Notes of cinnamon and pumpkin wafted through the air, filling our noses with the rich aroma of Fall…

Rita was particularly excited today. Her purple ink pen and tiny notebook levitated in a swirling pattern. Their movements, controlled by her telekinesis, exhibited her mental state as she anticipated the delicious treats to come.

“Do you think they’ll have apple donuts or pumpkin cupcakes featured this year? Both were such a big hit last year I can’t imagine how they’d choose! Ooh! What if they feature something totally new?!” Rita shook her teeny fluffy tail.

“Aren’t most Guinea Pigs supposed to be obsessed with vegetables?” I teased, turning to where she floated beside me, perched on the wide brim of a Floating Hat.

Rita sniffed. “I’m not like other Guinea Pigs.” She shook her little nose haughtily.

It was true. Even in the world of Maygick, Rita was special. During training to become a Familiar, Rita had asked if an animal could ever be given independent Witch status instead of having to be tied to a Familiar Contract — unheard of even to this day. For this, her educator had tried to force a “Dunce Cap” on her, but Rita had transformed it… into the hit commercial product: Floating Hat, a transportation device used today by thousands of small-sized Familiars. That was only the beginning for Rita, who went on to make hundreds more Maygickal discoveries during her time in training. Now, she is dutifully employed as my Familiar (and runs a Seasonal Pastries Blog on the side).

We approached the counter of the trendy eatery, Edith’s Bliss, famous for their innovative Featured Items: highly anticipated decadent sweets only available at specific times throughout the year. Rita followed their schedule like a stalker and made the effort to be the first reporter on the scene of any new Featured Items.

There, stacked in elaborate formation in a glass cake dish, debuted Pumpkin-Sugar Rolls: stunning croissant-like pastries shaped like grinning Jack-O-Lanterns, dripping with melted butter and sprinkled with scintillating orangey pumpkin-flavored sugar.

I hid my smile behind my hand as Rita’s eyes practically bugged out of her head, and her pen and notebook tangoed together in midair.

“Two Pumpkin-Sugar Rolls for here, five apple donuts, six pumpkin cupcakes, four slices of maple cake to-go and one large Autumn-Tacular Whipped Coffee Delight with extra whip and extra sprinkles,” she turned to me, “Want anything Rox?”

Again I stifled my grin, “Just a cookie.”

Rita turned back to the cashier who was sweating bullets, “And a cookie.”

We took our harvest out to the courtyard, and Rita set the Floating Hat to Rest Mode beside her on the table and began the very serious task of tasting and note-taking for her blog.

I began people-watching around bites of cookie, enjoying the tranquility of the day. A family of pixies flittered around a plate of strudel at the table beside us, eating quickly transitioning into flinging fat crumbs at one another and falling to the table in a sticky heap. The tablecloth quickly absorbed the smaller crumbs, self-cleaning maygnology that was trending at cafés like this. (The kinks had yet to be worked out, as demonstrated by an unfortunate pixie’s shoe getting swallowed up into the abyss of tablecloth-crumb-world.)

Suddenly, a bright moon-white figure slinked into the corner of my vision.

“Rita! Hide!” I whispered. With a squeak, she darted under the Floating Hat. (Which has the multipurpose feature of hiding maygickal energies…)

“Roxie,” the great white cat purred my name with honeyed hostility, “not out today with your rodent friend?”

“Rita’s, ah, in the bathroom,” I gulped.

“Interesting,” she prowled away.

Cats have the innate ability to see through dual, deceptive maygick. The Floating Hat only worked to hide Rita because it already has the duality of being a Dunce Cap. And Rita had to hide. One look would reveal that the contract between Rita and I is, in part, fake. Because our bond is incomplete, Rita is technically her own independent Witch. Unheard of.

Rita really is not like other Guinea Pigs. And no one can ever know.