Sooty truth (Completed)

[Gabjas]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,400,true]

[bg=6ba900] Prue's eyes widened in confusion, "You - you too?" She groaned, "No." she shook her head in disbelief. "Why? Why did you try to join them?"

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][/td][/tr][/table]

[otulissa]

Tears filled Lyra's eyes. "I thought they had the right idea. i didn't realise they were killers."

[Gabjas]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,400,true]

[bg=6ba900] "Yes, Lyra, they are killers. I was a killer. We slaughtered innocent families and taught their children to hate who they once were. That is what the Pure Ones stand for. Okay?" Prue felt herself welling up with frustration, but she saw that her harsh words would not fix anything. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "You didn't know." "Thank Glaux that you were rejected, that fluke saved your life; once you join, you never really leave. They are always there." Prue said in a choked whisper. "And I still have nightmares where I am an owlet again, peering with wide eyes at the remains of my parents. Lying on the ground."

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][/td][/tr][/table]

[otulissa]

"That's horrible. How could they do that to you?"

[Gabjas]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,400,true]

[bg=6ba900] "No, Lyra." Prue muttered. "I did this to myself." Prue looked to her young cousin with a solemn stare. "I-I had a brother." Prue began. What am I doing? Prue thought. This is is the first owl you have ever breathed a word about this to, not even Cleef nor Sompom. Because, until now, it would have been too painful a memory to recall even to his good friends. But not anymore. I won't hide anymore. "He was only an egg when my parents were killed." Prue sighed. "So, when I was preparing to leave with the Pure Ones, they asked me if I had any siblings that they could recruit along side me." "I couldn't give him over to them like that, I wanted him to have a future much brighter than mine. So I hid the egg, and sent a message to a family friend about our predicament, a plea for her to care for him." Tears formed in her throat, creating a hot mass of sorrow that couldn't be swallowed back but was to painful to expose to the world. She didn't want to cry in front of Lyra, as frivolous as it seemed. She wanted to be strong for someone, as if it would make up for that night when she was too afraid to overcome the gaze of the Pure Ones. She shook her head, and with a wavering voice, continued. "And we left. And for moons, all I could hope for was that my brother had been found and raised." (OOC: See the History section of Prue's bio for more details pertaining to her Pure One past) "As I grew up, I was trained and passed through the various ceremonies and trials that marked the growth of a Pure One. So, instead of eating my first meat with bones; I was already hunting... other owls." Prue dropped her gaze to the ground, ashamed of herself. "Then came my final trial." Prue breathed. "The Pure Ones initiation." "They knew. They knew all along that I had hid my brother from them. I haven't he slightest idea how, but they had found him." Prue murmured. "So they spared him that night," she was now sobbing, the tears had scraped at her eyes for longer than she could stand. "Spared him so he could die beneath my blade."

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][/td][/tr][/table]

[otulissa]

Lyra recoiled. "No! You...you didn't do it...did you?" a single tear dripped down her face

[Gabjas]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,400,true]

[bg=6ba900] Prue shook her head solemnly. "No," Prue could feel the tears pounding once more in her throat. "We flew to Ambala, where I was born. The hollow rested, crooked and gnarled from years of service to her once-thriving family. Now abandoned. Or so I had thought." Prue winced as she recalled the events that followed. Too painful. Too late. "I struck down on him, held him with ease beneath my talons. As he shrieked and struggled beneath my grasp, I simply churred. Churred. How could I have done this to him?" Prue cradled her head on a single wing, all she could peer at was the ground. "He had such innocent eyes." she said softly as she stared at a pebble that rested on the ground as if it were of great importance. "Such innocent little eyes." she whispered as she cast her gaze upon Lyra, who stood with tears streaming down her face. Like you. Prue thought. Like you. Prue frowned, and resumed her tale once more. "Kill him, Nyra had said. Finish what we started. I-I couldn't." Prue sobbed. "I just couldn't." Prue shook her head. "So Nyra did it for me." "Killed him. She had finished what she had started all those moons ago when she killed my parents, my nest-maid snake, everyone I ever loved." Prue stood to her feet. "And that is why I left." Prue sated. "Why I left the Pure Ones." Prue shuffled towards a corner, eager to escape the painful memories that whirled in her thoughts, shutting her eyes. "Mind if I sleep here?"

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][/td][/tr][/table]

[otulissa]

Lyra tearfully nodded and pulled some moss out of a crack at the back of the cave. Creating a nest, she also said "If you prefer a perch, there's one there," gestureing to a thin spire of rock.

