AS she chanted, Petra felt the presence of her inner beast.
It was strong, as though it were entirely made of muscle.
It had sharp teeth.
It had a powerful defensive ... shell?
And it could see anything coming from its two eyes on the end of their stalk...
Her spirit animal was a cone snail.
OK, sure, it had poison, but it was a freaking SNAIL.
Then it spoke to her, in her head, and she felt its presence invade her body.
"Do you reject me, human? I am beautiful, strong, patient, and I suffer no fools."
"I don't understand?"
"If you reject me then I will leave you now, and you will be without a spirit beast. Some other beast might come to you, but you will be more attractive to scavengers and carrion eaters, so do think carefully."
"But you're a snail! I was thinking of something fierce."
"But you aren't fierce, little human. You are like me. Beautiful and unappreciated, and you have venom in your heart for all those who do you wrong."
"Oh. But I'm not beautiful."
"Of course you are, little human. You simply need to make your shell a bit more polished. You need to hunt, little human."
"Hunt? But what ..."
"Let's start with your enemies. Who has harmed you recently?"
"Well... Jessica Smith and her friends have been lying about me, and I think she put bleach on my skirt in chemistry class, and she was putting disgusting things in my locker when I was in gym class."
"Then let's start with Jessica Smith. Is she a pretty girl?"
"Well, she thinks she is. Her parents are rich. Her friends mostly hang around with her because of her money."
"She sounds delicious. Where is she, do you know?" The cone-snail spirit sounded like someone who had just found a new toy, or a new recipe. Petra shivered a bit, not sure if it was from fear or delight.
"She has cheer practice."
"Of course she does. Let's go wait for her. Oh... someone should brush away that salt. The crystals are sharp and unpleasant to touch."
"Of course," Petra said, and scraped them out of the way with the book.
"Now, let's quickly clean this mess away, little human. Mustn't give predators a chance to know we're here, after all."
Petra dutifully stepped through the opening, then extinguished the candles, and put them back in the drawer, and swept up the salt. A bit of it touched her hand and she brushed it off, because it stung. Then she headed for the auditorium where the cheerleader practice took place.
"We're here?" her cone-snail animal spirit asked. "Which one is she?"
"The fake blond with the breast implants," she said, pointing. There were four blond girls, but Jessica was the one wearing the diamond tennis bracelet.
"Where is the exit she will use? We will wait for her there. You will touch her, it doesn't matter where, with your left hand. Our stinger will enter her body and our poison will paralyze her will."
"Won't her friends be a problem?"
"No. I'll deal with that if it comes up."
Petra waited at the main exit while the girls finished working on their routine, and then came trailing out. Jessica was last, because she had to go pick up her designer purse and her crystal-encrusted telephone from the Coach. Petra had remained in a shadow, and the other girls missed her, but when Jessica came out, Petra called out to her.
"You? What do you want, goth-girl?"
"You left this in my locker," Petra said, and handed her a rude note that had been left. Her hand brushed against her shoulder. Something tingled inside Petra's hand and she had a sharp jolt of pleasure, but then Jessica twisted back.
"Ow! Hey, I didn't leave this. I had someone else leave it. I ... why did I say that? What?"
"You know my house? Come there tonight. After ten. Don't let anyone know."
The cheerleader nodded, blank eyed.
"Go home. Act normally."
Petra wasn't sure how this was working but she was now delighted with her spirit animal.
"Good, little human. Now, we will need to make your mother happy. Remember, beautiful shell. It lets the wise ones know not to mess with us and the foolish ones are lured by it."
Petra wasn't happy about making her mother think she'd won, but her spirit animal told her about hiding the softer but powerful parts in the shell to disguise the truth, and she accepted that.
She went home to wait, thinking about how to pretend to Mother Dear that she was a perfect little angel.
Perhaps she'd see if her spirit animal might help her paralyze her mother's ever-wagging sharp tongue.