The Princess Summoner

In The Dragon's Presence Part II

Timor’s body tenses, reacting to the noises. He hears what sounds like footsteps coming towards him.  He hears crackling leaves on felled branches . More screams. Timor decides if the marauder wants him then he wasn’t going easy. The soldier walks and tears through forest with the sword. “Come on, demon! Send me your worst! I’m not afraid!” He didn’t want the marauder to know he was. He then hears a male voice laughs eerily. “There is no stopping me, mortal.” The fog encircles the soldier. The soldier fights back by swinging his dagger into the air. The fog surrounds the man and takes the dagger, and it crumbles. It then wraps around him. He feels the fog against him. Timor is trembling against it.  “How…How is this possible ? What do you want ?” The fog transforms into a dark being. The dark marauder “What does a god want with an ant ?”  Timor “ Please, I have a family. I…I’ve got nothing you want.”  The dark marauder “Don’t presume you know me or what I want.” He looks at the soldier with army medals on his army uniform. He takes his sword. The soldier gasps. He fears the end. But the marauder reassures him. “Do not worry young cub. I wouldn’t dare. I could use you in my Grand Legion.” He hands the soldier back his sword. Timor takes it and grips it and swings it at him. The marauder is unaffected and disappears into the fog. “He’s gone ? That’s it ? Heh…Whew. That was close.”

  Then he hears the wolves growling, their red eyes sparkling in the night. Hiding. The soldier runs through the forest blindly into a clearing until he slips and trips on a broken tree stump. “Ow. My foot.” Then he hears something snap. He falls. Then he cries out in pain. His leg gets caught in a trap. He can’t move it. He can see it is bent in an odd direction. He can see that he is bleeding. Then he notices the grey and black wolves. Their teeth bared. The soldier thinks if he can get to his sword, he can defend himself. The wolves quickly surround him. The soldier reaches out to try to reach the sword. “ Look, I know you’re here to do what your master…” The wolves growl at him. They watch him. Timor watches the wolves. He notices they have a pack mentality. One doesn’t move unless ordered to by the order. One member of the pack observes the rest of them. Timor, notices one of the grey wolves pace back and forth. “We do nothing of the sort. This pack is free and clear ! We are of pack mind! We make our own path. Do you get that human ?!”

  Timor is shocked because of two reasons that the wolves are of one mind and two that he can hear them with his mind. ”This has been a long time coming! Your species has dominated this world for longer than our species can remember. You have long adopted the theory that might makes right ? Isn’t that the way of it ?!” The young soldier looks at the older grey wolf as he paces back and forth. He feels a little trepidation with answering that question. The head wolf glares “I’m waiting, human.” Timor answers “…It’s not as easy as that. There are consequences…”

 “…The way we see it, the consequences are for you…Yet you can’t stop advancing. The result, trees are burned, toxic smoke rises, thousands of our kind die or are without homes, or families, and humans keep entrenching on our land !” The lead wolf commands.

  The wolves prowl around the laden soldier. The soldier explains “Look, I have a family. I’m trying to get to them. I don’t know whether they are scared or hurt or…” The wolf responds “…Unlike your kind, I am not heartless. We… are not heartless. Yet we will exact justice upon those who deserve it. We shall let you go…” The soldier tries to get up but struggles. “Oww…I need medical supplies. They got lost in your leader’s attack,” The wolf acknowledges this. The wolf holds out its paw. The soldier is reluctant to hold the wolf’s paw, but he realizes he has no choice. He holds his hand out and as soon he does the wolf’s paws claws down. “Owwww…”  The soldier takes his hand back rubbing it. There is blood when the claws pierced the skin. Timor “ Why did you do that ? I expressed in good faith and you…” The wolf immediately responds “Silence! The antidote has been given. You shall heal soon but I must ask this gift does not come without a price.” Timor “…What do you want?” The wolf continues. “We want you to give us the location of the Artemis gem. If you give us that we will let you live.” The soldier had heard of the Artemis gem. It was an object that was obscured in myth and legend. It had only been talked about in upper elite circles. Timor states “I cannot tell you where it is. But I can tell you its hidden deep in the mountains. That’s all I know.”

   The wolf snorts. “Do you know about the legend ?” Timor “I’ve heard about it. Amongst the upper elite.” The wolf answers “Yes. The Artemis gem is the only link to all of my kind.” Timor “ So if I can show where to look your kind will leave us alone ?” “The gem is housed on this world. But affects every world. There is more than one gem, and they cannot used without their hosts. And the host must be of one mind, and one heart and one body.” Timor knows that the gem bestows powers upon their hosts. “If I may be so bold.,. I can be that for you.” The wolf observes the soldier’s demeanor. He seemed helping and kind. The lead wolf lowers his head. It allows the soldier to rub and pat it. “ You have been friendly, despite our insistence. You have a…family ?... Hmm. This one senses that…errm…This one senses that…” The wolf emits a mournful sound. “They were your family? “ He shows a visual light on his family. It shows them in a family picture. It shows his wife and son. Timor “ Yes.” The wolf puts his head on the soldier’s lap emitting a comforting tone. “This loss will not divide us. It will embolden us. We… invite you into the fold!”

