I wake up to the sensation of the sun on my back. It's nice, so I keep my eyes closed, savoring the warmth. I must have fallen asleep in the office again. There's movement near me. "Ivan...?" I mutter, cracking open my eyes. There's a face right in front of me!
I stumble back on four legs, struggling to gain purchase on the fabric beneath me. Wait. I look at my surroundings. A sunny forest. And the person in front of me. Ashley. It all rushes back to me. The festival. Owen. My pin.
Looking down at my hands, I instead see scaly claws. I thought Ashley looked taller. Speaking of Ashley, she's staring at me with that all too familiar shocked expression. To be fair, I too would be shocked if I just saw a detective turn into a lizard. I decide to not beat around the bush. I'm going to have to explain this later aren't I?
"Have you seen my pin?" I ask.
She flinches. "Juniper?" she asks.
"Yes, it's me," I sigh, "I'll explain, but I need to know where my pin is."
"It-" she stutters, "O-Owen took it." She looks guilty, squatting down next to where I'm sitting on my coat and clothes.
I sigh, letting my now scaly head hit the ground in defeat. "That's what I was worried about. I know you have a lot of questions, but can they wait until we get back to the office?" She nods.
"And can you pick up my stuff? I don't exactly have... hands." I scramble off of my clothes and as she picks them up, and take the chance to look at our surroundings. We're back in the clearing with the fairy circle, and I know from experience it won't work for us in a while.
Ashley's picked up my clothes, and she shrugs on my coat. Its comically large on her, the end comes close to touching the grass, and she has to roll up the sleeves almost halfway. I notice she's clutching her newly received bottle close to her chest. I'm prepared to lead the way out of the forest, but the towering brush at the end of the clearing reminds me that I'm only about 4 inches tall at the moment. I turn back to her. "Can I get some help?"
"Oh! Sure." She bends down and reaches out an open palm. She's taking this pretty well actually. I'd definitely expected more shock, but maybe she's just immune to it by now. I'd be too, if I'd been through what she has just in a few hours. I gently step into her palm, careful not to claw her, then, once I reach the end of the coat, I use it as purchase to climb up to her shoulder.
Once I'm settled, I ask, "Do you remember the way we came?" She shakes her head, unintentionally hitting me with her long hair. I move it out of my field of view.
"That's fine, I'll give you directions." And that's what we do. Ashley backtracks through the forest, trying not to get my coat or her dress caught on the brush. Eventually, we reach the forest's end, and she doesn't need me to give directions. She walks in silence for a while, and I stretch out as much as I can to at least enjoy the afternoon sun.
After a couple minutes, Ashley, still looking at the sidewalk in front of use, mumbles something. I look at the side of her head with lidded eyes. The familiar sensation of riding someone's shoulder must have almost lulled me to sleep. "What was that?"
"I said I'm sorry." That, at least, wakes me up.
"Sorry? For what?" I say, making my confusion as evident as I can, despite my face not being very expressive right now.
"It's my fault you ended up like this. I don't know how, but that hairpin of yours was keeping you human right?" She looks at me, and I nod. "It's because you helped me that you lost it." She's gripping the bottle so tightly that her knuckles are turning white. "It's unfair."
I sigh. "I did this to myself," I state flatly, "if I hadn't been reckless and pushed for information, I wouldn't have paid the price." But she's still got that look on her face. It's making me depressed just looking at her.
"Information we didn't need. I got my eye back, so it doesn't matter."
I shake my head. "I don't think so. If there's still a mystery, you're still my client!" She gives me an incredulous look. "Don't you want to find out who took your eye?"
She doesn't look like she's considering it, so I switch methods. "Well I want to know what happened. How about you help me solve the mystery, and we call it even?" Leaning out over her shoulder, I give her what I hope she can interpret as a smile. After a moment of hesitation, she gives a hesitant smile back.
"I suppose I can do that. But you have to to tell me about the whole lizard thing." Well, I'll consider that a victory.
"That's a long story. One best told over lunch, don't you think?"
...
We arrive back at Juniper's office. She hops onto her desk, while I hang her jacket and clothes on the back of her chair. Juniper shows me the location of the key to her desk, and I place the Raising the Dead for Fun and Profit in there next to some objects that look slightly cursed. Finally, I take the jar containing my eye. It's bizarre to be sure. I've seen my eyes in the mirror and in pictures plenty of times, but the dark green of my iris feels foreign looking back at me. It doesn't gross me out too much though, what kind of nurse would I be if I was squeamish?
