Chapter 136

Chat Over Juice

Abigail

I met Corylus at his home for lunch. The two of us crowded his table for one. We shared fresh pressed juice and sliced radishes over buttered bread.

The back door was propped open so that a walking sweetflag plant could meander in and out as it pleased. It was lugging a watering can around Corylus’ private garden. Its green corncob-like head bowed to inspect the plants. Water sloshed from the can as it dashed around.

I had just finished telling Corylus all about Hawkin’s wonderful gift.

“That’s quite the gift, my dear! I’ve seen the Beyond the Cabin plane, so I imagine something similar.”

“I don’t know how to thank him. What could I do? Nothing would do.”

“Flowers, my dear.”

“Be serious, Corylus.”

“I am. The man basically gave you flowers—a world of flowers, but flowers all the same.”

“In that case I already gave him flowers. His meadow teems with flowers. The jasmines are on the brink of flowering. The black cohosh are practically leaping!”

Corylus chuckled over a bite and drink.

“How is your honeycomb and spider’s silk project coming along?” he said while we observed the sweetflag trip over its own roots.

“You see—that’s the only thing I can do to return the kindness of such a gift.”

Sunlight wheeled in as the clouds moved. Our glasses of juice glowed orange. A small fly zipped about the table and Corylus fetched a potted flytrap plant.

I chuckled when the sweetflag tripped yet again and head planted into the branches of a rhododendron. I’d already asked Corylus several times if the walking plant was all right. He said not to worry and that they do better when they’re left alone to figure things out. We’d only had to untangle it once so far.

I was grinning and bouncing a leg over one knee when Corylus said, “Abigail, where is your head at?”

“What do you mean?”

“Pardon me, my dear, but how are you so jovial after what Hiccup did? And I have to tell you what happened between he and I-”

“-Corylus, let us drop any matter on that subject. I’ll answer the former. When I returned to the northern wilderness, the timing was perfect. Hawkin was just taking a break from constant brewing. We spent a lot of time in nature—simply being in nature. It was somewhere during that time when…do you ever lose yourself in nature and feel your problems fall off your shoulders?…like you’ve been carrying a sack of rocks over each shoulder…and you’ve stopped at a clear brook and left the rocks there…”

“I know what this is. I know what’s happening.”

“What?”

“Oh Abigail!”

“Corylus, something strange has come over me this last year. I’ve gone on this journey and essentially stopped brewing; then at the end of the day I’ve returned to brewing even more! Things such as goblin spit beer! My world has turned upside down.”

“He’s a good man.”

“I didn’t say anything about him.”

“You don’t have to. You always arrive smiling harder than when you were last here.”

“Don’t forget that I am doing a favor for Potere,” I said. “I will soon call upon him.”

“When?”

“Within the week.”

“What is your conclusion?”

“I have almost got my thoughts in order.”

“Of course, my dear. I don’t mean to pry.”

“Not to worry. I would only stumble over my thoughts and you’d receive nothing but stammering from me.”

“Say no more; I understand. More juice?”

“Please,” I said.

Corylus halved several different citruses and wrung them of their juice. In the time it took him to prepare our beverage, I revisited some thoughts. I knew that I was the one to set the matter aside, but I couldn’t help bringing it back up. I asked Corylus what happened between him and Hiccup, and he told me everything.

“...I was firm with him. Oh you better believe I let him have it.”

“You’re not worried about your job?”

“Hiccup wouldn’t fire me. When you get to be my age, you begin to understand the difference between when it is time to speak and when it is time to be silent.”

“Not all Groundskeepers are gold rank and can afford to lose their job.”

“That’s a deeper subject, my dear.”

“So Hiccup wasn’t looking for me because he wanted to apologize?”

“That’s what I said! My blood boiled when I realized he only meant to contact you to do business with his new guests.”

“New guests?”

“Customers looking for Hawkin’s beers.”

Concerned, I said, “Has Hiccup run out of Hawkin’s beer at his tavern already?”

“These customers want something else. Nothing to worry about.”

“But if I could help Hawkin…who are these guests? Important people?”

“Would you feel compelled to seek out Hiccup if these guests were important?”

“Depends; I don’t want to ruin Hawkin’s rise to becoming one of the greatest Brewers.”

“They’re nobody,” he said and looked away. He picked at the corner of the table with a fingernail. He looked off into his garden. Then he said, “…oh all right, I cannot lie to you; they’re the highest ranking adventures I’ve ever seen.”

“Fable rank.”

“Higher.”

“You’re being serious? Myth rank? Myth is real?”

“It is. One is rank Oblivion.”

“Oblivion? There is no such thing.”

“Grafth, U’ld,” he said.

“Never heard the name.”

“But the name belongs to him.”

“I owe it to Hawkin to see what they want.”

“How about I find out for you? What Hiccup did was dirty.”

“Even if Hiccup apologizes, and I accept his apology, Hawkin may still refuse to do business with him.”

“That’s that then.”

I finished the last of my bread. We clinked our glasses together and drank the last of the juice.

“I’ve been planting garlic and onion lately,” I said after a beat.

“On the goblin’s boat?”

“It’s evolved into a ship triple its size. I need your help, I want to brew attribute beers to protect the plants while Barnacle-eyes is at sea.”

“Bring out your guide to magic stuff. I’ll give you seeds of chamomile and dill to plant as companions to the garlic and onion. Let’s take a look at what else we can do.”

I withdrew my Brewer’s Guide to Magic Ingredients and set it on the table. I flipped open the F section, and said, “I was thinking that this attribute might work…”