Her blue light bounced off the sides of the wet cave, as it helped her make her way through the darkness. Thankfully, the cave soon leveled out again and the ceiling sprang back up. Unfortunately, the taller cavern she crawled into was alive with bats, who immediately protested the brightness of her light. She did like animals, even bats, but she was not a huge fan of the droplets of white poo that fell on her brocaded sleeves and skirts from the screeching animals. She was also a little frightened of a sickness Ruthie called rabies, which her cook swore bats carried. Ariana was not sure what it was, but Ruth had made her fearful of it, whatever it was.
However, the bats were not particularly keen on getting too near her bright light, and the whimpering of the animal she was looking for sounded just ahead and to the left, so Ariana continued on, despite her misgivings and the faint plops from bats expending their tiny bowels on one of her most expensive dresses.
Sorry, Annabeth, she thought, as the white bat droppings ruined the beautiful gold brocade. She tip-toed under the shuffling bats, holding her light above her head to dissuade them from flying too near her. She followed the pitiable moans of the animal until she came to a tiny alcove to her right. Her heart raced as she knelt down and peeked into the alcove, shining her light into it.
Her breath caught in her throat as she stared down at what had to be the cutest, most confusing animal she’d ever seen. It had a fuzzy body, like a wolf pup, but with leathery flaps for ears. More peculiarly, its fur was red, streaked with orange, a very unwolf-like color. The color was not the only thing unwolf-like about the creature. For starters, the tiny wailing creature had purple eyes with dramatically slit pupils, like a lizard or cat. It also had the tiniest, silliest looking wings flopped lazily over its shoulder blades. It had sharp, copper-colored claws and a belly covered in similarly colored scales. It lay on its side, wailing miserably, blinking blindly against the light Ariana held out to view it by.
Ariana’s breath caught in her chest. A little “click” snapped into place in the center of her being. She couldn’t say how she knew, but that “click” was significant and it was tied to this somewhat strange, adorable creature. She held the light away from its squinting face, the face that made her feel a little more like herself, for a reason she could not vocalize.
“Oh, I’m sorry, little one. It is probably too bright after being in the cave for so long. I wonder how long you’ve been here by yourself. Where’s your momma?” The question alarmed her as she asked it. Where was the little thing’s mother? Was she putting herself in danger by coming so near it?
She pictured a larger, more ferocious version of the sweet mewling creature she looked at and shivered. But then she saw the outlines of the poor baby’s ribs and knew that wherever the mother was, it had not been here in some time. The baby was starving, which was probably the reason for all the fuss. Like her, this baby had been abandoned by its momma.
The little creature mewled piteously, blinking up at Ariana with the most striking purple eyes. Ariana’s heart melted. It was a strange little being, like nothing she’d ever seen before, but, then, wasn’t she also a strange being? This little wolf-bat or fuzzy dragon, or whatever it was, was not so different from her. It had clearly been unwanted, possibly because it was so different. At least, that's what Ariana thought must have happened. Ariana stretched out a tentative finger to touch the creature, but drew back when the frightened beast nipped at her.
"None of that, silly, thing! I want to help you."
The creature, which Ariana decided to refer to as a Wot, stared at her as if in dim comprehension and closed its mouth. "Now, I am going to reach out to pick you up and bring you with me to get you some food. Please don’t scratch or bite me. I don't know how to care for wounds and all that, and I'd hate to get some sort of rabies or some other animal sickness."
Ariana spoke quietly, in soft, reassuring tones so as not to frighten the tiny beast. The soft words seemed to calm it. It closed its little mouth, hiding its copper fangs. Ariana tore at the hem of her dress and pulled off a hunk of the linen, which she wrapped around her right hand. She then slowly pushed her linen-covered hand under the belly of the tiny Wot, lifting it very gently. It clung to the linen covering her hand with its sharp, copper claws. She felt the pinch of the claws cutting through the fabric and was happy she decided to cover her skin from the worst of the injuries.