I pop the stopper off of the jar, and place it on the desk. Juniper crawls up for a closer look, her slit pupils scanning it erratically in the way that most lizards do. They settle on me once more. "Well, what are you waiting for? Put it back in." I can only hope it's that simple.
I grab the eye out of the jar, trying to ignore the unsettling squishy feeling on my skin, and bring it up to the socket, my other hand holding my fringe out of the way. Done with hesitating, I slot it in and-
My head explodes in a flood of sensation. The paths my magic had taken, lying dormant in my veins, all connect once again as the loop is completed. It prickles over my skin like electricity, familiar and warm, like going home to a warm fire after hiking through a blizzard. I'm now aware of the magic around me as well, my sixth sense closing in on Juniper's aura, the magical trinkets in the office, the people outside on the streets. Everything is living, and, for the first time since the beginning of this entire mess, I feel alive as well.
I blink, with both eyes this time, coming back to the real world. Having depth perception again is disorienting, but I'm just happy to be whole again. I plop down in the rolling chair, and Juniper hops up on one of the stacks of books on the desk to reach eye level, and stares directly into my newly returned eye. "You know, it actually looks a bit different from your other one."
"Really?"
"Yeah, here." She jumps down from the desk and shuffles around its bottom drawers out of my sight. When she climbs back up, she's awkwardly holding what looks like a compact in her mouth. I take it, popping open the lid and observing myself in the mirror on the inside. My first thought is that my hair looks terrible, but I soon notice what June was talking about. While my left eye is its usual dark green, my right eye is significantly lighter in color.
"Well, I suppose in terms of permanent effects, it's not too bad," I say, "I could have been left with a gaping bloody hole in the back of my head." Juniper nods.
"That wouldn't have been very flattering." My stomach gives a sudden rumble, and she laughs. "And neither was that." My face heats up, and I bury it in my hands to hide my obvious blush. It's kind of hard to tell, but I think she's grinning at me. "How about that lunch?"
I nod, then pause. "I... uh, don't have any money." Juniper just shakes her head.
"My wallet's in my coat pocket." I find it in there, among some empty candy wrappers, and we're off, June having climbed back onto my shoulder.
If the people we pass on our way probably find the sight of a girl receiving directions from a lizard perched on her shoulder odd, they don't comment on it. We eventually reach a small diner, still in the outer district. It's got an old fashioned feel, which is only reinforced by the homey scent of pancakes, bacon, and coffee that hits us as we enter.
There aren't many people here, natural, considering it's late for lunch and too early for dinner. I don't see anyone of note among the patrons, though they're all wearing the colorful clothing style of the outer district. A cyclops girl runs the register, and I can hear someone puttering around the kitchen. I get seated at an isolated table some ways from the door, ordering a black coffee from the waitress. Juniper doesn't speak up, so I assume she doesn't want anything.
After the waitress leaves to get my coffee, I browse the menu, Juniper peeking over my shoulder. Once she's back, black coffee in hand, I order blueberry pancakes, and Juniper settles for a having a small portion of it, considering nothing on the menu is suitable for someone her size.
When our order comes, I cut off the edges of the pancake, and put them on a napkin for her to eat. It doesn't take her long to finish, and I take a contemplative sip of orange juice. "So... lizard, huh." Wow. Very eloquent Ashley.
Juniper doesn't comment on it though, looking anywhere but my face. "Yeah, like I said, it's complicated." I signal for her to go on, and she sighs. "You may have guessed it by now, but I wasn't originally a human."
"So this is what you actually look like?" I ask. I'm fairly familiar with the idea of people and creatures who cast illusions over their appearance, but from the little time I've known her, I get the feeling June's not the best liar, something necessary if you're trying to trick anybody into thinking you're something you're not. June is just too comfortable in her skin.
"Well kinda? My other... form is as much me as this one is," her tail swings slightly, coming close to knocking over the salt shaker, "but I don't have enough energy to keep that one up without help. That's what my pin was designed for actually. It fed energy directly into my transformation." She stares at the table beneath her, tail end twitching in what's probably a nervous tick.
I tilt my head in confusion. "But why are you like that in the first place? I can't think of any species on this plane that go from human to lizard or vice versa." She turns her head towards me, fixing me with her slit, catlike eyes.
"That's because I'm not from this plane. I'm a familiar."
"What." I state flatly. I know what a familiar is, of course, but June is missing some essential traits. Like, I don't know, a contractor?
