Magic on Changeling Mountain

They drove up to Carolyn’s house and as she parked in her normal spot, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Ray put his hand on her arm to stop her from getting out of the jeep. “Wait. Something’s not right.” Ray said. “Stay here, I’m going to change and check out the area. Stay in the jeep. I’ll be right back.”

Ray stepped out of the jeep and quietly closed the door. He stepped back a couple of steps and quickly transformed. He took off and flew over the house, making wider and wider circles as he went. He landed on a branch of the tree near Carolyn’s back door and sat very still. He was about to take off again when he suddenly saw a movement. Someone was hiding in Carolyn’s safe hole under the back porch. He sat very still as he watched the opening of the hole. He was slightly surprised when he heard “Help! Please help me!”

“Who are you?” Ray thought.

“My name is Sebastian. I’m hurt. Please, help me.” The answer came back.

“Come out where I can see you.” Ray thought back and he watched the opening carefully. The head of a large cat appeared and it looked around before crawling farther out of the hole. There was a large gash down his back and he was bleeding profusely. “Who did that to you?” Ray said as he flew down to perch on the railing of Carolyn’s back porch.

The big cat lay on the ground right below him and he looked up and out into the woods to see if he could see anyone lurking among the trees.

“Please help me.” The big cat’s thoughts were becoming weaker and Ray knew he was going to have to make a decision fast or the big cat was going to bleed to death.

“Stay right there. I’ll be right back.” Ray said and flew back to the jeep. He landed just behind it and quickly changed back into his human form. He stepped up to the window of the jeep and told Carolyn. “The big cat is hiding in your safe hole and he’s hurt, bad. Someone has cut him and he’s bleeding very badly. I’m not sure we can trust him but if we don’t help him, he’s going to die.” Ray told Carolyn.

Carolyn opened her door and with Uncle Ray right behind her, ran around to the back of the house. Carolyn spotted the big cat laying on the ground and Uncle Ray had been right. He was badly hurt and bleeding profusely. “Uncle Ray, there is a blanket on the lounge chair on the porch. Can you bring it? We’re going to have to get him inside so that I can treat him.”

“No, Carolyn. Once you invite him in, he has free reign to come and go as he pleases.” Ray said.

“Well, then what do you propose I do? I can’t just leave him here to die. I’m an animal doctor. I took an oath to always help injured animals.” Carolyn said as she knelt down and touched the big cat on the head.

“Can’t you treat him right here?” Ray said.

“Well, it’s not the cleanest of places but he’s so big, I’m not sure we would be able to move him by ourselves anyway. Go get my medical bag out of the back of the jeep and a bucket of water.” Carolyn said as she reached up and grabbed a towel that was hanging over the rail of the back porch. Ray left to do as she asked and soon returned with her medical bag then found a bucket and turned on the outside tap. He filled the bucket with water and carried it over to where Carolyn was inspecting the large cut on the big cat’s back. It was a nasty cut and she could tell that he had had to crawl through the bushes to get to her safe hole because there were bits of leaves and dirt in the wound.

“I’m going to give you a shot for the pain or it’s going to hurt when I clean the wound. You’ve got a lot of dirt and bits of leaves stuck in it and I need to clean it out before I can stitch you up.” Carolyn said and she wasn’t sure but she could have sworn the big cat nodded. “So you can understand me?” She asked and the big cat nodded again.

“Too bad you can’t talk to me as well.” Carolyn said.

“He’s a changeling, Carolyn. He think-talked to me when I first found him. He said his name is Sebastian.” Ray Masters said. “I think I should go get Harvey and Daniel. We are going to need help moving him but I’m not really sure where we should take him. Will you be alright while I go get them?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine but hurry back. Whoever did this to him might come back.” Carolyn said.

Ray stepped around the building and quickly transformed. He flew off towards the top of the mountain and prayed that his niece would be alright until he could get help. He had not spotted anyone else even close to her cottage when he had been looking for the big cat so he was pretty sure she would be ok for the couple of minutes it would take him to fly up the mountain and back.

