//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Wandering Prey // by Rikkity //------------------------------// Sixteen-year-old Aiden was in the backyard of his suburban home to practice his magic. It had been a year since he learned how to use it, and studied it ever since. He had grown used to just the basics after several months of practice, and he had begun to teach himself something a little more advanced. He versed himself in the realm of summoning and illusions for his main practices. Aiden sat in the grass with his legs crossed, and rested his arms on them. In front of him was a jar filled with fairy dust, strands of tree fiber, and some flowers in the center of a circle of runes he drew into a small patch of dirt. This was a special kind of summon that bound a mage and a summoned creature to a contract. It is known as a familiar summon. The terms of the contract are carried out as such: The famliarship of the summoned creature is NOT only to be a service to the master. The master shall treat the familiar as if it were a member of their family. The companionship between familiar and master is eternal until the life of either is terminated either by unnatural or natural causes. No harm shall befall the familiar by the hand of the master. Lastly, once a contract is already made, a summon cannot be performed again unless the contract has been ended either by the death of master or familiar; or by agreement of ending the contract from both parties. If the terms of this contract are violated, the master will be branded with a hex to ban further performance of this sacred ritual. It was clear to Aiden what the terms were, as well as the consequences. He read books about familiar rituals before attempting one himself. It wasn’t not the easiest task, but it was something he was willing to try if it meant more knowledge. He was still a novice, but he had put a lot of effort into making something like this work. He was going to have to give all his focus to this spell; otherwise he could end up hurting himself from exhausting too much mana. Aiden took several deep breaths. He could feel the magic flow through his body. His body vibrated as he channelled his mana into the runes. He furrowed his brows and took another breath. The mana flow felt a little more fluid the more focused he became. The spell drained him the more he kept channelling mana into the runes. Soon, the items lit up. The spell was nearly done, and all Aiden had to do was focus just a bit more. His breathing started to get heavier as he put more focus into channelling his mana. He couldn’t back when he was so close. It was nearly finished. The spell was finished after the items disappeared to open a small rift for the summoned creature to come through. Aiden slumped forward a bit from the exhaustion the spell caused him. He used both hands to keep him sitting upright, and watched the rift closely as something emerged from its white depths. The creature that came forth was a female fairy. She had translucent wings, blonde hair, light skin that had a tint of gold to its glow, and dressed in an elegant, light-blue cloth. “A fairy?” He questioned. He took another look over it once more before smiling as big as he could. “A FAIRY!” He cheered. The fairy looked at him with a raised brow. She didn’t know what was going on until she noticed a mark on the back of her left hand. When she saw it, she immediately realized that he was her new master. She looked up at the mage who summoned her. He was so young as well as inexperienced. How could he possibly have the capability of performing such a spell? Aiden slowly leaned for further inspection. “I never thought I’d ever be able to pull somethin’ like this off. It seems so surreal.” The fairy continued to stare at him in awe. He continued to smile. “You got a name, fairy?” She slowly nodded. “Isabelle.” “So, Isabelle, what do you think of your new master?” She deflated. “Too young and inexperienced,” she began, “You can’t possibly have been the one who summoned me as your familiar!” Aiden flinched at her response. “But I did summon you. Just because I am young doesn’t mean that I can’t be your master.” She shook her head. “Yes it does,” she replied. She then flew up to his face with her eyebrows furrowed, and eyes narrowed. “If you think for a moment that I’m going to recognize you as my master, you have another thing coming!” Aiden was perplexed. “So, ya’ don’t like me to be your master?” “I thought I had made it obvious that I didn’t. I’ll have to stick around anyway, but I won’t like it one bit.” He grabbed his right arm with his left hand. “‘Kay. I won’t bug ya’ for anythin’. I’ll just let you do your thing, and I’ll do mine.” “Glad we could come to an agreement,” she nodded curtly. “Aiden, dinner is ready! C’mon in before it gets cold!” A man’s voice called out from inside the house. Aiden looked over his left shoulder to see his older brother Cash at the backdoor. “I’ll be right in!” He slowly took his