Jacopo stared at the quaint wooden door in front of him, which fortunately had no embedded window so the occupants of the cottage couldn't know he was there. Then he stared down at the golden jackal by his side.
Bethany was sat upright by his feet, her ears pricked forward attentively and her paws neatly together. Anyone who didn't know her might assume that she was on the alert, but in the month or so that they'd been together Jacopo had learnt that straight-backed and neat-pawed was just Bethany's way. She even tidied up after him more frequently than not, bravely dragging his discarded clothes to the laundry basket between her teeth. Jacopo hadn't even been aware that he had a laundry basket before Bethany moved in. Somehow, since she'd been living in the cottage with him, it had become cleaner, brighter, and filled with more homely things: rugs and desk lights, pictures for the walls and ornaments for the shelves. She never nagged him for any of it when they went to market together, but somehow he ended up buying it anyway.
It would be Bethany's first time meeting Birch and her household. She spent most of her time glued to Jacopo's side like an endearing fluffy shadow, but she always vanished when Birch was due to come over and only reappeared when she'd left. He hoped that that was just because she wanted to give them private time together, but something she'd said once to him always preyed on his mind: golden jackals choose one partner for life, and then they stay together always.
He stamped his feet, not sure what to say. All this talking about feelings stuff was still hard, even with Bethany.
“You know it doesn't change anything between us,” he said gruffly, looking at his feet instead of at her. “Me seeing Birch.”
She looked up at him quizzically with silvery green eyes. “Why should it?”
“Well, you know...” he coughed. “You said golden jackals only choose one partner for life.”
Bethany laughed then. Her sides shook and she gave a few amused barks, which eased Jacopo's mind a little.
“Fairies are so funny,” she shook her head. “I am your partner, Jacopo, but Birch is your mate. There is room enough in the heart for both.”
Basically, Bethany was best familiar.
With an unexpected sense of relief, Jacopo knocked on the door and waited, listening to the scuffle from inside, for it to be flung open by Torram. Birch had told him all about Torram, but the two had never actually met. The teenage boy gave him a weird look before inviting him in with a surprised glance at Bethany, who was watching him with her soft, intelligent eyes.
“Hi Torram,” Jacopo muttered as he stepped inside, the curious look he cast Minerva slightly diminishing his ever-grumpy tone of voice. “That's Bethany.”
It was difficult not to stare at Minerva, who looked frankly silly with her stripy legs and oversized bat-ears. Quite apart from which, Jacopo had never seen such an exotic animal, especially... indoors.
Abandoning the teenager and his collection of familiars, Jacopo trudged into the kitchen where his step lightened a little at the sight of Birch cooking the dinner. He greeted her with a kiss on the cheek, Italian-style, before turning back to check on Bethany. The jackal's calm and reassuring aura provided a welcome balance to the table of animals, and she looked more elegant than ever next to the lolling sausage of blubber Birch called a familiar. Her green eyes were filled with much the same amusement Jacopo had felt as she eyed Minerva, her rusty golden head tilted slightly to one side as though contemplating an interesting puzzle.
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