A talented young wizard, a missing grandfather, and so many kittens!

Welcome to the world of the Wizard Aquarius, a land of badly behaved kittens, coconut forests that roam, and a moon that can come down from the sky for teatime and refuse to return home again. This is the realm of Aquarius Featherwing, an inquisitive young wizard who always manages to push the limits of his magic a bit too far.

In these eight interlinking stories, magic is intrinsically tied to nature, friendships are told through a compassionate culture of animals and humans, and the reader is gently teased and advised throughout into becoming a resilient, and emotionally resourceful adventurer.

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Excerpt from The Adventures of the Wizard Aquarius © Copyright 2024 Megan Carol Haas

Chapter 8: The Ocean of Tears

On the morning of the Wizard Aquarius’ seventeenth birthday, his family held a party for him. It was a small gathering, just Mona, Raul, and Grammy, and the kittens sprawled around in various stages of sleeping, cuddling, or wanting to be scratched. Everyone was still in their pajamas except Grammy, of course, who lived down the road and had gotten dressed for the occasion in a robe of green velvet, embroidered with sparkling silver stars. Mona had baked a frosted ginger and lemon cake studded with walnuts and sugared raspberries and brewed a big pot of cinnamon tea.

It might shock you to learn that wizards don’t get birthday presents. Instead, they come up with their own present: they get to choose their own special path on their birthday; a new direction for their magic. The nature of the path is up to the wizard, but it should be just right for their age, and should stretch, without breaking, their magical abilities.

There was always a big build-up before one of these announcements. Raul and Mona had been wondering all year which path their son might choose, often right in front of Aquarius, and often during the dinner hour. Would he continue studying bird magic in his tower room, learning the secret lore of all his favorite creatures? Or would he journey far from home to study exotic nests and habits? Maybe he would start writing a new book of bird magic for other young wizards to study? Or would it be something else, a path his parents had never even considered?

And so, after the delicious cake had been mostly eaten, and the tea drunk, everyone looked at Aquarius expectantly. Feeling nervous but determined, (he had practiced this speech several times in front of the mirror), Aquarius cleared his throat, looked around at his family, and gravely announced, “I shall travel alone to the Unknown Territories. I’m going to search for Grampa Featherwing and bring him home from the Ocean of Tears.”

Remember that Grammy Featherwing lives on her own, down the road in her castle. That was not always the case. There used to be a Grampa Featherwing who lived there with her. One of the biggest mysteries in Aquarius’ family was that no one had any idea where Grampa was. Everyone knew where he was headed when he left home so long ago, but not if he’d reached his destination, or why he had never come back.

The story started long before Aquarius was born. It began on Basil Featherwing’s seventy-sixth birthday. He was strong and hearty, with a full head of white hair and a long beard that any wizard would be proud to see in the mirror. Not for him the life of a retiree, dozing by the fire and playing with the kittens. No, Basil Featherwing spent hours in his workshop, making contraptions of wood and metal that spun round about, and paging through the vast collection of spell books he had collected during his fascinating and active life.

That day, over a mostly eaten lemon-custard tart with gooseberries and a bottle of exquisite white wine, Basil made his announcement. He looked at Raul, Mona, and Grammy, and with a dramatic pause and a wave of his fingers, a tiny, silver ocean appeared in the air before them. “My path,” Basil said, making the ocean disappear with another gesture, “is to travel to the Unknown Territories, and seek out the Ocean of Tears.” Raul and Mona looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and then over at Grammy. Grammy looked at Basil, slapped the table, and said wisely, “Well, darling, depth requires digging! Have fun!”

Grammy was usually right about these kinds of things. Basil packed a bag and said goodbye–and twenty-five years later, he had still not returned. Nobody had seen him for all that time! Naturally, Grammy missed her husband, but she felt confident that he was still alive, and quite enjoyed having the castle to herself. Basil’s absence was more upsetting for Mona and Raul, who didn’t have any children yet. All they had was Grammy. (Raul’s family, as mentioned, lived in another region entirely, and it wasn’t easy to get there.)

When Aquarius was born several years later, Mona and Raul did what any normal wizard parents would do: they put a portrait of Grampa Basil in Aquarius’ tower workshop, on a little shelf by his bed. When Aquarius wanted to talk to his grandfather, the portrait would talk back to him, and could answer most questions, except the ones about where he had disappeared to. As Aquarius grew older, he discovered that it wasn’t really Grampa who was talking—it was a little spell cast by one of his parents. Wherever they were in the castle, the spell let them hear when Aquarius was talking to the portrait of Basil, and it allowed them to send their voices through the picture to Aquarius, answering his questions, just as his grandfather would have, and making him feel that the old wizard was watching over him from far away.

Unfortunately, this trick bothered the young wizard, because he believed it was a kind of cheating, and though Aquarius was mostly intelligent enough to know that his parents meant well, he couldn’t help feeling angry at them. Soon he began to plot a small revenge. He began to ask Grampa Featherwing slightly rude questions that he knew his parents would not enjoy answering, and he also hatched a five-year plan to solve the mystery of Grampa’s disappearance.

The young wizard decided he would inform his parents of this plan by announcing it as his seventeenth birthday path. It was a dangerous one to take, and Aquarius knew it. He was absolutely sure that his parents would be very upset with him, and this thrilled him.

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