The Princess Summoner

Of Strange and Peculiar Things Part II

                                               “

      Just as she ascended the ladder the inquisitive girl heard something. The sound seemed to come from below her. But the more she realized it, it seemed the house was… shaking. It couldn’t be, she thought. There was nothing out hereto cause such a ruckus. Just then she heard something. It came in low. But the more she realized it, it seemed the house was…rumbling. It couldn’t be. There was nothing out here to cause such a ruckus. She decided it was her imagination. She looked at the book high up on the shelf. It was daring her to read it. It had a purple hard cover. It had a feather of some sort in it. A pointy feather. Interesting, she thought. Father would have loved this. A treasure trove of books. She started climbing again. Boom. A thump. It rattled the lamp in the room. Boom. Thump. Another shake. She realizes she’s not alone. The sound gets closer. Boooom. A guttural growl. This scares her. She starts to climb down. And then she hears it. The loudest primal growl she had ever heard in her life. Her heart jumps. She looks around for a place to hide. The sound gets closer. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. In her flight she notices an old broom closet in the next room. She hurries and closes the door. She sees what has been making the noise through the small airway of the closet door. It’s…It’s… something incomprehensible. She hears the intruder prowling through the hallway. Boom. Thump.

     She sees it. It is a monster. Then the creature lets out its guttural cry. Awoooooooooooo Thump. Thump. As it cries, it uses its nose to smell what’s around it. Sniffing around. The girl trembles a little bit. A little because she’s afraid but also because she had never seen anything like this creature. This creature is between six to eight feet tall. And had an imposing stature. It had claws. Sharp, pointy claws. Probably used to s***h its victims. And those piercing, perceptive, penetrative eyes. She couldn’t get those eyes out of her mind. The creature heads into the room she was previously in. For a while, she hears nothing. It is absolutely quiet. She begins to think the creature is gone. It has to be gone. It has to be. She thinks. Slowly, she opens the closet door to see just a bit more into the hallway. The hallway is empty. She wonders why it is here. What happened to it to drive it here? She hears a low guttural moan from somewhere downstairs. She investigates the room she came from. Books are scattered all over the place. Papers ripped out. And trash all over the rug. She steps out of the room into the hallway. It is hard to imagine but this is happening. She quietly slips downstairs careful not to alert the creature.

      She sees it huddled up near a makeshift fire in the fireplace. She sees the creature for the first time. It has brown fur mottled up on its head. Dark matted fur down its back. As she nears it, she must breathe deep a couple times to steady herself. Out of all the stories this girl had read, this creature did not match any of them. To be fair, this girl didn’t read much tales with creepy beasts in mansions. She was sheltered that way even with her father. As she neared   the creature, a sound came from behind her. A chirpy sound. “Well, Hello, there!” The sound frightened her. She screamed. That in turn alerted the creature. Grrrrrrrrhh!! She backed away. She was helplessly staring at the menacing mean creature, she then ran. And kept running. into the back of the house. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrhh!!"

             Meanwhile the girl’s father had been worried sick for the last week. The past week her father had scoured the town looking in the nooks and crannies of the odd shops that his daughter would visit. He knew his daughter was adventurous and in that made her troublesome. Trouble would somehow find her whether she was looking for it or not. He remembered times of apologizing to the local shopkeepers, raiment assistants and teachers. His daughter was not shy in welcoming herself to all sorts of problems. She couldn’t help it. Rather, it wasn’t her fault. She was different. Anyway, he had to be careful because the King’s guards were on the lookout for anything amiss since it was getting late. The curfew was near and any citizen not in their home before sun’s dip would face a penalty. The girl’s father began to ask their closest neighbor and closest friend Donavan. He had taken a liking to Donovan because he looked out for the family in the past in previous situations.

   The teen was a friend of the family because they all been together during the Great War. He and the girl had been trapped in a rundown facility when the bombs started to hit in the intensity of the battle of the Great War, the girl’s father had rescued the both of them in the nick of time. He rescued others in need at the time during the war and this was what he just did. The father took the boy in with his family until he could get adopted by a kind and loving family.  Donavan was a loyal and good kid unlike others under the King’s sway. Donavan was tall. He had grown quite a bit since then. You could say he had a growth spurt. He had green eyes, short brown curly hair which sometimes got in his eyes and he had to occasionally push aside to see.

     The girl’s father asked him whether he had seen his girl. He said he hadn’t seen her since they last met for dinner which was a week ago. The father knew they were big technology followers and kept up with the modern times. He tells the teen to keep looking out for her but quietly. The teen agrees. The father observed that the town was devoid of actual outside influences. Actual contact with other sources outside of the kingdom was f*******n. As he looked up, he sees drones in the sky monitoring the villages. The King had drones in almost every village keeping an eye on them. Citizens                                                                                                  

 were keeping their heads down trying keep the King’s Court from noticing them too much. Her father knew it was getting late and he worried about his daughter. And knew his wife would be worried as well. He couldn’t tell her. He mustn’t.

