*~*~*~*
‘Another bright day. I wonder how long that will last.’ The young
man gazed at the scene before him. A vibrant city full of life
and happiness. ‘All of this will come to pass as surely as the sun
sets. People know of the impending threat yet they do
nothing and, when the threat is upon them, they blame all but themselves
for their demise. How pathetic.’ Quite suddenly the
young man was snapped back to reality as he heard a voice beside him.
“Trowa, are you feeling alright?” The young man turned his head and nodded to the girl who was speaking to him.
“Yes, I’m fine.” The girl smiled making her glazed violet eyes sparkle.
“That’s good,” she said as she smoothed out her brightly colored
skirt. “Well hurry up with whatever it is you’re doing. The
boss wants us to get ready as soon as possible.” With that she ran
off, her dark, shoulder length, brown hair bouncing. The
young man watched as she disappeared from his view, then turned back
to gazing at the city. After watching for a few more
minutes he sighed softly then made his way back to the camp.
Once there he joined the many people who were standing in front of a
brightly painted wagon but kept out of sight to the back.
A few moments later a man stepped out of the wagon, dressed as brightly
as everyone else, if not a bit brighter, and began to
address them all.
“Since we have been over this hundreds of times I’ll not bother
any of you with the motivational speech.” There was a great
murmur of relief throughout the crowd of people and then all went silent
again. “On with the assignments. Marie will be in
charge of fortune telling. Brolly, Kinnison, and Reuic will be the
jugglers. Nana and Kourin will be in charge of the puppet
show. Catherine, of course, will be our knife thrower. Miareth will
be our fire breather. Lastly, I will be the lion tamer and Trowa
will use his Summons. The rest of you start setting up.” There was
another murmur, this time of agreement, and everyone
went off to prepare for the big night.
Trowa sighed and shook his head. ‘Don’t they ever tire of my Summons?’
He took a step forward but was suddenly stopped.
He looked at the brown haired girl with a slight frown on his face.
“What is it, Catherine?” he asked in his soft, deep voice.
“Nothing. I just came to say good luck,” she said. Trowa closed his forest green eyes and sighed again.
“I don’t need it,” he replied. Catherine put one hand on her hip
and used the other to push back the young man’s brown hair,
which slanted over his face covering his right eye. That action caused
him to open his eyes and stare back at her with his half
empty eyes.
“Of course you don’t. Well, see you later then.” Quickly she kissed
him on the forehead and let his hair fall back into place.
Trowa watched her retreating back then turned to go to his “room”
to change.
*~*~*~*
“And now it is time for us to present to you an amazing sight!”
The boss, still dressed brightly tho a bit more nicely, raised his
arm and his voice for effect. “Allow me to present to you the greatest
asset to our family, other than the dear Catherine,
Trowa!” Silently, the young man walked out onto the stage with a
flute in his hand and waited while the audience’s cheers
died down.
After all was silent he lifted the flute to his lips and began to play
a slow, sweet melody. The audience seemed entranced by
the song and, being so, they did not notice the pentagram forming in
front of the young man. Only when the monster came
out of the ground right in front of the boy did they notice.
Women and children screamed at the sight of the half-man half- serpent,
but the others were greatly intrigued. Trowa
stopped his melody and put the flute at his side. Slowly he took a
step towards the serpent demon and held out his hand. The
serpent demon, having done this many times before and becoming quite
bored with the routine, coiled up in a submissive
gesture.
Upon seeing the monster subdued the audience erupted with cheers that
became louder once the serpent disappeared back
into the earth. After the serpent demon had left, Trowa bowed and walked
offstage not bothering to stay for the “praise” the
ringleader would give him. He continued walking until he was outside
and, even then, he only stopped when he was in front of
the lion cages.
He leaned back against the bars, letting his shoulders rest back against
them, and smiled ever so slightly when he felt one of
the lions nuzzling his back. He reached an arm behind himself and stroked
the rough fur of the large beast while he turned his
gaze to the stars. “Who am I?” he asked to no one in particular.
“I am not Trowa, that was just a name to get them to accept
me, so who am I?” When he did not receive an answer, tho he wasn’t
expecting one, he lowered his gaze and focused in on a
campfire in the center of the gypsy caravan.
He withdrew his hand from the cage and folded both hands in his lap.
He slowly began to drift to sleep while listening to the
music from the camp and the sound of the lion’s “purring”. Just
before he went to sleep the thought crossed his mind again.
‘Who am I…?’ Then he was out, succumbed to a deep dreamless
sleep.
*~*~*~*
Crap! That’s what this chapter is!! Well, it was ok seeing as I had
no idea how I was gonna introduce him as being a
Summoner in a gypsy camp but it was still rather crappy. Oh well. Ah
and he isn’t even a full time Summoner. Just two low
level Summons (Nahga the serpent demon and Leviathan) and one high
level Summon (Megami no Namida). He’s mainly a
fighter. Oh well I’ll get that across somehow. R&R please and
thank you.