A Name is A Powerful Thing

The gentle snowfall muffled Clair’s steps on the well-worn path to the chicken pen as the water buckets in either hand sloshed from side to side. Humming a quiet tune to herself she went about her morning routine, greeting each animal by name and in her own way greeting the new day. As the sun crested the mountain and banished the pastel paintings overhead, Clair strayed from the beaten paths of her property and made her way into the forest.

“Kazi?” she called out, “I know you’re in there. I got the good stuff for you today; I know you’re picky when it comes to your breakfast. Feel like chatting with me today or are you gonna be a recluse like usual?” With a sigh Clair cleared the snow from a small stump and sat down. “Look hun, you ain’t gonna heal alone, you’ve got to know that by now, I just wanna help. Plus, it’s warmer inside, I keep a fire going 24/7!” she paused, listening.

A small rustle sounded from a bush to the right, and large barn owl limped out into the open. Tilting his head, he shuffled his feet and puffed up, as if in annoyance. Clair laughed, “Alright, alright, impatient much? Don’t worry, it’s fresh. I know how you like it.” Retrieving a baggy from her pocket, she opened it and pulled out a small chunk of meat. “Rabbit. You’re lucky my neighbor has an infestation and doesn’t mind me asking for the ones he kills off or you’d be out of luck my friend!” She tossed the flesh to the owl who pounced on it as soon as it hit the ground and gobbled it up. Done, he puffed again and shook, letting out a small hoot of impatience. Clair laughed again and began to slowly feed him, talking the whole time.

About a month ago, Clair had stumbled upon a thin barn owl with a broken wing and one eye. Terrified it wouldn’t last the night, she had desperately tried to catch the poor creature, but miraculously it was wilier than it first appeared, and dodged her at every attempt. Vowing to return the next day, Clair had left that night and came back with food, hoping to win the wild bird’s trust, and so the daily ritual began. Every morning Clair would rise and feed her more domesticated animals and then spend at least an hour feeding and talking to the owl that she had lovingly named Kazi. Some mornings Kazi would express more trust, venturing near to Clair to inspect her with his big black eye and talk back with hoots, clicks, and noises which Clair always took as encouragement to keep talking (not that she needed any). But some mornings, all Clair got was a glimpse of the wounded bird. Once her hour was up though, Clair would leave, promising to return that evening with more food and stories, and make the walk back to her house to open her store.

This morning, Kazi seemed more annoyed that usual, his wing limp and brushing the snow. Clair sighed, “Look Kazi, I know you don’t trust me, but I really am here to help. If you want my help? All you got to do is give me a sign, and you’ll be good as new in no time. If you don’t want my help? Then just keep on doing what you’re doing now. Either way, I’ll always be here when you need me, and either way I’ll be back every morning and evening to feed you these poor innocent rabbits. Witch’s Honor.” And crossing her heart with an intricate symbol, she sighed again and winked. “Either way, who else am I supposed to tell all the gossip about the Coven to? You’re the only one that even pretends to listen you me anymore.” Tossing the last piece of meat on the ground, she stood and pocketed the baggy. “Well, that’s all for today darlin. I gotta go open the shop. Baby witches to yell at, old ladies to lie too, you know the drill. See you tonight!” Kazi just stared, and then shuffled back into his bush, disappearing.

True to her word, Clair spent her day convincing novice witches that, “Yes, that spell is above your ability, and no, I will not sell you those ingredients.” And telling little old ladies that their dead dog was speaking to them and was very grateful to be stuffed and kept around, scaring grandchildren for life. But that evening, when a tired Clair took her place on the stump and called for the injured owl, Kazi did not appear. Neither did he appear the next day, or the day after. Worried, Clair searched the forest methodically for any sign of her friend, but to no avail, and on the fourth night, Clair lost hope. Figuring the poor bird had probably passed away in his sleep or frozen to death, Clair went to bed with a heavy heart.

At 2am, Clair was woken by a terrible scream. Up and out of bed, she had donned her coat and boots as a second scream rang out from the forest. Tripping through the snow that had drifted over her path, Clair stumbled into a clearing. In the center was Kazi, writhing in the light of the full moon and screaming as a coyote slipped around him, nipping at his flailing wings. Shouting and waving her arms, Clair charged at the coyote, scaring the animal into the woods. She fell to her knees beside Kazi, “Hey, it’s ok. I’m here. Thought you were gone buddy, but I’m here. Told you I’d always be there.” Kazi calmed and blinked up at her from where he lay on his side covered in snow. “I’m gonna pick you up now, OK? I’m gonna take you home with me. No fighting me this time, hun. You’re not gonna make it if I leave you again.” Shrugging off her coat, she laid it over Kazi, who flinched at first, but then relaxed under the radiating warmth. Scooping him up in her arms, she wrapped him securely and began to walk quickly back to her house. “See? That’s not so terrible, is it? It’ll get better too, you’ll see. I’ve got all my tools at home, and we’ll have you back in the air in no time.”

