Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (ereader ebook .TXT) 📖

had just better continue with my treatment,” the doctor said. He then reached down and took the book from Theissen’s hands. “You’ll make yourself sick again just worrying about it. Now rest.”

Watching his book leave his fingers, Theissen frowned. No ingredients for a poultice? No quick cure? He wanted to go on his way soon. These birdmen didn’t look inclined to hire a carpenter. And despite his efforts to ignore it, the stagnation of demonic smell was getting to him.

“Come on. Lie down.” The white birdman urged.

Theissen did, but he made a face while scooting back into the ultra soft feathers.

“That’s better.”

Theobold arranged Theissen’s things from his pack on the edge of the feather bed, also taking the book from the doctor with a chiding glance as he set it carefully aside. He turned to Theissen with a smile. “When you feel up to it, you can clean these off. I’ll go and get this bag cleaned for you.”

Theissen reached up. “Could you pack it with some food too? I really need to be getting on my way as soon as I am well.”

The expression on Theobold’s face fell. “But why? I was hoping you would stay for a while.”

Now feeling the effects of the medicine on his consciousness, Theissen sighed. “I’m sorry. But really do have to keep going or I’ll miss my cous…cousin.”

He nodded off, the full effect enveloping him into dreamless sleep.

“He wants to leave,” Theobold murmured with a downhearted droop of feathers.

One of the women walked over to him and patted on one of his wings. “You can change his mind.”

“I doubt that.” Theobold turned and found his perch again. “He seems like the determined type. He is a wizard after all.”

“Don’t worry,” the white haired birdman said. “He won’t be going anywhere for a while. That infection was pretty bad.”

“How long?” Theobold looked up at him, his eyes swimming with concern.

With a mild shrug, the white birdman turned back to his work at the table. “A few months at least. He’ll feel it tomorrow and agree. You’ll see.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight: It is Wizardry That is a Game to Him

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theissen vomited the day after. The doctor said it was a good sign. Theissen begged to differ. He could smell his sickness more now than ever. His infection had gotten worse. It took two weeks for the entire cure to really take effect, and the rest of the time after Theissen mostly felt weak from exhaustion. By that time more than a month had passed, and he felt he was getting nowhere in his carpenter’s journey.

Despite being weak, Theissen was allowed to explore the birdmen’s platform village when he wasn’t feeling nauseous. There were a lot more of these bird people below, including little children and wild youth. The children played among the branches with their mothers close by to watch. Apparently they were not born with the ability to fly right away, much like birds. However, the young men and women nearer to Theissen’s age were often flying too fast and too recklessly through the trees that a few times Theissen clung to Theobold’s and Mensin’s feathers to keep from being knocked over.

The bird people’s homes were also more comfortable down below. They were still primitive and simple with overhanging roofs in case of rain, white drapes hanging down from them like flowing clouds. Inside the home areas were more rounded nest like beds, all tucked with feathers. As much as Theissen expected to see eggs and all that, he never saw a one. These demons were born like normal human beings were. In fact there was a group nest for the women who were caring for their young and another area for the ones still awaiting delivery. These women did not fly much. Their wings could not properly support the added weight of their extended bellies for long.

“Why are they all grouped together though?” Theissen asked as Theobold helped him sit on a perch shaped like a bench near the nursing area off of a rather large beam-like branch.

“Why shouldn’t they be together?” Theobold asked, puzzling at him as he took his own perch.

“What he means is,” Mensin smirked at Theobold, “How come they aren’t staying in their usual family nest? And I can tell you. We feel there is more safety putting the very young and those that need assistance all together. We call it our nursery.”

Theissen shrugged, shifting in his seat. His arms, back and legs felt achy. Sore. But mostly he hated how tired he always felt. And worse, he hated being so inactive. He missed working.

“Are you bored again?” Theobold watched his expression with a knowing look.

Sighing, Theissen frowned apologetically. “Sorry. I can’t help it. I’m so used to doing something.”

“You’ve had time to study that book.” Mensin offered, shifting his own wings.

Giving him a smirk, Theissen added, “Thoroughly. But now I’d rather have a translation from that letter I just got.”

“That still amazes me,” Theobold said, grinning. “When you whipped that paper from air, calling it to your hand like that, I got chills.”

“Chills?” Theissen turned his head to look at him. “That was an easy thing.”

“Was sending that new letter to him harder?” Mensin asked, also glancing at the teenagers swooping down with infectious laughter, stirring the brownish feather like hair on his head up so that it stuck out.

Theissen shook his head, glancing up also as he clung to his bench to keep from falling off. “No. He wrote the spell on the envelope. All I had to do was close it.”

Theobold flapped his wings with a twitch, glancing at Theissen somewhat nervously. “What did you write about, anyway?”

