Summoner 20, page 17
“Did I hear group activity?” Erin poked her head out from her doorway. The mimic had an impish smile on her lips, and her amber eyes glittered with mischief. “Count me in. I could use a little intimate time with all of you.”
“I’m going to have my hands full with all of you, aren’t I?” I shook my head at the three mages.
“Always.” Cyra winked, and then she waved Erin over. “Hey, come join us and help me pack. I could use some lingerie advice, and I want Gryff to be surprised.”
“Yay!” Erin clapped, and she scurried over to where we stood. “I love everything about this.”
“Well, I suppose I should leave you all to it,” I chuckled as I stuck my hands in my pockets. “Let me know if you need any help.”
“We’ve got it.” Cyra grinned at me, and after she offered me a wink, she closed her bedroom door and left me even more excited for this trip.
The day before we left for our journey, my curly-haired wife appeared in my bedroom doorway and reminded me about the monsters we’d picked up in Nattanger.
“I know it’s been a busy few weeks, but I think we’ve dragged out the suspense long enough.” Cyra grinned at me with impish delight. “I’m ready to see what you picked out for me.”
“Shall we head out to the backyard for a reveal?” I proposed to her.
In all honesty, I’d forgotten about our new essence crystals, but now that I’d been reminded, I was ready to see what Cyra had selected for me.
It was unlikely we’d need to use them on our trip to Eyrie Island, but having a new creature just in case wasn’t a bad idea, and I’d prefer to unveil it beforehand.
“Let’s do it.” Cyra nodded, and then she inclined her head out into the hallway.
I grabbed my bandolier off my dresser and hastily strapped it around me as I followed Cyra out of the room and down the spiral staircase.
We made our way into the backyard, and with every step, my curiosity swelled. My wife knew me well enough to choose a monster that would suit me, and I was certain the monster I’d given her would satisfy her as well.
We crossed the emerald lawn until we reached the tree line, and once we were far enough from the house, Cyra reached into her bandolier and retrieved the oval-shaped dark-red crystal I’d gifted her. She ran her fingers over the smooth surface and eyed the gem with a curious expression.
“I’m definitely intrigued by whatever monster you’ve chosen for me, dear husband,” she said as her chocolate eyes admired the essence crystal.
“I can easily say the same about the one you gave me.” I smirked at my curly-haired wife. “I hope you didn’t give me a joke monster. If it’s some kind of troll--”
“Hey!” Cyra’s jaw dropped, and then she gave me a playful shove. “Have a little faith in me! I took our little surprise very seriously, and besides, you saw me over in the Grade-C section of the shop. I followed the rules.”
“I’m just giving you a hard time,” I laughed at her. “You’re too easy to mess with.”
“Yeah, yeah.” The dark-skinned summoner rolled her eyes at me. “Now, how would you like to proceed? Summon them at the same time, or should we do a reveal one at a time?”
“I think both could be fun.” I shrugged as I reached into my bandolier and found the stone Cyra had selected for me. The yellow-green gem was almost like a peridot, and I was excited to see what kind of creature would emerge from it.
“Count of three?” Cyra proposed.
“One… ” I began as I gripped the stone in my fist.
“Two…” my wife continued.
“Three!” we declared in unison, and together, we threw our crystals out into the empty yard. Thick plumes of blue-black smoke fogged up the air, and for a moment, the area fell dark.
When the smoke dissipated, our monsters were revealed, and my eyebrows shot upward.
“Wow,” I breathed.
The monster my wife had selected for me was not what I was expecting. He was about fifteen feet tall, nearly as large as Dio at his full height, and humanoid from the waist upward. His skin was a rich, wooden brown, and his muscular chest was wrought with moss and vinery. The monster’s face had a strong jaw, a broad nose, and sharp, angular cheekbones. His eyes were the same bright yellow-green as his essence crystal, and a pair of winding, pointed horns rose up from his chestnut-colored curly hair. The horns ended in deadly points that I knew could inflict some damage, and the sight of them brought a smile to my face.
