Cat Out of the Bag Read online

  I hurried back toward the hut, and just as I parked my bike outside, a portal opened up right in front of me.

  A man who looked as though he belonged to the elfin race of the planet Dalonos stepped from the portal. An ethereal dragon circled around him and smiled at me.

  “Who are you? What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Come with me, Miss Mew.”

  “I can’t leave my Pappi.”

  “Your Pappi can’t come where you need to go. But I assure you that you can return to this exact moment in time.”

  “I can’t leave my Pappi,” I repeated.

  “I have the answers to all of the questions you have been searching for.”

  “Tell me who you are.”

  “My name is Serious Rex. I am a dragon summoner like you. I’m here to tell you about your destiny. Now come. There is much for you to learn.”

  I looked at the house then back at Serious, wondering how in the world I could trust him. If I went inside and got Pappi, we could escape the chaos with our lives. But then what?

  Serious held out his hand, patiently waiting for me. The dragon coiled around his other arm. I stared at the dragon for several breaths, my curiosity getting the better of me. There was a saying about cats and curiosity, but I didn’t want to think about that just then. Instead, I climbed off my bike, took the elf’s hand, and stepped through the portal.

  Chapter 13

  A cold rush of magic slid over me, and it felt not unlike the experience I’d had with the shaman up on the mountain. As my foot stepped through and my body emerged on the other side of the portal, I found myself in a large room lit by big windows that looked out on a snowy forest. The room was paneled in dark wood with stairs leading up to a second floor. To my right was a sitting room with comfortable-looking furniture and a warm, glowing fire. To my right was a door that led into what appeared to be a library. People of all sorts were walking up and down the stairs and through the hall behind them. I turned to Serious and waited for him to give me an explanation. “What is this place?”

  “This is the headquarters of the League of Summoners,” he said. “Welcome to the fold, Mango Mew. It is good to have you with us. Please come this way, and I will explain everything.”

  He led me up the stairs to the second floor, where I could see that the stairs led to a third and perhaps even a fourth story. But we turned right and headed down the hall to a set of double doors, which he opened. We walked inside, and I found a tidy study with a big oak desk and shelves full of books and strange artifacts. There was a map behind the desk that wasn’t like any map I had ever seen. The only way I knew it was a map was because it had the names of locations I recognized, including the junkyard. There was a big asterisk there, along with a note that said “unknown summoner.”

  “Please, have a seat,” he said, motioning toward a chair on the near side of the desk. He walked around and sat behind the desk then folded his hands together in front of him.

  I looked around the room curiously. “How did you find me?” I had never been in such a grand building, even back in Sho’kin Forest. I imagined it was what the Imperial officials and Landlords were used to.

  “When you were greeted by your avatar, we were able to sense you.”

  “You could sense me?”

  “A water elemental summoner told me that a water avatar had taken a new charge. The elemental summoners have a sensitivity to avatars of their own type.”

  I couldn’t fully comprehend any of it.

  “I sense you have not yet tamed your first dragon.”

  “No.” I shook my head.

  “Perhaps we should start at the beginning.”

  “I think that’s a good idea.” I leaned back in my chair.

  “Let me begin with the basics. You’re probably asking yourself what a summoner is.”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking myself.”

  “I would assume your avatar explained something? Or were you contacted by an untamed beast?”

  “Actually. I had this weird dream about a dragon. He opened a portal for me and told me that I was a summoner. Is that what you’re talking about?”

  “Exactly. So you are a dragon summoner. Very interesting.”

  “Why is that interesting?”

  “Dragon summoners are extremely rare and powerful. The dragons themselves have strong magic, and they are the only creatures who are able to open portals. As you saw yourself, my dragon opened the portal to you.”

  “And what exactly are portals?”

  “Portals allow for travel between worlds and dimensions. They’re better than space travel and quicker than time machines. Dragon portals are the fastest and most effective means of transportation in all the universe. Dragons also have immense power in battle.”

  “Speaking of battles, maybe I should be getting back to the junkyard—”

  “You needn’t worry about your father. As I told you before, you can return at exactly the moment that you left.”

  “How is that possible?” I scrunched up my face in disbelief.

  “Because traveling through time and dimensions are all within the realm of dragons’ portal abilities. And you, Mango, will have the power to possess and control this. But first, you must tame your first dragon.”

  “Why are you telling me all of this?”

  “It is our wish that you join the League of Summoners, for your skill is highly prized.”

  “I don’t have any skill. I just learned about this yesterday. I might be a good mechanic and a great racer, but I don’t know anything about summoning, and I don’t know anything about dragons beyond the chatty dragon who came to me in a dream. But that was just a dream. For all I know, this is a dream. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the kind of things that I’ve been dreaming about lately.”

  “I assure you, Mango, that this is not a dream. This is one hundred percent real, and we are prepared to train you in the ways of summoners, and we will always support you in your work.”

  “What work? All I want is to get the farm back and save Pappi’s eyesight.”