Deciding to tell only part of the truth, Theissen took another glance at the layout before him with all the bird people lounging about on their perches just chatting and eating fruit. The only activity that ever seemed to stir the area was the rambunctious teenager with too much energy. Quite an imbalance. “I wrote him about you, the molemen, and your strange feud.”

“It is not strange,” Mensin said with some annoyance. “Those molemen are nothing but pests.”

“Well, it’s strange to me,” Theissen said, climbing off his perch to the extended bough that led straight to the nursing nests.

Theobold watched him go, stepping over and around branches, sighing. “Don’t overexert yourself.”

Turning carefully while holding onto one upright branch, Theissen cast him a small glare. “Don’t overexert myself? Theobold, I haven’t done anything the past two months that exerted any muscle in my body. I’m becoming weak. Soon I won’t be able to pick up my own tools.”

“So what? You’re a wizard. You don’t need to use those tools anyway,” Mensin said.

Rolling his eyes, Theissen turned to Theobold. “Will you talk to him? I can’t stand this anymore.”

Theissen walked off, keeping balance on the branch just broad enough to walk on but just as easy to get blown off. He stirred up winds on both sides to keep him stable once there were no branches to hold on to.

“He’s getting restless,” Mensin murmured, flapping his wings with a hop nearer to Theobold.

“He’s a carpenter,” Theobold replied as he pulled in his legs to his chest, shaking his head. “Funny, how I really didn’t believe him a first.”

Mensin gave him a dry look. “He is being silly.”

Theobold returned the look. “It isn’t silly to him. To him, it is his life.” He watched Theissen hop onto the platform then approach one of the women, grinning with a wave as he gestured for a flower from a nearby branch to float up to hand to her. “It is wizardry that is a game to him.”

Both watched Theissen go among the children. The journeyman carpenter first just talked to the mothers about who knows, then crouched down to pat the babies on the head. A feather floated up from the fluff in the nest, and Theissen stirred it around to fly over their heads. It even changed colors through the rainbow as the wizard moved it.

“You know, I caught him carving into the wood near his bed,” Theobold said near a whisper, looking over his knees at Theissen.

Mensin lifted his eyebrows with surprise. “Really?”

“Yep. He’s nearly finished with it too. Flowers and geometric designs. Like our art.” Theobold rested his closed hands on his chin, dropping his legs and leaning over his knees. “I think he won’t want to stay here much longer, sick or not sick.”

“He’s not that stupid,” Mensin said with a snort, and he leaned back.

“Are you kidding? I bet he is planning a way out of the trees every night he goes to sleep. He’s the determined kind.”

Mensin slowly nodded, his eyes narrowing on Theissen. “Determined, huh?”

“Besides, I’m sure he’s convinced that he can heal himself. He puts up a fuss with the doctor these days, says he is sick of drinking things that he doesn’t know what’s in them.” Theobold noticed Theissen laughing, now making all the feathers in the area lift up to snow down on them again. The wizard pointed at it, gesturing to the others on the flet with talk and then a dramatic shiver. The children burst into laughter, fluttering after him. Theissen jogged around the platform, pretending to run from them in a chase.

“I think he suspects us.”

“Now you are being absurd.” Mensin stood up. “What is there to suspect except that we want him here with us? And if he is so bored, then why don’t we hire him as a carpenter? I think that would prove a lot more persuasive than just keeping him amused with stories and trips. Don’t you?”

Theobold lifted his head. “Hire him as a carpenter? But he makes fancy furniture. We don’t need all that.”

But Mensin looked just as determined as Theissen did. “No, but he does do fancy carving. And don’t you think it is about time we lived in pretty houses rather than just platforms in the trees?”

“We don’t need pretty or fancy houses.” Theobold flapped after him. Mensin was already flying off the platform as if to go somewhere.

“But we are vulnerable to the rainy season and the snow. Personally, I’d like some better shelter than some reeds and fluffed up feathers to keep us warm come the rainy season.” Mensin flapped hard and flew up into the branches above. He was gone. The boughs above blocked Theobold’s view, making him unable to track where he had gone.

“Where is he going?” Theissen asked, trotting back over the bough. He was covered in small down from the nests, the color improved in his cheeks as if all he really needed was space to run around to get his health back.

“Up.” Theobold continued to stare at where Mensin had gone.

Theissen snickered as he glanced up also. “That, I gathered. Why up?”

Theobold shrugged. “He wanted to.”

Shaking his head, Theissen trotted back a few paces with a turn. “You are as informative as ever. Why did he want to? That is, why did he leave us?”

Looking over to Theissen, Theobold asked, “Have you ever wanted wings?”

“Nice change of subject,” Theissen said with a smirk. “Briefly, but really, no. Wings would be too much trouble.”

Meeting his gaze with a nod, Theobold followed after him as Theissen headed back to the nursery. “Yes, you do see it