Chapter Text
Call to Owlventure
Owldysseus (this isn't their real name, true names are something you have to careful with, plus it doesn't really translate to human tongues) was hatched in the Heart of Talonvales as all the Grajan are. The many parents that raise them told taught them all the things a giant owl needs to know and regularly told tales of their ancient history. Of particular interest was the tales of Humans, they looked like freshly hatched fledglings, pink all over and and utterly without features and barely any fur. They lacked talons and beaks and could never fly now mater how long they lived. Many thousands of years ago they started to turn up from a land so far they cannot fly to it. It was a brutal time for them with magical storms and monsters appearing all over the place, they would have been wiped out a hundred times over without the action of Syr the first and greatest of the human heroes. Heroes kept turning up in human history, even just the bits the Grajan could be bothered with, they were far mightier then normal humans in every way with incredible magically equipment and powers dealing with foes that had stalled whole armies on their own and travelled all over the world, and beyond fighting evil and finding treasures. They wanted to meet them but was stuck in the core of the forest until their proof of adulthood.
The proof of adulthood varied for every person and sometimes it wasn't even known what it was until they had it until it was obtained they were magically prevented from the leaving the core of the forest, some took many years to find it after they reached their max height. Owldysseus turned out to be large and strong even my Grajan standards, they even did fairly well with magic. In a less peaceful age (for the Grajan at least) they could have been like those human heroes but their was little call for heroes here. But there was call for the the long taloned who would quickly kill or drive off anything that threatened the true people, they were also the only ones that used weapon beyond their natural ones, which were plenty for nearly everything. Wielding long talons they quickly dispatched an ogre and on the path to starting to become a small problem.
With the Proof of adulthood they moved the edge of the forest, apparently humans were pretty much everywhere outside the forest. Being a long talon didn't take that much time as they usually only heard the call for flight from the long screamers once a week and and by the time they were prepared for it they heard the call for return. Even the stupidest trolls knew to enter Talonvale with bad intent would lead to quick death so most of what wandered in were various types of undead left to wander by long dead necromancers. This gave the plenty of time to look for humans. They quickly found a nearby village and with Excellent even by Grajan standards hearing and sight found out all you can without actually visiting. They even learn a bit of human language, listening in on children really help with that as they often pointed at and yelled out the name of something. Apparently human young stayed near their biological parents even though their were far safer places far away.
From talking to the other Grajan she learnt that human occasionally where into Talonvale to seek herbs, firewood and small game. They would wait for that to try to talk with them, they were to nervous to try in the village.
As winter was beginning a father and his 3 sons realised they would need more firewood to get through the winter. They hitched a small cart to a donkey and went off to the wood to get it. After a while they realised they were talking quite a bit about the Grajan, it took quite a few mentions for them to figure out was the human word for the true people was. As they cart was half full with various large pieces of wood from the forest floor they realised they would soon have all they need and they might not return again to next year, if they were to meet it must be now. Whilst they were busy stripping the small twigs, fallen leaves and mushrooms from a promising looking fallen branch Owldysseus silently landed next to the cart. The donkey almost gave them away but Owldysseus telepathically calmed it and also gave it a carrot (which was purple by the way).
When humans turned around and saw Owldysseus they were shocked a little bit scared. The man bowed and the 3 children followed. The man said something that Owldysseus didn't quite understand although they could tell is was said with respect and quite a large chunk of fear.
Owldysseus they formed a mind link with the 4 humans so it could community with them telepathically. “Greetings humans, I welcome you to this part of Talonvale, I assure you that you are not in trouble.”
The 3 soon visibly relaxed. “You can call me Owldysseus. If you try to talk to me I will hear it in my mind as something I understand, talk to me as you would another human, I cannot hear your inner voice.”
There was a long awkward pause as nobody had a clue what to say now.
One of the children spoke up “I'm Ferion, these are my brothers Musok and Ploff. My dad is Haric. This is Plodd,” he finished pointing at the donkey.
“You can fly right,” asked Ploff
“Of course, that what these huge wings are for,” Owldysseus then lead into the air and hovered their for a few seconds. The gust from the flaps of his wings knocked down the 3 kids and made the father stumble for a bit. Since the ground was covered in several years of fallen leaves they were completely fine.
“Give us a bit warning before you do that again,” suggested the father.
“Your so strong,” said Ferion with awe “I bet you could fight monsters really easily.”
“I do, I've fought all sorts of monsters, Ogres and goblins and lots and lots of skeletons. I take trophies from many of them, except the undead I let the giant ants have them,” boasted Owldysseus.
“Can I see them,” asked Musok
“Sure, I have them in my Nest which is high up and many miles away. I could lead you there,” offered Owldysseus
The children then begged the father to let them go and see it. He agreed.
They set off, along the way they still collected more firewood. Owldysseus gave off a loud hoot (after warning the humans to cover their ears) which would scare off any monsters that might possibly, but unlikely be nearby. Owldysseus cut some wood up with his Talons and impressed the humans with how sharp they were.
“That nothing compared to how well I can cut when I put my long talons on,” said Owldysseus
“Can I we see that too,” asked Ploff.
“You don't cut down Trees cut to show off, but in couple of years time there be some trees that have to go I'll invite you to see then,” planned Owldysseus
They walked for a couple of hours, the journey was lengthened as they can to give a slime ant hive a wide berth as there were so many of them that Owldysseus couldn't be sure he could stop any of them form getting to the humans and they didn't know fears so they couldn't be scared off.
When they go there discovered that half a dozen trees had had there branches twist together to make several globular rooms.
“This is clearly magic,” quickly deduced Musok “did you cast it yourself?”