  “If you did not have the heart of a hero, you would not be invited into the League. All of us are sworn to fight for the side of good, to bring justice to the weak, and to restore balance to all of the worlds. There is a fight between the dark and light, and you are one of the good ones.”

  “I never cheat at dice or in the races. But I don’t see how that makes me a hero or why I would have this magical ability to tame dragons.”

  “None of us knows why we are chosen for this role, only that we have been. And in all my years as the head of the League of Summoners, I have never met a single initiate who did not accept the call.”

  “I’m not saying that it isn’t an interesting idea. I have been having these weird dreams. And when the shaman took me up on the mountain, I had a vision of a goddess. She told me she was my avatar.”

  “I got to you as soon as I could.”

  “So how exactly do I tame dragons, anyway?”

  “I’m glad that you asked.” He stood. “You should begin your training right away. And then when the time is right, you will learn the skills to hear the call of an untamed dragon. They will reach out to you through time and space, asking you to come and work with them.”

  “And then what?”

  “That is exactly what you are going to learn now.”

  Chapter 14

  Serious and I walked down the hall then up the stairs to the third floor. We stepped into a large room that looked like a gymnasium—I’d seen pictures of them from the Imperial cities, where sports teams played their games. There were many races of people wielding magic all around.

  “I will leave you with Avalon. She is the lead instructor of tamers and the water elementalist who sensed your avatar.”

  A woman with blue skin and white hair walked forward, clearly assessing me. But as she scanned my form, her eyes softened, and her lips curled into a smile. She was younger than she ha
d appeared at first and had a pretty face with an upturned nose and pointy ears—she looked like a cross between a gnome and an elf.

  “Greetings, Mango,” the woman said in a soft, watery voice that sounded like what I’d heard when I tried to talk underwater. “My name is Avalon.”

  “Hi,” I said, feeling awkward and embarrassed. I was still covered in dirt and grime from the race, my fur was sweaty, and my goggles were matted in my hair.

  “Serious has explained the basics to you?” she asked.

  “I guess. I still don’t fully understand what’s going on, but I suppose I will learn.”

  “You will. And I am here to teach you.”

  We walked past groups of elves, humans, gnomes, and centaurs, whom I had never seen in the flesh but had heard rumors about. There were two identical twin girls with the wings of eagles, faces like angels, and feathers intermixed with their long brown hair. There was a man with the head of an elephant and a giant blue woman with six arms and two heads.

  “Are all of these people summoners?”

  “Some are summoners, some are the creatures they summon, and some are avatars.”

  “Okay,” I said, feeling more confused than ever.

  “Let’s start from the beginning. A summoner is a sentient being with the ability to focus their energy and attention on the creatures that are summoned. Those creatures make a soul contract to be in union with a summoner before the time of their birth. Some creatures will be in union with more than one summoner in the course of their lifetimes. And as you are a dragon summoner, it is likely that most of your dragons will outlive you by many, many centuries. I am a water elementalist, and the water elementals I summon can be quite young. Elementals are coming and going from this plane of reality at all times.”

  “What kinds of creatures do summoners summon?”

  “Many summon common beasts, like bears or foxes or wolves. Some even summon birds. They are the easiest creatures to tame and find, so a beast summoner will have many dozens of companions. And since more than one companion can be summoned at a time, they can bring into being great forces of beasts who will fight with them in battle.

  “Then there are those who can summon creatures such as phoenixes, gargoyles, griffins, hellhounds, or basilisks, which are harder to find.”

  I nodded.

  “There are also elemental summoners. There are water, fire, earth, and air elementalists. We can summon anything of our element. Elementals are everywhere, but it is a challenge to seek them out and to find the part of them that is conscious enough to be tamed.”

  “What about dragons?”

  “Dragons are extremely rare and magical beasts. Serious is the only dragon summoner in our League.”

  “He’s the only dragon summoner in the universe?”

  “No,” she said, “he is simply the only summoner in our League. You must know, Mango, that we are not the only summoners in the universe. There are others who work against us, those aligned with greed and self-interest. They also have the power to summon the creatures and to use that power in any way they choose.”

  “Why do the creatures let themselves be tamed by evil people?”

  “It is all about alignment, although a particularly skilled summoner can change a creature’s alignment. I am going to show you how I summon one of my elementals. At first, I will activate my primary avatar, who is also a goddess of water.”

  She stepped back, opened up her arms, and tilted her head back. She spoke some strange words and waved her hands around in an odd motion. And in the space behind her appeared the goddess who had spoken to me up on the mountain.

  “Hey, that’s my avatar,” I said, not understanding how we could have the same one.

  “Avatars can work with more than one summoner, and they’re aligned to their frequency of darkness or light. That does not change. Whether the avatars work for us or we work for them is a philosophical question. But that is an aside for another time.

  “Because the avatars are high-dimensional beings who exist outside of our experience of time and space, they can be in more than one place at a time. Therefore, they can work with more than one summoner at the same time. To’Tonya informed me of your existence. And that is how we found you. I am now invoking the blessing of healing. This invocation can be very useful in battle.”

