♠ Ju/st/ [A]nother N i g h t...? ♠, <J: u -s t I(m)a G'' ine>

[Wanderer]

It was just another night; at least, that’s what all the owls of Fire Tree believed.

The summer sky was filled with the gentle malevolence of the night: the eyes of glaumora were softly shining upon the land and a half moon—part glowing silver and part pure darkness hung with barely a crescent of a bite out of the soft circle of the moon. A shade of ghostly white dimly lit the twisting branches of Fire Tree. The lavender clouds were far from the light of night, drifting along with the warm thermals and cool haggish winds through the black night; darker than the eyes of a Barn Owl. Yes, the misty vapours were far away, wandering free of the winds not taking into account anything. They were indeed distant from Earth, but more than that, they seemed distant from the sky. They appeared like cold orphan vagrants, refusing their need for help and always darting away from the light of day.

Wanderyb knew what it had been like.

He had faced being orphaned for a while in his life. It had led to gentle meditation, and frankly, he was glad. Still, it had been hard without the chatter of owls during those mournful times. He had been far too happy to see his good friends back at Fire Tree. And when he had been made the ryb of weather-interpretation he knew he had truly found his home. The Great Gray Owl let himself wilf his dappled gray-and-silver plumage so that his feathers stuck closer to his warm body. His plumage, the colour of twilight, was especially blue from picking up the subtle tones of night. Wanderyb churred a gruff little churr to himself. He was an older owl, and he had no idea what he was doing, with his feather-covered talons resting on the branch and his head flipping about as he peered in space. A blast of sea-smelling wind kicked up over his wings, ruffling them into fine, almost cardboard-like sections. He was supposed to be paying attention to the weather, but it had been unusually calm.

Yes, just another night, just more indigo cast around him.

Or so he thought.

OoC: Please, jump in if you want to witness an AMAZING event!

[Songcosmos and Melody]

Myotis, a bat like gray screech owl, wings the color of dusk, was, to, resting on that limb, looking below for a sign of prey-a rustle of grass, a flash of tan fur, anything. But the night was still, and everything around him peaceful. He still watched, though, not really because he had hope that something would happen but that he had nothing better to do. He shifted his talons, even those a dusky gray, and looked up at the moon, a few leaves draped across it from a branch of the Fire Tree. But even the leaves of the Fire Tree seemed black in the light of the moon. Boring. Myotis spotted Wanderyb, the huge barn owl Weather and Colliering ryb, sitting on the branch beside him, perhaps doing just what he was doing. It was the season of the Golden Rain, when even the nights were hot with the invisible rays of sun, like golden rain.

Myotis turned to him, feathers camoflauged ((OOC: spelling?)) in the gray night, and his huge green eyes looked at Wanderyb. He knew the owl fairly well, for he had been taught by him when he was a chick, and was entranced by the way how the fire of the coals seemed so wild in its prancing red and yellow flickers, and yet was tame. He nodded a hello to him-there was no need for words. In fact, words might ruin a night like this, with the never-seen peepers chirping like birds twenty times their size, and the moon showing everything, and yet keeping it all hidden.

[Wanderer]

Wanderer had been so truly and fully entranced by this beautifully ironic night that he almost missed the glint of green reflecting the swathe of stars from out of the very corner of his never-moving eyes. Indeed, owls had their visual orbs tucked neatly in without any choice of moving them in their sockets--instead their very flexible neck flipped to help them see almost anywhere and was perhaps ten times more graceful than any mammal's darting beady eyes. The Great Gray brought his feathers, a dappled mix of grays and browns, closer to his floppy frame. There were some rogue winds from the spill-outs of the hot weather and sometimes they were fairly chilly, as they were now. Wanderyb closed his eyes, the gray-white bristles that closed over his sharp yellow beak still tickling, and let them slide over his face feathers in a splitting current of cool air. Truly a beautiful night.

The moonlight hung on Fire Tree, a soft bath of cold silver highlighting the old ryb as he fell away into sleep. Of course, it was unlikely he would ever imagine that there was a cat somewhere about the great red-barked tree where he roosted. Indeed, many would simply underestimate her and see she took the way out, but Kauli was never that sort of cat at heart. Her pelt glistened from the cool light; the mainly shades of red, sable and at her feet--pure black were becoming softer muave just by the silver spell. She twitched her whiskers. She was not one to question orders at the best of times, but she had to admit this one had left her hanging.

Honestly, the band wanted her to recruit an owl. And of all of them, they wanted the elderly weather-interpretation ryb. Really. "If I had one wish," Kauli muttered distastefully as she checked the tree breifly with her pale golden eyes, "It would be to destroy all stupidity in the world. An old Great Gray is no match for me!" She was careful to keep her spitting speech low, and deciding there wasn't much choice to just sit here, the she-cat found a paper-white birch that led right to Fire Tree's upmost branches. The footholds were many: this tree was old and many insects had chosen it for their homes. In a few sturdy pawholds she had reached the darkly-coloured crown of leaves and nimbly leapt across the small gap between the birch and Fire Tree easily. The cat stopped as she hugged closer on the massive ruddy-brown branch she was on. Wanderer was right below her... so if she got lucky she should be able to launch right on top of him...

The cat waved her dark tail in a little circle as she prepared her pounce, so silent that the amount of noise she was making was equal to the noise a Barn Owl made when it flew. This was going to be easy.

Or so she thought.

[Songcosmos and Melody]

Myotis stared into the distance, blind to everything but being there, by himself, staring up. He did not turn his head from the branches, and they looked deep in them, deep into the thick branches of the tree into the sky beyond, the dusky sky with a hint of blue, a hint of blue that promised day, that soon the sun's oddly reflected rays, yellow at first, then blue, would part the night. BUt not now. Now all was silent, and Myotis stared into the sky as if it was some code he needed to crack. A fly buzzed around his ear tufts, but he did not bat it away with a talon, he was too intent.

Suddenly, however, he heard something, coming from his left, a sound that seemed, just a little bit...wrong. Like a crow digging in the earth, or a shrew flying in the sky. Something...out of place. It was only a rustling, a parting of branches, but somehow...it seemed wrong. He slid his head to the left, peering into the forest that surrounded the Fire Tree on one side, the other side being a long, waving, pulsating meadow, forever twitching. He looked at the long lines of branches, silouetted and all looking the same, like the tunnels in a maze of bushes, without their color. And then he saw...something. It was in a tree close to him, with a twisting trunk and many knotholes. It was a flash of color in the otherwise-colorless night.

Myotis crept down the branch, curious at what the copper shape was. He glanced up, and then caught another glimpse of the animal, just long enough to see what it was-a cat! The sound must have been pawsteps... He looked at the cat, observing it, and his ear tufts stood strait up, alert. He was now right next to the animal, perching on a branch above him. He did not say anything... he was curious, but figured the cat had its own business here, which had nothing to do with the business of owls, but he still watched, just seeing what the creature would do.