Petrichor

2.800 words for you dear reader, enjoy...

Part 2

“Why!? WHY!? WHY!!!!” Despite myself, I simply collapsed right there on the street.

I didn't even react when some people came closer. There was no reason for me to care, I had already fucked up after all. The bus was gone, I wouldn't make it in time for the train. And because I wasn't on the train I could say goodbye to my application for the Academy. For some archaic reason they operated under the logic: “You came too late? Well, too bad, just apply next year.” This meant that right now I could just as well go home and take a nap. I was already about to get up and walk back when a hand lightly seized my shoulder.

“Ah!” I whirled around, a bit scared that I was going to be beaten up after all, but instead of “big tall bodyguard guy” I looked at a young police officer with short brown hair.

“Miss?” Instead of angry he actually seemed concerned.

“Sorry! I thought you were someone else.”

“Oh, okay, that is fine. I just have to ask you a few questions.” He tipped his hat in a friendly gesture to some of the bystanders, who in turn realizing that they were staring walked on.

Considering he had actually cared for my comfort and I had nothing better to do I humoured him. “Sure, not like I have to get anywhere in a hurry anymore.”

“Really? But with the luggage, I had thought…”

“Ha! No, I already missed the bus so ask away officer.” The look he gave me was actually kinda sad as if I was a lost child.

“Well, if you say so. So, the questions I had are related to a supposed hit and run that you have been involved in? Now according to the reports I got you ran into the streets about five minutes ago and were about to collide with an oncoming car, correct?” His voice sounded a bit unsure as if he wasn't quite believing his own words.

I could only shrug in turn, I actually had no clue as to what had happened either. “Kinda? I guess?”

“Wait, so you aren't sure if you were hit or if ran into the street?”

“Both, maybe?”

“Hold on, you are telling me that you don't know what happened, while I have other people telling me that a woman flew over a car!? But looking at you, it is more than obvious that you didn't run into a car because you aren't even wounded! Now, can you please tell me what am I supposed to believe here?”

“Wait, repeat that again!” Maybe he actually had a good idea there?

“What am I supposed to believe?”

“No, no! The first thing!”

“Uhm, people said you flew over a car?”

“Yes, that's it! How could I have been so stupid? I can still make it!” I grasped my head in frustration, how had I not thought about this before? I simply had to fly!

“Wait, what now?” The policeman seemed to be even more lost now than before, but I artfully ignored him.

Instead of answering any further questions I dropped my suitcase on the ground, opened it up and then started stripping out of my clothes. When my overcoat went off flying into my luggage the young man looked on confused. But when I began removing both my skirt and shirt he went into full-on panic mode. He tried to, at the same time, avert his gaze, stop me from taking off even more clothing and stop others from gazing upon my almost naked figure. Honestly hadn't I been in such a hurry, I probably would have found his attention sweet, but as things stood right now, I couldn't care less. Once I was down to my underwear and fishnets I quickly grabbed a simple black tube bra and put it on.

“Lady, by the gods! Why did you do that!?” Even if all my naughty bits were now covered he was still not looking into my direction.

I had to use this distraction! Before he could fully turn around I quickly closed the suitcase and began running off. “Sorry, officer I'm in a hurry!”

“He- Hey! Hold on! I said hold!”

I could barely stop myself from laughing and screamed back: “Nope!”

With this, I threw my little suitcase into the air and jumped. No matter how often I had done it by now, it was always one of the greatest feelings, as if a weight was falling off my body and soul. I could feel my magic washing over me like a wave as my body stretched and contorted and took on another form. In less than a second, the boring human Alice Dutrar was gone and in her place, a large majestic black bird snatched my electric blue suitcase out of the air and lifted off.

“Cawwww!”

I screamed my delight out into the world as my wings beat against the wind. On the ground, the policeman looked on both confused and worried as I soared ever higher. The feeling of the air rushing over my wings was something incomparable to anything other people could possibly experience. Despite the fresh morning the sun on my black feathers was enough to provide me comfort. Thanks to my large frame and impressive wingspan I had no problems lifting my light luggage into the air. I guessed it must have looked weird from the ground to see a bird as large as I was carrying a suitcase away but I cared little. For now, I  simply relished in the freedom my body granted me.

