the cat norn who showed up on your dash a long time ago

One more puff and the little glowing ember is flicked to the flagstones. I watch on fascination as she grinds it into oblivion under her heel.

Then she offers me her arm... as if she wants to take a turn around the estate gardens.

But we're not in the garden, this is a horse yard.

She's watching me with a bemused expression, one eyebrow hiked up towards slicked back hair that barely hangs past her ears.

Sure... why the hell not?

I take her arm graciously, wondering why the world has gone so fuzzy.

"It's true, you know?" I say, whatever was in that smoke has loosened my tongue.

"Hm?"

"I befriended a demon. A little one. Got caught in a rat trap in the basement and I nursed it back to health. In exchange it wrapped me up in an enchantment to make me look like..."

I gesture at myself with my free hand. My companion is still looking skeptical.

"Let me guess," she muses. "You're also secretly a princess."

"Heiress," I reply. "Or I was until my father died and my stepmother took everything and made me a servant. Not that there was much to begin with..."

"And your demon sends you to the ball to... what? Dance with the prince? Fall in love and have your story book ending?"

"I don't think the real world works that way," I reply sullenly.

We step out of the horse yard into a garden. Not one of the perfectly manicured ones meant for romantic strolls, but a crowded herb garden, utilitarian and hidden away.

"What was I thinking coming here?" I ask as I brush my hands through the rosemary. "I thought... I don't know. I thought things would be different outside of the house, but it's more of the same... just bigger than I thought it was."

My thoughts drift to all of the servants drifting around the ballroom. And all of the maids and cooks that wouldn't be seen, but toiled away nonetheless.

"Yeah, shit's fucked," my companion says.

"I wish things could be different."

"Yeah, well, in my experience, wishing is less than worthless if you aren't willing to do anything about it."

I turn that over in my head.

"Indigo," my companion says.

"Huh?"

"My name," she says. "But my friends call me Indy."

"Are we friends?" I ask.

She makes that rough laugh again my heart starts racing at the sound of it.

"I don't know, you tell me," she replies with her sideways grin.

"I wouldn't know," I tell her. "I've only ever had one friend before."

"Your demon?"

I nod.

***

"Rabbit!" I hiss into the gloom.

I can barely keep my voice down from excitement.

My conversation with Indigo lasted well past midnight and my head is so full of thoughts I feel as though I am about to burst.

The little demon pokes its head up from it's pillow. Its hare's face regards the two of us with narrowed eyes.

I once asked it its name and it politely informed me that it's true name was unpronounceable my human tongues. So I had settled for just calling it Rabbit.

"When I sent you off to find true love, I expected something somewhat different," it says, eying Indigo. "Can't say I'm particularly surprised though."

My train of thought falters. What...? I cast a glance at Indigo, who's biting her lip in amusement.

"She's not... I mean... we didn't..." I stammer. "We had one conversation. That's hardly the basis for any kind of relationship."

"Mhmm."

"You know," Indigo says before I can respond, "I expected it to be bigger."

Rabbit huffs and sits up on its hind legs, raising itself up to full height, but even with its antlers, it barely tops two feet.

"Rabbit!" I say, regaining my footing. "We need your help."

It fixes me in its eye again.

"And what help can this minor demon offer you? Remember that magic comes at a cost."

"You told me once that demons are creatures of entropy," I say cautiously, saying the words I've been turning over in my head during the entire ride back her. "You feed on transformation and change?"

I have Rabbit's full attention now.

"What manner of change?" it asks cautiously, almost hungrily.

I suck in a breath and let the air carry the word through my throat and past my lips before cowardice can hold me back.