Handling Herbs

A Friendly Tug of War

"Minde, have you seen Jonah this morning?" Kat didn't hear her roommate's fading response as she headed toward the stables, anxious to check on her creatures. Anxious to check on the littlest one.

A hand suddenly, roughly, grabbed her arm, "Hey, city girl, you seen your boyfriend this morning?"

Kat brushed off the hand, "You know I hate it when you call me that, Colvin. Just like you know Jonah's not my boyfriend. It really bothers you that I grew up with him."

"Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't," the air mage responded in the sing-song manner that grated on Kat's nerves. She never questioned Jonah's desire to spend more time in the stables than in his room. "You seen him?"

"Not since last night." For a moment, she considered feeling guilty for snapping at him, but she couldn't remember a time when he didn't inspire a certain level of grumpiness in her. And then, she processed Colvin's question, "Wait. You haven't seen him this morning?"

"Would I have asked if I had?"

"I honestly don't know."

The corners of his lips briefly twisted into a smirk, and just as quickly concern flooded his face. "I guess I'll check the stable one more time."

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When Kat saw Colvin later that morning, he was just outside the stables, twirling a brush in his hands. Knowing that an air mage rarely had use for such a tool, she wondered for a moment why he'd even have one. And then she wondered where he got it. Earth mage students had to purchase theirs. It was the school's way of forcing students to be responsible with their tools. Even the stable stores didn't keep spare brushes on hand. So... "What are you doing with that brush?"

"Who, me?" He grinned at her as he casually flipped the brush over in his hand. Except he didn't catch it; it passed through his fingers and hit the cobblestones with a tinny series of thuds. Kat cringed and rushed over to rescue the brush. Colvin beat her to it.

"Where did you get that?"

"It was just lying around," he waved it at her like a sword. "And I need a perch for my new bird."

"I'm sure you could have found an actual perch." She reached out to take it from him, but he deftly swept it out of her reach. "And you know how scarce brushes are around here. Surely, Jonah has complained about that to you." He probably hadn't, but Kat wanted to needle the air mage just the tiniest bit more.

"He has, which is why I'm amazed you didn't notice." He waved the brush at her again as she turned to look at the bucket where she kept most of her larger tools. Sure enough, the brush was missing.

She snapped back around and lunged at him. "Give it back, Colvin."

He folded his arms, brush sticking up toward his chin. "Say please."

"I'll say more than that. How many strikes do you have at the moment?"

Colvin paled and all but threw the brush at her. She snatched it out of his hand and waved it at him before turning back toward the stable.

They then heard a faint voice calling from the other side of the wall that separated Kat and Jonah's animals. "Kat?"

With a triumphant grin, she shoved the brush into the bucket and walked over to the next stall.