hand off his arm—using it to push himself off the ground. Once he was on his feet, he turned slowly toward the door. He stopped to look back at the fairy. He slowly walked inside in the house with his head down. After a few minutes, Isabelle flew up behind him, and followed him inside. She turned around and pulled the door shut and locked it. Turned back around and made a right into the kitchen. She saw her ‘master’ and his family having a good time, and chatting away at the dinner table. Though, Aiden himself didn’t look like he was into it at all, but she didn’t really care about how he felt. He is only a kid, and that’s the reality of it. There is no way she would accept him as her master. “Aiden,” a much older man spoke, “Son, what’s wrong?” He remained silent as he lifted his fork into his mouth to take a bite of his food. He slowly chewed his meal and swallowed. “Aiden, c’mon, you can tell your ol’ man,” he insisted. He gently set his fork back down onto his plate. “I’ve worked so hard these past few months to learn how to perform a familiar summon, and my familiar wants nothin’ to do with me because I’m too young.” His father sighed. “As much as I don’t want you to practice magic, I still think you’ll do good things in the future,” he spoke up. “I’m sure things will get better between you two.” “As if!” Isabelle shouted. Everyone’s attention was now on her. Aiden’s father stared intently at her for a moment. “I’m his ‘familiar’,” she answered as she made air quotes. Aiden shrunk down in his chair. “Please, can we just finish eatin’ so I can get to bed right after? I don’t want this to end-” “Aiden, ya’ summoned a fairy?” Cash pushed his chair out and got out of his seat. He walked over to his little brother and wrapped his right arm around him, and roughly rubbed his head with his left hand. “That’s my little bro! You sure got talent!” Aiden struggled to get his older brother to stop noogying him. He grabbed his arm and pushed him off. “I’m not in the mood, Cash!” “Sheesh, I just wanted to congratulate my little brother on somethin’,” Cash replied as he nudged Aiden with his elbow. He looked up at his older brother. “I-” he stuttered. “I’m sorry for snappin’. I’m really not in the mood.” His older brother sighed and went back into his seat to continue eating. Aiden looked over to his dad, then to his mom. “Can I be excused please? I wanna go to bed. I’m not very hungry tonight.” “Of course, dear. We understand,” his mother answered with a soft tone. With that, Aiden pushed himself away from the table, and got out of his seat. He pushed the chair back in, and left the kitchen with Isabelle following from behind. He headed through the living room, and into the hallway. He stopped at the first door to his right near the entrance of the hall. He put his right hand on it, twisted the knob, and pushed the door open. Once he was inside his room, he closed the door behind him, but not before Isabelle swooped in and flipped the light-switch next to the door to turn on the bedroom-light. His room was filled to the brim with posters of classic rock and metal bands except for the wall next to his bed. In front of it was mid-sized desk with a small lamp clamped onto the left side of it, and stacks of papers of magical formulas and schoolwork. Aiden walked on over to his bed and plopped himself onto the mattress with his face buried into a pillow. Isabelle flew over to the desk to observed the stacks of papers. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The notes on the desk dated back one year ago, and little did she know that’s how long ago he started learning magic. There were so many notes, more than she could count. There was no possible way a child could have done this. No non-adult mage could possibly have the mental capacity to work with this dedication; nor could they have the free time! “I doubt you were the one who took all these notes,” she began. “Even if you were the one, where did you even get these?!” Aiden lifted his head to reply, “The internet, and the library. You just need to know where to look,” he took a deep breath and shifted onto his back. “I also study whatever magic I perform myself, and take notes on it. It helps for future reference.” “You expect me to believe you actually put this much time and effort into your own spells? Into gathering this much information?” She sounded flabbergasted from the way she kept doubting him. “You’re just a stupid, southern kid-mage! There’s no way you can be this intelligent!” “Believe what you like, but know that I am the one who summoned you. You can deny it all you want, but you can’t change it.” The fairy put the papers back on the desk, and flew over to the door. “And where are you going?” “I’m going to go sleep on the couch. I’m not going to rest in a room with a child!” Her voice held more ferocity when she shouted. Aiden pushed himself up in a sitting position and turned his head toward Isabelle. “Oh no. You’re goin’ to get me in trouble if you do