Carolyn administered the morphine shot and soon the big cat’s breathing eased and he fell asleep. She tried to work as quickly as possible to clean the large wound and wished that Cindy was there to help her. Soon she had the dirt and debris cleaned out and she reached in her bag for the things she would need to close the wound when she felt a presence. Ready to fight if need be, she turned to see a doe standing near the edge of the woods.

“It’s alright mother. He’s sedated.” Carolyn said as she relaxed her ready stance and her facial expression turned to one of pure relief as she watched as her mother transform back into her human form. “What are you doing?” Angela said, as she inched toward the big cat laying on the ground.

“Stitching him up. He’s been badly cut almost all the way down his back.” Carolyn replied.

“Who cut him? Why is he here?” Angela asked, worriedly.

“I don’t know, mom. All I know is he is hurt and I’m trying to help him. He’s a changeling. He thought-talked to Uncle Ray.” Carolyn said and returned her attention to cleaning the large wound. “Can you find the scissors in my bag? I’m going to have to trim back some of the hair so I can see the skin better.”

“If he’s a changeling, why doesn’t he shift back to his human form?” Angela asked as she dug in Carolyn’s medical bag. She found the scissors and passed them over to her daughter.

“I don’t know. All I know is that he’s hurt and I need to get him stitched up. Thank you for making me learn to sew, by the way.” Carolyn smiled at her mother.

A few minutes later, Uncle Ray returned and landed on the railing of the porch. Then he flew around the side of the house and after a minute, came around the corner in his human form carrying the blanket that Carolyn always carried in the back of her jeep.

By the time Daniel and Harvey arrived, Carolyn had sewn the wound closed. “I don’t have enough bandages with me to wrap all of him so let’s just wrap a clean towel around him for now. I need to get more supplies from my clinic to be able to treat him properly.” Carolyn told them.

Between the 5 of them, they managed to load the big cat into the back of Daniel’s truck and Carolyn jumped into the bed with him. She tossed her keys to Ray and said “Uncle, can you please bring my jeep? And mom, can you gather me some clothes?” Carolyn asked as she held the big cat’s head in her lap. “Go slow, Dad. He doesn’t need to be jolted around anymore than absolutely necessary.”

Daniel smiled at his daughter and then winked at his wife before he got behind the wheel of his truck. He drove carefully back up the mountain and pulled right into the barn. Carolyn started to object but realized that her father was probably right. They needed to find out what the big cat’s intentions were and what his connections were to the dark presence.

The barn had a clean room that Carolyn used to treat her father’s animals and large changelings, so they moved the big cat in there. Carolyn had some bandages stored there and while it was enough to wrap him up once, she would need more because the bandages would need to be changed daily until he healed, which even with his changeling powers, was going to take a couple of days since the cut was so deep, especially on his flank. She was also going to have to type and crossmatch his blood since he would need an infusion of blood, considering the amount he had lost.

With the help of Daniel, Harvey and Ray, they wrapped the big cat’s wounds and then Carolyn asked for one of them to go bring the supplies she would need from the clinic and shooed everyone out of the room. As soon as everyone was gone, she transformed.

She wanted to talk to the big cat when he woke up, which should be soon. The morphine would be wearing off soon. Now that he was stitched up, he should heal pretty quickly, if he truly was a changeling. She had her doubts since a true changeling would have changed when she had sedated him. She had heard about familiars but had never known one, so she wasn’t sure if they could change at will or not.

She paced back and forth, watching him sleep and listening to him breath. She knew instantly when he began to wake up when he took a deep breath and moaned what sounded like a low deep growl.

“Feel better now?” Carolyn thought.

A deep rumbling purr came from the big cat and he cracked one eye open and then suddenly both eyes popped open when he saw her. His head came up suddenly and he immediately winced as the sudden movement made his back hurt.

“Don’t move around too much or you will open your wound.” Carolyn thought. “Who are you?”

“My name is Sebastian. Who are you?” Sebastian thought.

“My name is Carolyn. I am a changeling and a doctor. What are you?” Carolyn thought.

