Soul Companion

by Wanderer

It wasn`t hard to spot him. His aura stood out from across the room. As I slid into the seat across from him, I quickly wove a few probabilities together to ensure enough time before someone looked in our direction.

"Hello", I said gently. No sense startling him.

"Oh. Hello", he said back. Not much of a start, no, but then É

"So", I ventured, "what brings you to the convention?"

It was a fair question. With his quiet demeanor (auras aside), he simply wasn`t the sort of person one expected to find at an occultists` convention. Behind me, somewhere in the distance, I could hear some New Ageist prattling on about crystals and chakras, while a Tarot reader at a neighboring booth was delivering information of lower quality than a daily horoscope. All around us, people were surging with curiousity and vigor.

But not him.

He smiled selfÐconsciously. "I was hoping to find something on shapeshifting. You know, the whole skinÐandÐointment business. But", he said with a sigh, "it looks as though most of the `Modern Magick` crowd don`t believe in that sort of thing."

I nodded. "Yes, I know. You`d think they`d at least leave the possibility open." Subtly, I began the modifications. Gently, gently É

"Yeah. Something like É like É" He stopped, his mind probing an empty space like a tongue looking for a vanished tooth.

"Lycanthropy?"

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Nice stuff. Nice É " He stopped again, running down as his mind began to notice a difference, though unable to determine its nature.

"So", I said to keep things going, "do you believe in transmigration of souls?"

"Trans É trans É oh! Yeah. Yeah."

"Being an animal in a former life, and all of that?"

He nodded, licking his darkening lips. I gently accelerated the changes, beginning the outer adjustments now. Through the fog of his altered brain, he never noticed his body hair thicken and gray.

"So É let me guess. You were a wolf in a former life?"

He nodded, grinning, as his body began to slump forward.

"Interesting. I rather thought as much."

He shifted slightly in his seat, freeing his growing tail, his mind accepting it even as it came to be.

"So, tell me. Would you like to be a wolf?"

He nodded again, his tongue lolling from his mouth.

"Yes?"

His nods became more forceful, his body (now nearly horizontal) bouncing slightly from the movement even as his tail began to wag against the sofa cushions.

"Really?"

He dropped to all fours and began to bounce before me like a playful pup, even as his skull flattened and his jaws stretched to accomodate his new teeth.

"Come here. Come on."

He jumped into my lap and began to wash my face.

"Pfoof! Here, now", I said as I ruffled the fur on his head. "here. Now, sit still for a moment."

He did, quivering with excitement.

Quickly, I lunged forward with my astral form and bound the necessary portions of myself to him. Gold for the spirit, silver for the essence, bronze for the body. Cords of three. Then, relaxing back into the flesh, I tried it.

Now, is that better?

\Hmwhatniceniceyesyesgoodtaste\, babbled his mind back to me.

"Good", I said aloud as I took the collar and leash from my pocket. "Now", I said as I fastened them at his neck, "let`s go back to my room and begin your lessons. You have a lot to learn, you know."

\Homefoodgogogogoniceeat\, he was thinking as he jumped down from my lap and waited patiently for me to get up.

As we walked toward the hotel elevators, I shook my head. Of all the familiars in the world, I had to get an endangered species. With today`s regulations É

Ah well, I thought to myself with a pat for my new friend. When in doubt ..

Improvise.

Soul Companion copyright 1998 by Wanderer.