Welp here is part two! We get to see some summonings! You guys have no idea how hard some of the imagery was to describe but I think I got it all hammered out. Enjoy!
Vi-Violence... Wow thank you so much! My friend forbade me from writing another. Said her heart couldn't take another one like that.
StarLilly Rose... Glad you have enjoyed all the craziness here is some more!
silverheartlugia2000... Hello to you to! I'm surviving lol. Still here and still writing just been working on Detecting Ladybugs more than this one. Enjoy the new chapter!
Marinette is a clumsy witch with almost no magical power but has high hopes to one day be a certified stitch witch. Her first step towards her goal is summoning a familiar, but the real question is will she survive the test?
Witches Familiar (Part 2)
True to form as soon as the sun rose Marinette's phone was ringing. With a grumble Marinette answered the phone and soon found herself hauling several items to school for Alya. She was also carrying a box filled with fabric for herself to use when she summoned the next day.
"So are you excited?!" Alya squealed shifting a bag so she could see Marinette's face.
"More nervous than excited but at least I don't have long to stew about it." Marinette answered knowing that it was better to tell Alya the truth right from the start. Otherwise she had a habit of pushing till she had a satisfactory answer.
Alya grinned at her friend. "You know you're gonna do great and come tomorrow there will be four of us to create mischief!"
Marinette couldn't help but chuckle refusing to put a damper on her friends enthusiasm. They arrived at school quickly and stored their materials in the appropriate places. Then they went to class which was abuzz with several excited students. Sabrina like Alya was practically vibrating with nervous energy along with two other students. There were plenty of others who were just as excited to see the first summoning's, usually these were filled with a sense of almost stale power and sometimes it led to an odd show of magic. The teachers when asked simply said it was because the magic was left over from the last years summoning and the first people to summon were essentially cleaning the old magic out.
Marinette had a different theory however. They were summoning on the same lines that their ancestors had first summoned on and that magic was imbued deep within the earth at the summoning spot. The first summoning's were calling those magic's back awake and the odd shows was the ancient magic literally sparking back to life. Two years ago she had shifted her vision so she could see the magic there and had been shocked out of her sight. The whole area glowed especially when someone of magical talent was there. What was even stranger was the fact that she could see shapes of people, almost like spirits guiding the casters as they began the summoning. One shape had come to her that year to tap on her nose and Marinette had dropped her vision realizing it was a kind of rebuke from the magical world. Later she had asked her father who had the same vision abilities as her and he had laughed telling her that she had to use her abilities constantly if she wanted the magical spirits to accept her. Apparently when she used her vision- abilities which were passed down from a familiar ancestor- it allowed other things to see her on the magical side. Her father also shared with her that the longer she used her abilities the more familiar the magical world would be with her. Since she hadn't used her vision abilities often up to that point, she practically glowed to others who had the same abilities which made her an oddity. Those that could see like her and her father, usually saw since birth and unlike Marinette they couldn't turn it off. Her father Tom couldn't figure out how she managed it either, but then usually those with human magic didn't have familiar abilities either.
Marinette's magical vision had kicked in around 8 years old and had created quite the scare for her. Since then she rarely used it although once she had talked to her father about it, Marinette decided that she had been misusing it by not using it at all. For the last two years she had been training her magical vision almost constantly and she had found many, many uses for it. One such use was being able to see magical boobie traps set up for pranks or more malicious uses. Alya didn't know about her vision but trusted her completely when Marinette said there were magical boobie traps set. Marinette could always tell who set them too although she could never prove it since magical vision like hers was fairly rare. Usually they were set by Chloe or Sabrina since each person's magic held a different look to it and Alya usually either disabled the traps or moved the trap so it would spring on its owner. Marinette had noticed far less traps set for them in the past years since Chloe got tired of getting hit by her own pranks.
Last year when she had watched the summoning's she had done so with her magical vision active. The spirits there had been intrigued by her presence but they hadn't done anything that time. The summoning's had been far cooler to watch with her magical vision activated and this year Marinette hoped to be able to share it with Alya. She hadn't told Alya about the vision simply because it had never come up but her father had told her since she was using her power more often it would be a fun exercise to try and share the vision with others. He hadn't told her how to do that, leaving her to figure it out on her own and Marinette was really ready to give it a shot. Class went by slowly and at lunch Marinette brought the vision subject up.
