Chapter Text
With grandpa catching onto me, I decided to head to school today instead of the boardwalk. I ditched my usual outfit for a much more standard red t-shirt and a pair of white jeans. Still kept the hat though, no way I was parting with that.
I left home and braced myself for what would hopefully be a bearable day. And maybe I could brainstorm new tricks while sitting around in class? Maybe even think of a few ways to incorporate my new magic into the mix.
Some might have said that using real magic for stage magic was cheating. I would tell those people those the only thing that mattered was entertaining an audience. As long as it looked cool and left the audience mystified, did it really matter how I was pulling it off?
Of course, none of this actually happened. The only thing I had time to come up with was a way to burn cards in my hand instead of just making them vanish for a bit of extra flash. But aside from that, I was too busy to think of any other tricks.
Apparently all the teachers had made some sort of devilish pact to make sure I wasn’t slacking off. I had been called on in every class and made to answer questions, walk up to boards, and other dull things that got in the way of the actually important things.
I hadn’t even been able to go to the Future Police Captains meeting. Apparently today’s meeting was only for people who had already joined. Tomorrow’s meeting was open to new people so I would have to wait until then. Good thing I was able to figure all this out during lunch instead of after school.
As soon as the bell rang and school left, I was out of there so quickly that for a second I thought I had cast one of my spells. The one that made me go really fast for a minute…
“I need new names for those things,” I muttered to myself as I passed by a park. I stopped in place and turned my head towards the very back of it. There was something here…
I took a step onto the grass as I felt something pulling me in. I walked straight past the paths and benches and went right to the far end. In front of me was a high stone wall that blocked my view of the other side. Something to make sure people couldn’t see into the housing behind the park. I couldn’t go any further unless I was willing to break a few more laws then I was comfortable with.
Fortunately for me, when I felt the pull again, it came from the right. I started searching in that direction when I heard something coming from ground. My eyes searched the grass before spotting a mass of white and brown on the ground next to a tree.
I carefully approached until I saw the red.
On the ground was a little hawk with a big injury. Someone or something had mangled the poor thing’s wing, leaving it barely hanging on. Every time it moved, blood splattered the grass. It hurt to see it like this. Hawks like these were common sights in the city. You always saw them flying overhead, making the sky’s above the streets and among the buildings their domain. I’d always thought they looked cool.
Well, if there was ever a chance to do some good with my spells, this was it. I looked around the park just to make sure it was empty. Once I was sure I wouldn’t be giving anyone an unintentional show, I reached my hand out to touch the hawk and heal it.
As soon as I was a few feet away from it, the hawk only panicked more, doing everything it could to put some distance between us. It stopped flapping and instead took a stand and watched me carefully. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to work, I needed something else.
What about… that other spell, the only one I hadn’t been able to use yet? The fire that felt friendly? I felt myself reaching for that power as I tried to figure it out.
The spell shot fire from my hands like the one I used against the Valenti goons, but not as intense. And it would also heal those I considered friends? I glanced down at the hawk and let myself feel attached to it. An easy feat with how cool I thought they were, but would it really be enough?
Well, it was time to find out. I put my hands out as a small flame appeared between them. The hawk only had a second to react before I released a small cone of fire at the bird.
It panicked at first, trying to run away from the flames as they started waving over it. But after a second, the hawk stopped in place and started stretching its wings out. It closed its eyes as the flames started knitting its wing together.
When the flame passed, the hawk was left standing good as new. I lowered my arms and sat down, feeling a little drained. I expected the hawk to take the chance to take flight and leave. Instead it looked straight at me, tilting its head before taking a few careful hops towards.
It waited a few seconds to see what I would do, and when I didn’t do anything, the hawk got even closer. It was standing right in front of me now. I looked into its eyes and it looked into mine. Brown met pale yellow as I remembered something from the day before.
There had been one other point of light. One that had looked misshapen and wrong, like it had been missing something. I think… I think I just found what had been missing. I slowly moved my arm until my open palm was halfway to the hawk. I waited a few moments as eons passed.