She transferred Wot to the crook of her arm, like an infant. She winced slightly, but did her best not to jump when the sweet fuzzy little thing adjusted itself into a ball. Her brocade and under tunic protected her arm from the worst scratches as Wot tucked its paws under itself. Ariana couldn’t help but smile at the cute creature as it stuffed its wolfish muzzle under the crook of her arm, burrowing.
She smiled at Wot’s intrinsic trust in her, how much her warmth seemed to offer it comfort. It might have been one of the first times any being ever needed her to keep them safe. She supposed, until this point, she always felt she was the person whom others were trying to keep themselves safe from. It was nice to be the one providing safety, to not feel like a firecracker about to burst.
She felt tears gather in her throat, but they were not of the helpless, angry sort. They were tears of happiness. The silly Wot made her feel necessary and safe, and that gave her more joy than she’d become accustomed to. She made little calming noises in the back of her throat as she carefully navigated back through the short, narrow tunnel back to the open expanse of the cavern where her bags and blanket greeted her. She noticed, with a start, that the cold of the cave had stopped affecting her ever since she’d picked Wot up.
The spot on her arm where Wot snuggled was actually quite warm, bordering on hot. Ariana also noticed that though she held the light away from Wot her path was fairly easy to see and travel. It was not until she looked down at Wot, to transition it from the crook of her arm to floor of the cave that she noticed Wot was glowing like the embers of a well-tended fire.
“What’s this, little one?” Ariana whispered. “You didn’t glow before I picked you up…”
The moment Ariana put Wot on the floor of the cave, the little creature started wailing again. The bright ember glow coming from its underside faded, as did the radiating warmth Ariana felt when she cradled it. Wot scrambled around in panic, backing into Ariana’s basket of food, which startled it. Wot squealed in surprise and hiccupped a small ball of fire, which immediately caught Ariana’s comfortable wool blanket aflame. Without thinking, Ariana shouted, “No!” and reached out a hand to the flames. From her hand sprang a great spout of water which quenched the flames and drenched poor Wot.
The little creature immediately started wailing, but with much more force this time. Its squeals echoed off the walls of the cave and set bats flapping in panic out of the far chamber, over Ariana’s head and out the cave entrance. Ariana flattened herself on the floor of the cave near Wot, who walked over to her, dripping, and nudged under her hair.
Ariana giggled as the wet creature snuggled up under her hair, shivering and whimpering. She gathered it up in her still-wrapped hand, sat up and settled the creature in her lap. She layered the shivering creature in her petticoats, where it settled a little.
“I’m sorry about the water. I don’t always know what will happen when I panic. My magic’s a bit unpredictable. It seems to get me into more trouble than out of it.” The miserable Wot stared at her with knowing, baleful eyes.
“I bet you understand that, what with the fire thing. Whatever that is. We’ll both just have to be as careful as possible and help each other out, okay? Speaking of which…”
She reached for the basket of food Ruthie packed her and drew out some cheese, offering it to Wot, who sniffed it experimentally before flicking a tongue out to taste it. Wot’s black forked tongue touched the cheese experimentally several times before he snatched it greedily from her fingers, almost biting one with coppery teeth.
“There now, little guy, if you are a guy...I don’t really know
how to tell with your sort, so I’ll just guess. You have to be more careful! You almost took my fingertip with the cheese!”
It was not possible to tell whether the silly thing understood her or not, but it was more interested in her food than her words, in any case. It untangled itself from her petticoats and headed for the basket.
Ariana lifted it out of the greedy creature’s way. It sat where the basket lay, a grumpy look on its furry face. It tucked its black bat wings against its sides and hunched in on itself. “Look, we have to conserve. I’ll get you more food because it’s clear you haven’t eaten in a while, but then we have to save the rest, okay?”
Wot just stared at the basket in her hand in greedy incomprehension. She sighed, “Oh, fine.”
She rummaged around the basket until she found a piece of cooked chicken, almost the size of Wot. She tore a chunk from the chicken and lay it down next to Wot, who made little happy humming noises in the back of his throat as he demolished the chicken. Ariana ate a little of the chicken, too, before putting the rest away for later.
