That was the problem? That they could smell the demons? Well, that's something he should have predicted.
"I may have forgotten about their sernse of smell?" Cain says as a question and Vala laughs at him while she fights.
"I think we've got what we need don't we? My inventory is getting full with all the fur and leather." Dimnys says, backing towards the gate.
"Yeah, we're done for the day, you girls follow Vala out and I'll be right behind you. Nemu, keep them pacified until everyone is out, you leave with me." Cain gives the exit instructions and Vala breaks free of combat to have the dungeon.
The rest quicky follow and Cain drags his new companions to the gate, ready to dismiss his summons.
"Master, aren't you going to dismiss us?" Nemu asks.
"No, I keep companions active, since they're intelligent. Now, off we go." Cain dismisses everyone but the companions and steps out of the dungeon, holding both Nemu's hand.
"Friend, you're a full time guard at this station, right?" Cain asks and the guard nods.
"12 hours a day, 4 days on, 4 off." He confirms.
"Excellent. Tell the next idiot that tries to enter with a Demon that he's an idiot. They can smell them from over a mile away and will attack constantly. We've been at the gate fighting since we entered." Cain complains.
"Got it. So I'll tell you tomorrow then?"
"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." Cain laughs and the group heads off to find Ragnar, or the boarding house, whichever comes first.
Ragnar ends up being only a block away, joining them once he's finished talking with his friend. "As lovely as they are, you know it's customary to leave the Beastkin inside the dungeon right?"
"It's an ability unique to my class. When conditions are right it generates twin companions based on what it thinks I need."
"And you needed scantily clad twin cat girls? I understand that feeling, but actually making them is going a bit far, don't you think?" Ragnar laughs.
"No, I needed Bards, and this is the Beastkin bard form it picked." Cain tries to make his new companions seem less like a nefarious plot on his part.
"Can they sing and play? The house could use some entertainers for the evening." Bertha startles them all, seeming to come out of nowhere.
"Indeed we can. The Lute, the Pan Flute, drums and the Harp. We even know a selection of Dwarven Bar Tunes." Nemu informs her proudly.
"In that case, how about you entertain tonight? The Boarding House has a lot of miners, but no musicians."
Within ten minutes of their arrival, the basement speakeasy begins to fill up with far more people than could possibly live at the house above, and not just men as the house holds. Word must have spread that they had live entertainment tonight.
"Thank you all for coming!" Nemu says happily when she comes up on the stage in the corner that normally serves as empty keg storage. The basement roof is high, and the timber thick, so the acoustics aren't too bad, even with the stone walls.
"Let's start out with a traditional favorite. Sweet Home In The Mountain." The Felian girls have taken out a lute and a drum for this number, an upbeat happy tune with an unmistakable rhythm Cain immediately recognizes from his past life. It truly is universally catchy he guesses.
After that they move into Copper Mine Road, and Free Purr, a favorite of the Felian race. As the night gets later and the patrons get drunker the music moves to bouncy dancing songs and then bawdy drinking songs.
"I met a girl in Stoneheim, I loved her all to bits. Every night I'd lay me head upon her mountainous tits." the whole bar sings along with the tune and Cain decides it might be best to move impressionable young minds to bed, only to find that Kone is asleep in the corner of the booth and Dimnys is also passed out with her head on the table. Cain had been passing on the rounds of whiskey shots, served in half full scotch glasses, but the Dwarf hasn't. Good thing Dwarven liquor doesn't give them hangovers.
An hour or so later the bards have moved into slower songs, winding down the night and the bar starts to empty.
"Now that is what I call a proper night at the tavern. If we were a legitimate business I'd ask you to stay and play every night." Bertha laughs.
"As it is, I'll be hiding the home brew and putting those empty kegs back on the stage as camouflage in case the tax collectors show up. See the stamps? It means the tax to the Brewers Union has been paid."
"I'm glad you had fun. Having these two around definitely made our night more interesting as well." Cain laughs, motioning towards the bards now sticky with spilled drinks after many rounds with the locals between songs and smelling of whiskey and high quality pipe tobacco.
Bertha leads all the girls who are still awake towards a private shower, while Cain carries Dimnys and Kone up to their beds, leaving one of the Vala twins with them while the other decides to read in his bedroom.
Being so close to the Forges, the Rooming House is always warm, but not normally as warm as Cain is the next morning. Plus something is heavy. He carefully opens his eyes to find black cloth covering his face.
One of the Nemu twins has curled up to sleep with him. Not as humans cuddle, but with the bottom half of her body flopped across his chest and the upper curled around his head and over his face, absorbing maximum body heat, as cats are fond of doing. If it weren't so hot in this room it would actually be very comfortable.
"Good morning Nemu. Have a good nap?" Cain laughs, knowing that the Companions created by the spell don't actually need to sleep. In fact, Vala uses the light of her sword's flame to read all night. She's developed quite the repertoire of literature in her memory.
"Yes, the nap was amazing, but I think the other Nemu did even better. She's got a Dwarf on one side and the Spirit Folk girl on the other, it seems pretty comfy to me."
They all go to the other room to wake the girls for breakfast, finding a purring Nemu being tightly cuddled by the two girls. Maybe it's better to just leave them be. Cain has the original with him, so he can gear her without waking the others.