At times it almost felt as if this form was closer to the true me than my human one could ever be. In some underlying primal way, it just felt right to have feathers, wings, and claws. Some days I felt more as if the human me was just a mask I used to hide who I really was. And yet at the same time deep in me, I knew that my raven form wasn't the true me either. Once I had asked my mother if other animagi felt the same way, she had just laughed and said it was puberty messing with my brain. I had never told her that even now years after, the feeling persisted. A melancholic caw escaped me in a weird bird version of a sigh. It didn't help thinking about this and so I focused on flying to the train station.

For several minutes I just flew, occasionally flapping my wings and watching the city rush by beneath me. While I hadn't been able to find the black car again, I did see the traitorous bus a small way off. Sadly I didn't have enough time or else I would have left a present on its front shield. A cackling caw escaped my beak as I recalled what I had done a year ago to an ex-boyfriend of mine. Let's just say crows are vindictive jerks and I had a habit of styling myself as their queen.

Even now I could spy several of them tailing me, which was both cute and at times a bit creepy. While their open affection was really adorable, there had been situations in which particularly adventurous males had tried courting me. And honestly no matter how much I liked being a bird; I really had no interest in… well, mating with one. While the weirdness of it was offsetting enough I was more scared of it actually working. I had recently read a newspaper article of a rather deviant animagus doing the deed with their pet instead of their husband and ending up with a litter of pups. The woman was not only fired from her job but admitted to a mental health hospital. A recent update to her situation featured her spending most of the time as a large wolf, enjoying walkies and playing with her “children”. I shuddered a bit as I thought about how insane some people were.

If one wanted children that was fine, alright? But doing it with a mere animal was just so… unclean; it was more than that really. My very core felt repulsion had what that woman had done, it was such a pathetic act. Instead one should just do it as my family had done for decades: find a man, seduce him and have him fuck you pregnant. As far as I knew, both my mother and aunt had been conceived that way, which technically only made them half-sisters but, meh. Considering that had also been the way my cousins and myself were made I couldn't really judge my grandmother. Though part of me had always wondered what my father had been like. He would have to be a great witch himself for me to be born a conduit. So, I guess my mom was really good at seducing guys… which by the way just, eww, eww, eww! Damn you brain, now I have to think about poop again just to get that disturbing image out of my head.

I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I didn't even notice when all of a sudden the train station was right in front of me. And by the hells, there were a lot of people. But the joke is on them, hahaha! I as a magnificent, beautiful creature of the sky wasn't bound by the confines of the ground. All I had to do was find the correct platform and fly over! After scouting the grounds for a bit I had it, platform six! Ha, the train was still there! Down we go!

“Holy shit! That's a big ass bird!” Wait, what? Where I wanna see it too!

The second I realised that the bird in question was probably me, it was already too late. Excitedly looking around instead of straight ahead, there was no way to stop, lift up or prevent in any way what was going to happen. Because in the very next moment I felt the side of my face, well beak, in this case, collide with something that was both squishy and surprisingly hard. Like the bird brain I was I had not run but flown straight into another person. The shock was big enough for me that I changed to my human form almost out of reflex. And so I shot through the air like a cannonball made from lose feathers, luggage and half-naked girl.

It took me a bit too recover from my fall but when I did look up it was into a face wearing an expression I could for the love of it not pin down. I cocked my head to the side, hoping that a different angle would give me more insight but I would've bet all I did was make me look like an even bigger bird brain. Still, even if the face before me was confusing, it was young and pretty and female and… bleeding. Oops? If I had to try and decipher it, her eyes were kinda glaring daggers at me but her lips seemed to be pulled into a condescending smirk. Honestly, that was the second time today someone looked at me like I was a bit of an idiot, what the hells!? Before I could even come up with a snarky response the girl - woman? - already approached me with a confident stride.

