Familiar

My master was a kind soul till they found the favor of their patron. Twas a fey being, a whimsical entity with a penchant for chaos, that took a romantic interest in the man known as Kollin and my master. For I was his familiar, an extension of his consciousness in the form of whatever he so desires, and more often than not, I was summoned as a squirrel, as I am now.

Kollin was a plucky human boy of an age that didn’t matter as his power surpassed that of even accomplished archmages, juvenile and innocent as he may have been. When before granted magical prowess by this fey, he was able to conjure fire, breathing it into existence like a breeze, and extinguishing it before it could manifest in the wilds as an inferno. Before long, this power was amplified by the boons placed upon Kollin by the fey as a gift to sway him to reciprocate feelings of lustful destruction!

Among these boons, myself included, Kollin discovered companionship, though fabricated as it would be by the powerful compulsion his new magic afforded him. That is except for mine, my love for the man was unconditional and natural, from the moment I met him upon my first summons, I could feel just how broken and lonely he was, and I was needed.

For a while, it was just us, alone in the sparsely populated forests we called home so he could hone his magic at peace. But before long, our conversations grew colder in the absence of his fire. He had grown bored by the cinders that danced across his tongue and sought to try his powers of persuasion against those who misunderstood him, that cast him out of society like the dangerous firebug he denied himself to be.

“If I can’t win them over with what I have at my disposal naturally, then maybe they’re best being disposed of themselves!” Kollin cried one afternoon, pacing our bonfire as I nibbled on the fresh acorns I discovered in the ashes of one of his wooden targets. He tended to allow his flames to lick up the bark of trees, sometimes allowing them to become completely consumed before extinguishing them. It was dangerous, but the easy food I reaped from his destruction was enough to keep me sated. “Burned or charmed, I’ll get them someway.”

“Maybe we don’t burn their bodies or bruise their minds. How about we try genuine kindness? If your magic can burn these trees to nothing, imagine what kind of pain you’d inflict on the soft innocence of the living flesh!”

He scoffed, “What do I care of their pain? Have they once shown consideration for mine?”

“What breeds compassion except compassion, my friend? And contempt except contempt?”

The iration in his face burst like the blood vessels behind his eyes and my once gentle companion screamed at the top of his lungs in a guttural, terrifying, manner I knew not to be his own. “We are not friends, you conjuration! You are a tool granted to me by a creature that pines for my affections but does little to earn them except shackle me to a furry ball and chain that wastes my time with musings of compassion and sympathy!” He was spitting every syllable and I could see madness in his eyes, brewing angrily as blackened storm clouds. “You’re a figment created by MY power. You are mine as the minds of those sheepish oppressors of my power will be! Just you wait, creature, you’ll see, just as they will!”

He had come uncomfortably unhinged, closing the distance and, in fright, I dropped my acorns! Skittering up a tree to hopeful safety, I knew, had he the mind, he could burn this forest to the ground, myself along with it. So, for the time being, I allowed him to storm off into the hazy glow and distant din of the city I knew would soon fall, or fell Kollin before he had the chance to wreak whatever chaos his fury desired. I was scared for him and myself, but that fear had me pinned with a heart through my chest into the branch I stood upon.

After about an hour of solitude in silence, I returned to my gathered nuts roasting by the fire; images of an enraged Kollin, engulfed in flames, seared my mind as my eyes burned at the proximity to the bonfire he ignited not two hours past. The anxiety began to spoil the nuts in my gut as the silence grew ever louder around me.

I began to miss my companion, the boy I knew, not the man I saw, waiting for his return. Even if marred by his actions, his presence still brought me comfort. And then suddenly, without cause or warning, I felt my form begin to dissimilate; fall apart against itself as my horror-stricken visage witnessed my body become twinkling dust. In a mad dash, I darted through the flames that too were dying before my eyes.

Against the pain of fading existence, I ran for the boy who was my best friend and acclaimed captor, but the former more so than anything. But as my eyes were the last thing to remain, I saw neither friend nor captor but knew that, as I was extinguished, so too was Kollin. We may have been separate but, in that moment, we died as we lived; together.

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