My First Apprentice

Beakers? Boiling. Alchemical ingredients? As many plant parts from around my shop as my old bones let me gather are organized on the counter. 

My student will be arriving today– the first apprentice I have ever taken in all my years of hiding out in this country full of idiots. If not for her weepy and whiny voice, and her damned story about her dead wolf companion that broke my heart, I never would have accepted her. Even now, when there’s barely an hour before she’s supposed to arrive, regret sinks deep into my bones. Alas, what’s done is done. As long as she doesn’t pry too much into my past, she and I should have a great relationship. Probably.

A knock from the door distracts me. It’s fifteen minutes before my apprentice is set to arrive and my shop is currently closed. Everyone knows that I don’t open early for anyone, so I can’t imagine who might be waiting for me on the other side of my door. My heart races.

Why did I have to only leave one exit working, I ask myself while scolding my amateur mistake. Even my most dangerous concoctions aren’t ready and the only plants I have access to today are some dahlias, aniroot, elm bark, and other bases for healing, not harming. Idiot, I tell myself.

With limited options, I grab a flask, the first one I find from my wall of elixirs, and grip it tight. The orange liquid of the hair growth potion swirls and though it isn’t poisonous, the glass vial should hurt whoever tries to harm me. 

I won’t go back there. I refuse to.

The knock comes again and I’m ready. My hand hovers over the lock so that I can smash them in the face with my vial the second they come in.

But, I pause. After the second knock, it’s followed by a voice. “Hello. Ms. Smith? Are you there?”

My heart slows and I place the hair growth potion down. Just my apprentice. 

I should have assumed she would be early, especially with the annoying habit drilled into her by this country. We will need to come up with a better system if she even lasts the first day, because my heart can’t take that much excitement.

My hands unbolt the three padlocks and let the chain hang limp, before I open the door for her. “You’re early,” I say to her with my accented Arthuusian.

“Early is on time and on time is late, Ms. Smith,” she responds in the most annoying, cheery tone that I know is fake. The inflection is too high and with my years of experience, she’s just trying to push through the pain.

I frown. “How many times have I told you to just call me something less formal. Your formality creeps me out enough that I’ve even offered Granny as an alternative.”

She holds a smile, but only nods in agreement. I can already tell what she’s going to say next by the stupid look on her face. She’s too loyal to that mentality and it’s a liability to her and, more importantly, to me.

“Well, since you’re my elder, I have to show my respect in the proper way.”

I have to force myself to hold back an eye roll and can only assume I succeeded based on her lack of reaction. “Wouldn’t listening to my requests be more respectful than using that stupid formality?” 

My eyes shift and note that she still hasn’t entered my shop even though the door is wide open. Behemoths that roam, she hasn’t even taken the time to cross the threshold, so I add, “You can enter.”

She bows so low that her forehead nearly touches the ground after finally entering.“Thank you, ma’am.”

The young people of this continent will always confuse me. I blame the Milleniate and the Centuriate with their damn near immortal asses. Never changing or allowing anyone to act any kind of way that could be a risk to tradition, especially the Animagus. Of course they would brainwash people into believing that elders must be respected from the get go, a good portion of them are decrepit and ancient at over 1000 years of age. It’s not natural.

“Get up. If you’re going to work for me, you’re going to need to stop with all this formality stuff. You’re my apprentice, not my lesser. I am here to teach you the little I know because you apparently want to go and get yourself poisoned or blown up with an observer.”

She rises from her deep bow and smiles at me. “But, if I did that, then I would be disrespecting all the customs of the world.”

I throw a smock at her smiling face instead of lecturing her on how wrong she is about the world. It was the nicer of the options. She doesn’t even dodge it or anything and instead thanks me all while putting it on.

“Child, listen up and listen well. First, that isn’t the world, that’s just this country. Get that through your skull now.”

I hold up two fingers. “Second, just because I’m older doesn’t mean I automatically get your respect. Respect is earned and it goes both ways. Sure, I have experience, but a shitty five-hundred year old and a shitty twenty year are both shitty people.

“Third,” I start to say while gathering the materials my apprentice will need for her first day, “You will call me Granny Smith and that is the most formality I will allow. You will listen to my teachings because otherwise, you will get blown up or poisoned.”

She raises her hand and I can’t resist the urge to roll my eyes this time. I let out a sigh and beckon for her to ask away. 

Baby steps, I remind myself.

“Those seem like contradictions,” she says in a tone that is one part not wanting to offend and the other part pride like she noticed some sort of hidden lesson I was trying to teach.

I wasn’t, but far be it for me to not at least show off a little. “That’s because life and alchemy are all full of contradictions. People want peace and do it by going to war. The Animagus are free to roam and explore for sport as free agents, but once they are called by the Milleniate or the Centuriate, they must obey a command structure. The liquid to solid balance in some potions are unequal and yet they make the best kinds of potions for whatever ailment might bother a person– whether animagus or not– or a bonded or unbonded animal companion.”

She nodded her head and searched for what I could only assume was a piece of paper or a pen to write it down.

“That brings me to my fourth and final point,” I said knowing this one would definitely break her heart. It needed to be done. “Mariana, you aren’t an Animagus anymore. That’s the hard truth, so get used to it and get used to it fast. Forget all that they told you and begin by learning something new.”

I could see the pain in her eyes from my words, but I continued onward. “You’ll have to learn to defend yourself without a partner and you need to lose this annoying sense of honor that you have going on. The shackles of the Animagi no longer apply.”

Though tears almost fall from her eyes, she clenches her jaw and rolls her shoulders back. “I can defend myself plenty, ma’am.”

