A Single Secret (Open!)

[cloudy]

Narasky woke quickly and just as quickly gestured for her to follow him out of the now empty hollow. Where was Feliah, her Guardian, or Prue, the owl with the stained wings. Wait...stained wings...A flash of memory from her dream caused her to surge backwards at seeing a pure white owl swoop at her, but alas it was just a daydream. Hoping the Great Horned Owl hadn't seen her cower, Esther shot a last look at the carved hollow before taking wing, her strokes deep and strong so that she rose high over the trees. A loud hiss escaped her beak as the sunlight momentarily blinded her and threw off her flight.

It wasn't long before she caught up with the rest of the group, eyes falling instantly upon Feliah and giving her relief. The sight of blood on Cleef's wings was less relieving. Narasky shared Esther's concern, Feliah seemed shocked, Prue seemed calm and composed. What was wrong with Cleef, flying with a injured wing? She heard Feliah ask the very same question she wanted to. "Does it have anything to do with that letter?" Esther asked curiously urgent, then clamped her beak shut, surprised that the question actually came out of her mouth. Now they would know she had eavesdropped...

[Cleef]

Cleef's eyes continued to search the trees for any traces of black whatsoever. He remembered that he had forgotten something and quickly flipped the black crow feather out from under his plumage. Cleef returned his gaze to the trees as he began to explain himself, "Yes, Feliah, I knew your parents. I owe them a dept that I have not yet completed. That letter," the burrowing owl pointed a talon to the front of envelope that Feliah held," or what's left of it anyways, was given to me from your da to give to you once you got older.

"Unfortunately, I cannot remember anything that your da said, nor can I remember anything that happened after I was given the letter. It's all a haze. However, I knew that crow. He gave me one of his feathers so that I would have the ability to fly during the day. When you receive a feather from a crow, it symbolizes your friendship with the black birds, and gives you a right of passage.

"That crow is a very wise bird. I can feel in my gizzard that he may have something to do with all this."

Cleef's eyes continued to search frantically for the group of birds as he said this. He flew in paces, back and forth, round and about, up and down. His group of friends matching him with his every move.

[Gabjas]

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[bg=6ba900] Prue looked at Cleef and Feliah with evident surprise as they spoke with each other about a forgotten past. Though she knew this would most likely be important information later, their main priority was to locate this wise crow that Cleef spoke of, so Prue continued her vigil over the trees and searched for a sign of glossy black feathers. Nothing. She closed her eyes and concentrated, her earslits searching for the familiar raucous cawing. Her eyes flung open and she dove towards a patch of cedars that bordered a pond. "Follow me!" she instructed and spread her wings before impact to cushion her landing. As she had predicted, a murder of noisy black crows were perched on the branches, squawking at each other every few seconds. The Barn owl waited for the others to land beside her.

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[Felidae]

Feliah's eyes grew wide as Cleef briefly explained his sudden urge to chase crows. She let out a deep sigh, her eyes staring at the sky. This could be it. She could add another piece to the puzzle of her past after all these years.

Realising Esther had asked a question too, she replied, "Yes, It has everything to do with that letter!" She briefly wondered how the young owl knew about the envelope that she still clutched tightly in her talons, but the thought flew out of her mind when she heard a voice.

"Follow me!" drifted over from Prue's direction and Feliah watched as Prue swooped down. She swiftly followed and landed next to her, guessing that the other Barn owl had found a trace of the crows.

[xxxskyfalconxxx]

Naraky flew down and landed next to prue in the cedar. Naraky scanned around the the grove and examined the flock of crows. None of them seemed to notice the descending owls except one, the crow with the band around his leg looked towards the band; he knew they would come.

[Cleef]

"Follow me!" rang in Cleef's ear slits as the Barn Owl, Prue, dived into the trees and landed in a cedar. Cleef and the rest of the owl's followed.

It seemed that they had landed within some sort of crow community. Cleef felt a memory knock around inside his head, but he couldn't quite grab it. Why couldn't he remember this? Usually his memory was great. "Excellent," said the Burrowing Owl to himself as he looked over to Feliah, "the time when I need to remember something greatest and I can't." He looked around.

There were many crows, all deftly silent and staring at the owls. Unbeknownst to the owls, the canopy that they were under absorbed all sound that it covered, that is why the owl's hadn't heard the crows when they were directly above them.