[Gabjas]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,400,true]

[bg=6ba900] Prue thanked Lyra and rested, trying to clear her mind of the thoughts and memories that fought with her in the back of her mind. "Good light, Lyra." Prue murmured with a yawn as she felt her eyelids droop and her wings fall limp with exhaustion. There may have been a response, but Prue was now oblivious to the world around her as she fell asleep. And from the depths of nothing that settled in her mind like the calm waves of a sea, arose a tempest, a dream. A dream of Lyra and Kuneer. A dream of the Pure Ones. A dream of her mother and father. A dream of her brother. * * * Prue rubbed at her eye with a wing as she wobbled to her feet, the light of the sun cascaded over the small burrow; it was still well before the night. Lyra remained asleep, so Prue quietly slipped from the hollowed cavern of mud and sand and spread her wings for a brief flight, perhaps to catch a succulent morsel for her breaklight. With a plump vole in her stomach and a generally satisfied feeling resting over her, Prue returned and shook Lyra ever so gently to wake her. "Lyra." she whispered. "Lyra, c'mon. We need to get an early start if you want to get to the Great Tree without a mob of crows nipping at your tail feathers."

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][/td][/tr][/table]

[otulissa]

Lyra stood up, pecked a beetle from one of her primaries and gathered a few coals and the best of her work into a bag. She lifted a Sai and strpped it to her breast, easily to be pulled out. "D'ya want something in case of ambush?"

[Gabjas]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,400,true]

[bg=6ba900] Prue grinned as the young Barn owl went about packing her most valued items. "I should be fine." she said, flexing her battle-clawed talons. "Are you ready then?" Prue emerged from the den and spread her wings, a feeling of relief washed over her as she took to the sky. She hovered over her cousin, allowing her time to catch up.

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][/td][/tr][/table]

[otulissa]

With a hoot of delight, Lyra soared. "I haven't flown this high in ages!

[Gabjas]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,400,true]

[bg=6ba900] Prue watched as Lyra spread her wings and arose with a joyous cry. "Well brace yourself, kid." Prue churred and beat her wings against the humid air. She glanced upwards at the stars that were beginning to scatter the skies and began to recall what she had learned from her brief lessons in Navigation. Her obsidian eyes poured over the night that spread out before her like a vast map. Just above her lay the constellation of the Golden Talons. With a few moments of deep concentration and a few murmurings beneath her breath, Prue concluded that they were heading north-east as according to plan. * * * The two had been flying for some time and the moon now hung in the sky like a sliver piercing the darkness. A clatter arose from beneath the two owls; startled, Prue glanced towards the source of the commotion. At first, Prue could see nothing but the desolate landscape of sand, occasionally dappled with a cactus or a sparse patch of vegetation. There. Beneath her was a burrow, the entrance illuminated by torchlight. The wind carried the sound of faint screams to her ear slits and the stench of smoke to her nostrils. Prue narrowed her eyes and turned to Lyra. "Stay here." she breathed and dove down to the den. As the Barn owl peered in, she was met immediately by a sight that confirmed her assumptions. Bandits, the kraals of Kuneer, three of the burly owls stood around a terrified young Burrowing owlet. Prue had no choice. Without hesitation, she flung herself at one of the owls. In the distraction the owlet manged to flee the grasp of one of his oppressors. "Get the Barn owl outside and tell her to come!" she instructed him as the other two owls lunged at her with smoldering branches and rusted battleclaws. The owlet nodded hurriedly and vanished from sight.

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][/td][/tr][/table]

[otulissa]

Lyra turned as Prue vanished. A few moments later a young owlet started shrieking "Barn owl with the scary weapon! Help!"
Lyra looked at her Sai. That's scary? she thought. Unstrapping it, she swooped down and plunged it into the back of a bandit's head. She pulled it loose and looked at it. Ooh, blood, she thought. She turned the sai to catch the light. The now scarlet blade shone. Hmph. I'm starting to get what makes the Pure Ones hooked. She spun and flung herself at another bandit.

[Gabjas]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,400,true]

[bg=6ba900] The three robust owls had surrounded Prue and she was beginning to have doubts that she would make it out alive on her own. One of the owls, a Great Gray with piercing yellow eyes, had raised his battleclaws and was about to make a slash across her chest when he suddenly collapsed in a lifeless heap before her; his life escaping his beak with a startled exhale as the sai of her cousin was plunged through him and withdrawn. Nodding a silent thanks to Lyra, Prue sprung to her talons and brought her blade to the throat of one of the attackers, a Spotted owl. As Prue turned, she was greeted only by the smiling face of the Barn owl that had fought beside her. She had managed to kill the remaining owl with her sai and now stood with gleaming eyes as she tried to catch her breath. Something about her cousin shook her gizzard. She didn't enjoy killing them... did she? Prue shook these thoughts from her mind and turned to look for the owlet they had rescued. He was no where to be seen within the burrow. Hmm. Prue stepped towards the opening and peered out, scanning over the desert. With a sigh of relief, Prue could see the joyous young Burrowing owl wrap his wings around his mother whom had tears of joy welling in her eyes. The mother caught Prue's gaze and smiled. "Oh thank you! I was out hunting for only an hour and then to come back to this. My son told me everything." she said as tears streamed from her eyes. "Thank Glaux you two were there. You are welcome to stay for a meal." the Burrowing owl offered. Prue smiled and turned to Lyra. "No thank you, we have a long journey ahead of us, we will need all the time we can get."

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][/td][/tr][/table]