Summer Encompass

Summer Encompass

A/N: Hello. I am new here. Very new. Yes. I’ve really not had too much of a crack with writing. I feel confident of my abilities, but I’ve yet to find genera/s I know I am very good at. So, I decided to do this. If I spell anything wrong or make a grammatical mistake, point it out. Constructive criticism, please!

P.S: This is post Ptolemy’s Gate.

Chapter 1: It begins

Nathaniel

Nothing. He felt nothing, saw nothing. Then, he felt a mild discomfort in his abdomen. He tried to frown, but couldn’t. He had the idea to frown, commanded his body to do so, but he couldn’t. His muscles wouldn’t move. Finally, they did. And along with their movement came pain-oh, such pain!-that only lasted a moment. He gasped in shock. He tried to keep his eyes closed, but he couldn’t. It was bright, oh, so bright! He opened his eyes with a gasp. He saw a rolling blue sky, dotted with clouds, the sun shining brightly. He swung his head left and right: he was in a valley surrounded by mountains. Trees covered the land, beautiful and green. He sat up. There was a massive lake in the center, with a clearing jutting out all the way into its center. There was a rickety dock by the lake, although because the lake was thirty or so feet below the rest of the valley, someone had built a staircase made of stone down to the dock. Nathaniel looked behind him. There was a large arch with a glowing blue light at the top. It was made of stone and looked tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of years old. He stood shakily. He cast his gaze to the clump of trees on the other side of the lake. That was when he noticed the figure of the man.

Nathaniel frowned and screwed his eyes up squinting, putting his hand up to block the sun. From what he could make out, the man was wearing a brown trench coat, stumbling through the woods. He had something strapped over his back. Nathaniel frowned. Who the hell…? His eyes wandered away. Maybe there was more then one person…he glanced at the dock. His gaze ran along it, and his heart nearly exploded at the halfway point. He was sure his heartbeat was audible. It had to be. He walked forward slowly. He didn’t notice when he stepped onto the steps, nor the sound his dress shoes made. The person standing staring at the lake didn’t either. Nathaniel took another step…and promptly tripped and fell the remaining five feet to the dock. “Owww.” he moaned. He heard the person his attention had been focused on gasp and make a sound resembling a mouse’s squeak. He rose to his feet in a drunken manner, still shocked from the fall. What came next hardly helped his balance. Nathaniel felt a body ram into his own and felt arms rap around his neck, followed by something gently resting on his chest and a weak sobbing sound. Once Nathaniel regained his composure (and train of thought), he hesitated a moment. Then he rapped his arms around the figure. “Nathaniel!” she sobbed. He smiled weakly. “High, Kitty.” he said. Nathaniel bent his head to look at her face, and gasped in shock. She was normal. She was like she had been before she went to the other place. “Kitty…” he began. He never got to finish. Well, try talking with a person’s lips pressed to yours. Not easy, is it?

Dimitry Andreyvich Popov

Popov stumbled out of the woods into the daylight. He frowned for three reasons: Why the hell did he now have a VSS Vintorez slung over his shoulder, why did he have a rag-tag brown trench coat on, and where the hell was he? He looked down at the people on the dock. The seemed much closer together now. Were they…oh. They were. Dimitry scratched his head. At least he wasn’t alone. This was reinforced when he heard a zapping noise behind him and saw a small Egyptian boy hurtle past his head screaming in some unbeknownst language. Instinct (and old training) made Popov duck and remove the VSS from his shoulder. He bought the weapon up fast enough to catch a glimpse of the boy disappearing into the water through his scope. He cursed in Russian. Would the boy drown? Did he know? Did he care? His questions were answered when the boy rose from the water, levitating, and flew to the two on the dock. He muttered something. Apparently, the couple didn’t hear him. He tried again. No result. The boy drew in breath and prepared to yell. Dimitry watched. He was not prepared for what happened next. “NATHANIEL!” the word echoed off the cliff walls. It made him drop the gun. It was very, very, very, loud. It startled the living crap out of the couple, it would appear, as they both fell forward, bumped heads, then fell backwards. Dimitry chuckled and scoped up his gun. He had decided to get closer, make himself known. Besides, why would they want to harm him?

Bartimaeus

Ah, priceless, it was. Should have seen the look on his face. “Bartimaeus! You-you-you…fuc-“ (These asterisks take the place of a string of curses and insults screamed at me by Nathaniel until Kitty promptly smacked him over the head. Woo-hoo. Go Kitty. Yeah.) He rubbed the back of his head. “Ow.” he muttered. “Right. Now, if you two are quite finished, I’d like to know where we are, why you summoned me, and why there is a man in a trench coat creeping up.” They both looked at each other. “I don’t know,” they said in unison. I was about to come back with something witty ( I don’t know what, but I was positive it would be witty. After all, I am Bartimaeus of Uruk, Sakahr-al Jinni, Serpent of the Silver Plumes, ect ect.) Then, several zapping noises and “Oomphs!” later, a collection of guests was standing around brushing themselves off. “Oh dear. Magicians.” I said. By this time, the man in the trench coat was sufficiently baffled. I felt a little sorry for the poor chap. It was then the voice spoke for the first time: “Guests, please proceed to the clearing in the lake. You will be introduced…and instructed.” the booming voice disappeared.