Once my eyes strayed from the horns, they travelled down to the creature’s lower half. While the torso of the monster was very human, the creature’s legs resembled a goat’s. Swathed in curly fur that resembled the hair on his head, the monster’s legs were long and ended in a pair of almost metallic-looking hooves.
“A faun?” I asked Cyra as I inspected the half-man, half-goat.
“Yep.” Cyra nodded.
“Wow,” I breathed. “Can’t say I saw that one coming.”
“I was going for unexpected, so mission accomplished.” My wife grinned at me.
The faun regarded me with a curious gaze, as if it were awaiting command.
“Well, show me what you’ve got,” I instructed the monster.
The faun let out a low rumbling sound, and the vines wrapped around its torso extended out into the monster’s hands. The creature held the vines like whips and cracked one in the air. The sound was intimidating, and I knew anyone who was on the receiving end of those whips was in for a bad time.
“Fuck, yeah.” I pumped my fist. “That’s awesome.”
“He has the whips and a few other powers I’m not certain of,” Cyra said. “I know he has some other earth and nature magic, but I can’t remember what else he’s capable of. Do you like him?”
“Of course, I do!” I exclaimed in an excited tone. “He’s totally badass. Thank you, Cyra!”
“I’m glad you like him.” The curly-haired summoner smiled.
“And what about you?” I prompted her as I inclined my head in the opposite direction. “I haven’t heard you say anything about yours.”
We turned our attention to the monster beside mine, and I could tell Cyra was impressed by my selection.
Much like the faun, the monster I’d gifted my wife was humanoid, but female instead of male. The creature was a deep gray, but translucent, almost like she was made of smoke. She had a lovely, delicately featured face, but it was mostly hidden by knee-length straight hair that wavered around her in the air. The creature had elongated but shapely limbs, and she stood only a little taller than me, but something about the way her body shimmered suggested maybe she could change shapes.
“A banshi?” Cyra guessed as she admired the smoke woman.
“Yes, ma’am,” I confirmed.
“Fuck, Gryff.” The summoner mage whistled as she studied her monster. “That’s an intense choice. I’ve never dealt with one before, but I’ve heard some nasty things about it.”
“I know she’s a little different from your usual choices, but I thought you needed something badass for your collection,” I said.
“Should I try out an attack?” Cyra wondered with a tilt of her head, and before I could warn her against it, the banshi straightened her back and fixed her red eyes on me.
When the creature opened her mouth, a dark red aura appeared around her, and a sound suddenly flooded through my mind. It was so piercing and venomous it brought me to my knees. I looked around to see if the sound had affected Cyra, but she stood in place like nothing had happened.
“Gryff?” she called out in a panicked voice. “Gryff, are you--”
Before she could finish her sentence, the noise disappeared, and I rose to my feet. I blinked rapidly as the painful sensation faded away, and Cyra’s eyes were nearly as big as saucers.
“I’m okay,” I assured her before she got too upset. “Her attack is pretty intense.”
From what I could remember in Monster Identification class, the banshi was a monster that possessed a powerfully haunting screaming ability that could penetrate not only its opponents ears, but its thoughts. Their attack was similar to the sikarote, a mega-sized cicada monster Nia and I had fought on our honeymoon in Adorna, only the banshi didn’t need an immense size to bring her opponents down.
I’d heard tales of banshi that could dreamwalk and invade nightmares, and others whose deadly screams echoed in their victim’s minds for years on end until they couldn’t take it anymore and resorted to extremes like self-mutilation and even more permanent solutions.
The demoness was incredibly deadly, and in Cyra’s capable hands, I knew she could really do some damage.
“I can see that,” Cyra replied as she studied the monster. “Wow. She looked like she was barely exerting any force, too. I wonder how powerful she is at her full capacity.”
“If that was only a portion of her magic, she’ll definitely be able to knock out a lot,” I said. “Do you like her?”
“Fuck, yeah, I do,” the summoner mage exclaimed. “Damn, Hunnah and Quilla better look out. I don’t know how she’ll fare against mistwolves and whatever monsters Quilla has, but I’m willing to bet she could hold her own in battle. Thank you, Gryff.”