Wot seemed satisfied by the food he was given, possibly because he was so thin that it took him no time to fill up. He waddled over to Ariana and crawled back into her skirts. The happy humming noise was lower and quieter as he settled in her lap, his scaly eyelids shut over his beautiful purple eyes. He immediately started heating up and glowing again, quickly warming Ariana and making her drowsy.
Worried he would become hot to the touch and ignite her skirts, she scooted him to the floor of the cave. He immediately protested the move and crawled back onto her skirts. She sighed and bit her lip. How was she going to keep him from cuddling up next to her? Isn’t that what animals did to feel comfortable and safe? She remembered the stray cats in her father’s stables cuddling together, as did his hunting hounds.
She shut her eyes and pictured the tired blue glow of her magic. She pulled at the magic to make strands, like yarn. She and Annabeth would often crochet together when father left for days at a time. It was not something he wanted her to do, as it was considered low class to knit, crochet and weave. However, do it she did, and often, when he was unaware. She’d become very adept at it.
She imagined she held a magical hook and crocheted, with ease, a large rectangle of her magic, which she closed on two sides, creating a little bag. She pushed the idea of protection and heat resistance into her work, not understanding how or why she knew to do so. Her magic seemed so natural, now that she was using as if it were yarn, something she loved to work with.
She opened her eyes when the smell of burning fabric met her nostrils. She shook her head at her ruined dress and the smoldering petticoats Wot was happily snoozing in. She slipped the glowing cyan bag she’d made over her hand, then lifted the hot-to-the-touch Wot. She swatted at her scorched petticoats to kill the glowing embers, then returned her attention to Wot, who didn’t even wake as she slipped the gentle blue folds of the impromptu crocheted bag over him like a little sleeping bag, unrolling it off her hand and onto his body.
She set the bag down on the floor of the cave, settling Wot in his little sack right next to her chest. The glow of the yarn faded, but the cyan of her power stayed. Wot still gave off a hot ember of warmth, but it didn’t burn. The bag held the intensity of his heat at bay. She found she could curl up next to him and take warmth from him, as if he were a hot water bag. And it was a good thing he was so warm since her blanket was a dripping, wet, holey, scorch-mark mess of wool.
Ariana’s sleep was blissfully quiet, unfractured by disturbing dreams. She woke warm and dry, though fairly stiff from unmoving sleep on the marble ground. Wot’s fireball body never burnt through the magical sleeping bag she made for him. She smiled and nudged the sleepy creature with her fingertip. He blinked in a slow, tired way, smoke unfurling from his tiny wolf-muzzle.
“Time to wake up, little guy. I have to figure out what I’m going to do for a living quarters. This cave is nice, but I’m not sure if it’s the safest option, what with all the bats and the possibility that larger animals sometimes rest here in the colder months.”
Wot croaked wearily in response before snuggling down deeper into the bag.
“Well, okay, then, I guess you’re not hungry for breakfast…”
She opened the food basket next to Wot, wafting the tempting smells his way. He stuck his wolfish muzzle out of the bag. The rest of his face followed, including the tiny flaps of his leathery ears. Suddenly wakeful, the silly guy shuffled out of the bag. He snuffled the basket, bumping into it in eagerness to reach the food. He jumped back, startled, and glared at the basket as if it had attacked him.
“You are the silliest creature in existence, Wot,” Ariana laughed. He looked up at her, expectantly, licking his muzzle.
“Ok, ok. Here you are.”
She pulled the rest of the chicken out of her basket, as it would be the first thing to go bad and divided it among them. They chewed on left-over chicken for a few happy minutes before Ariana realized that she was thirsty. She rummaged in her basket to see if Ruth left her anything to drink. The wonderful cook had packed a flask of water for her, but Ariana could tell that it would not be enough. She’d made water come out of her hands just last night, but she wasn’t sure that drinking water that had been magic was a good idea, or even if it would quench. If it came to that, she’d try it, but there had to be a water source in this cave somewhere.
