The Great Horned Owl knew very little of Monoceros's territorial disputes. He knew that there had been a battle here with the dragon Raheerah. He knew he'd been a part of that, however small, and he knew that here, the winds came and went--he could hear that there was no twister, not anymore, but still the hot air that swirled up lent powerful updrafts and sudden crosswinds to the vast area.

He didn't know anything about the Merrymen, really; he was naive, still, and assumed that all of the Gembound in Origin Cave who weren't outright aggressive were friendly. He'd liked Louie for the brief time they'd met; he had no idea that the fox who'd tried to poison him right as he hatched had been the same creature. And right now, his focus wasn't on the Monoceros-dwellers, anyway. It was on his new friend, the warm, slightly-smaller-than-him bird that called himself Alaric.

Alaric had seemed a little... well, lost, and his flight had sounded quite erratic, and so Dark had offered to take him to Monoceros to practice his flying. In the blind owl's unseeing eyes, the room was vast and chaotic enough to offer plenty of challenge, but the acoustics meant that he could find his way back down to the ground safely, most of the time--or at the very least, he could usually find his way onto a ledge.

"Here," he hooted out softly, as he swept into the cave on silent beats of broad wings. He banked, coming to a skidding, tumbling halt (as ever) onto a rock ledge at one end of the room, turning and standing back up a moment later. He ruffled his feathers, fluffing out the dust from his crash-landing, and shuffled to the edge of the rock as if slamming into the ground were an everyday occurrence for him.

Perhaps it was.

"There's places to hunt around the edges, and sometimes down in the middle where the water is. But the winds are the good part. It teaches you to fly well. To react fast."

Dark turned, staring unblinking at Alaric, unseeing as ever. "Want to try it?"

________________

@Alaric

It seemed youthfulness lent itself to naïveté.
Honestly, what was I really doing here? I was following this stranger to a place I’ve never been. Surely I shouldn’t have some tiny ounce of fear or concern. But did I? Nope, not even a moment’s hesitation. I was rather excited, actually. The promise of learning and getting better…becoming superior…it was so alluring to me to the point of throwing all caution to the wind. So, I followed the oww, trying with all my effort to match his pace, glide on the same breeze…and so on. But the process was…strange. I supposed it made sense, the oww was blind, so he had to make frequent stops to figure out where he was going. But I thought it all rather counterproductive. Why did he not just use my eyes? I could tell him to go one way or another? Well, maybe because I had no idea where he was heading. I supposed that made a difference.

My skull tilted slightly as we entered a room…it looked odd, and immediately I was assaulted with heavy winds. Not enough to knock me down, of course…but lifting and falling became a more hazardous adventure. My gaze followed Dark as he did somewhat of an uncomfortable flip thing onto the ledge. Honestly, I had to admit it was painful to watch, but the oww seemed unfazed. I landed lightly beside him, tucking my wings firmly against my frame as the other began to speak. A curious sound erupted from my maw when he questioned me…it was somewhere between a twittle and a caw. Clearly eager, though, I thought.

“Yes please!”

I voiced, just in case he didn’t get the memo. Without further ado, I flung myself into the swirling winds, first aiming to reach the bottom before fighting my way back up to the top. A cry of indignation rushed from me as a heavy draft dunked me down towards the stone. My talons scraped against the edge of the great cavern as I pushed myself back up and towards the middle again. I wasn’t going to let this wind beat me. I’d master it.

Dark sat silently listening, utterly motionless as Alaric leapt into the air. He could hear the beats of his wings, the fading of sound that indicated him flying farther away, or louder as he drew closer.

The owl wanted to fly with him, but the danger of slamming into the other bird midair was too great, what with the crosswinds, the updrafts and the downdrafts. For the first time, Dark yearned for vision: he wished that he could see, to course through the air as Alaric did, flitting along behind him, perhaps playing games of tumble-and-chase over the ledges and beneath the vents.

He could hear a bit of struggle in his new friend's wingbeats, now and again, and he debated calling out to give advice. If he did that, he'd lose track of where Alaric was for a moment--and maybe call undue attention to the pair.