         She saw a…monster. It was huge. It had big menacing eyes and fearsome claws. Enough to rip a grown person’s throat out. While she was nestled in the arms and care of her mother and father, she had never been this close to a creature such as this. It frightened her. Why was it here? Why did she have to bump into something like this? This was not the adventure she was looking for. She heard its footsteps advancing. Boom. She hears its guttural cry. Awoooooooooo. The sound gets closer. Her heart beats even faster. As it approaches, she sees an opportunity to grab something to hit it with. She peers around the corner to a broom closet and sees that it is open. She looks around and doesn’t see anyone. She darts around in the next room. The broom closet is next door. It has a red handle on the door. That seemed strange. A red handle in a hallway of doors with gold handles.

     Actually, the handles weren’t the only thing that was weird. There was a small slight breeze blowing in the house, but neither was there a window on that floor or air conditioner. This was unusual. She realized this house/mansion was not what it appeared to be. On some of the doors there were no handles. She wondered how the door opened. The girl pressed her ears to one of the doors. Then she hears a voice coming from the door. “Not here!!  Not here!! If wanna rescue me and its imperative that you must, get his permission! I repeat if you wanna rescue me, and it’s imperative that you must, get his permission!” The squeaky voice startles her. Then she hears the guttural cry again.  Awoooooooooo. She sees the shadow of the bestial creature go up the stairs. Boom. Booom. Boom.Booom.

     At this point the girl has no way of escaping unless it’s in the broom closet. She opens the broom closet. She thinks it’s full of brooms, it’s not. Small glass bearings in pouches. They looked like marbles. They had what looked like liquid in them. Grrrrrrrrrhhh!! The sound of the creature makes her turn around. And she sees a tall dark figure in what appeared to be a purple robe. Just seeing the creature makes her drop what was in her hands. It falls to the floor. It makes a crunch when it falls. “Get away from that!!” She hears the raspy voice from the creature. She backs away suddenly from him. The creature comes in from the dark shadows as the dimly lit hallway sheds virtually little light. Girl “What…Who are you? Stay away from me!!” She grabs a broken broomstick from the floor and waves it in front of the creature. It growls while its gaping mouth with full drool. The darkness from whence it came is still covering its eyes and its head.

       “I have a weapon…don’t come near me.” she said. The creature seemed to sense the girl’s fright and slowly backed away. Her heart is steadily beating rapidly in her chest. It had been a while since something frightened her like this. In this mansion, she felt she was on her own, discovering different things from the strange way the mansion came into view when she approached the house, to the ominous clouds up ahead. Then she encountered the creature. But as she looked at it, she sensed something. It wasn’t sitting. It just stood there. And she realized what she had to do. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just came in from the storm. It was cold…. It is cold in here; may we go somewhere warm?” she asked. The creature stood still for a minute. And then it approached her slowly into the lighted area of the hallway. As it did, she saw its knotted fur on its back. Its amethyst eyes stared at her curiously. Even though at first, she was scared, it didn’t appear the creature was going to attack her.

    “My…name is Teresa…Teresa Goldsplume. I don’t frequent these woods very much at least I’ve haven’t done so in quite a while…. Come here.” she intently asks. She puts out her hand. The creature watches her. And it then begins to sniff her and her hands. The girl at first is tentative and not sure what to make of this. But she stands still while it does its check. He finishes and then looks at her with a puzzled look. “…I am not…familiar with this.”

 Teresa “You can talk?” The creature lets out a mild sigh. Teresa “You can understand me?” she asks politely. The beast reluctantly said “….Of course, I can. It is just hard for me.” Boom. Boom. Boom. The creature treads down the stairs to the first floor waiting area. The young sprightly teenaged girl watches as the large furry knotted hair beast lumbered downstairs. Teresa shouted “Wait!!” The creature turned around and stared at her.” “…. What… is it?” it hesitatingly asks. Teresa stated “Before you came upstairs, I heard a voice coming from one of those doors upstairs…I…”

He immediately growls his answer. “…Don’t open those doors….!!. They are…forbidden.” It looked at her with those amethyst eyes which were glowing. Its sharp teeth shining in the light of the fireplace that was roaring in the back.

