Jin stared at the notice board, hypnotising the smug-looking man who was winking at him from one of the posters. There was something incredibly sympathetic about him. The young farmboy couldn't tell whether it was the facial hair, cut perfectly into a wide, thin moustache and a stylish goatee, or the charismatic smile with which he had been drawn on the paper. Possibly the most alluring part of the entire poster, however, was the text beneath the handsome portrait.

"I, the grand archwizard Manuel Luzardi, am looking for brave and courageous souls to help me out with my next project. Would you wish to stand beside me? Then you know where I live." The text ended with a small caricature of the wizard's face, displaying him winking at any potential reader. Judging by how the text got progressively smaller and smaller, it was probably originally supposed to say more, but the author ran out of space.

Jin looked around. The entire village square was completely devoid of people. It wasn't surprising. Almost everyone was out working. Yet there surely must've been someone he could ask about the poster. Then suddenly, the smell of freshly baked bread hit Jin in the nose. Of course! There was still the baker.

The middle-aged man had the outside appearance of a gorilla, sporting a pair of muscular arms that served as remnants from his past jobs, which demanded a lot more physical prowess than baking. He pulled a pair of small pies from the oven and carefully laid them on the counter. Their wonderful smell quickly mixed with the sweet odour occupying the rest of the establishment.

"Sup!" Jin called to him, making him jump away from his brand-new culinary works of art.

"What the–? Jin!" he yelled out when he suddenly spotted the boy's head, peeking at him through an open window. This wouldn't have been so surprising if perhaps his bakery wasn't sitting on top of a small but steep hill, a couple of metres above the ground. "How did you–"

"I climbed," the boy replied and pulled himself up onto the windowsill, where he sat down and leaned against the window frame. His eyes darted over the kitchen. The place was always the same. The small room sat in the very back of the house, with a window connecting it to the front. The main area was filled with four tables, from which one could observe the countless available pastries offered by the bakery. Each product had its place on the shelves, separated from outside disturbances by glass panels. The back room was then the exact opposite of the guest area. Here, utensils, trays, and containers of all shapes and sizes were covering any flat surface that wasn't the floor. Along with that, if one would look even closer, they wouldn't have a problem spotting fruit stains, layers of stray flour, or tiny chunks of various ingredients that managed to escape during the cutting process.

"Shouldn't you be working?" the baker asked and grabbed a large knife after a brief search around the room.

"Nah, we've got a break." Jin watched as the man cut his pies into several perfect slices. His mouth watered when his eyes landed upon the cherry and apple fillings.

"Don't pull my leg! You're the only cloud farmer I've seen so far. Be honest with me, did you sneak out again?" He moved the pies onto large plates and covered them with a glass lid to keep the insects away.

"Well... maybe. Just for a moment."

He sighed. "I will never understand you. You're young. Sixteen is an age when you're supposed to be building your future. Getting an apprenticeship, learning the ropes, figuring out your place in the world."

"Yeah, and I'd rather figure that out on a peaceful meadow, bathing in the sun, rather than working my butt off hauling clouds while drenched by the disgusting cloud water." He squinted his eyes at the pies that were now sitting in the display case in the front of the store. "You know, maybe, just maybe, a slice of pie would give me more strength for my job."

"Nice try. If you've come to beg for free food, you're in the wrong establishment."

"Mmm, Pecca, you're always so uptight! But don't worry, I'm not here to steal your pies."

"Then why are you here? I will not hide you from anyone who might come looking for you."

"By the time they come, I'll be gone again, no worries. No, I wanted to ask about this." He reached into his pocket to pull out the folded-up poster but found nothing. "What? Where did it go?" He leaned out of the window, looking down to see if it had perhaps fallen out of his pocket while he was climbing. His left hand held onto the cloud pot lid, which sat on top of his head like a helmet, its long rim providing better shade than a straw hat.

"Looking for something?" Pecca asked.

"Yeah, the poster. The..." Jin frowned as he looked at the noticeboard. The piece of paper was back there, once again attached to it as if it hadn't moved at all. The wizard's face painted on it suddenly seemed to be mocking him more than anything else.

"The wizard's poster?"

"Yeah! But... I took it with me!"

"Nope. It can't be removed. I tried but the dude must've laced it with some enchantment. It always comes back."

