So when Bonnie woke up, we had some breakfast, made sure Bonnie had her wand and I had my belt, and we set off for town. Minnie's was a bus ride away, and we arrived in the centre of town, heading round to King's college, and down a side street opposite. There was a little Antique shop tucked just inside, with 'Minnie's Antiques' painted across the window.
We'd barely entered the shop when there was a cry of 'Bonnie! What a sight for sore eyes!' and Bonnie was swept into a hug from Minnie, who beamed and led us into the back of her shop. 'How's the belt? It was your ancestors, apparently. Where are the others?' Minnie asked me, and I explained we were meeting my friends later. Discussion about heirlooms and ancestors took up the time until we got to the crate she wanted. 'There's stuff for both of you here.' she said, rummaging around inside it. 'The belt arrived in this box, and there was more stuff when I had a proper look yesterday.' She pulled out two small books, what looked like a small deck of cards with animals and plants on, a casket/chest about the size of a shoebox, a folded piece of old parchment, and a small metal box with two wires sticking out of one end, with a crank on the other and small dials and sliders on the lid. She gave Bonnie the metal box, old parchment and one of the small books, and gave me the other book, the cards and the chest.
Bonnie started leafing through the book, and read the parchment with a frown. I looked at the cards. 'Are these those Tarot card things? I don't see what use that is to me.'
'NO no no, they're cards to help with your little potions.' Minnie explained 'I believe they help translate certain meanings, unlock new ways of using certain plants and things. They give you new, er, recipes I suppose, and help find answers to things.'
'Sounds suspiciously close to Tarot to me. But could be useful, thanks. I chucking them out if they start saying 'Die Tempest Die' though.'
Bonnie and Minnie laughed, and I opened the little chest. 'Wow!'
It had four main compartments, each filled with powders and liquids I'd never come across. 'Extra materials for you to experiment with. There was a note saying that everything inside had been kept fresh, so it should all work, even though it's about 200 years old. The note said you've got some rarer materials there, collected by magic no doubt, and some stuff that you may not have thought of using. It's all either really hard to get or impossible these days, so use it wisely. The note from your wizardly ancestor about it was outside the chest and crumbled to dust once I picked it up, sorry.'
There was a compartment filled with small bottles, most containing strange coloured liquids, but some with bright powders, a compartments full of some sort of glittery powder that seemed to change colour every time you looked at it, one full of shards of shining rocks, like little shavings of gems, metals and precious stones, in every colour you could think of. The fourth was filled with jars with stoppers, each one containing some twigs, or dried leaves, or petals, pieces of bark, offcuts of plants, one seemed to have earth in it, dried berries and nuts, fresh leaves, fresh fruits and nuts and seeds, or roots. I noticed a thin draw on the outside of the chest, underneath the compartments, and pulled it out to find it filled with thin sticks, like long toothpicks or thin chopsticks, each one smelling of some long-forgotten scent. 'Wow.' I said again, staring at all these ingredients of long ago. I slid the draw back in and closed the lid to see Bonnie winding the handle of the metal box, and sparks leaping between the metal prongs. Still winding, she put it on a table and moved her free hand towards the sparks, finger stretched towards them. 'Bonnie, what are you-' she dabbed a finger in between the sparks and they leapt to her hand, not touching it, but floating around it, like tiny fish, swimming round her hand just above the surface. She stopped winding the box and brought her other hand closer, causing the sparks to leap from one to the other like they had with the prongs. With a look of concentration, and a glance at the page in her book that she'd left open, she cupped her hands, like she was holding an invisible mug, and the sparks were drawn to the area in between her hands, dancing and swirling in the air with ever-increasing intensity, until they made a little sphere of energy in the empty space. There was nothing inside the ball of sparks, it was just a kind of forcefield around nothing, with the odd spark diving across the inside instead of going round the main ball. 'This...is cool. I have no idea what to do next, but this is cool.' said Bonnie, as me and Minnie stared, transfixed, and the magic going on in her hands. She moved her hands closer together, and the ball shrank, until the sparks made an almost solid ball of blue light, and then drew her hands apart, making the ball so big the sparks had to race across it faster than ever just to keep it's shape. Finally, muttering 'I don't THINK this will set fire to the shop....' she opened her hands wider and spread her fingers wide, causing the ball to break and the sparks to drift apart, slowly fading from existence. None of them managed to set fire to any of the paper or wood around us before vanishing, so luckily no fire started.
'Well.' said Minnie, breathlessly. 'That was quite something, wasn't it? Oh, I nearly forgot. This was delivered to me the other day for you, dear.'
She bustled off to a cupboard and returned with a package in black paper. It had the address of Minnie's Shop, but Bonnie's name. Bonnie tore it open, gasped, and swore loudly. I peered over her shoulder and stared. 'What the Hell?'
