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

With a dry gaze, Theissen just shook his head. He walked past the ex-birdman to the stall where most of the former molemen were fast asleep in the hay. All appeared to be having very pleasant dreams. The former birdmen were still up and about, edgy and restless as they waited among the rafters over the barn stalls. Theobold seemed to be the only one rested. He perched in the hay with a pleased look on his face. But then it was obvious that he had gone flying about when Theissen had gone, sure the men and women down below would watch their carts well enough.

“You’re back! That’s great, because that means you can lend us some money for some food.” Theobold hopped down from the loft. His wings fluffed out to slow his fall. “We can smell meat cooking, but you took the coins purse with you.”

“Oh, sorry.” Theissen’s expression lightened. He took the pouch off of his belt and handed it to Theobold. “Go on and take them in the inn. I’ll stay back here with the load.”

“Did you find much work?” Theobold asked, opening the pouch to dig out coins for the others. They had scrambled down from the loft with haste, practically tripping over one another to get to him. Ronen hurried over to find his sleeping beauty, nudging her to wake. Some of the other molemen blinked at him and then merely rolled over. Daanee yawned and stretched, rubbing her eyes as her stomach growled.

Theissen grinned, handing Theobold the stacks of notepaper he had gathered. “Look at these.”

Theobold took them, flipping from one paper to another. His eyes widened on each page. He looked up to Theissen. “Do we have time to do all these?”

Chuckling, Theissen nodded. “Not to worry. You and a couple of those apprentices of mine are going to help.”

Ronen and another of the former birdmen lifted their heads as they looked back from the handful of money Theobold had given them. Both opened their eyes with surprise enough to forget dinner.

“We are?” Theobold leaned back. “But shouldn’t we be hurrying to Jattereen right now?”

A deeply amused laugh erupted from Theissen’s chest. “Theobold. Where do you think money for food comes from? We have to stop and work or we’ll starve on the highway.”

“I’m against starving,” announced the other apprentice Theissen knew as Teppan. He rushed over with Ronen.

Daanee folded her arms, glancing back at the straw with the inclination to return to her nap.

“So am I,” Ronen said with a nod.

Theissen gave them both appreciative smiles, still laughing. “Good. So tomorrow you will all come with me into the village to work.”

Both Ronen and Teppan sighed. Work. Despite becoming human and having already learned much about carpentry when Theissen lived with the birdmen, the word work still made them suddenly feel exhausted. Their old birdman tendencies would be hard to overcome.

“What about the rest of us?” a former birdman named Dobbis asked. Theissen had learned his name while they gathered feathers from Seron, the manager of sales for the demon bird people. Dobbis was Seron’s nephew. He was slightly tubby like his uncle, or a pigeon. Seron’s portliness had always made Theissen want to laugh. Most birdmen were naturally lean. To get fat off their diet of fruit and nuts seemed a little near impossible to him.

Looking him in the eye, Theissen replied, “What do you mean?”

“What do we do while you all go in town and work?” Dobbis asked, setting his hands on his hips.

Shrugging, Theissen said with a glance at the stalls, “I don’t know. How about you try and sell some of your feathers to the locals? Practice your new trade as a feather merchant.”

Dobbis narrowed his watery eyes at Theissen. “But I thought that was your job? My uncle hired you for that.”

“Hired me?” Theissen shook his head as he took the papers back from Theobold’s hand. “I was not hired. And I certainly was not paid. I only agreed to take you and all your fellows to Jattereen City so you and your fellows could sell feathers for your people. I’m going to set up carpentry as I planned.”

Theobold turned with a surprised look. “But you did promise to help settle things with the feather merchants, right?”

Groaning, Theissen walked towards the ladder to the loft. “Yeah, yeah. But really, I’m not going to Jattereen to do everything for them. If they want a life, they have to work, just like I do.”

For a moment the birdmen just stared at him as Theissen climbed up the ladder to the loft. Then they sighed. Of course they had agreed to the transformation from demon to human with the understanding that they would have human problems instead of demon problems. However, none of the birdmen really knew how much work humans had to put forth to live until that journey. Actually, Theissen was quite sure they still didn’t know.

“So, go and have dinner. Tomorrow you really ought to decide what you want to do with your time here. I’m going to be working in the village,” Theissen said as he went up.

“But what about us?” Daanee asked, glancing at the sleeping former molemen. “What should we do when you are gone?”

Climbing onto the loft landing with a slight heave and then plop, Theissen turned around and nodded. “That’s up to you, but you really ought to guard your investment. I don’t think there are any jewelers or silversmiths here to barter with in this village. Maybe you can start to try selling in Dhilia City.”

She nodded then stepped back to Ronen’s side. Daanee urged him with a tug to take her to dinner in the inn. Ronen sighed, though he nodded to his companions. Nearly every one of the former birdmen left the barn, though one remained to talk with Theobold, glancing up at Theissen with a growing look of dissent. The birdman hung wings as he nodded to Theissen under the whispers then walked back over to the stall. He flapped up, stirring the straw and all the dusty particles in the room about again before landing next to where Theissen was making himself comfortable in the hay.

