Henry was suddenly acutely aware of his surroundings, the smell of leather, blurred lights that seemed to hurt his eyes, the muffled noise of some sort of whistling. The world around him felt… muted in various ways, but he also could feel everything. He couldn’t describe the situation he was in, but suddenly felt like he wasn’t able to move his body.

Soon, the senses of his body seemed to dull, and then slowly came back to normal, as if he was a cup half full of water that slowly emptied and then quickly refilled. Henry looked around, noticing that he was lying in a bed in a room he did not recognize.

The strange muffled whistling that he was hearing turned out to be a tea kettle. Henry quickly found the old man, but when he tried to talk to him to ask what had happened, his throat was suddenly on fire and felt like it was full of sand.

“Don’t bother.” the old man said, taking the tea kettle off the heat and preparing some tea. Soon the old man brought a cup of herbal tea over to Henry before carefully having him drink it. Actually drinking the tea hurt, but it soon made his throat, and even his entire body, much better.

“Magic herbs?!” Henry knew that a simple tea leaf didn’t have the miraculous effects that he was experiencing now. He knew that he should be half-dead if not completely crippled right now, but he felt like he could stand up after a mere few moments after drinking the tea.

“Senior, how am I supposed to repay you for the herbs?” Henry’s stubborn nature immediately surfaced immediately, not bothering to ask how the old man got away from the thugs, only concerned with repaying the old man's kindness.

The old man saw this, and a slight approving look surfaced on his face for a split second before he thought about something. “Sure. You're going to do something for me that my old bones can't do anymore. Follow me.” He said, stepping towards his back door.

Henry thought that he was going to have to use a lot of effort to get out of the bed, but it seemed that the herbal tea healed him completely. “I'm going to owe him for life.” Henry sighed to himself before following the old man out.

Henry finally got a good look at his surroundings, the old man's house being no larger than a large single room that held all of his belongings. The old man brought him out to the backyard, where a strange looking tree was growing.

The tree was much taller than the man's house, easily covering the area in shadow. “Trim all of the tiny branches for me, then come find me.” The old man then disappeared into his small home.

Henry glanced around, finding a woodcutting ax nearby and quickly got to work. He chopped at the lower branches and noticed that they were as hard as rocks. It took him three good swings to take off a single branch the width of his thumb.

“What's with this tree?” Henry flailed against the robustness of this tree, before gritting his teeth and getting to it. Nearly seven hours later, Henry was on the ground panting and sweating, musing about how he had never been so exhausted.

He then found the old man in the shack. “I think I'm done.” He said between gasping breaths. The old man simply nodded, not even glancing towards the tree. “Take a rest, I have more for you tomorrow.” the old man barely looked up from what he was doing when he responded.

Henry felt as if he had been suddenly pardoned from being executed, as he was happy to head back to sleep. It was as if the previous night hadn’t happened to him, including him sleeping for so long, as it was already night when he walked back to the room the old man was gracious enough to lend him.

Henry had slept on the cold streets for so long that when he saw the bed once again, he hesitated for a moment, not believing that it was his, at least for now. “I WILL pay back this kindness.” Henry resolved himself again, tears nearly welling up in his eyes as he flung himself onto the bed. It was hard and the blanket was scratchy and uncomfortable, but he slept like a baby nonetheless.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The very next day, Henry was up bright and early, tidying up the room a bit when the old man walked over and opened the door, intending on waking the young man up. “Oh, you’re already awake. Good, follow me.” The old man was quickly to the point once again, and simply walked towards the backyard and his gnarled tree once again.

Henry hurried to follow, not even caring about breakfast, but when he reached the backyard once again, he nearly passed out. Looking upon the tree once again, he noticed that each of the small, surprisingly tough branches were once again grown, just as long as they were before. It was as if Henry did nothing yesterday.

Confused, he looked to the old man, wondering if he could pry some answers out of him. “What?” the old man asked, as if there was nothing strange about this at all. If the old man was unwilling to say anything, Henry wouldn’t either, and simply picked up the ax, taking a deep breath, and getting right back to chopping. It was a tiny bit easier this time.

This pattern continued for a week, and then from a week into a month, Henry waking up, chopping, eating food, chopping, cleaning some things around the house, chopping, and then going to sleep. Not once did he complain, as he was simply happy to earn his food and bed instead of being out in the street.

The old man was quite startled, and over time seemed to come to the conclusion that Henry was exactly the person he was looking for. The boy was stubborn, never complained, never talked back or asked why he had to do the task, he simply did it because it was helping, and he felt that he should. The old man decided it was time to go onto the next stage.

Henry was in the backyard, and this time a single, well placed chop would fell the smaller branches, and he was not winded at all. He completed chopping them before breakfast was ready, and wondered what they were going to do this time, as he had already cleaned the entire old man’s house, fixed his stairs, and ripped out all of the overgrowth on the property.

Henry hoped that this wasn’t some sort of goodbye now that he was no longer needed, but he would not want to impose on the old man any further. He was a lot stronger now, especially because he got to fill his belly up and the chopping of the hard tree branches meant that he had a bit of muscle on him. It had been exactly two months since he started working for the old man, and he felt it was one of the best things that ever happened to him.

“Hey you, come here. It’s about time we talked.” The old man beckoned towards Henry cryptically, and then wandered over through the house, passed the kitchen where they usually had a meal, and towards a room Henry had never seen before. It wasn’t that he had seen the door but never went in, he felt that he knew the man’s house inside and out, and the door suddenly appeared today, to Henry’s confusion.

The old man waited for Henry to get close, before opening the door and walking in, with Henry following. As soon as Henry saw what was in the room, he was absolutely shocked. There were rare plant specimens, most of which he had never seen before, in small sealed terrariums, magical plant creatures that seemed to look towards him, and various cubes of different colored metals scattered about on floating platforms.

Henry looked at the old man with shock. This old man was a Mage! And from the look of the items that the old man had, a very strong or influential one. Henry sat there dumbfounded in his shock, and the old man nodded. This was the reaction that he wanted, although he coughed for a second to clear the air, so that he wouldn’t seem too pleased with himself.

The old man ushered Henry to a chair, and he calmly sat down, wondering what all of this was about. The old man looked at him for a moment, judging him and himself, before sighing and nodding. He had come this far, might as well see it through. “It’s about time we truly talked about why I decided to bring you here. I am Nicolas Anderiotas, S ranked Synthesis Mage. My goal was to find an apprentice, but the magic I study is not for any old mage, as it takes mountains more hard work for very little payoff." The old man wore an extremely serious face, clearly conveying how important this decision was.

“If you accept, you will be my apprentice, and I will teach you how to use Synthesis Magic. If you decline, then I don’t need to know your name, and you can simply leave having gained some free meals and a place to stay. Do not make this decision lightly, as there is a good chance you will simply die, becoming nothing in the annals of history.” Nicolas then leaned forward towards Henry with a slight grin, knowing full well from watching the boy over the past couple of months what his answer was going to be. “So, your name?”

“I am Henry, and I greet Master.”