Mother frowns at that.
"How so?"
"He is, he is… infuriating! An old man with no regard to anything beyond his research!"
"That right! That's right! He doesn't care at all, only plays with his toys!"
"That right! The other day he painted one of the girl's hair red, and said she should be thankful for helping him with his research!"
"No way! I hear that he too…" At that we seemly unleashed the furring rage of these ladies as they start complaining no stop about the unknown mage, telling stories about how he uses others as guineas pigs for his spells with no consequences, though mostly harmless ones at least.
"Well, if he is no good that how about another mage?" Mother says, but they soon nod negatively.
"There is none, mages finding these islands are getting rarer by the day, humans in general actually, and most don't see a reason to come this far, or don't even know about us anymore, to have all the trouble of coming up here..."
"Right, and the islands can be very unpredictable, if a not flying creature like ourselves and with our sense of direction tries to come they would have a hard time finding this place."
"It is rare to have one for so long even! But good riddance he is!"
"Still, I need a teacher for my boy, he is very interested in learning magic…"
"Oh, I see, well that will be a problem." One of the girls say.
"Yeah we don't see a lot of mages around, actually no one from outside in general, but I don't think that mage will want to teach him at all, with that personality of his…"
"Yeah, for what I heard he is only interested in researching and learning and nothing more."
"Well at least I'm going give it a try, no harm done right?" Mother says as the girls exchange a look, only to shrug a moment later.
"Very well." After that they explain in detail where he is staying at, and moments later we are back in the sky, flying among the many other winged creatures and humanoids hovering by, until we finally reach his place.
His house proves to be very easy to find out among the other places for not only it stood above everything else, too far up in the sky, but had a strange and unique architecture.
Firstly it looks like a tower with nothing around it, oddly placed on top of the city huge floating buildings, secondly it had a central tower at the lower part made of stone and on top of it a wooden average looking house building that you could find in the woods and think nothing of it.
As the door was built in the lower stone part we knock on it twice while looking up at the wooden crooked parks that seem to challenge gravity, especially while being supported by thin wooden sticks coming from the ground.
We hear crashing coming from above and stomping, and while our sharp hearing gives us a good idea of our host's humor, we are still taken back by the grumpy old man that opens a little of his door, barely enough to see us there.
"The shop is close, go back another time or something."
"Wait!" Says mother as he is about to close the door on us.
However he doesn't wait and we are left dumbfounded when the door closes with a click.
…So much effort to have enough money to pay him and to get here just to end up like this? I meant, the food and the adventure were worthy of their own, but my mother thought otherwise.
So she knocked on the door again, this time not so gently.
He opens the door again, not at all happy about our presence there, and this time my mother does not waste her time and goes straight to business:
"Look, I need someone to teach my boy magic, and I have money to pay for your services, at least give him a chance to receive our knowledge oh great mage." She has a hint of sarcasm at the end.
"Receive my knowledge? Knowledgment is not something to receive but to be gained and experience, it is gained from person to person and not shared by any worldly matters, receiving my knowledge is utter madness it is! What gains are to be gain and what's lost is to be lost, waste it is to try otherwise!"
…Wait, what? Even I'm at lost after this one.
"I do not take students, and even if I did his place is not here, there is nothing I can do to guide such heavy destined child, blood and power walk along side such magical creatures that carry his tittle, unique magic comes within, and that is the only thing he needs to understand for what he seeks; there is no way for me to suppress the will of the world that gave such destiny to this creature, and I do not intend to partake in such heavy burden!"
At that he closes the door again, but this time we are left to stare at the stone walls that swallow the door, making it disappear in a clear way of saying that we should not knock thrice for there was nothing to knock at.
And yet, even if maddening, his words resonated with me somehow.
But not with mother that, after a long silence, turns her head back and says in a chuckling apologetic voice: "Haha, well, there is that I supposed, uhm… it seems it will be harder than I expected…"
"Yes." I say, agreeing.
"Uhm…" Mother says, thinking and tilting her head sideways. "There are other ways I supposed, perhaps with books uhm… but then you don't know how to read, that will give us more troublesome things to deal with…"
I wasn't paying much attention to her until I hear her talk about books. Books? Reading? How could I forget such important matters! Of course I don't want to stay like this, knowledge opens the eyes and the mind, and what better way than books! Not having it will bring me closer to the mindless beasts around! Also I'm oddly excited about the possibility of having books, even though I did not know had one before.
"Teach! Teach! I want books!" She is surprised to see me hopping around with the possibility, smiling with her beak as she watches me agree with her.
"Alright, alright, settle down before you fall from my back, haha, silly you." We chat a little, but not long after we are taking the air again, her feathers stretched out and the wind shushing by, but as our image is fading back into the sky roads, a old man eyes us from a small opening of his curtains, a strange look in his eyes as he says:
"Another one of these… is seems that things are about to change again, as you have done so old pal. Another one like you has surged… and I hope he manages to survive as you did." With that he looks at a big bowl full of water put at the center of the room, but instead of clear this water reflects something odd, not here, but there, and as it moves to an invisible force a voice sounds from beyond the dark deeps reflecting silver orbs in it:
"He was brought here for a reason, just like I was, let him find his destiny and complete his reincarnating cycle. We are not to meddle."
"Yes… I agree, we are not to meddle. May destiny pour fortune along his path, poor boy…"