The Princess Summoner

The Dragon's Call

On the half-frozen planet Hos:

  The heat sizzles. Fire creeps in. The heat intensifies. The pressure builds. In the deep fire pit of the Gerelten tribe, one of its warriors takes the molten magma material out of the kiln. He very carefully places the slab on the rotator. The short stout blacksmith uses the metal container to pour the magma carefully into the mold. The fiery kiln’s smoke radiates from the heat of the forge. When most of the iron has cooled the blacksmith uses the hammer to bend the iron to his will. The hammer makes a tinking noise when metal continuously connects with the iron. Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. That tinking sound wakes the girl up as the hammer is pounded into the iron base. She opens her eyes. Her eyes begin to adjust to the intense light she sees from the fire pit below her. She is shocked as she realizes how far up, she is. She feels dizzy. A little disoriented.

  The last thing she remembers is being in the woods and uncovering an underground cave. It felt a little strange. The cave did. It had interesting quality to it. Maybe that’s why she was drawn to it. Then she remembers the icy rockslide. And the snow piling on her constantly and then her mind went blank.

   Hours pass. Then she opens her emerald eyes. What she sees is strange and scary. She sees two members of the  Gerelta clan applying more kindling to the pit around her.  And five of them chanting. She’s never seen these creatures before. They are short stocky and sort of clumsy beings chanting some sort of song around her. She feels the smoke and heat all around her because of the fire pit. They were all in unison chanting something she couldn’t understand. She thinks “My hands are tied. I can’t move them.” She still feels woozy. She can’t seem to remember what happened before the icy rockslide. “My head hurts. What are they doing? Are they preparing to eat me ? Or are they just planning to keep me here ?” Teresa knew she couldn’t wait until they made their decision. “Hey…! Hey…! I’m dizzy. I can hardly…I don’t know where I am. Can somebody help me ?”

  She sees two blurry figures advance on her. One of them hits her twice on the head with piece of firewood. She sees the blood drop onto the floor of the pit. “Unnn…Hey…” They shout something at her. She can’t hear them. She can hardly manage to understand them. They appear angry. The top of her head hurts. But she knows if she gives up now, she’ll never be able to continue the journey she is on. She starts focusing on one of the warriors. The one that hit her. He is a heavyset short stocky man wearing a heavy woolen coat. He’s got a reddish beard talking some unknown language. He has his back to her. “Hey…I’m no threat. I just…came here to…clear my head. Look, I can help you. Whatever you are looking for…” The short stocky man with the beard comes over to her. He yells something at her. But she still doesn’t understand him. And he’s upside down. She thinks. But then he starts to speak more calmly. She then realizes she’s the one that’s hanging by a rope upside down. Her sweat beads off her face and glides upward to the pit.

The stocky man points at her several times in his rambling to his fire mates and his fire mates chuckle. Teresa realizes they do not have good intentions. One of the fire mates looks at her and smiles to himself. Teresa thinks to herself how is she going to get out of this?      

  At the makeshift universal learning school, of the Tersian people, the teenage elves make sense of the new situation they are in. Cassimer tells the classmates that their friend is in trouble with the Gerelta warrior tribe. Ferellie, a female Tersian orphan who was abandoned by her family just like many of the classmates at school, responds to him. “I say we take to them! We can’t let them bully us!”  Another teenage Tersian steps forth. “We take it to them. Those Gerelten bullies can’t touch us if we unite!” Some of the group of Tersian teens are wary of taking them on. And are scared. They have been threatened by the tribe in recent months. Forced to live like lower class Tersians in their own community. A teen sits in the classroom, sullen away from the group and watches.

