Wolf RPG

When Osprey was not spending her time coming up with new stories, hunting or gathering treasures (her den was now half-full with various stuff she had brought there and one would think that she had this as a coping mechanism for stress), she loved to explore. She never did it on purpose, rather letting the path she had chosen to lead her, wherever it wished to. Expecting the adventure on the next curve of the road was part of the fun.

Today she had stumbled upon (literally) a quite big hole in the ground - it was well-hidden in the grass, therefore she didn't notice, until her forepaws lost their ground and she almost fell in. After a bit of wriggling, she managed to get back on her feet, yet she decided to lie down and have a peek in the dark hole. It smelled of moist earth and moss and nothing else - which meant that it didn't belong to anyone. This also meant that it promised the excitement of the day.

Carefully she leaned forward and put one of her forepaws in the hole, to test, how far down the ground was.

Tytonidae spent her days tracking various small animals. First, it was a rabbit, then a squirrel, then a few frogs. Today she had been following something a little more ambitious: one of the plateau's namesake blacktail deer. Unfortunately, she didn't get very far, distracted by the light fur of her Aunt Osprey. Her aunt had been absent for a large part of her life, thought Ty knew that her father and Osprey had gotten along well enough. He'd named one of his daughters after her, hadn't he?

Trotting up to her kin, Ty wagged her tail and barked in her aunt's direction to garner her attention. It seemed Osprey was looking curiously at the ground, which made Ty wonder if her aunt was looking for food. That was usually the reason wolves looked at the ground like that, wasn't it?

ooc: I hope that Ty comes back eventually. Otherwise Osprey misses her chance to get to know her younger relatives all the time.

Osprey had this odd thing about her that she jumped and had an exaggerated reaction to sudden and loud sounds. Therefore it wasn't a very good idea to bark behind her back, especially, when she was so focused at doing something. She jumped, momentarily lost her balance and fell face-first in the hole. Luckily for her - the ground there was soft sand, but it didn't change the fact that she had hit her nose (which was painful) and her eyes, mouth and nostrils were full of sand.

"Geez," she groaned, rolling to lie on her side and then pawed at her face in order to get the sand out, which, of course, didn't do much to improve the situation. "Arghh..." Osprey let out another groan, which was followed by a spell of sneezes. Ten in total - one after another.

Tytonidae gasped when her aunt fell face-first in the sand, immediately rushing to her side and whining in apology. “Sorry!” she said, tail tucking between her legs and ears flattening. “I didn’t mean to scare you!” Aunt Osprey then began to sneeze over and over. So much so that Ty was worried that she had somehow caused her to come down with an incurable case of sneezing. When it finally stopped, Ty backed away, still looking rather sheepish.

“Are you… okay?” she asked. Wishing to avoid eye-contact at all costs, she stared at the hole Osprey had been investigating. Curious, but not willing to do anything until she was sure Osprey was okay, she waited for confirmation that she hadn't caused any terrible damage.

With watery eyes, Osprey peeked up and saw a dark figure standing near her and asking questions. Her first instinct was that this was Peregrine, but then she reminded herself that he didn't have a feminine voice. "Been better," she admitted thumping the tip of her lightly. Then she rolled to her belly, pawed at her muzzle again and let out another big sneeze.

The older wolf had registered that the girl felt uneasy about this ordeal, even though nothing that bad had happened. "Sorry - I am a little jumpy, when someone sneaks behind my back," she smiled. "You must be Ty - right? Your full name is sort of complex, but I can't say that your parents haven't chosen an original one."

It wasn't until a smile tugged at Osprey's lips that Tytonidae relaxed and felt better about things. In response, Ty wagged her tail. Osprey was a mysterious figure to her, and not somebody she had spent much time with at all. She was one of Dad's sisters. Maybe his only sister, considering she was the only one Ty had met thus far. Idly, she wondered if he had other sisters and brothers out there. Atticus was, of course, one of them, but Ty hadn't met any of the others, and she could hardly boast that she knew Atticus on any real level.

