Evening Practice [Solo]

“Focus, Quill! Feel the Weave! Find it, take hold, and let it guide your spell.”

Quill stood at the end of a small stone pier off the Dock Ward, his body shadowed against the dimming light of a setting sun, and stretched out one of his talons. A short distance away a buoy bobbed in the blackened water. Its bell clinked and clanked with every jostle of a wave and, his eyes narrowing, the apprentice focused all his attention on the swinging of its clapper. Clink. Quill stamped his feet and dug them firmly into the ground. Clank. The palm of his talon began to glow a faint orange.

“That’s it! Now release your hold!”

Clink. The kenku squared his shoulders and pushed his talon out further. Clank. Tiny tendrils of smoke and bits of sparks began to wisp out from between his fingers.

“Keep your focus! Funnel all that raw energy toward your target.”

Clink…clank…clink…clan-Quill thrust his talon forward in one fluid, practiced motion, his tail feathers sweeping low across the pier, and let go of his spell. Energy surged from the very start of his shoulder all the way down to the very tips of his talons as a flash of flame erupted from his palms. Then…and then…

It fizzled out in a puff of black.

The wizard beside Quill sighed, pulled at his sharp black beard, and gave the kenku a pat on the back.

“That’s…that’s quite alright. This was only the fifth try, no? What’s a sixth!”

Quill looked down and shuffled his feet, pulling his talon back and glumly staring as the last bits of smoke vanished off it. A soft whine escaped his beak. His Uncle was very-very wrong. That…that was already his seventh try. Not even counting the first few attempts he had done on his own when the wizard had shown up late to their practice session. He clicked his beak, body deflating into a stoop, and leaned to the side. He buried his face into his Uncle’s vibrant and soft green and orange robe. What was he doing wrong? Why was he so bad-bad at all the magics he tried to do? Quill purred like a cat as he felt the older wizard tousle his head feathers, but his eyes were still fixated on the ground. His heart felt like lead. His Uncle had not only taken time out of his busy-busy schedule to be there with him but, at his own personal expense, had even rented the small pier they were on for the whole evening. To make sure there were no other people there. Quill closed his eyes.

To make sure no other people would be close to his bad-bad magics.

He was ruining everything! Much ruin-ruin and many awful-awful! His seventh attempt had been like all the others: no more than a poof of ash, smoke, and bitter disappointment. How annoyed was his Uncle at him by now? How close was he to just quick-quick calling the whole thing off? Quill dug his talons into the man’s robe, clutching at the fabric hard, as tears began to well in the corners of his eyes. Was he even worth it all? His position in the Order, the good-good care of his Uncle…even his place in the family? Had they found nothing more than a lump of bad-bad trouble in that alley? A lump of bad-bad trouble that was dangerous to everyone else? The apprentice’s body shook as he began to cry. Useless! Awful! Bad-bad! Just a-

Quill squawked, opened his eyes, and looked up, eyes wet and tears beaded on the tips of his facial feathers, as he felt himself gently pushed away. He sniffled as his Uncle bent down and placed a glove hand underneath the kenku’s beak, lifting it with a nudge. The older man stared hard…but a smile creased his face.

“Come now, none of that Quill. Members of the Order don’t cry or whine when a spell doesn’t work.”

Quill sniffled once, twice, and then chocked back a cry as he nodded, though tears still streamed down the corners of his beak. He wiped at them with the back of his talons. They were soon pulled down by his Uncle, however, as the man retrieved a handkerchief from his robe and began to bat his nephew’s face dry.

“We move on, no? We learn from our mistakes, we study hard, and we get stronger from it. That’s what a true sorcerer does. Are you a sorcerer, Quill?”

The kenku wrung his talons and tried his best to calm his ragged, hard breathing. He inhaled deeply of the cool evening air, rubbed his eyes gain, and hiccupped. His Uncle chuckled. In the deep-deep bits of his heart Quill knew the answer to that: no. He would never be a real-real sorcerer. That evening proved it. His chest hurt and his stomach felt like he had eaten one of Master Perrish’s slugs. But Quill forced his back straight and lifted his beak high, looking up as his Uncle stood. He nodded.

“Good! Now try again.”

The wizard gave him another pat on the back, but Quill sighed a big-big sigh. Why? To make more poofy smokes? Still, he moved a few steps away from his Uncle, toward the end of the pier again, and planted his feet apart. He hiccupped and pulled his gloves on tighter. At this point the apprentice just wanted to go home. To curl up in his bed, read a book or two, and go to sleep and dream about being a good-good sorcerer who did good-good things with his good-good magics. But his Uncle was watching. Maybe if he tried one…two more times they could go? Maybe three? Or maybe if he just gave it one really big-big try that might be enough! Quill looked out across the dark bay. The sun was now just a sliver of light above the horizon. It was pretty. It also reminded him a little of the evenings he had sometimes spent with his Dad at the Murann docks. Watching the sun set and the ships coming in and out and, if they were super lucky, the fish and dolphins jumping up and over the glittering water. Quill stretched out his talon.

Those were fun-fun memories! Before the fire and the scary-scary mask guy and his move to Waterdeep.

The apprentice hiccupped a third time, but by now his stomach felt more at ease and there was even a bit of pep to the bob of his beak as he watched the buoy’s clapper swing back and forth and back again. Clink. He wanted to go home…but he would give it one more try. A good-good try. For his Dad. For his whole family. Clank. He might have been a bad-bad, useless, awful-awful lump of trouble…but one day maybe he could change that.