  Cassimer, during the speech, eyes this person, he doesn’t look like anybody he knows. He asks his classmates about the teen. None of them have seen him around before. He soon finds someone who has seen him. A neighboring tribe member says “Yes, I know him. He’s my brother. What of it ?”Cassimer “…Is he...? A Gerelta ?” The shifty eyed teen looks at him suspiciously. “ My brother don’t know nothin’ about the Gerelta! Leave us alone. “ Cassimer “ Wait.” He holds the teen’s arm. “Let go!” He pulls on his arm and the ruffled teen pushes him back. “ Look, we don’t wanna participate in…whatever this is. That’s for the best.” Cassimer “Come on. Would the elven tribes say that it is is for the best? I mean look!” Cassimer walks outside of the school and shows him several elven families sharing the sparse food and clothes with each other around the hillside. The families are grateful but sad they have to live in an Gerelta regime.  Cassimer  “This is for the best ?” The dark elven teen looks at him accusingly. “What’s for the best is us staying alive. Us getting along. And us not stirring up trouble. And I appreciate you not imposing your elitist ideas on us commoners, Now, Good day.” He walks back to the school.

  Cassimer “ Geez, Happersnap. That guy’s just a jerk! How can he not see…?” Then Aneka appears behind him. “Excuse me, Cassimer ? What about our friend?” Cassimer “We have to go back and find her ourselves. With Ferrellie and the others. Round them up and tell them to meet me at the foundry.” Aneka “What will you do ?”” I will wait for you here and prepare for a battle….I think.” He sighs. She hesitates to move. “ Go, Aneka! This is not a game. Go!!” Aneka “…This one worries if you’ll survive.” He touches her cheek. “I’ll be okay,(He smirks.) But our friend won’t be if we don’t help her.” She leaves. He opens the bag/pouch he had been carrying. He takes out a sword that he been given when he was younger from his father. But his father wanted him to use it only extreme emergencies. He touches the blade and feels its sharpness. It cuts his fingers, and he gets a cut, and it bleeds. “Why, father ? Why have you let this happen? You started a problem that your children have to solve. Why?”

Nighttime…Teresa is dangling over the fire pit… With the Gerelta clan cooking their food over the pit roasting the meat of the huge fat pig over the open fire. A large feast is being prepared with workers shredding, chopping, and mincing. And light drum music being played A great deal of care is being taken to prepare this feast. Because this meal is going to an honored feast. Just then the leader of the Gerelta tribe comes out of his place of Zen. He looks at his warrior tribe and smiles. He then starts to address them. Teresa hangs over them with just her T-shirt and green sweatpants on dripping in sweat and other cooked oils. A drop of sweat nears her lips.”Uhhh…Yuuckk. If I wanted to know what it felt like to be the main course at a meal, I would have politely declined to this invitation.” The cord tied to her hands feels tight as it did an hour ago. She tests the cord, and she struggles to loosen it. “Come on, I’m supposed to have these powers, so where are they, when I need them ?”

The Gerelta clan leader continues his speech. “Behold, this is a grand occasion! My warrior comrades. We are at a pivotal moment for our clan! With this sacrifice we can finally wake up the Destined One!”>

Teresa breathes slowly in and out several times. She closes her eyes. She thinks. ”Grand Elder…seems to believe in me. That means a lot. He says find your happy place. Well, that might be easy for you. You’re not the one over a firepit in the middle of nowhere supposedly being eaten by irate tribal members.” She sighs. ”Okay happy place. Happy place. Okay. I’ve got it. The grasslands on Earth. I would just be there lying there in the grass on nights, when my stepfather would be working for the King as one of his subjects in town. Those stars. Man, they were beautiful. Stars so far apart that it would take eons to reach them. But I felt like I could just touch ‘em. My stepfather used to give me books that made me feel like I was apart of those adventures. Like they were my adventures….To stand in the seas of time is to put your mark on the world.”

And at that moment a powerful essence radiates from Teresa. It radiates away and affects the Gerelta clan. Leader He looks toward the dark opening several yards away. The clan members gasp.  “Oh, Destined One! We hear you! Let your presence be known!”> The powerful essence grows in the teenaged girl. She still has her eyes closed. “Those books I read huddled in the small hut my father constructed, were some of my happiest moments. The books I read where I was steamboat captain, or a rebel pirate out on the seas, or scrubbing the walls of some educational university, just living in the moment away from the cruelty that was going on at the time. Like if I was the lead detective on the way to solve a most disturbing case, wearing my detective hat and smoking my pipe (full of bubbles of course), like in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, walking down a narrow walkway towards an unopened room…”