“I am also a changeling but I was cursed by a warlock. He stuck me in my animal form.” Sebastian thought. “My back is really sore.”

“It’s going to be sore for a day or two but your changeling powers should make you heal fairly quickly.” Carolyn thought to him. “What is the dark presence to you? What does it want?”

“He’s a black warlock. He’s pure evil. He’s looking for a witch or warlock so that he can have a human form again. He battled with a pair of sisters and one of them mortally wounded him but before his human form died, he cast a spell that allowed him to change into a kind of black fog.

He’s searching for another witch or warlock who is strong so he can bind with them and take over their human body. He needs someone who has strong magic. I’ve already seen him suck a couple of lesser witches dry. They are either dead or in mental institutions now. He’s found a white witch in this town and wants to take her over but he’s growing weak.

It’s been a while since he’s been able to draw enough energy from anyone to keep him strong. This white witch is very powerful but untrained. She needs to be at rest and her mind unoccupied for him to be able to enter her. He’s been feeding off of her magic, keeping himself strong enough to exist but he’s been unable to gain full entrance to her existence.

Her white aura protects her instinctively but she doesn’t know how to use her powers very well yet. She’s always on the alert lately, like she senses him, so her mind has been active enough that he can’t get in all the way. Once he’s in, he will be virtually impossible to expel, I think.

I’ve been trying to warn her but she doesn’t come near the woods much and I can’t be seen roaming around town for obvious reasons. However, I ventured into town one night and found where she lives but she had someone at her apartment. A man.” Sebastian explained.

“How do you know all of this?” Carolyn asked.

“I am friends with the sisters that he battled. He was in love with my friend’s sister and saw me as a threat because I tried to tell him to stay away from her. But he kept chasing after her and she finally agreed to go out with him once.

But when she found out he was using dark magic, she told him she didn’t want to see him again. She’s a good witch, so she refused to have anything more to do with him. But he was obsessed with her so he took to stalking her, followed her everywhere and I tried to follow him. Well, I must not be very good at stalking because he caught me following him and that’s when he stuck me in my animal form.

Then one evening, he spotted her talking to another guy and he got mad. Furious actually. He went to her shop and confronted her. They had a big argument and she told him he had better stay away from her. She was so upset that she closed up the shop early and went home. He followed her home.

I was on the back porch when he showed up and they were on the front porch arguing. Then I heard him tell her that if she wouldn’t be with him then she wouldn’t be with anyone. He said he would make sure of it. That’s when they began to fight, a wizard’s duel, for lack of a better term.

Her sister, Amelia, was at work and I went to get her as fast as I could but since her shop is in town and I was stuck in my cat form, I couldn’t go through town. It took me a while to get there, going down back alleys and side streets. By the time we got back to where they were battling, he had wounded Lucinda and she was losing the battle. We barely got to them in time.

Amelia threw a power ball at him and caught him off guard. It hit him in the shoulder and knocked him off his feet. When he fell, he landed on a broken tree branch and stabbed him, killing him but before he died, he muttered a spell. Amelia said she had never even heard it before but we saw him turn into the black mist.

Ever since then, I’ve been trying to keep up with him, to try to warn any of the witches he comes in contact with but he’s very sneaky. He’s very good at hiding because he can just fade into the shadows. He’s been keeping himself alive by drawing on the powers of the witches we have come across so far.

Most of them didn’t even realize they had any magic ability at all, striking any unusual occurrences up to whatever kept them sane. Luckily we haven’t come across too many witches with any real power and the few that we did barely had any magic left and none once he was done with them.

While it’s kept him alive so far, none of them had enough power to satisfy him. He almost got to your friend the other day but she doesn’t stay still for very long. Her mind was too active to allow him full entrance. I thought he was going to get her when she laid down for a nap the other day. She had her window closed and I couldn’t get in and I thought he was going to get her but she woke up before he could draw enough power to allow him to enter her fully.” Sebastian thought.

“She told me that in her dream, that you were traveling with “a dark presence” and she thought you were after me, not her.” Carolyn thought back to him.

