Feathers of the Hawk Chapter 23

"Talents?" Eyolf asked.
"Yes," Kahu answered. "Talents. It is a certain gift that not all shapeshifters have. The ones that do have a Talent are the only ones that know about them. I tell you this, because you have a Talent for the weather. You can predict what kind of weather it will be. I have the Talent of Disguise, but I don't know Are's. He, and all other eagle shapeshifters from now and the past have a Talent. My father could predict if you were a shapeshifter and what kind you'd be. We don't know how it works, why some shapeshifters do have a talent and others don't. All we know is that not everyone has one, and that it is a gift. It is not something that runs in a family, unless this family is the Eagle family, because one who shifts into an eagle has a Talent. You can't share this secret with anyone, and most shapeshifters don't share their Talent with someone else. When you find someone who has a Talent, you must bring him or her to the leader or the second in command of the Academy. That is the only reason I can tell you this – Are didn't know that he had a son and he trained me to take his place after he had died. No one else knows about Talents, because once, a long time ago, the leader of the Academy placed a spell upon this information. He was Talented with Magic, the rarest of all Talents. I don't know anyone with that Talent, and I've heard about two or three persons with that Talent, out of the two or three hundred Talented that I've heard about. This spell made it impossible for anyone to tell this information, unless he or she is the leader or second in command of the Academy. It also forces you to bring a Talented shapeshifter to Are or me whenever you meet one. I don't know why, or how. All I know is what I told you. Any questions?"
Eyolf was silent for a while. Then he spoke. "If they are so rare, why do you know two or three hundred people with a Talent?"
Kahu made a sound like laughter, though a hawk's beak wasn't fit for that. "I said that I had heard about those individuals, not that I know them personally. Anything else?"
"Only one more question. Does this mean that your hair color and length were not an illusion but real?"
"Yes, it does. That was all?"
"Yes, it was."
"Good. Let's go back – I want to get some sleep before we go on." Again, two hawks took off. And again, silence returned to the forest, a silence only broken by the sounds of werecats and –wolves, changing under the full moon.