Chapter 4: Incarnation

Callie decided to get her own familiar. She could purchase one from a store but there was always the cheaper option. The magic folk of old would go into the woods and ask if a spirit would like to be their companion. If anybody was interested, they would come in the form of an animal and be bound to the witch or warlock until death.

Most familiars preferred to be domesticated animals like cats, dogs, and birds but some could be reptiles and insects. Wild animals like wolves and big cats were rare. She heard of familiars in other countries where familiars took on the form of exotic animals but hadn’t seen any around campus. She was curious what form hers would take.

She had been uninterested with any of the familiars at the pet store and made her way to the forest near campus with a small silver bell and a plate with the lemon cake they had for dinner. She laid down the plate on the ground and moved her flashlight over the circle of trees and tried to see anything in the dark.

Apprehensively, she rang the bell and called out, “I ask for a companion. You shall always have a place by my hearth and have bread and wine from my table. I swear it by the old gods. So mote it be.”

There was nothing but silence. She moved the flashlight towards the trees again and felt like a fool. Would a familiar even want to serve her if she wasn’t fully human? If she was a dead witch or warlock, she would think twice about bonding with her too.

A large shadow moved past the circle of rowan trees. She tried to follow its movements but it had disappeared into the darkness. There were tales of other spirits answering instead of familiars, angry and vengeful and waiting for a foolish young witch to go the woods by themselves. She reached for the blade she’d tucked at the waistband of her jeans and hoped it wasn’t any of the slippery lesser demons that would occasionally escape through the other gates.

A red fox walked past the circle of trees, golden eyes stared up at her with a mischief that should’ve made her nervous but it only made her smile. She didn’t bother with her knife and knelt down to the forest floor. She nudged the plate of lemon cake at the fox and waited. He ate quickly, tearing big bites out of the cake until it was gone.

"What’s your name?" she asked.

"The witch usually picks the name for the familiar," he replied, a voice in her head sounding like smoke and polished stone. "Please don’t name me something humiliating like 'fluffy'."

"What name would you like then?"

"I believe I was Finnegan in my past life."

"Finnegan? I could call you Finn."

"We shall do well together, little witch."

She picked up the empty plate and began walking back to the dorms. Finn followed her, his black paws making little sound in the forest. She would need to report having a new familiar at the Student’s Office but she could do that in the morning. She had to find a new bed for her familiar first.

Finn liked to walk with her around campus. They ignored the stares they were receiving as a fox familiar was quite rare. The most exotic familiar before Finn had been a chameleon bonded to a First Year boy.

Familiars weren’t allowed in the Dining Hall and Finn would hide outside in the hallway away from the sight of teachers and students. She snuck out two boiled eggs in her bag and Finn ate them outside as she sat on a bench and tried to plot her next move.

She had been studying Trish and Nicholas’ exes for their common traits. Finn was very good at getting around campus to spy and share with her what he observed. They were all pretty brunettes who were popular and smart. Nicholas had a type.

She pulled on a lock of her dark hair. She inherited her grandmother’s looks with blonde hair so pale it was almost white. She dyed it shortly before arriving at Shipton to be able to blend in better.

"What do you think, Finn?" She watched as Finn unpeeled the shell off his second egg. "He seems to like brunettes."

"I don’t blame him. I liked a few dark-haired women in my day."

"Women in your day? How old are you again, Finnegan?"

"Older than I’d ever like to admit." He bit into the egg, little bits of yolk falling to the ground. "Are you sure you want a boy that only cares what color your hair is?"

"How shallow we must sound to you, old man."

"It’s the human condition."

"Were you not shallow when you were human?"

"Of course I was." Finn ate the last of the egg and bent down to get the crumbs. "But wisdom comes after age and death. And now I am free to judge the living and young as I wish."

She snorted. "Speaking from your experience as a shallow man, what should I do to get his attention?"

"You must make yourself different from his past paramours." He gave her that mischievous look. "You must be unique. Men like that. It excites them."

Trish and her friends were walking past. Trish murmured to her familiar and Glenda’s red eyes stared up at her in adoration. There was still the rat to take care of first.

She looked at Finn in consideration. "Do foxes eat rodents?"

His golden eyes flashed in mischief and he gave her a toothy smile. "They taste like chicken."

"Finnegan Fox." She reached over and petted him between the ears and he closed his eyes in pleasure. "How useful you are."

"Glad to be of service."

Nicholas’s familiar was a dog. It was a big Bernese mountain dog named Bishop who everybody on campus seemed to love. He smiled and wagged his tail as Nicholas took him on a walk around campus. He would stop to accept pets from people and chased Aubrey’s cat that jumped up a wall to get away. Some familiars acted more animal-like than others and Bishop was one of them.

"What does the form of the familiar say about the master, Finn?"

"Familiars take the form that best represents their master." Finn explained. He sat beside her on the windowsill watching Nicholas try to pull Bishop away by the leash. "Your boy is apparently an excitable nuisance."

"Not from my interactions with him." She frowned at another week of failed attempts to get Nicholas’ attention. "I would’ve thought Bishop would take the form of some kind of bird that’s good at evading predators."

"Like a sparrow or a little dove?"

Nicholas was able to divert Bishop and they jogged down the grassy lawn.

"Always flying away when I don’t want him to."

She glared at a trio of girls watching him nearby and concentrated on the bench they were sitting on. Their combined weight would take more magic to loosen the screws on the bench but she didn’t give up. The wood collapsed underneath them and they shrieked in surprise. She snickered and noticed her reflection in the window glass, her eyes were completely black.

Finn gave her an appraising look. "I thought about being a big cat for you like a panther. Then I thought maybe a wolf would be better."

"What changed your mind?"

"Anyone that can escape Hell has to be cunning so I thought of a snake or a cat," he continued. "I settled on a fox because you have a talent for mischief."

She blinked at her reflection till her eyes were back to their blue-grey color. "I’m glad you’re not a snake. I find them discomforting."

"I never cared for them either."

"Trish’s familiar is a rat. What does that say about her?"

"She’s greedy and insecure," Finn scoffed. "A rat of all things. What was her familiar thinking?"

She mulled over this new information. Greedy and insecure meant Trish would be easily manipulated. It was already well-known that Trish was jealous and afraid of losing Nicholas to another girl. Jealousy could be unattractive when it turned into possessiveness and that would chafe any man.

Finn cocked his head to the side. "Do you know what they call female foxes, Callie?"

"What?"

"A vixen."