Cyra and I embraced, and after we shared a tender kiss, we recalled our new monsters. I had a lot to learn about my new faun, but something about the way he looked at me suggested there was more than meets the eye when it came to his magic. He could be just the missing piece I needed for my team, and I was thrilled to see him in battle.
Cyra was right.
Hunnah and Quilla needed to watch their backs.
The next morning, after we said our goodbyes to the rest of our family, Cyra, Erin, Freya, the children, and I all loaded up into Erin’s airship. We’d purchased infant-friendly seats that would keep the babies from being tossed around at takeoff, and once we boarded the ship, we strapped them right in. Milo, Olivir, and Lahrra were entirely unphased by the seating, and each of them wore similar expressions of boredom.
It took everything to keep from cracking up at them as I tightened their seat belts around their booster seats.
“You all are far too tame to be my children,” I joked quietly, and Milo let out a high-pitched giggle at that. Obviously, he had no clue what I was talking about, but my curly-haired son was always laughing, so I wasn’t too surprised by the sound.
“Babies secure,” Cyra announced as she finished tightening Lahrra’s harness. “Are we ready?”
“As we’ll ever be,” I said, and I took my own seat beside Cyra and the kids. Freya sat on the other end of the kids, and though we’d flown in an airship before, I could tell this was a source of stress for my hawk wife. “Freya, are you alright?”
“I will be,” she replied with a vigorous nod. “I am still cautious around the metal flying machine, but I know we will be just fine. Lahrra will keep me company, and once we are in the air, I will come and join you and Cyra.”
We fastened our seatbelts, and after we gave Erin verbal confirmation that we were all set, the airship began to hum. I studied the children’s faces, but they didn’t react to the sound at all, except for Olivir, who began to bounce happily in his seat.
“Babies are so strange,” Cyra remarked over the hum, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Then I took a deep breath. It’d been a long time since we’d been to Hawk Clan, and I hoped our reception would go as well as Freya had made it seem.
After another hum, and a loud whirring noise, the airship lifted into the air, and we began our journey to the Southern Continent.
Chapter Nine
The idea of traveling on an airship all the way to the Southern Continent with three children on board had been daunting, but as our flight to Eyrie Island continued on, my fears drifted away like the misty white clouds Erin navigated us through.
We remained buckled into our seats at first, but once we hit a suitable altitude, Cyra, Freya, and I released Lahrra, Olivir, and Milo from their infant booster seats and held them in our laps. Since Erin was up in the cockpit manning the airship, I was assigned Olivir duty, and my strawberry-blond son had never looked so thrilled to be in the aircraft.
The baby cooed with innocent delight as the ship twisted and turned, and his little fists shook up and down excitedly with every movement.
“We should take you on airship rides more often,” I joked as my tiny son reached out and took my finger in his hand.
He squeezed with an adorably excessive grip and giggled when I made a face of discomfort at him.
“Tough guy, huh?” I chuckled, which only made Olivir giggle louder and squeeze tighter. “Keep up this kind of strength, and you’ll be quite the fighter someday.”
I’d made it a point to keep him away from the windows at first, because I wasn’t sure if the sight of rushing clouds and landscaper would cause disorientation or dizziness, and I didn’t want to risk making my son upset or injured, but as I bounced him in my lap, he started to squirm and bobble his little head curiously toward the windows.
“Do you want to look out there?” I asked my son with a slight tilt of my head.
Olivir let out a little garbled noise, almost in agreement, so I shrugged, carefully stood from my seat, and carried him over to the window.
“Where are you going?” Cyra gave me a look of confusion as I crossed the cabin, but all I could do was shrug at the summoner in response.
“Just trying something out,” I replied.
Once we reached the large window, Olivir’s amber eyes grew huge as he peered out at the clouds, and he began to giggle with delight as the ship passed by the white masses of fluff beyond us. His little chubby legs kicked with wild abandon, and the sheer happiness that radiated from the baby could have powered the entire ship on its own.
