Circe's Gifts

Chapter 20

Something unpleasant sniffed around the edges of her domain, testing the barrier, pushing and prodding until she thought she'd go mad. Circe wanted to push back. She wanted to send the human magic back where it belonged.

Still, she had the human's attention which meant he remained interested in her and not her friends. She knew that Kalliope, Tiernan, Pet, and Dylan had moved far away. Sometimes she caught a glimpse of them in her mind's eye and wished them well.

Circe also wished she could help in other ways. She didn't like to see Dylan hurt and Petkin worried. Kalliope, strangely enough, seemed to be taking well to being a human.

Tiernan was taking too well to being a hawk, but so far he had fought those urges to fly away and never look back.

Something prodded again, harder this time as though sensing her attention had been elsewhere. She slapped at the finger of power and felt it recoil in shocked surprise like a squirrel chided for trying to take the bird's food. The very childish petulance of the reaction surprised and annoyed Circe. What did this human expect?

Expected, perhaps, that no one would ever dare disagree with him? Human rulers could be like that, given enough power and a lack of controls and scruples. They came to expect everyone to agree with them. She had caught sight of those types out in the world because they always made unpleasant situations.

She was not human, and she saw no reason to play his games. When he came back, pushing harder, she slapped harder. Her touch lingered, followed the human back to his lair -- a soft place, filled with pillows and food. She pulled away, disliking being so close to him.

Despite the bright, warm light coming through the doorway, she still felt cold. Circe walked out into the sunlight and sat in the grass amid the rabbits and mice and squirrels. These simple creatures came to her for help and asked no more of her. They kept her company today, a much-needed link back to the wild world where she ruled.

Circe began to see that if humans knew someone had power, they wanted it for themselves. They wanted to take more of what did not belong to them.

Most humans were not like this mage who tested her defenses. She remembered Tiernan and how he was trying to stop an evil man from destroying some of the good in the world.

She'd had such little experience with humans that she couldn't decide how to balance to the two against the rest of humanity. The people of the nearest village brought her gifts, but did they do it from kindness, fear -- or as bribery?

These were not thoughts she'd ever considered before. Circe had never concerned herself with human affairs, only watching over the animals that came hurt and hunted into her hands. Yes, the humans most often did the hunting, but many animals came to avoid wolves, hawks, and other predators as well. Circe had never considered the hunters any worse or better than the others.

But now ... now she realized that the human hunters were more akin to her than to the wolves and the hawks. They reasoned and didn't hunt out of instinct.

Such complex, strange creatures.

Dangerous.

And the mage began prodding again, already.