Summoner's Conundrum

~~~ Quick Recap ~~~

Miles and Buck are heading to the tannery to drop off the four wolves.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

"Liman's and then Anders'...," Miles told the boy.

"I'd make you summon a bear for us to ride," Buck replied, "but I have a feeling this mule would probably just die of a fright."

Miles laughed and the pair headed off.

When they got to the tanner's shop and told the man what Harald wanted, the man stopped what he was working on and set right to work on the wolves. When they finished there, they hauled the wolf corpses to Mazi and let her harvest everything that she could use.

"I'm not promising money for the tongues," she told Miles. "I need to see what the bee toxins did to the muscles. Might make for some interesting results... I'll have to let you know what I decide on those."

"That's fair," Miles said.

They left Mazi's shop with a silver coin, six bronze, and three coppers. Mazi told them that the coppers were for them to get lunch at the inn.

From Mazi's place, they headed to visit Anders. He carved the steaks from the corpses right where they lay - and gave Miles another four bronze coins.

The two boys took the mule back to Mazi, scrubbed out the cart, and then put it back in its stall. They stopped by the bakery and delivered the other silver and bronze coins to Harald. He nodded and accepted the coins as Kora looked on. He told Miles that he only needed another six silvers.

By that time, it was almost midday. Miles and Buck headed for Roald's inn, took a table in the common room, and ordered the stew. Miles paid Hana two copper coins for the stew and gave her the third copper as a tip. Roald brought Miles an ale and put a mug of watered-ale in front of Buck.

By the time the two boys finished their meals, Buck was back to complaining that his stomach hurt from eating too much again. The pair decided to go sit on the bank of the river and do a little fishing until their stomachs calmed down.

Buck took his pole from its hiding place and Miles gave him a wolf spider, a cricket, a spinneret, and a grub to try as bait. They decided that the grubs were the favorites for rock bass. Carp seemed to like the wolf spiders best. They also caught two catfish when they tried slugs. The sunfish liked the spinnerets.

By the time they had a dozen fish on the bank, Buck decided that he wanted to sell them - rather than eat them. He raced off to visit an old fisherman that he knew. Meanwhile, Miles converted the three new species into summons.

~ New ability learned: [Summon Carp] ~

~ New ability learned: [Summon Catfish] ~

~ New ability learned: [Summon Sunfish] ~

While Miles waited for the boy to return, he grabbed up the pole and tried his luck. By the time Buck came back, bringing the old fisherman with him, Miles had succeeded in replacing the three fish that he had used to gain new abilities.

"Did you change your mind?" Buck asked him.

"Nope," Miles said, grinning. "I caught replacements..."

"Nice!"

Buck bartered with the wrinkled fisherman. Miles left him to it. The old man left with his bucket of fish and Buck tried to give Miles the five copper coins that he had sold them for.

"Keep them," Miles told him.

"You should have half, at least," Buck insisted.

"Not happening," Miles told him.

Miles watched as the boy tried to figure out where he was going to put the money. The pants he had on were ragged and didn't have pockets. They were little more than two pieces of cloth that had been stitched together and tied at the waist. In the end, Miles agreed to carry the coins for him - but only because Miles didn't want to travel clear to the other end of town just to see if Mazi had a coin-purse that Buck could have.

"Should we go hunting again?" Miles asked the boy.

"Please...!" Buck begged.

"You got your knife, still?" he asked.

Buck showed him where the thing was tied around his waist.

"We need to get you a real weapon - and a sheath," Miles told him.

"This one's fine," the boy insisted. "Save your coins for Kora."

Miles tousled his hair and summoned two bears.

"Fuck, yes!" the boy cheered.

Buck jumped up, dug his fingers in the bear's fur, and began to climb up to its shoulders. Miles grinned and shook his head at the eager, fearless boy.

They followed the road north. Miles asked Buck if he knew of any special place they should go hunting. The boy told him that travelers had often complained about being attacked by goblins. Buck didn't know how far they needed to travel to reach the place. Since the bears were able to jog along at a pretty good pace, Miles decided to roam a little farther than he had initially planned.

Soon, the two of them were racing more than they were watching the road - at least until a horse came galloping towards them with a look of terror in its eyes.

"The bears!" Buck yelled.

Miles dismissed the bears and the two boys landed on their feet on the packed dirt road.

