A Familiar Feeling (Patreon)

A Familiar Feeling

“Come forth!”

Jimmy’s cry into the aether created a crackle of energy in the room. His basement had been transformed, the various appliances moved to the side to ensure there was space for a small circle in the center. Smaller ones surrounded it, all drawn in simple markers. None of the instructions in the strange book he’d found in his local library had specified a specific ingredient it needed to be drawn in, and judging by the sudden rush of wind that sped around the small circles seemed to indicate the ritual was working. The wolf grimaced and put his paw to the side of his face to block the worst gusts.

Voices began to audibly enter his ear. Some were low, masculine, swimming around the basement and beginning to form sentences in languages Jimmy had never heard. Others were feminine, clearly inviting and almost sultry.

One clear voice suddenly rang out

“What is your desire, summoner?”

Jimmy shuddered and tried to focus “I… I ummm…”

“SPEAK” the voice boomed “WE ARE NOT PATIENT BEINGS”

“I… I need a little help around the house! That’s all!” Jimmy panicked. In hindsight engaging in daemonic magic was perhaps a little too much for what he needed.

The voices stopped, the wind settling around him as he started to hear a small laugh emanate from the circle.

“Very well. A little help is what you shall have, summoner”

A blinding white light shot out from the center of the outer circles, each one converging above the middle into a small glowing sphere. Jimmy couldn’t make out what was happening, his eyes couldn’t bear to look at it.

A few seconds later the light hit the floor and spread out with an almighty crack. Dust was thrown around, obscuring Jimmy’s view of the result of his magical experiment. Something must have come through… A familiar of some kind as the book had suggested?

“Ahh!”

A cry came out from the dust cloud. It sounded almost childlike.

“I… I was chosen! Oh my gosh I got chosen!”

Jimmy waved his hand in front of him as he tried to get a clear view of what had just arrived. Whatever he had expected it was not what had landed in front of him.

Where once there had been circles, now there was a small bird. No taller than his knees and spinning around admiring its newly physical form, it was grinning from one end of its beak to the other. Brown wings with white tips and small yellow feet were attached to a little round body that bounced around with glee.

“Wow.. gotta say I like the look. Thanks y’all, you did a good job!”

Jimmy’s mouth opened and shut without making a sound. What did he do? Sure he’d definitely wanted to summon a familiar but he hadn’t expected anything close to this! Just as he thought he was regaining some of senses, the bird noticed his gawking muzzle and waved at him.

“Hi! I’m Nessa! Did you summon me?! Oh my gosh… Ummm…” she stood to attention and saluted with her wing “At your service sir!”

Jimmy shook his head from side to side trying to force himself back to reality.

“Err.. Hi. I’m Jimmy” he stuttered “Yeah I summoned you… I think”

Nessa relaxed her stance, cocking her head to one side “You think?”

Jimmy nodded “I umm… didn’t really know what I was doing” he chuckled “Kinda dumb huh?”

Nessa hovered into the air and headed towards him, stopping just in front of his muzzle “So… what do you want me to do?” she looked around “I can help out with cooking! I like doing that! Or I can take out pets! The cerberi down there” she pointed at where the circle had been “they’re really cute and I used to feed them.”

Jimmy shook his head “Don’t have any pets, sorry.” he thought to himself “But I did want help around the house. That’s why I…”

Nessa immediately started flying around “Great! What do you need? This weird pit you live in looks really dirty, can I start here?”

The energy she had was taking Jimmy aback. He could hardly think before the bird wanted to launch in.

“Well… I don’t really need the basement tidied… or cleaned…”

“Basement?”

“Yeah, like, the underneath of a house?”

Nessa thought “Huh, neat! So there’s stuff above us you want me to clean?”

Jimmy nodded “Yeah! Like the kitchen, bathroom…”

“Bathroom? What’s that?”

Jimmy raised you an eyebrow “You don’t know what a bathroom is?”

Nessa shook her head “Nope, never heard of it”

Jimmy thought for a second “Well it’s where I clean myself and umm… you know… go to the… bathroom?” he realised how stupid that sounded as soon as it left his muzzle.

“Oh! You physical mortals need to clean! I’ve been a spirit for so long I’d forgotten!”

Jimmy nodded “Do you need to clean now too? Now that you’re… physical?”

Nessa visibly thought for a second “Yeah! I guess I would!

Jimmy sighed “Well I guess that’s where you’d do it then…”

The bird flapped up towards the entrance to the basement “Where’s all the cleaning stuff?”

Jimmy followed her up and into the house proper. It was hardly a sty, but it did need some work to get it up to any standard he’d want to have visitors see. The familiar was happy to just fly around him, taking everything in as if it was a theme park, occasional gasps punctuating the air as the two of them walked into the kitchen.

“The cleaning supplies are in this cupboard” he opened it up, showing his new assistant the various detergents and utensils “Need any…”

“I’ll get right to it!”

