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 Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 1:42 pm
Not recovering was not even a possibility. Granny had retired from gathering to take up teaching several seasons ago when she felt that her prime years as a combatant was over, but there was no retirement from teaching. If she couldn't teach anymore there was nothing left. Nothing.
Luckily her apprentice Snowdrift made up for Granny's temporary shortcomings with her eager young wings. And Granny didn't dwell on what the future might bring. She would teach a good many fledglings yet.
At the moment Granny was perching outside the hollow in her sleeping tree, listening to her Parus Rose. She had no lessons planned today.
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Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:26 pm
Typhoon hooed softly from the edge of Linnea's territory, holding a dead squirrel in one clawed foot. It was a little difficult standing on one leg while trying to not squish the small gift he'd brought his dear old friend Linnea, but he was managing it. Dune, his mus, peeked over his shoulder, clinging to his Sentinel's back. "Granny home?" The mus asked, peering ahead.
"I'm sure she is, Dune, but it is always good to be a gentleman when calling on a lady such as 'Granny,'" The Ghost Sentinel smiled at her nickname. He tried to remember to call her by that in public, but he had always preferred her true name. Ty had heard that Linnea was injured in the storm he'd heard a great deal about, but he had near the edge of the Not-Cold woods, reminiscing in the old tree he and Milkweed once called home.
The swirling grey winged Sentinel shook his head and preened his flight feathers absently, waiting patiently for Linnea's response. He hoped that Linnea wouldn't take his gift as an insult to her hunting skills, but if she is injured, he imagined she wasn't eating like she should.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:57 am
Rose fell silent at the soft hoot, turning her head this way and that to try to decide if it meant danger or friend. Granny didn't have to wonder, she recognised the voice instantly and hooted a response.
'I'm here,' the hoot said, 'Welcome!'
She was happy to hear from Ty, he was one of her oldest friends after all. He had been a Minder back in the days when she decided to switch profession, and had handed over a lot of promising young ones to her care. This breeding season had been a busy one, and plenty of the resulting fledglings would need both minding and teaching soon.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:27 pm
Typhoon lifted off the branch he'd been sitting on, gliding into Granny's territory. It was good to stretch his wings and fly the short distance to her area, it was a shorter flight than the taxing and incredibly long flight back to the old tree. He remembered
"Good evening, Granny!" Ty called, settling on a branch in the tree that held her private hollow. He preened quickly, letting Dune climb down off his back and onto the branch next to him.
"I've got a present for you.." He grabbed the squirrel he'd caught by the tail in his beak, dangling it tantalizingly before her hollow. "I heard you got injured, how did you do that, you old bird?" He asked teasingly. The Ghost Minder was quite fond of Granny, and knew just as well as the next Sentinel that elderly bones and muscles were far less likely to hear completely or correctly. He was concerned, as only one of Linnea's age could be.
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:00 am
"Hello there handsome," she said and straightened on her perch, glad to see her friend.
"I've got a present for you..."
"Oh! You shouldn't have," she said with an almost embarrassed smile, "Thank you!" Granny moved closer and accepted the dangling squirrel with delight, taking it in her beak.
"I heard you got injured, how did you do that, you old bird?"
Linnéa froze at the jovial question and slowly put the squirrel down at her feet, eartufts held low.
"I spent the night of the storm with a few fledglings in my small classroom, you know the one," she said solemnly, "I didn't fasten the windframe securely enough in front of the opening, and it fell on us."
What had happened was still painful to her, and the stiffness in her body did not make it easy to forget.
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 5:42 pm
"Oh no! I heard about how terrible that storm was. Sentinel as elderly as us are bound to forget things," he chuckled. "Don't blame yourself, dear. It could have happened to anyone, including myself. Such awful weather lately, I'm glad it's lightened up a bit."
"I didn't mean to ruin your snack. Please, eat!" He urged, waving with his wings for her to dig in. Ty watched her, almost like he would a fledgling who wasn't eating right, wanting to make sure she got at least one good meal in her belly while he was here.
