The Amulet's Eye

For Spooktober 2024, word "eye"

He held the amulet in his hand, as he did so many nights now. The eye glistened in the firelight, almost as if it were alive and reflecting, but the pupil remained fixed and sightless.

“Do you suppose this is a real eye?” he asked. “I mean, did it come from a real creature, and a sorcerer enchanted it, or did a sorcerer somehow make an enchanted eye?”

“I don’t know what would have an eye like that,” Lisveth said, coming to sit on the floor beside him and stretching her stockinged feet to the fire.

“It’s a big eye,” he said, rocking it so that the light played across its iridescence. “Horses have the largest eyes, but no horse ever had an eye like this. Not any horse I’d care to meet, anyway.”

“Horses? Really?” Lisveth tilted her head. “I never thought about it. So if it’s a real eye, it must come from something bigger than a horse.”

“That doesn’t stand to logic. There are larger animals than horses, but they don’t have larger eyes than horses.” Galen frowned. “Still, it must be something large. And it has a vertical pupil, like a cat.”

Lisveth frowned. “Then that’s not something large.”

“What?”

“Large animals don’t have vertical pupils. That’s a predator, but a small one.”

“Really?”

“Do wolves have vertical pupils? No. But foxes do.”

Galen opened his mouth, closed it. “I didn’t know that, but I think you’re right. I suppose between us, we have a more complete knowledge of eyes.”

She laughed and leaned against his leg with the indifferent comfort of familiarity. “So it must be a small but large predator, with an eye that can live on independently for centuries.” She turned up her palms. “I’ve got no idea.”