The hawk closed its eyes and pushed the top of its head into my palm.
The misshapen piece of magic exploded out of me, reaching down my arm and going into the hawk. I felt my vision blur for second before my vision cleared and the hawk stood in front of me.
It… no.
She starred at me as I felt a link form between the two of us.
Her name was Trill, and she was a young hawk. Trill had just left the nest a few months ago. She hadn’t had the best time since then, but she had been making it work. At least until she picked a fight with a much bigger adult who had almost sliced her wing off.
She had thought she was about to die until I came around. She hopped over to me and pressed her head into my chest as thanks. I reached up and gently patted the top of her head.
“How do I know all of this,” I muttered to myself as I looked down at the bird that I knew all about. It was like I had seen a short movie in my head about Trill’s life over the course of a few seconds.
The longer I looked at her the longer mental imagines appeared in my head. A witch standing at a cauldron with a black cat at her feet. A robbed old man with a raven peached over head in his study. A man in robes walking a forest path with a fox following after him. The images converged and all I could think was a single word.
Familiar.
“Well, you’re better than a rabbit out of a hat,” I half joked as Trill tilted her head at me. I could sort of sense what she was feeling, and I was pretty sure she was feeling confused.
Well that made two of us, so welcome to the club.
“So how is this going to work?” I asked her like she could actually respond. She just hopped around a bit before suddenly looking up. She flew up into the tree above and perched on a branch, scanning the grass below.
I just sat there and watched her as I felt a little pull from her. I shrugged to myself and figured I might as well find out what was going on. I let myself get pulled in as the world around me faded away.
When the world came back, everything was different. The world looked crisper and brighter with colors I had never seen before. I was a good ten feet off the ground but I could still see each and every blade of grass move as the wind passed over them.
My head jerked to the side as I realized it hadn’t been my head, or even my body. I was seeing out of Trill’s eyes. I was seeing what she saw and hearing what she heard.
I was so amazed by what I saw that I never even thought to ask what it was Trill was looking for. A sudden shift among the grass broke me out of it as Trill focused on that one spot. She waited for the grass to shuffle one last time before diving towards it. The world raced past us as I felt trill raise her talons up. The grass parted to reveal a single mouse as I cut the connection before I could feel Trill’s talons killing this thing.
I took a deep breath as I ended up back in my body. I slowly got to my feet as I watched trill in the distance. Her talons and beak were stained red, and she had bits of fluff around her mouth.
“You know, I could have gone my whole life without you showing me that,” I grimaced as Trill looked down at her prey then back at me. She tilted her head at me, her confusion coming across clear on our link. I felt what might have been acceptance or resignation before she went back to chowing down.
“Okay so I now have a somewhat magic bird… what am I supposed to do with you?” I thought aloud. My first instinct was to try to incorporate her into my act. Animal’s had been used as props in magic since… a long time ago. Sure I had never heard of anyone using a hawk in a magic show, but that would just help me stand out from a crowd. But at the same time, thinking of Trill as a prop in my show felt cruel.
If I was going to have her appear in my show, it was going to be of her own free will. Which meant I needed to explain magic shows. Which means I needed to explain why I did them. Which meant I needed to explain the concept of money and employment. And if I was going to do all that, might as well just go the whole way with explain how human society worked.
“I have a lot to teach you little bird,” I half joked as Trill finished off the mouse and flew over back to me. I couldn’t feel any hostility towards me, so I managed to somehow keep calm as she pulled in her wings just in time to land on my shoulder without hitting my face.
Trill moved around so she was perched on my shoulder facing the same direction as me. I got the feeling across the connection that she wanted to see my ‘nest’. Well looked like it didn’t matter that the park was empty, I was going to be giving anyone who saw me on the streets a show anyway.
I marched out of the park and walked my way home, trying my best to ignore the many stares and whispers that followed me there. It was easier then I would have expected, since my brain was too busy trying to figure out how I was going to explain this to my family. From the outside view, I had just brought home a dangerous wild animal as a pet.