"Hey Alya?" Marinette asked as they sat in her room eating some cookies.
Alya glanced up, she was starting to get nervous since her summoning was coming up very soon and she was trying hard not to lose her cool. "What's up Marinette?"
Marinette twisted her fingers, a sight that meant she was nervous or sheepish about something.
"I uh want to try something and I'm not sure it will work but if it does I think you will really like it." Marinette answered
Alya eyed her curiously wondering what in the world Marinette could have in store for her. At this point though, any distraction was a welcome one so she nodded her acceptance. "Ok do we need to be touching or anything?"
It was Marinette's turn to nod and she scooted next to Alya who was happy to lean against her. "Ok I'm going to start. You will be able to tell if it works." Marinette sighed forcing herself to relax against Alya.
Slowly she shifted her energy outwards causing a pink glow to emanate around her within her magical vision. Alyas energy responded in kind without her awareness making her glow an earthy orange color. Little by little Marinette blended their outlying energies together and Marinette shifted her sight to Alya feeling the bond they had pulse at the new layer she was wrapping around them. It had taken two months of trial and error with Tikis help to figure out using a bond was the easiest way to go about it. She and Tiki had a strong old bond but the bond between Alya and Marinette was far stronger. It was over two years ago that she had figured out she had such a bond with Alya and it had made her realize that they used the bond far more than she could have ever expected. Mostly it was an energy balance between the two of them but their bond also carried the shadow of emotions which was how either girl could tell when the other was upset. Several seconds passed and then Alya gasped jerking upright.
"Oh my gosh. Girl, what did you do?" Alya gasped twisting around since she could suddenly see a rainbow of magic's surrounding them.
Marinette wiggled excitedly beside her. "You can see it?!" She whisper screamed and Alya nodded as she looked at her friend gaping rather comically as she saw her glow.
"You're glowing. I'm glowing. And what is this?" she asked reaching for the multicolored thread that seemed to tie them together from their energies.
Her hands passed right through it and Marinette giggled "It's our bond, and this is a power I inherited from my familiar grandparents. I didn't used to use it because it scared me badly when it first activated as a kid. I have been using it though for the past two years and it's finally strong enough for me to share it with people I'm close to."
"This is amazing." Alya whispered "How long can you maintain it?"
Marinette shrugged "I don't know. It doesn't feel like it will take much of an effort to maintain it but I wanted to show you what a summoning looks like since you seem nervous."
Alya chuckled eyeing the multicolored thread between them before reaching down to point at it. "This is our bond isn't it? It's how we can always tell how the other is feeling and how we can always find each other. I mean they always tell us that we form bonds with people and that some can see them but… wow I can see ours!"
Marinette nodded happy that Alya was happy. "It's been there for a really long time. We share our energy through it too a lot of times."
Alya gripped Marinette's hand "Girl this is amazing. Thanks for showing me this and I'm happy that I have a bond with you."
Bonds in the magical world were special and there were more types than stars in the sky. Bonds could be created and broken depending on their type and some bonds could be used like a physical conduit if necessary. Both Alya and Marinette knew that their bond was something special, one that was closer to a sister type bond than simple friends. Only a certain kind of potion could allow people to see bonds normally and it was rare for people to use it since the ingredients were fairly expensive. It also didn't have much of a use in the every day world although police would sometimes use it to help find missing people. Alya's phone went off suddenly and the rainbow of magic's surrounding them shattered.
"Oops." Marinette muttered her brows furrowing in annoyance and Alya laughed.
"Its cool girl. Let's head back to school so we get a good spot to watch Sabrina's summoning. I'm curious to see what she summons. Plus you can show me what it looks like magically. Hey! Is this how you can always see boobie traps and stuff?"
Marinette nodded both girls climbing to their feet. "Yeah I'll show you what one looks like later."
They got to the summoning circle with plenty of time to spare and they found an excellent spot down near the front. After they sat Marinette reached out a hand and Alya took it wondering what she was about to see. Several moments past but far quicker this time she could suddenly see things she never had before. It was like extra lenses had been put on her eyes allowing her to see shimmers, flickers and odd washes of color that winked into and out of existence. Semitransparent things moved here and there as well and Alya flinched as one came past them eyeing her with what seemed like curiosity.
