Being a Summoner on our Evolved Earth

Here comes the rain (25)

Lucia walked for hours towards the side of the mountain that continued up into the darkening sky. She needed to find a cave since she had a feeling it was going to rain tonight. She focused her mind only on moving forward to find shelter; she kept herself from thinking about her familiars, so she wouldn't break down in regret and loss. It was around sunset that she finally found a cave at the edge of the forest. She didn't know how deep into the forest she had gone, but she finally thought to summon a familiar.

"[Summon Vicki]" Lucia watched the magic circles spinning blankly. When A lizard a bit bigger than a horse appeared with shiny orange scales, only then was she roused from her clouded mind. "Vicki?"

"Yes? Where is Aegis and Arthur?" Vicki answered while looking around curiously. Lucia tried to answer, but she wasn't able to get the words out. Vicki noticed Lucia's silence and her depressed mood and started to feel worried.

"In order to save Arthur, I had to fuse Aegis and Arthur together. Arthur was falling off the cliff we were climbing, I can only heal the living... I didn't think Arthur would survive the fall..." Lucia felt Vicki's growing worry and finally worked up the courage to explain.

"I see. I'm sure you made the best choice in that situation, but how did Arthur fall off the cliff?" Vicki didn't get to know Arthur as well as Aegis did since they were taking turns being outside, so she didn't feel much loss unlike Lucia.

"We were being assaulted by a pair of third evolution deer," Lucia brought out the two corpses from her space. "They kept ensnaring Aegis and could block my main attack. In the time it took me to distract, and dispel, they would already reapply the cage spell. Arthur volunteered to climb up and distract them, but after he got their attention they kicked him off the cliff..." Lucia explained what she knew.

"Annoying flies!" Vicki hissed while glaring at the deer corpses. "A pair of bullies is what they were. Now they are food."

"Rather than that, congrats on reaching your fourth evolution. You are so tall now." Lucia walked up and patted Vicki's scales on her neck.

"Oh yeah, didn't you get cursed with scales? What happened?" Vicki finally remembered.

"One of the deer could lift the curse. Let's deal with these though, I think it is going to rain tonight." Lucia changed the subject. Vicki helped Lucia with bleeding the deer corpses a distance from the cave, then as it was getting dark, she put them back in her space to finish dealing with tomorrow. Entering the cave, it looked clear of any nests or weird smells. Lucia hesitated to make a fire, it was already dark and she didn't collect kindling to burn a fire all night. Suddenly, a gentle fire glow lit up the cave. Lucia looked for the source and saw that Vicki had lit up a fire on her tail that had circled around to rest a couple feet from her own feet.

"You didn't make a campfire tonight, but it feels colder up here. Is it alright for me to replace the fire tonight?" Vicki asked with a caring tone.

"Yes, thanks. I was absent minded on the way here so not gathering fuel for it is my fault. Thankfully I have a portable furnace." Lucia finally smiled again as she grabbed out her blanket and curled up against Vicki's stomach. Instead of laying on a scaled pillow, she was leaning against a scaled couch now. Vicki didn't think she'd be able to sleep, but she actually fell asleep quite quickly. In her dreams she was in a forest of tall pine trees that pierced the sky like small mountains.

"Master." A small familiar voice called out from in front of Lucia. She looked down and saw Arthur looking embarrassed while twiddling his fingers.

"Arthur!" Lucia exclaimed and kneeled down to hug him. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry..." She finally got to let out her emotions.

"Master, it was my fault for not reacting properly in battle. It's not your fault. I made the same mistake that got my Mother caught... I froze in front of confrontation. Don't feel sad." Arthur comforted Lucia in a way that was not like a child.

"Sounds like you've reflected really well." Lucia wiped away her tears as she looked at Arthur face to face.

"Big brother Aegis helped me figure out what I did wrong. He's really strong. I'm fine with letting him use my body." Arthur said which surprised Lucia. "Through him I'll become stronger like Mom wished. So please keep us safe from now on."

A suit of armor soon walked into Lucia's line of sight. Lucia looked up at Aegis who knelt down and saluted.

"I will, so you behave yourself alright?" Lucia understood that they were running out of time.

"Yes! So please smile for me one last time?" Arthur grabbed her hand and swung it back and forth while asking.

"Sure, goodbye Arthur." Lucia felt her eyes stinging again, but held back the tears and smiled while waving as Arthur ran over to Aegis. Then she found everything go black, followed by waking up to the sound of rain. Lucia looked at her contracts, Aegis contract had almost finished absorbing Arthur's contract. It would take a couple more hours until she could see them again.
"Are you awake?" Vicki noticed the stirring and looked back to ask.

"Yes. By the way Vicki, remember how I suggested you should take the strength route before?" Lucia felt relaxed and chose to bring up Vicki's future route for growth.

"Yeah, what about it?" Vicki couldn't guess why she brought it up.

"I originally said that since I was going to fuse Aegis with you, but since I'm not going to do that anymore you can go down the agility route. If you want we can fuse you with a wind type creature to help with that. Wind will also boost the strength of your fire. If you want to stay on the strength route, we can fuse you with an earth element to help you control the battle field and boost your defenses." Lucia explained.

"Wow, wait, let me think a while." Vicki felt excited and started to think while her tail started to tap the ground. Lucia chuckled while she grabbed out some cooked food from her space to feed them both. Due to Vicki's increased size, she ate a bit more than twice the food she used to. Lucia was eating more than she used to despite losing quite a lot of body fat from her constant activity every day and it was slowly replaced with muscle.

'Maybe in another month I'll be able to wear my armor?' Lucia thought while eating the cooked meat. Normally after breakfast she would do a random summon, but she wanted to wait to see what Vicki chose for her future path. So she wiped her hands off on her tattered clothes and took out the stones, sticks, and vines to start making tools since they wouldn't be able to go out till the rain stopped.

"Hey if I go with wind attribute do you think I could grow wings and fly too?" Vicki asked after an hour.

"Probably. I'd have to fuse quite a few winged wind type creatures with you to get that evolution perhaps. Are you wanting to become a dragon?" Lucia smiled and asked. She had made a impromptu skinning knife already and was sharpening it with another stone. The constant sound of stones scraping together rang out through the cave.

"What's a dragon?" Vicki asked energetically. Lucia sent her mental images of the dragons she knew.

"To me a dragon is a picture of might and wisdom. Though there are many who fear them as terrifying monsters that need an army to defeat. I'm not sure of their actual strength, but they are usually long lived and can learn many things to pass on to future generations." Lucia explained while imagining Vicki as a dragon.