Operation Brew a Buddy: 1

"Alright everyone. We're about to begin," Maja, the witch of Sol addressed the gathering of people and stryx who'd all joined her for a lesson in brewing potions. Sahari had come alone, like a few of the other birds here did. Mostly because she'd wandered off, chasing something that got her scatterbrained attention, and followed it to the open air class that was being hosted. But now that she was here, her curiosity over what everyone was doing made he decide to stick around. According to Maja, their instructor, they were all going to be making various goodies to either take home or give to others. And seeing that Sahari still had some creativity in her despite the fact that pumpkins couldn't be artistically experimented on anymore, this looked like a good place to keep making things.

Standing next to an appropriately-sized cauldron, Sahari went through the book she and the others had been given, showing what they could make. Unlike the cauldron, the books were made for people with hands. They were also designed for people much smaller than a stryx was, and more than once Sahari had to stretch her neck to get her face close enough to the pages to see what was on them. Fortunately, the books everyone was working from were illustrated, with diagrams for everything, including how to hold the tools, how to stir things, and even what the ingredients she'd need for whatever she wanted to make were.

Most of the recipes were for making companions, the long leg noted, as she turned the pages. There were spiders [she didn't like them], toads and rats, but they didn't look like they'd be good friends to have. But the other possibilities looked much more appealing. Who iwouldn'ti want one of those fat little dragons for a friend? They looked friendly and happy, and friendly and happy were two qualities Sahari liked. The dragons would love to play with her, and they could do things together, like...

Well. Maybe she should think about what those things they could do together were later. Maja was signaling to everyone that it was time to get to work.

"Go over to the tables where the ingredients are, and pick the ones you need to make your project," she instructed.

The queue to get the materials needed was ... slightly less than chaotic, as people and birds all crammed around the tables gathering up what they needed to make their projects. By the time Sahari was able to reach it most of the ingredients had been taken, and she gave a sad whistle as she selected from what was left over before heading back to her own cauldron. It looked like maybe there were no fat dragons in her future, but she could still make something, and whatever crawled out of the giant pot would still be friendly enough to play games with and be a friend to.

That thought cheered her up a little. It wasn't so bad. She would still get to make something, and "something" was better than "nothing", so when Maja gave the signal to start, Sahari began preparing her ingredients to throw into the pot...

*******

Who knew brewing potions [or anything, really] was this hard? The tools weren't made for beaks or talons; they were made for things like hands and other appendages that were much more suitable for manipulating objects with, and poor Sahari was making a mess of things, much to the others' annoyance and her disappointment. Maja, who was going around inspecting everyone's progress, stopped by Sahari's cauldron several times trying to offer the tyto words of encouragement, and even got her a spoon that was big enough and correctly-shaped enough for her to hold it with her beak, which made her progress on her friend brewing project go much better than before. At least she wasn't splashing any more. Instead, holding the spoon as instructed and using her beak to turn in circles was making her a little dizzy, as she went round and round; first clockwise, then counterclockwise. If she had to keep doing this much longer she'd get so woozy that she'd fall into the cauldron and end up turned into something rather weird and very scary to look at.

She didn't want that!

"You should be letting your brews simmer now," Maja told the class, and Sahari was grateful to stop stirring, closing her eyes to help get the image of the world going round and round out of her head; only opening them again when it didn't feel like the world was spinning any more. "And in about an hour or so, you'll have your finished projects to collect. But don't go anywhere just yet. You'll need to keep watch to make sure your cauldrons don't accidentally boil over or something."

An hour. Oh dear. What was Sahari supposed to do between now and then?

*******

"Hey! Hey!"

Someone was trying to get Sahari's attentions.

"You can stop daydreaming now. Your brew's done."

Oh. Was it?

Craning her neck to peer into the cauldron, Sahari examined it to see if anything was in it. She'd mentally drifted off, while waiting, and was fortunate enough that nothing boiled over during the hour's wait. But still...

Did she succeed? She'd had some troubles getting started and even had difficulties with things like stirring. Would that cause her to fail?''

From deep inside a pair of eyes blinked, then, before Sahari could react, had something small and hyperactive clamping itself to her face, causing the others to laugh and Sahari to momentarily run about in a panic before Maja helped detach it.

"Looks like you succeeded more than you expected to," Maja said, handing over Sahari's new companion.

She did it.

She actually did it.

Time to go and get to know her new friend, now that she had one.