"Hold steady and I'll see if I can get it to calm down," the boy said, easing forward.

Miles remained where he was - and watched as Buck scooted closer and closer to the anxious horse, making calming motions to the steed and talking quietly to it. The poor animal was still super-skittish but Buck finally managed to grab its bridle and get it to stop trying to search for someplace to run.

"We need to see where this horse came from," the boy told Miles. "This tack is quality work - and horses aren't cheap. Somebody with money is either dead or injured somewhere up the road."

Buck borrowed a short piece of rope from Miles and rigged up a quick hobble to keep the horse from running away. They left the animal grazing on the side of the road and took off, jogging. Once they were far enough away not to scare the animal, Miles summoned two bears and they took off again - galloping down the road.

They traveled another mile before they came to a scene of carnage.

There was a wagon with a broken wheel - with a dead horse all wrapped up in its harness - as if it had been trying to escape. Based on the blood trails that led away from the wagon, it looked like three people had been dragged off to the west side of the road.

"Ride the bear back to the horse," Miles told Buck. "Send the bear back here, get on the horse, and ride hard to town. Get a [Healer] and get back here as fast as you can..."

"I'll help fight...," the boy argued.

Miles pointed to the bloody trails.

"Somebody's hurt and I can't heal them. We need a [Healer]. Send the bear back so that I can use it to fight. Go! I'll tell the bear to do what you tell it to."

Buck nodded and kicked his heels into the bear's sides. It raced back down the road the way the two of them had just come. Miles silently prayed that the gods would let the bear stay summoned that far away from him.

He quickly checked his stat-sheet. He was still limited to five summoned creatures.

Miles started to summon two more bears and then he changed his mind suddenly. He decided that, if these were goblins, bears might be too large. He kept the bear he had been riding and summoned two wolves and a wolverine. He unsheathed his dirk and stalked forward. The bear was on his right, the wolves were to his left, and the wolverine was racing along in front of him. Miles and his small army of summons raced into the underbrush, following the blood trails. As he ran, he told the creatures to ignore the humans and focus on the goblins. He impressed upon his beast warriors that they were to simply remove the despicable thieves from the fight - rather than making sure that each one was dead before finding a new target.

Miles was nearly exhausted by the time they found the goblin camp. The good news was that - with the distance they had traveled - the goblins had only just arrived themselves - after dragging the three humans all that way there.

Miles and his beast army descended on the goblins while they were recovering from their trip and had only just started to surround the three men to stab at them with rusty knives and swords to torture and torment them.

The bear roared and every head turned to see Miles leaping over a bush into the camp. Miles and the wolverine headed straight for the prisoners. He left the wolves to target anything that attacked - and sent the bear to chase down the ones that had decided to hide in the crude huts and hovels that the little ankle-biters lived in.

One of the injured men was dressed like a [Merchant]. The broken crossbow that Miles had spotted back at the wagon suggested that one of these men was a guard who rode with the [Trader]. Somehow, the goblins had gotten the third man off of the horse. The man with a goblin arrow through his shoulder was probably the horse rider. All three men looked at Miles with eyes as big as dinner plates as he and the wolverine ripped into the half-dozen goblins who had decided that their best bet was to stick with the prisoners.

Around the goblin camp, the rest of the small horde was either trying to run away or were waving spears and swords at the vicious animals that were hunting them.

Miles and the wolverine had just finished off the goblin guards when Miles sensed that the other bear was returning. He dismissed the returning bear and the wolverine. He summoned two more wolves and sent all four of them after anything that was still fighting or running. The bear was still ripping goblin huts apart and savaging any of the creatures that it found within.

"What *are* you?" the [Merchant] asked weakly.

"[Summoner]," Miles answered. "I sent the boy to town to get a [Healer]. Try to hang on."

"I don't think Samul's long for this world," the [Trader] said, looking at the man who had three arrows sticking out of him.

The [Trader] gasped when the wolves came to stand beside Miles.

"Check the area for any others," Miles told the wolves. "Once that's done, drag them into a big group. Try to find all of them that you can."

The wolves raced off to do as Miles told them.

"They understand you?" the man rasped.

"They are summoned creatures," Miles explained. "They are copies of real animals - under my control."

The bear came to report in.