"Um what are the…" Alya started but found she didn't have the proper name for them.
"I call them ghosts or sprites depending on what they do. Some of them are harmless, some of them make trouble and others are kind of like guardians. I don't think they know what to think about us since not many people can use vision like me and papa can. Actually not a ton of people have vision like ours anyways so they aren't used to us at all."
"I think was should call them Shimmers." Alya said stretching out a hand as a small shimmer hovered near them. It came closer landing on Alyas hand for a brief moment before taking off again. Alya frowned after it. "I didn't feel it at all." She murmured rubbing a finger over the spot where it had touched.
"You won't, mostly. Very few Spr- er-Shimmers can actually touch on the physical realm. Most of them don't touch people at all though a few like to feed of the emotions or energy we humans give off. Certain familiars hate the shimmers for that and chase them. That startled a laugh out of Alya as they witnessed a small squirrel familiar stand on its masters head and chatter loudly. The two shimmers that had been slinking close to its human darted away as the man reached up to pull his familiar down. They could hear the man mutter something about behaving since he couldn't see the Shimmers and know what his familiar had been doing.
"Hey isn't that Sabrinas dad?" Marinette asked and Alya snorted
"Huh you're right. I figured he would have something more intimidating than a squirrel as a familiar."
Sabrina appeared a few minutes later rushing to her dad and giving him a hug. To both of their surprise Chloe followed behind sitting next to Sabrina when she finally let her father go.
"So who's up first?" Marinette asked distracting Alya from trying to get a closer look at Chloe who had several shimmers sitting around her. They shifted to avoid contact from Sabrina when she leaned in close and Alya wondered what that meant.
"Um I don't know." Alya answered finally turning her attention back to Chloe. "Sabrina's second and I'm third. I think whoever was supposed to be first switched."
The stands around them gained a few more people although most of them were students and finally a hush began to fall around the room as an odd presence slowly built in the room. Beside Marinette Alya stiffened as before them the floor started gaining a very odd milky white glow.
"The magics are waking up." Marinette whispered as multicolored shapes peeled themselves from the floor. There were seven of them each taking a color from the rainbow with exception to the one that was solid black.
The red one like the last two times when watched swirled to a location near Marinette. Like the last two times Marinette held out a hand and the red brushed past her before swirling away. This time the orange one also swept close making Alya giggle as it brushed past.
"What are they? Did any of the other colors do that?" Alya asked as the two figures swirled back into the circle to join the others. Marinette hadn't seen if the other shapes had gone to anyone since she had been focused on the red and orange ones.
"I don't know what they are. The first time I tried this, the red one came and tapped me on the nose and last year it simply brushed past. I never saw the orange one come near before. I think they represent the magic of the founders though." Marinette answered finally as the circle turned into a rainbow of color.
"Mylene!" an official voice called just as the circles color bled to a white shade then faded back to its normal shading.
Silence echoed through the room until a very small, very shy voice practically whispered "Here…"
A girl emerged from one of the doorways to the floor below and edged slowly to where the summoning lines lay. She hesitated on the edge her body shivering and Alya leaned further into Marinette whispering. "Jeez she's more nervous than you Marinette. I don't recognize her though is she from another class?"
Marinette shrugged "I guess but look at her aura. She has some strong magic and its leaking everywhere."
Alya looked back at the girl and realized Marinette was correct. Mylene's aura was a grey color and it was putting off streamers and sparks as the girl teetered nervously at the edge of the circle. Seeing those sparks Alya suddenly recognized her.
"Marinette she isn't in our class although I recognize her now. She is the one that's always muttering that stinky wolf song and tends to zap people when they get too close." Alya murmured
About to reply Marinette was cut off when the official snapped "Sometime today please!"
Mylene yelped stumbling forwards and her aura flared briefly before swirling back around her the lines of the summoning circle glowing a clear greyish color. Marinette winced at the sight and hissed "Her aura flared when the official surprised her. Most people get zapped when they scare her right?"
Alya nodded watching as Mylene paled when she realized she was in the circle. The girls knees seemed to give out and she sat down rather hard, a slight breeze coming from nowhere and stirring up the arenas floor.