“No, I was trying to keep him from getting to her and to figure out how I could communicate with her, to warn her when I saw you two together one day. Ever since then, I’ve been tramping through the woods, trying to find where you lived but you sure do cover some territory.

I didn’t catch a clear scent of you that day so I didn’t have any way to track you. I’ve been staying in the shadows of the woods during the day and then sneak into town at night to watch over her. Most of the time, she’s with other people or she burns sage in her apartment. Armand can’t enter when sage is being burned. I actually followed her to your house this morning.” Sebastian thought to her.

“I thought I felt someone there but you didn’t show yourself.” Carolyn thought.

“Well, I tried to think to you this morning but you didn’t respond so I had to assume that you either haven’t learned how to hear in your human form and or were not the black panther I thought I saw one night. I can’t change into a human and since you can’t hear me when you are not in your animal form, I didn’t think it was the right time.” Sebastian thought.

“Who was it that hurt you?” Carolyn asked

“I had a run in with a farmer who didn’t appreciate me trying to steal one of his chickens. He had a scythe and if I hadn’t been so quick, he would have cut my head off.” Sebastian answered.

“Great, now the towners down the mountain are going to have hunters looking to kill a big cat. Thank you so much!” Carolyn wasn’t happy about that at all. A lot of changelings could get hurt because of this. She needed to tell her father to tell everyone to watch out for towners on the hunt for a while.

“Speaking of food. Do you have anything to eat? I haven’t eaten in a couple of days and I’m very hungry.” Sebastian said.

“Yeah, I’ll get you something and then I’ll give you another shot for the pain and you can get some rest. I need to go talk with my father.” Carolyn said. “I’ll be right back.” She said as she transformed and opened the door. She stepped through it to find her father and Harvey sitting on a bale of hay, talking while they waited for her.

She told them what Sebastian had shared with her and Harvey said “Well, then it sounds like I contacted the correct person, I hope. The witches that are coming are a pair of sisters. I’d almost bet they are the same ones this Armand battled with and lost. Let’s just hope they can finish what they started.” Harvey said.

“From what Sebastian told me, he’s trying to feed on Tammy enough to drain her magic down to the point that he can gain entrance to her mind and then he can use her magic. He said she has to be at rest for him to be able to gain entrance. We need to keep her mind so busy that he can’t feed on her.” Carolyn said. “Sebastian is hungry. I’m going up to the house and see what I can find for him to eat.”

“Who hurt him? This Armand?” Daniel asked.

“No, I think it was Mr. McNair. You know the farmer at the base of the mountain on the south side? Apparently, Sebastian tried to steal one of his chickens and got caught. Mr. McNair hit him with that big scythe he uses to clear the grass along the side of the road. When is that man ever going to come up into the current century and buy a riding mower?” Carolyn said, shaking her head as they walked back up to the house.

Angela had a plate of food ready for Carolyn to take to Sebastian. Tammy was waiting to hear about what was happening. Carolyn quickly told them what she knew so far and warned Tammy to not let herself be alone and to keep busy.

Tammy asked “Does he know what spell it was that the warlock used to lock him in his animal form?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say. All he said was that he is friends with the sister witches and that Armand saw him as a threat and locked him in his animal form.” Carolyn said.

“And Harvey thinks that the witches he contacted are the same ones that battled this Armand?” Angela asked.

“Yes, I think so. I sure hope so because apparently there are not many witches around with enough power to fight him, except you, Tammy. But you are untrained and don’t know how to fight him.” Carolyn told her.

“And I doubt there is a book on how to fight warlocks.” Tammy said, as she sank down onto a chair and dropped her head on her hands.

“All we can do now is keep her safe until the witches get here and hopefully they can finish what they started.” Angela said, as she handed Carolyn the plate of food. “Why don’t you take this out to Sebastian? He must be starving.”

“Want to come and meet him, Tammy? He’s actually pretty nice.” Carolyn asked.

