A Summoner's Calling

by Jacquelyn Evans

  “Drotonic, are you awake? Hey, Mister Paranoia,” She pokes and nudges him, but he remains asleep with his hands tucked under his head and knees bent. Erryn brushes his face as gentle as a feather with the back of her hand. I’m sorry to have to wake you. You look so peaceful. Erryn sighs and a gentle smile rests on her face.

  Then recomposing herself, she grips his arms and shakes, yelling as loud as she can, “Drotonic, wake up!”

  Drotonic is propelled bolt upright. “What happened?” Drotonic asks, his breathing rapid.

  “Get up. We need to find a way out of here.” She tries pulling his arm.

  “Wait, what? No, just shush and go back to sleep. I told you they’re fine. You’re safe and sound as you should be,” Drotonic rolls back over, pushing her away.

  “Idiot. There’s a traitor at the temple leading them right to us,” Erryn whispers, grabbing his face.

  “Let go. Nice try, but highly unlikely,” he snuggles into the couch again.

  What is it with guys not listening to me today? she thinks.

  “You’re such an imbecile sometimes. Do you really think I would be raving about something like this if my sister didn’t say anything to me first?” Erryn says.

  “Your sister?” Drotonic asks, rolling back over.

  “Yeah, she warned me in a weird dream-world thing, thanks to friends,” Erryn explains.

  “Have you ever seen her like that before?” he asks.

  “No, never,” She shakes her head, remembering the blackness surfacing on her face as Drotonic sighs and sits up, stretching.

  “Well, I doubt it’s these guys. So, let’s at least warn them to keep an eye out,” Drotonic suggests and goes to knock on the door.

  A small door opens, the grumpier guard looks in, “Shouldn’t you two be sleeping? We actually had some peace and quiet for a change for the past two hours.”

  “There’s a matter that needs both your attention concerning the Lady Summoner’s safety,” Drotonic says as Erryn stands quietly.

  “Oh, and what would that be?” His eyes narrow.

  “Why hasn’t he opened the door yet? What did I do to make him so grumpy?” Erryn whispers to Drotonic.

  Drotonic shrugs and continues. “There’s a traitor amongst you that plans to lead Vladimir’s men here, jeopardizing this safe environment.”

  “Impossible.” He slams the eye door shut and unlocks the whole door to him, standing in the opening. “I don’t know what you think you know, or how but such atrocious allegations will not be tolerated. It’s blasphemy. How dare you disdain the temple order like that.” he scolds, pointing his finger at Erryn.

  “Jasper, calm down. I’m sure they didn’t mean any harm by it. At least, they shared the information with us. Now, we can take it into consideration,” The friendly guard places his hand on Jasper’s shoulder.

  “Regardless, such a possibility is improbable. Be at ease and put this discrepancy out of your mind,” The guard finishes as Drotonic nods and starts to reclose the door. Before the door is completely closed, Erryn notices a glimpse of another guard in a different uniform coming from behind them.

  She lunges past Drotonic and stops the door from closing, “One more thing. Were you two the only ones assigned to be down here?” she asks.

  “We’re supposed to be,” answers the friendly guard.

  “Then who’s that?” she asks, indicating the man behind them as they turn to look.

  Jasper guards the doorway with his arm as Drotonic and she nudge the door to achieve a better view.

  “Halt. What business do you have down here?” the friendly guards asks.

  “Ah, there you are, little Erryn. We’ve been missing you,” the mysterious guard grins, licking his lips. His aura is creepy and cynical. Down the hall, hustling footsteps of armored men break the silence.

  “My Lady, forgive my words, but now I must protect this door. You’re safe, mark my words,” Jasper smiles and pushes them both back, slamming the door shut.

  “I guess it was a good thing your sister visited you, but now comes the terrifying question: What if they can’t hold them all off?” Drotonic bites the lower side of his lip, tapping his hand on the side of his leg while thinking.

  “Well, here’s a thought. We could either ‘A’ pray they beat them all or ‘B’ try looking around for something helpful to defend against them or ‘C’, which I prefer, find a way out of here,” Erryn counts the possibilities on her hand. She can see Drotonic puzzling over which she wants him to choose.