Instead he closed his eyes and focused, sending his mind out seeking for the goshawk's, trying to form a connection, a link. He did this tentatively, gradually, so as not to startle the bird out of the air, not to distract him into falling.

As a result, the touch of his mind to Alaric's was barely feather-light, a whisper half-lost to the roar of the wind.

Don't fly against the wind. If it's coming at you turn your wings up and you'll go up. Use the hot air under you, it'll send you up, too. Cold will send you down.

Then he waited, gently extricating his mind, retracting it back into his own body and listening again to the goshawk's flight.

________________

@Alaric

The air in the room, although still looked vast and open, seemed to grow closer to me.
The sensation was new to me, unfamiliar, but gradual enough that I could keep in full control of myself. Maybe I was overstating the sensation, but there was definitely something closer to me than there was before and in a way I didn’t understand. And then I heard Dark. Not like he was flying next to me…which, he wasn’t. Not like he was calling across the room…which, he was still perched over there. It was like he was a murmur in my brain. Like my own thought, but it wasn’t. Was he in my brain? How did he get into my thoughts? Did I really just hear that? What? But the touch of the other’s voice had gone quicker as it had come.

Before I could fully considering if that had really happened or not, a gust rammed into me like an avalanche of stone. I went to fight it, but thought about what I thought Dark thought inside my thoughts. Maybe? So I angled my wings up to catch the breeze in my feathers. Sure enough, I was pushed upward…and at a faster rate than I was expecting. I cawed out in surprise as I lost my balance against the heavy air. I spun once downward before I caught myself.

Without waiting another moment, I aimed myself straight for the oww, landing roughly onto the ledge. As my wings folded back against my frame another new sensation struck me. Pain. Not stabbing or sharp, but a dull throb throughout my chest. But, I’d worry about that later…first. I glanced over at Dark warily, keeping my distance a bit.

“How did…can you…what just…did you…but never…it worked…confused.”

The words couldn’t formulate out loud. Though, honestly, my question wasn’t even formed in my head. What just happened? Did this oww have some kind of power? Did all birds have power? That kind of power? But did I really want to ask him that? What if I was supposed to already know this? Why didn’t I know this already?

@Dark

Dark heard the rustle of feathers as the goshawk returned, felt and heard both as the bird made a somewhat rough landing. He gave a soft hoot of greeting, pondering.

Why'd he come back so soon? Had Dark's telepathic thoughts startled the other bird? Dark wondered, too, what the room looked like, what it looked like to the eye, rather than to the ear. He wondered if seeing a glimpse of it would help him navigate--and, truth be told, he yearned to see just a little. He clicked his beak in thought, reaching out without thinking with one taloned foot to try to gently touch Alaric's breastfeathers.

"Is it good flying? ...I didn't mean to scare you, if I did. It's just my magic," he explained, a little worried at Alaric's silence. "I can see things through things, sometimes, and through others, by touching them--and I can touch minds from far away. I can show things or talk into minds."

As he touched, he tried to summon his magic, to try and get a glimpse of what the goshawk had seen in flight--or, perhaps, at some other time (the magic wasn't very specific). But the other flinched, and his magic, so soon after he'd already used it, didn't seem to want to be called upon again. Nothing happened, and he slowly set his taloned foot back down, feeling another emotion for the first time: disappointment.

He pushed that away, however, and turned his focus back to Alaric.

"I think everyone has magic, of some sort. Do you know what yours is?" he hooted softly.

________________

@Alaric

I watched as the oww shifted closer to me, but I held my ground. What was he doing? Was he going to attack me now? But why would he attack me? It would be stupid to just bring me all the way here and then attack me now…unless he needed this space? Was he somehow more powerful here? He obviously hadn’t done this mind thing earlier...
Then he touched me, and I nearly jumped out of my feathers. I had skidded back, ruffled and wings flared in the stupidest instinctual response ever. Literally, what would making myself look bigger do against a blind opponent. Seriously. But I didn’t really have time to think it through, it just kinda…happened.

As he was speaking, acting all calm like nothing weird or strange was going on, I flapped my wings roughly at the air. Not to move upwards, but to both reassemble my feathers in their appropriate places, and to help relax my frame. I felt…strung. Tight. Everything he was saying wasn’t exactly calming me down either. Magic? Touching minds? So he could read my thoughts? Right now? This made no sense. How could he read thoughts? And speak in my head?

