Plei was still dazed, pumped full of adrenaline, and confused. But somehow, the girl found herself being led to the village she had seen earlier by the Sparkmage. The woman had, perhaps, not shut up since they had begun walking.

"Well, Sparkmage isn't quite correct." she rambled. "But really, I'm just an apprentice. My apprenticeship is almost over, though. And I'm obviously strong enough to be a fully-fledged Sparkmage, don't you think?"

Plei didn't answer. She still didn't know where she was and she had no idea how to judge whether or not someone should stay an apprentice here or not. But her silence attracted the Sparkmage's attention.

"Something wrong?" Then she smiled suddenly. "Oh! You're not used to seeing a minotaur, are you?"

Plei tried to shake her head, but Laurie just kept talking.

"Mind you, that was a Ruinous Minotaur, so I don't expect you would have been able to beat it. What were you doing out there, anyways?"

Plei shrugged. She had no clue how she had gotten there; in fact, she wished she did know. It might have made things a lot easier.

"Oh, well…" Laurie looked at her suspiciously for a time. And then her face lit up as an idea suddenly struck her. Plei wished it actually had. "What's your name? Sorry, so rude of me not to ask."

"Pleisorium. But call me Plei."

"Pleisorium?"

"Yeah. Like the element."

Laurie gave Plei a strange look. "Element? You mean there are more than just Fire, Earth, Water, and Air?"

Plei sighed.

"Wrong element. I'm talking on the atomic level."

"Atomic level?"

Plei gave up. The Sparkmage obviously had no idea what she was talking about.

The two made it to the village fairly quickly. No creature seemed eager to attack with the Sparkmage walking by Plei. Figuring Plei was completely lost- and she was- the woman directed Plei to an inn and sat down at a table.

The barman greeted Laurie with familiarity and took her order. Plei was beginning to find it annoying how the Sparkmage just did everything without asking Plei; Laurie had ordered for her. Still, Plei was too lost and nervous to really assert herself.

The good news was that Plei was regaining control. She was calmer, her breathing more relaxed. Also, Plei's brain seemed to have unlocked.

Ok, what did she know? Her mother had been running from something all her life. Whether Plei was involved before or had just gotten involved recently was uncertain, but that minotaur definitely seemed to recognize her. Then Plei had somehow jumped to another world. She knew this because of what Laurie had said earlier. You'd have to be really thick in Plei's world to not know what atoms were.

But what would she do now?

"Hey. Hey! Plei!" Lauri yelled, looking annoyed.

Plei jerked out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"I was talking to you."

'I bet.' Plei thought.

"I was wondering how you got out there. Didn't you know it's dangerous?"

"Of course I knew. Why do you think I was so jumpy?"

"All I saw was you getting punched, personally."

"Thanks for saving me, by the way." Plei said, just remembering that she owed thanks.

"No problem." Laurie said smugly. "So why were you out there?"

Plei told the Sparkmage Apprentice what had happened. She told her about the minotaur, waking up beneath the mountain, and then the other minotaur. She even mentioned a few unneeded things as well, like her mother's necklace.

"Oh, so that's what's in your hand." Laurie said, a look of interest still on her face.

Plei was confused. She looked down and was startled to find her mother's locket gripped tightly in her right hand. Very faintly, Plei remembered grasping the necklace's chain as she had reached for her mother's hand.

"Excuse me." said a silky voice that somehow made the hair on Plei's neck stand up. "Is that your youngling, Sparkmage?"

Plei and Laurie looked to see a beautiful woman in a black dress. She was eyeing Plei hungrily, and it made Plei shiver as she put on her mother's necklace.

"Go away, vampire. If you don't, I'll turn you to ashes." The venom in her voice surprised Plei. When Laurie caught sight of Plei's expression- after the vampire had left- she shrugged. "I'm not a big fan of vampires."

Laurie paid for one night so that Plei would have a proper place to sleep. Because the day had exhausted her, Plei fell asleep on the bed without pulling the blankets over her.

The moonlight barely lit Plei's room through the wooden shutters. The night was so deep that not even the lamps in the inn were properly lit. Plei turned in her sleep, her hand upon her mother's locket.

The door opened slowly and quietly, allowing the tall, beautiful vampire to pass. When she closed the door, her eyes glowed red in the dark.