  He sighs, “Fine, let’s hurry. Time is against us. I’ll start with the kitchen.”

  Erryn squeaks with happiness, “I’ll get the bedroom.” Erryn flings the closet doors open, upturning the bed. Shoves the dresser to one side and rips up the rug, but nothing.

  “Anything yet?” she shouts to him.

  “Nothing yet. I still have the living area to check. Why don’t you check the bathroom?” Drotonic replies.

  Before barging in, she notices a figure using the darkened facilities.

  “Drotonic?” she whispers.

  “What is it, and why are you whispering?” he asks.

  “There’s someone using our bathroom.” She crouches, silently watching a male finish urinating who sighs as if relieved. Drotonic sneaks over.

  “Just go in there and clock him on the head,” Erryn instructs Drotonic.

  “Me? Why me? You’re faster than me. Why don’t you do it? Plus, this is your room to check,” Drotonic says.

  “Are you kidding me? Fine.” She rolls her eyes and slips through the door’s opening without budging it with her small frame. After succeeding to get past the door, she lets out a quiet breath and glances around the room for something to whack him.

  She sees a long wooden stick leaning up against the wall. Sneaking over to grab it, the guy starts to wash his hands. Erryn readies to hit him as anxious thoughts of capture fester. She swings with all her might as he finishes washing his hands.

  “Ow.” He rubs his head, leaning on the wall from the impact.

  Wait, that voice sounds familiar, she thinks and turns on the light.

  “Valedent.” Erryn sees that the stick she is holding is his cane.

  “That’s one mean swing you’ve got there. Can I have that back now?” Valedent requests.

  Drotonic opens the door all the way.

  “What’re you doing here? How did you even get in?” Drotonic asks with a smug expression.

  “Well, hello to you too, Mr. Grump-face. I have my ways. I don’t mean to be a bother, but could I have a towel for my hands,” Valedent shrugs.

  “I thought you were one of Vladimir’s men,” Erryn apologizes and hands him a towel.

  “It’s no big deal. Can’t blame you with what’s knocking on your door,” he says, standing with balance.

  “For all we know, you could be the one who brought them here. Now, how the hell did you get in here?” Drotonic folds his arms over his chest.

  “Does it really matter? Cane please,” Valedent waves Drotonic off as Erryn hands him his cane back.

  “It kind of does because if you got down into here then there has to be a way out,” Erryn says.

  “True, but the way I came in is one way. It doesn’t support any other direction. However, there should be a gadget somewhere that would unveil an exit,” Valedent says.

  “How do we know it’s not just a ploy?” Drotonic says, trying to pull Erryn away from him.

  “You can thank your precious bishop for showing me the plans that say so,” Valedent looks to him, lifting his brows with a smirk.

  “Drotonic, stop.” Erryn pulls her arm out of his grip, “Then what’s this gadget look like? We can help you find it given the limited time we have.”

  Valedent becomes silent, chewing on his words.

  “Well, spit it out. What does it look like? You must know if you found all this out from the bishop,” Drotonic says.

  “Yeah, about that. I might have left his room bef
ore hearing that part.” Valedent rubs his sore head.

  “You’re kidding me, right? Please tell me you’re joking.” Drotonic smacks his forehead. Loud thuds hit the sealed door and they move to the doorway to look down the hall at the entrance. Standing like statues, everything becomes bone-chilling quiet as they wait for something to happen.

  “Do you suppose that Vladimir’s men ran away or died?” Drotonic asks.

  “That’s a laugh. Not likely, however, maybe some of them were killed. Though, not all of them were killed; I’m sure of that. I’m more worried about the thud noise,” Erryn stares at the entrance with fear clutching her heart.

  “Why’s that?” Valedent asks.

  “If my memory serves me right, it could be a huge, ugly, monstrosity that people in Dragonar have whispered to be an incarnation from hell,” Erryn says.

  “Oh, is that all? I’m just going to pray for it not to be so,” Drotonic swallows, and Erryn feels goosebumps shiver all over her body. Then the door shakes with the pounds of a force as dents are clearly seen on their side.

  “That doesn’t look good. So, the contraption. I’m going to start looking for it,” Valedent returns to bathroom searching.

