"*deep breath* just a bit more and it'll all be worth it" said Clement pinching the bridge of his nose, he had bags under his eyes from exhaustion
It's been a few weeks since Clement accepted a coven leader's apprenticeship, and he hasn't taken a single day of rest
It wasn't the teacher overworking him, he was doing work on his own, he wanted to get everything done asap
Which led to him collapsing from exhaustion a few times, which led him to miss a lot of things at school
Like how it turns out what Willow brought in as an abomination was a human, and they were now a student at Hexside.
Not like he cared about much after he became the coven head's apprentice
Which leads us to Clement at school
Clement walked with his stack of books, barely focusing on what's in front of him as he opened one of the books and started reading
Then he crashed into a pillar and dropped everything on the ground
"Ow..my head" said Clement rubbing his head, before standing up again
He shook his head to stop the dizziness that came with the pain before he started picking up his books
"Hey, are you okay?" Asked someone worriedly
Clement took a look at who it it before letting out a groan, he didn't want to deal with her now
"Leave me alone human" said Clement picking up his books one by one
"Do you need any help?"
"No. And why do you want to help me anyway?" Asked Clement tiredly getting his books back in a stack
"You don't need a reason to help others" Said Luz giving him one of the fallen book with a smile
"I do, and i don't trust anyone who'd give something for free" said Clement angrily staring Luz in the eyes
But before Luz could reply, someone went between them
"Ew! Human! Get away from our grudgby team healer!" said Boscha angrily as she stood between Luz and Clement "i don't want him to get close to one of you losers, so_"
"For the last time Boscha, you don't own me, neither does the grudgby team, and I'm much stronger than i look" said Clement tiredly as he lifted his books using magic "So stop acting like that and leave me alone before you regret it dearly"
Clement then started walking away tiredly and angrily, grumbling under his breath
He took his books and went to an empty room in the school and started reading alone, he had no more classes as he never took up any, he stayed in healing and only healing
"I'm impressing that bull head for now, but i need to stay ahead" said Clement before closing the book in his hands, then he drew a magic circle in the air and a small cage appeared out of nowhere "Let's get practicing"
Clement then kept training his healing magic on the small creature inside the cage until school was over
_-_-_
"..finally" said Clement walking out of Hexside, the bags under his eyes grew further
He had tired himself out practicing spells in that empty room, but he kept himself awake with healing magic
Clement was about to summon his staff before his father suddenly appeared
"Clement!" Said Applehorn calling for his son as he flew down to Hexside
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to take you home" said Applehorn smiling nervously "you're too tired to go yourself"
"No thank you, Fletcher can fly on his own" said Clement frowning as he summoned his dark blue frog staff and flew away
Mr Applehorn sighed as he watched his son go
"That apprenticeship was a mistake" he said drooping sadly
"Are you his dad?" Asked someone from behind Applehorn
Mr Applehorn turned around and saw three students together
"Oh, yes...are you his friends?" Asked Applehorn curiously
"No, we just overheard_" said Gus before Willow covered his mouth
"*sigh* it's fine, i know what Clement is like" said Applehorn drooping as he sat on his staff "i do hope you pardon his actions, a lot happened to him"
There was a pregnant pause before Luz decided to speak
"So, mr..._"
"Wilfred Applehorn"
"Yes. What happened that made him so...mean" Asked Luz curiously
"Well, don't mention it in front of him or he'll try to kill you, before me" said Wilfred with a light laugh and Luz nodded "A long time ago, his mother was cursed, we were able to keep it at bay for a while, but the curse adapted and changed. Now she's a monster"
Wilfred held back his tears
"Clement dedicated himself to healing her, and he found a way to cure the curse, but he's overworking himself to do it as fast possible" said Wilfred tearing up "He's obsessed and doesn't think about anything else"
Luz, Gus and Willow felt bad for Wilfred, and Luz remembered Eda's curse
"I know someone who's also cursed in the same way, she uses an elixir to stop it from growing, maybe it could work on miss Applehorn" Said Luz smiling
"I don't know, My wife used to use a self-made elixir to keep it in place and she was quite the potion maker" said Wilfred frowning sadly
"It doesn't hurt to try" said Luz smiling
