Humans Don't Make Good Familiars

Part 34: Last Days at Home

Suma's POV

"Suma, can you summon me back?" He asked, he almost sounded like he was in pain.

"Of course," I said and quickly cast the spell. I started to make a list of the last things I needed to do before we leave tomorrow, but my train of thought was interrupted when Jake collapsed bleeding from his stomach! I rushed over to him and discovered that the summoning spell was already beginning to heal his wounds, but that process was slower than my healing spells, so I immediately got to work.

"What happened?" I asked as I cast my first healing spell on him.

"I took a wrong turn," He said and tried to laugh, but he seemed to be in too much pain and winced instead.

"Off a cliff?" I mocked his vagueness. He chuckled, then moaned, then asked me not to make jokes till after he was done bleeding. It took a few minutes, but I was able to close all of his frighteningly deep wounds. However, since I healed him after he was summoned and not before, it meant he was thoroughly exhausted. "Better?" I wondered. He gave a slight nod of his head and a tired moan.

"Yes, thank you. Goodness, I forgot how tired I get after this." He complained.

"Better than bleeding to death though." I said. "So how did you get such vicious injuries?" His responses were slow and labored from sleepiness.

"I... was walking home... after dinner. I was attacked. They had knives... but I think I won." His tone was low and his words were meandering.

Remembering how much he was bleeding, I questioned, "Are you sure?"

"I was able to summon Destiny and Aegis, that saved my life." He lifted his head to say.

"But I thought magic did not work in your world?" I said surprised.

"It doesn't, or didn't at least. Maybe because I spend so much time here, or maybe because I already knew how to use it? I don't know, but I do know that it was the only reason I lived." Jake told me then slowly put his head back on the ground.

"Well, we can talk more about this later, you need to rest if you want to recover your strength. We leave tomorrow." I said this to the air as it turns out, because Jake had already fallen asleep on the ground where I summoned him. I landed on his head and pecked him with my beak. "JAKE, WAKE UP AND GET CLEANED! YOU ARE STILL COVERED IN BLOOD!" I yelled into his ear jarring him awake.

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Jake's POV

I stood in the shower that the stable uses to clean the animals off and let the warm water run over me. It was all I could do to not fall asleep. I cleaned the blood off of my arms and torso, then washed my hair for good measure. I did all of this with my eyes closed as it was too difficult to open them at the moment. Turning off the water and grabbing a towel I had brought from Earth, I wrapped it around my waist, left the shower and walked back to my room. Thankfully, the inn was happy to let me put up some privacy curtains around the shower, though there was one incident when a member of the staff flew in to ask if I needed anything. After returning to my room, I got dressed and finally went to bed. Suma healing me always makes me tired, like running for hours and not eating for two days after a long night of dancing at a club kind of tired. I blacked out within seconds.

When I woke up, the sun was just starting to rise, and I was starving. I knew this would happen, so I set out plenty of food before I went to bed. After eating I started to feel normal again, and called Suma. "Hey Suma, are you awake?" I received no answer. Figuring she was still asleep, I walked outside and looked around. The city was quiet, the sun was cresting over the horizon, the sky was turning from night-black, to ribbons of silver and green which were starting fade away and give over to its normal reddish orange. A few Neame were already flying around and I saw smoke columns begin to dot the city one by one; most likely Neame lighting forges or other sources of fire of some kind. The Neame don't really cook anything, but I have seen a few places around town that would cook small portions of meat for nobles who could afford such luxuries.

"Todays the day," I said to myself as I sat on the short blue grass. I had a lot of doubts to be sure, should I be doing this, am I doing the right thing, those kinds of thoughts. But I always subdued them the same way. Suma is going, even if I don't...

"Jake... are you up yet?" Suma yawned.

"Yeah, I'm awake." I responded.

"Okay, I will be down in a little while." She said. I didn't say anything back, I was still thinking. I wished I knew what to expect, I wished I could predict what we would encounter, but I didn't... and I couldn't. Suma came down about twenty minutes later and landed on a perch next to me.

"Nice view," She said. "Is the one on your world like this?"

"All the parts that matter." I told her. We sat quietly for a while, not saying anything. We both just wanted to take one last look I suppose. But eventually the silence had to end.

"...Are you ready to go?"