that!” He argued. “Oh, is that all you care about? Yourself? Hmph,” with that, she gripped the knob with both hands and twisted it. The door opened, and she pulled on it as hard as she could. The door was slowly closing, and once it did, she was no longer in the room. Aiden sighed and stood up to take off his clothes. Once he was done, he put them in the hamper on the other side of the room. He slipped on his pajamas and flipped the light-switch to the off position. He felt around with his hands to assist his navigation through the room, save for the small amount of moonlight shining in through his window. When he finally felt his bed, he immediately laid down. He pulled the blankets over and curled up. He was lost in thought about the evening’s events. “I’m more’n that,” he said to himself in a low voice. “If you’d just give me the chance,” he finished. His slowly closed his eyes in hopes that tomorrow would help him put the events of today behind him. ***** The sun slowly rose over the horizon for the start of the day. Aided was still sleeping with his body curled up in his blankets. He slowly opened his eyes slightly and turned his body so he was facing the window across the room. He opened his eyes a little bit more to see the sunlight slowly make its way onto his carpet. He extended each of his limbs to stretch. He moaned as he felt a few satisfying pops in his joints. The feeling of restlessness was purged from his body as he hung his legs over the right edge of the bed. Aiden slowly planted his feet firmly on the floor. He stretched out his arms with a yawn before standing up. Once he was on his feet, he dragged his feet as he walked over to his bedroom door. He grabbed the knob, turned it, and walked out. He made his way into the living-room only to see a sleeping fairy on the couch. She looked so peaceful in her sleep. He stood there for what felt like an eternity before sitting down on the cushion next to her. There wasn’t much that could be said. No matter what, Aiden would be despised by his familiar. He just sat there as he watched her sleep. Isabelle groggily cracked her eyes open. She sat up and lightly rubbed her eyes. She yawned—then scanned the room with her eyes to spot her ‘master’ sitting adjacent to her. She furrowed her brows. “Good mornin’, Isabelle,” Aiden greeted. “Can’t say the same for you,” she retorted. He sighed. “Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to deserve it?” “I don’t ‘hate’ you. I just ‘disrespect’ you,” she answered with her arms folded. Aiden scratched his head in confusion. “Still, you act as if I wronged you somehow.” “You’re just too young. You young-mages will never understand the responsibility of having a familiar,” with that as her final remark, she began flapping her wings and took off towards the backdoor. She twisted the knob with both hands to open the door then used the same method to close it behind her. Aiden sighed. What could he do? ***** The days went by. Aiden eventually learned to go back to living life before summoning Isabelle. He returned to his studies, locking himself in his room for days on end, trying to puzzle out the arcane. There was much more out there for him to discover. Isabelle did her best to ignore him and his family as they milled about the house, but she found that she could never stray very far from the place. She often tried to find things to keep her busy, but there wasn’t much. Time tended to go by slowly for her, and just watching Aiden’s family either do chores, or watch TV in the living-room didn’t help the time pass any faster for her. A few more moments went by. A faint voice could be heard from Aiden’s room. Isabelle flew into the hall until she was next to his bedroom door. She pressed her right ear against it. The sounds of papers being shuffled around, and Aiden’s voice can be heard from inside. “This spell seems way too powerful,” she heard him say. “It’s only to suck the creatures back to where they came from. Why does it require so much magic?” She heard the page of a book being turned. “Oh,” Aiden realized. Isabelle flinched when she heard him slam his fists on the desk. “The inverted runes of summoning a demon,” the sound of a book being slammed shut was heard. She heard the chair slide, then the sound of footsteps heading toward the door. She backed away from the door. The knob twisted and the door opened slowly. She looked left, then looked right. She quickly flew back into the living-room and sat back down. She sat there, pretending not to notice as Aiden walked out, and headed into the backyard. She waited for the door to close. Once the door was shut, Isabelle flew quickly into Aiden’s room. She flew over to his desk, an open book and scattered papers laid on its surface. She picked up the papers to investigate them more thoroughly. They were same ones from before, but there were more notes and symbols written on each of them. Upon closer inspection, she noticed each of the symbols written on them were