The Trouble With Summons

By Dixxy

It had been a very long, hot, and sticky day for Serge and his current traveling companions. All three young men were drenched with sweat and were desperate for a long swim in some nice, cold, refreshing water and a chance to get out of the clothing they were wearing.

"Even I'M hot right now," said Nikki, who, out of the three, was wearing the least. He turned to whom he saw as the unluckiest member of the party and shook his head. "I feel really bad for you right about now, Glenn. Long sleeve turtleneck, pants, and armor on top of all that. It must be like an oven."

Glenn was too overheated to respond.

Serge leaned up against a tree. "Need. . . water. . . NOW!" He turned his eyes on Nikki. "I know! I know!" he said, jumping up and down excitedly. "Nikki! You, you, your innate color is BLUE! Cast Deluge or something! Cool us off! Please? Please? Pretty please?" Nikki retorted in the only way he could against the clearly deranged youth- he smashed his guitar over Serge's head in a toned down GrandFinale, effectively snapping the Arni native out of his craziness spell.

"I'm not going to cast Deluge on you two- I might hurt you guys!" Nikki protested.

"Water. . ." Glenn said, falling to his hands and knees. "WATER!"

"You know, I have an idea," said Nikki. "We just left Fossil Valley, right?"

"Yes, we did," said Serge, shaking his head. "Thank you, Nikki."

"You'll thank me even more now- why don't we head to the falls?"

"Yeah!" said Serge. "The falls! The water's really nice there!" He turned to Glenn to help the other youth up. "Are you all right, Glenn? You don't look so good." The Dragoon gave a look that plainly threatened Serge physically harm for the plainly stupid question. Of course something was wrong with Glenn! His blonde hair was so drenched in sweat that it was sticking to the sides of his face and the back of his neck. His clothing had been nearly soaked through and he feared he was on the verge of dehydration.

"Um. . . let's just go to the falls before Glenn faints on us," said Nikki.

Serge watched as Glenn's unconscious body fell from his shoulder. "Too late."

~

Two hours later. . .

~

"Oh. . . I needed this," said Serge, sinking into the cold water of the small pool at the base of the waterfall. "This feels SOOOO good. . ." Serge dunked himself under the water and came back up a few seconds later, shaking his head and, therefore, spraying water everywhere.

"Hey!" said Nikki, splashing back. "Two can play at that game!"

Glenn relaxed against a smooth rock as he watched the other two goof off. He was still recovering from his fainting spell and was just now regaining some of his energy back- it had taken a few CurePlus spells and several drinks of water before he had regained consciousness- his friends had been afraid he was near dehydration.

The Dragoon sank a little into water, holding his breath as he let his body fall beneath the surface. He once again broke the surface, pushing his hair back to get some of the sweat and water out of his hair. He the shook his head, not spraying nearly as much water as Serge had. Then again, the blue haired youth was a little more carefree than he was about such things and seemed to be enjoying his water fight with Nikki, even IF the glam rocker was winning.

Glenn's ears perked up. He heard something.

"Glenn?" asked Serge.

"I heard something," he said.

Nikki stopped. "That sounds like. . . giggling. . . from. . . GIRLS!"

"DIVE UNDER THE WATER!" said Serge. All three young men did, waiting as long as they could before they resurfaced. Once all three had resurfaced, they wordlessly agreed that it was about time they got out of the water, got dressed, and set up camp for the night.

Serge felt his shirt, which he'd hung on a tree branch after rinsing it off before going into the water. It was now dry and ready to wear. He looked over to see Nikki pulling the x-shaped suspenders (that was the best word Serge had for that part of Nikki's outfit, anyways) and Glenn looking around confused.

"Glenn, why aren't you getting dressed?" asked Nikki, pulling on one of his boots.

"Where are my clothes?" he asked. "I left them over here but now they are gone."

"Huh?" asked Serge. "What happened to them?"

"If I knew that why would I ask you where they were?" asked Glenn.

"Good point," said Nikki.

Serge looked around, trying to figure out who would want to take off with Glenn's clothing. He looked up and saw two figures flying above them. "HEY!" he shouted, pointing skywards. His two companions looked up, Nikki raising an eyebrow in confusion as Glenn simply moaned.

"Oh no, not this again!" he whined.

"Are they who I think they are?" asked Nikki.

"Sonja and Genie?" asked Serge. He looked at Glenn, the only possible source of the two Green summons. Nikki had a similar look on his face. "Glenn, why did you summon them? We aren't in the middle of a battle and we don't need them out right now? What are they doing here?"

"And, more importantly, why are they playing with your clothes?" asked Nikki.

"I did not summon them," he said miserably. "They summoned themselves."

"What?" asked Nikki.

"They somehow figured out how to summon themselves," said Glenn.

"Why?" asked Serge.

"Apparently they have some sort of a crush on me," said Glenn. "That or a psychopathic obsession- I am not sure which one it is, but as of late they've been sneaking into bathrooms where I happen to be bathing and rooms where I am changing. I cannot control them."

"You're telling me that they're both in love with you?" asked Serge.

"I do not know if I would call it love," said Glenn.

"They remind me of a group of pushy groupies I met in Choras once," said Nikki.

"That isn't helping," said Serge. Glenn now looked mortified and had taken refuge in a nearby bush. He turned to Nikki. "Any idea how to get them to give the clothing back?" Nikki shrugged and pointed at Glenn. Glenn shook his head, looking up at the two summons in a pathetic whimpering type face.

"We need to get help," said Nikki. "Who knows a lot about summons?"

Serge bit his bottom lip. "I don't know," he said. "They're summons, Nikki."