Ooops, I'm running late. Bonnie says Mum's made lunch, and I promised her a catch up tour of Cambridge afterwards to show her what's changed since last visit. Sorry it's been a while for me to actually put this up, we've been experimenting with all our new stuff. I'll finish it when I can.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Arrival of a friend
Hi! I'm Tempest, and I've set up this blog so that anyone who wants to can see what we've been up to, because I can feel that things are about to get interesting. Bonnie senses something on it's way too, like a storm, impassable, unstoppable, and it's about to cause a whole lot of trouble!
Bonnie's asleep, by the way, in an attempt to get rid of Jet lag. We've only just got back, and I'm going to tell you about early this morning.
So, about 4 hours ago, at 4:30am, I'm waiting at the airport, with my new belt, which has six little pocket/clip things, each of which has a little bottle in it. I say 'new', it's actually quite an old belt, but Minnie only gave it to me last week. She found it amongst a new box of antiques that arrived, but more about our friend later.
Bonnie comes out of the arrivals gate, spots me, and grins, we meet, we hug, I tell her she looks dreadful, she laughs and moans about time differences between America and London, it's good to have her around again, we head over to Baggage claim and start to catch up on events. 'How's your Dad?' I ask.
'Alright, I think he's finally starting to cope, maybe even enjoy our talents. You know how freaked he was when my endowment came in and Mum had to tell him everything, and how she'd been hiding HER endowment, hoping I wouldn't have one, and besides, an endowment like hers isn't just something you CAN explain. He's getting there though, he's been great with it all, and he's even starting to enjoy it.'
'That's good. How are you experiments going?'
'Well, the plastic figure I tried to give life too melted, but I managed to duplicate a cup of tea the other day. Dad said it was always useful to have an extra mug.' she smiled. 'How are the plants?'
'Strange. I still that sort of glowing pulse whenever I touch them, and research is slow, but I've managed to make a couple of concoctions. I feel a pulse on more things everyday. I guess they were right about me being able feel the magic in anything. That's why making all these things with plants works for me and not you. You use general, ancient magic, I wake the magic in objects up, while having less of my own, apparently.
We'd found her bags and I hauled them off, while she pulled a wad of paper from her rucksack. 'You just reminded me by saying research was slow.' she said, handing it to me. 'I thought the expert should have a go. Surprise!'
She handed me the papers and I realized it was a load of information on plants, and there supposed magical qualities. 'Wow, thanks!' I said, and explained that I'd only found three websites.
'Did the third have a game based on plants?'
'Maybe.....'
'That explains a lot. By slow, you mean: 'hard when you get bored of researching easily'. Speaking of waking magic up, can you have a look at that Wand Minnie sent me? It won't do anything I tell it to 'Ow!'
She stood up from bending over the smaller case, rubbing her right palm and saw my worried look. 'It's that damn dodgy zip on my case. It cut my hand again.' She showed my a red line of blood across her palm, and I searched through the bottles at my belt. 'Tryyyy........this one. Green Tea, Citron and Eucalyptus. Should seal it up and protect it while it heals properly.'
She took it a little warily, looking at the greeny yellow liquid. 'This better not be like that one you gave me when you visited for Christmas. Three days that took to wear off, remember. But, benefit of the doubt and all that.' She pulled out the stopper. 'Smells foul.' as she lifted it to her mouth I said 'No, you don't need to drink-' but with one swig the miniature bottle was empty, and she handed it back, rasping. 'Plaaaaaaaaah. Oh it IS foul. What sort of a welcome is that? Plah. Eucalyptus should NOT be drunk- Ah! That tingles!'
I looked up from the notes she given me, having just seen that cucumber might have helped, to see the blood clotting over and the cut shorten by at least a centimetre.
'Huh. You've improved. Thanks.' Bonnie stared at her hand, and then grabbed her case as we made for the car park, where Dad was waiting.
We were half way home before I remembered. 'What was that about your wand?'
'Oh yeah.' She pulled it out from the case between us, and handed me the thin, carved stick of Willow. I grabbed it, and felt a definite pulse of magic, stronger than anything else I'd tried, and had just got as far as saying 'Hmm, well, it's made of Willow, so I'm guessing it should be best at Protection, and it's definitely strong...' when the power inside it seemed to shoot out and blast my hand away from it, and I yelled as it flew out of my hand, landing in Bonnie's lap, while I stared at a bright red burn on my hand. 'Ow. Look, same hand as your cut. At least we match.' I pulled out a second small bottle of the healing solution and let a little trickle onto my hand, answering Bonnie's accusatory look with an 'I tried to tell you.' as the burn shrank and began to fade. She felt the wand, and looked at my hand. 'So it's definitely, er, active?'
'Oh yes. Strongest pulse I've ever felt. Whatever's wrong with it, it's not lack of magic.'
