Circe's Gifts

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Circe closed her eyes and looked for her magic in that other place. The bright golden light and the whisper of warmth felt uncommonly robust and plentiful: a sign from Mother again, and Circe bowed her head in thanks. This task would deplete even that store of power before she finished.

The Lady of the Woods wrapped herself and the complacent wolf in a golden sphere of magic and protection. She put Kalliope into a light, restful sleep to help the wolf accept the changes. Kalliope trusted her, but there would be a time when the wolf part could rebel in fear, and the human compulsions and understanding wouldn't yet be strong enough to compensate. She didn't want to make this any more difficult for any of them.

The use of the magic for this would be difficult -- or so she thought before she began the actual transformation. She immediately felt Mother's bountiful touch, aiding in the work with a gentle, yet powerful, touch. The magic she could draw upon became unlimited, and even the physical exertion it would usually take execute such a task disappeared as soon as she began.

This was the last indication that Circe needed to know her decision was the right one, and that Mother approved of this crazy plan. That gave Circe more confidence.

"Thank you, Mother," she whispered.

She felt a soft caress, almost a human touch, across her hair. For Mother to become even that corporal in this dimension made Circe again realize that the work she was about to do must be crucial. Circe shut off her wandering thoughts as easily as she blocked out the world outside.

While changing the wolf to a human shape, she held to visual aids that helped define the transition. Black and gray fur turned to black and gray hair, and the body form remained stocky but well-muscled. Circe wished she could return the missing eye, but her powers had always been to heal, but not to replace. That might have made creature's careless, the ones who realized they could return to her and be whole again. Some developed that much intelligence after a time or two under her hands, despite how much she tried to hold back her own link to them.

Circe transformed the brown wolf eye into an equally brown human form, though Kalliope retained some of the wolf-sight. The muzzled head changed to a thin, sharp-nosed face.

Appearances finished, Circe began the more delicate work on the mind. Circe carefully, though only partially, suppressed the instinct to hunt for food and kill for survival. Kalliope's urges in those directions had long ago grown blunted since the wolf did not hunt in Circe's forest, of course. Creatures enough died here of their own accord to feed the wolf and cat and many other wild animals who stayed close by. Circe didn't begrudge her friends their true place in nature, and they obeyed the laws of her place.

Out beyond her woods, human laws applied. They killed for food, though not in a way a wolf might understand. She not only had to change instincts, but she also had to plant knowledge. A great deal of that knowledge came straight from Mother, which helped since Circe understood so little of the human world.

Circe worked carefully and ignored the passage of time beyond her shell of magic. When she had completed the work, Circe made only one last change. She clothed Kalliope in a roughspun tunic and breeches and created a patch to cover her one ruined eye. She didn't want to shock poor Prince Tiernan by presenting him with a naked, female companion.

The magically-created clothing served another purpose. Circe tied the garments to the spell that made Kalliope human. This would help ease trouble in the future. Like the spell that changed Tiernan into a falcon, the one to transform Kalliope would be harder to reverse if she didn't change back to her original form now and then. The same would be true for Dylan and Petkin. Kalliope would run the world as a wolf now and then, and it might prove an embarrassment (and difficult to explain) if she suddenly turned back into a naked, human female. The clothing would stay with them. So would the coins which she knew human used, as well as the knives that would take the place of claws and teeth while she was in human form.