Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (librera reader txt) 📕

With a longing glance out the window, Theissen watched the rain fall, landing in fat drops outside on the balcony. “I wasn’t mean to live in a tree.”

“But why move on from here?” the birdman asked. “We want you here. And wasn’t the whole purpose of your journey to find a village that needs you? Make this your village?”

Theissen looked back at him, wordless.

“Think about it,” the doctor said, rising up. He then walked to table to take out a medicine packet for Theissen’s evening dosage.

Turning to look outside again, Theissen shook his head. Stay? It had a quiet lulling feeling to it. Yes, he had established himself as a carpenter among these people. He even had eager and rather gifted apprentices. The village itself had gone from sleepy to active, though only just a bit. Most of the birdmen and birdwomen were still a flock of demons that wanted to live life with the least amount of effort possible.

Then, of course was the other thing. The reason he left Liptan was the same reason Theissen stared so despondently towards the outside. There were no women there that appealed to him in the way that would lead towards marriage.

Not that the birdwomen weren’t beautiful. In fact, most were gorgeous and elegant looking. And not that the young ladies weren’t attracted to him. On the contrary, he was the catch of the moment. Most of the bird misses that were not already attached flocked around when he walked the tree branch bridges, calling to him. The problem was, not one struck his interest, and not one of them would be completely satisfied with a man who did not have wings.

“Come on, Theissen. You’ll still have your carpentry. Just pick which bird you would like to be, and trade wizardry for flying,” one of the more attractive bird ladies had said to him just a week ago.

Trade wizardry for being a birdman. That’s what most of the ladies wanted. Very few were attracted to his wizardry except by what it could do for them.

“Can you change the color of my feathers for me?” so many asked.

And he did it as a favor. Changing feather colors was as easy as changing the color of cloth.

“Can you make my tail feathers longer?” others asked.

They didn’t really mean tail feathers, but rather their hair which they often wore long and down their backs, braided and designed in odd ways.

Usually he had to say no. It might cause them problems later in life, such as baldness, he said.

“Theissen.” The doctor interrupted his thoughts extending the wooden cup full of bitter drink to him. “Drink this and go to sleep. I think you are fatigued from all that work.”

No, Theissen thought as he took the cup. This was not fatigue. Whatever he was feeling, it was not fatigue. He remembered that from when they worked for Lord Baron Kirsch. That was fatigue. Back then all his joints ached from lack of sleep, his mind unfocused, his muscles sore from overwork. This was different. His aches came from a different source. He could see it all over his body. And as for his infection, he had taken care of it when doctor wasn’t looking. That had been gone for months.

“Drink up,” the doctor said, watching him just sit there.

With another sigh, Theissen downed the cupful.

He heard the doctor exhale with relief, collecting the cup and setting it on the table. “I’ll stop by tomorrow to see if you are any better. Now rest.”

That was easy to do. Theissen found it almost impossible to disobey an order to rest after taking his evening medicine. Somewhere inside his head told him that the medicine must have a sedative in it. It was too obvious, really.

As he nodded off, Theissen heard Theobold land outside, shake off his wet feathers, then walk in the room. “Theissen? Oh. Asleep already? I suppose the doctor came by.” Theobold sighed aloud. “Always sleepy these days. Not normal for him….”

Theobold walked off to another room. All Theissen could now hear was the patter of rain on the distant thatch above. He did not fall asleep directly, though his breathing slowed to a calm that let his tension and exhaustion pull him deeper towards unconsciousness.

“…to stay here. Don’t you?” It was Mensin’s voice, shouting.

Theissen blinked, listening slightly with one eye open. He saw Theobold standing near the doorway looking distraught.

“I don’t care about that anymore! He’s not happy!” Theobold gestured into the doorway. “I hate seeing that. Maybe he ought to go on his way.”

“Are you insane?” Mensin growled deep in his voice. “The molemen are digging at the roots now. We need a wizard more than ever.”

“Theissen won’t want to get involved in our battles.” Theobold’s feathers ruffled as he glared at Mensin.

“He is involved! Those molemen are after him too.”

Fighting the overpowering drowsy feeling, Theissen tried to lift his head from his bed. 

“They don’t even know he’s here.” Theobold snapped. “Moles can’t even see beyond the end of their noses if it isn’t dark. And Theissen hasn’t been on the ground for over four months now. The snows will start soon.”

The snows? Theissen moaned. There is no way he could go traveling on foot once it started snowing. He’d be stuck with the birdmen all winter if he didn’t leave now. If only his body wouldn’t hurt so much.

“All the better for him to stay,” Mensin said. “You have to convince him.”

“Convince him?” Theobold said it with such distaste. “What kind of friend do you think I am? I won’t ask him to do something he hates.”

Mensin growled. “Theobold, are you a birdman or not?”

“That’s a stupid question. Of course I am.”

“Then act like one, and convince the wizard to stay.”

“Is that all he is to you? A wizard?”

“Better that than a carpenter. We’ve played that one long enough.”

“Oh, no. You’ve played that one long enough. I actually wanted to learn how to do it. You ought to try something with skill too. Make you feel like a man.”

“Like a man? I’m not human. Neither are you. Have you forgotten that?”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t learn to carve wood?”