Bonnie's cut had almost healed as we entered Cambridge, and was gone completely by the time we got home. I showed to the room we'd made up for her, and promised to take her to Minnie's in the morning. She fell asleep straight away, but I couldn't. I made up some more Healing/clot solution, and came on here to do this. When Bonnie wakes up we're going to go see if Minnie has any idea what's wrong with the wand. Bye for now!
Bonnie's asleep, by the way, in an attempt to get rid of Jet lag. We've only just got back, and I'm going to tell you about early this morning.
So, about 4 hours ago, at 4:30am, I'm waiting at the airport, with my new belt, which has six little pocket/clip things, each of which has a little bottle in it. I say 'new', it's actually quite an old belt, but Minnie only gave it to me last week. She found it amongst a new box of antiques that arrived, but more about our friend later.
Bonnie comes out of the arrivals gate, spots me, and grins, we meet, we hug, I tell her she looks dreadful, she laughs and moans about time differences between America and London, it's good to have her around again, we head over to Baggage claim and start to catch up on events. 'How's your Dad?' I ask.
'Alright, I think he's finally starting to cope, maybe even enjoy our talents. You know how freaked he was when my endowment came in and Mum had to tell him everything, and how she'd been hiding HER endowment, hoping I wouldn't have one, and besides, an endowment like hers isn't just something you CAN explain. He's getting there though, he's been great with it all, and he's even starting to enjoy it.'
'That's good. How are you experiments going?'
'Well, the plastic figure I tried to give life too melted, but I managed to duplicate a cup of tea the other day. Dad said it was always useful to have an extra mug.' she smiled. 'How are the plants?'
'Strange. I still that sort of glowing pulse whenever I touch them, and research is slow, but I've managed to make a couple of concoctions. I feel a pulse on more things everyday. I guess they were right about me being able feel the magic in anything. That's why making all these things with plants works for me and not you. You use general, ancient magic, I wake the magic in objects up, while having less of my own, apparently.
We'd found her bags and I hauled them off, while she pulled a wad of paper from her rucksack. 'You just reminded me by saying research was slow.' she said, handing it to me. 'I thought the expert should have a go. Surprise!'
She handed me the papers and I realized it was a load of information on plants, and there supposed magical qualities. 'Wow, thanks!' I said, and explained that I'd only found three websites.
'Did the third have a game based on plants?'
'Maybe.....'
'That explains a lot. By slow, you mean: 'hard when you get bored of researching easily'. Speaking of waking magic up, can you have a look at that Wand Minnie sent me? It won't do anything I tell it to 'Ow!'
She stood up from bending over the smaller case, rubbing her right palm and saw my worried look. 'It's that damn dodgy zip on my case. It cut my hand again.' She showed my a red line of blood across her palm, and I searched through the bottles at my belt. 'Tryyyy........this one. Green Tea, Citron and Eucalyptus. Should seal it up and protect it while it heals properly.'
She took it a little warily, looking at the greeny yellow liquid. 'This better not be like that one you gave me when you visited for Christmas. Three days that took to wear off, remember. But, benefit of the doubt and all that.' She pulled out the stopper. 'Smells foul.' as she lifted it to her mouth I said 'No, you don't need to drink-' but with one swig the miniature bottle was empty, and she handed it back, rasping. 'Plaaaaaaaaah. Oh it IS foul. What sort of a welcome is that? Plah. Eucalyptus should NOT be drunk- Ah! That tingles!'
I looked up from the notes she given me, having just seen that cucumber might have helped, to see the blood clotting over and the cut shorten by at least a centimetre.
'Huh. You've improved. Thanks.' Bonnie stared at her hand, and then grabbed her case as we made for the car park, where Dad was waiting.
We were half way home before I remembered. 'What was that about your wand?'
'Oh yeah.' She pulled it out from the case between us, and handed me the thin, carved stick of Willow. I grabbed it, and felt a definite pulse of magic, stronger than anything else I'd tried, and had just got as far as saying 'Hmm, well, it's made of Willow, so I'm guessing it should be best at Protection, and it's definitely strong...' when the power inside it seemed to shoot out and blast my hand away from it, and I yelled as it flew out of my hand, landing in Bonnie's lap, while I stared at a bright red burn on my hand. 'Ow. Look, same hand as your cut. At least we match.' I pulled out a second small bottle of the healing solution and let a little trickle onto my hand, answering Bonnie's accusatory look with an 'I tried to tell you.' as the burn shrank and began to fade. She felt the wand, and looked at my hand. 'So it's definitely, er, active?'
'Oh yes. Strongest pulse I've ever felt. Whatever's wrong with it, it's not lack of magic.'
Bonnie's cut had almost healed as we entered Cambridge, and was gone completely by the time we got home. I showed to the room we'd made up for her, and promised to take her to Minnie's in the morning. She fell asleep straight away, but I couldn't. I made up some more Healing/clot solution, and came on here to do this. When Bonnie wakes up we're going to go see if Minnie has any idea what's wrong with the wand. Bye for now!
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