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Posted by Cocoa at 03:09:16 07/07/2003.
Owl
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“Now, today I’ll show you how to summon a shikigami.”
A beautiful young woman in flowing kimono and a six-year-old boy in red and black robes sat facing each other in the courtyard garden. Around them, a few early-spring flowers bloomed, among a few tiny patches of left over snow that hadn’t _quite_ melted yet.
Seishirou nodded solemnly at his mother’s words.
“You have to concentrate on summoning it, and call it to you. Watch me.”
She closed her eyes and concentrated briefly. A small owl materialized on her shoulder, first as shadow, and solidifying. It gave a little hop, and flew down silently to sit on her wrist. Seishirou was wide-eyed with amazement. He’d seen the little owl flitting around the house before, but never appear like that.
“Now, you try,” Setsuka said.
Seishirou closed his eyes and concentrated very hard, while Setsuka encouraged him. Very slowly, a small hawk started to form out of shadow on his shoulder, the form wavering in and out of clarity. Seishirou concentrated harder. The shadow condensed faster, the silhouette of the bird sharpening. In one brief moment, the outline became what looked like an actual bird. It gave a little cry which Seishirou heard with more than just his ears, and his eyes popped open to stare at it, entranced.
Then, with a note of happiness in his voice, he said “Owl!”
“No, Seishirou, your's is a hawk,” Setsuka said gently. But she had lost him. The little bird was flying playfully around the garden, and Seishirou was chasing after it, calling “Come back, owl!”
She sighed.
***
Many years later, on a cool Tokyo night, a figure elegantly clothed in trademark black suit and coat stands on the rooftop of one of the city’s many sky scrapers. A shadowy bird soars toward him, giving a cry which one hears with a little more than just his ears, and then it lands on the man’s outstretched wrist.
“Hello, Owl.” Seishirou gives the spirit-bird a little smile, and then the two of them turn to watch the lights of the city.
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Author's Notes: *waves* First fic posting here ^^ Been a member of the board for over a year now, but I don't write much. This one's entirely the fault of a small stuffed bird (yes, a hawk...for a Seishirou costume I'm doing at Shoujocon this summer ^^), and my younger brother, who kept calling the thing an owl because it annoyed me. I realized that to my knowledge, nobody had ever really given a name to Seishirou's shikigami. So I did ^^
Anyone curious about Setsuka's shikigami, it's basically an eastern screech owl, which only grow to be about eight or nine inches tall and are very cute, but are very territorial, and somewhat vicious as well, if memory serves me right (Ah, the things one learns at Harry Potter Book 5 parties). It seemed to fit her well.
Also, many thanks to Lisa/RackhamRose, who proofed this for me. She is a wonderful wonderful person, and you should all go read her stuff if you haven't already, it's very good ^^ </shameless promotion of friends>
And feedback is always nice, as I like to know someone other than me and Lisa read this ^^
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