Haikyuu!! One-shots!!

The wizard's apprentice - DaiSuga (Part 1/2)

[^^Daichi is the son of an apothecary/herbalist, and he is sent to bring herbs to a Wizard and his apprentice, Suga. (I found the pic you were talking about on Pinterest!!)
Requested by Trinketesque
(Also, this wasn't part of the request, but I've decided to make Daichi's Dad Takeda-sensei, and the wizard Coach Ukai just for the hell of it.)]

Daichi was in the herb garden, that morning, picking sage and rosemary for a woman who had run out, while his father, Takeda, the owner of the shop, was inside mixing armour for a man who's daughter had a bad cold. Once he had found the proper herbs, he hung clumps of them in the sun to dry with a bit of string.

"I've put out Ms. Fuyōna's cooking herbs to dry," he told his father. "What should I do next?"

"Oh, I need you to make a delivery," said the Apothecary, not taking his eyes off what he was doing. He had fallen from a ladder while retrieving an order several days ago and injured his knee, rendering him unable to make deliveries himself. In truth, the only deliveries he had been doing were the ones that required long journeys, but Daichi was plenty old enough to handle them now, so he'd been considering letting his son do the deliveries even after his knee had healed. "The batch of herbs I had you dry last week, remember."

"Vervane, yarrow, dogsbane, yew..." there were a few more, but that was sufficient to clarify what he was talking about.

"That's the one," his father confirmed. "It's for a wizard in the woods. I've packaged everything, and I put a map on the shelf, so all you have to do is put them in your satchel, and follow the map there and back, it's almost a day's journey, so you'd better get going if you don't want to be in the woods too long after dark."

"Alright." Daichi grabbed his satchel, and grabbed the herbs and the map off the shelf before stuffing a candle, a matchbook, a canteen of water, and a roll of bread in as well for the journey. "I'll be back by tomorrow! Bye Dad!" he called behind him as he exited the herb shop and headed down the dirt path out of the village and into the woods.

There was only one path in the village that led to the woods, but once it was taken, it was long and winding and had many forks and branches, so Daichi was glad for the map, though he hoped it wouldn't get too windy. He only had so many matches to read the map by when it got dark.

As soon as he entered the woods, the neat dirt path became overgrown, and covered in trampled plants and leaves. The only people that really used the paths in the woods were woodcutters with their carts, and of course the wizards and such who lived in the woods for privacy. He had heard that there was more magical energy in the woods as well, but he didn't know how much truth there was to those rumors.

Daichi followed the map. Left at the fork, straight at the crossroads, take a detour around the fallen tree, then over the river. Twist, and turn, and climb over, and double back, a bite of the roll, a glance at the map, a short sprint from a growling sound. Another left, and then a right, and then he reached the densest part of the woods.

The trees surrounding him were so close together, it seemed like the path had come to a dead-end, and the branches overhead blocked the sun so entirely that it could've passed for late evening instead of mid-afternoon.

He knew he was in the right place, but he couldn't find the entrance. Carefully, he scanned his surroundings, searching for some sort of clue, but he didn't even notice any insects, or plants that were out of place. The only thing around was a large black raven, and Daichi had the strangest feeling of being watched by the bird.

"Hello?" he called out in question.

"Here to see the wizard?" squawked a voice from above. It was the raven, and Daichi smiled at it to hide his horror and surprise.