ones. Walking around the curve of the pond, she found a few smooth boulders tucked together to form a natural seat, and pulled herself on top of them. Settling her back against the rock, Kira brought the camera to her eye.
Hair?
Kira turned to look at where a little goldfinch had landed on the rock next to her, tilting its head to study her.
“You want a strand of my hair for your nest?” Kira asked, watching as the bird hopped closer to look at her riot of curls, which she’d pulled loosely back in a band.
Hair?
“Sure, then. You can have some hair.” Kira pulled the band from her hair and ran her hand through her curls until she had several tendrils. Winding them around each other until she had a thick little loop, she held it out to the goldfinch and waited.
The bird understood Kira’s intention immediately, and hopped forward to pluck the hair from her hand before flitting away. Smiling, Kira leaned back against the rock to watch the natural world go about its business around her.
She couldn’t have pinpointed when she’d figured out that she could speak with animals. There hadn’t ever been one defining moment where she had realized it; it was just something she’d always known. It hadn’t taken Aislinn long to figure it out, or so she would tell it, after she’d found toddler Kira babbling to the cat in the garden. After that, Aislinn had watched Kira and had come to realize that all the animals followed her closely. It was a gift that not many of the other women had, though Gracie was fairly good at understanding an animal’s needs.
Not like Kira, however. Kira could hear their thoughts directly communicated into her brain. She’d had to work diligently at not revealing it when she traveled or was in a group of people. Not that Kira hid her abilities, exactly – but it was easier to point out that a dog looked hungry than to say that the dog had asked her directly for help.
More than one lover or friend had certainly freaked out when she’d revealed what her gift was. Kira chuckled at that. Unlike her cousins, she wasn’t as concerned with hiding who or what she was. Granted, she didn’t lead with the fact that she could see auras, talk to animals, and touch items to get more information from them. But it wasn’t something she took great care to hide either.
One thing Kira had learned pretty quickly was that the people who accepted her magick would stick around, and those who viewed her as a freak would leave. It was an easy way to weed out the closed-minded.
A ripple in the water pulled her from her thoughts, and Kira tilted her head to zero in on the movement. It wasn’t a fish, for the ripple continued across the surface. When a furry head popped up, Kira let out a laugh of delight. An otter! It had been ages since she’d seen one. Wondering if it would talk to her, Kira slid off the rock and approached slowly, not wanting to startle the little otter. Finding another rock on the shoreline, she settled herself by the water’s edge and waited quietly while the otter gave her the side-eye.
“Friend,” Kira said, both with her mind and her voice.
Friend?
“Friend,” Kira confirmed.
The otter took its time, though she knew them to be curious animals, and paddled about before finally swimming closer.
“I’m going to take your picture,” Kira said, again with her mind and her voice. She knew that animals understood her intent when she spoke with them, but she wasn’t sure if it was because of her thoughts or her voice, so she always communicated both ways. The otter didn’t say anything back, but he also didn’t swim away. Kira took that as permission and put her camera to her eye. She smiled as the otter did a series of little twists and turns, tilting his head to the camera, almost as if he was on a little photoshoot.
“You are absolutely darling.”
Help.
“What? You need help? What’s wrong?” Instantly on her feet, Kira looked around to see what could be wrong.
Our water is going. It used to flow big. Now very small.
“Your water? You mean the stream?”
Kira turned to walk to where the pond was being fed by the small stream through the hills. Once she was closer, she realized that the small stones and pebbles around the water were indicative of what had once been a