“Now then, once more! Find the Weave! Mastery of that is the key to everything else.”

Clink. Quill pictured one of those old evenings. Felt the light of the warmer Murann sun on his feathers, heard the shrill squawk of the gulls, and the cries and shouts of the different dock workers, street vendors, and travelers that crowded around the docks. Clank. His breathing slowed as he felt his Dad’s arm around his shoulder.

“There! Good! Keep that focus.”

He felt the man jostle his body. Clink. Heard his laughter as a gull snapped its beak at the warm roll Quill held in his talons. Clank. Felt the warmth in his own chest and stomach as they skipped rocks together off the pier. His dad was really good-good at that. Clink. His beak moved as he muttered a familiar voice to himself.

“You’re a good lad, Quill. I’m proud of you. Always will be.”

Clank.

“Hold…and release!”

The apprentice clenched his beak, slammed a foot forward, and pushed his whole body behind his talon. He tensed. His heart was in his throat. Then, in an instant, a storm of energy surged from the very center of his chest out into every little corner of his body. It was strong-strong! Stronger than anything he had felt all evening! Quill opened his eyes and…

Nothing.

His talon was empty. The buoy still bobbed in the waves. Quill’s shoulders drooped and he felt a few tears begin to drip down again.

“…Quill? What is that?"

The kenku looked down. His feathers were puffed out and stood on end as his whole body pulsated and sparked with white energy. He felt a tingle vibrate throughout everything, and as he watched the glow began to get brighter. And brighter. And still brighter. Quill looked at his Uncle, his beak open and his eyes wide, and managed a short trill as he cocked his head to the side.

Then the buoy exploded.

Three huge, crackling beams of energy shot out from the kenku’s still outstretched talon and slammed into it, shattering the buoy into hundreds of tiny pieces and sending bits of metal and charred wood and smoldering rope scattering across the pier. Quill threw his talons in front of his face and closed his eyes. That was bad-bad! Very bad-bad! He winced…and then felt nothing. He peeked out from between his fingers. A wall of purple magic stood between him and what was left of the buoy, a few shards of metal impaled in the barrier, and a gap in the wave of debris that now littered the pier. The bit of water where the buoy had once stood still sparked and smoked.

“Huh. That was quite…fascinating. I see now what my brother meant.”

Quill looked over his shoulder. With a flick of his wrist his Uncle dispelled the barrier he had conjured and, brushing a bit of rope off his shoulder, walked up to the kenku. He lightly grabbed his nephew’s beak and pulled it to one side and then the other.

“Are you fine? Unhurt? Good.”

He sighed, smiled, and then rubbed Quill’s beak.

“I suppose we now at least know that you do have some magic in you after all. That was quite impressive, little nephew.”

Quill looked at his Uncle, then back to the remains of the buoy, then to his talon, and then back up at his Uncle. His beak still hung open. Did he really do that? Did he cast something so big-big? So…good-good? The apprentice jumped in place and clacked his beak. He did! He did! He cast something good-good! It was probably not really what the other Masters’ would call a controlled cast but…it was something. Quill would take something. He gave the wizard’s leg a tight hug and purred even louder than before. His heart thumped loud in his chest, as much from fear of the explosion as excitement, and he waggled his tail. He was not a real-real sorcerer. Maybe he would never be a real-real sorcerer. But, if he could cast good-good magics, at the very least, then he could learn to control his magics. To keep his family safe-safe.

And that sounded pretty okay to him.

The kenku unhooked his talons as he felt himself nudged away. His Uncle began to push him, slowly but firmly, back toward the start of the pier and proper land. Quill scratched at his beak in confusion.

“Right, then! We...better leave now. I’m afraid I never accounted for fiery explosions when I made that deal with the harbormaster.”

A small crowd of onlookers had gathered near the pier along with a couple guards, and Quill could see someone quickly duck into the main harbor building. Uh oh. He followed after his Uncle as the two of them picked up the pace. A huge-huge burly man emerged, took one look at the pier and the remains of the buoy, and began to stomp in their direction. Uh oh! The apprentice let loose his own warning bell sound as his Uncle grabbed onto his pointed hat.

“I am aware, Quill! Run!”

In the end his Uncle was forced to lift and carry his nephew as the two of them fled from the Dock Ward, just barely escaping the clutches of one very-very angry harbormaster. But they did! The older wizard had muttered something about getting a bill in the mail and hearing all about it from the Order later, not in a very happy way either, but Quill had hardly paid attention. He had cast good-good magics! The thought still bounced around in his head. Good-good magics. He closed his eyes and muttered to himself.

“I’m proud of you.”

The kenku’s heart thumped so loud it was hard to hear anything else as his Uncle rushed down the Way of the Dragon. Maybe he would be. Quill was still glad he would soon be curled up in his bed, with a good book or two, and then he could go to sleep and dream of being a good-good sorcerer. Practicing magic was a lot of hard-hard work! His whole body was tired from the surge of magic and his head drooped on his Uncle's shoulder. But his eyes were still wide open and gleamed in the last rays of the sun as it disappeared behind the buildings around them. His chest fluttered. Good-good magics! Good-good magics! Good-good magics!

Quill shrieked with laughter, and he did so the whole rest of the way back to the Tower.