“Yeah, Tytonidae,” she replied, careful to pronounce her name slowly and enunciate each syllable for her aunt. “You’re Osprey,” she said, confidence making a rare occurrence in her voice. “Dad’s sister,” she added, wanting Osprey to know that she knew who she was.

"Ty-too-nee-dee," Osprey spelled the name after girl had said out loud and memorized it for future knowledge. It was good that Peregrine didn't have that many children at the moment, for remembering all of them would be very difficult. She sometimes wondered, whether her parents, who had at least two dozens of kids in their lives recalled all their names and she hoped that they had. It wouldn't be very nice to realize that your own mom or dad greeted you like a stranger.

"Yup," she nodded in agreement. Of course, there were whole lot of them back in the Falcons and scattered around the world. The Redleaf-DiSarinno family tree kept branching in every single direction and it was needless to know them all, because only those, who were present, mattered the most. "So... the last time I saw you - you were a tiny little baby," she didn't mention the fact that at that time it had been hard to tell her apart from Junior. "My fault that I don't know much about you - do tell a little," her ears perked forward and she looked curiously at the girl. "And you can ask any question about me."

Tiny little baby? Tytonidae wondered if she could even remember back that far. She liked to think that she had a pretty good memory. Although she could remember her father mentioning Osprey on various occasions, she could not say that she remembered her aunt specifically. Blue had always been here, along with Atticus, but aside from that, she hadn't really known any other aunts or uncles. Did Fox fall into that category? She was Dad's special friend. Did that mean that Lasher also fell into that category? This whole family business was extremely confusing, so she shut her brain down before it overheated.

Talking about herself. Hm, that was always more difficult for Tytonidae than it had been for her sibling and cousins. At least now she had something she was working toward, which tended to be a reasonable conversation starter. “I think I’m gonna be a gamekeeper,” she announced softly, “Dad said it would be good.” Tytonidae was pretty sure it was the right thing to do, so she had begun to learn more about how to track the herd, what other things wolves could eat, and so on. “Are you a gamekeeper?” she asked. If so, perhaps she could learn a little something from her aunt.

Osprey couldn't boast of having a perfect memory, but she didn't remember herself being small. For her the world had been very big during her first days and then it had gradually shrunk to the current size. She had tried to imagine herself being anything like the bundles of fluff and joy Perry's kid had been just few months ago, but couldn't. For some reason it felt like she had always been like this - grown up.

"A gamekeeper," she knew this and that about the trade, but had never taken much interest in it. She was a self-sufficient hunter, a good one and her mom March Owl had made sure that all of her children knew the absolute minimum of knowledge to survive on their own. So - gamekeeper - was a very pack-oriented profession. "Not much - my mind is in the clouds more often than not - I wouldn't fit well in a serious position like this," which was true. She often found that imaginary things were more exciting than the real world she lived in.

“Oh,” Ty replied, disappointed that she would not be able to use her aunt to help her earn her trade. But perhaps Aunt Osprey had other things that she was good at. “Are you a healer like Aunt Beedubs?” she asked, referring to Blue Willow. That was the only other wolf Ty could think of who had a definite task. She couldn't really recall what Fox had done, if anything. Maybe she was just supposed to be a mother. Maybe that's why Osprey wasn't a gamekeeper.

It was the first time Ty found herself wondering what being a parent was like. Her own parents were near and dear to her heart (if not to her physical self), and her sister and cousins had been outraged when they learned that puppies may come in the springtime. Ty, on the other hand, had been excited. But those would be more siblings, not children of her own. Could she be both a gamekeeper and a mother someday? The thought was startling, but she couldn't get a handle on the answer, so she shut it out for now. She could ask her father when she went to see him.

It took a moment until Osprey realized, who "Auntie Beedubs" was, and when she did, she chuckled at the funny nickname. You would imagine an old witch-like and definitely fat lady with this kind of name and not Willow, who didn't remind any of that. "No... I know some plants, but Blue can do miracles - I can never be a match to her," this was true. She had never seen a more skilled healer in her life and her friend's talent was the closest thing she had witnessed to call magic.

