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 Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:40 pm
Ossie landed silently on an open limb not too far from the drop center. She had brought back a large rabbit and squirrel with her from the scouting expedition she had undergone and felt quite proud of herself. She was now a fledged member of society and could contribute to the minders and the young sentinels back at the enclave.
She fluffed her feathers comfortably and began to preen as she had learned from Madame Breeze. The night was a fine one and her wings were sore, but it was a rather pleasant feeling.
"Good catch, good catch." Her little mus spoke up as she settled on the dark, sharpened talons of her master. "Get food soon. Berry food? Good eats, not meat." The mus continued to ramble on as she spoke of her own hunger.
"Yes, yes. Go and get something. I don't mind." Ossie instructed between beakfulls of feather. "Just be careful."
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:57 pm
 Hollyhock moved through the trees silently, cleverly rendered camouflage making him nearly invisible in the dappled light that filtered down through the leaves. He was punctual, as he always was to the dropoff platform, arriving at the same time each night to unload whatever he had stashed in his pack. He was proud of himself tonight. His pack held a few squirrels, and in his talons he clasped what appeared to be a half-grown badger. Any larger and it would have been impossible to take it, and as it were, the animal had put up more of a struggle than Holly had expected. But he had won.
Coming down lightly on the platform, finally as gentle as he had always wished to be, he shoved the badger at the female on duty and quietly commanded his mus to open his pack. Undoing the straps and shrugging out of them, he tipped it sideways and allowed the kills to spill out. Then he glanced around and started to preen, still swelling with pride at the fact that he had become a true hunter.
His eyes caught a flash of pale feathers and grey shoulders, and Holly did a genuine double take. Despite the dye, there was no mistaking that form. He hadn't seen her in quite a while, and she was......well, she was pretty. Very pretty. But that wasn't stopping Holly from narrowing his eyes mischievously and dropping from the platform, hoping to circle around behind her.
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:17 am
Fortunately for Hollyhock, Osprey had dropped her guard and was quite relaxed she closed her golden eyes as she preened and set every misty white and gray feather. Her talons clutched the limb of the spruce tree and she fluffed her feathers and reopened her orbs.
She was more or less oblivious to the fact that Hollyhock was circling behind her. The fact that other sentinels were here did not bother her, as it was the drop point for prey, after all.
"Mus, don't go too far." She called after the little matching gray and white mus.
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:38 am
What was this? Ossie, big strong Ossie, so eager to become a famous Scout, had let her guard down enough that she wasn't noticing Holly's approach? He stifled a hoot of laughter and altered his course slightly. He had decided to come down directly beside her. A simple touchdown and a quiet 'boo', nothing more.
"Hollyholly," a quiet voice squeaked into his ear, "left your pack!" Holly blinked and flicked his eartufts back, turning to see if he could actually make eye contact with the mus. He couldn't so he settled on answering as quietly as he could.
"I'll get it later," he murmured. Then, altogether too suddenly, the branch and its lovely hawk-dyed occupant were upon him. Hollyhock pulled up abruptly, catching the bark in his talons and settling down his weight as quickly as he could, so as not to dump both himself and Ossie onto the forest floor. Upset that he hadn't managed the silent grace he wanted, he nonetheless turned to look at Osprey, and he smiled fondly at his longtime friend.
"Boo," he said, and then laughed. "How are you, Ossie?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:53 am
Osprey's feathers sleeked slightly as there was a sudden commotion behind her, then beside her. The moment she realized that the dappled male that landed not so gracefully next to her was none other than Hollyhock, her feathers fluffed out and relaxed again and a grin was on her dark beak.
"Holly! It's so good to see you!" She hooted cheerily. "I've been great! Just dropped of a bite to eat. I'll be heading out again soon, after I've preened a bit." She dodged explaining that her wings hurt from the long, quick paced flights she had been taking up until this point.
"Things are going really well, though! How about for you?" She gave her dear friend a brief preen of the eartuft after she finished speaking. It hadn't been that long since their graduation, but she had been so busy trying to get accustom to her new position in the Forest that it felt almost like seasons.
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:10 am
Holly smiled warmly at Osprey, looking her up and down and unable to keep the expression off of his face. The dye job was extremely attractive, and he hadn't seen it before. He leaned over and preened one of her eartufts, rather more thoroughly than she had preened his, and then roused his feathers and gave a quick shrug of his wings.
