ooc: @Keyx
Osprey had finally given in to the trade trend that existed in virtually all packs. Had her player not been so lazy during the past year, she would have gotten her first shiny icon just above her avatar already. Aside from that - she proudly wore the title Chroncler. There was this odd word "journeyman" attached to it, which made little sense to her, but it seemed that just the fact that her mind was whizzing with stories and that she had told a great many deal of them in the past, didn't mean that she didn't have to prove her skills here.
So, on a particularly cold winter night, when it had got too uncomfortable to sleep outside, she left the plateau behind to venture in the flatlands. The sky was clear and dark blue, there were countless stars and the moon was shining big and bright. Mesmerized by the beauty of it, she soon found a little hillock to sit on and watch the sky. She recalled Charon telling her that he could chase star stories - when she closed her eyes for a moment, she imagined that she could hear their voices. Faraway and speaking in foreign tongue.
Finally, it seemed the night had come to show it's stars to the dark owl. He'd been spending too much time out in the sun, which had made him tired each night, but now he was wide awake. The time for him to learn the way the stars laid in the new area was now, so he'd set out from his temporary home in the nook of a large tree to fly through the sky. A bit of hunting was in order, too, but he was willing to wait for that just to learn the stars. The constellations that were out, the way the winds moved and so on. As a Navigator, he needed to learn all her could, especially since he was alone and without a parliament in the Wilds.
The young boy had made his way into the flatlands, where the he had the greatest bit of access to the stars, and got to work. It didn't take long, however, before the something furry caught his eye. The creature he recognized as a wolf seemed to glow silver in the moon's light, which was enough to take hold of Keyx's interest. He'd met only one other wolf since his arrival, who had been rather nice, leaving him unsure of how to confront this new being. That did nothing to stop him from flying down towards her, but he landed a large enough distance away so he would have time to fly off if necessary. He noted that she appeared to be stargazing, which he'd never would have guessed a wolf would do. Did they use the stars to navigate too? He wanted to know. “The stars, are they helpful to you and your kind?”
When it came to friends, Osprey had been raised with a simple truth in mind. If there was even a remote chance that you were going to eat it at some point, don't become friends. Of course, if you exaggerated it, then the only harmless way to live was being a hermit, who made friends with no one. If you stood within lines and had a good and comfortable life - her kind worked really well. She was therefore reluctant to make acquaintances with other predators, prey animals or even birds, who didn't hold the top place in the menu. Because of this she considered all other animals (with few exceptions) not sentient beings.
So, whenever a fellow from the other kind approached and spoke to her, she always received it with mixed feelings. Part wonder and surprise, part arrogance and the feral instinct to kill on sight. Lucky for the brave owl, who had addressed Osprey now, he was a safe distance away. She couldn't harm him, even if she wanted, knowing too well that she would not be fast enough to reach it in time and catch it. Damn those wings and the ease they had, when flying. "Some say they are, some say they ain't," she replied, lying down and eyeing the feathered being with interest. "Why do you ask?"
Keyx should be grateful for his wings, had he not had them he probably would have become someone's dinner by now. The way the other felt was something unknown to him entirely, as not even a “wise old owl” had the ability to read minds. It would have been a pretty cool thing to be born with, but such a thing did not exist. On the off chance such a thing did exist, however, and this very owl possessed such a skill, he would have questioned the wolf's mindset entirely. Those he grew up around often saw their prey as having no emotions or ability to feel, but on occasion someone would come along and question it. They could not understand one another, that was true, but did that always mean those unable to be understood felt nothing? Keyx had never been too sure about that, but never questioned it either. He simply went along with the idea that prey animals could not feel anything. Seeing himself as a fellow predator, and not something to be preyed on, he would most likely not understand why the wolf felt he would not be a sentient being, but maybe the mouse he ate the night before would have been asking the same thing had in not met a tasty fate.