Dune curled up at his Sentinel's feet, closing his eyes to take a little nap. He knew he could trust Granny not to try to eat him, and all this flying had him tuckered out.
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Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:44 am
Granny clacked her beak in mock annoyance.
"Oh, shut your beak," she said, "I know your have a mind as springy as a fledgling so don't even joke about that. I know you remember every little fluff that has passed under your wings. Right? You're not starting to forget?"
The attempt to cheer her up had touched on a sore spot. Another of her good friends, Sandalwood, had flown to the ground the winter before this one. He had started to forget things, where he was, why he was there... The Medics couldn't help him anymore, and while he could remember old times perfectly well, and could talk to her for hours making perfect sense, he had trouble managing daily life. She must have been one of the last Sentinels he talked to before removing himself from society. She sleeked her feathers at the thought of being ripped to pieces on the snow covered ground, but Ty wouldn't let her dwell on unpleasant things.
"I didn't mean to ruin your snack. Please, eat!"
As Ty insisted she started to rip the squirrel into more manageable pieces. It was fresh and looked absolutely delicious.
"You know," she said with a embarrassed smile after swallowing the first piece, "It has been a long time since a gentleman last brought me a squirrel."
She knew Typhoon wasn't courting her, just showing concern, but the gift brought back memories from long ago mating seasons. The squirrel was indeed delicious, but her thoughts returned to the storm. She was sad that she hadn't been able to protect her charges, but glad that everyone had survived. Ty must have found a sturdy shelter too, and she silently thanked Noctus and the Thunderbird for sparing her friend.
"I..." she said, "I'm glad you got through the storm in one piece. It must have been the worst one to hit Noctua in a very long time."
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Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:46 am
"Oh, not about things like that! No, no, just the same forgetfulness that everyone has." He shifted his claws slightly to get a better grip on the branch, and chuckled lightly when she mentioned the last time a gentleman brought her a squirrel. Typhoon shifted a little more, and his chuckle seemed to be edged with embarrassment as well.
"No other Sentinel is going to take care of us old birds, so we have to take care of each other, right?" Ty asked, smiling at Granny. She was one of the first Sentinel he'd met when he'd first moved to the Deep Woods, and had been one of the most welcoming.
"Yes, that storm..I had gone back..to visit an old tree near the Cold Forest." He paused for a moment, his eyes cloudy with memories, and quickly moved on.
"It's quite a study old oak, so it only lost a few larger branches and I got there just before the storm hit. Lucky I did too, the wind that blew around that old tree after that would have knocked me to the Cold Mountains!" He hooted jokingly, but a twinge of fear hid within his deep voice.
He had been so, so lucky. The time he spent in that tree during the storm was lonely and miserable, without his old mate there to keep him warm in the tree they once shared. But she never would again warm him, he reminded himself, and he had survived both her departure and the terrible storm without her.
"I hope that you heal quickly and well, Noctus bless. You must be careful until you heal completely. Have you seen a Medic to see if it is healing correctly?" Ty asked, even though he knew the answer. Granny was skeptical of Medics, terribly so.
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Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:11 pm
Granny nodded and hummed as Ty spoke, but she tactfully preened her wing as he seemed to get lost in thought. It wasn't her place to ask or remind him of old times and lost loves.
"Medic's," Granny said with feathers rising and a voice dripping with venom, "From the looks of it they'll accept anyone to that profession nowadays."
She took a moment to take another bite of the squirrel and preen down her ruffled feathers before continuing.
"Don't you worry Dear," she said with a smile, "I've been poked and prodded and there's nothing wrong with me. A bit sore and bruised is all. And these two feathers are growing in a bit backwards, but what can you do?"
She extended a wing and showed the two new feathers growing where she had been forced to rip out a few feathers to get to a broken blood feather. They looked a bit odd, but wouldn't keep her from flying.
"Blood feather," she explained. She knew that he must have plucked his fair share of broken blood feathers, both his own and his fledglings'.