  The wolves all give assuring nods. The lead wolf growls at the five wolves. Then suddenly a wolf from the back came to the healed soldier and sat beside him. It was a white bush tailed wolf. It had a dark scratch mark on its left eye.  But it seemed different than the others. It had a glow on it. The soldier pats him. The wolf licks his face and nose. Tickling him incessantly. “Okay…” He giggles. “Okay…!” The lead sentient wolf “This one has paired with you. We will support you in this endeavor. To find the Artemis gem and pair it with the others !” The six wolves howl and they run off into the night. But the lone wolf turns back and looks at Timor. Timor “Waiting for me, eh ? Okay.” He gets up. And his wound is healed. He looks at his hand. And the claw marks are gone. Timor  “They did it. I found a sentient species here on Earth.” The wolf howls. And runs slightly ahead, stops and looks back.  Timor “…Loyal to the last. That’s a welcome trait to have. Alright, come on, Henri.” The wolf gives a short yip. “You like that eh ? Well, that’s your name, Henri.” Henri scampers ahead into the night. Timor runs. “Wait, you don’t what’s out there !!”

   Now we go back to the planet Hos in a snowy mountainous area, it is nighttime. Our heroine has been running for hours. Her legs are tired. She feels like she has been on the hunt for something. Something that is tied to her happiness, but she does not know what. Her search started when the Grand Elder told her she had to find her happiness before she could help her friend. The friend that was sick and on death’s bed. Nevertheless, in her worrying The Grand Elder let her know that she need not worry. He is on his own path. She starts to slow down running. She then nears a ravine next to some huge rock type structures. She hears running water in the distance. She notices pebble like structures behind the rock structure. “ Maybe…I can get some water.” She moves the pebbles away from the structure. She listens for water underground.  She feels around for an opening for an entrance to the pipes. And hears a low rumble. She listens for several seconds. And it doesn’t sound like flowing water, but she senses something else.

“ Hello…? Is somebody down there? ...I guess not.” Her voice sounds hollow. She uses the pickaxe she had gathered in her backpack when she came here on this jaunt in the wilderness. It slowly chips away at the rock feature on the ground. She continues to chip away. Teresa “This reminds me of a book my father read to me…It was about this boy who was trapped in crate because he was being sent to his grandmother in another country. His family didn’t have the money to send him first class. So, they saved their money and hitched a ride on a long donkey ride and then carriage. Believe me, it wasn’t easy, I asked.” The pickaxe began to chip away at the surface, and it starts to show. She leans down. And she feels some air which means an entrance. “ Yeah. That’s what I said. So, they reached the spot where they were to make a tough decision. They had to put their one and only son on a potentially dangerous trip across two continents or have their nana be alone. Now that was the deal….” She screams. ”Aah….Nooooo…!!”

   The rocks suddenly crumble and give way and the floor slips down. And suddenly a huge massive pile of snow comes roaring down the mountain and opens the entrance even more. And she slips and falls in a rush of icy rock debris. She tumbles down the shaft way in the underground opening to the bottom. She hits her head during the rock slide and is knocked unconscious. In the dark of the cave entrance there is little light. There is not much down here but there are several things. One of those things are alive. One of those things have awoken. Just then smoke leaks out the cave into the open air outside. A low rumbling continues through the cave.

After a while her friends arrive to inspect the accident. The elf girl looks around. She yells her name. “Ms. Teresa…! Where are you ? Are you alright ? Hey, Princess! Are you alright ?” The elven teenager yells out. Cassimir (sighs) “I knew this girl would be trouble. I could feel it.” Aneka “Correct me if I’m wrong but you said she was our friend ?” Cassimer “Yeah, but she’s still a pain in the craw…” They attempt to travel down in the underground entrance. They can hardly see two feet in front of them. Cassimer “Aneka, could you possibly give this one light ?” Aneka “I would be happy to.”  She lights the underground with her antennae. The light shines through the cave marking the many rocks and granite and pools of strange blue liquid dripping in the cave. Cassimer “ Aneka, what is this ?” The light shines on the glistening pool of blue.  Aneka looks at the strange liquid. She touches it. She gasps. “It’s Gerelten oil.” Cassimer “ Gerelten oil is only found on the tips of their swords as poison.” Cassimer “This is not good.” The elf girl “ Do you think they took her?” Cassimer “ I think…she wandered into their territory and because of this avalanche she got taken, Now, they might have dragged her back to their place.” They run back through the snow towards the school.

   In a dark fire pit, miles from there she is unconscious. Tied on a huge rock boulder in the middle is our heroine.She has a small welt on her left side. Unable to move while a Gerelten warrior watches her intently as he eats juicy piece of meat off the bone of a slain animal. He turns and bows his head toward a dark opening that emits black smoke. “ Mmm. Tasty. The sacrifice. It is almost ready.”