The Book Keeper
By TimeAndLife21
Chapter 12
"...um...well, that is quite interesting, Doctor Strange" Anaiah said calmly.
"...Don't say it, I swear to whatever God you worship, don't...say it." He muttered darkly as he looked at what was in front of him.
Anaiah let a huff of breath that sounded surprisingly like laughter, but she composed herself yet again. He could hear his peers in the background chatting.
"Did you see what Strange just summoned?"
"Wow...that's impressive."
"Look at it! Isn't it cute? I wanna pet it"
"You think that is cute?"
"It's a freaking deer...I can't tell whether to be impressed or laugh."
"Look at it's rack! It's a hunter's wet dream!"
"At least he summoned something… the rest of us have been trying to summon animals for a while now...He just managed to get it on the first try...unbelieveable."
"Leave it to Strange to somehow managed to beat us in yet another class, though I think this is much more funnier than he did back when he was making the portals to the library to steal the books."
Yes, it was a summoning Class that Stephen had attended. Mainly because Anaiah was teaching it. He was curious about her teaching (Turns out she wasn't just a Book Keeper even though that is her main job, but like the other Masters i.e: Wong, Hamir, Mordo etc. She was also a Master and thus she taught.) and the classes that she usually teaches is a Summoning Class, Spiritual Magic Classes (reserved for Apprentices who are close to Master Levels), and Weapons Training Classes (Usually reserved for those who would wield bladed weapons, staffs, staves, whips, etc.). She was a rather good teacher now that he has seen her being patient with the students and apprentices.
And...he summoned a deer. A freaking Deer. He was aiming for something more ferocious...like a tiger or a lion, but no...he summoned a damn deer. A large red deer that had an equally impressive large rack of tines and points, but a deer nethertheless. Did he make a mistake when he was doing the procedure? He mimicked Anaiah just fine, just a small amount of blood was used in the summoning ritual. A small drop of blood from the thumb and a few hand symbols that he had managed to make without too much trouble. Then went a yellow and red mandala like symbol appeared in front of him, and then he was to slam the symbol on the ground and the animal should have been able to be summoned from wherever it came from.
He heard a small chuckle from Anaiah and she went up to the animal. The deer didn't look disoriented nor did it seem frightened in its surroundings. It was taking things in stride now that Stephen thought about it. It didn't even look fazed.
"Hello there." She spoke before she came to it's face and blew gently in it.
The Deer blew air back into her face before it it started to nuzzle her head and shoulders. It acted like a pet, when Anaiah was rubbing it's nose, head, and neck. Stephen noticed that its coat was a rather dark red than most red deer, and it had a star-shaped white mark on it's forehead.
"You are an impressive specimen, yes you are. I shall name you...Rannoch." She smiled brightly before turning to the class and Stephen.
"This is an example of a successful summoning. Now, I should have warned you from the beginning, the first animal that you have summoned would correspond with your personality traits. I didn't tell you this because then you would be thinking of what animal would suit you better. I've had previous students who summoned a crocodile, a capybara, an octopus believe it or not, and even a small emperor tamarin monkey. Eventually, you'll be able to summon many different animals when you keep practicing, until then, try to summon your own animal." She explained before the deer butted her shoulder gently with it's head being mindful about its antlers, she petted it as she was speaking to the class.
"Class dismissed, I want you to practice on your own time to work on summoning an animal, come find me if you think you can summon one without much difficulty." She spoke before turning back to the large Red Deer.
Some of his peers patted him on the shoulder and gave him congrats for managing such a difficult spell, others he could tell were bitter that he was able to summon an animal on the first try, and the rest just shrugged and told themselves that they would get there eventually.
When He, Anaiah and the deer was left alone, he spoke up.
"So what, I'm a deer?" He raised an eyebrow.
"The Red Deer is common for certain personality traits." She spoke petting it and then would speak in low tones to it, the ears of the deer would turn toward her voice and it gave a rather happy grunt.
"What personality traits?" He asked, though he might have an idea.
"Well, Red deer are prideful and stubborn, and depending on the Buck or hind in other cases, they are arrogant and pride themselves with the show of their antlers." She smiled slyly to him.
"Funny…"He deadpanned.
She shook her head before continuing.
"But...they are also gentle and will defend those they care about at all costs. They are determined and sure in very difficult situations. They are also diligently aware of their surroundings and adapt to different situations though slowly but surely." She answered before lifting its head high and walked around it, studying it, she waved him over and he did so, minding the large antlers as the deer's head was following his every move.
"Look at this." She pointed to it's side.