Memory of this tingled at the edges of Cleef's brain, he looked up at the trees' canopy and "Hmmed".

A single crow flew forward and landed next to Cleef. He wore a wooden band with archaic symbols engraved into it around his right leg. "My friend," he said, "it is so good to see you again! I see that you have grown quite a bit in physique, I wonder if you have grown equally or even more in your knowledge."

The crow's voice, unusually deep and gruff compared to the regular squawking town of a crow, fueled the fire of memory inside Cleef's mind, he remembered a flash of something, along with more of this crow. "Buerwick!" exclaimed Cleef as he touched wings with the crow.

Relief flooded the crow's eyes, "I am glad to see that you remember me, I was beginning to wonder if you would."

"How could I forget you?"

The crow turned to Cleef's friends, "I apologize for our earlier meeting. We hadn't meant to scare you, nor be aggressive, but us crows can get carried away sometimes. We had only wanted to get your attention."

A few scattered sorryies came from several anonymous crows from the crowd.

"Why did you want our attention?" asked Cleef.

"Follow me," replied Buerwick, "Please, all of you, do follow me." And he flew off towards a hollow. Cleef followed with his friends behind him. Several crows moved away, either in respect to the wise crow, or in fear of the owls, Cleef couldn't be for sure.

[Gabjas]

(OOC: Haven't roleplayed Prue in a while, still getting the feel for her again. :3)

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[bg=6ba900] Prue regarded the peculiar exchange with a befuddled expression. "You two recognise eachother?" Prue whispered to Cleef as the group followed Buerwick and his flock of companions to the hollow. She studied the crow as he perched on the rim of the hollow, awaiting their arrival at his side; his feathers sleek and black as midnight, his beady eyes held something she had not seen before in the gaze of a crow, his voice was deep and distinguished from the shrill caws of the others, and on his right leg he wore an odd band. This certainly was no ordinary member of his kind. A crow eyed her hesitantly as she lighted down in the hollow, in fact, they all seemed to be rather uneasy around the owls save for Beurwick. "Hm." she grunted inwardly. What could come of this? The Tyto straightened herself up and gave a meek smile to one of the crows, whom cawed and scrambled away.

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[Felidae]

Feliah's eyes widened as the crow spoke with Cleef. She nodded as she heard Prue whisper to Cleef the question that was on the tip of her tongue. How did he know this crow? And was the same crow connected to her past, just like Cleef?

These questions continued to swirl around in her mind as she followed her companions into the hollow, the crows around her jumping and cawing at her nervously. Feliah sighed, she didn't look the most friendly owl with her Battle claws and armour on.

[xxxskyfalconxxx]

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[bg=000022] Naraky was wide eyed when he saw cleef start talking to the crow that he called Buerwick. The crow told them to follow and so Naraky flew down, following the rest of the group as they were led by Buerwick to a hollow. Many of the blacked birds seemed to be very cautious of the owls. Naraky landed on the rim and started to look around. It was a fairly large hollow that had many objects, which looked otherish, hanging from the ceiling. How come Cleef didn’t remember this bird at first, and why didn’t he tell us about him? Naraky thought to himself. Suddenly, another crow came rushing into the hollow panting, “Cousin Buerwick, the north-western Clan have accepted to ho…” he sudden stopped midsentence upon noticing the owls, Buerwick quickly griped a hold of his talons before he instinctively flew away. “Continue Ku’raa, these owls are just… old friends.” He was in a state of shock, and looked at naraky with fear. After a few seconds though, he continued “the north-western clan have accepted to hold the gathering within our grounds this year.” He looked up and down at the owls, still frightened, “Ku’raa, whats wrong? And where is Klamor, the other messenger I had sent with you?” Buerwick asked Ku’marr as he drooped his head, “A horned owl took him as we left early morning to reach the flock.” Buerwick sighed, “cousin, im sorry for his loss, but such is life. You may now return to your mate.” Naraky felt slightly embaressed and ashamed as one of his species had taken the crows life; it’s not that usual for any owl to eat a crow. Ku’raa flew from the hollow as they resumed following Buerwick. (OCC: I thought I’d introduce a little bit of crow culture in the post. ‘Cousin’ is a way a crow can address another.)

[Gabjas]

(littlewing, sorry. This thread isn't open to more characters. could you please delete the post?)