An animal Eliot initially charms (7)
I believe the answer is:
amulets
'charms' is the definition.
(an amulet is a charm or talisman)
'an animal eliot initially' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'an' could be 'a' and 'a' is located in the answer.
'animal' could be 'mule' (offspring of a donkey and a horse) and 'mule' is present in the answer.
'eliot' could be 'ts' (poet TS Eliot) and 'ts' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for amulets that I've seen before include "Ornaments worn as charms against evil" , "Lucky charms" .)