  “Damn it,” Erryn mutters as Drotonic watches Valedent calmly look throughout the bathroom.

  “How can you be so calm in a time like this?” Drotonic’s eye twitches.

  “Listen, our aim right now is finding that contraption before they break that door down. If you want to sit there and go mental, be my guest. Nonetheless, you could choose to help find said contraption so we can leave in one piece,” Valedent explains and continues his search.

  “He’s not wrong, Drotonic. At this point, we need to look everywhere and anywhere. Even the pipes that lead out of here. Don’t leave anything unchecked,” Erryn says as she heads for the bedroom, again. Drotonic sighs and heads for the kitchen. After checking every inch of the room, she hasn’t found a thing except the vents that border the higher part of the walls.

  “This is ridiculous. Why’s it so hard to find just one thing?” Valedent blurts out.

  Erryn comes out of the bedroom with no success.

  “Anything, Drotonic?” she asks.

  “Nothing. Hey, you think it got exhausted from pounding on the door?” Drotonic asks, as she looks up the hall and sees multiple vents throughout the whole room.

  “That was its warmup. I’d get your focus off that door and get to finding the contraption. You think you could handle these vents,” Erryn asks, stepping in front of the bathroom door.

  “No luck in the bedroom, eh?” Valedent asks.

  “Nah,” Erryn sighs, and a slight rumbling crosses the ground.

  “What was that?” Drotonic asks, stopping at the archway of the hall.

  “Run. Get into the bathroom,” she yells, and he moves without hesitation as she waits for him to enter.

  “What’s the matter?” Valedent asks as Drotonic thrusts into the room.

  Although one step from being inside the bathroom, Erryn gets blasted by a sonic wave sending her past the bathroom door. She hits her head on the bedroom doorframe, and her body slams against the wall.

  Valedent sticks his head out into the hall, “Erryn, are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be okay,” she replies, slowly moving her body away from the wall. She stretches out her neck, trying to shift the pain.

  Drotonic helps her up and they make their way back to the bathroom.

  “What was that? How did you know?” Drotonic asks.

  “Seriously, Drotonic? I lived with the nut case. How else would I know that its roar would cause that to rupture the door. He calls them TEDD.” She points to the door. Although, it’s still stuck, closed and stiff, it now has a dented opening large enough for an arm to reach through.

  “TEDD, eh? What a charming name,” Valedent comments.

  “Yeah, it stands for Tearing Eccentric Devastation Daemon,” Erryn says, leaning against the now concaved wall.

  “That door doesn’t look that good,” Drotonic says.

  “Well, we better hurry before it hurls another one, because by that point, there will be nothing stopping them from coming in.” Erryn struggles with her emotions at the possibility of that becoming her reality.

  “Hey, I told you I had a way out. Don’t give up on me so easily. Plus, there’s a lot of people that would kill me if I can’t do my job,” Valedent smiles, followed by a wink. Drotonic grips her forearm, placing his forehead against hers before searching the hallway vents. Valedent and Drotonic return to searching as Erryn looks around. She notices two vents in the front room and sighs.

  “What’s wrong?” Drotonic asks.

  “Nothing. It’s just that there’s two vents by the door, close to the TEDD,” she says.

  “I could do those for you,” he offers.

  “No, you finish the ones you’re working on. I got this,” Erryn says and takes a deep breath, hoping the TEDD doesn’t smell her.

  Pinya Temple : Drotonic

  31

  Erryn walks to the end of the hall and looks around as Drotonic goes to the small table they ate from, grabbing one of the chairs. He returns to the hall passing Erryn as she lets out another big sigh and heads into the living room. Drotonic places the chair against the wall and searches one of the vents, finding nothing but a faint noise of fighting from the surface.

  He steps down and moves the chair, aligning it with the next vent. Drotonic looks over and notices Erryn laying on the ground, coughing from blowing the dust to look inside the floor vent. They each move to the next one, and much to Drotonic’s dismay, he discovers another empty vent.