...
From what I know, familiars are typically used by mages lacking in magic or experience. My older brother had a familiar when he was younger, and I can still remember the ritual he made to summon it. I was watching from the doorway as, following instructions from some website, he drew a complex diagram on the floor of his room, placed some spell candles borrowed from our mom on the spaces it dictated, then walked around the edges of his room drawing a circle around the whole thing. Once the ends of the circle met, the the candles flickered alight, and the diagram began to glow.
A form began to become visible in the center of the circle, made of specks of light. As the glow faded, the form solidified into a bird, a sparrow, as I would later learn. My brother then walked into the circle, holding out a crushed cracker in the palm of his hand.
"I present this offering as a symbol of our contract." He said stiltedly, only having memorized the lines a few minutes before. The sparrow didn't mind, enthusiastically gobbling up the crumbs, then alighting onto my brother's shoulder. I can still remember the joy on his face as he turned towards me. "We have to try it out!"
We spent the rest of the day in the backyard, performing simple spells that came easily to me, but I knew were difficult for my brother. However, with the boost to his magic coming from the contract, my brother could finally keep up with me. The lightshow we created as the sun set on our suburban neighborhood is still fresh in my mind to this day, and it was all possible due to my brother's familiar.
Years later, my brother ended the contract, and the sparrow dissolved back into light, dissolving back into its original plane.
...
It simply made no sense for a familiar to continue to live on this plane without a contract. I take a long sip of my orange juice, trying to organize my thoughts into a coherent question. "Don't you have a contractor then? There wasn't anybody else in your office, not that I could see." Not like there's room to hide anybody in there anyway.
"That's the difficult part," June explains, "it's complicated, but to simplify, my contractor found a way to keep me here after he died. I don't know the exact mechanics of it, but he bought me the pin so I could take over the office in his stead." Her reptilian head lowers, staring at the wood of the table.
"That was... nice of him?" I fumble. She looks up at me with a defensive glint in her eye.
"It was. He was incredibly kind. I had always wanted to solve mysteries like he did, and he gave me the opportunity." I nod. I think I understand it more now, Juniper's unique situation. I can at least tell she was very close to her former contractor.
Her existence could be violating several magical laws, but her motives are genuine, and how can I not support that? Not to mention, I'm already down this rabbit hole. Might as well see where it leads.
"So now that that's over," Juniper says, perking back up, her energetic personality having returned to her, "we can go over our information on the culprit."
I tilt my head contemplatively. "What information is there? All we have is Oscar's testimony, and we barely learned anything from that."
Juniper smirks, "You might think that, but even a little information can make a big difference if put together in the right way. So we know the culprit was," she lifts a claw, "one: male. Two: a werewolf. And three, we know he was in need of money."
"And?" I still don't understand how that will help us in finding him. Werewolves aren't exactly rare.
"Didn't you learn anything in school?" Juniper scolds. "What do werewolves do that most shapeshifters don't?"
"Uh... migrate?" I say, unsure.
She nods, "And in packs as well. And that conflicts with our culprit's behavior. Since they hunt and provide for each other, werewolves don't need much money. And never so desperately that they'd need it immediately." It makes sense. With the large forests around this area of the country, werewolves live pretty easy lives due to the abundance of prey.
"If packs are so close, why would the culprit have gone to the festival by himself?" I ponder. "From Owen's description, he sounded young."
"That's another thing," June replies. "I have a theory though, that may explain the thief's actions." She already has a theory? I guess she is a detective for a reason.
"So what's your theory?" I lean closer to the table where June is sat, tail lashing like an excited cat.
"Blackmail."
"Blackmail?" I question, not quite sure how she got there. "Why do you think that?"
"It's what makes the most sense with the clues we were given. If the werewolf was being blackmailed, and had a deadline, it's natural he'd need money quick right?" I nod, the pieces coming together in my head.
"And the lack of pack with him?"
"He might have been too ashamed to go to his family. Or he may have been threatened not to talk. Both would make sense."
I would never have been able to put the information together myself, but June had constructed a plausible theory so easily. I try to keep my surprise from showing on my face. However, there's one last thing June hasn't addressed.
"How is any of this supposed to help us in finding him? We don't even know who's blackmailing him." June's smug expression didn't even waver.
"Now... we investigate!"
...