"I am a lore-keeper or "the hag of stories"," she explained her trade and didn't expect herself to be admired by Tytonidae. Most people didn't understand that making a good story was just as hard work as... defending borders, for example. "I put various ingredients together and cook up tales, legends, stories, romances... whatever one's heart desires," she smiled.

Tytonidae had only ever heard a few stories in her lifetime, but each of them had been fascinating, and she had latched onto them in earnest. So when her aunt mentioned her lore-keeping and story-telling, Ty's jaw dropped open in awe and wonder... and Osprey hadn't even begun to recount a tale! Eager as ever, Tytonidae plopped her bum on the ground and looked expectantly at her aunt.

“Can you tell one now?” the young Redleaf-DiSarinno asked, hoping beyond hope that she would agree. Ty remembered her own mother telling her of the giants who pushed down the trees, creating the fallen logs that scattered the forest. And there was the strange wolf who had explained something about how there were strange gods living far below the earth. Oh! And the spider-like wolf who had explained that monsters were out to get her.

There is a saying about "putting the carrot before donkey's snout to make it walk". The same went for Osprey - you just had to say the magical words "Tell a story" and brighten her day. Besides running and hunting, story-telling was her passion and very convenient one too. If you needed legs and solid ground to race, a prey to look for, before you could bring it down, you could tell a story in just any kind of circumstances. All you needed was a person to listen and to amaze.

"Well - I can't cook, if I don't have ingredients," Osprey explained, sitting down and curling her tail around her paws. "Name few words and names you want to see in the story. Then I will be able to do the spell and you will have your story."

“Oh, hm...” Ty trailed off, furrowing her brow in concentration. She tried to think of words, but she felt at a loss. Why was it suddenly so difficult to come up with a few arbitrary words? She spoke plenty, so surely there were some words she could find. Huffing, she blurted out whatever she could think of. “Hawkeye, dandelions, giants… and… and… sunshine!” Tytonidae said, especially excited about her final word of choice. Now that she had given her words to Osprey, she pricked her ears forward and waited for the tale.

"Alright... wait a little bit. Magic needs time to be performed correctly and for it to seep in," Osprey explained and then closed her eyes. She repeated the chosen words in her mind over and over again, shutting out the rest of the outside world from her perception. After a while it was only her imagination and those words left. Then the images started to appear. First to connect were sunshine and dandelions - they reminded Osprey of spring and rebirth. The sun could be the central part. Giants... people tended to think of them as the bad guys and - of course - there were some, who weren't that nice, but wasn't that common in every kind of society?

A-a-a-and Hawkeye. Perry's former mate, who had disappeared alltogether eventually. It was a little peculiar to see that her offspring didn't hold any grudge at, how life had turned out for them. On the other hand - it was a good thing. Better to remember good times than hold on the bad. Therefore she will be heroine in this story. If Ty didn't have her mother around, then it would probably be nice for her to have a story, where she still lived and did good deeds.

"Very well," Osprey opened her eyes and smiled at the girl. "Before I start, there is one thing, however. Magic is like unruly child. At some points it worked good, at some it decided not involve. Therefore I will need your help to fill in some gaps. Will you be able to do that?" she wanted that this story would be Ty's just as much as it was going to be Osprey's.

Tytonidae leaned forward, putting more of her weight on her front paws than her haunches, as Osprey's mental wheels began to spin. She grew more and more excited for the story as the moments wore on, and when Osprey finally opened her eyes and asked Tytonidae to help her out, the Redleaf-DiSarinno girl nodded eagerly. “Of course!” she replied, her tail beating the ground in anticipation.

ooc: not at all. :)

"Wonderful!" Osprey replied cheerfully, happy that the girl had decided to take an active role in making the story. Passive listeners were good too, but you never knew, how much they heard of the story and how much they pretended to like it. If a story was a shared experience, it was special on a different kind of level.

