Family 1.3
Coughing, Taylor waved her arms frantically trying to dispel the smoke that she was coming to link with a summoning.
What did Gamakichi say? They were going to his home?
Looking around wildly, orient herself through the thinning smoke. She couldn't see but already she knew with an utter certainty that they were no longer in her room.
"Gamakichi! Where the hell did you… take me?" Her frantic shout stalled mid-sentence as the smoke finally dissipated enough to allow the neophyte summoner to take in her surroundings.
She found herself momentarily speechless.
It was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen. The sky was a majestic azure, interrupted intermittently by wisps of cloud and the beaming sunlight. Truly massive foliage colored a deep verdant green. She'd never seen anything like it anywhere in Brockton. She could hear the rushing waves of a waterfall in the distance as they crashed against the rocks.
Spinning in a circle with wide eyes in a desperate attempt to take it all in she was met with a truly massive mountain. It was epic in scale and dotted with trees across its entire surface. The colossal feature dominated the surroundings, the mighty stone piercing the surrounding forest and reaching towards the sky, tall enough that it almost seemed like it could grasp the sun if it so chose. It lent an air of unyielding and uncompromising strength and pride to the otherwise serene and enchanting nature.
Taylor hadn't realized she was holding her breath until she let it out with a whoosh at the sight of the mountain.
Gasping in a bid to reclaim lost oxygen, she almost choked in surprise as she breathed in the purest air she'd ever experienced. She couldn't describe it with words, but she felt revitalized with each subsequent breath.
Aches that had persisted from the locker eased. The dull headache that had lingered, throbbing behind her right eye since she'd woken up in the hospital lessened. She even felt more energized. As if she could run a mile, when earlier that day she'd struggled to find the motivation to get up and go to the bathroom. For the first time in a long time, Taylor felt like she could truly breathe.
Loud laughter to her left interrupted her musings. Taylor jumped slightly, startled at the sound. She found herself looking over at Gamakichi who seemed a combination of amused and exceedingly proud of her reaction to his home.
"It's really something isn't it, hey kid?"
Taylor couldn't work up any indignation at being called kid simply nodding slowly in agreement. Gamakichi wasn't wrong after all. It really was something, even if that was hardly an adequate description for the veritable paradise she'd somehow managed to find herself in.
The orange toad let out another hearty laugh eyes alight with pride at the effect his sacred home had on the young human.
"Alright then, better hop on"
…
What.
Taylor looked at the toad to make sure she'd heard correctly. The toad merely looked back at her expectantly.
Apparently, she had.
"You want me to ride you?"
Taylor couldn't contain the doubt in her voice. She didn't really try too truthfully.
First of all, it was embarrassing, she could walk after all. But secondly, and by far to Taylor the most important point, was that frog or toad, they shared something in common. They both hopped.
Gamakichi was maybe a little over 6 feet in height. It didn't take a genius to realize that a hop from a creature like him would be absolutely massive when compared to a normal toad. Riding on him while that occurred. Well, it didn't seem wise. She'd just left the hospital earlier that day and was in no way looking to go back anytime soon.
He seemed to understand her worries given the way he was snickering at her.
"Don't worry" he assured the cautious, and now slightly irritated girl after he got his laughter under control, "it's a lot easier than it seems. Our summoners ride on our backs for travel or during fights" he explained as he stubbed out his finished cigarette. "Besides," he said with a grin, "do you really wanna walk to the top of the mountain?"
Mechanically she turned her gaze back up to the massive mountain.
Taylor would ride the toad.
Awkwardly making her way up his back, continuing when he nodded in assent at her hesitance she clambered into a kneeling position. It was much less precarious than she would have thought it'd be.
"Great! Now let's go" and with a powerful leap, Gamakichi soared.
It was all Taylor could do to strangle a scream at the quick lift off. By the second leap, she'd manage to stifle it completely. By the fifth leap, she surprised herself by laughing.
