The Tea Sorcerer
Returning Home
"Tara! I'm back! Tara!"
Garfield raced through the door of his small house in town, nearly tripping over himself as he clamored through the main room to a small bedroom in the back. The windows were dirty enough that most of the light was blocked out, but he could see a form lying in the bed, staring at the ceiling.
"Tara! I'm back! I brought the tea."
"W-what?"
Tara sat up from her bed, her hands and feet now fully stone and unable to move. They clunked together when she tried to sit up, and the sound was disheartening to Garfield. But she wouldn't be that way for long. He had brought back the cure, and she was going to be alright. Garfield sat down next to her legs on the bed and pulled out the small, silk satchel.
"See? I found the tea sorcerer in the woods. Just where Vic told me she would be."
"Really?" She grinned brightly and hastily grabbed the item from him between her two stone hands, holding onto it as if it was something precious. Her smile practically filled her face as she stared into his eyes. "Gar! You did it! I can't believe this!" She reached out to hug him, but she pulled back before her stone hands could do serious damage to him. "I'm amazed… but, I thought the Tea Sorcerer didn't help anyone. And you only had a single gold piece to pay… how could you afford it?"
Garfield stared down into his lap and blushed, thinking about the kiss he had stolen from her before he ran out the door. Consider all future requests paid for. He licked his own lips, imagining he could still taste tea and lavender on them. It had only been half a day, and he was already missing her. It couldn't have been… no. It was a momentary lapse of judgment, that was all. After all, he was just excited and desperate for a cure for Tara.
"She and I worked out an agreement. Things are going to be fine now." He forced a smile and picked up his head, trying not to dwell too much on the butterflies in his stomach.
"This is great news, Garfield!" She kept trying to reach out to touch him, only to be reminded of her current handicap. Groaning, she gave up and set her hands in her lap, looking at the silk satchel between them.
A moment of silence fell over them and Garfield fidgeted, his eyes glancing out the dirty window to the small yard behind them. He was trying to work up the courage to ask her the question. He picked at a loose thread on his shirt, eyes not quite meeting her own.
"I managed to get the tea and still keep my gold, Tara. You're cured and now…"
Tara blinked, the tea satchel falling from her hands and into her lap. "Now…?"
"Now that you're cured, and I still have some money… we can…"
Garfield drifted off, looking into Tara's sky-blue eyes with something akin to confusion and fear. His mind was filled with the image of Raven's almost-smile after he kissed her, the slight pout when she realized Metrion liked him more than her, and the soft feeling of her body pressed up against him as they lay under the covers. It hadn't even been an entire day, and yet he was completely entranced by this strange, mean hermit. He slammed his fingers together and stared down in his lap.
No. This was for Tara. That was the point of him looking for the tea sorcerer. Not for himself, but for Tara.
"Now that you're cured," he repeated himself, finally looking back into Tara's expectant face, "we can get married."