Custom Angelic Paralix
Jane
Legend has it there was once magic in the world.
Long ago, there existed a strange creature unlike any other due to its unique ability to change its form as a defense mechanism. The creature itself is generally unfit to survive in most places due to a multitude of its qualities, so its sole defense is to masquerade as a more fit species in territories it wishes to thrive in. Its original form remains a mystery, a detail lost with time and in blood.
The magic which the creature is endowed with is what grants it its unique defense, and is stored within its two long, delicate whiskers. Through the clever and cruel mind of man, its secret was exposed and mass hunting parties wrought countless victims stripped of their magic in two cruel plucks. Without their whiskers, they became utterly defenseless in the world and swiftly perished due to the elements and natural predation.
Ruthy is the last of their kind.
A small spitfire of attitude and cunning, she has evaded the hands of man for thousands of years. She had become increasingly aware of the dwindling numbers of her kind and has since noticed a light has left the world since she last encountered one of her brethren. Her blunt distrust of the human race is what helped to keep her intact, until she managed a small miscalculation in the form of a pheasant.
She had become careless and hungry when she underestimated the metal trap set by a man who sold animals in his town’s market. Caught in the metal enclosure, she had begun to panic, but she wasn’t about to blow her cover in a burst of transformation. She hadn’t evaded detection and exploitation this long by being rash. She would wait until someone purchased her before making her escape.
By the late afternoon, a man approached her prison and made an offer for her life. She was moved from the wire cage to an old bag which he used to transport her to his home. While she seethed at the thought of him deciding what kinds of herbs to spice her meat with, she was surprised to find herself lowered to the ground before reaching anyone’s chopping block. The mouth of the bag was opened ever so slightly as the man spoke into it.
“Alright, my dear. I think we’re far enough away from the market for you to head home safely. I’m so sorry that man treated you so poorly, but you’ve got to be more careful out there.â€
His voice moved like gravel and came from a smile obscured by a wiry beard. His eyes were like two dark stones, cradled by countless wrinkles.
He then opened the bag wider with gentle hands, coaxing her out of it. Ruthy understood enough about humans to recognize that this man had used his own money to set a bird free. He had gone out of his way to help a trapped animal out of its prison without expecting anything in return from it.
She had never seen anything like it.
Collecting her awe, she exploded out of the bag the way pheasants do and retreated to the trees. She watched him collect the bag and continue his journey home. And she wasn’t far behind him.
Between the form or a rat and the form of a bird, she observed him through the windows of his carpenter’s shop, often following him home to his cottage in secret. With time, she began to favor the form of a cat and even approached him openly as her love for him grew. He was ancient, kind, gentle, and utterly alone. He worked often on small projects: furniture, trinkets, dolls, and the like. But his most precious project was a small doll house for his granddaughter.
She would sit with him often as he labored away on the intricate piece, watching him pour his love into the little roof and the little porch. He enjoyed her company greatly and often offered her a place to sleep and a dish of milk, all while talking to her of his granddaughter and how far away she lived and how he missed her dearly.
But the old man's eyesight was failing him. Ruthy wasn't sure when she had first noticed it, but it seemed to progress swiftly. It took from him his joy, and he often wept over the dollhouse in frustration as he tried to finish the small rooms and the lovely details. It was then when Ruthy had decided she would help this man, the one who selflessly helped others in his work, the one who offered her a place to live and the last ration of milk he would have for a week, and the one who spared her life months ago.
Ruthy pulled out her own whiskers and made a wish upon each of them: her left whisker for his left eye and her right whisker for his right eye.
The magic left Ruthy in a sudden rush and she was left to adjust to her original form, one she had not taken for a thousand years or more.
The old man found her on his kitchen table in a pile of befuddled fur and quickly realized the tales his grandfather told him of such a creature had been true. He gathered Ruthy gently in his hands and wept for her gift, promising to keep her safe within his cottage for as long as she would stay with him.
Ruthy has since remained with him, an odd companion of sorts with two extra legs and a multitude of strange quirks. The old man finished his granddaughter's dollhouse and Ruthy found the child to be as lovely as the old man. He has since found a new hobby in constructing little toys for Ruthy, including her own birdhouse and a handful of small dolls - an impossible feat without Ruthy's sacrifice and his own when he found her as a pheasant.