I reached my house and looked up at the giant tree in the backyard. Trill followed my gaze and chirped happily.
“Want to go check it out?” I asked as Trill flew off my shoulder and into the tree. I followed after her, going into backyard as she started flying around near the top. I instantly understood that she was searching for a place to build a nest for herself.
I always thought birds only made nests when they were laying eggs, but maybe magical familiar birds were different?
Well magic reasons or not, it didn’t take too long for Trill to find a nice spot near the top of the tree. A spot where a bunch of the branches all split apart to form a reasonably sized floor. I sat down at the back porch as Trill perched from her new home. I felt the pull again, she must have wanted to show me her sight again. Not sensing any hunger from her this time, I saw no reason to deny her.
I closed my eyes as the world around me faded away. I opened my eyes and instinctively tried to whistle, only to remember I didn’t have access to my lips at the time. You could see almost everything from up here. From the buildings of downtown, to the woods outside of town, everything was within sight of this tree. I never knew you could so much from up here. I took in the sights until Trill looked down back at me. Her eyes focused on a bit of movement from the sliding glass door behind me.
I went back into my body just in time to react to the noise and turn around. Coming out of the house was my mom.
“What are you doing out here Percy? I don’t think I’d ever seen you come in through the backyard before,” She was smiling, but there was a hint of tension in her voice. Did she… think I was trying to avoid dad? As amusing as it was that she thought I was scared of dad, better to nip this in the bud.
“Oh, not much. I noticed our new guest on the way here and decided to take a closer look,” I pointed up at the tree as Trill spread her wings out and took flight. She soared right past us as I felt a satisfied happiness from our link. I made a mental note to look through her eyes while she was flying one of these days before checking on my mom.
“Well that was unexpected,” She hummed to herself. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a hawk get this close to people before,”
“Maybe it’s friendly?” I pointed out, laying the groundwork for Trill to hang around me without attracting too much attention. “Like, it was taken care of by people when it was young so it’s used to them?”
“Maybe,” She mumbled something to herself as I got to my feet. “So how was your day?”
She led me inside as I struggled to think of anything to tell her from my day.
“Hey Mik?”
“Yeah Lou?”
“You see the pink girl yet?”
The goon in the passenger’s seat slammed his hand into the dashboard.
“I told you that I’d tell you when I saw her!” he yelled as the driving goon groaned.
“But we’ve been here for hours,” he muttered as he went back to looking at the teenagers passing in front of the car. It had taken a bit of prodding of one of his younger cousins, but he finally had a few places they could stake out in search of the pink haired girl.
Of course, not everyone was happy to sit in front of a strip mall for hours and watch every person who walked out of the Movie Theater and arcade for pink hair. Least of all the goon named Lou who was staring back at the burger joint that shared a parking lot to this place.
“You want to keep watch while I get us some grub?” he asked as Mik looked back at the burger place. He took a single glance before looking back at the endless wave of youngsters walking the sidewalk in front of him. He spotted a flash of pink in the crowd and leaned in.
He leaned back a second later once he got a good look at the girl’s face. It was someone else.
“Fine,” He grumbled as He reached for his wallet. He took a ten and held it out. “Get me a number three combo with extra pickles and salt less fries. Get me whatever soda you’re getting,”
“What is it with you and salt less fries?” Lou muttered as he accepted the cash.
“I’m telling you, getting them unsalted means they have to make them fresh,” He moved his right arm with every word of explanation. “This way you always get the best possible fries,”
“Fine, I’ll get you’re salt less fires you freak,” he took the cash and was about to leave the car when he stopped in place. “Feel weird calling anyone that after what we saw,”
“I know what you mean,” Lou grimaced as he kept his eyes on the crowd.
“One second, we’re about to teach some punk a lesson. The next he’s shooting fire from his hands,” he shuddered as the memory of the flames played again in his head. The guy who’d been in front of him was still in the hospital. “What are we even supposed to do to this guy if we find him?”
