“Hmm… Some age lines and an adult face would make me better,” Angor mumbled to himself as he looked at the mirror.
The cup of tea was finished. As usual, the Morning Dew only presented him with a taste of bitterness and grass. It was not awful, but it was not enjoyable either.
As for the effect of magic plants Mara mentioned… that basically had nothing to do with Angor.
Tweet, tweet—
As Angor savored the taste of tea, a bird’s cry came from the window, followed by the sound of flapping wings.
Angor looked up and saw a strange seabird perched on the windowsill.
The bird was about double the size of his palm. Brown and gray feathers, red, sharp talons, orange, pointy beak, and dark green eyes. Those features still belonged to an ordinary seabird, but Angor knew something was strange because the bird was wearing something.
It had a tall, white hat on its head and a small bib in blue and white stripes around its neck. There was a pattern on the bib which was shining under the sunlight. Also, Angor was most attracted by the little blue pouch hanging on one side of the bird. It made the bird look like a mail pigeon in fairytales.
The bird chirped while staring at Angor with its green eyes as if trying to talk to him.
Angor chuckled. When he remembered that he was alone with the bird, his childish curiosity took the best of him again, so he imitated a duck’s beak and “spoke” to the seabird.
“Tweet,” said the bird.
Angor smiled, “So your name is ‘Tweet’? Interesting. Who’s your master? He made you look so cool.”
The bird half-closed its eyes and made another tweet in disdain.
Angor reached out a slim finger and gave the bird a tap on its tiny head, “Come on, I said you look cool, and you’re feeling proud already?”
The bird looked away and prepared to leave. It then hesitated and in the end, it stayed and still chirped away as if it was asking for something.
Angor did not notice its intention. He still played around with the bird happily even though he saw a pattern on the seabird’s satchel which was the same as the one on its bib.
It looked like an emblem. The center was an extremely fat woman with violet, curly hair. She was so fat that the skin on her face hanged in several places. The woman had a pair of bright red lips, a tiny nose, coquettish eye makeup and a beauty mark on her jaw. She… could have been a pretty lady if not for all that extra flesh. As they said, fair skin could hide all blemishes while all beauties were easily ruined by being fat.
A knife and fork were beside the picture, crossed.
The emblem looked weird. What did it mean? A family emblem? Then Angor laughed at himself.
What kind of family would use this as their emblem?
But then what? Angor could not understand. He did not intend to figure it out either. The question was soon forgotten.
He knew that curiosity was the foremost virtue for every learner, but he would rather spend his curiosity on pursuing useful truth.
Angor noticed that the bird’s tiny satchel looked filled up. There must be a lot of stuff in there. He did not reach for it though. He would not allow himself to take something without asking for its owner’s permission, even if the owner was a seabird.
The bird was still chirping, while Angor could only respond to no avail. It looked frustrated too and began to pace around the windowsill restlessly.
“Hey, Tweet, what do you need from me? Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
When hearing “Tweet”, the bird tried rolling its eyes at Angor. However, upon hearing the rest of the question, it got an idea and nodded rapidly.
“You’re hungry? Clever. You know how to ask for food,” said Angor. He took out a pack of bread from his drawer and bit it apart while muttering, “Who’s your master? How did he train you? You can even answer people’s questions.”
Angor looked towards the outside. There was only the borderless ocean.
“There’s no island around… Maybe a power wielder from the upper level of The Redbud is your owner?”