And then the oww was speaking again. So, I had magic as well?

“Types..?”

I managed to ask quietly, my voice rather potently filled with the tightness of my system. I wasn’t truly afraid about all this. Just…just uneasy. This didn’t make sense to me. But, I couldn’t deny the evidence. He had spoke inside my head. And, he did help me learn to use the wind to give me height…and he overall seemed kind with reasonable intentions. So why would he lie to me? This didn't feel like falseness. It was just…the world seemed that much more strange now. Everything was so strange and new. I’d thought I’d finally understood most things…most. But this was huge. This was like learning that one falls when they forget to push against the air. A factor of life that remains with one forever. It felt…jarring.

And yet, I couldn’t also deny that there was something growing within me. It was curiosity. I wanted to know what types of magic there were. I wanted to know everything about this magic. I wanted to know what I was capable of. Perhaps I could read the oww’s mind? That would truly be something.

@Dark

Dark sat quiet, listening to the goshawk ruffling and settling his feathers. He wasn't sure--he wasn't a great reader of others--but he thought maybe the other bird of prey sounded nervous. Or was it excitement? Even... fear?

He clicked his beak for a moment in thought, then turned his attention to the goshawk's question.

"Types. I--... Don't know them all," he admitted. "I think there's some that can make fire or wind. Bevy might know. She's one of Maji Walezi, in Pisces--they protect the water. She knows lots of things. She eats bugs," he added unnecessarily.

He turned and groomed his feathers for a moment, smoothing them down and rearranging them himself, and then looked back at Alaric, albeit unseeing. "What do you want to do now?" he asked, honestly and with a friendly lilt to his voice. "You could try to focus on your stone? See if there's--magic in it?"

________________

@Alaric

This moment of silence almost felt palpable. Why was he taking so long to respond? Was this a stupid question? Probably was a stupid question. It seemed I was supposed to know so many things I was still so naive to. Such was utterly frustrating, really. Especially when I thirsted so intensely for knowledge, and that which refused to pour over me. Instead I had to push, claw, extend, strain, and focus so much harder every moment to pull even a drop of a concept to my mind. Perhaps I was overstating my struggle…but I was more so frustrated with this process. Couldn’t there be an easier way to just transfer knowledge? I wanted to already know. I wanted to already be smarter and stronger and faster. Why did I have to be confused and struggled so much before?

Then Dark finally broke the silence. His words certainly left more to be desired. There were birds that could create fire? Fire? What? Or wind? So, was there a bird that made this tornado? I shuddered slightly at the thought. That was insane. No one could be that powerful could they? Then a new name? Bevy? She…knew things? And ate bugs. That was strange. Why didn’t she eat the small fuzzy things that scurried across the ground? Did bugs help the magic thing? And then he said something very strange. I could try focusing on my stone? There was magic in some kind of stone?

“What do you mean, stone? I don’t have a stone with me.”

I lightly clicked each of my talons on the ledge we were perched upon to prove I hadn’t kidnapped a stone, nor brought it with me. Was I supposed to? But where was I supposed to have gotten this stone? Was I supposed to go somewhere to grab a stone and then I’d have magical powers? That seemed weird, but…with the way things were going here...

He’d asked me what we were to do next…honestly, I had no idea what to do. He’d literally just rocked my understanding of the world, and now he was asking what I wanted to do within it. I supposed, the answer was my question.

“Can we talk to this Bevy? I want to know more.”

@Dark

"Everyone has a stone. My eyes are stones. Even the mice and rats I eat have stones. I have to spit them out," Dark explained. He ruffled his feathers again, slightly confused. "...I think?"

But Alaric was asking to see Bevy--and that, at least, he could manage. Brightening, he let out a loud chirp-squeak and then turned, hopping and spreading his wings.

"We can go find her. Come on, follow me."

He took off, leaping from the rock shelf and performing a low glide toward a tunnel, tilting to and fro a little in the air. He'd lead the way--stopping often, sometimes banging off walls--to Pisces, pausing now and again to be sure that Alaric was still following.

________________

@Alaric ; exit Dark