NOTE: This peice of wonderful writing is from Shadowblade, not cookie, because she doesn't care about Bartimaeus, which I find sort of mean. Anyways, this is my first story, and I'll be adding chapters whenever I get the chance. Chances will come very rarely for me because I am going of vacation in two weeks(Dec 12 to 19) and because my science/math teacher is being a bum and giving our class projects so close to the winter break. Cookie agrees very much with the statement about my math/science teacher. Well, read, review and let me know about any errors I made!

A BARTIMAEUS STORY

CHAPTER 1

I had no clue what I was doing. I read the texts over and over, I drew the pentacle exactly like the picture, and I memorized ways to get the djinni to do what I needed. But I was still nervous. If I screwed this up, I'd be dead, considering I was summoning a 5015+ year old djinni named Bartimaeus of Uruk. I stood in the centre of the pentacle, then realizing I was wasting time, spoke the words of summoning.
I felt the room go hot, then cold, then back to normal, then, I saw a young, handsome boy, about my age, with curly dark hair, yellow eyes, and huge, white, feathered butterfly wings, in the opposite pentacle.
The boy yawned. "Can you make this quick? I was in the middle of a century long nap," he said.
Well now I knew that I summoned the right spirit.

"Uh," I started, "I need you to-" he cut me off.

"I need you to do this, I need you to do that. That's all you magicians ever say. No 'Oh, would you be a dear and go-' or 'please, dear spirit, would you-'. You always had your needs." He crossed his arms.

I ran a hand through my dark hair. "Okay fine," I said. I made my voice high pitched. "Dear Bartimaeus, would you be so kind as to as to slaughter your friend Nimshik?"

He blinked. "Not now, not EVER, has Nimshik been my friend. But yes, I'll slaughter him. And if you don't mind me asking, why?"

I really didn't want to tell him. It was so embarrassing. But if I wanted this job done, I had no choice. "Well, Nimshik, was, well, how do I say this? Uh, he, oh dear gods, he tried to um, kiss, me." That was the most difficult thing I have ever had to say. Ever.

Bartimaeus looked as if he was going to throw up, and I felt the same.

"What is WRONG with that djinni? Hitting on a HUMAN? That's low, even for him. I haven't even stooped that low. Just how desperate can one get?" he shook his head, letting a curtain of curls hide his face.

Bartimaeus continued on like this for some time, while I started my plan. He turned around in his pentacle and faced my wall of posters, while I inched my way to the back of my pentacle, where I slipped my left foot outside.

He was asking pointless questions, then stopped suddenly, then continued. He'd noticed that I wasn't fully in my pentacle. All the bonds holding him had broken. My life was in danger.

But the thing is, even though I don't know him, I trust him. So, hopefully, I won't be his next meal.

He turned around slowly, then, faster than I could blink, he was beside me, in my pentacle. I gasped.

He smelled like lime, rosewood and brimstone. Just like the books said he would. He was taller than me by a few inches. I dipped my head down, avoiding his eyes.

He put a finger under my chin, and made me look at him.

His eyes had gone from yellow, to an inky black, like the night sky, and the more I looked, the more I saw. I saw layers upon layers of darkness. And it was beautiful. His face was two inches from mine. Close enough to bite my head off.

"You did that on purpose didn't you?" he asked, his voice was as inky as his eyes.

I nodded as best as I could.

"Why?" he asked, his voice the same.

I didn't want to tell him what I thought, that I trusted him, that I trusted any spirit anywhere. I wasn't a magician, I was just a person who'd read a book or two about spirits and magicians and gotten over curious.

But I had to answer. I said, "Well I wanted to see, if, you, were, different, from other spirits." My voice came out soft and high pitched, which was not what I needed.

Flecks of silver appeared in his eyes, making them more beautiful than before. They looked like a starry night. He asked, "And what have you learned from this experience?"

I wanted to say that you have pretty eyes or that he smelled good but instead I said, "That other djinn won't be as generous as you?" I felt blood rush to my cheeks as I said that.

He smiled, and that made more blood rush to my face. "How about you tell me where that little incident with Nimshik happened? I'll fix it, then we can continue this conversation."

He took my hand and told me to lead the way.