Stephen followed the hand and saw that on the deer's side was scarring. Presumably from previous fights that it had. There were similar scars on the other side. But the one that he noticed was a scar that ran down it's left eye. He was surprised that it could still see. The gold eyes that stared at him unnerved him. It stepped forward and stopped in front of him and blew in his face. He coughed at the smell of it.
"Blow back gently in it's face." She instructed. "It's how you can introduce yourself."
He felt silly about it, but he did as she asked. It blew back in his face once again and it raised it's head and it seemed to nod at him.
"Why do I have a feeling that this isn't a normal animal?" He spoke uneasily.
"You could be right…" Anaiah muttered as she petted the deer behind it's ears. "I'll take it to the stables, would you like to stay here, Rannoch?" She spoke to it as if it was intelligent.
The deer, she dubbed Rannoch, turned to her and nodded at her before she took her sash that she had around her waist and used it to create a harness for it's face.
"Well Stephen, congrats of summoning your animal, I have a feeling that he will be staying around her for a while." She smiled at him.
"Joy...I hope I don't have to clean up after him." He spoke sarcastically.
"Well...you summoned him...he's yours." She shot back chuckling as she lead the deer out of the training grounds.
"What?! Anaiah, you're joking...Anaiah? Anaiah!" He shouted after her as she laughed out loud.
By the time dinner came around, everyone has heard of his summoning of an animal. A Red Deer was the animal that popped up. Some of the students and apprentices came up to him and congratulated him on summoning it, others just politely nodded at him, and some had a grudging respect that he summoned an animal in one shot.
"You summoned a deer, Strange?" Mordo chuckled.
"Really, Mordo?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Now, now, You have to admit, that was an achievement. I remember summoning mine." He chuckled.
"You?" Stephen asked.
"Mine was a Black Caimen, a type of crocodile. Now that was a story to tell, it was a bit temperamental, but I was able to send it back to where it came from. I decided summoning animals isn't for me." He chuckled.
He wondered what Anaiah's was.
"What about Anaiah? What was her animal?" He asked subtly.
Mordo paused in his eating before furrowing his brow.
"To be honest, I don't know. She prefers using corporeal spirit magics for her summons. She could summon wolves, horses, snakes, ravens and eagles, those types of animals that she could summon with magic, but physical animals? I haven't seen one from her." He explained.
Perhaps eventually he would find out, but for now, he would slightly be embarrassed and relish in the attention of the fact that he could summon an animal from another place, even if it was a deer, he was proud of the achievement.
Unfortunately, he was given a nickname for the next couple of weeks. "Big Buck Strange." He swore that name would never leave the compound. He even beat a few of his peers in spars to make his point that he didn't like the name. When he saw Anaiah next, she cracked a joke to him about it.
"So when can I get tickets to the show?" She spoke as she bit her bottom lip to halt her laughing.
"What show?" He asked cautiously.
"The show of Big Buck Strange? I'm hoping to get a decent striptease after all this stress of teaching." She bit out before she cracked laughing. "If you can't get back to your career of being a doctor, could you be a chippendale dancer? I'll be your first customer."
"Get over here!" He snapped in jest as he reached out quickly to grab her but she slipped away.
He took off after her when she ran from him getting away from his reach so that she didn't get caught. Her laugh echoed throughout the library and compound and she managed to escape him by going to the very stables that housed Rannoch. She hid behind the deer and he just sighed in defeat.
"Really? That is cheating." He glared at her as best he can.
Rannoch pretty much stood between her and him, and from what it looks like, Rannoch is protecting her from him.
"I'll get you back, one way or another." Stephen pointed at her.
"I'll be ready for it." She smiled at him.
Oh he'll make sure that she won't see it coming, he guarantees it.
TAL21: Okay, this chapter and another chapter that I will be making later on in the night, are humor chapters. I had to figure out just what kind of animal Strange could relate too. Although I wanted his animal to be abstract and strange (no pun intended) like a platypus, a piranha fish, or even an ostrich, but a Red Deer just popped out to me. There was a story in the Archive of him summoning a cow and I was inspired by that...and I laughed about it for a while too. XD Oh and I'll give you a cookie if you can tell me where I got the name Rannoch from. XD So consider this chapter and the next chapter Thanksgiving 'treats' for you guys. :) I have to get off and get my stuff done in real life (ADULTING IS HARD!). Please Leave awesome long and detailed reviews because I love interacting with my readers. I'll do Shout Outs in the next chapter! See you guys later! :D
Question Time!: If you had a chance to watch the 2007 Animated Film Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme, what was it about it that you enjoyed and what elements do you want to see for me to put in here?
KEEP ON READING AND WRITING!
