Honey Beaumont

by Sara Bushway

  "Good morning," the man announced with a bit more grandeur than Honey thought was merited, but he smiled back just the same and replied.

  "Good morning."

  Andy took point and bowed to the man. "Good morning, Sir Wizard. We are Andy, Torq, and Honey of the Adventurer's Guild. We are here to have Honey tested for magical abilities, so we can equip him appropriately."

  "I see," the wizard said, gazing down at Honey. "Well, I am Blaise Fellborne. Why don't you follow me to the back, and we'll get started."? He turned to his apprentice. "Kendall, watch the shop for me. We'll be back shortly."

  "Yes, sir," Kendall said and sauntered over to the counter, where she began straightening items on the desk and in the case below.

  Meanwhile, Blaise led the adventurers to a door at the back and opened it for them. He led them down a hall and into a large, empty room that only consisted of a few bookshelves lined up against the wall and a sigil drawn on the floor. It was a circle with paisley-type shapes filling the inside and some runes drawn in each of the leaves.

  "Go ahead and stand in the middle there," he said, gesturing to the circle. Honey did as he was told and stood near the center.

  "Alright," the wizard continued. "Do you know how to draw in magic?"

  Honey nodded. "Yes, sir." He steadied himself and closed his eyes, turning his palms up in front of him, as the tome had instructed. He felt his hands go cold as they had done before when he struggled to draw magic before.

  "Behold!"

  Honey opened his eyes and looked around. The sigil he stood on was glowing. One section of paisley leaves and runes shone clear in bright, blue light, while the rest glowed a faint yellow.

  "Woah!" Honey exclaimed. "What does that mean?"

  Andy and Torq didn't seem to share Honey's excitement.

  Blaise folded his hands in front of himself and approached. "Well, it means you have some magical abilities, but they are limited."

  "But I do have them?"

  "Yes."

  Honey bounced on the balls of his feet a few times. "Isn't that great? I can learn magic."

  "Yes, but you'll only be able to draw a certain amount of magic. You'll never cast at the level of a true wizard, but you can learn a good number of spells that don't take much to cast. You also don't have the natural healing ability. That is to be expected because it's more commonly seen in girls." Honey nodded. "So, you'll want to steer clear of spells that require a lot of stored magic or that are instantaneous combat spells."

  "Aw," Honey shrunk a little. "No healing or combat spells?"

  "Probably not. You'll still be able to learn some utility spells like how to make light or perhaps conjure a floating hand to bring you something from across the room. You'll also be able to imbue some items with magic, but even that might prove to be difficult for you."

  "I'm sorry, Honey," Andy frowned. "I know this isn't what you wanted to hear."

  Honey sighed. "Oh well. I'm still going to keep studying and do whatever I can to make myself useful to you guys. I'm sorry that I'm not very magical."

  "Don't be sorry," Torq said. "You're very useful."

  Andy nodded in agreement. "Yeah. You've been a joy to have, and I hope you'll stay with us for a long time. If we decide we really need a wizard, we'll petition to get another member who is a spellcaster. I don't ever see us doing that because whatever you can do with magic, you can do without it, but we always have the option if we change our minds."

  Honey nodded and let his hands fall down to his sides. The sigil dimmed and became white chalk on the floor. Andy walked over to Blaise and handed him some coins. "Thank you, Sir Wizard," she said with a bow. "We can see ourselves out."

  Blaise led them back to the front. The group looked around the shop at his wares for a few moments.

  "Wait!" He called out. "Honey, come here for a moment."

  Honey did and was surprised to find the wizard holding out a white ball that filled the palm of his hand. It looked almost like a brand-new cue ball from a billiards set, like the one at Sacred Mounds. Honey reached out and took it. It was heavier than a cue ball and with a bit more texture than one, as though it had been buffed to a matte finish.

  "What is this, Mr. Fellborne?"

  "It's a drawing ball," he replied.

  Honey turned the ball over in his hand, his face screwing up into a look of confusion. "Uh, thank you, sir. I've seen some famous paintings of a man who drew himself holding big marbles and such, but I'm not much of an artist."

