it isn't actually from my parents. I kind of acquired it after evolving…"
"Well that sounds like quite the tale! However, I won't press you for details if you aren't comfortable sharing. Oh! It just occurred to me that I neglected to introduce myself. How very rude of me! Please, pardon my oversight. Udon Ru'Vellis, at your service," he finished with a seated half-bow.
"Ah! I forgot too, don't worry about it. I'm Alesha Williams, please just call me Alesha."
"A pleasure to meet you, young miss. I do hope we will get along," he said with a smile.