“But it does mean you should be protecting our interests. This wood carving is a distraction for both you and that wizard.”

“There you go again, just calling him wizard.”

Theissen’s thoughts had gone fuzzy. He wasn’t even sure who was speaking to whom now. So far he assumed Theobold was the one defending him.

“It’s not a curse!”

The question was who was now defending him?

“But he is more than that!”

“What? A pitiful man who putters around with wood?”

“No! Stop demeaning his profession!”

“Profession? He’s with us? Who cares about profession?”

“He does! And so do I!”

“You’re no birdman.”

“Take that back!”

“You don’t deserve wings.”

“Shut up! Wings have nothing to do with it!

“You might as well join the molemen underground.”

“Molemen aren’t the same thing as humans!”

“How would you know?”

“He’s my friend!”

“He’s mine t—”

“No. To you, he’s nothing more than a tool. Something you can use.”

“That was uncalled for.”

“It’s the truth.”

Theissen heard silence. For a moment he thought he had fallen completely asleep, but in the distance he heard Mensin say, “He’s not a birdman, Theobold. Can you really be friends with a man who thinks you stink? He only looks at us as a bunch of demons. He tolerates us.”

A feeling of dread sunk into Theissen’s stomach. Those were feelings he had from time to time. It was hard, bearing the stench of mold and stifled flow every single second of the day. Apparently they had noticed how he was trying to bear it for their benefit.

“If he were a birdman, it’d be easier,” Mensin said.

“He wouldn’t be happy as a birdman,” Theobold replied. Theissen heard the man flap hard, the rain splashing off of his apparently wet wings.

Theissen though he heard Mensin’s foot steps into the room, but when he took one last weak peek of his blurry vision, he did not see him in the doorway or the room. Sighing, too tired to wonder what that argument spawned from, Theissen sunk into deep sleep until the morning.

“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” Theobold said with a snicker. He handed Theissen a drink from his silver teacup.

Taking it, Theissen glanced at the cup. “Wow, where did you unearth this from?”

Smirking, Theobold gestured to his pack. “I found it in your bag. The cup you’ve been drinking from I tossed out. It looks stained, and the bottom was cracked.

“I’m sorry,” Theissen sat up. “I could have fixed it, you know. You didn’t have to throw it out.”

But his friend smiled at him with a sorry expression in his eyes. “It’s ok. I decided it was best you get used to your old stuff. You are still planning on continuing your journey, right?”

Groaning, Theissen clenched his stomach. It hurt. “I wish I could. But lately I can barely get up without wanting to retch.”

“Maybe if you got further from demon smell, it would be easier to recover.”

Theissen quickly lifted his head, meeting Theobold’s sympathetic gaze.

“I know we make you sick,” Theobold said with an apologetic smile.

Trying to get out of bed, Theissen reached out to stop his friend from rising. “No. Um. That is, well…Yes, you do smell funny. But I’ve sort of gotten used to it.”

Theobold’s smile went back to that smirk. “Thanks for trying to make me feel better.”

Groaning, Theissen forced himself to stand, despite his stomach cramps. “I’m not just trying to make you feel better. It’s the truth.”

For a moment, Theobold froze. He looked back with sad eyes again. “Maybe it is, but I still think it would be best if we figured a way for you to head on your journey. You already missed your cousin in South Town. You had wanted to see her.”

Yes, Milrina. Funny, he still didn’t miss her like all that. Theissen wished he did, though. It would have given him a better excuse to leave the bird people. So far, he had none. And with how sick he had been feeling lately, he didn’t dare travel.

“I don’t think I can go right now. My stomach hurts half the time. My body aches the rest of the time.”

Theobold’s frown increased, digging into his face uncharacteristically to his usual happy-go-lucky nature.

Noticing it, Theissen tried to smile for his benefit. “My infection is gone, though. So don’t worry. Maybe I caught a flu bug.”

“No one else is sick,” Theobold murmured.

That was true. Theissen knew it. Most of the birdmen were well. It came from eating lots of fruit and constant preening. It seemed pathogens liked to lie along the ground, besides. There really was no accounting for his constant ill condition, except to blame it on consistent proximity to demons and his renewed boredom. He had been mostly fine during his work project.

“Wizard!” a birdman Theissen only knew barely fluttered right to their outer landing, hopping over the railing before rushing inside and folding up his black wings. “You have to come quick! The elders and Seron need you.”

Theobold helped Theissen up so he could walk. Grabbing one of their flats of seed and nut bread, Theobold gestured for Theissen to get a clean shirt and pants on. The messenger was too flushed to look like it was a small matter.

Taking off his back-less shirt, Theissen found his legs aching already. Each day it seemed to get worse. Even with eating well and all that work, his body just wasn’t responding right. Eventually Theobold had to prop him up.

“You really should eat something before we go.”

“How about some water?” Theissen said with a chuckle, his shaking hands taking up his teacup. The cup was tarnished from just sitting unused in his bag. He had half a mind to buff it, just to give him something to do.

Theobold filled the cup, urging Theissen to hurry. The messenger was actually hopping on the edge of the platform like a bird unable to sit still.

“Let’s go!” the messenger called to them