  The wizard laughed and stroked his beard. "No, no, Honey. It's for drawing magic. When you draw magic into your hands while holding the ball, the ball will absorb some of the magic and hold it for a little while. It's a wonderful tool for a budding spellcaster. It gives you a platform on which to practice the most basic of skills. A wizard who can't draw magic will never master the craft."

  Honey's eyes widened with excitement. "Oh! Oh, that's great! How much?"

  "Twelve coins."

  Honey shifted the ball in his left hand and rifled around the different pouches on his belt, stopping when he found his coin purse and opening it up.

  "Honey, wait," Andy said, leaning in close to him. "Honey, that's almost one mission worth of pay for you, for something that might not even help you."

  Honey looked back at her. "But it could help."

  Andy sighed. "Honey, the sigil on the floor showed you have very little magical prowess. Is it worth it to spend so much money on honing a skill that can only take you so far?"

  Honey straightened and looked past Andy at the wizard, then back at her. "Andy, I want this more than anything. I may not be any good right now, but I don't think anyone who ever did anything great started out thinking they were already the best. I think they started out as a newbie who needed lots of practice. So, what if I can't buy any more books until we take another mission? There are some reference books at the outpost and a library not too far from here if I decide I need more than that."

  Andy looked into Honey's eyes and sighed. "Ok. I can't stop you."

  Honey reached into his pouch and produced the twelve coins, holding them out to the apprentice with his right hand. The apprentice took the coins and dropped them into the cashbox, and said very rehearsed, "Thank you, sir. Have a nice day!"

  Honey laughed. Sir? he thought to himself. I'm a sir?

  Honey put the drawing ball into the largest pouch on his belt, squishing down the soft pouches of herbs inside. He wasn't crazy about squishing down the herbs, hoping it wouldn't make them less potent or more difficult to mix, but he liked the idea that the herbs would cushion the ball until he could get a soft bag or cloth to put it in to help protect it from breakage.

  The three adventurers waved goodbye to Blaise and his apprentice and made their way back to the Adventurer's Guild.

  All of the missions on the board for that day had been taken, so Andy took the slips for a few missions happening over the next few days. Honey was grateful for the break because he wanted to try out his new drawing ball and see how it worked. Andy went up to the roof to train, and Torq decided to spend his free time polishing and mending his gear. His armor straps frequently frayed at the edges and the rivets sometimes pulled up from rushing in and out of his adventuring gear and not being gentle about it. Instead of taking good care of the gear all the time, he treated it with reckless abandon and spent one day a month nursing it back to health.

  Honey decided to use his time to practice with the ball. Unlike the simple spells the tome had started him off with, he found that drawing energy was easier when he was in a relaxed position sitting on the floor with his legs folded in front of him or laying on his bed, holding the ball up over his chest in both his hands. It took a lot of effort the first time to get the ball to change from its normal milky, white color to a faint icy blue. The light in the ball went out almost immediately after he stopped drawing, but that didn't matter. He had done it, and now he could practice it, which he did. He flexed his mind over and o
ver, drawing into the ball and then letting it fade. It got easier with each try, but the act of concentrating too hard and so often started to give him a headache. That was the original reason why he had laid in bed, but he couldn't keep himself away from the ball. He was enthralled by the power he had learned how to generate. Making his hands glow was one thing but being able to see the color and brightness of the magic channeling into the ball made what little power he had feel real.

  Honey woke up in the morning, did his morning exercises, and went to the main room of the dorm to join the others.

  "Good morning," Andy chimed. "I hope you've rested up and you have a big breakfast. We're going on our first bounty hunt today."

  Honey hopped and pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Oh, this is going to be so great!" Honey rushed over and made himself a plate of eggs, sausage, and biscuits and came back to the table to join the other two. Torq couldn't help but laugh at Honey's excitement.

  "I've never seen someone get so excited about busting bad guys before," he commented. "Then again, stories from the old west talk about people who went around doing just that and for nothing more than the joy of doing good."