  After stepping down with a sigh, Valedent asks, “You didn’t find anything, either?” Drotonic shakes his head disappointed, but as he looks down the hall. Time seems to slow. Erryn steps down from the vent, but her foot slips from the chair and causes her to stumble. She attempts to regain her balance only to trip on uneven ground. The piece of ceiling that remained on the floor catches her foot, interrupting any recovery of her equilibrium.

  Drotonic’s body tenses with paralysis as Erryn falls onto the dented door.

  “Erryn, no,” he whispers as the bang on the door resounds, intensifying the followed silence.

  “What was that?” Valedent asks, looking at Drotonic’s frozen expression.

  “Ow.” She rubs her lower back.

  Valedent gets up, stepping into the hall and sees Erryn against the door, “That can’t be any good.”

  But Valedent’s words are lost on Erryn as her eyes focus on the ever-expanding opening in the main door.

  “That’s definitely not good,” Drotonic states.

  “Why, hello there, TEDD,” Erryn greets as she gets off the door.

  “You might want to get into this bathroom,” Valedent suggests.

  “You think?” Drotonic raises his brow with an annoyed glare, and Valedent waves Erryn to come. She hustles across the room as the rumbles start vibrating across the floor again. They all enter the bathroom as the vibrations stop.

  “Did anybody find anything?” Erryn asks.

  “Not a damn thing,” Valedent says.

  “What happened to the vibrations? Isn’t there usually a roar?” Drotonic goes to stick his head out the door.

  Erryn grabs him by the collar, pulling him back as he turns to her confused as she warns, “I wouldn’t do that unless you want your head cut clean off.”

  Drotonic massages his neck, thinking of it being in half.

  “Well then, what are we going to do? No one’s found this contraption anywhere. Erryn?” Drotonic asks as he notices her scrunching her nose and biting the corner of her bottom lip.

  “What’s your thinking?” Valedent asks.

  “No, it couldn’t be…” she states and goes into the shower.

  “Erryn, what are you doing? This is no time for a shower,” Drotonic says.

  “Shut it will you, Drotonic,” Erryn says, feeling the shower’
s floor.

  “What’s she doing? Is she always this fascinated with bathrooms?” Valedent asks, and Drotonic shakes his head.

  “Valedent, you might want to look at this. This tile nearly killed me earlier. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner,” Erryn says.

  The tile she slipped on earlier. Why is she messing with it now? Drotonic continues to wonder.

  Half of Erryn’s body remained outside the shower and the curtain hid the other half. Valedent walks over to her and into the shower stall. Then a more intense roar shakes the room. They hear a splintering crash as the TEDD breaks the main door down with its sonic waves, allowing them to enter the living area.

  “Oh, Erryn, I know you’re here. Why don’t you just come home with us?” a voice calls for her down the hall.

  “Man, he really should learn when to give up,” Erryn rolls her eyes.

  “Drotonic hand me my cane. It’s by the sink,” Valedent says. “Them learn? Please.”

  “Here. You know we have a problem, right?” Drotonic hands him his cane, and he uses it to try and pry the tile. Outside they can hear the TEDD trashing the lounge room.

  “For a loose tile, it’s pretty stuck,” Valedent comments.

  “Yeah, well, I kind of jammed it back into place,” Erryn shrugs.

  “Come on, you guys. It sounds like it’s getting closer,” Drotonic says as they hear the TEDD roar with frustration. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.”

  Valedent budges the tile free, and a bumpy metal casing covered in rust with a foldable ring appears.

  Drotonic peers in, “Is that it?”

  “Let’s find out shall we,” Valedent suggests and uses his cane to break off the crusted rust which exposes more of the metal ring. He places his finger in the ring, trying to wiggle it and pull, but discovers it turns. He turns it and a small click sounds, making the lid loose. Valedent pulls, revealing a red button with wires intertwined around it.

  “Alright fella. Come on back,” Drotonic hears Gesthal coach. A peek down the hall reveals the monster wiggling itself free of the solid metallic frame that wedged him into place. “Oh, Erryn, come on now. There’s no escape, so just come on out. It’s a dead end,” Gesthal calls to her again and Drotonic retracts his whole-self back inside the bathroom, hoping he wasn’t seen. Valedent presses the button and a metal column comes up from the floor to about stomach level.