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To have a familiar is everything for a witch, to get a lifetime friend, to have someone to help with your magic, to have someone by your side every step of the way. That's something every witch wants. That's something Phil wanted.

You’re supposed to get your familiar at the age of thirteen as a coming-of-age gift, an animal that was gifted to you by your entire coven, a show of appreciation and love of you and your magic, Phil never got that gift. Ever since he was young, he was told that his magic was too dangerous for him to get familiar. He didn’t understand at the time, but he does now.

He had blood magic. This type of magic was built around rituals and sacrifices and bringing the dead back to life.

Blood magic was already strong without having a familiar, but having one would make it even stronger, but since Phil never got a familiar, his magic never got stronger. Phil was glad it never did he wouldn't know what to do if so. The magic was already overwhelming enough that having a familiar would just make it unbearable.

Don’t take this the wrong way Phil would love to have a familiar he really would but he could barely control his magic (it was probably because he was supposed to have a familiar to help him do so when he was thirteen) he couldn’t even imagine what it would be like if he got one.

But Phil was seventeen now and living on his own, so imagine his surprise when he got the attention of not one but three familiars that would not let him go so easily.

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“Welcome, I'll be with you in just a minute!” yelled the lady from behight the counter “take your time Niki” Phil said, “ooh Phil!!" Niki said, coming from the back room of her bakery

"Hey, how've you been?" Niki said, leaning over the counter to give him a hug. "I'm doing fine, how about you, how's Jack?" Phil asked "oh he's doing fine! His injury is healing quickly,'' Niki said. the familiar in question then came limping through his cat door

Jack was a short haired gray cat. He had gotten into a fight with a dog not too long ago. He managed to scare it away, but he didn't come out unscathed. "Jack, what are you doing? You're supposed to be resting" Niki said as the cat jumped on the counter Jack mowed at her though Phil was sure he said something due to Niki's facial expression and the fact that jack is Niki’s familiar

"Whatever, Jack," Niki said, rolling her eyes and using her finger to bap him on the nose. "anyways what do you need Phil?"

"Oh! Right, do you have any empty glass bottles I could use?" Phil asked, Niki gave him a questioning look "yes whyyy?" Niki said,"It's nothing bad, I promise. " Niki gave him a look but sighed

"Okay, okay give me one sec" the pink hair witch said and went into the back once Niki disappeared from sight Jack turned his head and mowed at Phil “hello Jack”  Phil said as he scratch around the cat neck “okay i’m back” Niki said walking in with a small basket with a hand full of glass bottles in them

“I honestly I thought I had more but this was all I could find” Niki said placing the basket down on the counter “That’s alright Niki” Phil said picking up the basket “i’ll bring back the basket later” Phil said, then turned to leave “oh wait Phil!” Niki said, coming from behind the counter

“Yes?” “Can you do me a favor ?” Niki asked Phil, “Sure, what is it?” Niki looked relieved “well my wife, Puffy, i’m pretty sure you know her had found an injured uhm..dog on her walk home yesterday and, well i was wondering if you could take care of it for a while”

“An injured dog?” Phil questined “yes” Niki said “uhmm I don’t mean to be rude, but why can’t you take care of it?” Phil asked “well we would but me and Puffy don’t really have space in our small little house and you know how Jack is, so I thought since you live alone you could be able to do it”

“Niki, I’m seventeen and can barely remember to go out and get food for myself. What makes you think I can take care of a dog, an injured one no less!?” Phil would love to help he really wild, but he can barely take proper care of himself. Having to take care of an injured dog would make taking care of himself even harder

“I know, but please, can you do this one thing for me” Niki pleaded “you won’t have to take care of the dog for that long just until it heals up”

“Niki” Phil said giving her a look “I would love to bu-” “think about it Phil” Niki interrupted “you won’t be so alone in that little house of yours and I’ll even pay you for helping me”

Phil sighed and that's when Niki knew he gave in "okay, fine I'll do it, but only because I need the money" Phil said "oooh thank you Phil" Niki said as she hugged the boy "I'll bring him over later today okay" Phil nodded "okay but i really need to go"

"Oh right, right. I'll send you on your way, then see you soon,"

"See you soon, Niki," Phil said as he walked out of the bakery

As Phil walked through the market weaving his way through people he came across a small dirt path that broke apart from the main road as he walked down the road the trees got thicker and the foliage got larger until he came across a small but cozy house. His house

As Phil got closer, you could help but smile when he saw someone familiar sitting in front of his door

"Hello little one" Phil said as he made his way closer to the door the chocolate brown Maine Coon turn its head as soon as he see Phil the Maine coon let's out a happy chirp

"Hello there" Phil said again, getting on his knees and petting the cat's head "where have you been?" Phil asked "it's been, what? A month now" all the cat did was meow and chirp in response

Phil sighed as he got up from the ground and dusted off his pants "well wherever you've been you must be hungry" Phil said as he opened the door to his small cottage

The cat walked in and hopped up on the counter sitting down waiting patiently for Phil to give him his food "hmm let's see what I have for you" Phil said as he placed the basket full of glass bottles down on the counter and rummaged through his cabinets trying to find food that was cat safe

"Man I don't have any cat food should have got some when I was at the market" Phil mumbled

"Aw I'm sorry I don't have anything in here for you to eat, hell, I don't think I have anything in here for me to eat. all this stuff is expired" Phil said is he took a packet of food out of the cabinet

He looked back at the brown Maine Coons a lol of disappointed was on his face "don't look at me like that" Phil said placing his hand on the cat's face blocking his view for a few seconds before taking his hand away

