Bringing Forth

Success! Xavier opened his eyes in the real world with joy. It had worked! The goshawk had accepted the contract.

His parents were there waiting on him. It was dark out at this point. Xavier cocked his head. Time may be set in a different time zone in the astral plane but it moved at the same rate as it did in this reality. They approached with concern on their faces.

"How is it? Did you succeed on establishing a contract with a summons?" His father came forward and gave his son a serious look. "If you failed then you don't have to worry, there's always another chance. Besides in the future as you progress you may outgrow your summoned beast and need to switch to a stronger one anyway."

Xavier hurriedly shook his head. "No, no, no. I was able to do a dimensional contract with a wind goshawk." Xavier was eager to show off his achievement with his parents. He began to immediately perform the summoning spell.

Xavier and both his parents stepped back as a shimmering aqua vortex appeared a few feet in front of them. A piercing cry echoed before the wind goshawk suddenly tore out of the vortex at unbelievable speed. It twisted itself in the air before hovering in place.

Xavier could feel a sense of confusion coming from the hawk through the contract. It was looking around with a fierce expression in its gaze. Finally, Xavier understood what it was doing. It had thought it was summoned to fight a threat and it was looking for it.

Xavier sheepishly said, "Old hawk, I didn't summon you here to fight. I did so that you could meet my parents."

Xavier was really hoping the hawk didn't realize he had summoned it just so that he could show off. His hopes were dashed in the next instant though as the hawk sensed his concern through the contract. It shrieked in annoyance and landed on his shoulder buffeting his head with its wings as it did.

Xavier's father began to laugh boisterously at his son's misfortune. He was barely able to speak as he said, "It seems that you've got yourself a feisty one there, son."

Xavier felt his face flush as he watched his father laugh at him. He turned to his mother to complain only to find her turned away from him her shoulder hunched and shaking. Feeling very hurt Xavier turned to the hawk.

It glared back at him in a savage manner before rapping its beak on his head in disdain. Xavier hurriedly crouched and covered his head as he began to cry out under the continuous knocks from the hawk's beak. "Ow, ow, ow, stop pecking at me you great feather duster!"

The hawk only began to peck at him faster and harder after hearing that. His mother could no longer hold it in and burst out in laughter. "Seems like you'll have a lot of fun with this one, little one."

Xavier pouted as his parents continued to laugh at him for the next few minutes. At last, they got control of themselves. His mother frowned as she looked at the hawk. "Let's laugh about this later. For now, we have a limited to observe the combat ability of your summons." She nodded, "Meet me in the arena."

Xavier took his summons to the arena after putting on his battle suit. He entered with excitement. With the hawk at his side he thought he might have a chance to contend with his mother. Entering the arena in high spirits Xavier suddenly came to an abrupt stop. His mother was in the observer's seat. In the center was his father.

Xavier gave a nervous laugh. "Dad did you make some sort of mistake. Shouldn't you be in the stands?"

His father smiled and looked over at his mother. She shook her head, smiled, and then looked at Xavier with pity. "Oh, little one. You have no idea how much worse it'll be for you facing your father rather than me."

Xavier was finally in front of his father. His father smiled down at him. "First lesson you'll learn now, son. There is no starting bell to the fight."

His father suddenly reached out and smacked Xavier to the edge of the arena. Xavier managed to scramble to his feet just in time for his father's basic lightning spell, electric whip, to already be in his face. Xavier dropped to the ground as his goshawk began to dive down to attack his father from above.

His father casually reached up and sent a shadow spike to nail the hawk to the ground. With the hawk immobilized his father once more sent an electric whip spell at Xavier. Xavier managed to use his spacial magic to construct a wall with his will.

As soon as the electricity hit it the wall shattered. Xavier stumbled back in shock. His father's spell was a tier one basic spell while his spacial magic was a tier three basic spell.

Xavier began to stutter, "bu- bu- but …" Xavier's eyes widened when his father's hand came down before he could reestablish the barrier. He was knocked in the edge of the stands.

"Lesson two Xavier, there's never time to ask your opponents questions in the middle of the fight." His father walked over to the edge of the barrier to catch him by the ankle and threw him back to the center of the arena. Before he landed his father caught him in the air and slammed him into the ground.

Xavier coughed as he looked up at his dad. "Ouch. That hurt."

His father laughed drily. "I'm finding myself immensely amused by this."

"That's mean father. Why are you being so mean, laughing at me for losing." Xavier reached up and tried to lift the foot that his father put on his hand off.

His father's smile widened. "What I'm amused about is that you think that I'm fooled." He casually reached up and slapped the goshawk that had gotten free, down. "Did you really think I didn't notice your will breaking my shadow spike and freeing the hawk."

His father reached down with his palm crackling with lightning. Xavier tried to slip from under his father's foot. His struggles turned out to be futile. Xavier's muscles locked up as soon as his father's palm touched him. The current swept through him and forced every muscle to seize up and no longer be able to move.

Xavier did his best to move his jaw and ask his father to stop. Unable to do so he finally relaxed and waited for his father to stop. To his surprise the current didn't go away once he relaxed. It only got stronger and stronger. Xavier looked into his father's eyes and saw something that frightened him.

There was no sign that he was going to stop shocking him. Xavier's eyes widened in disbelief. The current kept getting stronger. Finally, his father stopped and raised his hand. The electricity dissipated.

His father looked down at him with disappointment in his eyes. "You gave up."

Xavier shook his head in confusion. His father stepped forward menacingly. "Don't shake your head at me boy. You gave up. You stopped fighting." His father edged back a little. "You never stop fighting. Not ever. That's lesson number three."

His father's gaze sharpened even more. "The last lesson I have for you is this. It's the lesson I didn't follow through with just now. Always, always, finish the fight. If this was a normal situation, I would have just killed you. That way I wouldn't ever have to worry about you again."

Xavier stopped himself from getting up as he thought about it. His father never told him anything that didn't really matter. If he was saying finish the fight then he needed to finish the fight. But what was the definition of finished?