"Drag the huts into a pile so it'll be easier to see if there's anything left that's worth taking. When that's done, move the bodies to the pile or whatever it is that the wolves are making."

The bear lumbered off to complete his tasks.

"Craziest thing I've ever seen...," the [Merchant] said, coughing and then shuddering. "I've got potions in a leather satchel - but I don't know where that might have ended up."

"Describe the satchel," Miles said, dismissing a wolf and summoning a hawk.

The hawk listened as the man described what it was supposed to be looking for.

"Go, find it," Miles told the bird.

It flew back towards the wagon.

"Damnedest thing ever...," the [Trader] said, shaking his head slightly - before grimacing.

Miles sat down and watched through the bird's eyes. When the bird found the bag, it was too large for it to carry. Miles dismissed the hawk, summoned a bear, had it grab the bag in its jaws, and told it to return at a gallop.

"The bag is on its way," Miles told the man.

Neither of the other two men were moving any longer.

"Glass vials with red liquid inside," the [Trader] said. "Give one each to Samul and Arlo. You'll need to try to pour it into their mouths. Samul first."

Miles nodded and then stood as the bear raced up. He took the satchel, dismissed the bear, summoned the hawk again, and sent it to look for goblins - as well as to go see how close Buck was to bringing help.

There were four red vials in the satchel. Two were broken. Miles took the first vial to the man with the arrows stuck in him. He unstopped the vial and tipped some of the liquid between the man's lips. The man's tongue eagerly swiped at the liquid. Miles gave him more and more of it until it was gone. The man moaned but didn't open his eyes.

"He should live," the [Trader] told Miles. "Give one to Arlo."

"Two vials were broken," Miles told him.

"At least two of them were still good. Maybe we'll get out of this alright after all..."

Miles fed a few drops of the liquid to the archer.

"He's not responding...," Miles told the man.

"Give him a little more just the same..."

Miles had tipped enough into the man's mouth that he was worried about drowning him before the man groaned and his tongue began writhing around in his mouth. The man squinted at Miles.

"I've got a bit more here, if you're ready for it," Miles told the injured man.

"Thank the gods," the [Trader] groaned.

Miles finished giving the wounded man the rest of the liquid in the vial.

"Anything else I should do?" Miles asked the man.

"Not unless you can heal?" the man said, smiling through the pain.

"I wish I could...," Miles answered.

"You've done enough, young man," the [Trader] told him. "Thank the gods you showed up when you did."

"The hawk still hasn't spotted the boy returning with help," Miles told him. "Do you want me to see if I can get the wagon moved over here and load you up?"

"Do you think you can?" the man asked.

"It can't hurt to try...," Miles told him.

"I'm at your mercy," the [Trader] replied. "You're more aware of what you can accomplish than I am.

"I'm going to destroy the dead horse and replace it with a summoned one," Miles told the man. "The bear is the only other large creature I've done before - and it sapped me badly. I'll leave the wolves to guard you but they might disappear if I pass out."

"You're sure you want to do that then?"

"Honestly, I'd love to have a summoned mount. We've been riding the bears and they tend to scare the townspeople."

"You don't say...?" the [Trader] asked, laughing and then coughing.

He clutched his chest.

"I need to stop doing that...," the man mused aloud.

"I'll go work on getting that wagon moved...," Miles told him. "If help shows up, I'll send them here and try to have the wagon ready to go to town."

The [Trader] waved for Miles to do whatever he wanted and then grimaced and dropped his hand to his chest. He moaned as Miles jogged away.

It took a few minutes for Miles to return to the wagon. He hadn't wanted to send away one of the summoned beasts until he was sure that things would stay quiet while he was away. He dispelled one of the wolves and knelt by the dead horse.

He got his waterskin out and took a drink. He searched through his pack for something to eat. He found a bit of dried meat that he didn't remember having. He chewed it up, drank some more water, and continued until the smoky, dried meat was gone. He took another drink, stoppered the waterskin, and set it aside.

Miles rested the palms of his hands on the horse's flank. The body was still slightly warm but was cooling more quickly than Miles would have expected. He began creating the threads between his pool of magical energy and the horse. The threads formed more quickly than ever before - but there were so many that it still took a long time. Finally, every single thread pulsed with golden light and then exploded in a brilliant burst of light that temporarily blinded Miles and took his breath away.