A second stiffer breeze seemed to blow only around Mylene and sand began to sift into existence all of it tinged with the odd grey of Mylenes aura. Within a few moments the large circle was coated with sand intricately pooled in the shape of a summoning circle. Mylene was shaking now but everyone knew that once you were in the circle there was no turning back. So closing her eyes the girl reached forwards pressing her hand to the line and whispered her activation phrase. Marinette and Alya gasped as the floor bunched in the center bright sparks of color seeming to firework off the sand. Within moments the sparking sand pooled inwards solidifying into pebbles, then into larger rocks until what looked like a large stone golem stood in the middle of the circle. Between one breath and the next the light from the magic blew out like a candle and the room fell silent.
"Um… she did use the right spell… right Marinette?" Alya murmured and Marinette nodded.
"It look like one of those living golems, it's definitely a familiar and not just a construction."
As she finished her sentence suddenly the golem like construct bellowed slamming its fists into the ground. The ground sent up a shower of white sparks meaning the fields protections had kicked in.
"Uh oh…" Alya whispered as Mylene crawled forward the lines in the circle glowing bright and the golem turned its featureless face towards her. Bellowing again it slammed its way towards her sending off sparks with every step until it raised its arms up over Mylengs crouched shaking from.
Alya gripped Marinette's hand hard "Its going to kill her!" she whimpered trying to stand and Marinette gripped Alyas hand back keeping her in her seat. Multiple people all over were standing but no one moved knowing there was nothing they could do to interfere. The same field protection spells kept all rouge familiar attacks in, also kept all magic users attacks out.
There was nothing they could do but watch as the fists descended and suddenly Mylene launched herself at the golem her arms snapping around the things middle as far as they could reach. A loud crunch echoed through the room at the golems miss but it quickly righted itself and its fist came down again smacking into Mylene tossing her aside. The girl hit the ground and rolled coming to a stop but to everyone's surprise the Golem froze. Mylene sat up wincing and in her hand she held a blade like feather that was black with red patterns on it. With a frown Mylene spoke a word and the feather turned to dust. Silence filled the room until the golem shifted with a crunch, its own body starting to crumble until only a pile of dust and pebbles seemed to remain. Shakily Mylene stood and walked over to the pile which shivered as she drew near.
"Is she talking to the dirt pile?" Alya wondered
"No the golem is still in there can't you see it?" Marinette asked then realized she had dropped her magical vision with Alya when she forced her to stay in her seat. Quickly rectifying that as Alya settled they watched Mylene crouch down next to the pile before gently brushing dirt aside.
After several moments she pulled back a very small very colorful bejeweled looking Golem held safe in her hands. It flinched away from Mylene as she lifted it up but as she spoke softly to it the golem relaxed and after a long moment nodded. Bringing the Golem up Mylene pressed a kiss to the top of its head and the circle lit up a breeze instantly coming back as it swirled sand around the two of them. Able to see through the sand screen thanks to Marinette's magical vision they witnessed the tiny golem being lifted into the air the magical sand slowly wrapping itself around it forming a new outer shell. Finally there was no more sand and the Golem dropped down to the ground with a loud grumble of stone on stone its size fully restored. The lines winked out around them the bond having been formed and the protections on the circle returning to their dormant state while a tall thin man ran out from one of the openings heading directly for the girl. The golem moved to intercept but Mylene patted its arm and after giving a small shrug the golem shrunk down on itself until it was the same size as its once bejeweled self. Mylene picked up the golem as the man reached her and Alya traced a sign in the air allowing Marinette and her to hear what they said next.
"Papa look isn't Ivan adorable!" Mylene asked holding the golem up for her father to inspect.
A small worried smile flickered on the mans face "My sweet he is right now but he tried to kill you a minute ago."
Mylene shook her head cuddling the newly christened Ivan to her chest. "No papa I summoned him as he was being attacked by some nasty cupids. They were hurting him and that feather I destroyed was making him crazy. He didn't know who I was or where he was until I managed to pull it out and destroy it. He is very grateful to me for helping him and he says he will protect me forever for saving him."
"Ah… um ok then as long as he helps you dear." Her papa answered guiding her away from the circle.
