The Dryad 38 Magic Show

Because of our extended conversations at lunch, our break was longer than what we normally took. To not lose any more time, we hurriedly readied the horses and set off.

As evening approached, we found ourselves in a small farming hamlet. We should be seven days out from the capital. Yet, already, a large part of the land was used for farming or raising livestock. There were some small groves of trees scattered here and there, mostly along rivers or on hills that would be too hard to farm.

The hamlet did not have a inn to stay at, but part of their 'village square' opened onto a vacant field where travelers were welcome to set up camp. Despite the lack of an inn, they seemed to have a small tavern. Well, tavern might be a little too generous of a word. It was the first floor of one of the larger homes in town with a few chairs and tables.

It looked like a good number of the residents were gathered here to gossip with us travelers. Judging from their excitement when talking with us, it did not seems like they got many travelers.

One thing that caught several peoples' attention was that our group was made up of more that half females. From what I heard from Gray, humans were just as patriarchal as they had been in the past. It was rare to see women on the road. As we sat down at a table partially to eat, but also to start our efforts at gaining information, a small girl I guessed was about 8 years old came up to me.

"I wish I could travel like you do," she said with a slightly sad voice. "It is hard to make friends here. There is no one my age to play with."

I could not help but smile at her innocence. "Just because someone is different from you in age does not mean that you can not be friends with them." I picked her up and set her on my lap. "While we are in town I would be happy to be your friend." She seemed to liked my lap because she quickly settled down after a few wiggles to get herself comfortable. "Taking a trip is not as fun as you might think. I would not have left my home if my situation did not require me to do so." It seemed like Istan was nervous by this little girl getting so close to me. But once again I paid him no heed. What could this little girl do to me? In fact I had a feeling that is half of the reason that this girl was here. People were much more likely to open up to children than they were to adults. The older men in the room might use her loosen my lips like an ant does for the peony.

"Why did you have to leave your home if you did not want to?" She asked while tilting her head to the side. She was very adorable with shoulder length hair that was somewhere between blond and brown. It matched well with her bright blue eyes and the slightly honey-colored tan of her skin. It felt wrong for me to still be hiding myself inside the hood of my cloak, so I lowered it to let her get a better look at me. Today my hair was the bright red of a maple tree. It was not a color that could really be seen among humans, but with autumn well underway, I was having a harder and harder time finding trees to make my hair an acceptable color. Also, even though I had been silent during Mist and Faun's conversation about my hair last spring, that does not mean that I did not have an opinion myself. One of my favorites that I was able enjoy every fall was maple red.

"Oh, you are so pretty," she said while looking back and forth between my red hair and green eyes. I could tell that several of the older people in the room were of the same opinion as her.

As much as I like being complimented, it made me feel a little awkward. To bring the conversation back on topic, I said, "I have important business to take care of near the capital. We are looking for a magician named Maximus to consult him about some medicine I have been developing."

"A magician? I want to see a magician! It would be so wonderful if I could become a magician. I could do anything then," she said with excitement.

"Being a magician is not as easy of a life as you might think. You need to work hard all the time and the practice takes up most of your time every day."

"How do you know?" she asked with a puzzled look.

"I have gone through that myself over the years. I am a sorceress," I said with a friendly smile.

"You are a sorceress! Can you please show me some magic? I really want to see it."

"I would be happy to show you some. However, the magic that I practice is primarily for plants. If you want me to show you some, you would need to bring me a plant or a seed."

"Okay!" The little girl said as she hopped off my lap and quickly ran out of the room.

"Fores *cough*, Laurel are you really sure this is a good idea?" I glared at Istan for almost slipping up again. Istan's voice was quiet so the others likely did not hear it, but that was still not acceptable to me. We were no longer in a place I could just say that it was for practice. If the magician knew that we were hunting him, I might never be able to rescue Faun.

"Didn't we already talk about it this morning? I am a sorceress. What is the point in me hiding my magic?" I responded to him flatly in a voice that only he could hear.

As we were waiting for the girl to return with her plant, one of the older men in the room asked, "What brings an esteemed sorceress to this small village? There is nothing to take note of in this little place."

"As I said, we are just pa.s.sing through on our journey to meet the magician Maximus from your kingdom. I have spent years improving the effectiveness of the medicine that I brew. However, I have recently hit a snag and am unable to progress any further. I heard that Maximus has made a breakthrough in his efforts. I was hoping to meet with Maximus to share notes and see if we could both improve our products." It felt slightly wrong to say his name repeatedly but I wanted to make sure they remembered.

"So you specialize in making medicine," the old man said.

"Not really. My specialty has to do with plants, but brewing medicine is an effective way for me to make the money I need to practice my craft. Plants make up the primary ingredients in my medicines, so I have spent much of my time working on creating more effective medicines."

Before the old man could ask any additional questions the girl ran back into the room with a squash seed in her hand. "Can you use this?" she asked in excitement while climbing back onto my lap.

"I could, but it is almost winter. This seed will not have enough time to grow before the cold sets in, Will that be alright?"

The girl had a puzzled look on her face, unsure why I would ask such a question. But one of the older men in the back of the room replied for her. "We have more than enough and will not miss one seed. It is more than a fine price to pay for the chance to see some magic."

Given approval, I grabbed the seed from the girl and started to work my magic. If I wanted to, I could have grown the plant all the way to maturity. But I thought that this might be standing out too much. That was why I was going to limit my powers.

I made sure to close my eyes as I worked magic as I funneled some of my power into the seed. I did not know if human magicians' eyes glowed, and it was better to be safe. Leafia's eyes did glow ever so slightly when she worked magic, but even at night it was hard to notice. The difference in how much our eyes glow might have to do with Leafia being an animal that can use magic, while I am a magical existence. Or it might have to do with the amount of power we use. Emily was not any help at baselining either of these theories. She was in the middle in every aspect, so it did not lead to any conclusion. She also had the habit of working with her eyes closed, so most would not notice whether or not her eyes glowed, anyway.

As the seed received my power it quickly began to sprout. In less that a minute it had depleted all of its stored nutrients. At this point it would start taking a lot more energy to get the plant to continue to grow, but I was not going to do that. This would be a sufficient display of my power.

I handed the plant back to the girl which was now slightly larger than her hands with two small leaves. The girls eye were large with her mouth slightly open. "That was wonderful! Can I keep it?" she exclaimed.

I laughed at her excitement. "I do not care if you keep it, but it will not last long in this weather."

To my surprise reminding her that it was going to die did not dampen her spirit. She smiled at me and responded with a cheerful, "Okay." However, after a moment she continued. "Is there anything else that you can do?"

"Sharlin, please stop bothering our guests so much." A man I was guessing was in his fifties called out from the kitchen.

Despondently, the little girl responded, "Okay Grandpa," and hopped down from my lap.