Story entry 24 - Tempest in a Teacup

Hildreth was a behemoth. A hulking mass of tentacles and ferocity, but she was also cunning and diplomatic. Her protective and watchful eyes had never missed an account of trickery or disguise, which is why the counsel had appointed her to keep watch. Mr. Needle had been lurking in the neighborhood of Mt. Vernon, Baltimore these days and there were darker forces within the Grootslang that were pulling his strings. This does not discount the severity of Mr. Needle’s individual encounters or intentions. He was not one to cross. His encounters were some that had been written in history books. The great grimoires and crumbling scripts of the ancients had even mentioned him by name.
Hildreth had followed Mr. Needle on many occasions. He had a collection of dark entities that did his biddings and followed him around, they were know by many as the Shadows. On occasion Hildreth had spotted the Shadows lurking about the neighborhood on their own. One particular cold February morning (just before sunrise and as the city was quiet and the sky was beginning to brighten on the horizon), Hildreth witnessed five of the Shadows emerge from the storm drain and Mr. Needle was nowhere in sight. One by one they floated off to the nearby rooftops and bridged the peak and went out of sight. Instead of following them, this time Hildreth crawled down from her vantage point to investigate the storm drain. She knew that Auda, the Mushroom Princess, lived in the sewer system and she hoped that she was safe. Auda lived all alone down there despite the counsel advising her to move to the surface, where most of the suvians already live.
Hildreth noticed a faint glow within the corner cover of the storm drain. It moved slightly, but did not dissipate. She crouched down and discovered that it was a runt of a demon. Not much bigger than a softball and sitting on the edge with the most curious little eyes.
“Hello there.” Hildreth beckoned. “I won’t hurt you.”
The little beast cooed and pulsed with a greenish yellow glow from inside it’s dark and smoky form. The light was like a little storm coming from a cloud. It emerged from the canopy of the drain and sniffed one of Hildreth’s tentacles. Green static sparked between the two of them, but it didn’t hurt. A minor spark of curious magic.
“You should get back home.” Hildreth told the little one. The little demon blinked with understanding, but did not obey. Instead, it crawled up over Hildreth’s tentacle she tried to snuggle into one of the coils which tickled Hildreth.
The little beasty followed Hildreth back to her lookout and even after much dissuading, it even followed her back to her home. Despite Hildreth’s size and fearsome nature, this little creature had found a soft spot in her heart. After days and days of attempting to get the beasty to go back to it’s home, it would not go and had bonded with her. She seemed to fear going back. After a week, Hildreth gave up and decided to keep the beasty and name her Tempest, which she seemed to like and whenever Hildred called her by name, she would glow and purr and sometimes even let out a little burst of static. Tempest even began to copy Hildreth's shape, so they would look similar. They became quite an inseparable pair and if you looked for them, you may just find them studying the neighborhood from the roof of one its many buildings - looking for the Shadows and Mr. Needle.

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