"Well that was exciting." Marinette managed as some cleaners came out to sweep the area clear of any remaining sand and a purifier banished the last traces of Mylenes magic.
Alya nodded feeling rather distracted as the purifier radiated what looked like colorless waves or maybe even heat. The magic didn't really have a color although she could tell it was there because it distorted the air around them.
"Do you think that Mylene will be ok? I mean that golem of hers looked pretty wicked. By the way this seeing magic thing is really useful." Alya said
"I think she will be fine. After all the two of them have a bond now. Do you want to stay for Sabrina's summoning?" Marinette asked noticing how her friend was starting to twitch in her seat.
Alya ducked her head. "I kinda have to stay Marinette. I'm up next."
Marinette nodded and stood pulling Alya to her feet. "Well we have to stay nearby and you do have to check in so let's go do that while Sabrina is summoning."
Alya gave a weak nod following Marinette as she moved down the stands and into its underside. There were hardly any people leaving the stands although a few were still trickling in. Together they moved towards the entrance to the field wandering through the mazelike paths that extended under the stands.
"I hate that this place is needlessly complicated." Alya groused as Sabrina's name was called.
"They built it like this to keep any excess magic from escaping Alya. You know that." Marinette replied
A few moments later a whisper of magic came to life around them and both girls froze in surprise. "That does not feel like Sabrina's magic." Marinette murmured
Alya shivered as the magic passed them by and realized Marinette had dropped her magical sight on her again. "Did you see what that magic looked like?"
Shaking her head Marinette moved forward again. "No I dropped it before we came down here. I didn't think I would need it. Maybe what they say about all the trapped magic down here is true though."
Both girls were silent as they arrived at the check in area and Marinette was able to catch glimpses of an odd battle being waged between Sabrina and some mish mash looking animal.
"Another attacking familiar?" Marinette asked and the official sighed.
"I think this one is getting a feel for her magic rather that attacking to injure. It keeps shifting so it defiantly a changeling of some species. Maybe even a pure type."
"Oh, that will make an interesting companion for Sabrina then since her magic is so varied anyways." Marinette murmured making both the official and Alya glance at her oddly.
Seeing the odd looks Marinette gave a sheepish grin sticking her tongue out at Alya. Sabrina wasn't a very strong caster in terms of power. Instead she simply excelled in using all types of magic equally. In Marinette's mind she was a kind of jack of all trades never majoring in a specific area which allowed her to work with all kinds of people and spells.
As Alya checked herself in Marinette turned her attention back to the battle going on in the circle. The familiar had switched to a water like form and Sabrina switched seamlessly to water magic reaching out to the creature with gentleness rather than a true attack. As the water made contact the familiar gave a trill changing into a solid form about the size of a small dog. Its head was almost dragon like while its body was a mishmash of animal forms and patterns. Marinette identified stripes, fur, claws, and fairly large butterfly like wings on the things back before Sabrina moved towards it. Kneeling down before the odd, what Marinette assumed to be a changeling, Sabrina held out her hand and the changeling snapped at her taking whatever she offered before swallowing it down. The changeling glowed for a few brief seconds shrinking down as the circle matched its coloration then the matching glows winked out leaving a silver squirrel with butterfly wings on the ground before Sabrina. It chittered leaping into Sabrinas hands and Marinette could hear her giggling as it raced up her arm. Turning away Marinette moved back over to Alya who had taken a seat next to the wall.
"Are you ready Alya? Sabrina just finished." Marinette murmured as she sat next to her friend.
Alya nodded determination flaring in her eyes. "I am. I'm just… really nervous. What if I summon a familiar that hates me? What if I have to force it to work with me or something? I really don't want that."
"Well then just ask it once it shows up. Most familiars will let a person know immediately if they want to stay or not. You can summon three times if the first is totally incompatible." Marinette answered patting Alya on the back as Sabrina moved past cuddling her new familiar. It chittered happily at her and Marinette smiled as Alya slumped against her. "Besides Alya even if a familiar tries to attack you it won't get very far with your magic. You're laying your circle in wood aren't you?"
Returning to an upright position Alya nodded pulling out a handful of seeds from her pocket. "Yeah I decided to go with plants since my word magic would take forever to set and I didn't feel like bringing a sheaf's worth of paper out there with me."
