Birthday Coffee
Will rubbed his hands together gleefully. Time to plan a little surprise for Flint O’Garrick! And a little payback too.
Flint’s birthday was just a few days away, but no one knew how old he was turning.
And Will should know! The first time he had met the man, sent away to learn the art of a forest guardian, he was unsettled.
Thankfully, time had passed and they had become close acquaintances. He had even become relatively likeable, with the emphasis on relatively. Now, Flint was a natural presence in his life. He was also an excellent mentor.
“Flint, how old are you turning?” He asked, grinning, unable to resist a quip. “I bet it’s 43. That beard really bears some gray streaks now.”
Flint grunted, then turned his notorious withering gaze in Will’s direction.
“When you train an apprentice and have him mock your beard, see how funny it is then. I’ll make sure to drop comments to your apprentice about your beard,” He retorted dryly.
Will’s grin only faded a little.
“Let’s see what Kuma has to say,” he replied.
The broad-shouldered youth sat up to attention. “I think you’re a softie, Flint. You don’t have the means to do it. Also, I seem to see some weird gray things in your beard.” He said.
Flint slowly shook his head, disappointed. “I know Will is a barbarian, but I thought you were a polite young man, Kuma. Whatever happened to that?”
Kuma grinned. “I spent too much time with you two.”
Kuma had started out as a junior blacksmith, but after he met Will, they had become fast friends. They were now best friends because of their complementary traits, if not for the fact that they enjoyed teaming up to tease Flint.
Flint managed to corner Will sometime during the afternoon.
“What is going on with you?” He demanded. “Every time I see you, you are scuttling away like beetles to carrion, eyes twitching suspiciously. And that Kuma too.”
“I was just heading to town to fetch… coffee! Yes, coffee. We don’t want to run out of coffee in the cabin, do we?”
Unfortunately for Will, he was currently inside Flint’s cabin, the one that they shared together, which held the nearly full coffee bean sack.
Flint raised an eyebrow toward the sack.
“This coffee, you mean?” He asked mildly, and too late, Will realized his error.
He smiled weakly. “The more, the merrier?”
Flint just shook his head in exasperation, letting it slide for now. He’d have a chance to follow Will to see what was up soon, anyway.
“Are you going to stand around here till sunset, or are you going to get going?” he said.
After a few minutes of following Will stealthily, which wasn’t as challenging as usual due to his distracted manner, he came up on a clearing.
By the irregular number of people going around, it was easy to see that something big was being prepared.
After Will had moved on, Flint came out of his hiding place.
As he leaned closer, he saw a cake and decorations. These indicated a birthday celebration was about to take place.
Flint frowned. Whose birthday were they celebrating? An answer came into his mind just as quickly. Given that Will was acting suspiciously recently, he had a pretty good idea just who that person might be…
“Let’s take a walk,” Will suggested in an overly casual manner the next day. “Be good to get some fresh air.”
Flint grunted. “We get fresh air nearly every day.”
Will gave him an injured look. “What, you don’t like spending time with me?”
He glared at Will, not at all taken in by his expression. “Not with your sniveling, sarcastic manners.”
Will glanced away, managing to conceal his grin.
“We can get coffee later. And honey, too.”
At once, Flint stood at attention. “Been meaning to get some honey from town for a few days. Coffee just isn’t like coffee without honey.”
They walked in silence, except for Will chattering cheerfully and Flint maintaining his usual unamused expression.
Just before they got to the clearing, Will shifted so that Flint faced away from the clearing.
He turned toward Will, suddenly noticing his overly excited expression.
“Happy Birthday, Flint!” Erupted the crowd behind him.
He turned around abruptly, taking in the scene.
Then, he turned back to Will.
“I managed to get you back, Flint!” Will said, smirking.
“Is that so?” Flint commented dryly.
“Yes, I made sure you didn’t find out the surprise for once.” Will was about to go on, rambling, until he noticed Flint’s expression.
“You didn’t notice, did you?” He asked, suddenly nervous.
“Why, Will, you were simply splendid at staying subtle. How could I have?” Flint said, deadpan.
Will’s face crumpled as he realized that Flint had outwitted him once more.
“But how? I was careful; I didn’t leave any tracks…” He trailed off dejectedly.
“And you certainly made sure no one could follow you,” Flint continued.
“The coffee! It was too obvious I was concealing something, wasn’t it?” He said, sighing.
Flint patted him on the back. “You’ll get to it next time.” He couldn’t resist adding, “After I grow some more gray hair.”
Flint, Will, and Kuma drank coffee with honey. Kuma had also adapted to drinking coffee with honey after spending “too much time” with Will and Flint.
Kuma sighed contentedly. “This is what I call the life of the party.”
Will shot him an amused look. “You say that to every other food at every other time.”
“True,” Kuma said. “Because they are the life of… life.”
Will frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Kuma shrugged. “It gets across the message. I’ll leave the fancy corrections up to you.”
As he watched the exchange between the two, Flint felt an unexpected pang of happiness.
He had taught them both the secret to enjoy coffee, even if his other friends remained unconvinced.
Then, he checked himself. If he continued having these sentimental thoughts, he really would become a softie like Kuma had claimed.
He turned away to study the beauty of the trees in the background. All in all, this had turned out to be a fine day.
Funny how he didn’t notice the single, salty drop that ran down his cheek.