The Lonely Thoughts of a Snail in Soil

Dinner, but the Chicken is dry

Chapter 15: Dinner, but the chicken is dry

The demons are ranked in five levels. Level 5: Weak, not worth fighting. Level 4: Problematic, but an average hero can fight alone. Level 3: Scary, needs at least two strong heroes to bring down. Level 2: You need a big boy or higher to defeat. Level 1: Pick a god, and be thankful you get to meet them.

--Excerpt from 'The Guide to the World of the Hidden.'

Lilly

"That, as far as interactions go," Lilly said as they moved down the hallway, stuck in a large crowd, shouting just a little bit, "could have gone a little better."

    "I can't believe that I didn't notice he was a part of the Iron Four," Hannah said as though it had been so obvious. "I watched that tournament. It was insane. He and his team nearly dominated the entire thing, before only being stopped by a senior group." She began grabbing her hair, almost like she had missed her chance to shake hands with a celebrity. "There's so much he could have told us, so much we could have asked. And we missed the opportunity."

    "Hannah, maybe I shouldn't be the one to say this," Bill began to say. "But Neth didn't seem to want to be friends. In fact, it seemed as though he wanted to make our lives increasingly difficult. And, maybe you've already forgotten, how our schedules are going to be very very busy."

    Neth had been intimidating at the end. His dark olive skin, black thick hair, the smokey smell of fire which had been surrounding him. Lilly tried to get him away from Coach, was hoping he'd get distracted from anything else. Once his eyes had set on the necromancer though, Lilly could tell she wouldn't be able to stop him from finding out the truth.

    And, as expected, he did not like their coach. While Neth's parting words were still ringing in her ears, Coach's earlier words from back at the beginning of summer started to float back into her head. "Expect your peers to make your time hard."

    "Off to a great start you three," Coach said sarcastically. "Upsetting an upperclassman. A strong one at that. Best to avoid him around campus for a bit."

    "He never said he was in the Iron Four," Hannah whined.

    "This will be a future lesson." Coach gave another hero a dirty look as she cut him off. "And that lesson will be how to remember those who could matter. Information is one of the most important things you can have in a fight. Being able to recall assholes such as him might save your life one day."

    "It's just disappointing," Hannah gave, with a lot of remorse in her voice. "If he was our ally, we'd learn so much."

    "Potentially."

    Bill, ever the voice of reason, spoke up. "What's so great about this dinner anyways?"

    "Besides feeding me?" Coach was now near sprint-walking to get to the front of the line. Lilly almost asked for him to slow down. "It introduces many of the hero coaches to your small little group. Not all of the freshmen, but a good chunk will know of your coaches skills and deeds."

    Huh. She wondered how this would turn out. Lilly hasn't experienced much in this world, always wanting to do more. Dinners, as far as Lilly knew, were where epic battles of both mind and wit would meet to destroy sanity. If this was going to be about wit, about who could outsmart who, then Lilly could only come to one conclusion.

    They were absolutely fucked.

Finally, a bright clear sky appeared, and the large group found themselves standing at the top of an amphitheater carved into the side of the mountain. Down at the center of the theater there was a large stand and a clean white sheet secured within a frame, a projector in front a few feet away. What, is it movie night or something?