runes to perform a proper summoning. She took a few minutes to sift through more of the papers. Her eyes widened, and her mouth gaped open. She couldn’t believe how dedicated he was to his work. “Is this truly his own work? I’ve never seen such formulas for spells like this before,” she said to herself. There were even formulas to brew certain potions. Judging by the many marks and chicken-scratches on some of the papers, it seems as though he may have tested each of the ingredients. “Amazing,” she continued. “Maybe. Just maybe, I was wrong about him?” She reorganized and stacked the papers and placed them back on the desk. She then exited Aiden’s bedroom, and headed for the backdoor. Once she was outside, she saw Aiden standing in the middle of the grassy area of the yard. He held out his right hand, and pulled out a sheet of paper from his back pocket. He began reading an incantation from it. She started to feel small streams of mana flow through Aiden’s body. She flew into a nearby tree to get a better view of her master’s performance. She managed to spot the circle of runes that the mana was flowing into. A light-blue aura was being channelled into the spell he cast. Surely, her master should know a spell like this a lot of magic to perform, and a lot of focus. Should something break his concentration it could cause a severe magical backlash that could potentially kill him. She didn’t see any reason to worry as she observed Aiden’s ability to maintain stability in his casting. A few more minutes later, Aiden finally finished his ritual. There was a rumble and the ground broke apart. A massive hand made of earth and soil broke through the ground. The hand opened up and slammed onto the ground, causing a big enough shockwave to throw him off balance and cause him to land on his rump. He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles then stared forward for a moment until his vision cleared up. He saw a massive rocky form in front of him finish pushing itself out of the cleft in the earth it created. The ground stopped shaking after the rest of the creature had finished climbing it’s way out. A massive, rocky, grassy, creature at least twenty feet tall stood over Aiden. He was speechless. After a few weeks of hard-pressed research, he couldn’t believe that it actually paid off. Isabelle couldn’t believe it either, however, something felt off about it all. The golem just stood there, looking ahead. It never once looked down at the one who summoned it in the first place. “This doesn’t look right,” Isabelle said to herself. “It should acknowledge the one who summoned it by making eye-contact.” She watched as Aiden stood himself up. He brushed the dirt off his clothes then looked up at the creature. “Golem!” He called out to it, but the creature didn’t bother to acknowledge him. There wasn’t so much as a low groan from the earthen giant. It continued to look ahead. “Hello, golem? I’m talking to you!” He exclaimed. The creature slowly lowered its head to see the one who had summoned it. “That’s much better,” Aiden said contently. Just as he was about to address it once more, the golem slowly lifted one of its massive limbs and swung down at him. He watched as its massive left arm came down on him. His eyes widened, and he dove of the way before it could crush him. “What the-” He was cut off by its other arm sweeping at his feet. He jumped to avoid the attack, but violently fell forward as he landed in a patch of dirt. Isabelle wanted to help her ‘master’ in some way. She could see he clearly wasn’t going to last much longer against the golem. She watched as the creature bent its legs and sprung itself toward Aiden. She squeezed her eyes shut as the creature started to come down on him. She opened her eyes, and quickly sprang into the fray. She flew in as fast as she could to push her master out of the way. Aiden landed with a thud. He craned his neck over to Isabelled. His eyes widened as he saw the massive golem’s arm came down on her. She quickly poofed out of the way, and reappeared next to her master. She quickly pulled on him by his left arm to help him up. Once Aiden was finally up, he looked down at Isabelle. “Y-you saved me?” “Shut up!” she quickly replied. “Move!” They both quickly moved out of the way of another attack from the golem. Aiden glanced over at Isabelle. “I want you to get my family to safety, Isabelle.” Did she hear him correctly, or was it just her imagination? “You want me to what now?” He looked back at the approaching golem. He knew what he had to do to make this thing disappear, but it was near-fatal for him. “Get my parents, and my older brother out of the house; yourself included.” Her eyes went wide. She tightly gripped the collar of his shirt. “You’ll get yourself killed!” He freed himself from her grip, and stepped towards the golem that was now staring him down. He bared his teeth as he glared up at it. “Do it now,” he commanded. The fairy shook her head. “You better come out of this in one piece!” With that, she flew off into the house to evacuate the house. ‘If I can perform some decent illusion spells, I can buy myself time,” Aiden thought. A massive limb came down on him. He moved out of the way at the last second. ‘I barely have time to act!’ He took a deep breath, and prepared to channel magic through his body. This was his first time performing a spell under pressure, so he couldn’t afford to screw it up. In fact, this was the first time he actually had to use his magic since he learned how. The golem slammed both its arms down on Aiden. A copy of himself appeared on the arm of the golem and ran up the rocky and grassy limb. Just as it reached its face its left hand lit up a bit, and delivered a hard blow to its head with its fist. After the impact the stone appendage immediately turned to dust. The creature was now in a daze. Aiden took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He could feel his aura start to form a shape next to him. Two copies of himself appeared to his left and right. He nodded at each of them, and they sprang after the golem. ‘This should buy me some time.’ He then ran up to a nearby tree, and pulled out a small pocket-knife from his pants pocket. He immediately whittled away at the trunk of the tree — embedding a circle and various shapes into it. The golem slammed its arm down on one of the illusions, and with an audible *POOF*, it turned to dust. Aiden quickly glanced over his shoulder. ‘Should’ve made them a little more solid.’ He turned back to finish whittling the runes into the trunk of the tree. The second illusion kept the golem distracted for about a minute or two. After the illusion finished having its fun, it jumped onto the back of its leg, climbed up its back. Once it reached the back of its neck, it crawled over its shoulder, and on its face. The golem stopped its rampage for a brief moment. It slowly brought a hand behind the illusion. Once it got into position, it thrusted its open palm forward — destroying the illusion. The force from its own attack caused the golem to stumble back, and crash into the house. Aiden heard the thunderous noise of splintering wood behind him. ‘I hope they’re okay,’ he thought as sweat fell from his forehead, whilst he put the finishing touches on the circle of runes. Once they were done, they were all neatly connected to one another. It was an awkward set of runes, but not an unfamiliar one. Once he finished double checking to make sure they were in place, he put an open hand in the center. Once Aiden made contact with the runes, he felt the magic rapidly deplete from his body. He instantly started to feel fatigued, but he kept putting as much focus into the spell as he possibly could. He watched as the golem slowly got up. It shook off the blow from its own hand, and turned to him. ‘Come on! Just a little longer!’ Aiden started to feel shorter and shorter of breath as he kept going. The golem slowly approached him. He pressed harder against the runes. “It’s…almost…done.” Once the golem got close enough, it stared Aiden down. It slowly lifted its right arm into the air. As soon as it was ready to strike down at him, he felt a pulse shoot through his body. This signified the spell was done. He glared back at the monster. “Go…back…to where…you…belong!” He let out a shout, and a giant vortex opened up. It started to suck the golem into it. The golem, as fast as it could, slammed its right hand down, and managed a tightened grip on ground. It didn’t accomplish much as it only delayed the inevitable. As the golem drew closer to the entrance of the rift, pieces of its body started to crumble and fly up into the rift. Aiden felt his heart beat faster as he continued to hold the vortex open. He was running short on magic, and breath. Soon the golem’s body began to crumble. It’s grip on the ground loosened, and fell straight into the rift. Once the colossal creature was finally gone, the vortex closed. He fell on back on his rear, and took a few a moments to catch his breath. “It’s over,” he said to himself. “Aiden!” Isabelle’s voice can be heard as she zipped toward him. “Isabelle?” He was met with her landing roughly on his stomach, and her little arms trying hard to wrap around him for a hug. “You’re alive,” she looked up at him. Aiden said nothing. He put one hand on the back of her head to assure that he was okay. They both looked at each other and smiles slowly made their way onto their faces, Isabelle flew up to her master’s head, and knocked on it as hard she could with a fist. “Don’t you do something stupid like that again.” He rubbed the top of his head as it hurt a teeny bit. “Were you really worried about me?” “Uhm. W-well...kinda.” He chuckled a little. “Come on, let’s go tell everyone that it’s safe now.” She nodded in agreement. Aiden struggled to get to his feet as the spell rendered him exhausted. Isabelle supported him as she helped him through the rubble, and debris of the partially destroyed house.