She stuck close to the plateau for a few days, though it wasn't long before Osprey Jr. set out again, keen to explore. At first, she'd done this simply in the hopes of earning another apprenticeship. Now, she went out due to genuine curiosity and a growing sense of wanderlust. She enjoyed coming home to the plateau each night, yet she felt the unknown calling out to her. The wilderness beckoned her to roam.
Today, she bypassed the hot springs and ventured into the forest on the other side. These woods were not unlike the ones at home, though there were many more evergreen trees here than found on the plateau. They lent the quiet air a spicy scent that made Junior think of winter, even though she'd never experienced the season herself. The scent spoke to her instincts, stirring a knowledge passed down to her by thousands of generations of ancestors who'd toiled through the cold seasons to discover spring on the other side.
Junior came to a thick growth of yews laden with juicy red berries. She nosed them, yet that same instinctual knowledge warned her from tasting them, for they could be toxic. Nonetheless, she found herself bumping several of the clusters off their branches and using her black forepaws to shuffle them together in a pile. Perhaps if she figured out a way to transport them back home, her aunt could find some medicinal use for them.
It was rare that the raven matriarch flew alone. Her guards always insisted that they follow her everytime she flew somewhere else. It was a formality of being Matriarch, but the warrioress hated it. This time, when she went to stretch her wings and explore the new lands they planned on taking for food, the battle queen hissed at her honor guard to stay and protect her kingdom instead of herself. She was not Erebus who was too pathetic to fly alone, too weak to even fight.
The one-eyed queen flew beyond Blackfeather Woods, eye squinting in the sudden light. She always felt uncomfortable leaving the dark woods and being in all of this brightness. Morrigan flew on regardless, her broad black wings cutting through the air. The queen continued northwest, past the nearby Heartwood to the next dark forest in Teekon, Neverwinter.
She landed in a yew bush, eyes readjusting to the darkness. Pawing gently at her empty eyesocket, the raven queen spotted something at the bottom of the deadly bush, rustling through its contents. A wolf pup? The raven clacked her beak in annoyance. Did no one tell this pup that yew berries are deadly?
Ceasing and desisting, Osprey dropped thoughtfully to her rump, contemplating some way to get the small batch of fruit back to the plateau. Perhaps she could find a leaf large and broad enough that she could wrap them inside it and carry it, like a package? That seemed like something an Outrider would do: make a delivery. The thought made her smile. But the pup didn't know how on earth she would go about bundling it together like that.
Still, it was worth a try. Rising onto all fours again, the pup moved away from her harvest, padding deeper into the woods in search of a tree that bore large leaves.
She was curious as to what the pup thought to accomplish on bringing poisonous berries to wherever it lived. The raveness glided after the young wolf, following its path and then intercepting her, landing in another tree. She cawed to get the girl's attention before she spoke.
"Why are you gathering yew berries? They're deadly.." She was never cross with young creatures. While she was a blood-thirsty tyrant to her enemies, a stern and unforgiving leader to her followers, the raven queen had a soft spot for children that she could never understand.
Soon enough, her gaze dropped back to scour the terrain at eye level. The forest floor was covered in soft soil, pine needles and a light scattering of leaf litter. She paused and began to nose around, hoping to unearth a particularly large leaf from the jetsam.
Curiosity and fatigue drove her to land. Not too far from the black bird, in fact, just on an opposite branch of the tree. She watched with curiosity at the juvenile for a moment before looking at the raven, who seemed quite curios as to what the wolf was doing.
She ruffled her feathers. She was fluent in owlish and wolfish, not whatever the raven's cawed... but maybe... they could form some kind of communication? For all she knew, their languages could be similar, they WERE both birds...
"You interested in what that little wolf is doing?" She spoke in owlish, which would only be a clutter of hoots to those uncommon to it. Something itched her though. Had she met that wolf before?...
Owls were rare in Blackfeather. They had no interest in the dark woods, since there was barely any small prey to be had there. And besides, who would live in a forest full of bloodthirsty birds. The one-eyed raven queen turned to the barn owl, only half understanding the owlish dialect. She spoke in her own raven tongue though kept aloof. She had no reason to talk to this night hunter. "Yes. Though its none of your business, owl." She growled.
Morrigan looked down at the pup again, still confused as to what this girl's purpose was. Thinking back to her lessons in wolfspeak, she cawed at the pup in the wolf tongue. "What are you doing, gathering yew berries like that?" It was awkward and stilted, but she got her point across quite well.
After nosing around in the debris on the forest floor a while, Junior did not find what she was looking for and sighed as she dropped onto her haunches. She bent her neck to the left and right, working out a bit of a crick. As she did so, she noticed the blackbird still sitting in the treetop a dozen yards behind her. There was an owl across from it now. Junior's eyes lingered curiously on the large raptor, though she did not recognize Aryn from their brief encounter in her infancy.
Then the blackbird turned to look at her and clacked its beak, only this time Junior made out words. Mismatched eyes blinked in surprise and the pup took a few steps back toward the trees where the birds perched. It made her neck ache but she bent her head back to maintain visual contact.
"Uh," she said, not sure how to react to the speaking bird. "What?" Without waiting for an answer, she shook her head and continued plodding through the woods. She would eventually return to her berries but, for now, she was unwilling to give up on finding that perfect leaf.