“Hold your wand in the center, snap it up and down, and say, ‘Verplet!’ This will lift up and slam down an object with some pretty good force.”

Jal nodded. “I’ve used this spell before.”

“Good. I want you to do the spell, flip yourself off the wall, land on the dummy, and disarm it.”

Midway through the sequence, the dummy sat up, and began to resist. Jal was shocked at this turn of events. It swung its sword at the dummy and cut its arm off. This didn’t stop it. Jal took its wand, waved it, and said, “Verlaam!” The mannequin stopped moving.

“Good.” Wizard Buchy Isolan lowered its wand. “What else could you have done?”

“Cut its head off. But I didn’t want to ruin your dummy.”

“Don’t worry about that, Jal. I would simply repair it. Erboon!”

The next two students went through the exercise while Jal watched. One of them cut off both arms. The other managed to jam its sword into the chest of the dummy. “All viable options,” Buchy said as the three gathered around him. “The challenge of mixing magic and physical fight is to know which is most effective the quickest. Let’s try a different skill to start things off. Leap over the dummy, defend against it, and grab it by the neck to end the scenario.”

Zala Isolan stepped forward. She ran and tried to leap over it but landed in front of it instead. It slammed her backward to the edge of the mat. “Verplet!” Zala hollered. The dummy flew up and down as Zela pounded it against the floor. She ran at the dummy again, jumped, and came up short a second time. The dummy spun, knocking her off her feet, then picked her up and held her upside down. After a moment, it released its grip on her ankles and dropped her to the floor.

She sat up and rubbed her ankles. “I need to practice my jumps.”

“I would say so,” Master Buchy responded. “Arman, it’s your turn.”

Arman took a running start. He ran toward the dummy and stopped. The dummy moved toward him. “Stop, stop, stop!” he yelled. “Master Buchy, I wasn’t ready!”

The wizard stopped the dummy’s motion. “Arman, what’s the problem?”

“I wasn’t ready.”

“Okay, try again.”

Arman ran at the dummy. He took a flying leap and instead of landing behind the dummy, he landed on top of it, knocking it to the floor. Arman got up off the dummy and turned to walk away. The mannequin bent, grabbed Arman’s ankles and flipped him upside down. After a moment, the dummy released its grip and Arman fell onto the mat.

“I didn’t do that right,” Arman grumbled. “I wasn’t ready.”

“You weren’t ready for what?”

“I jumped too early.”

“You knocked it to the floor,” Master Buchy pointed out.

“But if I would have taken another step, I would have gone over it.”

“Jal, it’s your turn.”

Jal started at the edge of the practice area, ran toward the dummy and easily cleared it. The mannequin turned, advanced toward Jal, and swung its arms. Jal responded with a kick to its arm. The arm snapped off. But the dummy continued to come toward Jal. Jal waved the wand, “Hou op.” The dummy stopped mid-step. Jal stepped behind it and grabbed it by the neck. Jal gave it a twist and the head came off in Jal’s hands.

“Don’t be so violent!” Zala yelled. “You were supposed to just grab it! Now we can’t use it anymore!”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Don’t be silly,” Jal responded. It piled the pieces in the center of the mat. “Erboon!”

The dummy snapped together.

“How did you know that spell?” Zala looked at Jal suspiciously.

“It was one of my earliest magic lessons.”

“Lessons? You had lessons? From who?”

“Wizard Wyrran Sarlana.”

“Dad? Did you know that Jal’s already had lessons?”

“Yes, Zala.”

“How old are you?”

“Seven.”

“And when did you start taking lessons?”

“I was five years and several months.”

“Dad! This isn’t fair! He’s got an advantage over Arman and I!”

“Jal didn’t learn how to fight when he learned how to do magic.” Buchy looked at Jal. “At least, I don’t think so.”

“I had magic lessons. I had weapons training and martial arts. Two separate things.”

“You still have an advantage over us! No fair!”

“Zala, stop! This isn’t a competition. It’s lessons.”

“But he’s going to be better than us!”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like you’ll be fighting against him.”

