Having just finished my free story for Muse Happens (which should go live on the website this weekend for members), I was pleased to introduce a different kind of socius, or magical companion animal. I love writing about magical, telepathic horses. Don’t get me wrong, I really do! Unicorns and pegasus, too. If it’s equine and magic, then you know I’m going to write it. But the first socius I wrote was a bearded dragon (love my beardies!), and in this month’s free short story, I introduced a goldfish.
But a goldfish has to live in water. How does that work? In this case, my character has a special backpack that she wears to take her socius with her. At home, though I haven’t yet written any scenes with the character at home, the socius will go into a large aquarium more suited to keeping goldfish.
One of the reasons why I enjoy writing different companion animals is the logistics. Just as in the short story where the goldfish appears, the main character has a pony as a service animal. Now, this is fiction, and Freckles, the pony, is a bit taller than required by the Americans with Disability Act to be as service animal, but I still had to think about logistics such as where would the pony be when my character is working.
I’m currently working on creating a wiki of all the characters and companion animals in my stories so that way you can read more about them, the spells they use, and the various agencies and organizations within the world. Creating non-mammal, and non-common companion animals is just part of my world building. I look forward to bringing you more.
