-Potions-

Sage was looking through all his medicine cabinets in order to find some bandages for his hands, he had been practicing his ability to make thorns appear on plants when he had accidentally got to close. Aqua kept telling him to back up but he wasn't the type to listen. They would have helped him, but Sage had insisted that he knew where the bandages were. He found them in the bottom of the medicine cabinet upstairs, unraveled a roll, and quickly wrapped it around his hands, he wasn't sure what to do with the end to tie it so he just tucked it in.

He then walked back downstairs and through the door to his backyard where Aqua was waiting for him to return.

"I think I know what went wrong, I really shoulda backed up a bit." Sage said, sitting beside Aqua in the grass beside his small thorn plant.

"You think?" Aqua said sarcastically, and then looked down at Sage's hand.

"Have you ever wrapped a bandage before?" They picked up Sage's hand, looking at the terrible job he had done at bandaging the wound.

"Ah, no actually. Never gotten hurt enough to need anything more than a band-aid." Sage said, Aqua began un-wrapping the bandage to re-wrap it the proper way.

"I'd prefer if we kept the injuries to a minimum for the rest of our training sessions."

"Aw, are you worried about me?" Sage asked, Aqua ignored him and stood up again.

"Alright, now I think you need to practice your thorns a bit more, you should be able to make them appear on any plant on command."

"Your hair is really pretty y'know?"

"Are you even listening?"

"No, not at all."

Aqua waved their hands and made the water from the bird bath behind them come forth and splash right on Sage's head.

"HEY!! You're the one who's being too confusing to pay attention to."

"Too confusing? I am giving you precise instructions."

Sage rolled his eyes, "'Get better' is not a precise instruction." he said.

"I'm only telling you to practice, you don't get good at this stuff overnight."

"Urgh, if only I could." Sage said, as he laid on the grass, Aqua then kicked him lightly with the edge of their shoe, "Hey, don't fall asleep on me."

Sage rolled over to face his thorn plant. "Well, at least I got this done."

"You're not going to do well on the exam with that attitude." Aqua said.

Sage sat up suddenly, "Exam?"

"Well, yes, to determine whether you can fight this battle you will have to pass an examination of some sort." Aqua said. "Hah, no essays though, right?" Sage asked, they looked at him confused, "What's an essay?" they asked. "Oh you have no idea how lucky you are." Sage said, picking at the grass.

"Well, do you want to take a break for now and help me brew some potions?'

"Potions, what for?"

"For your battle, of course."

Sage followed Aqua as they went back inside. When they opened the door to the spare room Sage was immediately aware that Aqua had left the place a total mess, there were picked flowers, leaves and just a pile of dirt scattered across the table. "Y'know, when I let you use my spare room, I didn't think you would use it to store a giant clump of dirt." Aqua walked over to the clump of dirt, "It's not dirt, it's moss, see?" they then turned the clump of dirt around so Sage could see the moss on the bottom.

"Oh yes, that's...much better than dirt...I guess."

"It's an essential part of potion-making." Aqua said as they took a large cup and put it on the center of the table. "I've made potions before in my class and I didn't use any dirt-er-moss." Sage argued, Aqua rolled their eyes at that while grabbing a water bottle "You made a little dandelion brew or something?" Aqua retorted, that actually was the first potion Sage's teacher had taught him, a potion that consisted of nothing but dandelions and special water his teacher had to send in, 'blessed by water fairies' or whatever.

"Okay, now can you bless the moss real quick?" Aqua said, as they poured water into the large cup. "Um okay...how do you bless something?" Sage asked. "Well I don't know how nature fairies bless things, just put your magic in it somehow."

Sage picked up the moss and looked at it...then he put it back down on the table and hovered his hands over it, he really wasn't sure what he was doing but it didn't seem to be working.

Aqua had finished preparing everything they would need, and noticed Sage struggling. "Usually when I have to bless something with water fairy magic..." Aqua said, moving the large cup of water closer to them and putting their hands over it, almost in the same way Sage was, "All I have to do is move the water." The water in the cup bubbled and then came out of the cup, floating in the air until Aqua gently placed it back in the cup.

"Wait, we need water blessed by water fairy magic and moss blessed by nature fairy magic for one potion?" Sage asked, all of the potions he had done for his class only required one thing that was blessed.

"That's why I thought we could make it together." Aqua said, they then turned around and grabbed the book they had on nature fairy magic "Maybe there's something in here..."

Sage thought back to what Aqua had said on his very first lesson, growing a plant was like putting your own energy into it, maybe growing the moss could help. So Sage put his hands over it and grew the moss a little, Aqua spun back around to him after thoroughly checking the book. "Nothing in here about blessing things...oh did you figure it out?" "Maybe?" Sage said, not very sure of himself. "Well there's only one way to tell." Aqua picked the pieces of moss off the clump of dirt and threw them in the large cup with the blessed water, they then grabbed the group of small white flowers, picked their petals, and threw them in as well. Sage handed Aqua a couple of yellow flowers they then threw in as well.

"Alright and now all we need to do is stir." Sage was expecting Aqua to simply pick up the spoon beside the cup and gently stir the potion, but instead they used their magic to repeatedly float the water out of the cup and throw it back into the cup. "I bet it's pretty fun being a water fairy." Sage said, leaning on the table and gazing at the potion. "Nah, I'd say it's more fun being a nature fairy, if someone tries to attack you you can get them with thorns, all I can do is try to drown them." Aqua said, continuing to stir in their own unique way. "Well, you certainly had no problem drowning me." Aqua dropped the now green tinted potion mid-air and it fell to the ground, Sage immediately regretted bringing up his memories again. "Ah...sorry um...I don't know what it's like being possessed, I shouldn't have braught it up." Sage apologized, Aqua sighed and floated the potion back into the cup. "I hope you're okay with drinking something off the ground then."

Sage only then realised he had no idea what they were making.

"Hey Aqua, what potion are we making exactly?"

"Why don't you try it and see?" Aqua replied, taking the spoon that should have been used to stir, scooping a bit of the potion into it and holding it up to Sage.

Sage leaned over and drank the potion out of the spoon, he leaned back again and looked around him, expecting something to happen. "Nothing's happening."

"Try to lift the table." Sage put his hands under the table and attempted to lift it, but the legs of the table flew into the air, the entire table felt as light as feather, he then gently put the table back down.

"Oh it's strength potion!" Sage said proudly, Aqua nodded. "It only lasts a couple seconds though, but I think it'll be useful."

"Hell yeah it's gonna be useful, I'll throw Josephine up into the air and spike her with thorns!!" Sage enthusiasticly threw his hands in the air and acted the scene out.

Aqua smiled.

"I think you're almost ready to."