The Summoner Series - Book One - DUALITY

Chapter 13: Bruce - A Fight I Didn't Ask For

I woke up hanging from a tree. Luckily, it wasn't a noose, not this time. I had made it out of the plane, with my clothes scorched and some hair singed, but relatively unharmed. I managed to slip underneath the missile as it went through the cargo bay doors and hit the far wall near the cockpit. I started falling before the explosion took place, and I released my parachute when I neared the ground. I must have hit my head on a tree branch because my head hurt and was throbbing. I was pretty far off of the ground still, so I unlatched myself from my parachute and climbed all the way back down.

I heard gunshots from a couple hundred yards away. I lowered my body and started making my way to the action. I needed to find where the rest of my troop landed so I could find safety.

I heard a twig snap to my left. Then a click. I wasn't taking any chances. I jumped and rolled forward and took my pistol out of my hip holster. I bounced back up on my knee and one foot and fired three shots into the darkness. I heard a body yelp and hit the floor. I ran over to the body before it had a chance to get back up and fire another shot. I walked to the body and saw it was bleeding profusely from their torso.

The body has face down, so I turned it over. He had the British soldier uniform which I was familiar with, but it also had a familiar face.

"William?"

William, my estranged younger brother. After finding out he was a Summoner, my parents disowned him and forced him to move out. I was away at college when I he left and I was outraged when I came home and found him missing. I left home and estranged myself while looking for William months, but I guessed he took a fake name and moved somewhere that would never be found. As I was giving up, the Final War began and I was drafted for the army. I was given a new hope. He would be around the age where they would start drafting the youngest of people, and with any luck William would be in the army and I would fight beside him. I never saw his name or his face in the army in any regime, so I assumed the worst. Now I know I committed the worst.

"William, stay with me." I went to my hands and knees. "Stay with me, don't look in the light."

He was barely conscious. He looked me in the eyes and said, "Bruce." Just one word until he expired.

I laid there clutching his dead body, bawling my eyes out, just repeating "William" over and over again. I didn't know how long I was there for, but I heard the bullets getting closer. I finally snapped back and realized where I was.

I can't leave his body here. Not like this. I picked up his body and slung it over my shoulder. I ran in the opposite direction of the gunfire and all the pain and agony. I ran as fast as I could with William's body on my shoulder and I kept running through the words, up hills and down valleys, until the sun rose upon a crystal clear lake. I finally put his body down and started digging a grave in the dirt by the edge of the lake, but far enough away that there wouldn't be any disturbance from the water. I buried my brother that day, and in doing so, I killed a part of myself. A part I couldn't live without, so I died that day too. I took off my dog tags and replaced William's or my own, and I threw his in the lake so that no one would find them. To the world, Bruce Spelman was dead. I took up a new name. I became Bruce Williams.

For the next several months, I walked through the woods, eating berries and hunting deer and rabbits as often as I could. I was still in British territory, and I've never been in this forest before. At times, I was quite literally up a creek without a paddle. I ate some of the worst tasting, foul smelling meats imaginable, but I was determined to continue. I would not terminate my own life without my name redeemed.

Eventually, I made my way out of the woods and to a small fishing town near the coast of Britain. I started work there as a fisherman until I could work up enough money for a boat across the ocean back to America. But since I was gone, so much has changed. There were no winners in the Final War, only survivors. So many cities across the country were desolate and barren. One of the only cities left was String City, so I made my way there through hitch hiking and walking unknown distances. I made it to String City and got a job at the Crooked Crow.

"And that's how you met Jack!" Shouted Cece. "This is so cool! We should go around telling our stories so we know more about each other."

"Another time, maybe, Cece." Jazzy said, placing her bowl on the now cooled stove. "We have more pressing matters to attend to." Everyone came to attention. She explained the situation to us and how we needed to find the Temple. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, just one." Nocturnus said, a twinge of skepticism. "How do you expect us to pull this off? None of us have any experience in heisting. Pickpocketing, sure. Murder, definitely. Fighting, yeah. But I don't know how this can happen with the six of us."

Cain decided to talk since the beginning of dinner. "Jazzy here is an assassin. She can slip in and out of places without being seen and only leave behind a trail of wind. If there's anyone experienced enough, it's her."

"Any others?" Jazzy scanned the room.

Cece sheepishly raised her hand. "Uh, what's the Temple?"

"You've never heard of the Temple of the First Summoner?" Nocturnus burned Cece.

"Cool it, Noct," replied Jack. "Not everyone knows the history of Summoners, especially one who isn't."

"Are you kidding me?" Nocturnus gestured to Cece. "She's obviously a Flora."

"How can you tell? There's no way for you to know if she is or not without her actually bringing you from the brink of death." There was a pause of realization. "Wait, you have the Gift, don't you?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Legend holds of a race of people who could counter the Summoners by detecting if someone was a Summoner, and if they were, what kind. They've been around since the First Summoner, who could control all the elements that each Summoner today can. I thought that went extinct, and I've never heard of a Gifted with a Summon."

"You're crazy. You all are. If you have a death wish, that fine. But there's no way that I am putting my neck on the line for you guys." He started making his way back to the door. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't want to be put in this world."

I stepped in his way. "Too bad. You're here now, deal with it."

"Get out of my way, Bruce. I don't want to hurt you."

"Not too many people would put up with you, Nocturnus. If you want to live with Kristy out there, looking for your head on a pike, you need to stay with us." I folded my arms and puffed my chest. It was a technique I learned to look more intimidating, although I know I'm fairly intimidating already.

"I'll take my chances with the pike." He pushed passed me through the door. I heard him walk down the stairs and out the door that we came from, without another word.

"Alright," Jazzy said, giving a sigh, "I guess it's just be the five of us."

"Can we do this without Nocturnus?" Cece asked.

"We'll have to," Cain replied, standing up and facing us for the first time since dinner. "Kristy cannot find the Temple of the First Summoner. If she does, gods only know what she can do with that kind of power."