A Walk Through the Forest: Chapter 1

The sun rested in the highest point of its arc, raining golden light across the temperate forest. Large puffy clouds lazily rolled by on the breeze, the blooming flowers and fresh buds stretched at its touch as though they wanted to come along too. Greenery was everywhere. Grass had sprung up almost overnight, it seemed, as it was now long enough to tickle at the ankles of the stryx and their companions.

 

Today, Abramo was leading the group, alongside his kirin, his bat, and his microstryx. Lux. Lux was riding on the raptor’s back, organizing the supplies in Abramo’s saddlebag. The kirin followed not far behind him, occasionally stopping to sniff at some flowers or interesting moss. The bat flapped and fluttered overhead, getting a good view of the surrounding area.

 

Behind Abramo and his entourage walked Three, a human rider with long red hair and covered in cloth wraps. She held a map in one hand and a stick of jerky in the other. Heatwave, one of her favorite raptors, was at her side. Bard and Randall flew overhead, much higher than the bat. The two tytos didn’t know the raptors very well and preferred to spend their time together, but separate.

 

It was an excellent day for a scavenge. The air was sweet with the smell of booming plant life. They had nowhere in particular to be - it was more than good enough to wander around and pick up the interesting rock or feather. Abramo had a fair amount of shiny stones already packed away - Lux had a fair amount to sort through. The microstryx carefully placed all of the squishable, soft items far away from the glittering stones and smooth rocks. Heatwave had mostly collected feathers and jammed them all in a wad together. That wad was tossed haphazardly into his saddlebag. Three didn’t show any interest in organizing his supplies either. As Heatwave grabbed another tuft of hair he found on the ground into his bag Abramo’s kirin gave him a scorching look.

 

Bard abruptly swerved and lighted in a tree. Randall found himself soaring right past; it took him a moment to realize he had left the others behind. With a squawk he circled back and gently touched down on a sturdy looking branch. Bard had his head buried in the branches so deep that Randall couldn’t see his face.

 

“What exactly are you expecting to find in there?” Randall chuckled, using a wing to pull away some branches to get a better look at his companion.

 

“Berries.” Bars answered curtly, burying himself further into the tree.

 

“It’s way too early for berries.” Randall raised a brow. He turned to look down at the others, who had seen them both land and were gathering curiously at the base of the tree. Abramo and Heatwave looked up expectantly. Abramo’s bat decided it was going to help Bard look for the berries and zipped his way into the dense clump of branches. His small sized made it easy to maneuver. “Berries won’t come until summer.”

 

“You’d be surprised!” Bard shouted, muffled by the thicket of branches. Randall snorted and fluttered down to the ground, the wind from his wings tossing aside leftover leaves from fall.

 

“What did he find?” Heatwave grinned excitedly.

 

“Nothing.” Randall shook his head. “But he’s convinced he found some berries.”

 

Abramo attempted to call his bat back to his side but he wasn’t listening. Lux rolled his eyes and continued his busy work of sorting through bits and baubles. Heatwave snuffled at the base of the tree and started digging up some roots. Randall decided to pitch in and help him scratch at the soil. The loud rustling of Bard shaking the tree alerted the entire forest to their presence. They would not be doing any hunting today. A stray blue feather slowly drifted onto Three’s head.

 

Three looked around, baffled.  From the shouting raptor staring up at the tyto flailing around in a tree, then to the tyto and raptor on the ground attacking its base, observed in confusion. The human stood there with her hands on her hips. She always loved the chaos of unplanned excursions, though typically hunts were much more chaotic. With a sharp whistle she caught everyone’s attention - including Lux, who nearly fell from Abramo’s back with surprise. The microstryx let loose a string of angry huffs and peeps.

 

“We’re likely to find some good rocks in… um…” Three spun around, looked at her map, and spun again. After a moment of uncomfortable silence she thrust a finger out in a seemingly random direction. “That way! The river is that way and it hits some rapids. It should be all thawed out by now.”

 

Abramo looked at his Kirin and Lux. With a shrug of his shoulders he turned to follow the human. Heatwave required another tut from Three before he would entirely stop digging at the tree. He hastily shoved some roots in his bag and visibly drooped.

 

Randall looked up the tree trunk at Bard, who was still wildly flailing inside the branches with Abramo’s tiny bat friend.

 

“What are you doing?” The brown tyto called. “Are you stuck?”

 

Bard said nothing but continued flailing.

 

Randall couldn’t help but gasp when, a few seconds later, Bard’s head popped out of the foliage with the husk of a beehive. Upon hearing his shock the others turned around.

 

“Catch!” Bard dropped a chunk of it. Abramo did a little hop as he grabbed the flaky material in his beak. Abramo’s bat shot out from the branches holding a tiny little glob of honey in its fists. It dropped a honeycomb on the kirin’s head, chittering as the kirin tried to shake the goop off of itself. Heatwave immediately became too hyped up and trampled Three. She swatted him off of her, hooting and hollering. Bard went back into the cluster for more, and came out with another long strip. The tyto dropped some over the edge to Randall, Lux, and Heatwave.

 

“I can’t believe you found something in there after all.” Randall called out as he watched his chunk of husk hit the grass with a soft thud. He carefully turned it over with a foot. “This definitely isn’t a berry, however.”

 

“Yeah yeah.” Bars waved him away. Abramo passed his piece to Lux after the microstryx was done putting his own piece in the bag. He very gently arranged the items to keep as much husk untouched as possible. The kirin had rolled onto the grass and was trying to wipe its forehead clean on the greenery. The bat was full-on sticky. Abramo would definitely need to give it a rinse when they reached the river. Three grudgingly helped organize Heatwave’s bag a little bit before they left - Randall and Bard helped each other. Their bags were the lightest since they were much more focused on having a good flight than finding things. Randall shrugged and Bard returned it. They would have more focus at the river, certainly.

 

After securing their belongings Three took one more look at the map. The adventuring party set off for the river - and, unfortunately, Bard felt inspired to sing a song. On his first note the kirin panicked a little a shot off ahead, the bat following not far behind it. They made their way through the forest to the serenade of a screechy, shout-singing tyto.