"Um. . . want me to see if I can hunt up Steena or someone who knows a lot about magic?"

"We could try that," said Serge. He looked at Glenn, who was still in the bush. "Don't worry, Glenn, we'll get your clothes back." He turned to Nikki, then pulled the Teleporter out of his pocket. "I'm going to send you back to Termina so I can bring someone else here."

"All right, just give me a second to make sure I have everything," said Nikki. Serge leaned up against a tree as Nikki looked over where he had placed his clothing. He smiled, holding up his Pebble Pick. "See? I would've left this behind if I hadn't double checked."

"Say hi to everyone in Termina for me, all right?" said Serge.

"See ya!" he said, disappearing. He disappeared in a flicker, soon to be replaced by the Shrine Maiden, who was in a bathrobe with curlers in her hair. The remaining two young men stared at her strangely as she shrieked at them, drawing her sword (why she had her sword with her the other two never figured out).

"Steena! Calm down!" said Serge, holding his hands up defensively. "I can explain."

"Start explaining," said Steena, looking rather irritated. But she did lower her sword, which was a plus. "I was just about to settle into a nice bubble bath with a good book when you brought me here. Being a shrine maiden and a village chief and an adventurer is tiring! Now what seems to be the- GLENN! WHAT ARE YOU-"

"That's why we need your help," said Serge.

Steena scoffed. "If he still needs help getting dressed at his age-"

"I need no help to dress unless two summons have taken off with my clothing!" snapped Glenn, pointing skyward. He whimpered. "Why did I get stuck with the perverse summons? Why? I could have gotten RedWolf and Salamander- they wouldn't do this. Or FrogPrince and BlueWhale would have been nice."

The shrine maiden looked skyward. "Hmm. You do have a problem there," she said.

Glenn mumbled something incoherent under his breath.

"Can you help us?" asked Serge.

Steena bit her bottom lip. "Hmm. . ." she said. Then, she shook her head. "No, sorry."

"WHAT!?" asked Glenn, nearly standing up, but stopped himself from giving Steena an eye-full. He cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure. "Steena, why can you not help me? They have my clothing- I am naked right now and I wish to be dressed. Please."

"I don't know anything about summons. Now had Unicorn and the Saints done something it might have been a different story, but I haven't used those summons, nor can I- my innate color is white, not green," she said. "If you truly want help, I would suggest getting help from another green innate person."

"That's not a half bad idea," said Serge. "Thank you, Steena." Steena nodded.

"Now- may I got back to my bubble bath?" she asked. Serge nodded switching her for someone else. He fumbled with the Teleporter while Glenn watched anxiously. Who would Serge come up with? Someone green, that was for sure. That meant a choice of Karsh, Razzly, Radius, Sprigg, Turnip, NeoFio and Van. Who out of that bunch would help him?

Apparently, Serge had chosen Sprigg. Unlike the previous choice, Sprigg seemed more ready for battle and less ready for a bubble bath. She was dressed like normal and stuff dressed normally. Well, I suppose this could work out well, Glenn thought to himself. Sprigg was smart and wise.

"Ah, hello, Serge," she said. "Do you need my assistance?"

"Yeah, you see, we had a problem with two of the summons and then they took off with Glenn's clothes and now we-" Serge started, but Sprigg was no longer playing any attention to him. In fact, Sprigg was sauntering her way over to Glenn's bush. The Dragoon had a mortified look on his face.

"Why hello, Glenn," she said, winking at him. Glenn's face paled as Sprigg tried to get closer. "I had no idea you had such a nice and limber little body." She blinked old, crusty eyelashes at him, plainly trying to get a good view of the MUCH younger man's anatomy. "It's been over two hundred years since I've felt the company of a man-"

Then she was gone.

"Okay, so Sprigg was a bad idea," said Serge, laughing lightly as he tried to apologize to a somewhat traumatized Glenn. "I had no idea she'd do that you. Really, I didn't. She calls herself a lovable old lady, not a PERVERTED old lady, I swear it!" He pushed a few buttons. "Maybe this'll be better."

Radius appeared. "You need my assistance?"

"Yes," said Serge, who proceeded to explain the problem to Radius. The former Dragoon looked up into the sky and scratched his chin as he watched the two summons, who were now waving Glenn's shirt around. "Hmm. That is a problem, isn't it? I had no idea those summons were so. . . interested in Glenn." He turned to Glenn and chuckled. "Perhaps you should take them up on their interest in you- I know for a fact that you've had a bit of trouble with women in the past years."

"Radius!" Glenn whined. "Not now!"

"Come, come now, the Einlanzer. . . um, Einlanzers. . . are in your possession now and their choose their next bearer by means of family- you need to provide the next user. Think about how powerful the children would be if you mated with one of them!" said Radius. "And it's not as if they're-"

"I think we're going to try someone else," said Serge, switching Radius for Razzly. Razzly waved at Serge and gave him a hug, then went to hug Glenn, but stopped when she realized he was naked and hiding in a bush. The two explained the problem to the fairy.

"Hmm," she said. "I'll go talk to them." The fairy flew up into the sky to where the two summons were hovering. Both the wood sprite and the sky djinn both stopped to look at the young fairy. They then began to talk, a series of head nods and laughs being all that the two young men could make out. Then, much to Glenn's pleasure, the two summons gave her Glenn's clothing and went back to wherever it is summons go when they aren't being summoned.

Glenn and Serge stared in Razzly in shock as the fairy gave the Dragoon his clothing (while politely turning her head away). As Glenn started to dress, Serge looked at Razzly in amazement, shaking his head. "I don't know how you did it, Razzly. What did you do to get them to give up the clothing?"

"I said 'please'."