If I hadn't already known Ashley had the utmost faith in my detective skills, I might have interpreted the blank look she'd gave me as a sign of doubt. Luckily, the waitress brought over the bill at just the right time to interrupt whatever sarcastic remark she was about to make about how things turned out the last time I attempted to gather information.
We're soon out of the restaurant, with me still clinging to Ashley's shoulder. "So where are we headed next?" she asks, and luckily, I have a bit of a hunch to go off of.
"There's a shrine near here, and it's about the time that a friend of mine visits. If she's not there," I shrug, "we can just ask people if they've seen anything strange lately."
"There's a shrine here?" Ashley raises an eyebrow in doubt. I don't blame her for being skeptical. With the leylines having moved on to another part of the city, no deities could be expected to stick around.
"Yeah, it's super old though. I don't get why she still puts offerings there, but at least she gives me the leftovers." I lick my lips a bit at the thought of the chocolate chip cookies she'd personally delivered to my office this morning. Not now Juniper! Focus!
Ashley's giving me that look again, so I must have zoned out a bit. "What!" I say defensively.
She rolls her eyes. "Are you going to tell me how to get there?" Oh. Right.
After another round of directions and a lot of walking, we're finally approaching the shrine. Just in time too, as Ashley seems to be wearing down a bit. No offense to her as a person, but I don't get the impression she gets much exercise in her day to day life.
The shrine comes into view, short pillars of crumbling stone, surrounded by a knee height, ivy covered, brick wall. In fact, the entire shrine is covered in ivy, except the center of the circle of pillars, where offerings are traditionally placed. It's somewhat distant from the road, with the path of stones leading to it almost completely covered by undergrowth. The atmosphere is serene, having none of the ominous darkness of the forest, just the sense of reverence and wistfulness that come with places that haven't seen human presence in years.
Birds twitter quietly, just out of sight.
As Ashley approaches, I finally catch sight of my friend from over the brick wall. She's so small I couldn't see her where she was knelt. When Ash's feet scrape stone, she slowly rises from her knees to her feet, scooping up a wicker basket from her side as she does so.
Edith definitely fits the stereotype of a grandmother, though if she is, I've never seen any children. A loose fitting pointed hat rests on her gray curls, pronouncing her membership to a coven, and a shawl is draped over her shoulders. When she sees us, a kindly smile appears on her face. "Well if it isn't Junie! It's been a while since I've seen you like that. You finally find another person to carry you around?" With that she turns to Ashley, who looks a little lost.
"Oh, how rude of me, I'm Edith. What's your name dearie?"
Ashley lightly grips Edith's hand in a handshake, like she's afraid she'll accidentally break it. "I'm Ashley ma'am." I decide to finally cut in, sparing Ashley and further awkwardness.
"And I'll have you know, she's a client!" I puff my chest out, pushing myself up on my front legs. Edith just chuckles.
"Of course." She says teasingly, "So what brings you and your client out here? I hope it's not more cookies, because I just ran out." She lifts the cloth of her basket, showing it to be completely empty.
I shake my head, "Actually, I was wondering. Have you or your coven heard about anything strange going on in town recently? We're investigating a potential blackmailing case." She puts her hand on her chin and closes her eyes.
"Hmm... blackmail you say? Well I've been sensing some strange magic being used around the center of town since yesterday. If someone's using magic as a means of blackmail, it might be worth checking out." Ashley's shoulder's stiffen a bit, and on look at her blank face tells me something's surprised her.
"You- You can sense the magic from the center of town all the way from here?" She asks in awe.
Edith smiles mysteriously, adjusting the brim of her hat and her basket in the crook of her arm. "Well...when you spend as much time in a place as I have, dear, you learn it's magic inside and out." She begins to make her way back towards the road, Ashley and I following behind.
"Well, I think we ought to check out that lead, don't you think Ashley?" Ashley gives a determined nod. I can tell she's excited to get going, so I wave to Edith. "It was nice seeing you!" I call. Edith waves to us as we part ways on the street, mysterious smile present on her face, her going one way and us another.
Once she's out of sight Ashley giggles a little, and I do my best to get a good look at her face. I think that's the first time I've heard her laugh. "What is it?" I say hesitantly.
"I just expected your informant to be a lot more like the last one. I got myself worked up over nothing." She gives an uncharacteristic snicker behind her hand, and I finally realize. She's relieved.
I look away, slightly embarrassed. "I'll have you know, not all of my information sources are psychopathic! Just the one." And now she's full on laughing. I pretend to sulk, but a smirk pulls at the side of my face.