  “I don’t have that invocation. In fact, I don’t even know how to call on her at all.”

  “That will be your first lesson, Mango.”

  For the next hour, Avalon showed me hand movements and taught me the words that would allow me to invoke the water goddess. It took me fifteen tries before I finally was able to invoke her.

  “I can sense that you have already been gifted with the power of intuition,” Avalon said.

  “I don’t know how that could be very useful in battle,” I replied.

  “Don’t underestimate the power of intuition. It can guide you in many ways, and it appears to me that the goddess has already been guiding you with this ability for quite some time.”

  “I guess it’s possible,” I said, thinking of all of the times I’d been able to win at dice or at cards or in the races.

  “Now, I will be teaching you how to summon your creature.”

  “But I haven’t tamed one yet.” I raised an eyebrow.

  “We will get to the taming part next.”

  We went through the process of summoning a creature. She showed me how she summoned her water elementals and helped me practice the invocations.

  “So it’s going to be the same with the dragon?” I asked when I finally felt like I had the skill mastered.

  “The only difference will be stating your creature’s name. That will bring them into being so that you can command their actions. Now, let’s work on the spell for taming.”

  It was what I had been waiting for all afternoon. I didn’t know why, but the whole story about being a tamer just made sense… And it answered questions that had been broiling inside of me for longer than I could remember: how I could bring justice to my world, how I could save the Sho’kin from the Landlords, and how I could protect Sho’kin Forest. These strange people with their strange words were showing me exactly how.

  Chapter 15

  “Taming is accomplished by using the internal will,” Avalon explained. “You draw on your inner strength and project it out toward the creature you wish to tame. There will be a battle of wills for a short time, but—”

  “How long?” I interrupted.

  “It depends on the strength of the creature, but with dragons, I assume longer than most.”

  “How long do most tamings take?”

  “Taming a common beast takes about thirty seconds. Taming a magical beast, about two minutes. An elemental, about three minutes. So I’d guess a dragon would be about five minutes.”

  My mouth dropped open. “I have to have a battle of wills with an angry dragon for five minutes?”

  “It is part of the challenge of being a dragon tamer. But I assure you, the end result is well worth it. Now, let’s get you started. We will use a simulation to enact a taming for you, and you can try out your internal will against it.”

  “Simulation?”

  “It is part hologram, part magic, but it will seem completely real to you. I’ve asked the others to leave the training room so that we can focus.”

  “You didn’t need to do that for me.”

  “Yes, I did. A dragon tamer is rare, and we want to do everything we can to help you on your journey. We do hope that you will join the League of Summoners after you have tamed your first dragon.”

  “Is there a choice?” I pursed my lips.

  “Of course there is,” Avalon said, placing her hands on her round hips. “We don’t force summoners to join us.”

  “Just making sure,” I said, squaring my shoulders. I was used to being forced to do a lot of things.

  “All right, then, let’s get started.”

  Avalon walked across the large gymn
asium and pressed a few buttons on an electronic device as she spoke the words of a spell. I waited where she’d left me, my heart thumping in my ears. All the work we’d done that day, even summoning my avatar, To’tonya, had been pretty conceptual. It had felt like a dream when she’d attached to me, so invoking her again felt very much the same. But Avalon expected me to use my will to battle a simulated dragon. I didn’t know if I could do it, but I was willing to try.

  She nodded at me as her hands returned to her sides. “Now.”

  The room changed from a gymnasium to what looked like a deep, dark cave made of red rock and dripping stalactites. The light had grown dim, and the entire space was illuminated only by a tiny fissure in the ceiling above.

  “This is very convincing,” I said, smelling the stagnant, mineral-rich air of the cave.

  “It’s meant to be. I will wait outside the simulation and watch your progress. Nothing here can harm you, but you will probably have similar emotional reactions as you would in a real situation. It is a good indicator of what you need to work on. For the will to be strong, you must overcome your fears. Good luck.” She stepped away and out of sight, and she was gone—it was as if she’d disappeared into the stone wall of the cave behind me. I shook my head, never having seen such a thing in all my life. It was so weird.

  Letting out a deep breath, I shrugged and started through the cave, stepping along the lighted path. There was an opening ahead that led deeper into the cavern. The walls narrowed as I proceeded, stepping gingerly as I kept my balance with a hand on the wall and the flick of my tail. The craggy rocks below me crunched under my feet, and the air grew cold. A shiver went down my spine, and I twitched with anxiety.

  I could smell something blowing up from deep underground, a strange scent mingling with those of the lichen and mineral deposits. I sniffed several times, trying to make out what it might be. It reminded me of the scent of desert raptors, but with a sharper edge to it.

  My feline senses were not keen on continuing. Every nerve in my body was on high alert, telling me to run away as fast as I could, jump up to a high space, and cling there for dear life. I looked around, knowing that Avalon could probably see me. I didn’t want to seem like a scaredy-cat. I wasn’t a coward. She’d said nothing could hurt me in there, but that didn’t stop my heart from slamming in my chest and blaring like a bass drum in my ears.