[quote=@Framing A Moose]
<Snipped quote by olcharlieboi>

Hmmmm....how about the Summoners only loose energy when they summon and their summon attacks. I think that would make more sense. 
[/quote]

This would be the creation of the contract that would allow for future summons. Energy, probably magical in origin, would be required to call out to the other realms where the summons reside. Additional energy would be required to bring the elemental we're summoning to our realm. I would say that because all the characters have never preformed a summon before that it requires most, if not all, the magical energy that the characters could control. 

As the RP goes on, I would presume our reserve of magical energy would increase, allowing for sustaining the chibi form of our summons or multiple summons at once, etc. 

However, this is just my two cents. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. Meh. We'll see. :)