Circles of Ciridia: The Windtalker's Amulet

Chapter Thirty ~ The Conversation

The two giant men peered down at Kiäna, and she stood trembling for a moment. Finally, she said, "I can call the animals you seek, and my friends can combine them for you in a small size that you can keep hidden. Since you have enlarging magic, you can enlarge your new companions whenever you want, but remove the enlarging magic when you want to keep them small to hide them."

"The animals around here are all large just like we are, little one. We won't be able to keep them hidden," said the man in red.

"My friends have the ability to make them small first."

"You can combine them while they are small?" he asked.

Kiäna nodded.

"That's impossible. The Värians do not possess that ability. Only the pixies of Nympharum can make things small."

"My friends are not Värian," Kiäna said. "They have many amazing abilities. They can show you. Bring us something big and they can make it small."

The Fulgarian in red stood still, considering. "What did she say?" asked the man in gray.

"She said that her friends can make things small, so they could make the zvierah small enough for us to keep them concealed," said the giant in red. "She wants to prove their ability to us."

The giant man in grey stood up with excitement and went for the door.

"Stop, Brandir!" the other Fulgarian demanded. "You cannot go against the traditions of the nobles. If they catch you with a zvierah, they will punish you severely."

"No, Ganli! Don't you see? We can make them small enough to fit in our pocket. No one would ever see them."

Ganli, the Fulgarian in red, paused for a moment, thinking deeply.

"Let them at least prove to us they can shrink a living animal, and then we can decide," Brandir suggested, quite reasonably.

Ganli nodded. "Bring something harmless, then," he suggested. "We don't want out small friends to get hurt."

While Brandir left the odd house made of earth and grass, Kiäna gave the amulet to Thea and said, "You need to shrink something living so you can prove to them we can help them."

Thea repeated Kiäna's words to Chadwick and Tajana, who nodded. Chadwick said something and Thea handed the amulet back to Kiäna. She put it on, and Thea said, "Chadwick wants to know why we need to shrink something. Wouldn't they want it to be big enough to ride?"

Kiäna nodded and handed the amulet to Chadwick. He put it on, and she said, "They need to keep their Chimaeras a secret because in their country, only the nobles are allowed to have them. They call them zvierah. Anyways, if you can make the animals small and then combine them, then the Fulgarians can enlarge them when they want to, but keep them small and hidden when they need to."

Chadwick nodded and explained it all to Thea and Tajana. The girls both nodded too.

They were really lucky that Thea and Tajana had such wonderful abilities. But if what the Fulgarian had said was true, then only pixies were supposed to have the power to shrink things. Thea and Tajana didn't seem like pixies to her. Pixies should be small, right?

Why did Thea and Tajana have so many different kinds of magic? They could enlarge things and shrink things. They could combine animals, make lights, turn invisible, and many other amazing things too. Kiäna wanted to ask them why they were able to do so many different things. Now that they had an amulet, she could finally ask them everything she'd been wondering.

Before she could ask, the Fulgarian came back with a giant disgusting worm. He set it on a very tall table near the bedroll on the gigantic soft bed of sod on which they stood. Thea approached. She took something from a pocket and touched the worm. It shrank down to the size of a regular worm.

The Fulgarians both gasped in amazement.

Chadwick called out to them, and the man named Ganli answered while shaking his head. Chadwick seemed to demand something, and the two of them talked for a long while. Finally, Ganli left, and Brandir sat on a giant chair near the table. The Fulgarian seemed very excited.

Kiäna tapped Chadwick on the shoulder and pointed at the amulet. Chadwick handed it over and she put it on and held up her hands in a questioning gesture.

Chadwick started talking, and the meaning of his foreign words became clear to her. "I asked if they had any more of these amulets and they said no. I told them we'd only help them if each of us can have one. Ganli said he could make more but he'd need to get the gems they need, and that could take a while and be expensive. He agreed to it because he really wants a Chimaera, I mean zvierah, so we will just have to sit tight and wait a while, and then we'll all finally be able to have a proper conversation together. It's going to be fantastic! I am seriously getting tired of gestures, so I cannot wait to just be able to talk together."

Kiäna nodded and handed the amulet back to Chadwick. "I can summon the animals they want, but I need an item from the animal. Tell Brandir about it. He can go get an item to summon the animal he wants while we're waiting for Ganli to come back with more amulets."

Chadwick nodded and tried to talk to Brandir, but the giant man just shrugged and shook his head. He didn't have his own Windtalker's Amulet, it seemed. They would just have to wait.