"...okay, let's do this" said Wilfred with determination all over his face
_-_-_
"Just a little more Mom, just a little more" said Clement petting the beast that was his mother "and it'll all *yawn* be back to normal"
Clement suddenly felt sleepy, he knew he was tired but not this much. It was almost like...sleeping nettles
Unable to fight the sudden drowsiness, he fell asleep
"Okay, we got him, he's asleep" whispered Willow as she entered the basement
The rest of the group soon followed after and went down to the basement
Luz went to Clement's sleeping body and made sure he was asleep
Then Wilfred took his son away to his room so the boy could rest before going down back to the basement
"Are you sure this is the right one?" Asked Wilfred worriedly
Luz nodded and the 4 approached the bars slowly and saw the beast
"Whoa, she's...big" said Willow as she looked at the beast
"It looks like Eda's" said Luz staring at the beast
"Well, let's just give her the elixir quickly, she's only tame because Clement was calming her down" said Wilfred nervously
Luz leaned in to have the salamander beast drink the elixir, but suddenly, the elixir was stolen right out of her hands
Luz was confused, the confusion quickly spread to everyone
Then they looked at the wall near the bars, there was a dark blue colored frog holding the elixir in its hand
"Fletcher!" Said Wilfred
"What is that frog?" Asked Luz trying to catch it but failing as it jumped to a different wall
"That's Fletcher, Clement's palisman" said Wilfred before turning to the frog "Fletcher, please just let m_"
Wilfred tried approaching the frog but Fletcher growled and held the elixir away from him
Then they heard glass break, Fletcher was the first to realize what happened, the beast mistook the elixir for food and ate it
Fletcher jumped away immediately
The beast tried to vomit the elixir, it continuously tried to belch, but it didn't change in shape or anything, it stayed the same
It stared at the 4 who did this, growling, and belched unto the bars, they began decaying due to the acid
The 4 dodged any of acid and sighed in relief that nothing bad happened
The the beast rammed through the bars that were weakened by the belch and ran upstairs quickly before anyone could react
"No! She's running away" said Wilfred panicking as he ran after the salamander beast
Luz followed him worriedly "We messed up!" She said
"What happened?!" Said Clement angrily coming down the stairs with Fletcher on his shoulder
Fletcher woke him up when no one was looking
"W-well" said Wilfred nervously before Clement cut him off
"You did it again didn't you?!" Said Clement angrily "how many times do i have to tell you to stop trusting people so much?! You're always like this!"
"Hey! He was just trying to help!" Said Luz angrily, defending Wilfred
"It was his fault that she was cursed in the first place!" Said Clement angrily, making confusing everyone "he trusted someone he shouldn't and she payed the price!"
Clement then ran out of the house angrily before Fletcher turned into a staff and Clement rode it towards the beast
He made it to the beast as fast as he could, but the beast was already caught by someone else, demon hunters
Clement attacked them, firing weak curses here and there, he was too exhausted to do much more than that
He tried to free the beast but it thrashed araround and knocked Clement away
Clement, being extremely exhausted was unable to get up quickly enough and was captured
Clement soon gave up on escaping on his own, curses didn't work on inanimate objects, so he was screwed
Or that would be the case if Wilfred didn't arrive
He hit the ground with his staff and they were knocked away by fists of rock and ground, he hit the ground again and the demon hunters as well as the beast were restrained
He then freed his son and spoke
"Clement, i..."
"Just say it quickly, I'm gonna pass out" said Clement tiredly
"Oh! Right! Look, I'm sorry for disappointing you, i know i trust people too much, but this time...i just...wanted you to stop,i even put some sleeping nettles in your food the last few weeks_"
"That was you!"
"Yes! I wanted you to stop! I don't want to lose you too! And i don't want everything to be my fault!...so...would you please forgive me?"
After a pregnant pause, Clement sighed before speaking
"I forgive you...just don't trust people that much again"
"Ha ha, No promises" said Wilfred smiling as he pulled his son into a hug before realizing that his son was asleep
Wilfred took his son back home as gently as possible, he also took the beast with them, his brown toad palisman was pretty strong after all
Fletched sat atop Clement's head as he slept, before going to sleep himself
Things were looking up for the Applehorns
_-_-_
Tell me how i did, leave a review
Toodles.