"It was a long time ago - before my great-great-great-grandmother was born and quite possible that even longer than that. It was a time, when supernatural creatures freely roamed the Earth and it was a no big occasion, if you crossed paths with spirits, met a loudly snoring dragon having it's afternoon nap in the meadow or saw tiny dwarves and fairies running about their business.

At that time giants were found all over the lands, their numbers hadn't dwindled and they weren't prone to hide and became visible only, when they wanted to. They were big, gentle and a little dumb, but nevertheless good-natured creatures. They did silly things, in order to prove theories of their own kind. Like they would try to grab and gather clouds in a cave or throw a rock up in the sky to test, how high up it was.

There was one particular giant, who had collected many precious gems in his den, but he was fascinated by one, he couldn't get - the sun. His gems were beautiful and could shed colorful lights, but none of them gave warmth, gave life. So he wanted to have the sun to himself in order to create a gem that would be an equivalent to it.

There are many kinds of magic and the one that giant's posess is very special. Can you fill me in on what it can do?" she turned to Tytonidae, encouraging to give a contribution to the story.

Tytonidae's bum did a little wiggle on the ground when Osprey shouted out her glee for the participation of her listener. If anything, Ty was finding herself to be quite comfortable around her aunt, even if they had gotten off to a bit a rough and awkward start. Then again, it seemed that everybody she met started out that way. With her ears pushed forward, Tytonidae began to listen to her aunt's story about a time long, long ago.

Idle thoughts filled the girl's head as the story flowed smoothly from one sentence to the next. Who were the supernatural creatures? Were those like the gods that strange wolf had spoken of? Or were they the monsters that the other one had warned her about? As the story continued, Tytonidae tried to remember the last time she had seen her friends. Not Osprey Junior, Saena, Summer, or Pura, but the ones that nobody else could manage to see (sans her father). It was curious that they had slowly faded away, but they had done so with such grace that she had failed to even notice their absence. A sudden worry captured her, and she wondered if she had somehow made them angry with her.

Speaking of giants made her think of her mother, and Ty was reminded that she needed to revisit The Sunspire soon. She could see Summer again, perhaps, and maybe Hawkeye would be close so they could spend some time together as well. But her attention was turned back to Osprey when she mentioned that giants could be invisible if they wanted to. That was just like her friends! Maybe Osprey had seen them, too!

When Osprey explained what the giants would do for fun, Tytonidae gave a muffled giggle. But the story turned to focus on one particular giant, and Tytonidae realized that, up until this point, it had just been a setup for his story. It was not about all giants, but one in particular. This one hoarded gems for himself, something Tytonidae thought wasn't too terrible, so long as he was willing to let others look at them if they wanted to. But he also wanted to take the sun, and Ty grinned at that part. Now that she was older, she realized things like that weren't possible. But this was no fact or fiction story. It was simply a carefully woven fairy-tale.

“Mom said they can push down trees,” Tytonidae responded, wishing she could have thought of something on her own. While her mind was overly creative, she'd never been very confident in her creative abilities. Hopefully the answer would be enough for Aunt Osprey to continue the story.

Osprey's abilities to imagine things could be compared to a tree that had grown from a tiny seed and kept growing bigger and spreading branches everywhere. She had been born with a keen mind and eyes to sense, see and observe things most people thought of being unremarkable. From the very first moment, she had been able to arrange her little vocabulary of words in sentences, she had been asking questions about all kinds of things and circumstances. When adults couldn't quench her curiosity, she had managed to fill in gaps with her own guesses. So it had started... and this childish curiosity had remained with her, even though she had grown up a long time ago. Speaking of imaginary friends - she had had them too.

"That's just the thing they can do. Excellent," she praised Tytonidae for her contribution to the story. What was great about creating stories was the simple truth "you could never be wrong". So the girl's guess was just as valid as it would have been, if she had said, that "they walked around with machine-guns" - whatever it was anyway. "There aren't many creatures that can take trees down, are they?" she smiled at her and then went on.