Gamakichi grinned in satisfaction as he heard his new summoner's laughter ring across the valley of Mount Myoboku. Grunting slightly as he executed an especially high jump eliciting a startled gasp from the rail-thin girl. He hadn't known her long, but he could tell it had been a while since she'd laughed. A familiar smugness filled him. Toads were the best.
Taylor couldn't think of the last time she'd had so much fun. The last time she'd felt safe enough to laugh so freely.
She did her best not to dwell on how depressing it was that it'd taken her being summoned to some sort of different… world, or dimension? Whatever this was for her to feel at peace enough to let herself go like this. She hadn't laughed like this since before her mother had died.
It was hard to describe, the newest summoner mused as the made their way up the mountain with incredible speed. She'd seen posts of flying capes on the PHO as they answered questions on what it was like to fly. A sense of complete freedom of movement. Alternatively freeing and almost zen when leaving the world far behind them on the ground. And exhilarating as they performed some aerial maneuver. The capes who answered such questions often struggled to describe it. A common theme, however, was the feeling of absolute freedom.
Toad travel was nothing like that. It wasn't freeing because it wasn't Taylor making the movement. It was an exercise of complete trust, her fate was in the hands of Gamakichi. The toad she'd known for barely an hour. The thought alone should have caused Taylor to balk. She hadn't been given much of a reason to trust anyone lately. Quite the opposite in fact.
Nonetheless, Taylor felt herself trusting the orange toad whom she'd summoned. Maybe it was because she'd summoned it with her power. Because his existence was the ultimate proof that she was, in fact, a cape. That something worthwhile had come out of the worst day of her life. Maybe she was simply desperate. She didn't know really, but the normally cautious girl decided to go with it. For the first time since Emma, she decided to trust someone.
She felt her heart leap to her throat. Taylor couldn't decide if that was from that thought or if it was from reaching the apex of another giant leap. That was another way this differed entirely from flying, or at least as described on the PHO. There was absolutely no sense of control in her movement. After Gamakichi leaped through the air they were both subject to gravity. They couldn't change direction in mid-air the same way someone like Aegis or Laserdream might.
It was absolutely incredible.
They were really moving at an intense speed. Even for his size, it was unreal how much ground the powerful jumps from the giant toad ate up. They were almost a quarter of the way up the mountain already. Taylor found herself struggling not to gape like an oaf as she was finally able to overcome the effects of their travel method and take in her surroundings. There were toads everywhere.
They varied in size from slightly larger than a regular toad to even larger than Gamakichi. They were all different colors as well. Purples, reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, and more. Most adorned with weapons of some sort gazing back at her in equal surprise. From what little she could see of their expressions as they whipped past none of them had any negative expression. They seemed mostly surprised and curious.
Some were even welcoming.
Taylor found herself waving bemusedly back at what appeared to be a dark green baby toad with yellow markings sitting on top of its much larger parent's? head.
Was this really her life?
It felt like a dream. Or maybe a bad trip given the absolute strangeness of the events from the past half hour.
Taylor jolted as she realized that Gamakichi was talking to her. They were about halfway up the mountain now and he was explaining who they were meeting.
Apparently, his father was the "Boss Toad" going by the name of Gamabunta. He cheerfully assured the smaller girl that he was a bit of a grump but was generally a softie when it came to the clan and their summoners. Though, he was quick to assure her he was also a mighty warrior. She noted he seemed incredibly proud of his father.
If he was proud of his father then he was exceedingly respectful as he talked about the elder toads. Fukusaku and his wife Shima. Taylor did her best to absorb the fact that these toads apparently married as he explained that they were honored elders and both incredibly powerful and wise.
"Wait, over eight hundred years old?" Taylor couldn't hide her disbelief.
"Yep, they're some of the oldest and wisest summons around" Gamakichi boasted.
Shaking her head incredulously, she did her best to ignore that and focus on what he was saying. Apparently, they would be her best shot to help figure out what was going on. How she was their summoner without having signed a contract.
Taylor still wasn't sure what a bit of legalese had to do with her cape power or toads but she deferred to Gamakichi's experience when it came to all of this strangeness.