The walk to the house seemed to take a lifetime, as Kazi’s breathing became shallow, and his eyes closed. By the time Clair had made it to the door, she couldn’t tell if he was still alive. Without pausing to remove her boots, Clair laid him down on her table and set about pulling out as many healing potions, tinctures, and salves as she could find. Taking a deep breath, heart pounding and hands shaking, she slowly unwrapped the coat to see the extent of his damages.

gasping in shallow breaths, Kazi lay on his side in the unwrapped coat. It was then when Clair noticed he was bleeding from a gash running down his side. Working quickly, she was able to dress the gash and bind his wing, dripping tinctures and teas into his beak, while hoping desperately for any change in his continence, none occurred. Wrapped in bandages and eyes closed, Kazi seemed fragile, broken, and dead already. With a cry of frustration, Clair ran to her cabinet and pulled out candles and chalk. Sprinting back to the table, she drew a complicated sigil around the owl’s prone body and lit candles at the four compass points. Tears streaming down her face, she laid her hands reverently upon the broken body. Bowing her head, she began to sing. It was a tune without recognizable words, one that seemed to come from the heart. Slowly, after several minutes, Kazi’s breathing began to stabilize. He opened his eyes, blinking his good one up at Clair, she was smiling back down at him.

“There you are love; thought you were a goner there.” She slowly raised her hands and wiped her tears on her sleeve before wiping the blood dripping out of her nose. She chuckled, “You were worse off than I thought there, took a bit out of me. Don’t worry though, you’re tiny, didn’t take more than I can handle.” She said into response to his eye narrowing. He lifted his head a little and hooted softly, as if asking a question. “You know, for an animal? You sure do respond at the best of moments. No, you truly shouldn’t worry, see you know I’m a witch, right? Well, witches are supposed to make sacrifices to perform spells, a sacrifice equal or greater to the power required to perform the spell. See, I’ve figured out a way to make myself the sacrifice. Comes at a cost as you can see.” She wiped her nose again, “but makes me pretty damn powerful. My Coven is pretty pissed about it, have been for a while, but I just can’t stand the idea of harming something to further an agenda.” She sighed and grabbed some napkins from the table, holding one to her nose and using the others to wipe the blood that had fallen to the table. Placing them aside, she used her free hand to help Kazi return to a standing position. “See though? Didn’t I tell you you’d be better in no time? Lemme recoup a second and I’ll bet I’d be able to fix that wing fully!” Kazi simply stared at her and fluffed himself up. Clair chuckled tiredly. “Yeah, yeah, you don’t understand a word I’m saying do you? Well, if you trust me, I’ll set you up by the fire and get us both a snack. Sound good?” She held out her arm, “You can hop on and I can carry you over or I can bring the box to you. Had one set up since I first met you, you know.” She laid her arm on the table and after a moment’s hesitation, Kazi climbed upon it and blinked at her slowly. Carefully lifting Kazi, Clair carried him to a small wooden box by her fireplace filled with soft blankets and let him climb inside. “Make yourself comfortable and I’ll be right back.”, she said and walked to the kitchen to fetch some food for herself and her new roommate.

As weeks passed, Kazi refused to allow Clair to heal his wing with magic, something Clair found quite fascinating. However, he continued to stick around, hopping around her house, and demanding to be lifted onto surfaces he couldn’t reach by himself. Every morning he was waiting for her to awake and sat upon her shoulder as she went about morning chores. During the day, he would rest upon the counter and sleep as Clair tended to customers. At night, they would sit together by the fire and Clair would ramble on about her day and her communications with the Coven while Kazi would make gentle noises back as he ate and preened. After six months, Kazi’s wing had long since fully healed yet he continued to stick around, frequently causing chaos in Clair’s life and making her laugh more than she had in years. Life was peaceful, and then, the letter came.

Clair’s Coven had summoned her to a trial, seemingly having been finally fed up with her disregard of their rules and unwillingness to share the secret of her powers. “They would abuse the power,” she had explained to Kazi, “It’s more than just using your own body as the sacrifice. You have to do it in good will. Ill intentions cannot be acted upon if you’re sacrificing a piece of yourself. Plus, I’m really not that strong. I draw a little bit of life and magic from all the plants and animals I keep. Hell, even you help make me a little stronger.” She explained as she packed a bag, Kazi preening on her bed. She donned her coat and sat down heavily beside him. “I really dislike these gals, but I wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t helped me when I was young. I guess owe them in a way.” She gently stroked Kazi’s feathers, smiling as he leaned into her touch. Then she sighed and stood again. “Well, I’m off!” She struck a serious pose, “You’re in charge around here young man until I come back. Don’t trash the place. No parties with the rooster, no matter how much you like him.” She smiled again and stroked him one last time. “Love you, Kazi. I’ll be back in a couple days.” And blowing a kiss, she walked out of the house, locking the door behind her.

