A Perfect Storm (Greathorned)

[Deleted]

Aerion flattened himself up against the wall and poked his head around the corner, making sure it was clear before he moved. He had bundled up six books from the library and dragged them along as he made his way through the halls and back outside. It wasn't easy, the books were heavy and quite a lot of noise when he dragged them along. Had the Guardians not been distracted by the Pure Ones outside, he certainly wouldn't have been able to make it this far with as many as he had. Of course, it also made the going slow; while he was certainly a strong owl, most books were just flat out heavy to begin with, much less trying to drag along six of them at the same time.

He had to admit, he also had wasted too much time in the library. The Guardians had a much larger collection than he had first imagined and had a tough time deciding just what was most important to grab at this time. Had he not been in such a rush, he certainly could waste hours upon hours of his life browsing the collection. Nonetheless, he forced himself to remain on task. Now it was just a matter of getting out without being spotted.

[Rylan]

The air was alive with electricity, swirling and sparking. The crackling left a citrus taste on her tongue, like fresh lime juice from the far South. Her wings whipped out behind her, and she drew them in close. She dived towards the eye of the storm, then threw her wings open. She embraced the wind, her feathers catching the chilly air. She was thrown back up, away from the storm, then she dove back in. She opened her beak, and in her exhilaration the brilliant sound of laughter erupted. Her eyes closed briefly, euphoria filling her mind. She never felt more alive than when she was riding a storm.

Suddenly from the distance, shrieks and cries erupted. Screams of terror, fury and battle filled the air, and Katara shot out of the storm. She hovered for a bit, her heart hammering in her chest. She wondered if the Guardians had attacked the Pure Ones's headquarters, then stopped. She surveyed the land below her, and her heart rate began to speed up. The storm had carried her from the Headquarters over to by the Sea of Hoolemere, completely different from where she had anticipated. The storm had veered way off course, as if fate had decided to move her to the Guardians.

"Perhaps fate decided that I would get in Dimitri's way for the attack," she muttered. Sighing, she began to fly towards the sounds of battle. Suddenly, the storm reared up behind her and sucked her back into it's grasp. She tucked her wings then spun to the outside. "Maybe I'm supposed to stay in the storm," she mused. Shrugging, she dove back into the storm. Unbeknownst to her, it began to slowly carry her towards the Island.

Towards her fate.

[Deleted]

Aerion let out a grunt as he swung the bundle of books and smacked a Burrowing Owl in the head with the heavy bundle, knocking the owl out. His lucky had finally run out and he had found himself beak-to-beak with one of the Guardians. Without even attempting to talk his way through, Aerion simply used his strength to deal with the owl. He didn't have time to try and worm his way out of such a predicament. He knew that if the longer the battle outside raged, the more suspicious the Guardians may become. If any of them realized it was all just a diversion, he Guardians would quickly flood back into the tree. At this point he actually regretted leaving those other two owls outside, this would have been much faster with their assistance.

After ten minutes, in which he had to dispatch another owl, he finally reach an exit point out towards where the two owls were supposed to be waiting. He let out a screech and dropped his bundle down to the ground below. At that moment he noticed, just off in the distance, a storm had moved into the area. That was both a blessing and a cruse. While this would surely deter the Guardians from trying to pursue them, at the same time it was going to make the retreat much more difficult. The Pure Ones had seemingly already taken this into account; while they still harassed the Guardians, you could tell they were slowly begin to retreat away from the Great Tree.

"The Pure Ones are beginning to retreat, we don't have a lot of time left. You be careful with those, this will be all for naught if you end up dropping them into the sea," Aerion ordered as he dropped down to the owls and began separating the books out. He gave them the smallest, he didn't want any to get lagged behind; if anyone would do so, it should be him as he would be more capable to fight while still having the burden of the books.

[Rylan]

The two mutes picked up the bags, shouldering the weight easily. They each had a book, nothing compared to the four Aerion bore over his muscular torso. However, they didn't complain, as they just wanted to get home and have their dinners and a nap. They waited for Aerion's signal to fly, then leapt into the horizon after him.

(Just trying to speed things up to the storm. If you want me to write longer, better posts, just let me know.)

[Deleted]

Aerion let the two owls take off ahead of him; they were unaware that he had set them up as decoys. He had given them rather mundane books to carry with the intention to making them targets for any Guardians that might pursuit them. If theirs were lost, it would be no major problem, he held the two most important books in his talons, one about weather and one of much interest. It looked to be an original of the Others, like the books he studied in his childhood. The Guardians had very, very few originals, most of the information they had were instead recordings from the owls themselves. But this one book he had found tucked away, with a title that immediately perked his interest: The Art of War. He actually had heard about this book before, it was referenced in some of the books he had studied before, written but an Other named Sun Tzu. Supposedly it was a high-respected tome of warfare, one that could surely provide a wealth of information.