“We’ll leave that to the boss to figure out,” Mik glanced over at Lou. “Now go get me my food, I’m getting hungry,”
“Fine,” Lou let out one last grumbled as he walked away from the car. With any luck the other group was having better luck then this.
I sat back and dug my fork into my food as mom told dad and Laura all about the bird that had started hanging around the big tree outside. Dad had a clear frown on his face and kept glancing over at the backyard. Laura on the other hand, looked like she was just about ready to run out there to take a look for herself. And maybe if she was lucky, I would let her get close to Trill.
But maybe… maybe it would be best to see how Trill acted around other people before risking my sister like that. I’m sure Vivi wouldn’t mind being a test subject.
“Well this could be a problem,” dad took another look outside. Not too sure why he kept doing that, he was nowhere near close enough to the window to see Trill at the top of the tree. The only reason I even knew she was there was because of our link. “The last thing we need is a wild animal making its home in our backyard,”
“I don’t know honey, I would rather have a hawk watching my garden for mice,” mom pointed out as I felt a small sensation of excitement from the link. Trill must have noticed a mouse or something. I felt her pulling me in, and this time I had to force myself stay in my body. I sent her an apology over the link before she figured out what happened. I was going to have to explain myself later.
“Maybe, but it could still be a danger,” dad argued back. “I have a few connections to some of the guys in animal control. I’ll reach out and see what they say,” he grimaced as he glanced over at the window again just in time to see Trill flash past it.
“Whoa,” Laura got to her feet a second before the rest of us. Before the rest of us could say a word, she was already out of the room and heading into the backyard. I got out of my chair and followed after.
“Laura!” dad yelled way too late. He started chasing her too and now mom was doing the same and I guess this was what we were doing now. I watched Laura squeeze through the glass and walk around to the side of the house.
I opened the glass door just a little wider and caught up to her, catching her by the shoulders just as she made the turn. She was about to say something when I placed my hand over her mouth and shushed her.
“Slow down, you don’t want to scare away the hawk do you?” I pointed out. I somehow doubted that Laura could scare away my magic familiar hawk, but the less abnormal this looked, the better.
Laura looked up at me and shook her head and I carefully removed my hand from her mouth. The other hand left her shoulder as we both slowly looked past the corner to see Trill. She was standing in front of mom’s flower garden, red staining her beak and wings, but it wasn’t mice blood this time.
“Oh wow that’s a big snake,” Laura whispered just as mom and dad finally joined us. Dad’s eyes widened as the two of them looked around the corner with us.
“Since when do we have a snake in our garden?” Dad asked as mom shrugged her shoulders.
“No idea, I’ve never seen once before. I’m just glad the hawk took care of it before I found it myself,” mom’s words got a weird tick out of dad as he looked back at the hawk. I guess ‘helping’ mom had earned Trill a few points in his book.
Trill just ignored us and kept pecking at the snakes before looking around and spotting us. I felt a feeling of pride from the link. Did she want me to praise her for killing the snake? How was I supposed to do that without coming across as crazy suspicious?
So instead I just stood in place and tried to send her a feeling of ‘well done’ and hoped it would be enough.
Oh how naïve I was.
Instead of turning back to the snake and eating it, Trill did the worst possible thing she could have done. She started hopping over to me with zero hesitation. The rest of my family looked on in stunned silence as the ‘wild animal’ stopped in front of me and looked me right in the eye. She started hopping back and forth like she wanted me to follow her.
Well, looked like the hawk was out of the bag. I let myself get led on my Trill who stopped in front of the snake. She puffed her shoulders out and stretched her neck towards me. I knew what she wanted and it looked like I was going to have to give it to her.
“Good job,” I said through clenched teeth as I patted the top of her head. She let out a delighted screech before taking off and landing on my shoulder again. I let myself get amazed by her wing control again. I didn’t even feel a single feather hit my face. I let the amazement run its course before letting out a sigh and turning around to face the music.
