Now it's Mine 2

This time when I chased after the snake, it bit me again (it hurt), but I didn't die. Maxine watched in dismay as I shook the hand that had the snake hanging by its fangs like a banner. I didn't hear the ability announcement, so I concluded that I had completely stolen the snake's poison bite from it, and maybe its poison as well.

I shook my free finger at the snake. "Bad boy or girl!" I then carefully grabbed it right under the head and pried it from my hand. It looked pretty shocked, if that was even possible with a snake face.

"Let's be friends," I told it. "I basically gave my life to you, so you owe me one." I gathered the rest of its body in my arms, still keeping a grip on its neck. Maxine was flying a few feet away from us, staring suspiciously at my new pet. "Let's go home."

The snake was pretty clever, because the entire way home it didn't bite me again; it must have realized that it wouldn't have worked. Maxine led the way, and it took less time to return.

Opening the front door, I paused to listen before slowly shutting it and tip-toeing towards the bedroom. I didn't hear anything. Poking my head into the room, I could see my mom's body on her bed, her chest rising and falling. See? All fine. I patted my chest, as if to brush away the little bit of concern I had harbored.

I could wait for her to wake up naturally, but I really wanted to show her my new pet and get her help in figuring out its gender. Neither Maxine nor I could figure it out, and I figured that being more elf than me, my mom might be able to talk to it. Talking to animals seemed like a definite elf quality. In addition, it was about time for Mom to start cooking dinner.

The bed was high off the floor, so I had to stretch to reach my mom. Fortunately, I had managed to teach the snake to balance on my shoulders, so I could use both hands to pull myself up. Once I was sitting next to her, I pushed her shoulder.

"Mom?" I pushed again, a little harder. "Mom, wake up!" She didn't move. I turned to Maxine. "Is there a spell to wake her up?"

She landed on the pillow next to me to take a closer look.

"Yes. I can clear the herb out of her system, but I can't use your magic without permission."

I waved my hand between us.

"Our magic. You can use it whenever." I grinned. "I'm not that greedy, there's more than enough to share, I'm sure."

She rolled her eyes at me. "That's not how it works, Molly."

"Oooh!" I squealed. "You said my name!"

She stared at me.

"It's important," I told her seriously. "Now we're officially friends."

Maxine blushed from her clavicles to the tips of her ears.

"Friends. Right." She sparked up the connection, still muttering under her breath. I wondered how she thought she would get through life without becoming friends. It would have been lonely. I watched in anticipation as the white light spread along my mom's body until she shone. When she took her first deep breath and opened her eyes, the light flickered out.

"Good morning, Mom. Did you sleep well?"

"Morning…?" Mom blinked sleepily, and rubbed at her eyes. She slowly focused on my face, and then her eyes moved towards the snake on my shoulders. She froze. "Molly. Stay very still."

"Why, Mommy?" I tilted my head innocently.

"Just do it." She snapped. I could see the gears turning. "This is what we're going to do. I am going to cast a freezing spell. I have to lift my hand to direct it, so I need you to stay calm and don't move."

"I don't want to! You want to freeze my snake!" I jumped off the bed. "It's my snake!"

"Molly!" She threw off the covers, following me quickly. Her burnt-orange eyes were blazing and I shivered involuntarily; I had never seen her angry before.

"That is not just any snake. That is an asper hatchling, the most dangerous magical beast in the forest. Its poison could kill even an adult gryphon. It is not a pet." She slowly held out her hand. "This is not up for discussion. We are returning it to the forest."

"No! It's not dangerous. See?" I held out my own hand. "It bit me, but I'm fine!"

"What?!" She grabbed my hand. "How? But I'm sure that…" She studied my snake. "That is definitely an asper. Tunifer showed it to me when we first moved here." Her eyes narrowed. "Molly, where did you find it?"

"In the forest…."

"MOLLY!" She kneeled in front of me. "We told you not to leave the house. How could you have left the house? Wait. How? Molly…"

I wanted to escape, but her grip was tight.

"Did you…drug me?" Her typically warm gaze was going to leave burns. I gulped.

"I wanted to see the forest. You and Daddy never let me see anything!"

"You!" She closed her eyes and took a few breaths. It didn't seem to help, though, because she was clenching her teeth as she continued. "I have to make dinner. You will sit in the corner while I cook. You are not allowed to do anything. You will sit there and reflect until your father comes home. And then we will talk. In the meantime—." Her hand flashed. In the next second she had my snake. I had barely felt her movement. "—I will keep this."

