“Hi, guy. You’re really beautiful, but I guess you probably want me to say handsome. The consensus seems to be that you’re a guy, and guys hate it when you call them beautiful.”
There were a few snickers behind me, but I studiously ignored them.
“Umm,” I thumbed behind me toward Draven, “he seems to believe that you’re my familiar. Are you?”
The big cat rubbed his face against my cheek and made a weird sound. I tried not to fall over onto my butt in surprise.
“He’s chuffing,” Draven explained. “That’s a sound tigers make to say hello or to just let others know they’re happy or content.”
My mind was whirling. It was strange. There was still some fear there, there was a huge cat in front of me after all, but I could also feel the tiger’s emotions, and he felt calm. So much so that it was calmingmedown. That had never happened to me before. For one, I’d never been able to feel another animal’s emotions this strongly before. I’d gotten brief glimpses now and again, but with the tiger in front of me, it was like what he was feeling was a broadcasting satellite. It was that strong. And two, even though I reacted to other’s emotions, they’d never been able todirectlyinfluence me. Being around this guy was chilling me out so much that I suddenly felt like taking a nap. And I wanted grilled fish? Eww. I hated fish.
“Hilarious,” I told the tiger.
He chuffed and gave me tiger kisses. I giggled and pushed his head away, wiping the slobber from my face with my sleeve. “Yeah, it’s official,” I said. “He’s my familiar.” I turned to the guys. “Unless other animals can influence my emotions like he can?” I made it a question because I genuinely wanted to know. I’d not been around many animals in the city.
“Only a familiar would help balance your emotions,” Draven said. “An especially helpful tool for an empath.” He helped me up from the sand and squeezed my arm softly. “Congratulations, Mia. A familiar is a partner and friend for life. He’ll live as long as you do, and he’ll help you to develop your empathy. And if you have another gift? He’ll help with that as well.” Draven dusted the sand from his hands and squatted down next to the tiger’s head.
“Hello handsome fellow.” The tiger allowed him to rub his neck and chest, but then batted his hand aside with his paw, and nuzzled closer to me. “I think he’s been alone quite a while, looking for you. He’s not in as good of shape as he should be in. He needs to gain some weight, and his fur is beautiful but matted in places.” He stood up and turned to me. “I’ll call a vet. Our vet is a brownie and brownies are fantastic with animals. He’ll have your tiger fixed up in no time.”
I was so touched that Draven wanted to help, and so ecstatic that I had a tiger familiar, that I hugged my boss impulsively. He stiffened for a minute, and then melted into the hug, hugging me back tightly.
“Thank you,” I said. And I meant it from the bottom of my heart.
The vet dropped by the villa a few hours later.
My tiger, yet to be named, and I met him in the den/office that Draven and I worked out of. Once the tiger had come into the office, he sniffed around and then followed his nose to the den. Apparently, it was where my smell on this floor was the strongest. To my embarrassment, he’d gone to the kitchens first. I chose to ignore that jab at my eating habits.
Just about every member of the Leto Villa had dropped by to gawk at my tiger as we’d waited. I’d felt a little like Vanna White fromJeopardyas I’d pointed out how calm and chill he was being, and that he wouldn’t hurt them.
When the brownie walked in, I blinked in surprise. I’d heard of what brownies looked like in folklore and fairytales, and this brownie looked nothing like that. He was about 5 feet tall, brown skin, slender, and completely hairless, including the top of his head. He had longish, delicate looking fingers, large, ocean blue eyes without scleras or pupils, a hawkish nose, pronounced cheekbones, no eyebrows, and very long eyelashes. He was wearing dark blue-jeans and a gray hoodie that said Ben’s Beasts Veterinary. He was carrying an old-fashioned black satchel.
“Thank you for coming,” Draven said, leading him to my tiger, who was lounging in front of the fire. He’d sat by the fireplace, looking at Draven in expectation until Draven had relented and lit the fire. It wasn’t chilly, really, being that it was mid-spring, but my tiger wanted a fire, so a fire was what he got. I could see already that he would be spoiled. And, as I observed how the tiger interacted with Draven, I puzzled over the level of communication they already seemed to have with each other, and the ease. Rhys had tried to pet him, and he’d bumped him so hard he’d shoved Rhys onto his butt. Hmm, something to think about.
I shook the brownie’s hand, but kept out of his way as he kneeled next to the tiger and looked into his eyes for a good minute, before he hummed to himself and started his examination. “He’s got good stamina and strength, although his diet has been lacking for a few months,” the brownie said. He turned to me. “I’m Ben, by the way. It’s nice to meet you. And congratulations on your new familiar!”
I smiled shyly. “Thank you. I need to name him. I keep calling him the tiger in my head.”
The brownie bobbed his head. “The naming of a familiar is linked with the bond between mage and familiar. You see, your familiar already has a name, and once you discover it, the bond will be complete.”
My eyes widened. I had so much to learn, both about familiars and tigers. I knew I would be researching like crazy until I was confident I could be a good mage to my familiar and a good big-cat companion. I hesitated to say owner because I had the distinct feeling that he would own me rather than the other way around.
Ben stood. “He needs a good bath.” He pulled a few things from his bag and started handing them to me with instructions. “This is for the bath. Use warm water, and gentle soap. Mix this in and have him stay in the water for at least half an hour. He needs to absorb all of it. It’s an emergency stop-gap to help replenish some vitamins he’s lost. It’s kind of like a big animal IV without the needles.” He chuckled, and my lips twitched. Vet humor.
He handed me a bottle of vitamins that looked like horse pills, they were so large. I could see them through the clear bottle. “These he won’t like as much. Mix them with his food, and he should eat them readily enough.” He turned and looked down at the tiger. “You need these,” he said in a firm voice. “Don’t make your mage’s life difficult by refusing them.”
I was amused to see my tiger hunch in on himself a little, as though the diminutive brownie intimidated him. Either this was one tough brownie or my tiger was a big baby.
Ben turned back to me and handed me a large paddle brush. “Use this on his fur after the bath and after he’s dry.” He looked back at the cat. “You’ve been eating junk food, haven’t you?”
My cat, to everyone’s amusement, hid his eyes with his huge paws. Well, that answered that question. Ben shook his finger at him. “No more junk food! It’s bad for you!”
“I’ll make sure he only eats the right foods,” I said dryly. So, my tiger was a big baby, and a junk food addict. I wanted to laugh so badly, but didn’t dare. It would undermine the scolding Ben was giving. It probably wasn’t fair to say that my tiger was a baby, because Ben looked like he could scare a T. Rex into being a vegetarian with that stare, but the fact that my tiger was a junk food addict like me cracked me up.
Ben turned back to Draven and I. “Otherwise, he’s fine. Make sure he gets extra food for the next few months. He’s only about half grown right now. He’ll get added bulk and height as he matures. Once he hits maturity, you can taper down to an adult tiger’s normal feed.” He handed me a paper with some websites on it. “Here are some reputable websites that will give you all you need to know to take care of him. Don’t use others. They’re not accurate for a tiger familiar.”
Ben bent over to pet the tiger, and the tiger chuffed at him, nuzzling him. I was amazed. He’d only done that with me so far. Ben was like an animal whisperer. I was curious. I knew it was bad form, but Ben was right there!
I cleared my throat. “Hey, Ben? Umm, I hope this isn’t rude, but I thought brownies were fixers? That they fixed household things?” I shifted my stance. “I’m new to supernaturals, you see. I don’t know a lot about the different species.”