The response to his question was followed by a question itself, not even leaving enough time in between for the boy to nod without looking like a fool. So, he stopped himself before his head could start to bob, in order to answer the lupine's inquiry. “Out of curiosity, I guess. I've never seen a wolf stargazing before.” It was a curious thing, still, that a wolf would be taking the time to admire and look above at the stars. “What do you think?” he asked her, head tilting. “Do you think they are helpful, or do you not?”
Osprey had never toyed with the idea that wolves and those predators that were smaller than them could belong to the same group. Sentient beings, capable of complex ideas and thought. The magpie she had met once had been able to talk and convey simple sentences, but did it mean that it had intellect? That could compare in any way to the one wolves had? Then again - there were fearsomer predators than wolves - bears and cougars, who would occasionally attack and eat them. Did they consider themselves as the ultimate intelligent creatures? She would never find out, unless such a question troubled her at some point in her life.
The owl, however, sounded surprisingly smart, and Osprey briefly wondered, if this was not some sort of forest spirit that had taken a form of an owl. "You haven't?" she lifted her eyebrows. The chosen words weren't the ones that had confused her. The way he had said - as if his kind did it and hers didn't. "Stars... I have heard that they are helpful to some. There are people that can actually read them," her own father had held such a skill. Unfortunately this as well as her mother's encyclopedic knowledge of brids weren't passed on to Osprey. "I draw inspiration from them. I like to think that each one of them is a story to be discoevered and told," she shrugged. "What about you?"
In a new land far from home, it seemed almost easy for him to seem smart. The barn owl had always been the odd one who had his head stuck up in the clouds, but everything seemed to change after he'd left. He'd started to focus on his small creations and his skills for navigation, and he no longer felt like he was at the bottom of the hierarchy. Sure, he was still far from being at the top and acting as the smartest of the bunch, but the fact that he was no longer at the bottom was good enough for the boy.
Keyx gave a slight shake of his head, the motion a small one. As he was told that some could read the stars, his interest was piqued almost instantly. Stargazers read the stars one way, but Navigators also got to read them a different way. He wondered if the wolf could do anything like that, but then felt he received an answer to his unasked question when he was told she drew inspiration from them. The owl didn't know of a title for those who just drew inspiration from stars, so he chalked her up to possibly being a dreamer, of sorts. “Others that read the stars are very helpful, but no one back home ever seemed to just pull inspiration or stories from them.” Saying it out loud was rather disappointing for him, and he found himself wondering just what types of stories the stars might hold, if they even held any. “I use the stars to help me navigate, and I also helped those in my Parliament when I was with them. We find constellations and certain stars that help guide us in all months and seasons to wherever we want to go. They're very helpful!”
Navigation? This piqued Osprey's interest and she expressed it by looking at the little fellow with a totally different gaze. If it had been mildly interested and curious before, then now there was a tint of respect and wonder in it. It was rare for the wolf to feel something like that towards a creature that didn't belong to her kind. Yet the more the owl spoke, the more intelligent it seemed. It was probably a good reason to revise her prejudiced views about the fellow hunters.
"That's, why I like stars - everyone can find something meaningful in them. You just have to observe and see," she shared her ideas. Stars didn't have one purpose only. Besides drawing inspiration, navigation, reading the future there probably were hundreds of other ways of how one could use the knowledge these shiny orbs offered. "Do tell more about navigation - how do you do it exactly?" she was curious about this - perhaps this knowledge (if the owl agred to elaborate on the subject) would come in useful in one of her longer journeys in the future.
If the owl would have been able to learn that the wolf was starting to see him as being intelligent, he would have wasted no time in acting out in a joyous manner. A miniature celebration, even, depending on how great he found the compliment to be. Lucky for them both, the wolf didn't seem to have any plans of sharing her inner opinion with him. If she ever had, the owl surely would have made a pact with himself to follow her around constantly to share more of his limited knowledge, and try to earn himself more compliment-like words.