Marinette nodded then they both stiffened as Alya's name was called. Getting to their feet Marinette walked to the doorway with her where she stopped since the monitor there was giving her the stink eye.
"I'll be right here Alya. You got this!" Marinette said with a grin as she squeezed Alya's hand.
With a firm nod Alya strode forward to the blank etched circles and Marinette held her breath as she stepped over the lines making them glow a rusty orange color. With a few whispered words Alya tossed something from her hand and Marinette knew they were the seeds she'd shown Marinette minutes ago. For a few short breaths nothing happened and then an explosion of growth swamped the circle weaving together to form the intricate lines of the summoning circle. There were a few gasps from the stands and Marinette grinned since she knew how impressive it looked to anyone seeing it for the first time. Alya was good at several types of magic including illusions and plant magic which made her an interesting foe whenever they practiced battle magic together. Right now though Alya was concentrating fiercely making sure every tendril went to the correct destination. It was done in a few short minutes and the circle was complete. With a few final creaks of wood everything settled and Alya raised her hand whispering a word that made the whole circle light up with blue colored flames. Shifting closer to the edge of the door Marinette held her breath as a pillar of flame danced into existence in the center of the circle. With her magical vision active Marinette could see a humanoid figure take shape in the center. The flames burned brighter as Alya moved forward into the main ring one hand held out and the figure seemed to shrink in on itself the flames dying down until all that was left was an animal that looked like your average dog. If the dog was a creature made of flames and light. Alya froze eyeing the dog oddly then grinned saying "Come here boy!"
The dog barked rushing forward until it was sitting just before Alya. Wiggling in excitement the flame dog reared back on his hind legs tail wagging like mad. Alya caught his waving paws with a laugh not fearing getting burned at all and whispered something in the dogs ears. For brief second the dogs tail stilled as she spoke then burst into movement once more as it nodded. The circle around them glowed shrinking down around and under them until what looked like a collar was all that was left. Dropping the dogs paws Alya picked the collar up to fit it around the dogs neck. The moment the collar snapped into place the dogs flames snuffed out, its coat and shape taking on the coloration and size of a German Shepard.
"So she summoned an odd flame dog." The official sighed looking to their books once more. "Kids these days summon the strangest things."
Marinette glanced at them while hiding her smile. She was fairly certain Alyas new familiar was more than a simple flame dog but she wasn't going to be the one to spill the beans so to speak. Instead Marinette moved out onto the floor catching Alyas eye since she had just turned to walk back to the door.
"Marinette look! Isn't Nino the coolest!" Alya squealed as she got close enough to talk.
Marinette nodded eagerly putting her hand down for Nino to sniff politely at. "Can you talk Nino or are you just an odd fire puppy?"
Nino grinned a very sly dog grin and gave a short bark, his tail wagging.
"Please clear the floor!" a voice called and they all flinched with Nino letting a short growl out.
Taking Alyas hand Marinette pulled her towards the door "Come on! I'm sure your mom is waiting for you now and we need to get your paperwork."
They crossed the threshold Nino close behind and they collected the packet of papers the official had ready for them. Papers in hand Alya pulled Marinette from the room to race through the corridors until they stood outside. Alyas mom and siblings stood waiting for her and Marinette gave her a small push.
"Go introduce Nino we will celebrate together tomorrow ok?" Marinette said making Alya grin and Nino bark again.
"That sounds awesome because you know how my mom likes to celebrate with small family dinners and stuff." Alya grumbled
Marinette grinned at her but gave her another slight push. "Go on and call me later."
"Ok talk to you later girl." Alya answered and headed over to where her family stood.
Marinette watched as Alya introduced Nino to everyone and then they headed off with Nino dancing around them all. With a small smile Marinette headed home hoping beyond hope that when she summoned she got something as nice as a puppy, even if it was a flame puppy.
Once Marinette got home her parents had asked her how the summoning's had gone. Marinette had given them a blow by blow before heading up to her room for the night. To her surprise Tiki was nowhere in sight and even when Marinette called out to her she didn't appear. With a mental shrug Marinette went about her normal evening routine. After doing her homework and getting the last of her items ready Marinette went to sleep knowing that she would need all of her strength for the next day.