After waiting a minute or so before Aerion took off himself. The battle was already starting to die off as the Pure Ones began their retreat. The Guardians didn't seemed too interested in pursuit, probably because of that oncoming storm. Already one could hear the faint crashing of thunder in the air as the sky warned to the violence it was about to unleash.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ethos perched upon one of the branches of the Great Tree and waved his left wing out and let out a loud scream, a visual signal for the Guardians to abandon their pursuit of the Pure Ones. The entire attack had caught them off guard, no one had expected the Pure Ones to try and attack the Great Tree directly, not with their low numbers. There also didn't appear to be any particular goal, not even a single on of them dared to try and attack him, even if the opportunity had presented itself. He stared out across the sea, watching as the Pure Ones made their retreat, his mind grasping for some explanation for the attack. Were they gauging their numbers? Were they planning a bigger attack later? Did they know about his unhatched child?

[Rylan]

(That video was awesome, perfect for your demonstration.)

The world spun and blurred around her, shades of every imaginable colour mixing and twisting together to form an abstract reality of the world. The air was alive, the electricity content growing with every heartbeat. Katara's heart was racing, the heat of the storm and the rush of adrenaline coursing through her. She spun and dove, her wings snapping to her body and spaying out, her ebony feathers dancing in the wind. Her onyx eyes glittered with excitement, and from her beak escaped a cry of joy.

She dove at the eye, then spiralled out of the storm completely. She felt more refreshed, the stress of the past few weeks melting away. It was almost as if the storm was sucking the tension in Katara out. She was alive. She hovered outside of the storm, watching the swirl of clouds. Raw energy crackled and swirled through the mass of broiling and churning clouds. As she hovered and watched the storm brewing, Dimitri's comments were forgotten.

Suddenly two filthy barn owls streaked past below her, their eyes focused on the packs they carried. Loosely strapped to their backs hung mouse leather pouches, holding brick like objects. Katara screeched a warning of the violent storm they were approaching, but it was too late to change their paths. As they were pulled into the storm, they frantically began tugging at the straps of their bags, trying to loose the extra weight.

Katara, sensing their distress, dove towards them. One of the packs came free, and hearing the air streaming from behind it, she turned. The bag was being spun around the storm by an invisible force, and it was headed straight for Katara. She pushed the other barn owl out of the way of the pack, towards the outer rim of the storm. The owl was much heavier than she had anticipated and she only succeeded in pushing him further off balance. As he tumbled into the eye of the storm, the bag hit Katara and tangled in her talons. She was thrown further towards the eye, and she flapped her wings frantically.

Feeling a lazy current of air, she pulled her wings in close and let the wind whip her around. Using the momentum from the wind, she flung herself at the lazy current. It worked, but her talons were trapped in the straps of the bag. As she struggled, the other pack whacked her upside the head, and she stars. As she regained her bearings, the pack came free from her talons, and she slung it over her wings. Whatever was in it had to be worth something, and she was curious to investigate what had almost killed her.

As the winds picked up, she swore she saw something. The shape of something was coming closer. Then she realized.

It was yet another barn owl, headed straight for the eye of the storm.

(That's Aerion, btw.)

[Deleted]

Something caught Ethos' attention from the corner of his eye and he quickly spotted a pair of Barn Owls attempting to join the rest of the Pure One and in their talons held something. It was hard to tell exactly, but of all the things that they would steal, there is only one thing that came to his mind: books. "Son of hagfiends..." he muttered to himself, the Pure One's attention hitting him quickly. He turned and looked at the Guardians around him. Knowledge was extremely powerful and he dared not risk the Pure Ones successfully stealing any of their book, even if it meant flying into the storm. He was capable of doing so, but only the strongest Guardians would be able to join him. "The Pure Ones have raided our library!" Ethos announced to the other owls and flew up in front of him. "You all know we cannot dare risk letting the Pure Ones get their talons on such knowledge, the strongest among you will join me in retrieving them in the heart of the storm. Worry not about the owls themselves, just focused on retrieving our precious books!" Ethos took off in pursuit of the Pure Ones, following by those few owls who could manage in storm winds.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Aerion nearly came to a completely stop as he spotted some Guardians take off in pursuit of the two owls, please by the success of his plan, but also wary of being spotted by them. He noticed the Snowy Owl at the front, probably the king of the Guardians. He looked quite formal and as big as he was, he was pretty sure that owl was far bigger.

