Chapter 3
Luna stands next to the summoning circle on the floor. She uses a small pocket knife to pierce her middle finger. Blood falls onto the symbols of the circle. Luna puts her finger in her mouth to stop the bleeding.
"Alright Luna. Now focus and pull the words from deep within to summon a demon." Says her Uncle Igor Neuhaus as he stood on the platform in the room above her.
Luna takes a deep breath. "As the moon causes the sea to ebb and flow I invoke thee tiger of the river, Kowatora."
Out from the summoning circle rises a great tsunami wave and riding atop a tiger like humanoid creature. "I hear you call to me. What might I get in return for my service?"
Luna is thrown off guard by the question. She thinks very carefully before giving her reply. "You may have the color of my wolf's fur. Its silvery grey color rivals the waters ripples as it shines in the full moons light."
Kowatora lowers the wave so that he stands in the middle of the summoning circle and is eye level with Luna, he nods his head. "Your description entices me. I accept. From now on I will serve you and I will take the color of your wolf's fur in exchange. May I see my prize?"
Luna nods and calls forth her wolf. She no longer needs blood to do so only a summoning paper. Her wolf puts its paw gently on the summoning paper and howls. "Ryuuuu!"
Kowatora smiles and sends a funnel of water over that washes Luna's wolf's fur from its silvery grey color to snow white.
Luna notices that her hair starts to turn white as well. "Hey, our deal was only for my wolf's fur color! Stop or I will banish you." She shouts angrily to Kowatora.
He is startled by her tone and recoils his water funnel. "I got too excited." He bows. "Only a little of your beautiful silt brown hair color have I taken. Let me have it in exchange for another favor."
Luna's wolf growls. "You think you are smart water demon. I will exchange nothing else. You have already promised to serve me. Now make good on your promise."
He frowns and nods his head. Knowing now she could not be out smarted. A small cloud floats over to Luna and replaces all the color the demon had removed except for a three centimeter strip on either side of her head by her temples.
Luna looks at those strands of hair. "This is not how my hair was." Her tone strict.
Kowatora diverts his eyes. "I cannot return that portion as it is linked to your wolf's fur somehow."
Luna has her wolf tear the summoning paper pulling it back into her chest. She folds her arms and walks up to the summoning circle. "Tell me why I shouldn't banish you now Kowatora. If you cannot keep a simple pact then I will exorcize you right now."
"No!" It falls to one knee. "I promise to come to you and listen as the water crashes upon the shore. Please do not exorcize me."
Luna nods her head unfolding her arms. "Very well I accept your promise you may go now."
Kowatora lowers his body in a bow and vanishes under a title wave in the summoning circle.
She looks to her Uncle Igor. "That was not what I expected at all."
"You did well Luna. I was worried you couldn't be strict enough with that demon for a moment there. The Kowatora are strong water demons."
Luna smiles confidently, "My friends at the cram school have taught me to stand up and take action." Luna looks at the summoning circle. It's been a month since she's left the cram school to be in hiding with her uncle. She wishes she could summon them all to her now, perhaps even Shima if he would leave the Illuminati. She tries and sets her mind back to the task at hand. "Uncle Igor, how many demons can you summon?"
"At a time?"
"No, how many do you have in your repertoire?"
"Four, why?"
"I was wondering what I should strive for."
"Don't worry about that too much. More is not necessarily better. Focus instead on knowing the limits of your familiar or demon and especially your own limits."
Luna nods her head. "I want to try one more today."
Neuhaus looks her up and down. "You look a little peaked maybe we should have some lunch first."
She shakes her head. "I'm fine. I have an incantation that's spinning around in my head that I need to try. Can you help me reset the summoning circle?"
Her Uncle stares at her concerned about her wellbeing. "I will reset the circle right now. You go into the kitchen and make yourself a sandwich to regain some of your stamina. You cannot do a proper summoning in your state." He finally says to her sternly.
Luna sighs heavily. "Fine."
Neuhaus comes down the stairs as Luna walks through the library into the small doorway of the kitchen. The floor boards creek under Luna's feet. She rolls her eyes talking to the floor. "Awe come on, I don't weigh that much!" She walks up to the fridge and opening it leans in. "What kind of sandwich do I want? Hmm..." looking over to the counter she sees a can of sardines. "Mmm...Sardine sandwiches coming up."
Luna grabs the bread, mustard and lettuce out of the fridge. Proceeding to make two sandwiches one for herself and one for her uncle. She takes a big bite of her sandwich as she plates her uncle's sandwich on her way out the door. Back in the summoning room she sees her uncle is drawing the last few symbols on her circle with his giant protractor.
"How's it coming?"
He looks up from his work. "Nearly done."
Luna offers him the plate. "I made you a sandwich too. You like sardines right?"
"Yes, I do. Hang on a second." He puts the finishing touches on the last symbol. "There we are." He takes his sandwich from her. "What kind of sandwich did you make yourself?"
Luna opens her sandwich showing him the contents.
"I thought you hated sardines." He says to her as he takes a bite of his sandwich.
Luna looks at her sandwich. "Yeah, normally I would avoid them, but it just sounded so good."
"Sometimes that will happen with summons. There was a guy back in America that could summon a salamander and every time he did he would crave barbecue afterwards."
Luna smiles and swallows the last bit of her sandwich. "That's kind of funny. I wonder what Kamiki craves after summoning her foxes and Shiemi after her greenman, or Suguro..." Luna becomes quiet and her happy energy is zapped away as she thinks about her friends again. "I don't think I'm up for doing another summoning right now Uncle Igor. I'm going to lay down for a bit."
He looks at her face. "Are you okay Luna?"
She nods her head and walks to her room.
