“How do you know how to speak Elvish?” she asks me in shock.
“What? I don’t know. The same way I was able to understand you when you were singing,” I tell her, looking at her in confusion.
Is that another gift from God? To know, speak and understand any language? Fucking hell! He said he would give me weapons to survive. Are magic and hmm, the gift of tongues, the weapons?
“Wait, you understood me singing a song in Elder Elvish?” the beautiful Elf says in horror.
“Yes?” I say, unsure why she sounds so upset at that prospect. “I mean, it had to do with water, river, and trees, or the trees being nourished by the river,” I tell her. “I assume since you can use Water magic, that was why you were singing it?”
She doesn’t answer but looks at me and then down at her hands before asking, “How is it you are able to use more than one Element?”
Now it’s my turn to look down at her hands and then up at her face again. She looks confused; probably just as much as I am. “I don’t know. Can’t everyone here use magic?” I ask her.
She struggles in the Ice Manacles-which is the name I’ve decided to go with for now-for a second or two, but I can tell she isn’t putting much effort in it. It looks more like she is testing their strength. After a minute she stops and settles down on her legs to take the weight off of them.
“Who are you?” she asks me, looking up at me.
“Oh. Hi, I’m Alex,” I tell her with a shrug. “And you are?”
“I am Leeha Nightleaf,” she says slowly. “You do not have a full name, Alex?” she asks me with an inquisitive look on her beautiful Elven face. Now that I am closer, I can see that her eyes are a piercing blue and her lips are red and full.
Oh, wait. If I give her my real name, will I be under her power? Honestly, I never really did like my last name Boston. I decide since I am on a new world, I will give myself a new name, so I go with-. What? Shit. Does it need to be a real name? I mean, let’s see. It seems like I can summon all the elements like a summoner. Oh, hey, I like that: Alex, the Elemental Summoner.
“My name is Alex, the Elemental Summoner,” I tell her with a grin, excited at the idea of using a cool title like that instead of a last name.
But instead of smiling at my joke, she turns white and starts to struggle harder than she was before.
“No, no. It cannot be! Let go of me!” She is sobbing and crying, and I can see blood on her wrists where she is trying to pull away from the Ice Manacles. Shit, what the fuck? How can I make her stop? She is going to hurt herself!
Mind. What is real and what is fake? Memories of love, anger, hate, and others are fleeting, but vivid reminders that we are creatures of emotions. Keyword. Mind.
Shit, mind. Let’s see. “Mind,” I say in English again. Then, looking at her as she struggles, I say in English, “Sleep.”
Suddenly she slumps down, sleeping with her wrists still in the Ice Manacles.
“What the fucking hell,” I say out loud, and I am so frazzled I can’t tell if I say it in English or Elven. I just sit there and stare at the Elf who freaked out when I said I was the Elemental Summoner.
Chapter Five
As I gaze down at the beautiful sleeping Elf, I have got to wonder what in the fuck just happened here. She didn’t freak out ‘til I said the phrase Elemental Summoner. I mean, I only thought of using it because in some of the games I have played online, a Summoner was a character who could call up the Elements, like Fire, or Water, or such. I figured since it appears that I can call up all the Elements instead of just one, I would call myself the Elemental Summoner.
How the fuck was I supposed to know that it would cause her to try to get away from me as if I had said that I was about to kill her? I mean, she was definitely afraid after I told her my name. No, not afraid. She was terrified. She even ignored the pain in her wrists to try to get away. I am sure if she could have, she would have gnawed her own hands off to get away from me.
I am not sure I want to be here when she wakes up, but I can’t leave her like this. Glancing at the ice around her wrists, I say, “Wind, Water,” in English, and think of it melting away. The ice turns into water again and slowly sinks into the forest’s loamy bed.
I look at the Elf and think again that maybe I should not be around when she wakes up. If she is freaking out, I need to leave. But how long will she sleep for? Will she only sleep until I take the spell off her? I decide to see what happens if I take it off while I am still squatting in front of, Leeha, was it?
“Mind,” I utter in English.
I guess the trigger is to speak English, and it seems the commands need to be in English as well. “Sleep for ten seconds,” I say, and wave my hand towards her.
Just before I count to ten, I say, “Mind,” again and I wait. At the count of ten, she jerks awake, but before she can move, I say, “Sleep for one hour,” and she crashes down to the bed of the forest again. I don’t