In a flash the bird leapt into the cupboard and pulled out some fluid and a scrubber, her wings grasping them as best she could. Jimmy stood amazed as she flew up to the ceiling and started to polish the skirting boards, places he never would’ve thought to clean.

“O… Ok! I’ll leave you to it!”

“Sure!”

The wolf walked back to his living room and turned on his TV. Considering what could’ve gone wrong this had seemed remarkably easy. He’d summoned a demonic entity and it was just… doing his bidding. It felt way too good to be true.

The sounds of cleaning continued for an hour or so, the occasional humming of the bird finding Jimmy’s ears as he relaxed on his sofa.

“I should probably check on her progress” he thought to himself. Hopefully there wasn’t anything to worry about, but…

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I don’t know what’s happening!”

If there was anything he might have expected to see it was not the sight that greeted him. Nessa was on the floor, tears in her eyes. She was sitting in a puddle of water, panic in her eyes.

“What happened? Are you ok?” Jimmy bent down and immediately realized the problem. The closer he got the more obvious the smell became.

That wasn’t water. That was urine.

“It… it just came out! I couldn’t stop it!” The bird was clearly terrified.

“It… it’s ok just… it’s just pee, we can clean it up”

“Pee?”

Jimmy suddenly connected the dots in his head. She didn’t know what a bathroom was. Whatever physical body she’d been given had evidently also required some kind of sustenance and, by extension, a way to release things it no longer needed. And it had just done exactly that on his kitchen floor.

“You… you’re not mad?”

Jimmy shook his head, quickly gathering up some kitchen towels “No no, but you need to get up”

The bird obeyed, flapping into the air as little droplets came off her feathers. Jimmy made a mental note to get a sink running to clean her up as he managed to get the worst of the accident off the tiled floor, spraying with some of the cleaner Nessa had left on the side.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned as well. You know that bathroom I mentioned earlier?”

“Yeah…”

“Follow me, we need to go there.”

The familiar flew up next to him as he strode towards the bathroom. Jimmy was in shock, of all the things he could’ve predicted would’ve gone wrong with summoning a demon from the underworld, it having an accident on his kitchen floor was definitely not an option. Opening the door and entering elicited another gasp from Nessa as the white porcelain reflected the light coming from the window.

“It’s beautiful…”

“My bathroom?”

“It’s so… pretty!”

“I… ok, we’ll handle that in a second, how are you with water?”

“I… don’t know?”

Jimmy sighed and started to run the sink, creating a small pool of water for him to start washing his new assistant in.

“Hop in!”

Nessa looked down and dipped her wing into the pool. She shivered a little, but slowly lowered herself into it, feeling around as if it was some strange alien pool. Her little feet went in first before the rest of her feathers slowly went into the bowl.

Jimmy grabbed some of his soap from the shower and handed some to her, “Here, put this on your body to clean off the pee”.

Nessa took the gloop and started to lather it in. She giggled as the bubbles started emerging from the water, her beak chattering a little from the cold, even as she seemed to be enjoying the whole process.

“So… Do you clean like this?”

Jimmy shook his head “Nah, I use that” he pointed at the shower.

“And what’s that?” she pointed towards the only other piece of bathroom furniture and Jimmy grimaced.

“That’s the toilet. That’s… that’s where I go to pee and umm..”

Nessa thought for a second “But… How do you… know when to go? I didn’t feel anything…”

Jimmy couldn’t help but feel immensely awkward, but the cute face disarmed him enough to get out an explanation “I was potty trained, when I was very young. You learn how to spot the feelings in your gut and then you… go”

Nessa nodded “So… I’m not potty trained yet…”

Jimmy suddenly felt his face go flush. His brain was racing at what that meant. He’d summoned a demon that would pee on his carpets.

Oh god… maybe not just pee.

“Nessa, we need to go shopping”

*************************************************************************************************************

The next hour was a rush for Jimmy. Nessa was probably going to be a big help when it came to cleaning but when he was trying to organize an impromptu shopping trip, she’d proved to know very little about the things he needed, or things he might need. By the time they were in the car park and getting out a reusable bag, he was in a bit of a haze, Nessa having asked him questions from the moment they’d left about everything from what a steering wheel was to trying to undo her seatbelt.

“Wow! This place is huge!”

The supermarket wasn’t that big, at least as far as Jimmy knew. He was thankful for that in a way, while a bird was hardly an unusual sight, a small one flapping around the head of a wolf asking questions about everything would certainly raise eyebrows.

“Nessa… I’m going to need you to do something for me.”

“Huh?”

Jimmy pulled a cart out from a stack outside the door and laid the little metal kiddy seat down. “Sit here, just until we’re done”

“Why?”

He sighed “Because… look, it’ll just be easier for both of us if you’re in here. Probably safer for you too”

Nessa cocked her head “It’s not safe?”