  Honey took a minute to swallow his mouthful of eggs before replying, "I'm just excited about going on a new type of mission. We've done a bunch of simple missions and transports and stuff. Now we get to act like real heroes and bring bad men to justice!"

  Andy and Torq both snickered. She sighed. "Well, as I have always warned you, confronting people can be very dangerous business. Make sure you wear all of your armor and bring any gear we might need in a pinch if something goes wrong: healing herbs, potions, everything. They rarely go wrong--" Torq snorted in derision, and Andy shot him a scathing glance. "They rarely go very wrong," she repeated, "but when they do, it's usually quite a fiasco. Better to be as prepared as possible than to let our provisions sit at home and wish we had them later."

  "Right," Honey nodded. "Preparation is the key to any successful mission because you never know when things can go wrong."

  Torq nodded in agreement. "Glad I already polished and repaired my gear. Now we get to go mess it all up again." Honey chuckled, but Andy didn't seem to find that funny at all.

  She snipped, "Maybe if you ever replaced your harness and belt with something newer and made by a better artisan, you could go longer without 'messing it all up again.'"

  Honey shook his head and left the two to bicker among themselves while he washed his dishes and went to his room to gear up. Andy was right. Being prepared could be the difference between a successful mission and a big blunder where people get hurt or worse. He strapped on his belt over his chaps, which he wore over his blue jeans and put on a white button-up shirt, which he tucked into the jeans, and put his vest on. He slipped his boots on, popped his cowboy hat on, and threw his leather duster onto the bed. It was easier to load his belt pouches without it on because the coat, when buttoned closed, helped to hold the pouches and bottle-holsters in place. He checked each pouch and pocket, making sure each was full of whatever contents it was supposed to contain, and if the pouch or pocket didn't have a specific purpose, he put something in it that could help in some way which ended up being extra herbs for creating healing potions or detoxing agents, and in another empty pocket, he placed some rolled-up wraps. Wraps were a great resource, or so he had read because they could be used in many different ways. They could be wrapped around an injury to help stop bleeding and prevent infection. They could be wrapped around a club and burned as a torch. They could even be written on as the linen was so thick and tightly woven. It was never a bad idea to have a long strip rolled up in a pocket somewhere. He was sure Torq also carried some, but in a worst-case scenario, each of them may become injured, or worse, one of them has multiple injuries. In that instance, more is always better.

  He also found himself replacing one of his bottles, the red one, with an empty potion-bottle of water. This allowed him the freedom to create a healing potion instead of having an injured party member chew on the herbs or for him to use the water for some other purpose. They rarely used red potions anyway. He thought he might regret it someday, but the water seemed more helpful if they were trying to bring the bounty back alive and well. Andy insisted there was never a good reason to bring a bounty back dead. Anyone could be captured and should be captured alive, no matter how despicable they were as a person. Some people could be reasoned with by simply saying, "Come with me, or I'll kill you and turn you in any way," which Andy had said and never meant one day in her life. Torq disagreed with that philosophy. But others just needed to be shown they were not above the law and had to be tied up and carried. Honey wondered if that's why Andy kept Torq around. He was big and strong, but they argued a lot.

  Then again, Honey thought, maybe there's something more there that I'm not seeing. Maybe she loves him and vice versa. They can't really be at odds with each other as often as it seems.

  Once he was fully equipped, he put on his duster and joined the others again. Honey brought up the rear and chirped, "Me, a bounty hunter. Who would have thought?"

  Andy and Torq giggled at Honeys remark and went on. "Well, sure. Why not? We're no dedicated bounty hunters, but we can take them down."

  "What? Are we going after Kage again?"

  "No, but it's an Andro," Torq replied. "Part of Kage's forces. So, not really a guy but not really a gal..."

  "They," Andy interjected. "The neuter pronoun for a person is they. They have connections to Kage and their other allies. While we have them, we're supposed to extract as much information as we can and deliver them to the nearest church-and-state building. They were reportedly seen in a shop in Okawville."