"So in order to get to the sun, he began to build a pile of trees so high that he could climb up and take the desired gem from it's resting place. He worked day and night, pushing down a tree after tree and piling them up, but no matter, how high the pile was, the sun was just as far as it had been in the beginning.

So, when the giant realized that his job was pointless, he just sat down by his pile and began to cry. And a giant can "cry up" a whole lake. So it didn't take long, before there was a salty lake spreading around him long and far.

Every story needs an adventurer - and we have one coming our way just now. She was a young and adventurous wolf - it wasn't unusual at that time, when young wolves left their packs early, in order to learn more about the world and have an exciting life - full of danger, excitement and adventure.

Hawkeye - our heroine - was one of that kind. She had just won and banished an evil witch, who had enslaved the wolf-dwarf clan, become a little deaf in one ear and her sight had become a bit worse from a bad curse, but otherwise her spirits were high and she looked forward to the next quest. Imagine, how surprised she was, when she found a salty lake in the middle of the forest and a very sad and weeping giant sitting in the middle of it!

She didn't give much thought, but splashed through the lake of tears and went straight to the giant creature. Now... the magic decided to play a trick here and didn't reveal, what she said to him. What do you think - what could it have been?" she paused and cast an expectant glance at Ty.

Tytonidae actually couldn't think of any creatures that could bring down trees (besides giants, of course). Maybe a bear could, but it would depend on how big the tree was... and the size of the bear. Actually, Tytonidae figured that anybody could knock down a tree, so long as the tree was small enough. Now that was a concept that really boggled her mind, and she tried to figure out if that meant that anything was possible. If she could knock down a tree (however small) did that mean that she was a giant? Or did that only apply to the "real" trees that could be knocked down? Ty blinked, returning her attention to Aunt Osprey and listening to the next part of the story.

It seemed that this particular giant went on a tree-felling spree, which made Tytonidae wonder how many tiny trees she could knock down. Just one? Five? A dozen? Maybe she would have to give it a go once she was done listening to the story. But it seemed this particular giant was not so happy with his work. Mainly because he wasn't very good at it (or so Ty gathered). She had a feeling that if he'd just tried harder he would have been able to get to the sun for that... gem, or whatever it was. Ty's listening comprehension wasn't always so great when she got caught up in her own thoughts.

The giant had now gone and cried so many tears that he'd made a lake, something that made Tytonidae's jaw fall open. Was that how lakes came to be? Considering all the trees she'd seen knocked down, it kinda made sense that giants were probably lurking around. The fact that they could make them invisible explained why Ty had never seen one, too. The salty lake reminded her of the neverending lake, which was, in fact, the ocean. Not that Ty had ever really understood what was different about it (sans the taste). Osprey Jr. had lived near there for a little while, but it hadn't worked out in the end.

Another character entered the tale, and Ty immediately thought of her sister. Osprey Jr. had left Blacktail Deer Plateau when she was quite young, and it seemed like she was always out adventuring, seeking thrills, and so on. Tytonidae, on the other hand, had always been a bit of a homebody, never straying far from the plateau and often playing it safe. When her aunt explained that this wolf was Hawkeye, it all made sense. That must have been where her sister got all that enthusiasm for what she did, while Ty took after her father more.

Her aunt went on to explain how she'd lost some of her ability to see and hear, something that Ty was more or less unaware of about her mother. Although she did not know it, Ty really didn't know much of anything about Hawkeye. Sure, she was her mother, had lived in the plateau for the first part of her life, but beyond that, Ty knew only that she moved away and hadn't come back. Few personal details were ever revealed to her, and there was definitely some idolization on Ty's part for no reason in particular. She just always thought the best of those she knew (or perhaps, those she didn't know much at all).