"I'm doing well enough," he said with a smile. "Pretty here and there and everywhere with the hunting, though. I don't know what I'm going to do about territory. Can't sleep in a different tree every night for the rest of my life." He shook his head slightly, and the mus who had remained with him--Venturous--clambered down off his back and hop-crept over to inspect the other mus. Holly watched him with interest for a moment, and then looked back up at his friend.
"I like the dye," he said lightly, stretching a wing as he spoke and occasionally checking on his pack and the mus he had left with it. He didn't think anyone'd try to steal it, but it was always a possibility that someone would think he had abandoned it and just...adopt both. Or possibly eat the mus. And that would be unfortunate.
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:26 am
Osprey's own feathers fluffed as Hollyhock preened her eartuft, but she hastily smoothed them out and listened intently to his words. Seeing him here and now was a surprise, although she had half hoped she would run into the hunter at the platform sooner or later.
"Heheh, I hear you." Ossie chuckled as Holly spoke of territory. She had yet to secure one of her own, which hadn't seemed to be too much trouble, but it would be later on, when she would be ready to claim a spot of her very own. "It's been tree hopping since graduation."
She returned to setting her feathers along her wings, but her golden eyes remained on her old friend.
"Thank you... Probably a bit striking for a Scout, but I wanted to paint myself after my namesake." She was struggling to hold her beak, which would of easily of flown away given the circumstances.
"Yours is very nice, too. Definitely more practical than mine. It really makes you blend in!"
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:51 am
Holly couldn't help but fluff his feathers in pride when Ossie complemented his feather dye. Yes, it had been a bit extravagant, perhaps, but at the same time, he wanted to be a truly great hunter, and anything he could do to improve that was well-worth the effort. "Thank you," he said quietly, preening his chest feathers so they lay flat again and then turning his head back to the platform once more. "I should really go get my pack soon," he said, without any overt drive or desire to do so in his voice. He was reluctant to leave his friend now that he had found her.
Smiling at her own comments related to territory, he preened one of his wings quickly. "Have you been far, then?" he asked lightly, noticing how much Ossie wanted to talk. So even a few weeks as a full-grown Sentinel--a scout, too!--hadn't taken that edge off her. He was glad. He liked it about her. "I haven't honestly gone very far...a bit outside the Deep Woods, once to the edge of the Clearing." He puffed his chest proudly at that one; he admired his own daring, but probably Ossie had already gone farther and faster.
But he didn't mind. She was good at what she did, he at what he did. And only when it overlapped did it become a matter of competition. Besides, he liked the friendly one-upmanship he got from Ossie. It was comfortable.
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 12:57 pm
"I should really go get my pack soon,"
At these words the mist seemed slightly crestfallen. They had just now found each other again and he was eager to go back to work... Or was he? He kept on talking, which brought an easy, genuine grin to her beak edges.
"The clearing? Oh, I'll be going there eventually, I promise you that." She gave him a wink as she jested. "I've been mostly heading up in the more northern parts of the forest. I followed the Swift Cold River on up. You ought to, if you have the time, and explore. You can see the mountains nicely up there. I bet it'd be chilly once the winter comes, though. I can hardly wait."
Osprey was still young, but the size she had was becoming more obvious, what with the thicker layer of down and more feathers that mist types possessed, allowing them to live in such climates.
"I'll certainly have to go get a glimpse of the clearing next I head out." She vowed out of curiosity. She did not want to go in, as that was nearly suicidal, but she did want just a little peek.
"I want to see the edge of the Western Open, too. Maybe we ought to take a few nights to see it." She yammered on as word vomit spilled from her beak and with each word, she seemed a little more excitable. It felt almost like old times, save for she was well aware that they had much more responsibility now a nights.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:14 am
Her disappointment made him flick his eartufts, eyes widening only the most infinitesimal amount. And ahhh....he seemed to be winning a little bit in what he had done. And that was interesting. And then Ossie started talking in a way that Holly knew would happen eventually. He smiled fondly as she started yammering on, waiting until she had finally finished....with an invitation. Holly's eyes widened, and then he blinked and smiled excitedly and leaned in to preen her eartufts affectionately, even daring to move his beak down and preen between her shoulderblades.