  "A shop?"

  Torq nodded, "Yeah. A bookstore."

  "A bookstore!?" Honey couldn't contain his excitement. "How wonderful! Maybe, after we peacefully apprehend them, we can do a little bit of book shopping."

  Torq laughed. "Ugh. Always with the books. You know, Honey, there are some things you just can't learn from books."

  "Well, sure. I'm sure that's true," Honey agreed, "but I bet there are a lot of things you can learn from books you wouldn't just run into and learn without them."

  "If I wouldn't learn it anyway, is it really that important? Seems like you don't need it."

  Honey thought about that for a moment. Was knowledge only as useful as how often it could be applied? Maybe things you don't learn through experience aren't worth as much as what you learn by reading. Then, he shook his head.

  "Nope. I think you're mistaken. Knowing more could only help you, not hurt you."

  Andy nodded in agreement. "I think Honey makes a good point. There is no such thing as knowing too much. Even random trivia can come in handy when dealing with a certain type of person. People who read tend to be better at riddles too. Solving a riddle could be the difference between saving the princess and losing your head at the gallows." The others laughed at Andy's hyperbole, but her point was well-made.

  Before entering the shop, Andy stopped the other two and pulled them aside. "Alright, look. We don't know exactly what it is we're walking in on. According to the mission page, the person we're looking for has been seen here several times recently but has never been a threat. When they see us, they might become spooked and try to run, or worse, they may attack. Just keep yourselves calm, fan-out, and if something goes wrong and we get separated, we will all meet at the church-and-state building. Agreed?"

  "Agreed," they replied in unison.

  Honey was a bit alarmed by Andy's tone. It was normal for her to take on a more serious persona when going out on missions, but this was different. She was harder, her eyes like unblinking traps, waiting for something to capture. She was afraid.

  Perhaps she's always afraid on bounty missions, Honey rationalized to himself. It is dangerous business, after all, trying to capture another person who doesn't want to be found and turned in, maybe even killed for their crimes. She has a right to be scared. Even
I'm a little scared.

  They entered a little shop called Magic and Moonbeams, and each chose a different aisle to walk down. Torq went right toward the shelves that housed reference books and tomes. Perhaps some part of him thought the Andro was after some sort of knowledge. Andy went left toward the accessories like bookmarks and books with blank pages that could be filled in with fancy quills and inks, which were also available on the shelves. Honey went straight up the middle. Instead of looking for the Andro, he wanted to gather information from the shopkeeper in hopes of having an idea of where else to look. Maybe the Andro had said something to them that could point the adventurers in a direction.

  He approached the girl at the register with a smile, and why not? She was a cute little sprig with a blond pixie-cut draping over her deep blue eyes, which were set off by these cute little freckles below them, sprinkled across her cheeks. Despite having little to show for a figure, she wore her clothes well, a dark green V-necked dress with short sleeves over a red and black striped long-sleeved shirt and red leggings that disappeared into short, pointy, black boots.

  "Good morning, miss," Honey said, almost tilting into a bow before remembering they didn't want to make themselves too obvious. This was one of the few instances where showing off his rank in the adventurer's guild might hurt him.

  She seemed taken by surprise but smiled it away. "Oh, good morning." Her voice was a little deeper than he had expected. It held an unusual, hollow-sounding timber. "Have you read the new Minx Mison book? It's not as good as his third book but much better than the fourth."

  "No, I'm afraid I haven't," Honey replied. He spent a few minutes talking about books he had read and ones he wanted to read. The girl did the same, and when the conversation came to a lull, Honey looked down at the baskets of trinkets on the counter.

  "What are those?" he asked, pointing to a basket full of what looked like capital Ls made of metal.

  "Those are page-turners for people who have joint problems, missing hands or are just too busy to turn their own pages on their books. You affix the corners to the corners of the book cover, put this little wire up over here whenever you're going to start reading in the book, and all you have to do is make a noise, and it will turn it for you."