It seemed Hawkeye had gone straight to the giant (the lake must not have been very deep, yet) and said something inaudible to whoever had witnessed such an event. Ty thought long and hard, trying to think of what her mother might have said to somebody who was a) much larger than her and b) crying. She liked to think that it would have been something cautious, but comforting, and she finally landed on this: “Momma told him that as long as he didn’t stomp on her, she would help him get the sun!”

In comparison to Junior, who seemed not to think very highly of her parents and Saena, who didn't mention her adoptive mother - Hawkeye - at all, probably for the same reasons she didn't like to call Kisu a "dad", it was heartwarming to see, how very dedicated and loyal Tytonidae was. She quickly linked the Hawkeye in the story to her own mother and there was no grudge, no disappointment in her voice, when she added her part of the story - her mom did, what all mom's did, when they saw a kid crying (even if it was a ten times bigger than her) - they offered to help. Even if it meant to bring the sun down from the sky.

Osprey offered a warm smile to her niece, nodded and continued:
"The giant couldn't stop the flow of tears immeadiately. He was still sobbing and his eyes were watery, when he looked at the small creature that had spoken to him. And he said to her - If I, who am so big, mighty and strong, couldn't get the sun down, what could you possibly do about that?

Hawkeye - of course - didn't have a plan hammered out and ready to be put in action, but she was neither one to give up easily, nor the one to break promises she had made. Therefore she sat down and thought for a long time, and then an idea occurred to her. First she asked - why do you want to have the sun down so badly?

The giant replied that he wanted to make a gem that was just as beautiful and shiny as the orb itself. The winters in his area were very long, cold and lonely - the sun rarely peeked through the thick blanket of clouds. He wanted to have his own sun then.

Hawkeye seemed satisfied to hear that, got to her feet and said to him - Follow me! The giant got to his feet and their began their way. Where giant took one step, our heroine had to take ten, but she was a sturdy wolf, who was used to travelling long distances. After a while they came to a place, where there was a lot of water.

At that moment the sun was setting, slowly reaching the horizon.
You see - Hawkeye said - every evening the sun goes to an island on the horizon - to have a rest and prepare for the next day. If we could get there, you could see the sun in person.

The giant seemed thoughtful, but then he nodded slowly. He was a good swimmer, therefore he got in the water, while Hawkeye was standing atop his head and they made their journey to the Land at the Horizon.

Now, what do you think could have happened along the way? My memory here is a little rusty, I know that they got, where they wanted, but something did happen."

Osprey seemed to like her contribution to the story, for which Tytonidae was grateful. It seemed so hard to please adults most of the time, so seeing her aunt actually incorporate her little bit of imagination into the story made the girl rather proud of herself. Not in an egotistical way, but more of a, "Look at me; I actually did something!" sort of way. Tytonidae was far from being too proud, considering she was much more meek than her other siblings (sans Pura, who had always been the odd man out—quite literally, considering he was the only male their age at the plateau).

The giant—the one in the story—asked Hawkeye how she could possibly help, and Ty immediately tried to predict the next part of the story. Would her mother use her super-vision to bring down the sun? Maybe, by being a little bit deaf, she could actually hear things that others could not. Tytonidae tried to imagine how that would help bring the sun down to the giant, but she couldn't quite figure out how. Instead, she waited for Osprey to continue speaking, eager to hear the next part of the story.

It sounded as though Hawkeye was going to wing it (at least in this tale), and Tytonidae could certainly see her mother doing that. Perhaps the only part that bothered Ty a little bit was the bit about Hawkeye not breaking promises. From what she understood, becoming mates with somebody was a promise to stay with them forever. Having not known the nitty gritty of her parents' separation, it didn't make sense that they had not stayed together. If Hawkeye really did keep promises... perhaps her father had not. It filled her head with all kinds of questions, but she allowed Aunt Osprey to continue talking.

When the giant was asked about why he wanted to bring the sun down from the sky, he answered by saying that he wished to make a mini-sun just for himself. To Tytonidae, this seemed awfully selfish, considering he would be stealing away the sun from everybody else for awhile just so he could have a mini version all to himself. That was hardly fair to the rest of the world, and Ty shivered at the thought of going without the sun for more than a night.

