‘Don’t get it. Why won’t the human wake up?’ Merd whined to himself.

It had been hours since he was summoned and had reawakened. He did not know how long it had been before that. He sighed to himself.

Another unknown amount of time went past, though it wasn’t too long after his last thought. A thin line appeared in the wall in the shape of a door and then a door sized hole opened sliding out of place.

“Summoner Pilo, Is everything ok?” Merd perked up at the voice calling out before the hole had fully opened. “Not good.” Said the older man who entered and saw Pilo’s body on the ground unmoving. Checking Pilo’s status, the man then moved back to take in the room. Merd slid himself behind the older human and looked over its shoulder as it looked about.

The man bent and lifted Pilo’s hand where a slight scar could be seen. “It would seem he started the summoning.” The man toed Pilo’s knife and whispered to himself. “And yet there is no circle. The wound has healed at an incredible rate.” The man pulled out a small glass orb and rolled it gently between his hands. The small glass ball began to glow and took on a greyish red hue.

“Powers above!” The man took on a serious look as he spun this way and that in the room. Merd could feel power building in the man and was released. The man’s eyes were rimmed in a sea blue glow, and he once again looked around the room.

The human sagged a bit, “Nothing here.” Was all he said as he wiped his brow that had suddenly too on a slight sheen. Merd was unsure what the man had done, but if he was looking for an invisible Merd, the man was in for a surprize. Invisibility was one of Merd’s very special skills. Merd spent years perfecting his innate invisibility ability. It was hard to hide from a master that controlled your slave mark after all. Merd was the best, and grinned to himself as he floated behind the older human’s shoulder. Even putting his fingers up behind the man’s head making bunny ears and making faces, and snickering to himself.

‘If master back home couldn’t find me, no stupid human is going to be able to.’ Merd almost chuckled out loud.

The human stopped short, and Merd almost ran into the back of its head, barley dodging to the side and around its head. Merd continued on into the round room that contained a single desk and several doors.

Merd saw the older human Give the room one last scan before resealing it. Then the human went to the desk, put his hand on a small coppery plate and spoke into the air.

“We have a possible failed summoning. Priority Grey, I repeat priority Grey.”

As that last word left his mouth a golden circle formed in front of the desk. Three more humans appeared as the circle lifted from the ground hitting the roof then disappearing in only a split second.

The humans formed a triangle. The man at the fore spoke.

“Which room?” He said in a no-nonsense tone.

The human at the desk pointed to Pilo’s room. All three humans cast the same spell as the first, then the first human pulled out a crystal that was pale orange. He rolled it in his hands. Once it took on a glow the man held it up ahead of his chest and walked into the room. As the man moved a slight thin grey line formed in the air. The grey line formed a swirl in the room. As if it formed a path someone had walked, or in this case flown, as it ran from the air, then to the ground, then around the ground and back into the air. The line Merd noticed ended directly at his chest.

‘huh’ he thought, waving his invisible hand through the grey line, causing it to waver and break into a swirling mist where it touched him to a small distance away.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“There was something here! The man holding the crystal said. “It moved around the room, likely in flight, and flew out of the room. There!” He pointed to the broken swirl in front of a now stunned Merd.

Had they seen him?

“It ends there. But the path shows a break in the trail. Either the thing lost its ability to remain in our realm and returned or it masked its trail.” The man turned to his two cohorts. “Follow procedure. You go to the guard, and alert the captain on duty. You,” the man pointed to the other of the pair. “Got to the high Magi. Tell his secretary it’s a code grey. You will get in to see him right away. Explain everything we know. He will want to examine things himself.” Then the first man turned to the older man behind the desk. “You watch the room, make sure the summoning mage does not leave if he wakes up. His High-ness will wish to speak to him at once.”

The man at the desk nodded. The other two had disappeared once their orders had been given. Exiting in the same golden display as they had arrived.

The first of the trio then walked to a door and opened it. It led into a stairwell’s landing. Merd’s face lit up. He now had an exit from all this silliness.

Once the man had scanned the landing area and a bit up and down the stairs. Seeing no trail, he put the crystal away.

That was when Merd made his move. He used his flight power to move himself over the man’s head, Not even displacing one of his hairs.

‘Home free!’ Merd mentally cheered. Then as he felt a familiar magic, that meant someone came into the room with magic. A voice with firm power shouted out.

“Where?!”

Merd didn’t stop to find out what the man looked like. He flew up the stairs as fast as his wings could take him. Flight power was fine for slow moving, maybe as fast as a quick walk. But to move faster he needed his wings, and right now they were flapping hard.

Merd flew like Vrug was chasing him to tell him his story. Again. UP and up until he entered into a massive room full of books and people. Merd didn’t bother pausing. That man with the voice left him unsettled in a way his master at the farm never did. Seeing the large exit doors Merd flew out like a bullet from a gun, escaping high into the sky. Just then as he was gained a good bit of height Merd turned and looked back. He saw a sight like nothing a pig farmers slave could dream. All around for miles there were buildings. The walled city, as that was what he was told humans called there collected living places, was sort of round. Like a drunk imp tried to draw a circle maybe? Some small run down buildings over there, some large builds there, most were about the same size. Right below him were three buildings on the larger side. The tower he exited and two other large important structures. Could he even believe it was called a city. Someone back home had been screwing with him.

Then the voice.

“Move he heard from the tower, and a slim stick of a man burst from the tower at speed. He was not flying, but he sure moved damn fast Merd thought. It was the voice of a giant, in the package of a gimp.

The stick looked around then up, right at where Merd hovered. Merd stuck out his tongue and made a rude gesture at the stickman, while floating invisible.

The man’s face became a horrid vissage, more, evil than Merd had ever seen. And he’d seen things. Power swirled around the stickman, Merd felt himself and the man begin connected, so Merd pumped his wings hard in panic. Then a bolt of lightning the thickness of the tower shot, to Merd’s perspective, shot past where Merd had just been fluttering.

“Holy Father Daemon.” Merd cursed. He turned pale ash grey as he flew hard and higher in panic. His poor little wings never pumped harder. He felt another connection and again he dodged hard. Another flash blinded him but the bolt missed. Just. He kept going hard now dodging at random. Never had he felt such power.

“Should we go after it?” A short stocky man, that was just behind and to the side, asked the taller stickman.

“No.” The stickman sighed. “While I would love to chase it down, we have bigger fish right now. Most likely we’ll see a decline in rodents and the like. Maybe some small items will go missing. At least it was only and imp.”

Turning the stickman saw the stocky man shrug, then both entered the tower.

“Besides, how much trouble could one imp cause in a world full of dangers greater than itself.”