"That sounds wonderful," he said when he drew back, smiling brightly at Ossie, though his feathers fluffed in apprehensive embarrassment. It was so good to see her again. He had missed her so much. He couldn't help but grin like an idiot as he looked at her. It was just so good to see her again. He opened his mouth to say something, but a set of nimble paws suddenly scampered up his back and tugged. Hollyhock squawked.
"Hollyhollyholly, paaaack and Dauntless," Venturous squeaked in his ear before clambering down onto the branch and looking between Hollyhock and Osprey. Holly peeped softly and looked sheepishly at Ossie. "The mus don't like to be separated," he said apologetically. "I need to go get Dauntless." He paused to allow Venturous to climb back up, then smiled suddenly at Ossie. "Would you like to come with me? Perhaps we can go somewhere afterwards, too?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 7:54 am
"Of course! Sounds like fun!" Osprey chimed after Hollyhock. Her own feathers fluffed slightly out of the embarrassment she felt. But why should she feel embarrassed? It was just good old Holly, right? She was so incredibly happy to be with her old agemate again.
"Mus?" She hooted in calling for the little rodent she had brought with her. The dyed little white mus came scampering, leaving an abandonned, half chewed nut on the limb. She scampered up Ossie's back and clung tight to the leather that wrapped about it.
With little to no hesitation, the mist sentinel pushed off the limb and headed for the platform, where she landed with much more grace than she had possessed while they were taking lessons from Madame Breeze.
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:57 pm
Holly smiled and gave Ossie another quick preen before pushing lightly off the branch, arriving on the platform with a light grace that didn't suggest in the slightest that landings had been the skill he had once lacked completely. No sooner had he touched down that the darker mus had scampered straight up to his talons and started scolding him in a manner that would have made a red squirrel jealous.
And the big Hunter simply took it, his expression vaguely amused. After a bit, the shrill squeaking stopped, and the mus aggressively scrubbed at its face and clambered up onto Holly's shoulders. Holly laughed softly, gave Ossie a false pained look, and then retrieved his pack. Re-strapping it, he settled it and waited for his mus to fit themselves into it. Then he looked at Ossie and smiled. "Let's find a stream and follow it," he suggested, with all the mischievous adventurousness of youth in his eyes.
Preening his wings and making sure everything was settled, he crouched to push off, half-spread his wings, and glanced at Ossie. "Ready?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 3:44 pm
Ossie couldn't help but to chuckle at both the infuriated mus and her long time friend, with his clearly faked pained expression. She strode to the edge of the platform and readied her own wings.
"Go!"
And with that, she shot off the platform. The dull ache in her wings seemed to fade with the prospect of spending time with Hollyhock and living the adventures that they had imagined and played throughout their fledglinghood.
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:00 pm
Ah, that felt a lot like the Ossie he remembered! Holly didn't have a chance of catching her on the initial takeoff, burdened as he was with a pack, and he laughed as he chased the white silhouette through the trees. Ossie had training for speed, and Holly did not. He could only hope that her work for the night had left her wing-weary and that he'd be able to catch up with her when she slowed down. Laughing to himself, he called out after her, not caring if his hooting disturbed the peace and quiet of other Deep Woods residents.
"Stream's out west, don't forget!" he teased gently, knowing full-well that a Scout like Ossie could never forget something so simple as the basic geography of the Deep Woods. Particularly this stream, the one most Sentinels meant if they spoke of a 'stream'. It was a big one, and one Holly liked to lurk around. Hunters took their alycons there, and Holly liked watching that when he wasn't on the hunt on his own.
And if they followed the stream, maybe tonight they could make it down to the river. He hoped so. That would be an adventure like old times. And he wanted to go back to old times with Ossie.
To back when she and he had been close friends.
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:40 am
"Think all this flyin's left me mus for brains?" She hooted back as she pumped her painted wings with a tired enthusiasm. Fortunately for Holly, her recent arrival after her trip had most definitely left her wing-weary, even if she wasn't showing it quite yet. Her pace was already slowing slightly.
The sound of the stream and the familiar scent that it carried was fuel to her already energetic behavior. She had often found herself watching the diving alcyons and found the sound of rushing water soothing.
She gave another cheerful hoot before banking left to head down stream. Holly's laughter seemed infectious and she was following suit.
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