Whatever Hawkeye's thoughts were, the witness to the tale did not know them. Pretty soon, the pair—the giant and Ty's mother—were bounding toward some giant body of water. Tytonidae figured that this would be the ocean, and that they would somehow use that to bring the sun down... but she still wished that the sun did not have to be stolen away from everybody else.

But instead, Hawkeye—or rather, Osprey—began to explain that the sun simply took naps each evening way out on an island. Ty cocked her head at this information, only because it was a concept she had not heard of before. She knew the sun and moon switched places at dusk (and once more at dawn), but she had never thought that they got any rest. Did that mean that the moon slept in the evening, along with the stars? She could only assume that they did.

Tytonidae giggled at the mental image of her mother riding atop a giant's head, but she quickly quieted to allow Osprey to continue the story. The duo was heading (at an apparently mind-numbing speed) toward the island where the sun was about to take a nap. Her aunt then introduced a new, magical sounding place: the Land at the Horizon. Ty's face was full of wonder, picturing a place where the sun and moon would shake hands on their way to "work" each morning and again when they returned.

Another question was posed, this time about what had happened during their journey to the Land at the Horizon, and Ty furrowed her brow. She knew little of large bodies of water, and even less about the ocean, so that question was a little bit trickier for her. “Another giant was racing them to get there!” she proclaimed, thinking this would make a great twist to the story. In fact, this was the most fun Tytonidae had had since her friends had disappeared from her.

"Another giant?" Osprey looked a bit confused and thoughtful for a split of second, but then her expression returned to the confident one. "Of course," she exclaimed as a person, who has had it's "eureka" moment, when remembering something important. "And what a pesky and nasty giant it was, indeed," she added wincing.

"This was a giant that lacked any kind of imagination at all, therefore his specialty was stealing ideas from others and then telling everyone that they were his own," there was a hint of truth in the story, for Osprey had met one or two of these kind of people and felt both sorry for them, as well as despised them. "So, while Hawkeye and her friend-giant were talking in the forest, he had been sitting and hiding nearby, listening to everything they said. Then he followed them unseen and only, when the Land of the Horizon could be seen in the distance, did he make his attempt to race them to it."

"Of course, neither Hawkeye, nor her friend knew, who this giant was or what his intentions were. The only thing they did was to make their way to the island more quickly than the other. So they raced for a long time (because the Horizon was not that easy to reach - it's always located further than it seems at first), until the other giant became tired and he came up with a nasty plan.

He called out to the two friends and attempted to look like he was drowning. Neither Hawkeye's, nor the other giant's hearts were of steel, they steered around, swam towards the nasty one, in order to help. However, when they had got close enough, the nasty giant attacked the other giant. They got into a very bad fight and somewhere in the middle Hawkeye lost her balance and fell off her giants head into the water.

The water was deep, her body was heavy and she was drowning. However, this was not the end of the story. I know that the giants kept fighting for a long time and noticed the disappearance of the wolf only, when she was nowhere to be seen. But she was not dead, because this story has a good ending with all sides satisfied. Could you remind me, what could have happened to Hawkeye underwater?" she tossed the thread of the story to her niece once again.

For a split second, Ty thought she had given the wrong answer to Aunt Osprey's question. However, it quickly became apparent that adding another giant to the mix was not the worst idea, after all. Tytonidae leaned forward as her aunt continued to speak of the nasty, pesky giant who was now racing Hawkeye and the "good" giant to the island where the sun would take a nap. The young girl leaned forward, eager to hear how this would be entwined with the rest of the story. Thankfully, she did not have to wait long before her aunt was telling the next segment of the tale.