"Never mind, I don't need it. I wanted to ask if you know anything about it?"

"Like what?"

"Well, he's looking for an apprentice, no? Wouldn't that be awesome? To study under Manuel Luzardo, the Bane of demons, the Everlight, the–"

"The Showoff?"

"Come on! He's been taking good care of the village! He's a hero!"

"He's a showoff. I admit that he helps out, but every time he does, it feels like I'm watching a theatre performance rather than a man doing his job."

"Right? And isn't that amazing? He can work and look cool! Wizards are badass!"

"You want to take him up on the offer?"

"Absolutely! You think it's still available?"

"Considering that nobody here is mad enough to accept it, then yes, I think so. But I don't recommend it to you either."

"Why?"

"The dude is weird. Few things he does make sense. Last time, here ordered a cherry pie only to turn the filling into apples. I asked him why he didn't just buy the apple one since it's cheaper too, and he just gave me that smug look and after a while said 'Wanted to help you keep the establishment afloat.'"

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"That's nice of him though!"

"He came to visit once in three months and bought a single slice of pie. I tell you he's full of–"

"Well, I still want to try it out. Imagine how much easier everything would be with magic!"

The baker sighed. "Fine. Do you want my blessing? Because you're not getting one."

"Nah, I just wanted to know if the offer was still available since you're often more informed."

"Yeah, it should be. Nobody else seemed interested."

"Cool! Then that's all I needed. See ya!" In one smooth movement, he reached to the side and grabbed a small piece of jelly-filled pastry. Pecca only managed to shout "Hey! Cloudhopper!" after him, before the boy disappeared out of the window once again.

"Mmmm! A Strawberry one," Jin thought as he licked his fingers clean of any leftover jam. What stickiness his lips couldn't remove, he then wiped into his long and tattered coat, or into the similarly worn-out brown shorts.

With hands in his pockets and hum in his voice, he set off towards the eastern side of the village. While the centre looked a bit like a town, with the buildings being somewhat grouped up together, the further he went, the more and more the houses began to look as if they suffered from social phobia, trying to stay as far away from their kin as possible. The roads led him over the few small hills, until eventually, he could see the cliff edge from atop the tallest of them. There, he briefly stopped. A familiar sting wormed its way into his nostrils. The cloud sea beneath the steep bluffs carried along an exotic stench, which for Jin felt like a torture of his nasal cavities, despite having been brought up in a small house right next to the cloud farms, where the smell was often the worst. He came to the conclusion that sixteen years was not enough neither for him to get used to it nor for his sense of smell to get so damaged he would no longer mind.

From atop the hill, the boy looked at how the farmers working at the edge of the bluff were throwing their hooks over the nearest clouds, pulling them closer, squeezing them of their liquids, and cutting them into smaller bits, which were then placed into large metal containers for further processing. Whenever Jin saw one of the farmers struggling to find a lid of the container, he smiled, wondering if the reason for it was perhaps the lid sitting on his head, which he had stolen a while back.

As fascinating as it was to watch the tiny figures of faraway farmers run around and get drenched by the cloud liquids, Jin's goal lay elsewhere. Towards the southeast edge of the village stood a small villa, floating on a cloud that reached all the way to the ground, allowing any potential visitors to use it to cross over and approach the building.

Once the young farmer absorbed all the view he desired, he set off once more. The grin on his relaxed face widened even more as he walked through the field of growing Whispa grains. The plants grew to the height of his elbows, meaning that they were more than easy enough to pick as he walked by. It didn't take long before the boy was stuffing his pockets full of them, while the leaves that grew closer to the ground kept on ticking his shins.

At the edge of the field, he reached into his filled pocket, pulled out one of the largest Whispas and stuck the stem in his mouth. The plants were known for producing nectar whose sweetness mildly reminded some of honey but with a taste similar to a mix of woodland berries. If there would ever be a competition on who could suck all the nectar out of a Whispa stem the fastest, Jin would be a solid candidate for a world champion. Just before reaching the villa, he managed to drink his way through four of them. Their dried-out remains were then left wherever he pleased as a little trail marking where he went.

