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Arcana: CreaturesThe Phoenix Healer and the CatkinA Creature for Everwayby Mark Edwards
And the eldest one stooped before her, where Minnow knelt on the rushes, and took her hands. "Now my child, if you wish to be one of us, to heal and remake, you must give up much of which makes you strong. You must pass on your anger, your aggression, your fear." And the eldest released her grip and took a black kitten from a basket and placed it into Minnow's hands.
Minnow knew the ritual, knew it better than anything else she had learned. She held the kitten and stroked it. "I'm sorry, my child," she said to it. And she sang. Her first true magic began. At some point the pipes and drums of the others joined in. The sun passed overhead, and the torches were lit, and they were smoldering when the music stopped and the last words left her dry tongue. The Catkin stood before her, as high as her head as she knelt, and looked into Minnow's eyes and purred. Minnow scratched his scruff. "You are my strength," she said. "You are my strong arm, my sharp teeth. All others will fear you, and you will protect me." Minnow stood, cleansed of anger, cleansed of fear, but slowly, for fear and anger and much of her strength had gone into the Catkin. And she strode away from the elders, the village, and began her journeys. And the Catkin followed, growling at everyone they passed.
The Phoenix Healer and the Catkin copyright © 1999 Mark Edwards, used with permission. |
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Copyright © 2008 Gaslight Press. All Rights Reserved.
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And they twined the feathers of the peacock into Minnow's hair, to remind her of its close cousin the Phoenix and the promise of rebirth. And they draped her in the robes of the sage ones to remind her of the protection that the craft gave her. On her face was painted the first and last symbols of the healers, to remind her that her knowledge had a beginning and an end.