They would also decide on her future as their summoner.
Taylor felt trepidation rise with that knowledge. Could they make it so that she wasn't their summoner anymore?
They couldn't, this was her power right?
She couldn't be sure, but if anything was clear out of this it was that her power was very unusual. She couldn't rule out the possibility that these Toads could somehow stop her from accessing her power. The thought had her frightened her more than anything else that happened today. The possibility of discovering her power only to have it taken away. It would be awful.
The prospective summoner was shaken out of her worrying as Gamakichi stopped moving.
Ejected from her thoughts, Taylor looked around and realized they were near the top of the mountain. How had she missed it? The air was definitely thinner up here.
She got off the toad stiffly, legs having fallen asleep at some point during the ride as she stared at the gigantic hole in the mountain. Were they meeting the toads in a cave?
She jolted as she realized that Gamakichi had gone ahead of her. Running after the toad, she followed him into the cave. Taylor did her best to focus and pay attention to what was happening, chiding herself for getting lost in her thoughts. She wasn't normally so flaky. Taylor wasn't exactly sure what was going on but some instinct made her certain that there was no room for error with whatever was going to happen next. She would have time for reflection after she got her answers.
Calling it a cave she quickly realized as she walked behind Gamakichi was something of a disservice. Hundreds, maybe thousands of torches lined the walls of the inside of the mountain showing just how large the area was. The dim light stretched farther than she could see. It was like half of the massive mountain was hollow. There were natural springs in which toads were bathing and ramps that lead up or down to different levels in the mountain. She stumbled into a stop as a hoard of regular sized toads scrambled across the path she was walking, croaking and shouting in a chaotic joyful maelstrom of movement and noise. Taylor lengthened her stride to catch up to Gamakichi who hadn't given the smaller toads a second thought as he continued, his purposeful movements assuring her that they weren't about to get lost. She suspected that she could explore this place for a week and not see all there was to offer.
The only thing she could compare it to was when her mother had read The Hobbit to her as a child. It was like seeing the home of the dwarves. The mighty halls of Erebor, complex and endless, stretching and winding for who knows how long. Only instead of gold and silver, this place was resplendent with nature.
It was incredible.
She followed the toad through a massive archway that led to a more private area. There were no more random toads anyways. The sound of the toads they'd passed faded as they went further in. It was very dark, none of the torches were lit. Taylor squinted as she looked around unable to make out anything aside from a massive shape in the middle of the room.
A statue of some sort?
Her examination was interrupted by Gamakichi.
"Heya pops how's it going? I brought the new summoner to meet you and the elders."
Pops? Who was he talking too?
As if in answer to her thoughts a large ember high in the air flared to life. It illuminated the large mound she'd mistaken for a statue.
She felt her eyes widen and mouth go dry as she took in the massive, scarred face, of what appeared to be a gigantic toad. Idly she noticed that the ember of light had come from a truly humongous pipe.
It seemed smoking ran in the family she thought a bit hysterically.
As the massive toad exhaled, the fire died down and a torrent of smoke came from the toad's lips. A single ember from his pipe leaped through the air and darted to the wall as if magnetized. It ignited an oil of some sort that was held in a ridge on the wall.
As the flame spiraled around the cavern, it lit up the space so that she was able to get a better view of what was the largest toad she'd ever seen in her life. The largest anything really. Taylor tried to come up with a coherent thought but found herself unable.
Apparently when talking about how awesome his father was in battle, how skilled he was with a blade, how powerful his justsu whatever those were, somewhere along the line Gamakichi forgot to mention that his father was the size of an endbringer.
Bigger even. At least of a size with Behemoth.
Holy shit.
"Hello son"
Its voice was just as big as it was. It rumbled like thunder throughout the cavern. Nearly akin to a physical force and Taylor did her best to stand tall in the face of the incredible sound.
Taylor finally managed a rational thought. Unfortunately, it wasn't at all helpful.
Was this really her life?