Outside, the Gerelta clan is in awe of what they are seeing. Meanwhile, the leader is calling the dark destined to show up. “Your faithful warriors await, destined one! Your grand power is imminent! No one can release the bonds of fortitude, but you,  O’ unshackle us and this world!” Teresa continues “…As I opened the door, I had feeling of an unnatural presence, this supernatural thing…” Then outside a rumbling is heard. The ground shakes. The clan feels it.  The entire area that surrounds them is shaken by it. In her mind: Teresa explains “The room had this unnatural feel to it, but I was automatically drawn to it. There was this book sitting on the dresser. It had weird letters inscribed on it. It wasn’t like anything I had ever seen before. This purple energy flowing from it. I was scared. Totally scared. But I had to open it. So, I did. I tugged on the book cover and it popped open. And what I saw blew me away. The words were all in some crazy ancient language. One of the words said “Berononim Temeyo…” Which meant In Dangerous Times. As I read further it said that if the Ancient Dragon of OA were to be called upon it was only to cleanse the world of impurities, and restore the balance between Gods/Goddesses, Faeries, Dwarves and Humans….”

Meanwhile the world heard the rumbles. While Teresa is wrapped up in the process, A protective shield is being formed around her.  From the dark hole several yards away, there is a shriek heard from deep in the cavern. A mellifluous sound that echoes through the cavernous chamber. It is heard from miles away. More specifically it is heard at the foundry where Cassimer, Ferellie, Aneka are gathered. The elder teen blurts out “ What was that ?!” Aneka “Oh no. This not good. We should be leaving. Cassimer “ Why, Aneka, do you know what that was ?” Aneka “My grandfather told me stories of a flying creature that made this same sound.”  Ferellie looks at them and her band of twenty rebels. “ Alright, my pretties we’re heading into the heart of Gerelta country! Everyone, gather their wits, their pride, their whatever gets them up in the morning, and Let’s Ride! Yeehaaa !!”

The members gather swords, their bow and arrows, maces, their pitch weapons, anything they can hold or carry. As the team gathering their weapons Cassimer takes Ferellie aside. “ Don’t tell me you’re going in that fire pit with them ? With that whatever it was ?” Ferrellie “ What, you’re scared?” Cassimer “…No..No…Just concerned. For you. Of course.” Ferrellie “Well, you can relax, I don’t run from bullies or from anything that itches and certainly not from strange noises. Now either you can join us or sit on the sidelines. It’s your call. I know where I’ll be.” She turns and hocks spit. And looks back at him.

Cassimer Fox watches her hop to her breegan. A zebra/horse mix breed that lives in the plains near the foundry. Its beautiful mane is colored brownish red color with black stripes on its feathery tail. It whinnies as Ferellie touches it. They can hear the sharp and loud echoing in the distance. “That’s it this is your moment, Cassie, whether you fly or die. Up on your silver spoon hill looking down on everyone.” Ferellie “Are you coming or not?”  He hesitates. Not sure that this is where he is supposed to be. But realizes this is the hand he was dealt. Ferrelie “ I don’t have all day, Cass!! Whatever the Gerelta are doin’, they plan on bullying their way through this town, and I’ve had enough. And I am waitiiiing!! Cass!” The eldest teen is startled out of his passiveness. Cassimer “ Right ! I agree. They’ve taken enough from us. It’s now time we take from them!!” The rebels yell out. “Yeah!! Ferrellie “ Alright then! Let’s Ride!! Yeehaa!!”

At the cavernous fire pit the tribe members are in awe of what they see. They see a girl floating in the air, with just newly sprouted wings on her back floating in the wind with her eyes closed and her hands orchestrating movement, enchanting sacred words out of a sacred book. Ancient Dragon, bring your strength and wisdom to this world, Let the inhabitants be forever transformed through your power!”> Her voice resonates through the area. For a minute everything stops moving. Suddenly, there’s a break in the cavernous wall. And fire erupts from the breach. Along with large-spiked horns as big as branches and monstrous legs supporting a strong hefty body. It makes a loud grunting noise. Then fire comes out of the hoofed mouth. The fire burns the nearby trees in the small neighborhood. The trees in the distance crumble like volcanic ash.  The charred smell permeates throughout the area. The dragon turns around and sees the scared people. “Who dares wake The Dragon of OA ?!”