Standing there near the entrance of the backyard was the rest of my family staring at me in stunned silence. I looked at them and then at Trill as I tried to figure out how I wanted to play this. Maybe it was best to play things as honest as I could.
“I can’t explain,” I pointed at Trill as she rubbed my cheek with the top of her head.
“Hey Vivi, you do something recently?” Vivi looked up from her game and gave Bruce a scowl. She decided to ignore the smirking jerk and went back to shooting zombies. Bruce rolled his eyes and waited a few seconds before trying again. “Come on this is actually serious,”
“Alright fine,” she growled as she shot the head of another undead. “I haven’t done anything that might annoy your dumb friends,”
“Then why are there Valenti goons telling my crew that they’re looking for a pink haired girl with a ponytail?” He hissed as he got right into her face. She rolled her eyes as she dropped her light gun and the zombies started taking their toll. “Listen, I don’t care what you do with your free time. But the second it starts causing trouble for me and my crew, I start having issues,”
“Oh trust me, you already had issues way before that,” She joked as Bruce’s eyes narrowed. Vivi leaned back only for him to lean in closer. She tightened her fists in case he was about to try to grab her. “Listen, I haven’t done anything that would make the Valenti mad at me. Why do you even care? The Valenti family is like, five old dudes sitting around a kitchen table talking about the good old days,”
“Just because the Valenti don’t run this town like they used to, doesn’t mean they can’t still cause trouble. They still have enough in them for one last big move,” Bruce growled as the zombies finished their job and the words ‘game over’ appeared on screen. “The last thing I need is my crew getting caught up in the Valenti’s blaze of glory,”
“Okay fine, I’ll keep my head down more than usual,” She took a step back from him, undid her ponytail and hid her pink hair in her hood. She held her hands out in front of her, her hair band still around her finger. “This okay, no ponytail, no pink hair,”
Bruce took a second to look at her before clicking her teeth at her.
“It’s fine. Now get home and do whatever it is you do in your free time,” She huffed and walked away. As Bruce watched her leave, he started wondering if he should just turn her in to the Valenti and be done with her. He didn’t know what they wanted with her, but it was probably best to be as far away from it when it happened as possible.
I sat at the edge of the porch with Trill next to me as I slowly tried to explain the concept of money and society through our link. So far the best approach was to explain how humans had gone from hunting and gathering to specialization. While I did this, Laura sat a few feet away from us in stunned silence. Mom and dad were busy inside, talking about what to do about the strange hawk that had started following their son around.
From the little I could hear, mom was content to just let it be, figuring Trill would just leave on her own eventually. Dad wanted to contact someone from animal control to figure out what was going on because his control based world view demanded that he do some sort of action in order to feel like he was doing the right thing.
“That is so cool,” I fought the urge to roll my eyes as my sister said those words for the fourth time. “You said her name was Trill right,”
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” How it was that my family just accepted it when I told them the hawk was both female and named Trill, I had no clue. I guess it was just so bizarre they decided to go along with it.
“Well, do you think Trill would let me touch her?” she asked as I glanced over at Trill who starred back at me. I used our link to try to tell her my ‘sibling’ wanted to touch her like I sometimes did. Trill’s eyes fell on Laura who stayed still. After a few tense seconds, Trill carefully walked over to her before coming to a stop right in front of her.
“Nice Trill,” Laura carefully placed her hand on the top of Trill’s head. Laura let out a breath as Trill started rubbing the top of her head on Laura’s palm. “Oh this is cool,”
“Glad that you’re having fun with her,” I joked as I started wondering what exactly I was going to do tomorrow. I couldn’t just take her to school with me. Maybe I could have her hang around the school building… but that would mean having her just hang around bored all day and I didn’t want to do that.
“Oh this is going to be complicated,” I muttered to myself as I watched my sister play with my magic bird. At least life wasn’t couldn’t get any weirder than this.