~ New ability learned: [Summon Horse] ~

Mile looked around. The horse was gone but he felt much better than he had when he had finished with the bear. He tried to stand up and immediately crashed into the dirt face-first. He barely managed to roll to his shoulder to keep from busting his nose and mouth on the hard-packed road.

"Well, fuck...," he groaned.

"You alright, boss?" Buck asked, looking down at him. "Got the horse, huh? You pass out?"

"No," Miles replied. "Just stood up too quickly."

Buck held out his hand. Miles took it and slowly stood to his feet. He looked up at the people that were with the boy. He pointed towards where the men were.

"Here," he said, changing his mind. "I'll just show you..."

"I'll get to work, swapping that wheel," one man said. Another nodded to him.

Miles summoned a horse but then couldn't figure out how to get onto its back. He dismissed a wolf, summoned a bear, and climbed from the bear's back onto the horse. He dismissed the bear.

The men with Buck just stared at him. Miles shrugged and headed off, down the trail.

"Come on!" he heard the boy tell the men.

They rode through the trees and brush until they finally came to the goblin camp. Miles dismissed the horse and landed on his feet on the ground. The men were distracted by the pile of dead goblins.

"Is one of you a [Healer]?" Miles asked.

"Uh... that's me," a guy wearing a fancy robe answered, sliding out of the saddle.

"We collecting the weapons and stuff?" Buck asked Miles.

"Yeah, anything you think we can sell...," Miles told the boy.

"On it, boss," the boy said. "We're gonna need that wagon..."

"Guess I'll go see if I can help that other guy," Miles told him.

He summoned a bear and a horse, climbed onto the horse's back, and dismissed the bear. He rode off towards the road again. He left the [Guard]-looking guy with the [Healer].

"The jack is broken," the guy by the wagon told Miles when he arrived. "You got any way to hold this up so I can trade the wheel out?"

Miles dismissed the horse and summoned four bears to hold the wagon up.

"You... Is that you?"

"They're not real," Miles told the man. "They're just copies of a real bear."

"No shit...? Well, okay, then... This may be easier than I thought..."

Miles helped the man get the wheel swapped out and then greased the new one. Once the wagon was whole again, he dismissed the bears and summoned a horse to pull the wagon.

"That's fuckin' handy...," the man said.

The man walked over and showed Miles how to get the harness hooked between the wagon and the horse. Once that was done, Miles picked up the broken items around the wagon and loaded them into the bed. He climbed onto the seat of the wagon and told the horse to take him to the [Trader].

The other man climbed back onto his mount and followed. It was slow going through the brush. At one point, Miles had to summon a bear to help get the wagon over a log that was blocking the path. After they had crossed it, Miles realized that he had messed up. He summoned three more bears and had them simply move the tree from the path.

The man on the horse just shook his head in disbelief.

By the time Miles got the wagon to the goblin camp, Buck had a pile of rusty weapons.

"Summon a wolverine for me to hand the weapons to," the boy told MIles. "While I'm doing that, you get us some little goblin fuckers to boss around..."

Miles summoned a wolverine in the back of the wagon and told it to help Buck with the weapons. He went to the pile of dead goblins and knelt by one. He put his hand on it and started creating threads.

He looked around the pile. There were some that were dressed a little differently. He decided to try some of each.

~ New ability learned: [Summon Goblin Fighter] ~

~ Improved ability: [Summon Goblin Fighter] ~

Miles improved his [Goblin Fighter] 27 times in total.

~ New ability learned: [Summon Goblin] ~

He improved [Goblin] 13 times.

~ New ability learned: [Summon Goblin Shaman] ~

~ Improved ability: [Summon Goblin Shaman] ~

~ Improved ability: [Summon Goblin Shaman] ~

~ New ability learned: [Summon Goblin Chieftain] ~

"What'd you get?" Buck asked him.

"14 regular Goblins, 28 fighters, 3 shaman, and one chief," Miles told him.

"Summon a [Goblin Shaman] and see if that little bitch can light fires for us...," the boy told him.

Buck was right.

"Fuck...," Miles cursed.

"That's fabulous!" Buck cheered.

"You're lazy...," Miles teased.

"Just practical...," Buck replied, grinning from ear to ear. "I'm learning everything that little shit knows before my Gift Day..."