“It’s the worst,” Penny groaned. “His lectures just go on and, oh—”

Shade crept over their table as a slender tree stomped up beside them. “You ordered the tea?” a low, creaking voice asked.

“Yes,” Shay answered. Then to Penny, “So are you going to drop the class?”

Meanwhile, a branch reached over, set a steaming teapot onto the table and delicately lifted the lid. A cluster of green leaves shriveled and dried out, then fell gently into the water.

Penny shrugged. “I don’t know how else to get my transmutation requirement before graduation.”

A small mint shrub clambered up the tea plant and onto the table, then shook xirself so that a few green leaves fell into the pot as well.

“Give that four minutes,” the tea tree said, “and it will be perfect.”

“Cheers,” Shay replied.

But their servers did not leave immediately. Instead, the leaves rustled like a whisper and fanned out, like a curtain of discretion. “Pardon my eavesdropping,” that woody voice said, “but Ms. Delvaux, sometimes does independent studies for transmutation students.”

“The shop owner?” Penny replied, “Really?”

The plants nodded together enthusiastically.. “She’s very good,” the tea tree said. “After all, she made us!”

* * *

Story by Gregory M. Fox

By Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen – List of Koehler Images, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=255290