I had at the whim of some unknown force opened my parents door and stepped into a forest. The night air was warm and cool blue light shone through the canopy of trees above me.

I turned to find the door, but behind me there was just more forest.

So with no other real option, I walked forward.

Time is an odd beast, we have so many ways to measure it develops a mercurial quality. I couldn’t tell you how long I walked, but after some time I heard a noise ahead of me. It took me a moment to understand what I was hearing but as I got closer to the source I could make out a sort of stuttering crying sound.

Walking to it I could see a girl, who looked to be a few years younger than me sitting under a tree, her head between her hands. “Hi, what’s your name?” I asked. As I stood over her.

She looked up, her face a mixture of fear, shock and relief all in one emotional release. She looked me over, and decided that any port was best in a storm. “Priya” She said and wiped her nose on the sleeve of a white linen shirt on closer look she had the skin tone of someone from the indo pakistani region.

“Hi I’m Jamie, it’s nice to meet you.” I said. “May I sit with you?”

She nodded, and I took the spot of moss next to her. “I’m lost.” She said simply.

“So am I, but hey maybe if we’re lost together it might make it easier to find our way.” I didn’t want to tell her how scared I was, it was pretty obvious she was terrified, and playing the role of emotional anchor back then gave me a place where I could feel like I at least had a meaning.

“Okay.” She shook and moved closer to me, eager for some sort of reassuring contact. “So what should we do?”

“Well I figured I’d walk that way.” I said, holding up my finger in a direction. “Then we might run into a road or something.” Priya nodded but deep in my stomach I felt a rolling terror.

The summoning was one of those things we might have heard adults mention in passing, but it’s own mythology had grown up around the event. No one made any mention of it in public, but children learn things.

And now I had a terrifying feeling we were a part of it. For now though I had company to help me feel a little less alone. I stood and offered Priya my hand, and she rose with me.

“I want my mommy.” She said simply as we walked further into the woods.

“I want mine too, maybe if we find a road we can make our way to them.”

“Okay.” A large tree branch had fallen in the middle of the path we were taking. I picked it up and looked at it. Breaking it in half to make into a staff and walking stick. I had a couple years of lessons in fencing, and karate. Something told me that a weapon in a place like this wasn’t a bad idea.

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Time again made itself scarce, I couldn’t tell you how long we walked before we saw the eyes.

Two bright yellow ones down the trail from us. I moved ahead of Priya and held my makeshift staff in the ready position. From down the trail I could hear a low growl come from the area where the eyes were.

For a brief moment everything held still, like the world itself was holding its breath. As it did I remembered the words of Sensei Cantrel. “When a fight is inevitable, don’t tense yourself, relax your muscles and be ready to flow.”

I took his words to heart and let my muscles steady but unclenched. Remembering my first tournament and the feeling of waiting for the world to spring into action.

When the beast lurched forward I surged toward it, feeling my muscles move in harmony. At first all I could see was its jaws, filled with rows of teeth in a way similar to a shark. I jammed the end of my staff into the mouth and shoved as hard as I could, feeling the hardwood slam into firm tissue.

I slammed the but of the staff into the ground and shot forward my foot kicking at it’s neck, which was covered in long harsh scales, and not the fur I was expecting. I felt something give under my foot and the creature began shaking and convulsing.

I stood back and watched it in its death throes feeling proud, and terrified all at the same moment. The creature was about 8 feet long and looked like a mix of dragon, and shark. It shook uncontrollably and then was still.

I didn’t know how to feel. I was defending Priya and myself, but I had never killed a living thing before and the shock of seeing life leave its form made me want to be ill.

“Well done.” A disembodied voice said, it had the quality of a warm honey on bread. Familiar and welcoming. It don't come from anyone particular source, but felt like it came from the world itself.

“Where are you?” I asked quietly. Feeling as if maybe I shouldn’t alert it, but then knowing it knew exactly where we were.

“Child I am everywhere, but allow me to ease your journey.” There was a sense of dislocation, and suddenly we went from a dark night time forest to a room, coated in white marble with streaks of green shot through it.

The room was well lit and it took me a few seconds for my eyes to adjust. Standing there was..

To this day I don’t know how to describe it. It started as a sort of white cloak of diaphanous fabric, then as it moved around the room, seeming to examine us the color and texture of it changed to a light and something that looked like scaly skin to a purple set of reeds that transitioned into something that looked like hair.

“Where are we?” Priya asked, her eyes wide in wonder.

“Some would say my home.” The voice said. “But really it’s more of a place to keep, my. Things.”

I finally summoned up the courage to ask the question at the top of my mind. “Have we been summoned?”

The voice had a sort of chuckle to my question. “I have heard your people use that term, yes. I have need of you.” The voice said.

“Why?”

“I need, friends.” The voice said. With an almost melancholic tone. “One might say I collect them.”

There was no response to that I could think of. Priya stood forward and said. “I want to go home.”

“Child you are home.”