Chimney

When her aunt questioned the air fish, Ty opened her mouth to pull back her original suggestion. However, it was accepted, and Tytonidae smiled, happy that she could add something of value to her aunt's story. The airfish had done its job, allowing Hawkeye to breathe beneath the water and escape from drowning, and Ty exhaled, unaware that she'd been holding her breath as the story was told.

However, the heroine was not yet able to escape the depths of the ocean, seeing as she was so far down, even if she wasn't drowning any longer. Ty licked her lips, eager to see how Hawkeye would make it out of that particular conundrum. The story version of her mother was soon making her way toward a mysterious cluster of lights, though Tytonidae had no idea what they could be. She had seen stars, of course, and perhaps a few lightening bugs, but could they live under water? Were there other glowing underwater creatures?

Then, Hawkeye was swimming through all kinds of underwater tunnels, some so small she could barely fit through them, and Ty bit her lip, worried that the protagonist might get caught in one of the said tunnels and give herself a whole new set of problems to deal with. Thankfully, she made it through the tunnels without too much of a problem, and Ty's tail beat against the ground when Osprey revealed that she was no on the land where the sun took naps.

And now it was up to Tytonidae to continue the story. How could two fighting giants get to the island? Ty squinted, the little mouse on its wheel inside her head running as fast as it possibly could while she attempted to dream up a scenario where neither of them died and both of them came to the island. Then, just like that, an idea came to her. "It turns out," she began, "that they were actually brothers. And when their mother saw them fighting, she made the both of them stop and go to the Land of the Horizon and apologize for putting Hawkeye in so much danger."

Adding an angry mother as a plot twist was something Osprey would have never thought of, had she made a story on her own. She wouldn't tell that to anyone, but at this moment Tytonidae had beat her and was standing a step ahead of her. Her aunt pressed her lips together, narrowed her eyes to slits and thought hard, trying to find a reasonable place, where she could fit the mother in. Because she had appeared out of the blue.

"So... while Hawkeye stands amazed by the sight of the setting sun in the Land of Horizon, the two giants keep fighting. Both are of equal strength and neither of them gains an upper hand. They grow tired, but do not give up. So the sun goes down, it gets darker and all of a sudden a booming voice from above tells them: "If you don't stop fighting right this instant, I will take you and hang you by your tails upside down! Now - MOVE!"," Osprey attempted to make an angry voice, yet she couldn't hold the laughter off.

"As a side note - there is something little kids must know about their mothers - they see everything. And if wolf moms sometimes don't, then mothers of the giants really do. They see and hear everything, what her kids do - no matter the age. Therefore - of course - the two of them got scared, because angry mom-giant is not a pretty sight to see, nor her anger is great to experience. They obeyed, forgot their argument and made their way to the island," there Osprey sighed, feeling happy that she had got out of the tricky situation.

"In the meanwhile Hawkeye had found out the den, where the sun took rest during the night, and realized that as it lands on Earth it takes a form of a creature - it isn't and orb anymore. It was also clear that it was too big to be stolen or to find out, what it was made of. Therefore she tried to figure out a way around that. Because a word she had given to the giant was a word and you couldn't break it no matter, how hard and impossible the task turned out to be," she said.

"At that moment the two giants arrived at the island - dripping wet, awfully tired, but luckily they had forgotten their initial qualms. Hawkeye, who had taken a walk along the beach to think, stumbled upon them. She was angry at first for them almost killing her - she made her mind clear about the matter, and then she went on telling them, what she had found out. They all sat down and talked through the night of how to achieve, what they wanted and in the end they came up with a grand plan," here Osprey stopped and cast an expectant glance at Ty.

"The story is near the end, but there is one important thing missing - how do you think they capture the sun to get, what they wanted?" Osprey asked her.

ooc: I will finish the story in the next post and then we can put an end to this very long thread. Needless to say - I have enjoyed this thoroughly! :)

This is going to be my last (and short!) post, since Ty is going into PPC mode for a little while. Thank you for such a wonderful and inspiring thread! Feel free to powerplay Ty's dispersal or just have them go off and do something fun together. ^__^

Tytonidae listened with rapt attention, soaking in each word as the story progressed. She could feel that the story was coming to a natural close, and even though a part of her wished that it could have gone on forever, she knew that everything must come to an end eventually. Aunt Osprey was really the best storyteller she'd ever known, and it was going to be difficult for anybody to surpass her in that department.

Once again, the story paused and Tytonidae thought long and hard about the answer. How could anybody possibly capture the power of the sun. And if they did, wouldn't that mean that the day would no longer be bright? “Maybe…” Ty trailed off, trying to form some sort of explanation. “What if they took pelts and wrapped it up? Could they carry it away then? And would the sunshine go away forever?”

No matter the outcome, Ty would most certainly be amazed. And she planned on thanking her aunt profusely for such a great tale.

"Excellent!" Osprey exclaimed, when Ty offered her share of the story. "It was just the thought of Hawkeye. While wandering in the island, she had found a giant pelt left by a giant creature, who had many of them. There are such animals that shed their pelt and grow a new one. I don't know, what they are called, but they sure lived on that island too.

The two giants found and took the pelt, brought it to the shore and waited for the sun to wake up in the morning. It did several hours later and, once the fiery creature made it's first steps on the shore, Hawkeye yelled the command and giants threw the pelt on the sun and wrapped it in tightly. However, you might know, how very hot the sunlight can be, so very soon the pelt heated up too.

Hawkeye - seeing that they might not have enough time to keep the sun trapped, because the pelt could catch fire and burn, told the two giants to throw it in the water. They did and as the pelt with the sun inside disappeared, the world grew very dark. Only then did they realize, what they had done. None of them said a word for several moments, staring at the place, where they had thrown the sun in.

It might seem that this was the end - but since the sun still rises every morning - something must have happened. It did. The surface of the water grew lighter and lighter, the water heated up to the point that hot steam wrapped everything around them. A second later the sun emerged and jumped up high in the sky, continuing it's way, as if nothing had happened.

"I am sorry that I failed my quest," Hawkeye told the giant, feeling sorry for not being able to keep her promise. The giant and his brother were sad, of course, but they had learned that you can't always get, what you want, and sometimes it is for the best. Therefore they held no grudge at Hawkeye and once the water cooled down enough for them to make their way back, they did.

When they reached the other shore, they found something big lying in the sand. It was the pelt, but what was more curious, there were thousand little, shiny gemstones attached to it. They were beautiful and gleamed just as beautifully as the sun in the sky. Their colors ranged from bright yellow to deep brownish-orange shade - reminding of various phases of sunrise and sunset.

In the end they had got, what they wanted - the giant had got his gems and Hawkeye had fulfilled her promise. The giant's brother - well, he had learned that a life of adventure was just the kind for him. He and Hawkeye became good friends in the end and had many adventures together. What were they is a tale for another day," Osprey finished happy that this story had come to an end. Looking back - this probably was the longest tale she had ever told to anyone.

"This story-telling makes me hungry," she got to her feet and stretched. "Let's be villains and raid some caches," she smiled at her niece and together they spent a very nice afternoon. The end.