Sipping Tea

Tallia led me to a hut a distance away from the elder treant. A small, shabby shack emerged before us, its weathered facade and dilapidated structure suggested years of neglect, with loose boards and overgrown with twisted brambles and thorny vines, as if nature itself dared you to approach any closer. Candlelight flickered through the singular dirty window and leaked through the many gaps and cracks that dotted the wooden structure.

Tallia knocked on the door, and after a short pause, a frail, elderly voice answered, "Who is it?"

"It is me, Granny Agnes," Tallia called out. The door opened a crack, and floating there was an ancient-looking fairy with long gray hair that hung below her feet and a face so wrinkled that it made it difficult to tell where her eyes ended, and the rest of her face began. She was wearing a monastic-style beige robe tied around her frail waist.

"Greetings, dear. And who might this be?" Agnes inquired with a sweet tone as she gestured to me with a crooked staff that was in her hand.

"He is a human that recently moved to the forest and asked if we could help him learn magic in some way. I brought him to you and would like to ask you to help him."

"Interesting," the elderly woman replied before a purple light flashed across her eyes as she stared at me. "Very well, I will help him," she replied, heading back into the room.

I turned to look at Tallia, but she was not next to me anymore. Looking back the way we came, I saw Tallia flying away quickly as she called back, "Good luck."

Slightly confused, I pushed open the creaky wooden door, revealing a dimly lit interior. The air inside was heavy with the scent of must and decay, and the flickering light of a single candle cast dancing shadows that seemed to whisper secrets to the cracked, cobweb-covered walls. The inside was a mess, dried herbs hanging haphazardly from strings attached to the ceiling, stacks of books and parchment interspersed with jars filled with dubious-looking concoctions and preserved body parts of unknown creatures lined shelves.

Sitting at a leaning table sipping from an aged teacup was the same old lady, but instead of being a tiny fairy, she was a 4'10" human-looking woman with an apparent hunch. Her skin was like wrinkled parchment, and her eyes gleamed with ancient wisdom as she turned her gaze toward me. Her voice, cracked and gravelly, greeted me, gesturing for me to sit as she said, "So you wish to learn from me," the pleasant grandmotherly facade nowhere in sight.

Sitting across from her, with a wave of her finger, another tea set floated through the air and settled in front of me. The teapot delicately poured its contents into the cup, before it returned to its original position on the table, I took hold of the cup and sipped the contents, staring back at the old woman. Eventually, I responded, "Yes, I wish to learn magic. I can manipulate mana, and have been practicing, but the opportunities to learn magic are limited in the forest."

We continued to sip tea for a few moments as she nodded her head. Continuing, she said, "Very well, I shall instruct you, though I must warn you, it may prove quite arduous. I expect you here bright and early tomorrow." With that, her hand started twirling through the air. Suddenly, I felt invisible hands begin moving me, dragging me up onto my feet and pushing me out of the door. The teacup and saucer that were still in my hand suddenly disappeared, leaving me in the cool, dark, evening air alone.

I cast a simple light spell, and with the small glowing orb floating around me, I made my way back through the dense trees, eventually returning to Zarra and the others. The three of them were still awake and looked toward me anxiously as I sat down across from them.

"What happened?" Zarra immediately asked, and I quickly recounted what happened with the elder treant, making sure to leave out the Messenger of the Goddess stuff. When I finished talking, all three of them looked relieved, and started talking at once. Holding up my hand to quiet them down, I continued to tell them about how I was planning on staying to learn more about magic from the fairies.

"What about getting the herbs for the fertility drug?" Zarra cried out. Plastering a grin on my face, I replied, "You should go on without me; I will return to the camp after I complete my training. It shouldn't take too long."

Clearly dissatisfied with the unfolding situation, Zarra added, "What about the materials you were looking for? How will you find it without going along with us?"

"The elder treant told me where to find what I was looking for, and even helped me find something to make food taste much better." When I mentioned tastier food, the attention of the three snapped to me, before Ies and Sonx pulled Zarra into the huddle as a heated conversation in goblin took place. Eventually, Zarra turned and said, "Fine, we will go without you, BUT we will stop by on our way back, and when you return you better make tasty food."

After eating a quick meal of fruits that were provided by the fairies, we went to sleep.

---

As the early morning light gradually filtered through the trees, I said goodbye to Zarra and the others, reassuring them that I would return as soon as possible. Afterwards, I made my way to the shack that Tallia had led me to the prior night. It appeared much less threatening in the light,

  and I gently knocked on the door.

Agnes stepped out in her larger form, immediately bonking me on the head using the gnarled staff in her hand, yelling, "I told you to be early; I can already see light out here."

Rubbing my forehead, I realized that I, indeed, would hate this old lady's training, as I replied, "Sorry, I didn't realize."