“Do you like that?” I cooed down at him, and Olivir continued to laugh. The sound was so perfectly infectious I found myself laughing along with him, and once I started, I could hardly stop. “You’re too much, buddy. I’m glad you like the clouds so much. They are pretty cool, aren’t they?”
Olivir bounced in my arms and then reached out for the glass, so I slowly brought him forward enough to touch the cold surface with his tiny fingertips. When his skin made contact with the window, he let out a little gasp that made my heart drop, but then he resumed his high-pitched giggles, and my fear disappeared. Olivir was so fascinated by our surroundings, and I couldn’t help but watch the innocent display with awe.
“Do you see that one there?” I whispered to him as I pointed to a particularly shaped cloud beyond us. “That one almost looks like your kitty pal, Dio. Or at least a poufy white version of him.”
When I looked back down at Olivir, the blond-haired baby gave me a blank look of confusion that cracked me up all over again. He had no fucking clue what I was talking about, but he didn’t care. I gave him my biggest smile, and moments later, his little face exploded with joy once more.
I’d never really given much thought to how babies saw the world, but as I studied my young son and the way his round eyes followed the masses in the sky, I found myself trying to imagine the sky and the airship from his point of view. He had no clue yet what colors, shapes, or temperatures were, and his interactions with the world were so wholesome they almost made me appreciate the beautiful things I often took for granted.
“He really is the son of a pilot,” Cyra chuckled as she came up behind us with Milo in her arms. “I’ve never seen someone look at the sky with that much amazement before. It’s adorable.”
“Captain Olivir Porter has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” I snapped out of my introspection and watched my son’s eyes dart around. “Erin’s going to be pleased when I tell her just how much her son is suited for air travel.”
“She’ll probably sign him up for flying lessons the moment you do,” Cyra joked, and my curly-haired wife and I shared a laugh at that.
“Most likely,” I agreed with her. “But can you imagine him in a little pilot’s outfit? You can’t tell me he wouldn’t be an absolute lady killer in an ensemble like that.”
“He would be.” Cyra nodded, and she reached a finger out and stroked Olivir’s peach-soft cheek. “Isn’t that right, Ollie? Who’s the cutest little baby pilot in the world?”
Olivir cooed at her, and I could tell the dark-skinned summoner was doing her best not to melt.
“It’s so strange how calm he is,” I assessed. “How Erin managed to pass on a love of the sky to our kid is crazy to think about.”
“Lahrra seems to be the same way, though.” Cyra inclined her head toward Freya.
The hawk-princess was holding our daughter up into the air as if she were flying, and Lahrra’s delighted smile took up her entire face. As Freya circled Lahrra around, she cooed at our daughter in the language of the Clans, and the sight of it was far too cute for words.
“Lahrra is part hawk, after all,” I pointed out. “She has even more claim to the skies than Olivir does. It’s in her blood, like magic.”
“Meanwhile, Milo just has a full belly,” Cyra laughed as she carefully stroked our son’s midnight-black curls.
My firstborn son was fast asleep in the summoner’s arms, and judging by the way his lips were parted, he was out hard. A small line of drool formed at the corners of his mouth, but his mother wiped it away before it could drip down his olive cheeks.
“Hey, we’ve already determined Milo is going to be a badass summoner,” I reminded my wife. “His greatness will come one day. For now, he should try to get as much sleep as he can. He won’t have that luxury later when he’s off battling against monsters and trying to win the hearts of pretty mages.”
“I’m more than alright with him being a normal baby for now,” Cyra giggled. “He’s too darn cute to worry about monsters, rifts, and all that stuff. He’ll have plenty of time for that later.”
“Hopefully, rifts won’t be as much of an issue once he’s old enough to have to deal with all that,” I pointed out. “I don’t know if defeating all of the Archons is going to make all of the realm’s problems and hardships fade, but hopefully they’ll at least lessen the threat of random attacks and vengeful deities. Who knows, maybe Mistral will be a safer place for the first time in hundreds of years.”