Jimmy shook his head “No no, it’s safe, but there’s going to be other people and a lot of stuff that can break”

Nessa seemed happy with that explanation and sat herself down in the seat, wiggling a little to fit her legs probably “It’s not very comfortable”

“Sorry, don’t worry we’ll get this sorted as soon as we can”

As Jimmy headed inside he saw Nessa’s eyes go wide. The bird seemed in awe of the store, its bright lights and wide array of products. Her beak dropped, a silent “wow” coming from it as she scanned the entrance. The wolf meanwhile was trying to move through as quickly as he could, heading towards the only aisle he felt made sense to start with.

The colorful array of items that spanned the baby products shelves stood out even at a distance. Jimmy had never had a reason to go down here before, having lived alone and never had any younger siblings or family over. Now suddenly he was thrust into having to find the right products for a familiar he’d summoned from the underworld in a moment of madness.

“This stuff is so cool!” Nessa looked it over “But isn’t this all for babies? I’m not a baby, and you’re not a baby…”

Jimmy might have been listening had he not arrived at the part of the aisle that suddenly felt like it was more intimidating than any demon. Diapers, rows and rows of diapers that were of all different shapes and sizes, for different species and different weights.

He had no idea what to get Nessa. His head was spinning, managing to focus only on the selection of avian diapers that at least reduced his choice paralysis. Picking one pack up to look at it closer, the bird in his trolley prodded him in the side.

“What are they?”

“They’re diapers” Jimmy replied, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing “They’re for babies who haven’t potty trained”

Nessa’s face contorted “I’m not a baby”

Jimmy looked back and felt a small smile come to his face “Are you potty trained?”

Nessa blushed “I… guess not” her face fell “But I’m still not a baby!”

Almost out of instinct Jimmy patted her reassuringly on the head “Sure, you’re not a baby. But you do need diapers. At least until we can potty train you.”

“Awwww”

The pair both looked up to see a parrot, incredibly colorful and dominating the space around her like she owned it. A huge stroller with a toddler playing with little toys filled virtually the rest of the aisle, the little chick inside making little noises as it battered the toys against the front bar.

“She’s so cute! Gosh I remember when Faye was her age…”

Jimmy felt a little uncomfortable “Err.. yeah. She is pretty…”

Nessa meanwhile was just entirely lost in the plumage of the mother that had started to compliment her “H…Hi”

“Dawww and she’s a little talker too!” the parrot kept up the doting, patting Nessa on the head before looking back up at Jimmy “Are you buying new diapers for her? Why isn’t she in one now?”

Jimmy felt his face go red. How did he explain this?!

“Well I…”

“Well, don’t buy those” she pulled out a diaper from the bottom of the stroller and handed it to him “These are the best ones, buy a big pack of those and you’ll be set for a while.”

Jimmy’s mouth moved up and down without a word as the diaper was shoved into his chest.

“Umm… thank you?”

She looked at him as he stood completely still, stunned into inaction. “Well, aren’t you going to change her?”

Jimmy shook his head, the question clearing some cobwebs with its directness “What?”

“Change her, into that diaper”

“Well I…”

“She shouldn’t be naked in the store. I can tell you’re new to this whole thing, but come on”

Jimmy suddenly felt very put upon “But…”

The mother moved away from her own stroller and picked Nessa out of the seat “Honestly, is he your Daddy? He doesn’t seem like a very good one”

Nessa giggled “Nuh-uh, he’s not my Daddy. He summoned me from the underworld!”

The parrots face visibly dropped “I… right.” she looked at Jimmy with disapproval “What do your parents read to you?”

Jimmy felt his brain finally break through the confusion “Look, it’s alright. I’ll head to the changing room and…”

With a single motion the parrot pulled the seat of the cart up so that it was laying flat and laid Nessa down on it “Don’t be silly, what if she has an accident on the way there?”

She squirmed in place as the parrot started the process of lifting her legs and unfolding the diaper.

“Ahhh… What are you…”

She gave Jimmy and Nessa hardly any time to respond as she slipped the diaper under the bird and quickly and efficiently taped it up. The whole process took less than ten seconds. Nessa was stunned, looking down at the diaper that was covered in cute pink flowers and even brighter tapes that were now firmly encasing her in the pillow-like object.

“Done!”

Jimmy looked up at her “What… I…” he stammered, trying to work out how to both address the invasion of both their privacy while simultaneously doing what he’d needed this whole time.

“Wow.. these are…” Nessa poked the front of the diaper “Kinda… nice”

The mother picked up the jumbo pack of diapers on the bottom shelf that matched the brand she’d just changed Nessa into and handed it to Jimmy “Here, you won’t run out for a while with these. Make sure to pick her up some other stuff here too while you’re at it.”

“I… sure…”

The mother moved back to her stroller, pushing it back towards the counters “I gotta get back to shopping. You two take care. Oh, and Nessa!”

A look of shock passed across both of their faces as they heard the bird's name.

“Don’t say you’re from the Underworld. First rule, remember.”

As she walked off, Jimmy could’ve sworn he smelled something coming from Nessa’s newly changed diaper.

But honestly, after that, he wasn’t sure if it was him.