This is from the opening of my first chapter. Give it a try! I'm just 2 away from 25 subs!
Mancer stood alone in a barren wasteland. A stiff breeze blew, kicking up dust into his face, but he paid it no mind. Beneath his feet, hundreds of glowing purple lines intersected in a massive web of magical circuitry. It was by far the most advanced summoning circle he'd ever drawn, and easily the largest in history.
“Are you really doing this?” Rixi, his wind sprite, flitted around him at high speed, pausing briefly in front of him to ask the question.
“Of course,” Mancer mumbled. Though he'd been alone for nearly thirteen years now, he still felt self-conscious about talking to his summons. Even Rixi, his very first contract spirit, had been unable to break the mold to which he'd so naturally conformed.
She pouted in front of him now, tapping her foot in the air as her dragonfly wings held her aloft. Her black skirt danced in the wind, and her long blond hair twisted into a perpetual curlique. She leaned forward, hands on her hips, with her dark green blouse hanging loosely around her neck. Her nose was just inches away from his, but he ignored her completely, waving her away as he focused on his work.
“Hmph! You've got some nerve, young man!” The thousand year old air spirit ranted ceaselessly, but it was nothing he hadn't heard before. He brushed her aside once more, taking for granted the very first connection he'd formed in this world.
Rixi scoffed. “Seriously. You can be so… Ugh! Don't make me call you by your real name, Peri–”
She was immediately met with a finger stuffed in her face. Rixi recoiled, tumbling backwards in a slow spiral.
“I've told you not to call me that,” Mancer said irritably, “now leave me alone!”
“You never complained when Jyna said it,” Rixi spat. She immediately regretted her words, though her pride wouldn't let her show it. Mancer was silent, staring at his lifelong friend despondently. A single tear rolled down his dirt caked face.
“Mancer, I–”
“Vanish.”
At his command, swirling lights enveloped the wind sprite, and a gust of wind blew through the wasteland like the final gasp of death. The tattoo around his ring finger pulsed briefly, then went dark, leaving a hollow, sickening feeling inside of him. Remorse gripped him. She was his first friend, his first interaction. Even before he was born, she was there with him, and now he'd dismissed her.
Like a rock that wouldn't skip.
But he couldn't dwell on it. He wouldn't let himself. There was too much to be done.
