Injecting his magic into the circle Lupos slowly felt his conscious slipping away as he felt the calming dark overwhelm him. Unlike his first three summonings, Lupos didn't hear a voice, but rather the loud pounding of hooves moving slowly towards him. 

Still seeing nothing Lupos waited until the pounding drew nearer to him and finally stopped. "Hello?" he said slightly confused at the chain of events, there was still no reply but instead what manifested in front of him was a large black stallion.....that had eight legs. "Hello child." Came a calm and soothing voice. Lupos stared at the horse without answering. "Are you the one who has summoned me?" Asked the stallion.  

This time Lupos answered "yes, and who are you?" The horse let out a low snicker "oh my, and I thought the others would have told you about me by now." This gave Lupos a pause as well as a sigh. "Let me guess you know Fenrir, Jormugand, Hugin and Munin right?" The horse let out another low snicker "as you said." 

Lupos let out a small smile before staring at the horse again. "Ok I have some questions though, first of all what is your name? Second why can I see you? This has never happened before on any of my summonings." The horse gave a slow nod of recognition. "My name is Sleipnir and as for why you can see me that is due to my magic." 

"Your magic?" Lupos asked curious, currently his spirits included Fenrir who used dark and earth magic, Jormugand who used water magic, Hugin who used light magic and Munin who also used dark (though he had hinted at withholding something else) magic. Ideally, Lupos wanted a spirit who specialised in fire or wind magic to fill in the gaps, though, he supposed he would be fine if he didn't.

Sleipnir smiled proudly. "Variant magic." Lupos nodded slowly an evil grin forming on his face. "Now isn't that intriguing, what type of variant magic do you use?" Sleipnir smiled once again and whispered the answer in Lupos' ear. Lupos grinned, things were about to get very interesting.

"That'll be a useful asset, so will you become my summon?" Sleipnir snickered softly. "Of course, if I wasn't I wouldn't have bothered to use my magic to show up at all." Lupos grinned. "My thanks, however, before we return I have to ask is there anyway for you to disguise your form to make it less...impressive?" Sleipnir paused for a moment and considered. "There should be, only one way to find out." Lupos smiled "Let's head back then." 

..................................................................................

Mervyn's POV

Mervyn stared as Gale entered the summoning circle and started to inject his magic. Once certain there was no trouble, Mervyn let his thoughts drift. "Who the hell attacked Lucio?" He wondered in his mind "I know the bird was from the Ceari family but even they wouldn't be stupid enough to pull off a stunt like this with me in the room. Someone must be trying to frame them, but for what purpose? Damn I should have caught that bird." 

Mervyn was worried, there was no denying that, both his niece and his apprentice had been attacked. Even if he guessed who the culprit was, he had no evidence, not to mention, there could be multiple culprits. Mervyn sighed, ignoring Wing's worried look, and turned back to watching Gale.

Several minutes later, Mervyn realised the boy had taken longer than what was expected and was starting to worry about sabotage. Suddenly, Gale's eyes snapped open and smoke surrounded him. Through the smoke Mervyn caught glimpse of the spirit who stood next to him, it was the silhouette of a proud stallion...with eight legs???? "What the hell is going on?" Thought Mervyn as he blinked.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

However when he once more opened his eyes the smoke had cleared and he saw something else entirely next to Gale's side. It was....a Shetland pony? Rubbing his eyes Mervyn stared again reconfirming what he had just seen....a Shetland pony - there was no proud stallion. "It must have been a trick of the smoke and light to confuse the two." thought Mervyn as he bit back a laugh. 

Walking over to Gale's side he put a reassuring hand on the youths shoulder. "It's alright, your summons may be small but it will have its uses." Mervyn noted how Gale had a sad look on his face with the occasional smile. "He must be trying to cheer himself up." thought Mervyn as he shook his head at the poor boy with such a small and ungainly spirit. How wrong he could be. 

..................................................................................

Lupos' POV 

Lupos looked back at Sleipnir the once proud stallion turned Shetland pony, "Good job." He commented in mindspeak, trying to keep the smile off his face. Even Mervyn was looking at him with pity, though he tried to hide it. Of course not everyone was hiding it. "Hahaha, I can't believe it Sleipnir is that you? hahaha." Hugin who was still nearby in case of emergency, though back in raven form, cackled tears forming in his eyes as he stared through the window. 

Lupos let out a small smile and sat down next to Wing who was looking at him with concern. "Will you be ok with that as your second summon?" Lupos smiled and shook his head.. "I'll be fine, anyway you better go, it's your turn to try and summon your second spirit." Wing grinned nervously. "Wish me luck." Lupos smiled. "Good Luck."

Walking towards the circle, Wing slowly interjected his magic, a strained look appearing on his face. Several minutes passed before Wing opened his eyes, a white deer standing next to him,  practically radiating a calming white light. Lupos heard Hugin let out a low whistle in mindspeak "Keep this one close kid, he's going to be very powerful when he grows up." 

Lupos nodded. "Sure, but how do you know?" Hugin paused. "Ask him the deer's name." Acknowledging the cryptic statement, Lupos smiled and turned to Wing. "What's her name?" Wing smiled. "Artemis, but how did you know she was a girl?" Lupos smiled. "Grew up in a family of hunters." 

Mervyn smiled. "Good job today both of you, I want you to spend the rest of today getting to know your new spirits and there capabilities. Next week I am going to give you an exam where you will fight against me one on one. This will of course be conducted in private so that none of you reveal techniques you wish to keep secret from each other. Ok you are dismissed." 

Lupos smiled he had just found a time where Mervyn would be completely alone with no invading eyes and less spirits than him. It was time for his revenge.

..................................................................................

Author's note 

Hi everyone sorry for the wait I am currently still on holiday but I've finally had some time to write up this chapter, there may still be a delay between this chapter and the next so i'm sorry for that but I hope you enjoyed the chapter :) thank you guys so much for the 3000 average views!!!!!! Feel free to leave a comment or review so I can improve my story.