The Girl with an Owl

Chapter 24

The moment Ajana entered her host family's house, well, her house, for the time being, she knew that something was off.
The tidy house that she got to know when she first arrived was in a state of complete disarray.
There were things strewn all over the floor, particles of something drifting all around the room. Furthermore, the family members seemed to have been engaged in some kind of crazy chase around the house.

It reminded Ajana of that one time she visited her grandmother's house and by accident let one baby goat enter the house.
They had spent hours chasing it around the house until it finally hid under the bed and wouldn't come out no matter what they did until finally, her smaller self decided to crawl under the bed and get the baby goat by herself.
The state of her house after the case of the runaway goat reminded her of the one she encountered in the host family's home.
However, she couldn't figure out who the culprit for all that mess was and whom they were chasing around the house.

As she was trying to understand what kind of situation she had just entered, something small crashed into her, and she looked down to see that it was Nectarine.
"What is happening?" Ajana asked.
"Shh, we are on a mission." The little girl answered conspiratorially.
"What kind of mission is that?" Ajana asked lowering her voice.
"It has escaped we need to find it." Nectarine said as she ran away hot in pursuit.
Her words didn't make Ajana feel any better because she had no idea if what escaped was a dangerous monster or a cute puppy.

At first, she assumed that it wasn't anything so terrible since the children were also looking for it, but then she remembered that they were magical children and that maybe things weren't as dangerous for them.
As for herself, she realized that although she was a witch, she had no idea how to use magic yet, so there was no way she could defend herself.
Before she had the chance to panic, Cassie came out of the kitchen looking worn out by the chase.

"Oh, you are home. I am so sorry, I should have sent Walnut to make sure you could find the way home, but we were a bit ... preoccupied, so I forgot. Please forgive me." Cassie said.
"It's okay, don't worry about it, Wallace showed me the way. More importantly what IS happening here? Should I be worried?" Ajana asked.
"What do you mean? Oh, no, no it's nothing dangerous just a bit annoying. We have a little energetic problem to deal with." Cassie said.

Seeing Ajana's doubtful look, Cassie cleaned the nearby couch with one sweep of her hand which Ajana found to be really handy magic to have and motioned for her to sit down.
"You see, my dear curious son Walnut, got a strange idea while his father and I were otherwise occupied to try to do outside magic inside the house because he wondered what would happen.

Luckily for us, he chose to try to summon a will-o'-the-wisp inside the house and not something more dangerous, but it still went out of hand as being confined drives the will-o'-the-wisp crazy since they can't find a way out.
We have been trying to calm it down for hours now, but nothing seems to be working, and we can't use our magic because it refuses to stay still for even a second.
I think it is scared, it has never been inside a house.
I don't know how familiar you are with them, but the will-o'-the-wisps are used to living in swamps and marshes so these surroundings must be terrifying for the poor little guy." Cassie explained.

Ajana had heard about them before but had no idea which parts of the stories were true and which were just fiction.
If it was true that they were elemental spirits, it was no wonder the little guy was so disturbed by the house. It was different from a natural setting he was used to and it must have terrified him. She knew that was true for the baby goat she remembered from her childhood.
When someone is used to living as one with nature it must be a huge shock for them to experience something as different as a house.

"Maybe you should stop chasing it. I think that's what scares him the most and the reason why you haven't been able to catch it yet." Ajana offered shyly not wanting to offend anyone.
"Hm, you are probably right, it's just that this has never happened before, so we were unsure what to do. What do you think we should do?" Cassie asked.
Cassie knew that some witches were more in touch with nature. Whether Ajana realized it or not she had good instincts when it came to nature and the many creatures that inhabit it, such as will-o'-the wisp.

"Let me try?" She asked.
She felt a bit pretentious for even suggesting that she could do something that Cassie, Zephyr and the kids couldn't, but she just had a strong feeling that she could do it.
It was impossible for her to fully understand how she knew that she just felt in her heart that she could do it.
That knowledge was not something she could explain, it has always been a part of who she was. She could form a bond with animals more easily than she could with humans, and she had a feeling that since will-o'-the-wisp was a being of nature that they could connect easily.

"Very well, my dear. What should we do?" Cassie asked.
"If I bring him outside, will he be able to find his way home by himself?" Ajana asked.
"Yes, once he touches a piece of nature, a flower or a tree, he will be able to sense his way home," Cassie said.
"Okay, then can you go out of the house and away from the garden so that I can lead him to the garden," Ajana said.
"Yes, I think that would be for the best," Cassie said.

Moments later she got the others, and they went out leaving Ajana all alone in the big space with no trace of will-o'-the-wisp, and she took a few moments to gather her thoughts.
Then she looked around the house trying to determine where it was, but upon seeing nothing she gave up and instead stood in the middle of the room where she could be seen from every little nook and cranny in the room.

"Hi, I am Ajana. I can help you find your way home. Would you please come out?" Ajana said in a soothing voice.
Soon enough she could see a small light appearing behind the furniture.
"It's okay, I won't hurt you. I am here to help. Sorry, about what Walnut did, but he is still a child, he doesn't understand." She said with pleading eyes.
A small glowing figure flew slowly towards her, hesitating a few meters away from her.
"Please, I want to help," Ajana said as she slowly extended her hand towards the figure offering it as its perch.

She could, in a way, feel its presence, its fear, and she did her best to send it her warm feelings of love and joy for meeting another magical being.
Without knowing how or why she could sense that it was working.
The will-o'-the-wisp floated slowly towards her and gently landed on her extended hand looking directly into her eyes with its small bright blue ones.
An instant connection of mutual understanding was made.
They were both far from their home and kinship of two souls lost in a world they didn't fully understand was born.

Slowly Ajana went outside with it still sitting on her hand, and she gently lowered it in the garden on the most beautiful red rose she could see.
Will-o'-the-wisp slowly settled on the top of the rose but instead of leaving immediately it wrote a message in the air for Ajana.
'Thank you. If you ever need help, call on me.' The sparkling blue letters that it traced with its body said.
Ajana smiled at him and nodded her head happy that she could help the kind spirit.
After that, he went back to the rose and upon touching it disappeared in the cloud of blue mist.
Ajana went back to the family and together they went into the house to clean it up.

Before she had the chance to do anything, Zephyr quickly cleaned up the house using magic.
"We have had a very long day, so I think that it's okay in this case to use magic to help us out," Zephyr said.
Cassie nodded her head in agreement as they got ready for dinner.
"We will talk about this tomorrow Walnut. Don't think you've gotten away with it." Cassie said as they all set the table together.

After dinner, Ajana was so exhausted that she wished everyone good night and went straight to bed.
She was asleep in a matter of seconds. It was good that she went to sleep so early because the next day was even more eventful than the first one.