Jin groaned as he set foot onto the steep cloud passageway leading towards the villa. The ground got squished under each step as if he was trying to walk on a trampoline but without any of the fun jumping benefits. He was almost about to just turn around and head back to the village when the large building finally presented itself at the top of the cloud "stairs". Unlike the houses in the village, which were all just wooden boxes with windows, steep tiled roofs, and various coats of paint, this place looked like it was made for nobility. Every window was surrounded by a stone frame cut out in a way that made it look like fluffy clouds. A similar theme could then be seen on the bottom and the top of each of the pillars, as well as the roof, which looked like one gigantic marble cloud, sitting on the very top of the two-floor villa. However, what the place had in architectural value, it seemed to lack in colours. Boring shades of white and very light blue were all one could see anywhere they'd look. Compared to the rest of the village, which shone in all possible colours of the rainbow, this place looked rather mundane and dull.

"Hello," a soft and faint voice reached Jin's ears only a second before the water did. Before the boy could say a single word in response, a small geyser of water erupted from the cloud beneath him. The stream lifted up his shirt and coat, making sure to truly soak him completely, before the water fell back down, flooding the insides of his boots.

Jin spat out the Whispa root and turned around. His eyes alone looked like they could murder.

"Hehe, you look like a wet chicken," the boy behind him said, smiling from ear to ear. Jin's expression, on the other hand, could be only compared to a cat who just received a much-undesired bath. Which, in his case, was quite a fitting comparison.

"You should not be allowed to manipulate clouds like this. You're such a prick, Airo," Jin muttered and began squeezing the water out of his clothes.

The young Cloudfolk approached him. His steps didn't seem to carry the same amount of weight as in Jin's case, because the clouds beneath him didn't have the bouncy effect. His light-blue skin looked almost the same as the paint on the house. In fact, his entire appearance carried the same colour scheme. Nails were as white as the pillars, and the hair carried only a bit more saturated shade of blue, which was similar to some of the curtains that could be seen hanging inside the villa. To top off his unusual appearance, the boy had an almost indescribable haircut. His hair always flew into all sorts of curls, only to then unravel and begin twisting once again as if they formed a cloud floating in the sky.

"Sorry. But you needed the bath," Airo said, his smile not leaving. "Good to see you. What brings you here?"

A mischievous smirk stretched Jin's lips wide and an idea emerged in his mind. "Oh, you know, just wanted to give my friend a hug!" he said and tossed himself onto the Cloudfolk.

"No! You're all wet!" The previously quiet tone of Airo's voice suddenly picked up a few decibels.

"I know! And it's your fault! Suffer!" the boy exclaimed victoriously. Didn't take long and their apparel was almost identical. The shirts, coats, and shorts all turned a few shades darker with the addition of water. Only Airo's sandals were an advantage, as those could not contain any liquids. If it wasn't for the shades of green, in which the Cloudfolk's clothes differed from Jin's, they would truly look strikingly similar.

"So, anything else you came here for?" Airo asked a few minutes later when they lay stretched out on the cloud's soft surface, letting the warm summer heat dry them off.

"Oh yeah, I did! You seen that poster with the wizard?"

"Can't say I have."

"He's looking for apprentices."

"Who?"

"Manuel Luzardo!"

"The archwizard?"

"No, the cloud herder. Of course the archwizard! How many Luzardos do you know?"

"Hmm..."

"That was a rhetorical question!"

"Hehe, I know, I know. So, what, you want to become his apprentice?"

"Yeah! And I want you to join me!"

"I'll pass."

"What? Why?!"

"I have duties here."

"Attracting clouds so they can be harvested?"

"Exactly. It's something only us Cloudfolk can do and I'm the only child of my family. It's my duty."

"Come on, don't you want to do something more fun than play that flute and make clouds float every day?"

"Not every job can be fun."

"That sounds stupid."

"It's the truth."

"Fine, but even then, what if it could be easier?"

"It's already pretty easy."

"But like, imagine how better it would be with magic. You could pull in more clouds from farther away. Maybe even decide which types to attract. Any idea how much that would change the local economy? You could really uplift the status of this village. Wouldn't that bring pride to the family legacy?"

"Hmm... You do have an excellent point."

"I know I do." Jin turned to the side and grabbed his coat, which had been lying next to him. As he sat up and slipped back into it, he purposefully let one of the still-wet sleeves slap Airo across his face.

"Hey!"

"Come on, get up," Jin said, completely overlooking the wet slap.

"Where are you going?"

"Where are we going, you mean? Well, to increase our numbers, of course."