“Yes. Harvey taught me a spell so that I can think-talk with him. I need to practice. But don’t tell him, please. I want to see if I can judge if he’s lying or not. It’s another trick that Harvey has been teaching me.” Tammy said.

“Now that is something I would like to learn how to do!” Carolyn smiled at her friend, as they walked back over to the barn and entered the clean room. Sebastian was resting but not asleep. He lifted his head when they came in and looked at Tammy through narrowed eyes.

“Tammy, this is Sebastian. Sebastian, this is my best friend, Tammy.”

Carolyn handed Tammy the plate of food and then transformed into her cat.

“We brought you some food.” Tammy said and stepped forward with the plate. She put it down in front of him and stepped back.

Sebastian sniffed at the food and then began to eat. He made purring noises as he ate and they watched him enjoy his food.

“This is good. Been a while since I’ve eaten anything I didn’t have to catch and kill first. Nice not to have to deal with the fur or feathers.” Sebastian thought.

“Ugh, that’s gross.” Carolyn thought back.

“So tell me more about these witches that you were friends with. What are their names? Are they white witches?” Carolyn asked.

“Lucinda and Amelia are their names. And no, they are not white witches. She is the only white witch I’ve ever seen.” Sebastian gestured with his head towards Tammy. “But they are good witches. They don’t dabble in dark magic.”

“How is it you were associated with witches in the first place?” Carolyn asked.

“Amelia and I grew up and went to school together. We’ve been friends almost our whole lives. Our parents were friends as well. They knew what we were and we knew what they were. The magical community is not a large one, so the few friends we made we hold very dear.

Amelia is the one that killed Armand. He was in love with her older sister, Lucinda but Lucinda was not interested in him. His pride was injured and they argued. Amelia and I heard them fighting and thankfully we got there in time to stop him from killing Lucinda.

He said that if he couldn’t have her, then no one would and he was going to curse her or kill her. Amelia threw an energy ball at him and he fell on a broken limb from a log that was on the ground behind him. As he lay dying, he uttered the spell that allowed him to turn into that black fog.

All of his dark magic is looking for a place to settle and he needs a powerful witch or warlock to be able to draw enough power for him to be able to enter their body.” Sebastian explained. “She has learned to at least draw in her aura some. She’s not shining as brightly today as she usually does.”

“I think that’s more because she’s scared out of her mind right now.” Carolyn joked.

“Not!” Tammy thought and both of their heads whipped around to look at her.

“What scares me is the black fog and not knowing when he’s going to show up and try to literally suck me dry and then move in. I don’t want someone else living in my body with me.” Tammy thought.

“That’s the thing. You won’t share the space for very long. He’ll use up your soul until you don’t exist anymore and he will take over your life, literally.” Sebastian said.

“How do you know so much about Armand?” Tammy asked.

“He moved to town about 3 years ago. He ran a smoke shop, specializing in fine pipe tobacco and cigars near where Amelia has her shop. He kept asking Lucinda out and she went one time but found out he was dabbling in black magic and she didn’t want anything to do with him.

He just wouldn’t give up and started stalking her, chasing away any other man that tried to come near her. She had told him to leave her alone but he just didn’t know how to take no for an answer. I tried to talk to him and told him to stay away from Lucinda and that’s when he did this to me. I went to Amelia and he went to Lucinda.

They got into a big fight that night and that’s when the fireworks began. They were having an all-out wizards duel and Armand was winning when Amelia threw her energy blast. It knocked him over and he was impaled on a broken tree branch.

I’ve been trying to protect other witches from his dark fog ever since then. Daylight drains him so he travels mostly at night. During the day, he’ll find some place dark to hide until it gets dark. If you need to sleep, do so in the daylight hours and keep sage burning at night. That will keep him at bay until you learn how to expel him once and for all.” Sebastian thought and then growled. “My back is really hurting again.”

“I’ll get you another shot.” Carolyn thought. Carolyn quickly transformed and Tammy followed her outside to the room where Carolyn kept the medicines and things under lock and key. Carolyn opened the cabinet and began to prepare the shot for Sebastian.