“They’re worn out, Theissen,” Theobold whispered as soon as he folded in his wings under his robe.

Looking up with one eye open, Theissen sighed. “So am I, Theobold. So am I.”

The birdman knelt next to him. “Yes, but you are used to it.”

Blinking open an eye again, just as he has closed it, Theissen peeked up at him. “No, I’m not.”

Theobold leaned back with genuine surprise.

Blinking his eyes open and sitting up, Theissen turned to face him. “I’m not used to it, Theobold. I hate feeling exhausted all the time. But we have to keep going. Quitting just because we feel tired is not an option.”

“Funny,” Theobold murmured aloud, dropping into the straw next to Theissen.

“What is?” Theissen asked, watching him.

With a shrug, the birdman friend said, “You. I always thought you were like an unstoppable energy. That you didn’t know how to rest because you were so used to being tired all the time, like being rested was abnormal for you. I had no idea you just chose to work yourself to death.”

“I am not worked to death,” Theissen said with some bite. He dropped back to the straw then rolled over to face the rest of the barn to get a little shuteye.

“Really?” Theobold’s voice reeked of skepticism. “And this is you not worked to death?”

“No,” Theissen said without looking at him. “This is me annoyed that you keep nagging me about breaks when I have been trying to get us as safely to Jattereen as possible.”

He could feel Theobold’s wings flap with annoyance. The birdman’s voice proved it with bite. “But if I don’t nag, you’ll forget that you aren’t traveling with regular human beings, but people who are children in human doings. If I hadn’t come along, you would have worn them out after the first hour.”

Theissen rolled over with a dry look. “You think I’ve forgotten that they’re inexperienced in human living? Gads! How can I forget? They ask the most insane questions and complain all the time about simple things like rain and resting after five steps. The world is a dangerous place. I am protecting them by pushing them. The fact that we have gotten this far in a month is a miracle, even for me.”

Theobold’s feathers ruffled. Sulkily, he sat back, the shadows hiding the flushed color on his cheeks.

“I know I have been pushing really hard. I know I haven’t made this trip easy. I did it on purpose,” Theissen said.

“But why?” Theobold ruffled his feathers more, frowning.

Sitting up, Theissen set a hand on the birdman’s shoulder. “Because, if they are weak when they arrive in Jattereen, the businessmen in the markets will mop the floor with them. They have to learn to work hard now before we enter that city. They need to practice now what they will be doing later.”

“Mop the floor with them?” Theobold echoed, his face twisting with confusion.

Nodding too sincerely to be misunderstood, Theissen said, “Yes. Like a rag that had been stomped on. If we are going to make them feather merchants, then they have to learn how to handle pain and hard work. Sales is killer on the spirit, especially when things don’t go well.”

For a moment Theobold said nothing. The pigeons in the rafters cooed. A horse made a small noise off in the corner of the barn. In the silence they could also hear the distant rumble of carriage wheels and horses clopping in from the highway.

“Well then, you ought to at least warn them why are you are pushing them so hard,” Theobold said.

“Welcome!” The innkeeper’s voice echoed from outside. “Where are you journeying from?”

More carriages rumbled up. Horses neighed. The jingling of their liveries echoed against the outside barn doors.

“I keep saying—” Theissen started, but they heard one of the teamsters outside shout back to the innkeeper their need for lodging and feed for their horses.

“What is going on?” Theobold leaned over the loft edge.

One of the former molemen climbed up the ladder. He stuck his head up over the edge of the platform. “It looks like some fancy people are going to take over the barn.”

Theobold was about to fly down, but Theissen held him back with his arm. “You’d better throw on your robe and climb down. You might spook them.”

Making a face, Theobold picked up his cast-off white robe. It wouldn’t impede his wings any, but they did cover them up. Theissen motioned for the former moleman to climb off the ladder so he could get down.

“They won’t make us give up our stall, would they?” that man asked Theissen as they both landed on the straw. Theobold hopped down with a slight huff.

“We paid for it for at least tonight. They can’t.” Theissen watched the stable hands lead in the first set of horses. The other former molemen were already up, rubbing their eyes and peering over the stable doors.

A few of the horsemen went in with their animals, staring at Theissen’s group curiously, but nothing more than that. Theissen nodded to each one as they passed. One of the drivers stopped and looked straight at him.

“You. Have we met before?” the coach driver asked.

Theissen just shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

Shaking his head to himself, the driver continued on, casting Theissen looks for a while before turning his complete attention to his animals. Most of the men that came with the large lordly carriages soon left once their work was done, passing through the barn doors with looks to Theobold and his crew before going outside.

“Strange people,” a former moleman Theissen knew as Karo said with a huff. “They come in, they stare. They go out, they stare. Not a word in between. I’d call that rude if I knew for sure.”

Theissen sighed