Page 31 of Missiletoe
“How do you know bad things happened to Vix when he was a child?”
:Like I said, he is young, and his shadows are old. You could see them too if you tried.:
“How do I help him?”
:Just be near him, Paris. Your instinctive control of feral magic and your kind nature will be enough to help him heal. Vix is strong, resilient, and blessed with a strange sort of innocence. With a little help, he can get free of his heart shadows naturally. It’s better for him if he does it that way as much as possible; it will help him defend against future shadows.:
“Like a vaccine?” I realized that Trixie was a dog and might not know what those were, so I started to explain, “A vaccine is medicine humans made to—”
:I know what a vaccine is, Paris. I was around when they were invented.:
“Um…” I waffled before deciding to address the elephant in the room. “What are you, Trixie?”
:I am what my creator made me to be. He calls us shadowfolk.:
“He?”
:Stop getting sidetracked, Paris.:
I didn’t think I was getting sidetracked. Trixie had said Vix was safe for the moment, and I thought I should be allowed a few minutes of Q and A time considering I’d had a huge magical bomb dropped into my lap. It would give me a chance to calm down.
Self-care is important. Otherwise, you won’t be able to care for the people you love.
“Okay, but I want to ask one more question. How did you know I wasn’t stupid?”
:Because my name is Anatrix. And you named me Trixie.:
I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I simply said, “Oh.”
:You’re different from the other humans, Paris.:
I chuffed ruefully. “I’ve heard that before.”
:From assholes. And they didn’t mean it the way I do.:
We sat in the cold stillness of the night while I digested her words. It took a while. That day had felt like the longest one in my life, and I still had more stuff to do before it was over. When I’d woken up this morning, I’d been the same simple man I’d been every morning before. There was nothing special about me or the world I lived in. Now I had a human bunny trapped in a modern castle to rescue, and a talking dog to help me do it.
“Anatrix is pretty,” I said, finally. “But I’m going to keep calling you Trixie if you don’t mind.”
She gave me a doggy snort of amusement. :I knew you would make this fun for me when I finally told you.:
I ruffled her fur backward in annoyance. “Why did you wait so long then? Were you having too much fun laughing at me?”
The laughter left her eyes, and she nudged my hand with her nose, giving it a lick. :I wasn’t laughing at you, Paris. I would never mock you. Tease you, yes. But you are too special to mock.:
I rolled my eyes at the wordspecialand made sure she saw it. I could go a lifetime without hearing it applied to me again. But I could tell she didn’t mean it in a bad way, so I let her continue. I mean, I wanted to hear what she had to say. She was a talking dog for Pete’s sake. How cool was that?
I smoothed down the fur I had messed up, and she continued. :I waited because you weren’t ready yet.:
She looked up at me with intelligent eyes that had always been too expressive for a normal dog. How I could have fooled myself into thinking she was a normal anything was beyond me. She seemed to be gathering herself to say something big, so I made some space in my heart to hear it. Whatever it was, I had the feeling she was worried I’d take it badly.
:When I first met you, I could sense a spark of magic in you similar to that of my creator. It was mostly dormant, but I could tell it was slowly waking up. You use it without even thinking about it, and it’s been fascinating to watch you grow into it without any help.:
“Oh, that thing? It’s nothing special. Most of the people in my family have it in some form.”
:You already knew about it?:
It might have been my imagination, but Trixie sounded a touch annoyed, like I’d stolen a huge treat she’d been saving to enjoy on a special occasion.
