The Strange Summoning

Another spell, another explosion. Only this time it was make or break for Louise Vallière. She feared – no, she knew that if she failed this one last spell she would have to leave the Academy in disgrace. She would never rise up beyond being the trophy wife of another noble.

She held her breath for seconds as the soft breeze blew away the cloud of dust to reveal a strange figure standing in the centre of the crater that was once the summoning circle. The figure was carefully brushing off faint traces of dust off his clothing with one hand; a strange sort of blue jacket over a white shirt and a dark purple – almost black – thing worn like a bow-tie around his neck only hanging straight down. In his other hand he carried a flat rectangular black box with a round yellow symbol on it.

The man exuded unnaturalness. Something about him – his very existence – was not right.

The man eventually stopped brushing himself before giving the crowd of students who had been watching a careful gaze. As soon as he looked straight into Louise's eyes however every sound dropped out. Her first impulse was to look towards the crowd of her fellow students but found she could not, it was like she was trying to move through molasses; everything slowed before she realised everyone around her had frozen to a standstill.

The man gave a small smirk and she would have sworn to the Founder that the man was not human at that point.

"Miss Vallière," said the man before giving a small quiet chuckle. "I must confess it has been a long time since I have been surprised like that."

The man paused for a second as if he was savouring the very taste of his words.

"I h-had all-most forgotten the feeling."

The man suddenly broke his green eyes off Louise and focused on something behind Louise and off to her left.

"Professor Colbert," stated the man. "The Flame Serpent."

A male voice behind her gave a small gasp, the voice of her professor. The man gave a small satisfied smirk at the sound.

"You have much potential, my dear," he stated. "But, unfortunately, I won't be joining you as your…" he gave a small chuckle, "companion."

The man then took a step back before giving his strange clothes another brush.

"Do give Miss Vallière… ha-another chance, Professor. I will be dropping by when I receive a… job offer."

A thin vertical line of light a foot taller than the man appeared behind him before quickly widening until it was several feet wide.

"I will be keeping an eye on you, my dear," he said. "And your… friend too."

The man turned and walked through the rectangle of light and made a small backwards glance with a satisfied look on his face. The rectangle then narrowed and collapsed before vanishing as if he was never there when the sounds of the world sharply returned.

Louise suddenly found she could move again before turning dumbfounded towards her teacher.

"I… I think you should try that again, Louise," he stammered out as pale as snow.

Been a while since I've posted anything. I'm ever so slowly getting closer to posting a few chapters.

FoZ is one of those stories that isn't very good but has significant fanfic potential.

AN1 - Seems far too many people don't know Half-Life.