Emily's Tale

Emily sat quietly on the bench next to Amelia. Her tail twitching in time to Amelia’s spell weaving. Emily had a job to do; being a familiar was a job she took seriously. Emily was quite old, much older than Amelia was. She had had a vast knowledge of the magical arts. She had only outlived her witches because of her knowledge and their lack of attention to her suggestions. The choice of which, witch or potential witch a familiar went to was not, left up to luck. No, the ruling body among the witches and wizards made this important decision.

Emily jumped as Amelia came to the final line in the spell. Amelia had gotten the spell wrong and Emily knew if she did not nock her backwards, the potion would blow up in her face. Emily had become especially fond of Amelia. For all Amelia’s bumbling she was very powerful and had a fantastic heart. She had more potential than anyone had guessed. The pureness of her soul was something that even the council had seen. When the potion blew, Amelia was sitting on her rump with Emily purring on her lap.

Amelia just shook her head and petted Emily on the head. “What would I ever do without you, my lovely?” Emily affectionately licked Amelia in the face and jumped to the floor. Emily padded quietly to the door, and waited for Amelia’s list of supplies to make a second attempt at the spell.

However going to the wizard’s market always had its dangers. Emily knew every possible danger she would face on the way to the market. One of the dangers that most familiars overlooked was children. Children, good or bad could and would stop any familiars thinking them a stray pet, and dragging them too their homes and sometimes to torture them. Dressing them like a baby or sticking them in a cage. Of course, all familiar’s can escape as long as were not caught. For a familiar to be caught escaping would mean, expulsion from the familiar society. This would mean all your power stripped and your memories wiped out, so that you were just a stray cat.

Emily arrived at the wizard’s market, and retrieved all the necessary items for Amelia’s spell. Each item was stored in the magical bag she carried around her collar. She got home and padded directly to the window, knowing that Amelia would be sitting at the window, she did this every time a spell went wrong. Emily was used to the routine. She jumped once to get Amelia’s attention, then again to come through the window.

A familiar could have just used a transport spell to get back without looking like they had ever left. Emily did not like to use the transport spells they usually upset the witches and wizards. Some of them were envious of the familiar’s powers that the familiars. Being a familiar was not always such a great thing, Emily remembered when a group of rogue witches thought that killing the familiar of another would give them power over them. It had taken a full-scale investigation of the counsel to stop the group. A quarter of the familiars died during these attacks.

Emily jumped down from Amelia’s lap and went over too where work table. She quickly unloaded her collar setting up for a second attempt at the spell. She hoped that Amelia was successful. This would change familiar history. It would give us a voice and limited shifting abilities. Amelia however was blissfully unaware of all the ramifications of the spell, she only knew that she would be able to communicate with me better and for her, that was more than enough. After about ten more tries, Emily's voice was born, as was the shifting abilities.

So now,
here I sit a writer,
telling you my tale.

I miss
my swishing tail
ever so slightly.

After re-reading this it needs a little help.