She packed her basket and encouraged Wot back into his little bag. His belly big with chicken, he eagerly snuggled back into his sleeping quarters. Ariana eyed her basket, carpet bag and the little Wot and frowned. She wasn’t sure she trusted her magical bag enough to place it in her carpet bag. She closed her eyes and envisioned knitting a strap. When she had a strap of her magic thread long enough to attach to Wot’s little bag, she knelt down and connected it, sewing it in the same way she imagined knitting it. While she was still inside her magic, she imagined a globe of light, light as a feather and twisted into a woven bracelet. When she opened her eyes, she was wearing the bracelet of light around her wrist.
She slung the surprisingly light-weight creature over her shoulder and nestled him on the opposite side of the arm that bore her bag and basket. She decided to leave her sad wool blanket on the ground of the cave, since it was both charred and wet. Everything settled, she trudged deeper into the cave.
When she got to the fork of the cave that led to the little area Wot was nesting in last night, she took the opposite fork, rather than the short, bat-infested fork she’d already explored. She couldn’t be sure it was the right decision, but she knew that the bat cave ended in a dead-end. The left-hand fork became an increasingly narrow, though tall, tunnel.
Ariana stopped walking when it was clear that she would have to start making her way through the tunnel sideways. She would need both of her hands and sides free in order to squeeze through the gap with her bags. She could see that it widened not far up the tunnel, though, so she figured it was safe to take Wot out of his bag and give him a little exercise.
She placed Wot’s bag on the floor of the cave and coerced the lazy creature out of it with a piece of dried deer meat that Ruth packed for her. He eagerly chewed the meat while she stuffed his little sleeping pouch in the carpet bag. She picked up the basket and the bag in opposite hands, turned sideways and began to slowly shuffle through the tiny tunnel. Wot, looking anxious, stared after her as if she were abandoning him.
“Well, follow me, then, you goofy thing!”
Wot whimpered. His body shifted from side to side nervously, which set his copper claws to clicking against the stone floor of the cave. Ariana continued to slowly squeeze through the narrow tunnel, but motioned to him with her head.
“Come on, before I leave you behind.” She warned him, playfully.
He must have decided that being left behind was scarier than the narrow tunnel because he scrambled along behind her, whimpering and bumping against her ankle to hurry her. When the tunnel widened, she set
her basket and bag on the floor and turned to Wot.
“Do you want to get back in your bag or do you want to walk a bit?”
Wot looked up at her, then beyond her, before clicking past her on his tiny scaled legs, his short, fluffy tail flicking behind him, like a curious but anxious cat. She adjusted her bags and followed behind him. The tunnel continued on, narrowing slightly, then widening for some time before finally narrowing again, so that Ariana and the bags could barely squeeze through. She struggled through the tunnel, yanking at her carpet bag at a particularly thin gap, when the carpet bag came loose and she stumbled backwards into a huge chamber full of glistening, dripping stalactites, and reaching, marbled stalagmites.
She stared around at the beautiful, dripping cave in stunned wonder at the way her bracelet light sparkled off the gem-like stones in the walls and the water dripping from the stalactite, before realizing that there was one thing she could not see in the cave.
“Wot! Where are you, boy?”
Her heart hammered and her pulse quickened. She strained her ears to hear the sound of the silly creature’s claws against the hard floors of the cave. Nothing!
“Wot,” She called more insistently, her voice rising in panic. It didn’t matter that she’d only known the silly thing for a night and part of the day. It was as though she felt immediately connected to the strange beasty in a way she’d never felt connected to the people in her home. She walked further into the cave, holding up and her light and peering frantically around her. She saw a pool of water so clear she could see the details of every rock wall inside the pool as though there were no water settled over the surface. She saw a stalactite so old it had merged, drip by drip, with the stalagmite under it, creating a beautiful solid, glistening column. She could see white, gold and steely flecks of beautiful stones shine back at her as she moved her light in an arc around her.
Wayward Magic (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 2) Page 10