“I had tree bender convince the trees to grow like this it took a few months especially since I had some special stuff done,” exaplained Owldysseus
“What special stuff,” asked Firion
“Oh..this” said owldysseus before whispering something in Language no human will ever know.
A set of stairs emerged from the nearest tree spiralling around the Trunk.
“These steps are too small for me, I meet you at the top,” explained Owldysseus
They started up the stairs. Once they were about 20 feet high (the staircase went up 60ft) Owldysseus took off. Plodd stayed on the ground and ate some long grass.
When they reached the Top Owldysseus was already there. He was taking off a belt that they hadn't seen as it was hidden beneath Owldysseus's fluffy featheriness. There were various hooks growing out of the wall, they had all sorts of tools, weapons and armour on them. There was huge hole for Grajan to fly in. There where Grajan sized holes leading to other rooms. Something like the leaves of the weeping willow tree covered the gap between the rooms.
The children immediately went off to look at the weapons. Many of them were spikes that would just be dropped on things. There was also a selection of large seeds. Owldysseus spent a couple of hours explaining in Gruesome detail what these seeds do.
“So this is the Long Talons,” checked Musok
The talons consisted of 4 sabres tied to leathery socks. There as all sorts of ropes attached to them to tie them to the talons. The blades were 2 and half feet long curved such like Owldysseus's talons but bigger. Owldysseus had put it to high up for them to reach in advance.
It was now time for lunch. They went to a globe off the central globe that had that was the kitchen/ dining room. There was a big pit in the middle filled with Tarn rats, the sides where very slippy and the hole very deep so they were stuck, all sorts of bits of deer, big bugs, and even monstrous humanoids of various kinds where thrown in there to feed them. Owldysseus had had a wall grown around the pit along with a couple of steps so they could all have a look inside.
Owldysseus jumped in Grabbed a rat in each Talon and swallowed them whole. You could hear the squeaks of terror from this stomach as the rats dissolved. They didn't last long.
There were various smaller creatures in cages hanging from the ceiling, most of them where big bugs of various kinds. Around the room on various plinths were various things that either were food or were close to food. There was apples, pears, berries of various kinds, big piles of raw wheat, giant honey combs from giant bees, various parts of animals not even skinned let alone cooked, various bug larva. Some of the items were far more rotted then would be safe for humans.
“I'm not sure what it is safe for you to eat, you nearby always ate inside where I couldn't see it, and the bits I could see I had now idea how and what they are made of. So your have to figure out what is safe on your own,” confessed Owldysseus
They had a look around and found things they could eat. Haric checked over a few things before they sat and ate them on some of branches that curved up on make perches. The children ate so much honeycomb they certainly have tummy aches tonight, despite being warned about that repeatedly.
“Can we see you trophy room now,” asked Musok
“Yes, its that way,” said Owldysseus gesturing with their right wing to the opposite globe.
There went through the entrance globe into the one opposite. Their were all sort of the things in boxes that grew out walls floor and ceiling. The boxes where transparent on all sides. Branches also crew outside floor and ceiling to makes perches, some them for perching on upside down.
The children tried to get a closer look at the stuff but everything was too far from the perches as they were designed to be looked at my a 10ft owl.
“Tell me what you want a closer look at and I'll bring it out” offered Owldysseus.
They spent several hours looking at various things whilst Owldysseus explained what they came from what they were doing, how they killed them and some theories about what the objects themselves.
One thing they looked at was a Tzaril head which was from the leader of a band of Tzaril that seemed to heading for the village. Owldysseus killed most them with some spikes it dropped on them the rest it killed by picking up the leader by its tail and using it as flail on the rest of them. One of them was left alive with both arms broken and eye scooped out and and a lot of tail chopped off it was left to wander the wilderness near the village telling everybody of what happened and that similar things would happen to anything else that causes problems for this village.
Another as a really fine helmet with a crown embedded in it. This came from a particularly skilled undead that was killing every bit wildlife it bumped into. Owldysseus had to kill it seven times until the bones shards it was reduced to stopped coming back. They guessed it was was back when the Kingdom of Phiadon was made of hundreds of petty kingdoms, with petty kings, many just bandit leaders with nicer hats. Some necromancer must was raised it as their champion and was probably killed by it soon after, as always happened to necromancers eventually, since they it just wander around killing stuff because that is the only thing it knows.
A third was the horn of a horntail boar. Owldysseus told the story with regret as this wasn't an evil creature that just wanted to cause harm or a mindless creation of a long dead wizard. However after a troll went into its lair and stole some meat from it it became so furious that its rampage went on for days. It took 3 long talons to track it down. By the time they got it is was heal skeletal from the sheer amount of energy it burned in its rampage and it had so many wounds that it looked like any undead at first sight. They never stopped thinking that this could have ended another way.
There were many other things they looked at. Some of which Owldysseus had to admit were gifts from other long talons other full stories they did not feel fit to tell. Owldysseus's way of telling the stories with mime, voices, vivid descriptions, sometimes bursting into song (which was transmitted telepathically), asides about history, biology and tactics and taking time to answer the many many question they were asked was so exciting that Haric had to be very firm to get they do go home before nightfall.1 Mention Plodd being alone in the dark was enough to push it over the edge.
Owldysseus agreed to escort them until they were close enough to see the lights of village. That is that human could see them, from the ground. Owldysseus could see them from here if they flew high enough.
On the way back it started to snow and was getting cold. They hadn't brought enough layers as they didn't expect to be out this late. Owldysseus encouraged the children to shelter in their feathery fluff. They completely disappeared amongst the fluff.
They soon got close to the village. Haric and Owldysseus agreed that Owldysseus should visit their house pretty soon. They decided to leave it for two weeks so that the rest of the village would have time to get used to it.