“They are amazing things, aren't they?” Keyx said, question entirely rhetorical as a sense of wonder filled his voice. Without the stars, the night skies would be bland and he would have a large chance of getting lost often. It would be a terrible thing. Thankfully, the stars didn't seem like they'd be going anywhere anytime soon, leaving all those on the earth to come up with their own thoughts and uses for them. Speaking of uses... the boy smiled the best he could at the woman's inquiry, more than happy to share what he knew with her. “It takes a good big of practice, and a lot of memorizing,” he started, his head twisting about until his dark eyes landed on the North star. With his right wing, he pointed it out in the sky. “That star is called Polaris, and it's always pointing North. Many of us use it to get an outline of what direction we're heading in.” He pulled his wing back against his body, and his head started to twist around some more until it landed on a group of stars—a constellation, if you will. His wing moved out again to point to a line of three stars. “We also look at the constellations to figure out what area we are in, and they also tell us the seasons and what weather to expect if we are in a neutral climate at the time. That is Orion's Belt,” he said, wing moving some more until it was pointing above and to the left of Orion. “That is Gemini.”
Over his short life, he needed to memorize as much as he could to be successful as a Navigator, and honor his parents. Keyx didn't want to end up being the disappointment of the family, so he'd worked hard, in his own way. Once again, his wing was pulled back to his body, and his head turned right around to rest on the silver lupine once more. “Over time, you can relate certain constellations and lone stars to directions you need to go that point you towards places you need to be.”
Osprey's father Aether had been able to read constellations and gain a lot of information from them. About the weather, a bit about the future and a lot more about the past. He could even tell stories - just point out to a star and he would know, what it was and why. She had been amazed by this skill and she had wanted to master it for a while, but had not had enough patience. In the end she had found that her inner world offered a lot more opportunities without the risk of making mistakes than the real one. Stars and constellations included.
But now, as the owl explained, how the stars worked in practical terms, she was captivated. She found the brightest star - Polaris - with ease and memorized the simple fact that it always pointed North. She got a little confused though, when he mentioned Orion's belt and Gemini, because she did not understand, what to look for - a star, stars or a specific figure. Therefore her initial enthusiasm faded a bit. "Wow... that sounds brilliant, amazing..." she told him, when he had finished talking. "But do you mind... that Orion's belt... or Gemini - what is it, what does it look like?" she asked, feeling a little unsure.
The owl young owl had, pretty much, rambled on about the stars, shooting off word after word. It never dawned on him that the other might not know exactly what to look for when he went on about two constellations, as it was common knowledge among the owls he'd grown acquainted with. The realization came to him when the wolf inquired what they were, as well as what they looked like. For a second, he just looked at her, unsure if there was a chance she might be joking about not knowing. When nothing of the sort was found, though, he knew he would need to explain. Hopefully his words telling of what they looked like would allow her to see them, but if they didn't, he told himself he'd work up the courage to land on her and move her head to see them himself. The albino wolf had allowed him to settle on her back without a problem, so maybe this new wolf wouldn't mind either. Keyx knew that to be unlikely, so he would explain as best he could to avoid that situation.
"Orion's Belt is what is around the waist of the Orion constellation," the boy started. "Start at Polaris, then slowly turn to look to the Southeast until three stars in a line come into view. That is Orion's Belt, and you can see the stars surrounding it as Orion himself. He was a hunter, like us." Keyx was enjoying sharing what he knew, especially when the lupine seemed a bit interested in it, rather than just asking to be polite. "If you looks up from his belt and to his left shoulder, you'll be able to see the star known as Betelgeuse. It isn't as bright as Polaris, but is still noticeable enough. That takes you to the feet of the Gemini constellation. Gemini are twins, but legend says they had different fathers. Weird, huh?" The stars that created the twins, as well as the story behind them, was one he held a fondness for. It was due to him seeing himself as being able to relate to it, though he shares no similarities with him. It just speaks to him on some level, and the myth always caught his interest.
ooc: I checked the constellation and found out that without knowing I have seen it in the nightsky before. The stars that form it always reminded me a sickle. Now I know that it's, in fact, Orion's belt. High-five for the new knowledge! :)
It was a good thing that Osprey knew at least one star in the sky - the Polaris, the brightest one. Now that she thought more about it, she recalled that her father had told her about it before and that it had a very nice name too. Different yet a bit funny and she had made jokes about it being the "Serious star of them all". Sirius was the right name though.