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:35 am
"Aye, I can't say I've been to a medic lately. None of the fledglings I've watched have become medics, I don't believe. Oh my, you had to tear out a blood feather?" Typhoon hopped down onto the branch she was perched on, and peered at the new feathers growing in.
"Those are always the worst," Ty said, eying the feathers. "Besides looking a little strange, you should be fine. Good."
"How many fledglings are you teaching now anyway? I have a fledgling back at my enclave that will need a good teacher sooner or later, and I'd like nothing more than to pass the ball of fluff on to you once he has outgrown my nest. I know you will teach him well." The Mist Sentinel smiled at his old friend, thankful he had someone as experienced as himself to leave his young charges to.
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Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 1:38 pm
"I'm just glad I got all of it out," she said and preened the primaries on her wing carefully. At the mention of fledglings she snapped to attention, and her ear tufts rose.
"Oh, my apprentice Snow is taking care of things at the moment," she said, "Very competent young lady that one is. I have been avoiding taking new students lately, until I recover. But just one little fledgling... of course I'll take him."
She gave Ty a warm and genuine smile.
"What's his name? And you must meet my apprentice sometime. She's such a sweet girl."
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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:31 am
"Snow, you say? Well if you are training her she'll grow to be one of the best Teachers I know, by Noctua. I'd love to meet her, if ever she is around when I am."
Typhoon smiled back, pleased that Granny has found someone to pass on her immense store of knowledge to. But the idea of her taking on an apprentice worried him..did Granny think she wasn't going to be capable of teaching much longer? This definitely concerned him. Old Sentinel had to stick together.
"Are you..taking on an apprentice because she has shown good potential and interest?" Within Ty's question was another, hidden in his concerned tone of voice: Do you think your time is nearing to visit the forest floor and not return?
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:32 pm
"Very pleasant girl," she praised her apprentice, "She helped find Rose when she got lost among all the Sentinels during the longest night."
The Parus whistled a short tune as if to confirm this and Granny smiled up at her companion.
"We started talking and it turned out that she was a teacher," Granny explained, "She was very new and inexperienced and I offered her a place here to get used to the task and learn how to handle fledglings."
Granny paused to rouse her feathers, lifting them slowly and then shaking them out. She was relaxed and felt oddly happy, but Ty seemed concerned. Did he think she was training her successor?
"I doubt she'll be the last teacher I bring into my territory," she said with a playful glint in her good eye, "I'll need to train an army of Grannies to keep the fledglings in line even after I stop flying."
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Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:12 pm
Typhoon hooted happily, nodding his head to agree with her.
"Good to hear, Granny. I believe this last batch of fledglings who have graduated are going to need some direction, and none better than you to give it to a new teacher." He wondered to himself whether there were any new Minders in the batch. The Ghost Sentinel hadn't seen any new ones around, but it wasn't as if his Enclave was hurting for them either.
"Your Parus got lost during the longest night? I'm glad Rose is all right, if Dune was lost I would be positively frantic." Just speaking of things like that, he hooted to Dune and called him to sit next to his left claw. Dune squeaked at Granny in a friendly, knowing way, twitching his whiskers.
"Is there any cleanup around here I may be able to help with? I know the Minder's enclave platform was covered with broken branches and leaves, I'm guessing your trees and platforms will be the same way." Ty moved his head to one side and then the other, trying to eye any dangerous broken branches that would be no good for a fledgling to land on. Or any Sentinel, honestly. Broken branches were sometimes hard to see when landing.
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Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:50 pm
Granny preened her chest feathers, slightly embarrassed by Ty's praise.
"Lost and found," she said and smiled at Dune, "I enjoy the bigger gatherings, I do, but it's probably for the best that the longest night only comes once a year."
At Typhoons question she surveyed the territory as if it was the first time she really looked at it. It was still a bit worse for wear, but much better than it had been a few nights ago.
"The platforms are cleaned up already," she said, "But we did lose a tree. I don't suppose you have one hidden away in your plumage, hmm? I guess we haven't checked all trees for damage yet, but the hollows and platforms are cleaned up."
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