Writing Prompt Wednesday #30

A spirit animal’s quest to choose their human. https://www.eadeverell.com/100-story-ideas/
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    Uh, hi. Let me introduce myself. My name is Barnaby and I’m a spirit animal. Now, I hear you asking, “Barnaby, what is a spirit animal?” Well, uh, spirit animals are spirits that guide humans through life. We protect them and try to lead them down the correct path for their life.
    Being a spirit animal is what every animal dreams of. We live our first lives the best that we can so when we get to the afterlife we may have the privilege of becoming a spirit animal. When I found out that I’d be becoming a spirit animal, I was happier than I’d ever been. However, that quickly faded.
    You see, most spirit animals are heroic, majestic creatures. Wolves, lions, bears, cats, dogs-stuff like that. There’s a few oddballs here and there-I have a friend who is a Toucan-but almost everyone is an animal that some human out there would want to be. Not me. Nope, I’m an aardvark.
    Now, all spirit animals get to choose their humans. Most spirit animals find a human within a few days. After about a month, The Committee comes in to assist in finding one. I’ve been here for three years, four months, two weeks, and six days.
    It sucks being an animal that nobody wants. Other spirit animals don’t want to talk to you, you’re stuck living your life in purgatory, and you usually get stuck with a human that doesn’t want you. I couldn’t think of a life that could be more lonely.
    The Committee usually tried to stick me with bad people. People that not even the most skilled spirit animal could help. I always refused-at least waiting here I had hope. 
    Anyways, you can see why I was concerned when The Committee called me in saying that, “They had found the perfect human for me.” They’d said that before; it was never true. But you’re not supposed to ignore The Committee’s summons, so I went.

In The Committee’s room, there’s three chairs-one for each member-and what looks like a mirror on the floor. You can choose a human and view what they’re doing at that moment. I had spent many hours scrying through that device.
    I walked into the room, nodding to the head member of The Committee, Jackson, a wolf (shocker). He nodded back at me. “Welcome back, Barnaby. I know that it’s been a difficult process trying to find you a human, but we think that we’ve finally found one.”
    “What’s their name?”
    “Thomas Goodwin. Go ahead and look.”
    I looked through the mirror and saw a young boy-maybe five or six years old-running outside. He carried a book in his left hand and he had messy, brown hair. I watched him run up to a large group of boys, but they shoved him away, annoyed. Tears stung at his eyes as he walked over the sidewalk, sat down, and opened his book.
    I looked up at Jackson, tears in my eyes. “He’s perfect,” I said. “Send me down there.”
    “Now?”
    “I’ve been waiting over three years for this. If you don’t send me down, I’ll find a way to get there on my own.”
    Jackson smiled. “Sending down in five, four, three, two, one.”
    I appeared on the sidewalk of the playground I had been viewing a second ago. I heard sniffling, and made my way over to Thomas. He was holding his book, but he wasn’t reading it-he was too busy wiping his eyes. “It’s okay, Thomas,” I thought. “I know what it’s like to be lonely.”
    I walked over to him and nudged his arm. He looked startled-as if he had actually felt something. I was warned that at important moments, our humans may actually be able to feel, hear, or even see us. For now, though, Thomas shrugged and went back to his book, a small smile on his face. I smiled, too. This was what I’d been waiting for for years, and it was totally worth it.