A Princess Summoning

 A Princess Summoning

By Choppy

Cover art from the manga TSUBASA

 Chapter 1

The world burned. Mary stood with her eyes wide, trying to reach forward and grab the skinny arms of little boys and girls that ran passed her and pull them toward her, but her fingers did not seem to clasp. Mary's shaking fingers just seemed to skim the surface of the children's cracked skin elbows.

Come back, Mary thought, lunging forward. But the little boy dodged her, crying for his mother's name and ran off into the smoke. Mary looked down. Her arms limped to her side, as her eyes dilated, and shivered. Houses burned. Smoke rose into the sky...what color sky, Mary didn't know. It was too clouded. Too dark. Only the shapes of the creatures roamed above, weaving in and out of the blackness.

Screams echoing from the smoke. Priestess! Priestess Mary! Dialing!

"Ah!" Mary said, entangling her hands in the wasp of her red hair. Stop it! I can't do anything. Stop saying my name!

 A push. Mary fell to the ground, the dirt flying up at her face. She coughed. The echos of people screaming her name in anguish seemed to fade, the intense scratch building in her throat occupying her full attention.

 Snap out of it, Mary thought, hugging her thin arms against her. I need to help my village.

 She gulped, trying to hold back another aching cough, and looked around. Some of the wooden hunts were burnt black from the wisp of the red and yellow flames coming from the homes next to it. Everything was burning to the ground. Only a few of the villagers bothered to throw buckets of water at it, hoping to contain the fire at a minimum. Others abandoned their posts and were scattered throughout the village, confusion and madness evident on their deep drawn in faces. Tripping over their own feet, both men and women searched through the mist of smoke and fire, calling out familiar names to come to them, as they try to escape from the red-eyed army firing randomly from their wide, scaly mouths.

 "Dillon," Mary croaked, grabbing the wrist of a fifteen-year old boy who was passing by with a gun in his hand. He looked up at Mary, his eyes shinning, a grin stitched on his face. His long hair was put up in a ponytail, showing off the crimson marks painted across his cheek. "Come with me. We need to find your family."

 His smile waned. "Priestess..."

 Mary tightened her grip. "You are still a little boy. You can't possibly think you could-"

 Dillon shook his arm away and glared at Mary. "I just turned! I had my coming of age ceremony a few days ago. Of course I can fight along with the other men in the village."

 "Against the beasts!" Mary laughed shakily. She reached for the butt of the gun. "And what's this? Do you even know how to use this? This is black magic!"

 Dillon laughed. "You're only a year older than me, and yet, you still live in the stone ages."

 He pushed Mary's hand away and ran into the crowd in hysterics, firing at creatures that seemed to tower over everything, even the tallest tree- the Holy Tree- that stood right outside the village's gate. Mary just watched, a groan of frustration escaping from her cherry red lips.

              She has power within the village, being the Priestess, but when something as important as this happens, she was tossed aside.

              Mary bounced between her feet, wanting to run in after the boy before he hurt himself. But what then? He would laugh at her face and die in front of her because of his stupidity. That was what would happen.