"Ah, how long it's been since I've fed from a Planeswalker. How sweet your blood will be."

Gracefully, the vampire approached the bedside. Plei turned in her sleep again, her brow furrowed.

"Take solace in the fact that your sweet blood will sustain me for years."

The hair was moved from Plei's neck. The woman leaned down, her fangs growing. A faint glow emitted from Plei, who looked like she was concentrating.

Something collided with the wall of the inn. The vampire jerked upwards, and then turned to look towards the window. Opening it, the vampire hissed irritably as light flooded into the room.

Plei woke up and flinched. Through the light, she saw the dark form of the creepy vampire. By now, Plei didn't need to ask. The girl leapt off her bed and bolted from the room.

The vampire whirled away from the creature that was glaring at her through the window. Cursing, she chased after the girl.

Plei thundered down the steps to the ground floor of the inn. She saw the inn's owner run out of the back, looking startled, but Plei could feel the coldness of the vampire behind her, so she darted for the door. The door opened with a harsh shove- but then Plei felt the vampire tackle her to the ground. The two scuffled for a couple of moments, the vampire trying to bite her, Plei doing what she could to stop her.

Then, suddenly, Plei and the vampire were lifted up into the air. The vampire let go of Plei, preoccupied with whatever had grabbed her. Plei landed roughly and turned to see what happened.

A glowing griffin had grabbed the vampire and was now throwing her into a pile of abandoned lumber. With a powerful stroke of wings, the griffin turned gracefully to land in front of Plei. Plei backed up quickly, afraid of the beast. The thing looked sad at this and made a soft noise.

The movement down the street snapped Plei out of her surprise. She stood up. The vampire girl had climbed her way out of the lumber and was now pelting down the street.

The griffin barely gave Plei any time to act. With its wing, it pushed Plei towards its back. Getting the idea, Plei scrambled on top of the griffin and the two took off. Plei was plastered onto the griffin's feathers while they rose upwards. Finally, it leveled off and Plei was allowed to sit up.

The view was beautiful. The oddly shaped mountain and the village were both cloaked in moonlight, their formerly golden appearance now a pale white. Plei couldn't see the vampire anymore. Suddenly, she felt a rush of gratitude towards the griffin.

"Thank you." Plei called into the wind. She was unsure if a griffin could talk, but thought she could hear a small trill from it.

Morning found Plei sleeping. She pushed herself off the griffin's neck. A fond remembrance of last night's escape made Plei smile, but a sudden lurch in the Griffin's flight alerted her.

The griffin backstroked, a sharp cry shattering the still morning air. In front of both griffin and girl was a huge creature. It had purple skin and a muscular body with what seemed to be tentacles for legs. The being's form reached to the sky, it seemed.

Startled, the griffin turned sharply and began to fly away. The creature turned its head, which bore no face, and stretched out a hand to grasp at the flying pair. Plei didn't want to get caught, but she wanted the griffin to get caught less. After all, it had helped her stay a live. As if sensing her thoughts, the griffin gave a thankful noise- and disappeared with a flash of light.

The girl didn't even have enough time to gasp before she began falling. Screaming and with the giant hand still reaching towards her, blind panic consumed Plei's mind.

Heavily, Plei hit something. She kept her eyes closed, convinced that she had hit the ground and was going to die soon. Then she realized that the wind was blowing against her face. Plei opened her eyes just as she felt a crackling energy spread over her.

Now Plei gasped. It was huge- she could feel this place had no boundaries. The very air crackled with immeasurable energy. Islands of earth floated in the air, not conforming to any set of physics. There were different colors everywhere in this expanse of black, and lightning, golden in color, struck in the distance.

Plei blinked and it was gone. What was more, she just realized she was on the back of an armored drake, and they were now flying above a forest.

Cards Used: Child of Night, Makindi Griffin, Ulamog's Crusher, Snapping Drake, and Forest (Glen Angus)

Shieb: Wow. This chapter is even shorter than the last one. Sorry about that. By this time, I was still trying to figure out what kind of story to make out of the cards I was given, and so the five cards drawn became sort of just a random series of events to give me time. As I add things to the story, the chapters will get longer and more complicated, so rest assured.

Gah! Why didn't anyone tell me my second and third chapters had been replaced with the second and third chapters from a different story?

P.S. Can you figure out why this chapter's title is 'The Summoning?'