She followed the owl's description and her initial fear that she would quickly get lost in, what he was telling to her, disappeared, once she caught sight of the aforementioned three stars in the line. Osprey gave out a little joyous "woof" for her discovery. Happy as a kid, who had got hang of a game, she found the Betelgeuse too. Or what she thought it was.
However, she did not see Gemini, because there were so many stars around it and she had no idea, where to start to look for it. But the little story that the owl told her made up for the disappointment she felt for her failure. Then something occurred to her: "I remember now... my father said that there were bears living in the sky too. Do you know, where to see those?"
Woo for new knowledge! :D Sorry for the wait on this, by the way! I research the stars a bit more before replying to this thread each time, and hadn't had the time to do that until now.
The young owl smiled in the best way he could when he heard the noise the wolf made. He didn't quite understand it, as he did not possess nearly as much knowledge on wolves as he did, say, the stars. Even Keyx, despite not being entirely sure of what the noise meant, could tell that the tone of the sound was a joyous one, and he felt happy because of that. It was nice being the teacher, he'd admit to that, and was experiencing second-hand joy through the woman as she followed what he was telling her. The boy had found it strange, at first, that the girl did not know much about stars, especially since he had always thought other animals relied on them just as much as owls. Now, however, he could sort of understand it (not really, but his mind is at least pretending to), and found it a great feeling being useful to a creature that could have very well eaten him, had he been close enough to her.
When the bears of the stars were mentioned, Keyx had to think for a second. His large, dark eyes traveled up to the sky, quickly locating Polaris. He extended a wing to point to the star with the tips of his feathers, before turning his head to look back to his fellow stargazer. “Ursa Minor and Ursa Major are the bears of the stars, and also referred to as the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper at times. Polaris marks the tip of the little bear's tail, and the rest of his body trails above him.” Once again, the owl turned his head so he could look in the sky again, then adjusted his wing so it was pointing to the Big Dipper. “Look West slightly, and down a little bit, and you'll see the big bear.” Keyx pulled his wing close to his body again, but his optics stayed stuck to the stars above. Without them, there's a good chance he would lose his way frequently, so he was glad they existed. Deep down, the owl hoped that his new found friend would be able to get a use out of them as well, and maybe even start to recognize certain constellations with direction to different places; much like he and the other Navigators do.
Osprey felt a little disappointed, when she didn't see the promised "bears" in the sky right away and only, when she reminded herself that the constellations didn't appear, what their title told to in the beginning. You had to take a bit of imagination to add the missing details, give a form and substance to the geometrical figure and only then did you see the picture that was carefully hidden among the stars. Dipper was a foreign concept to Osprey, but she put two plus two together and understood that it had something to do with dipping. Like your tongue in the water, when you wanted to have a drink.
Therefore after a bit of watching, observing and counting she thought she had caught the Little Bear by the tail. It didn't look much like a bear at all, but still... The big bear, however, despite her best efforts remained obscured in the nightsky. "And how... besides the Polaris... you can tell, where you are? I mean... don't the constellations move?" she asked the little Navigator to share his wisdom.
Osprey spent another good hour listening, how the little companion revealed the secrets and knowledge of the stars. That night, before falling asleep, she thought long and a lot about, what the owl had told her, her muzzle lifted upwards to see the stars better and to follow the invisible lines that connected them, bringing the scattered dots to order, drawing images and telling stories.
ooc: editted an ending, since the character has gone inactive.