Lily taught Gux. For most, taking on an apprentice was a simple task: they were brought before the council, the council gave them a cursory look, asked them a few questions, and that was that. Either they were given the golden leaf of discovery, or sent packing out of the woods without the magic to ever find their commune again.
She had gone to the council asking about Gux. It was a few weeks ago, asking if anyone had ever tried to teach a gnoll. The response was instant and clear: They would have nothing to do with it. That creature, as they so clearly put it, had no love in its heart, no space for kindness, and would never be a protector of nature. What’s more, the fact that it had been allowed to live at all seemed a disgrace. She was told to remove it from both the commune and the world and do them all a favor.
Lily didn’t listen. She’d asked the plants, talked to the animals, seen Gux in action… She knew better than to think that he was as simple as that. And even in those moments of rage and hunger she’d seen… He wasn’t at all what they painted him to be… or even he painted himself to be. She had gone, one last time, to the archives, hearing arguments and anger from the commune for the fact he still lived. She was shouted down and threatened with excommunication if she taught him. And all of her studies found book after book of worrisome news: the demonic heritage of gnolls, their everlasting hunger, their cruelty, the way they ransacked the land…
But there had been one story, not long ago at all, about a scout that had been caught by a raiding party. He’d been taken to their camp to be killed… and a gnoll freed him. It had even said, in very stilted words, to hit him so it looked like they’d broken free. He’d not looked a gift horse in the mouth, but had socked a fairly good punch on the gnoll’s before running. But his seemed to be the only exception in hundreds of years of writing, and likely would be forgotten before the year’s end.
Lily didn’t know if Gux was that gnoll… she didn’t know if the evil inside him could be tamed, or if he’d turn out to be a mistake. All she knew for certain was that she’d decided to hide her house from the eyes of the village with a few new trees, and that she was going to teach Gux, come what may. She’d seen his kindness, his care towards the plants, his absolute joy at the spells he’d created… She knew a worthy student when she saw it.
Her teachings were slow, and his learning even slower, but learn he did. He had pretty much mastered his first spell, able to grow plants and, with creative uses of the spell and some training, tell the weather, light and snuff out fires, create small breezes… He had that one down, and every time he used it, his face lit up as much as his hands, and he’d almost always go talk to Berry… even though Berry couldn’t talk back to him. And, when learning other minor tricks, one showed itself immediately: He could mend broken items. All it took was some concentration and some time, but he could bring the item back together without any hint it had broken.
He found out about it when he’d been playing with one of the forest creatures. Speaking with animals was a much easier spell than speaking with plants, and while playing tag with a particularly playful buck, Gux managed to knock over a small clay jug in front of the house. It wasn’t all that important to Lily, just a common water jug she could easily make, but he froze in horror when he saw what happened. He took the pieces, running under the waterfall and trying to put them back together.
A few minutes later, Lily came out, looking to see what Gux was up to and wondering what the noise she’d heard earlier was, and she found him playing with the jug, showering himself with pour after pour from it. She caught him in the act, yelling at him for messing with the watering jug, and he just beamed, telling her how he’d broken it, but then fixed it! She wasn’t sure whether to be mad or impressed, but with the way he beamed, his smile seeming to become more and more natural as time went on, she gave up and congratulated his newly learned skill.
Every druid she knew had three spells they could perform, little tricks they hardly even needed magic for and could do without thinking. Gux, it seemed, only had two, and this baffled Lily… but if his two were druidcraft and mending, how could he be bad?
When it came to other magics, Gux seemed to lag behind as well. While he could do most of the smaller spells once taught them, he couldn’t do them as often as she thought he’d be able to, and he couldn’t seem to muster anything more complicated than the basic ones. On top of that, he couldn’t turn into an animal. He marveled the first time she turned into her favorite, a flitting, fast moving sparrow, but since flying ones were complicated, she had turned into a fawn to describe the process to him. It was something that came naturally to all druids… but not to Gux.
Gux floundered, a natural for a newly minted druid, but even after months of training, he was never able to change his shape or cast anything higher. After being such an eager student, Lily was starting to wonder if he had the ability… but she knew he had the heart.
He would help with every single aspect of the farming and tending to the plants, even if his favorite spell was the one that made those berries she’d given him the first day. And when out in the forest, he would instantly step in to defend animals in danger without even thinking of any danger or harm that might befall him. He’d even been savaged by a wolf for a little bit before he convinced it to calm down, letting the bunny hop off safely and feeding the wolf from his own supply of magical berries. For a little while, she wondered if he was a shepherd, one of the rarer orders of druids out there, but… No. He didn’t show any signs of that either.
After a while, Gux could sense his teacher’s frustrations. “Am I… doing bad?” he asked. His voice was still stilted and strange, but he was much better now than he had been.
“No, Gux. Just… learning differently. I thought we’d be further along…” She had been trying to get him to change forms again, and he hadn’t managed to do anything but look incredibly silly, with his face screwed up in concentration and his butt waving frantically in the air. She sighed. “Let’s go back to the house.”
He followed, his head held low. “Am I not good enough for tribe? I thought would see, but… it’s only us…”
She paused at that, looking at him sadly. “No, Gux. You’re too good for them. And they just need to have that proven to them.”
He made that crying whimper again as he walked behind her. “I… shouldn’t be here… I’m bad for Lily…”
She turned around, hugging the gnoll and nuzzling into his belly button, since he was still so much taller than her. “Don’t say that! You’re the best, Gux, with more heart than the entire commune put together… We might not know what it is your purpose is, but we’ll find it.”
He hugged her back, nuzzling the top of her head… he then licked her cheek. She backed up, mostly from surprise, and he looked bashful. “I… sorry.”
She looked at him with confusion. “You slobbered on me? What was that for?”
He started to say something, then shook his head, continuing to look bashful. “It not important… I… Keep learning from Lily.” He smiled then, and she smiled back.
“I’m glad to hear it. Let’s go back inside.” She wasn’t sure why she’d met him, and she knew the town still wouldn’t approve, but… She knew there was a reason, and she was going to do everything she could to find it.
