Erin Brown

This is a transcription of some journal entries about how I ended up with my familiar companion.

Entry 4

Performed the familiar binding ceremony Nomen Captivitatis last night.  It was tricky because Fluffers wouldn’t sit still and kept spontaneously combusting, and the cages I put him in kept tarnishing, even the gold one I got as a gift from the mayor!  I had to barter for rib bones from my ghouls to make a cage he couldn’t escape from.  In exchange, the ghouls want bahn mi.  It’s like they don’t understand that just because I’m alive it doesn’t mean I’m rich.  But it’s all worth it for Fluffers.

Anyway, Fluffers fought the incantation for a while, but the magic was strong- I’m no Helena but I’m pretty good.  Once I ensnared his will to me and got him to speak his name to release it to me, all the flies and the moths in the cottage fell out of the air dead, and the wallpaper crumbled to dust.  Pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen.  But the last witch who lived here chose the wallpaper, and I’m not going to miss it.  Arsenic green?  Why not just put little broomsticks all over it?  I think I’ll whitewash, lean into the cottagey feel.

That said, I’m seriously starting to worry about what spells Fluffers ate when he tore up  Jas’s grimoires.  Some of those words are alive and really old and if some of them actually survived being ingested, then it really might not be Fluffers at all in that little bunny body

 I’m not gonna worry about it.  Anyway, he snores when he sleeps!  So cute!  I’m gonna see if he wants a bite of my coconut shrimp.

Entry 5

Do you know what molting is?  I thought I did.  I thought it was when snakes shed their rough outer skin like an old scratchy stocking leg and are all shiny and sparkly afterward.  Apparently, it can also be a Fluffers scratching and gnawing on himself for two days, and then suddenly splitting his skin up his back and crawling halfway out of it, scraping it around the house as it peels off of his back legs, all slimy and gross and twitchy and shivery, while the THE OLD SKIN IS TRYING TO CRAWL OFF OF HIM!  It is SO GROSS, you guys, and I feel like the worst bun-mom ever, because I can’t even be in the same room as him right now.  (And my cottage is one room.)  I am posting from the roof with my gargoyles, with a thermos of ginger tea and my sleeping bag.

I feel awful.  He’s obviously miserable and I’m sure he could use a cuddle, but just… ew.  Am I the worst?

UPDATE: Fluffers new fur dried, and it’s now dark blue with white spots.  The old skin is running around the garden, teasing the ghouls.  I can make this work.

Also, some of you wrote in and said there was a bit of strange text in my last post, which is weird becau

Entry 6

I messed up.

I learned my lesson from Jas and put all my grimoires up on the top shelves, but Fluffers always tries to climb up there.  Today I went to help Jas settle in her new familiar- it’s this huge praying mantis and she’s lovely!  She’s like a foot tall, and she sways on her little brass pedestal and chirps and grooms herself.  I brought her some moths from my cottage and Helena brought a jar of bright green beetles, so I think their feud is over.  Anyway, when I got home, Fluffers was up on my top shelf chewing my numerology textbook.  I brought him down and gave him some hay and some fresh peach slices, which were not cheap.  Fluffers ignored them and, staring me right in the eye, sprouted big spider legs and climbed back up the bookcase and started chewing on my notes again, staring at me like “Whatcha gonna do?”  And finals are coming up which means tests and impending tuition payments, and I don’t have any real income right now, and my night terror is depressed and just complains and bums me out after he paralyzes me nowadays, so yeah, I’m a bit stressed out, and I overreacted.

I accidentally turned Fluffers into a ball of splotchy blue yarn.

I’ve been crocheting him back into shape all night, and I’ve got the back end done, but it’s lumpy, and an hour ago the yarn turned from blue that hazelnut color he used to be and I just know something is wrong.

The sun is almost up, and I have my Alchemical Geography class online in maybe two hours and my eyes are burning, but I don’t care.  I don’t know what I will do if Fluffers is really hurt.

UPDATE: It’s difficult to crochet when you’re crying really hard and sprinting down a shame spiral, but it’s done.  I misjudged the amount of yarn I had to work with so one of the ears is too short.  I hope that doesn’t matter.  The supplies for the spell are expensive, so I sold my gold cage to be able to get a rush order.  I don’t get to eat this week, and the gargoyles are gonna have less copper in their kibble, but we are a family, and we will get through this together.