      The beast growled at her immediately. “Those doors hide a f*******n secret. One that cannot be turned back….!!” He tells her. Teresa said “Oh. I’m good with secrets you can tell me. Please?” She smiled at him batting her eyes at him.” The creature “Why… do you do that? “he asks her. Teresa “What …?” Creature “…Look at me… that way?” The girl thought it was amusing that the bestial creature wasn’t familiar with her mannerisms. Just as she wasn’t familiar with his. She wasn’t familiar with this whole situation. Teresa “Forgive me. I have never met a…creature as yourself. I live in a town far from here. It’s called ShadowCrest. It’s right in the upper west side of King Herold’s swank municipality. It’s a quaint little hovel. There are many people there. Some of the most distinguished artists, architects, doctors and nurses, painters, techno-geeks, established cooks, builders…”

       As she prattled on, the beast began to wonder if the time it had spent all these years away from society had been worth it. Years have gone by. It had no idea that things like doctors…and other strange things… and girls like her existed. It turned its head over to the window just over the girl’s side. The rain outside was pelting the glass. It missed that. The feeling of wet bristly hands soaking in the night air. It had missed that. It had been locked up a long time. ”Gruff face… You listening?” Teresa asked. It snarled at her to show attention. “Do you always…talk this much? “he queried. Teresa “Well…I would be happy to do some listening if one would talk about what you’re doing here? Or why those doors are so f*******n? Or why you haven’t invited me to some dinner?  You do know it’s past my dinnertime? And what are those books way up there on the second floor? And none down here? I figure if you’re going to have important books you would want them…” It growled loudly at her.

    His growl was abrupt. It was meant to be. He had an annoyance level and that girl had reached it. It said “You must never go up there, do you hear me?  It then growled in anger.  It got up from the old chair and went toward the fire to get warm. It growled “…You…must Leave!” With that he threw the nearby log into the smoldering fire. The girl’s shock at the beast’s authority and total disregard for her, took her back. Teresa “Listen…I know you haven’t warmed to me yet…to people being around you yet, but there’s no need…” It stated “You cannot be here…! I don’t like this…THIS! “ It growled in frustration.

    He throws the few papers in the room around and they scatter. He then looks at the two-hand clock which reads five minutes to nine o clock at night. It is dark outside. The wind has picked up and the rain is still coming down continuously along with lightning strikes in the background. As it rains, the creature continues to pace back and forth. Teresa immediately asked “Nervous? I get nervous sometimes too when it rains like this. Father says it’s the gods playing games with us. I just think it is Mother Nature getting a good drink. What do you think?” The beast tiring of this impetuous girl said  “I…think you must go.” Teresa “Why? In this rain? I cannot. I mustn’t. I’ll get drenched in this rain. I’ll get sick. Then I’ll be coughing up something dreadful before this night is over…don’t be ridiculous. He suggests “….err…I suggest you stand over there…then.” He points to a bench sitting in opposition to the sofa. It is an off-colored white seat next to the fireplace. Teresa said “Over there…? That’s impossible.  How will I see what is happening out there in the window? It totally obstructs my view. Nope…Nope…”

The beast snapped “…I do not care!” It growls at her again. The girl observes that this bestial creature is unlike anyone she has seen before. Yet he is also so rude like numerous people she has seen her father work within his job for the king. “My…job is not to…entertain you girl!! I will...not…” Just then a crackle of lightning erupts outside, and the rains start to come down in sheets. The beast turns his head in fright. “This…cannot…do…”   “Something is about to change.” The creature walks over to the window. The creature howls. Awoooooooooooo It then winces and clutches his chest. The girl notices and goes over by the creature and holds him. Teresa asked “Are you alright? Here come over by the sofa.” The creature’s eyes appear tired and sleepy. Teresa  “I can at least see that this has taken a toll on you. I might be hungry, but I am not a heathen. I can forgive you this. Get some rest. I shall find a bed upstairs. I am quite sure there many in this old creepy mansion…Certainly.” The beast grabs her hands before she can go.

    “No…don’t go upstairs…Please…for your safety.” The creature is sweating and lethargic. It is almost gasping his words. “The secrets will…come out. You…will…not be safe.” Teresa “What secrets? Why don’t you want me to go upstairs? What will I find up there?” The creature sighs. “This world is not yours…. They will return. And all of this will be gone.” Teresa “Who will return? And why are you here in this mansion? In the woods? And why do you keep clutching your…” She sees why. Teresa “This is a jewel surgically attached to…your heart.” The creature “It is… nothing. I had to.” Teresa “The only way you could get this is if your life were in danger. And now you need its power. How?  “There was a… how you call…doc…tor. He performed the surgery." the creature said. Teresa “What    happened...?” At that moment they both start to hear knocking coming from upstairs. Teresa “What’s that? The knocking…?” Teresa asked “Why are they…? She runs up to the bottom of the stairs. Teresa tells him “I’ll be right back.”

   Creature “…Don’t. You don’t …know what you are doing…”