He waited while the other owls got ahead of him and starting flying again, but deciding to fly around them instead of following. By now the rest of the Pure Ones led by Dimitri had already dispersed, probably scattering into the trees at the far shore of the sea before they would make their ways to the headquarters. This meant that they were alone at the moment, if he go caught by the Guardians, there wasn't anyone who was coming to assist him. Not that he wouldn't mind a fight, but even he couldn't stand up against the numbers that the Guardians had. Unfortunately, with his focus squarely on avoiding the Guardians, he inadvertently ignored the danger of the approaching storm.

[Rylan]

(Umm, not sure how to respond to this. Could you maybe post where he's got caught in the storm's pull?)

[Deleted]

Aerion hit the storm hard, despite his best efforts he couldn't prevent himself from getting caught up in the swirling winds as it unleashed it's full fury. It seemed to have caught the Guardians by surprise as well, as the feverishly attempts to retreat from their pursuit of the pack owls, who too had gotten themselves caught up. This storm was far more fierce than it had appeared and Aerion couldn't stop himself from being thrown around like an owl owlipoppin and crashing into the other Pure Ones.

(Just a quick entry here, hopefully you can use this.)

[Rylan]

The two pack owls went swirling towards Aerion, flailing in their attempts to escape the storm's ferocity. They knocked into him, falling closer to the eye as the plunged. The larger of the two was swept by a gust further from Aerion and the smaller pack owl, and was thrown towards the eye. As he disappeared into the grey, a few feathers puffed back at Aerion. The pack owl who remained untangled his talons from Aerion, then savagely clawed away. His talons raked Aerions feathers, and the pack owl didn't look back to see what damage he had done.

However, fighting the storm was useless. A forceful gale whipped him towards the eye, and that was the last anyone ever saw of him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katara threw the pack from her shoulders, then rolled. She had seen the demise of the two filthy barn owls, but another had appeared from behind the swirling mass of grey. He was large and pure white, and even within the storm he seemed powerful. She wasn't sure he had seen her, but she had to warn him about the book bags flying towards his head.

"HEADS!" she screeched at him, her voice shrill. She flapped her wings and pointed at the mouse leather satchels bearing down on him frantically. She was relieved as they flew past his head, but to astonishment he did something crazy.

He flew after the bags, into the eye of the storm.

(Sorry, not trying to godmod here or anything, just acting out his history. If you want me to change my post, just let me know.)

[Deleted]

(Nope, it's fine by me, I don't really consider him solely my character, he's a collaboration, so you can do what you need to with him.)

[Rylan]

(Alright, that's good then. Would you like to post where he's heading towards the eye of the storm by accident? She'll dive in after him and push him away, then retrieve the books, as said in his bio history.)

[Deleted]

Thought caught up in the storm, Aerion pushed himself, trying to keep himself moving forward and braving the winds that threatened to overcome him. It was, by far, one of the most exhausting things he had ever done. It certainly did not help that the storm had opened up and begun a downpour, which now cut down his vision and threatened to soak him. Barn Owls, unlike most other species, were not very waterproof and chose to stay inside in the cases of weather like this. The Guardians had probably predicted the downpour and decided to just let the Pure Ones get too soaked to keep going forward.

Unable to hear, much less see what was around him, it was easy for him to not hear the warning and one of the collection of books the other Pure Ones had lost smacked him in the back. Had it been a smaller owl, such a hit could be fatal, but Aerion was able to quickly recover and, noticing it, decided to try and pursue it. Those other owls had apparently been incapable of braving the storm, but Aerion knew the Pure Ones would look on him in nothing but awe if he was to fly through these with two bundles of books.

[Rylan]

(I'm so excited for this!!! I'll post a reply when I get home.)

[Rylan]

Katara watched in horror as the book smacked the other owl in the head. He seemed stunned, but not overly hurt from the hit. Due to his larger size, the book seemed to have only winded him, but Katara couldn't be sure. She debated whether to risk herself for this owl, who could even be potentially a Guardian. He could kill her as she tried to help him, and she was no use to the Pure Ones dead.

The electricity in the air changed suddenly. The sparky feeling was gone, replaced by a frigid stillness. Cursing to herself, she began to feel the air shift. As the storm picked up a new current, rain began to pour from the heavens. The rain would doom her and the other owl if they stayed exposed too long to it's icy wet clutches.

Something clicked within her as she watched the owl plunge towards the eye of the storm. He was in fast pursuit in something valuable to him, and he was unrelenting. Whether in her gizzard or her heart, or maybe the two, she knew she had to save this owl. The thing she did next was even crazier and probably more stupid than what he had done. She dove at him, heading closer and closer.

Almost into the eye of the storm.