My eyes roll before I even know it and her face reddens.

“It’s true. I protected Kip in his old age and learned to not draw too much from him because he needed it more than me… It…”

I wave my hand to stop her explanation. It’s just getting too painful to watch and frankly, I don’t care about the fake exploits of the young. “You don’t owe me an explanation. If you say you can defend yourself, then I’ll just take your word for it while you learn my trade,” I lie.

Though she smiles, I can still see the pain and though I lie, I hope I’m wrong. There are still many enemies of my past, and likely people who still believe me alive, that could show up at any moment. I must always be ready, but it would be nice to have some back up.

Was this a mistake? My mind returns to this train of thought. Her body shakes as she fights away the tears gleaming in her eyes and I can’t help but wonder how much more work I’m going to need to do to keep her safe.

“So, what’s first?” she asks me while wiping away the wetness. 

A smile spread across my face. Sure, I’m technically a mentor to this child, but I could really push her with some tests– get her to leave on her own volition. “You will start with a simple concoction today just to see your aptitude. I can’t move you along to more complicated stuff until you’re ready, so start by making me a basic anti-venom using the recipe I have behind the counter.”

Her eyes wander to the counter to see where I’m pointing, but only confusion litters her face. I know that this will be tough without prior knowledge of plants, but she doesn’t question me like the little brainwashed child she is and just does as she is asked. There’s a second of hesitation where I hope she will push back, but instead, she just goes and looks through my records, doubling down on my doubts and regrets.

This all too trusting personality of someone older than her irks me so much. My elders never earned my trust, but what if they came in here now with whatever magic kept the Milleniate alive? Would she listen to me as her mentor or listen to them as her elders? 

She needs to leave, is the only logical conclusion my mind can come to.

After probably thirty minutes of seeing her read and reread the recipe, she smiles. But, that smile falls and becomes more and more of a frown with each passing second as it dawns on her that I haven’t labeled any of the ingredients. It wasn’t a part of the original plan for her to do this alone, so why would I bother? Plus, now it works to my advantage.

Her eyes lock with mine, but again, she chooses to just follow the original instructions to the best of her ability because she is waiting for me to update them. I won’t unless she pushes back.

Wrong, I think as she grabs oak tree bark when she needs elm. The thought returns when she cuts the nuts too thin and chops the herbs too jaggedy. And one more time when she puts too much water into the pot that is already too hot for everything to mix together.

 “Ms. Smith I–”

My stone door slams into the ground, its hinges shattering from an intense cold, before Mariana can finish her sentence. They’ve come for me, is all I can think of as I turn around. 

My heart jumps to my throat and I move, but I’m not as fast as I once was. Even now, I curse my lack of preparations for something like this when I’m so far from all my elixirs. Any other day I would have been behind the counter from the start, but now, as I watch Mariana, I didn’t set myself up for success.

“Oy, oy, oy. Look at this shop,” says one of the Missle Clan– a gang of outcasts that only cause problems. It started off as a group trying to overthrow the Milleniate, but they’ve devolved into something pointless.

He swings his bat and smashes a window while his Frozen Snapping Turtle holds me at bay, freezing my ficus. 

Ungrateful brats, I think while taking a breath in and out, trying to think of any solutions.

I can’t use that power, I remind myself. It would be too risky if there’s even one other option. Plus, though I want Mariana out, I don’t want to have to kill her in the process because of what she saw. There would be too many questions.

“What do you want?” I say while keeping my temper in check.

“Put the potions in the bag and–”

His last words never leave his lips because Mariana is already on top of him. I didn't even hear her move or and yet she disarms him with ease, pushing him through the broken doorway when he’s at least a foot taller than her. On top of that, his turtle is nowhere to be seen.

A bag she carries on her back shifts while frost starts to permeate from it and yet it doesn't bother her while she moves into action. The anxious look she had on her face is gone and it's like she’s a completely different person.

“We’re closed,” Mariana says with the bat in hand. She tosses the bag with the turtle at the thief and I can only see anger in his features.

“You’re going to regret that,” he responds while standing up.

Mariana is on him in seconds, moving faster than I would think she–

My head snaps to my collection of potions and the yellow potion–my speed elixir– is missing. How did she know what it would do?

“All done,” Mariana says before I can even turn back around. 

The thief is tied up and she grasps his power bead bracelet firmly in her hand. The only bead he has is a minor bead of frost, but without it his turtle loses its power over cold and just returns to its natural state.

“How did–”

“I told you, I can handle myself,” she says, interrupting me. Her eyes widen and she’s bowing so low that she’s nearly pressing her forehead to the ground again all while muttering a million apologies. 

A part of me wants to scold her, but the rest of me is just too in shock. “It’s fine,” is all I can manage.

She rises and keeps an apologetic look on her face.

“Maybe having an apprentice will be nice after all,” I say under my breath.

“I’m sorry Ms. Smith, I didn’t catch that.”

I grin. “It’s nothing. Let’s go finish that anti-venom, but this time I’ll show you all the things you did wrong.”

Joy and embarrassment mix in with her apologetic look, but she nods and moves much slower than she seems to want to move.

Though I leave the thief tied up outside, I make sure to board up my door. It’ll be closed for at least a full day, but that’s fine. Tomorrow I’ll make double the money. Plus, I can train her in peace knowing that I won’t be completely alone when they come.

Maybe this will be a much better experience, I think as a smile spreads across my face. 

“So,” I start by grabbing the elm bark, “the first thing you need to do is…”

The End