The other giant seemed like an icky creature, indeed. Instead of thinking for himself (or herself—Osprey hadn't mentioned whether it was a boy or a girl), he went around stealing ideas and pretending they were his own. How wretched! Tytonidae scrunched up her face at the thought of such a terrible beast. It seemed as though this second, no-good giant had been there since the very beginning (or close to it) and had been plotting to follow them this whole time. Now, the two giants were racing toward the island as fast as they could, and Ty was eager to hear the outcome, whatever it happened to be.

Tytonidae thought that Hawkeye and her giant friend would win, only because she was the protagonist in the story, and it would only make sense for her to be the victor. Most stories that Ty had heard thus far had ended happily, so she had come to expect it. Still, the journey was half the fun, and she soaked it in as her aunt explained that the nasty giant was up to no good (as nasty giants are prone to be). Ty tried to figure out what he might do. Would he try and cut them off? Sick some sea-beast on them? Attempt to drown them?

What he did was, in the young DiSarinno's mind, even worse! He pretended to be drowning, and then used that as some clever scheme to get the good giant and Hawkeye to help him... only to turn on them! What a wretched, terrible creature he was, and Ty grimaced as Osprey spoke of Hawkeye getting lost in the water. How on earth was her mother supposed to survive in the middle of the neverending salty lake? Ty's front toes dug into the ground, hoping that this one would have a happy ending.

Her aunt explained that this story definitely did have a good ending, and Ty pricked her ears forward. How would the heroine escape the depths of the great salt lake? This was going to require some serious thinking, and the younger girl pondered this for a long couple of minutes, trying to come up with something that was worthy of her aunt's story. Ty furrowed her brow, feeling the gears in her brain turning as she tried to figure out a proper escape for Hawkeye. “She found… she found an air fish. It makes air so you can breathe under the water.” It felt like a weak response, but Ty was hopeful that it would allow the tale to continue.

"An air fish? Oh, yes, an airfish it was," Osprey nodded, liking the way of how Tytonidae contributed to the story. She didn't say much, yet the silver threads she offered, made the tale even more interesting and challenging for her aunt. But since she loved nothing better than a good "spar of the tales", she metaphorically cracked her knuckles and went on telling the story of the brave Hawkeye.

"The touch was as light as a tickle of a whisker, yet all of a sudden, Hawkeye found that her head was enwrapped in a bubble of air. Her lungs and mouth cleared of water all by themselves and after few laboured attempts she managed to recover and breather normally again. She blinked and looked around to find the creature that had helped her, but the air fish had vanished.

Now - being underwater (frankly speaking, very deep below) - she tried to decide, what to do next. She tried to move her paws and tail - it came harder than on the ground, but she found that she could move. Hawkeye craned her neck to look at the surface above, but the light was so far away that she couldn't even tell, if she would be able to get back there or not.

Suddenly a chorde of little, moving and twinkling stars caught her sight. Momentarily forgetting the two giants that were fighting above, she swam towards them curious to find out, what they were. She was slower than the lights, though, therefore she never got any closer than being able to view from a distance. Yet she had an inner feeling that it was very important to follow them, so she did.

It took a very long time and a very long way, but finally the tiny little lights disappeared in a dark cave, Hawkeye went after them and found herself in large place of several dark tunnels that led in every possible direction. She gave a little thought and took one that was the nearest to her. It went upwards and downwords, it crossed other tunnels, it got wider and sometimes it was so small that the brave wolf had to take all her might to squeeze through.

It was a very difficult journey - but Hawkeye was known for not fearing any danger. She didn't give up and soon was rewarded for that. Because when the tunnel ended, she found herself in a big lake. She got out just in the right moment to see a firey creature climb down from the sky and walk on the land. At that moment our adventurer knew that she had arrived at the Land of the Horizon and that she was seeing the Sun herself," so far, so good. Hawkeye had made it to the island.

But what had happened to the giants? It was Ty's turn to improvize. "So Hawkeye is on the island, but we have two giants still fighting. Neither of them dies and both of them got to the island somehow. Do you - by any chance - can guess how? Because I have no valid idea," Osprey asked her and waited, where would the story lead them next.