Despite her bravado before Kazi, Clair was scared, and for good reason. The Coven she was part of, “Witches of the West” they called themselves, were a notoriously terrifying group. Their fights with the eastern and southern witches caused storms that wiped out whole cities, and their sacrifices could murder hordes of animals, if they didn’t choose to sacrifice people instead. Clair had come into her powers at a young age and had nearly died during an accident with her spells. Her life had been saved by the leader of the Coven, a witch so old, none could remember her actual age. The Coven had set her up with the little cabin she now lived in. However, as time progressed and Clair grew more to understand her power, she found she aggressively disagreed with the practices of her Coven. This meeting, or trial they called it, was merely the latest in a series of attempts to force Clair to reveal exactly how she was able to perform her magic without a sacrifice, something initially deemed impossible, and now deemed so desirable that the Coven was willing to go to lengths to learn the secret.

The trial itself, was a farce, as Clair expected. The moment she arrived, they had attacked, subduing her, and locking her in a cell with promises of more pain to come if she didn’t reveal her secrets. Clair fought, she resisted, and she was hurt, but it was useless, no matter how powerful they thought she was, she was still one against twenty. Sitting alone in her small cell, Clair didn’t worry for herself. Too many years of thinly veiled threats had prepared her for the possibility of this exact moment. No, Clair’s only worry was Kazi. The poor owl had seemed to enjoy her company and without her, he would be alone again. Burying her head in her hands, she sighed, lost in thought. Moments later she was startled by a clang on her bars. She looked up. Before her stood a tall man dressed in simple street clothing. Confused, she opened her mouth to speak but he silenced her with finger to his lips, and with a small smile, began to pick the lock to her cell. Within seconds the cell was open and quietly, he beckoned her out. Taking her hand, he led her efficiently out of the headquarters of the Coven and to the woods behind the house where it seems he had hidden her car. Gently he loaded her into the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt, laying a kiss to her forehead. “I got you” was all he said before shutting the door and jogging around to the other side of the vehicle. Climbing in, he started the car. After a moment of driving in silence, Clair plucked up her courage, “Who are you?” she asked. The stranger just smiled “A name is a very powerful thing, you shouldn’t just give it away to anyone, but you may rest assured that I am a friend with a vested interest in keeping you alive.” Clair bristled, the answer putting her on edge, but something about the man seemed… familiar… in a comforting way, like an old friend. Crossing her arms she sighed, “Well in that case, thank you oh strange one, for literally saving my life. Now, do you mind telling me where we are headed?”

“Home of course! You’re injured even if you’re pretending not to be, and your house has the best supplies that I know of.”

“How do you know where I live!”

“Well, I kind of live there with ya!”

Clair froze “Kazi?”, she whispered after a second. Kazi grinned, “Took you long enough. Figured you’d recognize your familiar quicker than that.”

“Wait, May familiar?! Wait! Is that why you’ve hung around so long? How are you human!? What is going on!?” Clair sat up in her chair ang glared at Kazi. “Explain, now.”

Kazi chuckled. “I’m a shapeshifter. When you found me, I was too injured to shift and find help and to bitter to accept your help, but you were persistent. On that night you saved me, I thought I was gonna die. Then you appeared out of the woods like some avenging angel in a night gown with twigs in your hair. When I woke up after you healed me with magic, I felt…. a connection, I guess. Like you and I were tied. Well, I couldn’t let you hurt yourself again just to help my wing so I allowed it to heal naturally. I thought that once I was healed, I was determined to leave. When the time came, I couldn’t. You were just so sweet, and beautiful. Your animals, your neighbors, even your customers all loved you so much and I fell in love with you little by little to. And the longer I stayed, the more I could feel our connection and feel... well… you. Your joy as you went about your day, the care you felt for me, how lonely you felt. I just couldn’t leave. When you left, I didn’t know that you were walking into danger, but I could feel your stress, and when you were hurt, I felt it as if it were a wound of my own and I knew I had to find you. So yeah, I’m your familiar, and I may be a little in love with you. But in my defense, you told me all your gossip and stories and it would take someone a lot stronger than me to not fall in love with you after that.” By this point Kazi was blushing, eyes focused on the dirt road in front of him and not on the tears shining in Clair’s eyes.

“You were scared,” she whispered, “You were scared that if you shifted, I’d kick you out, that I wouldn’t want to keep you around if I knew what you were.” After a pause Kazi nodded. “Oh darlin, I’d never have asked you leave for being yourself. I can’t say I feel the same about you yet, you do have the advantage there.” They both chuckled “but I do feel our connection, I just, I ignored it I guess. Would you be willing to give me the opportunity to learn as much about you as you have learned about me?”

Kazi chuckled, “Only if you don’t mind cooking for two, I’m a horrific cook and I’m not the biggest fan of raw rabbit while in human form.”

With a laugh Clair laid her hand upon Kazi’s thigh. “I can definitely cook for both of us, but only if you’re willing to carry more of a conversation than you have been the last few months. I need someone willing to keep up with how much I can talk.”

“I don’t think anyone can keep up a conversation quiet like you Clair, but I’m more than willing to try. Now rest, we will be home soon.” And he patted the hand on his thigh. Clair rested back into her seat and closed her eyes with a smile as the car cruised along into the summer sunrise.