"Oh I should probably tell you that we're getting someone new" Phil said as he crossed his arms leaning forward on the counter looking at the cat who in turned tilted his head and let out a soft meow as if encouraging Phil to keep going

"Well I think you know my friend Nikki, she's the lady that sometimes comes over to bring me sweets, I'm sure you've seen her" Phil said "well her wife puffy found a injured dog on her way home and Nikki couldn't take care of it so she asked me to"

"And I couldn't really say no so now we have a dog that's going to be coming over later today and staying with me for who knows how long, I hope you don't mind" Phil said and looked at the cat. He was little surprised to see an angry expression on the cat's face as if the cat was disgusted by the fact that another animal was coming into Phil's home other than him

Phil brushed it off though and let out a sigh "I can't believe I'm actually talking to a cat right now, this is what I get for living alone" he said dropping his head slightly

The brown Maine coon let out a meow and rubbed his head on top of Phil's, Phil let out a soft laugh before getting up from the counter and picking up the large cat aup nd cradled him close to his chest like a baby

"You know I really need to find a name for you I can't just keep calling you little one" Phil said as he walk towards the living room sitting down on the couch as the Maine coon snuggles into his chest more

"But for now I need a much-needed nap" Phil said as he put the cat off to the side laying him gently on the couch then layed down himself not bothering to take off his clothes and put on more comfortable ones

Is Phil closed his eyes he could feel a Maine Coon moving and shifting itself to where I was under Phil's arm feel a little sigh

If he couldn't get a familiar he could always have a normal animal.

Couldn't he?

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Phil woke up to a loud knock at his door. He sighed and got up from the couch, making sure not to wake the sleeping cat “yes, hello” Phil said as he opened the door

“Phil there you are i’ve been knocking for like ten minutes” Niki said as she put her hands on her hip “i’m sorry, uhm, why are you here?” Phil asked, but before Niki could answer, a loud whine came from behind her

And that's when Phil remembered. He was supposed to be taking care of a dog Puffy found, but when he looked over Niki's shoulder, it wasn't a dog he saw, no

It was a fucking gray wolf

"Niki…you said a dog not a wolf!" Phil yelled "I know, I know but if I told you it was a wolf you would have said no" Niki said

"Niki" Phil said, what was he supposed to do with a wolf, that if stood on its back legs it would be the same height or taller than him

"I know, but please Phil, me and Puffy did most of the work and all you have to do is look after him and change out his bandages from now and then that's all" Niki said giving Phil a pleading look

"His wounds aren't big and should heal up quickly I promise he won't be with you for that long"

Phil sighed a gave a small okay which made Niki smile "thank you" she said then turned and looked at her wife "you can bring him in hon"

Puffy nodded and went to the back of their truck and picked up the large wolf, Phil had half the mind to go over and help her but then he remembered that despite how short Puffy was she was hella strong

The wolf himself looked quite shocked that she picked him up with out any problems

"All right, were do I put him?" Puffy said as she came closer to the house "uhm, you can put him on the couch" Phil said as the three of them walk in and to the living room.

"Awww, Phil you never told me you had a cat" Niki said once she spotted the chocolate brown cat -who was now awake- sitting on the couch licking his paw.

"Oh, his not my cat" Phil said, going over and taking him off the couch "He just showed up one day and I just keep feeding him."

"You can put him on the couch Puffy" Phil said.

Puffy nodded and slowly lowered the giant wolf down on the couch, the wolf looked around the small living room taking everything in and then made eye-contact with the chocolate brown Maine Coon.

And once that happened all hell broke loose.

The maine coon Puffed up and started hissing and growling at the giant wolf and even attempted to jump out of Phil's arms to attack the gray wolf.

The wolf in turn, growled and barked back the fur on the back of his neck stood on end his ears were pined back, and his sharp teeth were on full display.

In the end Phil -not with out injury- managed to take the brown Maine Coon to his bedroom.

"What was that?" Phil said, looking at the cat."You know what, never mind, i need to patch up these scratches, " looking at his hands.

"We'll talk about this later," Phil said, pointing at the cat who actually looked guilty.

Phil left his room, shutting the door behind him, and took a deep breath. "I really need to stop talking to that cat like he can understand me."

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So I'm going to go on a small hiatus I don't known when I'll be back but I've been writing a lot of unpublished stories while also trying to think of new chapters for stories that are published and it's really taken a toll on me

I feel like that lately my writing has gotten a lot worse and I'm not happy with the way I am writing so I might try and improve that as well but then again it may just be because I'm overworking myself

But anyways I just wanted to inform you guys about this because I know how many people read this story

To me it feels a little unfair that you guys wait for chapters to be posted when a chapter may not be posted for who knows how long

But like I said I'm going to be taking a little break I'm not forgetting about  This story nor any other story I have posted I feel overworked and overwhelmed and maybe my fault

Anyways I hope you guys have a good day/night/evening

-Blue_Scales

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Hello, it's been a while since I've updated this story. It's 2025 now, yay!

Anyway, I wanted to post this chapter because I was thinking about it and looking back at this story and I realized that I don't like how I wrote it. There were so many mistakes that I could see and so many misspellings and weird wording, all in all, I just really don't like how I wrote this.

So I'm gonna rewrite it and it's gonna be better this time. At least I hope so. I feel like after the past 2 years my writing has gotten much better than what it was in 2023. So i'm rewriting this entire story.

I'm gonna keep this story up because it was one of the first few stories that I posted on A03 but I will be making a rewrite. I'm not sure when I'll post the first chapter.
But I just wanted to tell you all.

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful day!

-Blue_Scales