"Finally! "Barnaby was ecstatic to see that the work of so many years was finally about to bear fruit.
For a long time, he could have obtained his own familiar, but no matter how much he searched, the fact was that he had quite limited options due to magical laws, and no "legal" magical creature convinced him enough to carry out this once-in-a-lifetime magical pact.
Everything changed when he successfully nurtured a sprout that eventually became this tree: the Shashinboku.
That his staff was carved in the form of a kirin was a related homage.
Although this specimen was not comparable to the original and it was impossible for it to give birth to multiple kirin, Barnaby did not hesitate to invest countless magical resources, hours of meticulous care, and liters of his own blood (literally) to cultivate a single fruit among the roots from which his future familiar would be born: a nyokai.
This was the limit of the tree, and after it was born, the tree would simply wither without remedy or possibility of cultivating a second fruit, so there were no second chances.
The fruit or "egg" finished opening, and from it fell a creature covered in amniotic fluid, which began to take in air and tried to open its eyes. Barnaby anxiously rushed to inspect it, ensuring there were no malformations and that everything was fine.
One of his worries was always that, no matter how much he helped the tree, it might still have some hidden problem in forming the nyokai.
"Torso of a woman, long hair white as snow, green fish-like eyes, leopard limbs, and a dragon tail "he recited as he examined her, letting out a sigh of pure relief" She's a well-mixed nyokai and has no problems.
Barnaby took a towel along with a bucket of clean warm water he had prepared beforehand and began to carefully clean her.
The nyokai's eyes managed to open shortly after and fixedly looked at Barnaby, as her pupils recorded his figure and adjusted to the dim light of the cave, which was barely illuminated by a group of fireflies.
"Ah… ah…
He saw the nyokai trying to use her vocal cords for the first time to communicate with him. He smiled warmly as he caressed her cheek, a contact the nyokai sought with her head upon feeling the warmth of his hand, and Barnaby began to recite the ritual that would make her his familiar.
Bind now the silver thread. Bind now the roots of our veins. The sacred, so as not to separate us. The ivy, so as not to part us. Bind the yew seven times. Until the day the serpent spits its tail.
"Your name will be... Sanshi "Barnaby gave her a name, and the nyokai's eyes gained more light and wisdom— And from today on, we will walk together.
"Ah… "Sanshi took Barnaby's right hand and, while holding it, fell asleep.
Barnaby did nothing to retrieve his hand, and although it was a bit uncomfortable, he continued cleaning her with the free left hand.
There were many reasons why he had worked so hard and why he got so furious with Dumbledore over his "suggestion" back then, but if he had to say the most important one… it was probably the lack of a maternal figure in his life.
His father tried to do his best, and with the help of the castle's professors, they practically raised him together, but Barnaby could not associate a "mother" with any of the women he grew up with.
They were all his precious aunts, but he couldn't call any of them a mother from the heart.
And his father didn't seem to have the idea or interest in finding a stepmother to date, so Barnaby himself had to seek something to fill that void before it became a problem.
That's where Sanshi, the nyokai who had just become his familiar, came in.
In the place where the real tree grows, nyokai are born to care for the kirin from the branches opposite their roots, being extremely devoted to their kirin, even knowing the gender of the one they will care for before its birth.
Once the kirin is born, they play the role of mothers, nursing and caring for the newborns while they are young. And when the kirin matures enough to not need protection, they assume the role of shirei, which could be interpreted as a type of subordinate.
Moreover, their bond with the kirin is so strong and their dedication so great, that when the kirin dies, they accompany them to the afterlife to stay together.
What Barnaby did with this tree was simply to confuse it and make it understand that he was an already-born kirin, by watering it with a special mix that included his own blood as the main ingredient, causing the Shashinboku to start producing the nyokai linked to him.
He didn't even need to make her his familiar in the strictest sense, but doing so had many benefits for both of them and was also a safety measure for certain situations in the future.
An example of the benefits was happening right now; while Sanshi was sleeping, she was simultaneously processing a great amount of information through the bond she had with Barnaby.
By the time she woke up, Sanshi would know as much as Barnaby about the magical and muggle world, be able to recognize what she saw, and do many things.
She would also not lose any of her special abilities; in fact, they would be reinforced.
Additionally, this received information is neutral, and she will be able to start making her own informed judgments, making decisions for the benefit of both.
As Barnaby finished cleaning her, he looked up and noticed how the tree was weakening by the second; one could almost see the fossilization process with the naked eye, not taking long to turn completely gray and dead.
"Thank you —Barnaby sincerely appreciated.
He also had the idea of using the wood from this tree to make his staff, but he couldn't risk it. He was so stressed by the fear that something would go wrong that he didn't dare take even a branch.
Mr. Tummus had been waiting outside the stairs, and when he heard Barnaby call him, he went down to help him handle the dirty water, as Barnaby could not leave Sanshi until she woke up.
Meanwhile, outside the cabin.
Hagrid had returned from patrolling the Forbidden Forest and was looking at the door that wouldn't open, scratching his head, while Fang at his feet looked at him quizzically.
Why couldn't they enter their house?
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If anyone is interested in the reference, it is from the anime The Twelve Kingdoms.
Maybe the story has its good and bad parts, but there were many lore ideas that I liked about that series. An example is precisely the kirin tree, the nyokais or the messenger birds that fed on silver fragments.
Even how the prosperity of a kingdom was tied to the life of a single person was curious.