11 Chapter 11

Is all great and fantastic around us, however that is a big problem regarding our predicament, and that is… how are we going to find a single mage in such a big city?

Mother seems to be familiar enough with this place to know where to look, and even though we, as beasts, are not stopped from entering this place we still are outnumbered, mostly flying around being Alars, the winged humanoids, so we are not able to enter everywhere as we please, mostly for not having enough space at the front door for us to pass through.

So while we reach one of the verandas attached to a very busy building with many shops turned towards us, we go to a tavern named The Metal Bird Tavern, with many small statues of birds to make up for it's name, where part of the service and balcony stretched out to the outside in a way to receive all types of clients, including creatures such as us, by an opening on the wall.

"Howdy there, what can I do for ya today?" Askes the man on the other side as mother sits down on the floor while putting me on the balcony.

"An apple cobbler for me and my son please, and some water."

"Coming righ' up mam."

We have time to look around and inside the establishment as we wait for our order, the darker interior looking cozy with a fire at its center, but to my surprise the illumination here, as in some other stores as well, comes from transparent tubes running up and down the building, filled with what appears to be magma, distorting slightly in an orange substance, but it could not be since its inside glass and would have pierced it long ago if it was lava.

"Those come from the core inside this island. The others islands have it too, remember what I explained? How they keep the islands afloat? Well, this one actually has the biggest core around, and the most amount of cores too, you can say is reminiscing of the magic that, instead of simply going out from these hot tubes, were made into illumination before raising out into the sky. If you look from above you can see their smoke."

"Uhm." I say, thinking that this place, these whole complex of islands, were tightly made to sustain life as is, even this high and about.

"Mother…" I say, making my mother a little sad since I fixed my way of speaking and improved from the lisping momma from before.

"Yes darling?"

"What are these islands? This place, how was it build?" and away of the passing Alars at the back, thinking for a while until she starts: " I wasn't here when they came to be, of course, that has been many many years ago, but there are stories about it passed down by the Alars elders. Would you like to hear it?"

"Yes!" I say, however as if perfectly timed our meal arrives, making me bask at its smell for a while before my vision goes down to the contents on the plate.

"Here ya go little one." The man on the other side says and, as mother takes with wind magic a coin out from a bag tied around her neck, I start salivating at the crunchiness before my eyes, the golden layers of pudding topping the filling of apple syrup, warm and red and looking as good as it smells, freshly made and still dripping pieces of apple on the side, the slow movement captivating my eyes.

"Go on, eat it up, just don't choke with it alright? Slow down, slow down, you!" She says, chuckling as I start eating too fast and get my beak all dirty with apple syrup, making so that even the tavern owner smiles kindly at my image, and I even hear some Alar women say that I look cute eating like that.

C-cute again! I stop eating, passing my paw over my beak to clean it up, which only increases the owws coming from inside, but decided to change my image and stop losing face like this I do not let the girls affect me as, once cleaned, I sit straight up and start cutting the pieces of pie with grace and taking it up to eat instead of messing the meal further.

Only that…

"Oww, how cute, is trying to imitate his mother." "Such fluffiness is out of this world! Can I squish him? Can I?"

… Why is that that every attempt of mine to look cool ends up backfiring like this?! Ahhh!

I eat the rest of my fruit cake in silence.

So mother takes the chance and starts answering my question, trying to hide a smile.

"These islands are the pieces of land with the most magic and nutrients of all lands combined. They were once lost in the ocean, submerged, and some even dare say inside dungeons, but they were all brought together by one of the ancients beings who shaped this land, the second Bringer of Magic."

I stop eating to look up after hearing that name, tilting my head to the side in question.

"Hihi, that's true, the Bringers of Magic are why this world still exists." Says one of the Alar women that had not stopped paying attention to me since I arrived.

"That's right, it all started with the first Bringer of Magic, the goodness of magic who brought her knowledge and teaching with her, making all kin to understand the elements and be one with the world, protecting all from the demons."

"Yeah yeah, and the others who followed her steps, coming from the divine to help shape this world as is, did immeasurable works for this planet, such as these islands that we live in, away from humans, demons, and all the problems they like to make for our kin."

"Yes, yes, so troublesome, I hear they are at war again too."

"No way, again? Against who now?"

The ladies start chatting with each other once more, so I turn for my mother for more information, asking her a question while she chews:

"What were their names?"

"Oh hon, that has been long forgotten and lost at the cycles of many moons, some even say that they did not exist at all, but how else would you explain these islands? These chains, the use of the cores…"

"And what you believe in mother?"

"Me? Uhm… Well, I'm just thankful for having an amazing place to raise my boy at, even more from the stories that I hear coming from the continent."

That makes me think of what the girls said, about humans, demons, and war, but as I was about to ask again the tavern owner approaches enough for my mother to call him again and ask the whereabouts of a mage, which in the end we learn not from him, but from the ladies at the inside table that talk with us once more.

"There is only one problem…" They say after informing where to find him.

"What is it?" Mother asks, stopping to look at them.

"Is that… that mage… he is despicable!"