Chapter 22
Given the relative ease with which Harold could satiate his ravenous hunger—there being few instances where obtaining a meal exercised more than his ability to choose—there was a lot of extra time to fill. And from the moment Harold arrived back in the woods near Ringsetter and did not promptly come in contact with Master, he knew that Master must have gone far away, likely for an extended period of time.
Thus, he needed some activity besides hunting to keep himself occupied. He recalled that Master had said he would one day have a new master and that his name was Ed. Harold became curious as to whether this Ed character possibly lived nearby. As Harold explored the area, he soon learned that there was only one house in this section of the woods. So, he began to wonder if perhaps Ed lived there. After all, it was near where Master had been hiding.
Whenever he wasn’t hunting, he kept a vigilant watch on the house, whether it was by lurking at the top of one of the many giant trees nearby, sailing through the air lazily in large circles thousands of feet above, or, on some occasions, swooping down stealthily to land on top of the house. While his telescope eyes allowed him to see all goings-on from far above, and his sensitive ears allowed him to understand words spoken outside the home from that height, hearing conversations inside the home from high above was not possible.
Thus, whenever he noticed the owners were inside the home he carefully glided on top of the house so lightly that not even a watch dog would have heard anything touch the roof. Harold quickly learned the dynamics of the household: a hardworking lumber man and a timid housewife. He would have been bored beyond all hope with this particular surveillance mission (Harold had to think of it as a “mission,” or he never would have started it in the first place), had it not been for the fact that, quite early on, he heard the name “Ed.”
This would have been sufficient to convince him that voluminous man hours—or, in this case, bird hours, but Harold was familiar with the concept of man hours and had the bad habit of applying it to himself—were necessary to see what he could learn about this family, but there was no longer any question in the matter after he heard Janie and Richie (he learned their names relatively quickly) talk about how Ed’s studies were going with the venerable professor who had taken him away for a top-notch private education. Apparently, they received an occasional letter from Ed.
Harold recognized immediately that Ed had been taken away to be groomed as a wizard, and, if he had what it took, he was going to one day be Harold’s master, but only when Master gave the go-ahead. However, Harold was open to bending the instructions . . . a little. It was a habit he noticed he had been acquiring little by little since his body was transformed. He figured that if Ed was to one day be his master, and Richie was Ed’s father, then technically Richie could be considered Harold’s interim master until Master came back.
After all, Harold had carried out his last mission dutifully, brought back proof thereof, and was awaiting further instructions in the area he and Master had last met. Surely, Master wouldn’t have given him this enhanced body to just laze about munching on wolves all day. No, he felt it was implied he keep very busy in this new body and put it to good use. Furthermore, if Ed were to one day be his master, he wouldn’t exactly be pleased if some harm were to befall his father.
That settled it for Harold. He had better make sure no harm befell Richie. However, as far as carrying out missions for him, that was another matter. He would have to get to know this Richie and see if he was worthy of being an interim master.
At first, he found Richie a terribly boring surveillance target. He felt his own body grow weary just watching the backbreaking work the poor man did from early morning until mid-evening. If not for his years of experience surveilling humans, he might have thought the poor fellow was serving some form of court-ordered punishment for a heinous crime, but he realized that ironically humans did this sort of work often and voluntarily!
He learned from many a night perched on top of the house that this fellow once had a bad habit of putting large quantities of alcohol into his body and then slapping his wife around. He felt grateful that was a matter of the past, as his new hobby of singling out bullies in the animal kingdom for dinner might have caused his instincts to react in a way not entirely beneficial to Richie. Harold felt an immense sense of relief this instinct wouldn’t be put to the test against his knowledge that he must protect the father of his future master.
Harold also felt quite happy for the poor fellow when he learned that he had decided to quit his daily torture in the lumberyard, although he questioned the intelligence of a man who had waited until his early thirties to do so.
Richie’s new occupation was a bit of a mystery to Harold. Soaring thousands of feet above was a must in any heavily populated area, as he didn’t think it wise for the sighting of a bird of his size to become local gossip. He knew how gossipy humans were; they were almost as bad as the flying mice—of which he had once admittedly been a member, but that seemed so long ago that he almost convinced himself occasionally it was all a dream.
Gossip about a large bird could attract hunters. And that would force Harold to have to flee the area, which would spell the end of his surveillance of Richie and, more importantly, his protection of him. Thus, he rarely descended below two thousand feet when surveilling Richie’s activities in the town of Ringsetter. He saw Richie go into the store, but that was about it.
Had he swooped down and planted himself on top of the store he might have learned a great deal more about Richie’s activities, but alas, whereas Richie’s house had no witnesses around, the act of landing on top of Richie’s new place of employment would have been a spectacle that stole everyone’s attention. Thus, it was only by the occasional hint of Richie’s work in discussions at home with Janie that Harold was able to learn the rudimentary aspects of Richie’s job, which sounded rather dull to Harold.
Harold was beginning to feel rather sorry for himself. He used to be responsible for the discovery of the knighting of a man of common birth as foretold by a prophecy that would be the signal for Master’s country to reassert her greatness, and now he was babysitting a store clerk.
Thus, it was with immense interest that Harold saw Richie leaving work early one day driving a wagon—something Harold had never seen before—which Richie then took into the woods near his home and then frantically began burying the contents, with the exception of one barrel, which he left uncovered long enough to use its contents to plant the beginning of a rudimentary garden.
Harold’s sense of smell rivalled perhaps even that of sight and hearing (no small feat), and he thought the seeds Richie was planting smelled awfully similar to a green powder he had seen Richie use on one occasion and that he had seen many people around town using. He realized Richie was involved in some kind of chicanery when he saw him then put a few empty barrels into the wagon and then drive off.
Harold was quite excited by the journey. He had never heard of, much less seen, the city of Sivingdel before. He had detected some hostility when Richie passed by a group of rather violent-looking young men in a disgusting cesspool on the edges of Sivingdel, and for a moment he thought he was going to have to perform Cyclone, grab these young toughs, and fling them several hundred feet into the air. Admittedly, he was a bit disappointed when it proved unnecessary.
Harold knew immediately what Richie was up to (there had been little doubt from the time he planted the garden) when he took off towards Sivingdel on horseback carrying a round sphere of this green substance that drove humans crazy. He expected the possibility of violence was imminent, as Harold had already heard the humans around Ringsetter whining and moaning about how much it cost now to get this substance.
He had thought for sure he was going to have to help Richie when the gang of bullies tried to rob him, and it was to his immense astonishment that he saw that Richie was no ordinary man. The ferocity and skill with which he had battered t
hese hooligans into submission, killing one with a single punch, thoroughly impressed Harold, who had seen his share of human fights before.
He felt euphoric upon realizing this wasn’t all some big mistake and that Ed must be a very special kid because he certainly had a special dad. His confidence in Master was restored immediately, as he had been starting to wonder if Master’s desperate circumstances had caused him to pick a successor that was slightly below the mark.
Harold knew that soon it would be time to introduce himself to Richie because he could only provide the best possible protection to him if they knew and trusted one another. Richie would need to let Harold know his plans ahead of time; that way Harold could be sure to be present when his presence was most needed. Also, though he had never had an interest in business, he suspected Richie’s new line of work might make him appreciative of enhanced transportation.