Mom marched me to the front room, set a chair in a corner, and gestured for me to sit. I was facing the wall, so I could only listen as she returned to the kitchen and put my snake into a pot. A menacing silence reigned. I was starting to wonder if she would ever forgive me, and if it had been worth it.

Maxine landed on my lap, and I remembered what I had gained.

"Not fair that I'm the only one in trouble," I whispered.

"MOLLY! No talking!"

Maxine snickered. "You're the only one who can see me or hear me. Besides, I'm not the one who almost killed us. You deserve to get in trouble." I stuck out my tongue at her and she reciprocated.

When my dad finally returned home, Maxine and I were in the middle of making up our own sign language that we could use to communicate. It was a slow process, since it had to be varied enough to fully communicate our thoughts, and yet subtle enough that no one would notice. I was having so much fun that I had forgotten that I was in trouble.

"Molly, why are you sitting there?" My dad had managed to walk up to me without me realizing. I jumped up and ran over to hug him.

"Welcome home, Daddy!"

"MOLLY! SIT BACK DOWN!"

I jumped again, this time almost out of my skin, and quickly returned to my chair.

"Al'na? Did something happen?"

"Tunifer, that daughter of yours!"

Suddenly I couldn't hear their voices anymore. I sneaked a quick look over my shoulder. They were still in the kitchen, and their mouths were moving. I put our new sign language to use, and flicked a question at Maxine.

"They put up a silence spell," she replied in a normal volume. "Mom is so angry. And now Dad will be angry, too." She looked downhearted. I guess she was playing favorites with our parents.

I gave her head a conciliatory pat.

"Molly." I looked around and saw that both of my parents were looking at me, and now my dad looked grim. "Come over here," he said.

I walked over slowly.

"Do you understand what you did wrong?" He asked.

"I shouldn't have gone to the forest without you or Mom," I answered obediently.

"And?"

"I shouldn't have drugged Mom."

"Did you apologize to her?"

"No…." I turned to her. "I'm sorry, Mommy."

She sighed.

Dad sat down and pulled me onto his lap.

"I know you want to see more than this house, Molly, but we're not doing this to be mean. The forest has many dangerous animals. You were very lucky. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Daddy." Maxine was nodding her head vigorously. I couldn't tell if it was because she was remembering our near-death experience, or she wanted to suck up to Dad, even if he couldn't see her do it.

"Now, about this asper." He tapped a pot set to the side. "Your mother and I are of two minds. Your mother wants to return it to the forest, but I think you should introduce yourself."

"Introduce myself?"

"Tunifer!"

He laughed. "Al'na, a pet would be good for her. And for my daughter, an asper is perfect! Demon children do this all the time."

"But Tunifer." She glanced at me, a complicated expression in her eyes.

"It's fine, Al'na. I promise." He pulled the pot closer. "What do you think, Molly? Do you want to keep him?"

I clapped excitedly. "Yes, Daddy!"

{Binding Names}

"All right." He put me down and placed his hand on my head. Coldness welled from his palm and streamed down my body. My vision went blue.

"This is a useful spell that I'll teach you in the future. Go introduce yourself to the asper."

It's not often that you see real life through a blue filter. Everything seemed to run into each other, except for my parents and Maxine, who had dark blue outlines. As did my hand, I realized. Looking into the pot, I saw the snake curled up at the bottom, the dark blue outlines like double coils.

"Hello," I whispered, a little embarrassed to be watched by four pairs of eyes. "My name is Molly. What's yours?"

The snake didn't respond immediately. I began to feel awkward under his steady gaze, and a little ashamed of myself. I would never have done something like this in my past life. This was a wild animal. He didn't deserve to be stolen from his home and forced into animal servitude. I had been caught up in the moment. I should tell my dad to cancel the spell and return him to the forest.

"Lamlan."

The streams of coldness were suddenly warm. The blueness swelled and then shrank, swirling like a drain down into my wrist where it settled into two dark blue coils twisting around themselves and each other, wrapping around like a bracelet.

"You didn't die." He sounded like a petulant eight-year-old. His voice was smooth, gracefully stepping between the words like a slow dance.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." I grinned at him and held out my hand. "Will you live with me and be my friend?"

He flicked out his tongue and snorted. I'm not sure how he did that, or how he was speaking. It wasn't with his mouth, at least.

"I can't kill, and so I'm useless. I might as well live with you. I won't always be useless, though!"

"Aaaw. You're not useless!" I picked him up before he could protest and gave him a hug. "You're adorable! And this is Maxine, who is also adorable!"

"You!"

"Molly!"

"Tunifer, what is this tattoo?!"

"Well, Al'na…"

And that is how in my new life I collected a demon, an elf, a reinka, and an asper before I turned three.