The Summoner Guild (On Hold)

Friends... Maybe?

"Hey, eat your vegetables." Kyle ordered Gobby, only now noticing that she had only been eating the meat off of her plate before he added his own greens to hers.

"No!" Gobby yelled at him while pulling her own plate away.

"Oh come on. You should like vegetables, right? I mean, someone here has to eat them." Kyle sighed as he started picking through sausage surprise that was being served at the facility's cafeteria. There were both tomatoes and onions mixed in with the marinated steak and eggs, and little did the chef know or care, but Kyle despised both of them. And unfortunately, it seemed that Gobby did as well.

"Good morning, Kyle!" Morgan suddenly sat down across from Kyle at the table using a tone of voice that nearly deafened everyone nearby.

"Do you have to be this loud during breakfast?" Kyle complained, forgetting once how entirely frightening the man could be.

"Yes I do, and you should be to!" Morgan stated as if he were instructing Kyle. "Just what are you going to do someday if heroes storm your castle but they can't hear your speech before the final battle?! Not that you'll ever be the dark lord to begin with, that is."

"Yeah, sure..." Kyle stated dryly before returning to his breakfast.

"Loud as ever I see... do you even know how to be quiet?" Livana asked while walking next to their table on her way past it. Her long blonde hair was as beautiful as ever, and the only thing that made Kyle slightly shy away from her was the permanent angry expression that the woman had.

"Sorry, did I disrupt your fragile slimes?" Morgan laughed mockingly. "Don't worry, I'm sure that they won't melt into puddles just from someone talking to loud. Though then again, I'm not to certain about that..."

"My slimes would completely extinguish that candle that you call an elemental." Livana replied coldly.

"No!" Gobby yelled, and Kyle cursed himself as he had been hoping that his familiar had been to distracted by the conversation to realize that he was sliding more tomatoes onto her plate.

"Care to join us Livana? I already have one unwelcome guest, so why not make it a group effort?" Kyle asked while gazing at Morgan, hoping that he would get the hint though the man merely furled his brow at him.

"You shouldn't talk about your familiar like that. They're going to be your partner throughout your career, after all." Morgan scolded, and Kyle sighed as he discovered that Morgan was incredibly dense.

"He was talking about you, Fur Brain." Livana sighed before she surprisingly sat down next to Kyle, who silently cursed himself as he felt as if he'd just invited even more trouble into his otherwise peaceful morning.

"Nice try Gobby, but not happening." Kyle suddenly said as he blocked Gobby's attempt to put all of her vegetables onto his plate.

"Gobby? Seriously?!" Morgan laughed. "What a terrible name for a familiar!"

"See?!" Gobby repeatedly poked Kyle's arm while pointing at Morgan as if to make a point.

"And just for the record, what is your familiar's name?" Kyle asked grouchily, and Morgan stopped his laughter before holding out his hand proudly. On his palm, the flames that Kyle had seen before gathered into a concentrated area before they amazingly gathered into a tiny ball of floating fire with bright orange eyes.

"His name is Soot, and I expect both of you to treat him with the same respect that you give me." Morgan said proudly.

"Soot? Dude, you have no right to scold me for my name sense..." Kyle stated evenly.

"What's wrong with Soot?!" Morgan asked angrily.

"What's wrong with Gobby?!" Kyle replied, his lack of sleep apparently overcoming any sense of danger that he might have had before.

"Both of you are idiots." Livana sighed while holding out what almost looked like a small ball of water with a tiny purple core inside of it. "Meet Squishy, the best familiar in the world."

"Squishy?" Both Kyle and Morgan asked at the same time, though any comments froze in their throats as they felt a suddenly threatening atmosphere.

"Yeah, Squishy. You got a problem with that?" Livana asked sinister.

"Nope, not at all." Morgan replied immediately.

"Best name in the world, in fact." Kyle laughed hesitantly before looking down to see that his percentage of vegetables had increased. "Dang it Gobby! Eat your own vegetables, and mine to!"

"No!" Gobby replied immediately.

"What do you two have against vegetables? They're the best part of the food here." Livana asked curiously.

"Says the elf who can't eat meat anyway." Morgan sighed, and Kyle only just now realized that he was separating his own food as well.

"Well I, for one, like them." Livana harrumphed at him, and both Kyle and Morgan looked at each other with a grin before gathering their plates and bringing them close to hers.

"Fine then, you can have all of my vegetables if you like them that much." Kyle said with a laugh.

"And I'll take all of your meat. Everyone wins!" Morgan echoed.

"Hey! I might not like meat, but Squishy does!" Livana complained, though they did leave her  separated portion alone so she still had plenty to give to her familiar. And Livana was thoroughly defeated when Gobby got up from her chair and added to their antics which cause Kyle to laugh slightly before he started eating again. To be honest with himself, Kyle was surprised with how calm everything was at the moment. From yesterday's immediate challenge and the apparent birth of a rivalry, he'd thought that his time at the facility would be nothing but one chaotic event after another. But these two people... even though they claimed to want to be dark lords, they seemed to be good people on the inside.

"We should hurry and eat. Mr. Noyal's class should be starting soon." Livana stated, apparently noticing that Kyle had slowed down in eating.

"So class if finally starting huh?" Morgan smirked evilly. "Ah, I can't wait for it. I wonder what kind of gruesome thing's we'll get into before the week is finished."

"What do you mean by that?" His previous thoughts being completely dispelled.

"The first week of classes is normally the hardest, or so I'm told." Livana stated. "Apparently, the instructors set up a series of challenges and test for us to 'weed out the weak'. So if you aren't strong willed, then you probably won't last."

"What kind of things are we talking about here?" Kyle asked nervously.

"I'm not sure, it changes every year." Livana shrugged.

"They won't make us torture people or anything like that, right?" Kyle asked, thinking that killing innocents was definitely a no-go as well.

"Why would they make us to fun stuff like that? They're testing us, not rewarding us." Morgan asked, and Kyle mentally slapped himself for ever thinking that the man had some goodness in him somewhere.

"Whatever it is, I've heard that it practically is a method of torture in and of itself for the summoners." Livana stated nervously, causing even Morgan to raise an eyebrow as they wondered what it could be. "And from what my mother told me, this first week will being us to the point of losing our sanities."

Gulping loudly, Kyle wondered just what he was about to suffer through during his first week. If it was even worse than having to torturing people, would he break? What would these people make him do? If it was something that could possibly break a dark lord candidate's sanity, then Kyle couldn't even imagine what would be facing him when he finally returned to the classroom.