“Now, isn't this a surprise?” By the seven hells and all the demons in them, I knew that voice. And that face actually! There was no doubt that she was the woman from earlier…

“First you run in front of my car and almost cause my driver to be late, and now you have the audacity to crash into me like a simpleton on a backwater country fair. I do hope that you have an explanation for both these situations or do I have to simply consider you exceptionally stupid?”

My half-formed reply got stuck in my throat when I laid eyes on the imposing black raven sitting on the woman's shoulder. In a moment's notice, my face went through a myriad of expressions. Shock, glee, childish curiosity but all that quickly changed to disgust and repulsion when my hand got closer and I felt what it really was. This was no fucking bird, it wasn't even an imp that looked like a bird. No, this was a spirit and if I knew one thing then that spirits hated me and I hated them in return. But even worse was the feeling of magic it gave off, it felt dead, cold and stagnating, an entropy spirit. In an instant, my disposition to her changed from confused but curious to hostile.

“What the fuck, woman!? You annoy me for running into you while carrying that thing around with you?” At that, she actually raised an eyebrow - why the hells can everyone do that but me? - like I had just asked the silliest question ever.

“Oh, you mean Hugin right here? What about him? He is incredibly cute isn't he?”

“What? I mean sure, for a spirit, but I meant more the fact that those are fricking illegal!”

Apparently I had said something funny because she laughed. We stood right in the middle of a busy station platform and I was getting laughed at by a haughty bitch with supermodel body and a face straight from a portrait. So, why was I getting so turned on by that thought!? Oh hells, nope! No, I do not have a humiliation fetish so you do not get to be turned on. Bad vagina, bad! While I was still fighting my own body's urges she must have stepped even closer because all of a sudden I felt a cool hand on my cheek.

“Oh my, you do seem a bit confused, don't you? Well, let me explain, while we're at it. It is true that in most cases the bonding with an entropy spirit is against the law, but what you may not know is, that I am from the Dawstar family and therefore rules only apply so much to me.” She shook her hand from side to side in a gesture to show what exactly she meant by that. “Now, you, on the other hand, should worry about something else, and that is about the fact while owning Hugin may technically be illegal so too would it be for an unbound demon to run through the city, correct?”

 I wasn't even sure about how I should answer that! For once I was literally shaking in my boots. Not only had I apparently managed to piss off some crazy witch with an entropy spirit, but now she also belonged to the most powerful witches family of all times. And to top it all of, she asked me legal questions completely irrelevant to the situation. Thankfully my incredibly vast intellect came to help me out.

“Huh?” Damn it brain! You fucked it up!

“Hmm, maybe I was mistaken after all?” She squinted at me as if searching for something I couldn't see and made me even more uncomfortable.

“So, can I go now?” Maybe flight and not fight was the better alternative? Sadly it seemed as if my vis-a-vis had different ideas.

“Go? Hahaha, no. As you can see you not only got dirt on my clothes but cut my face. Therefore a small punishment is in order don't you think so too?”

“Uhm, I guess so?” I couldn't help and shift nervously at what such a person might consider a “small punishment”. And by the hells why was I so wet!?

My shameful blush must have been clearly visible, for the woman, whose name I still didn't know, actually patted me on the head and told me to follow her. Considering that the height differences and her impressive high heels made her almost a head taller this must have either looked condescending or - and I'd bet my money it was meant that way - like she was petting a cute little animal. I honestly couldn't say what I would have been more comfortable with right now. In addition, the many people that were still watching us with interest made this whole affair incredibly awkward.

Not wanting to prolong whatever other people might think this looked like, I grabbed my suitcase and sheepishly followed behind her. She only stopped when we had reached an empty cabin on the train. The whole way she hadn't said a thing not even mentioned my choice of clothing or the fact that I didn't have a familiar but when she finally sat down her expression changed into an actually sincere smile. I couldn't help but awkwardly smile back at her, which was until I heard her next words.

“Very well then, ass naked and lay across my lap.”

“What!?”

Petrichor

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