“Oh,” she deflated. “I thought we’d be practicing with each other.”

“Jal’s here for lessons. He’ll be practicing on his own.”

“What about Arman?”

He answered, “I can practice with you, if you’d like.” This seemed to satisfy her.

“Okay, Arman and Zala, I want you to learn the Level one spells.” Buchy handed them each a book.

“All of them?” Zala complained.

“All of them. Jal, which book are you in?”

“Level six. I know the words for all of them. I haven’t actually done most of them.”

“Good. Keep working at them.” Master Buchy adjusted his glasses. “It’s ten mu-tok for a lesson.”

“You’re okay with me continuing on with Wizard Kende?”

“What are you learning right now?”

“Potions.”

“Yes. Keep working with him. I’d trade you a lesson for two healing potions,” Master Buchy offered.

“That sounds fair.” Jal dug in its pack and pulled them out.

“Hm,” Master Buchy looked at the bottles. “I don't teach potions. We have a bunch of empty bottles in the storage room. Could you use them?”

“May I see them?” The wizard led Jal to a small room off the kitchen. Four boxes were piled high with bottles. “We could make a trade,” Jal suggested. “How many people are in your household?”

“Six.”

Jal looked at the boxes. “I could make you a set of dishes.” It wasn’t long before Jal left with two of the boxes of bottles. He would bring the dishes as he made them.

***

Niki and Jal moved from pot to pot in the solarium. “Are you mixing fertilizer into the water every month or so?” Jal asked.

“Yes. I have programmed it so that it comes up in my task list. Except for that one.” Niki was referring to the plant that Jal was handling. “It is not in the database. I’m glad you know how to take care of it.”

“I’ve been simply watering it and pinching it back. The buds are fully formed. I expect it will bloom next week.”

Jal continued to check the plant daily and was pleased when the small yellow flowers opened. It took pictures and spent time at the community information center in Pencadick Rill searching the area listings for flowers that the local gardeners sold. When its efforts were unsuccessful, Jal went to Eiske’s home for a visit.

“Well, Jal!” Eiske put the basket of eggs it had collected on the counter. “What are you doing here? This is a surprise!”

“I was in the village and thought I might stop and say hello.”

“It’s good to see you! I thought of you this week when I picked asparagus from the garden.”

“That sounds delicious.”

“It was. Too bad it’s gone, or I would make some for the evening meal. Did you make a delivery to Tunne?”

“I did. I spent most of the afternoon at the community center, searching for information on a plant. I thought you might know an older gardener on the peninsula.”

“You’ve asked Minnie?”

“I did. We checked in the old horticulture books that Eaglestje left in the attic.”

“The attic! Siedeske might have left some old books in the attic.” A short search yielded no plant books. “That’s too bad, Jal. Have you checked the interplanetary information web?”

“How do I access that?”

“You’ll have to go back to the community center. I’ll let you use my account. Stay overnight,” Eiske invited.

At the community center the following morning, Eiske signed into the interplanetary web. He showed Jal how to search the various databases. Several hours later, Jal stared at the screen. “This is it!” Eiske slid his chair over. “It’s Yellow Aychasa Ebena.” They read the description and the uses of the plant, then Jal sent the information to its electronic pad.

“It’s a hallucinogen, Jal. Where did you get it from?”

“Grandma Eaglestje gave me the seeds.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“Eat the flowers.”

Eiske looked at Jal. “Why would you do a thing like that?”

“Grandma said that a person could have visions of the future by eating the flowers.”

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea. It could be toxic if you have too much.”

“I’m pretty sure that Grandma wouldn’t have given me something that would kill me.”

“When will you do it?”

“When the flower petals fall off.”

“Why would you do that?” Eiske demanded.

“You know why.”

Eiske’s heart sank. “This is about going to Shifos, isn’t it?” Jal nodded. “I want to monitor you when you do this. If there’s an emergency, I’ll be able to help you.” Jal didn’t respond. “I mean it, Jal. I’m not going to try to stop you from doing this, but I think you that you should have someone with you.”