This is the first time I've ever actually sat down and wrote something that wasn't for schoolwork. I'm actually somewhat apprehensive to put this out for people to see, but i also don't want to keep it alone, rotting in a corner of my hard drive. Please review. Even critiques are welcome, assuming they are constructive and preferably legible.
Her summoning went exactly as the surrounding students expected. Although the chant was strange, to say the least, the end result as, as always, an explosion. The cloud of smoke hung thickly in the air, obscuring the runes Louise had drawn into the ground. The only thing still visible was a short, petite, and surprisingly pink-haired girl, with an expression of despair across her face, if one could see past the soot covering the entirety of the front of her body. The smoke quickly began to blow away, revealing another; A tall, middle-aged man, his head completely devoid of any semblance of hair. He was remarkably untouched, given the size of the explosion that blew all the nearby students onto their backs, only a few still entirely conscious. Breaking the painful silence, the pink-haired girl spoke, in a frightened tone.
"Please let me try again, Mr. Colbert!"
The bald man, Mr. Colbert, looked at her sadly, and began to shake his head. "I'm afraid I cannot allow that, Ms. Vallière. The Springtime Summoning Ritual is a sacred ritual. I cannot change what has been in place for millennia."
"Please, Mr. Colbert, just one more ti-"
She stopped mid sentence, interrupted by a strange sound, coming from the center of the smoke, where her most powerful explosion to date took place. A hauntingly beautiful tone, one that no human, mage or otherwise, could ever hope to recreate. Another student, a small, quiet looking girl with similarly striking blue hair, cast a simple spell, for her at least, one to gently blow away the smoke.
And there it was. a floating orb, made of what appeared to the students groggily awakening from their forced slumber to be the stars itself. It was almost completely transparent, the only opaque parts of it being where the light it appeared to be made out of was the brightest. Several ghostly tendrils spread out from the central, spherical body; some of which stuck rigidly out, with smaller spheres attached to them, and others, flowing slowly in a nonexistent wind. The beautiful orchestra it somehow emanated came slowly to a close, as another sound began to play.
The gathered students stood, shocked, as smaller wisps of light began to split from the original, spinning lazily around the host sphere. They hugged the central body closely, pulsing outwards slowly as one of the awoken students, a fop of a man, with curly blonde hair and a shirt akin to one worn by a bullfighter and a bronze rose in his hand, gathered enough wits to try to approach it.
The wisp's response was unexpected. The orbiting spirits began to spin further and further away, gaining speed as they did so. The boy reached out to touch one of the spirits, which promptly exploded and violently threw him backwards. He crashed into the dirt, once again soundly unconscious. All those in a state coherent enough to see this flinched as he hit the ground, all but two. The pink-haired girl Louise, who had been standing motionless with a shocked expression on her face since the smoke was cleared, and Mr. Colbert, the professor, who quickly pushed the unresponsive Vallière behind him.
The spirit started glowing a menacing yellow, as it began to gather energy in the direction facing Colbert, and just as suddenly stopped, returning to a gentle blue. It slowly approached Colbert, who scrambled to prepare a spell to defend the shell shocked girl behind him, as one of the rigid tendrils thickened and launched itself at his torso. He dodged away, only realizing that he had just thrown Louise into the line of fire, cursing quietly under his breath. The girl in question suddenly realized the predicament she was in, and her eyes widened, then closed tightly as the tendril connected with her chest, only to feel-
Peace?
Knowledge flowed through the tether, and realization quickly followed. She had done much more than summon an angry wisp. She had summoned something big. something glorious. something monstrous. The twinkling of a divine eye, a manifestation of the air she breathes, the ground she walks upon, and the very stars she looks up to at night. The tones she had heard from within the smoke started to make sense to her. They were sounds of curiosity, followed by apprehension. It was afraid it would have to harm these curious humans, seeped in so much magic, yet completely devoid of any of the corruption the Ancients had spread across its original home.
Colbert quickly got up while this information was being given to the girl, at first starting to cast a spell to destroy the wisp and break the tether, but quickly realized that Louise was completely unharmed. He frantically cancelled the spell, lest he anger the wisp again, and curiously watched as the Vallière girl finished the summoning contract on the now docile spirit.
"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; bless this humble being and make… it... my familiar."
Runes began to appear in a burning light on the surface of the wisp, only to disappear shortly after. She panicked, but quickly calmed as the spirit sent a pulse of reassurance through the still-connected tether. It seemed to notice something, and flashed the alarming yellow once again, only to cease just as quickly. After this strange event, Louise felt a strange feeling, as if her skin was crawling across her body, and her mind feeling less tired and more refreshed. She looked down at her arms to see the small cuts she had gained from the original explosion were slowly patching themselves back together. She could feel more reassurance from the tether connecting her to the spirit, as it slowly shrunk and faded to its original size, protruding rigidly from the sprite, a small ball of light spinning lazily at the end.
She began to look around, nothing the shocked expressions of the now fully-awakened students gathered in a circle around her smugly. Of particular glee to her was the shocked expression of a certain red-haired and dark-skinned woman standing near the front of the crowd, her mouth wide open in an O shape, as if trying to do her best expression of a fish stuck on the end of a dock, out of the water it calls its home.
"Not so much of a Zero now, am I?!"