The joining, Blackerst joins with Dapplewing

[Blackerst]

As the moon shines full, and the winds blow south, near the high ridges of the mountainess Canyon Sparrows, a lone Pygmy owl glides through the canyons searching for a place to sleep. His name is Blackerst, a rogue hire claw Pygmy owl born in Silverveil, and trained in the Beyond. Not just being selective of where to roost, Blackerst searchs also for an owl who has invited him to visit. By how he obtained the message of this invite was some what unusual, for instead of being visited by an owl he was greated by a cat of some sort for which the name he had forgoten. As Blackerst's hope of finding the place of which he was invited to dwinkend, he decides to take rest in a split in the wall of the canyon to regain his whereabouts. Blackerst decides to stay where he is till he remembers where to go or the owl inviting him finds his whereabouts.

And so he waits...

[Blackerst]

As the bright orange sun sets over the cayon cliffs, and that special time of day where shadows mix with shapes making it extremly difficult to identify what was a tree or just a crack in the towering canyon walls, it looked as if the canyons themselves were jaws of some unknown creature. But day slipped away and the few last rays of the sun were engulfed by blackness, Blackerst perched in his niche, awake and alert.

Still trying to remember exactly where he was told to go, he decided he should find a rogue smith first to smith him some of his own battle claws. They would have to be light otherwise he would not be able to use them efficiently. For being a pygmy owl it is hard to carry anything heavy, expecially battle claws. But he needed to have his own pair of claws, just in case this owl who has asked him to join this band retaliates and tries to kill him. Some owls have already tried or would try to kill him, ethier because they were contracted to or wanted to for vengence for a fallen one. Plus he needed his own claws for what he does best, assasinations. That is the main reason he needed them.

As Blackerst lofted into flight, it dawned on him that he remembered it was a sort of cave where this owl lived. Not knowing that last night made it impossible to ever find this place, for Blackerst thought he was looking for a good sized hollow in the higher reaches of the canyons. But tonight he will fly low and search for a cave instead, hoping to find it tonight.

Falling back on some of the tracking lessons he was taught by Sash, he searched every cave he could find for any signs that an owl, expecially a Barn owl, is living in that cave or not. His first cave was small and was full of bats by the sign of all the ruckuss and bat droppings on the floor. But no sign of a nest, molted feathers, nor any pellets from an owl who might have made this cave its home. Blackerst's next cave, or what he thought might be a cave, was just a good size hollow for an owl like himself which would be too small for a Barn owl.

Losing hope of finding this cave tonight, Blackerst spotted another cave and decided this would be his last cave for tonight. As he approached this cave he noticed there was a cat that was wandering about, not more that 100 yards from the cave opening. He decided to fly low and fast, using shrubs and boulders as cover so as not to be noticed by this cat. But the cat seemed to be busy with something else and did not even give any thought of the owl that was flying from boulder to boulder. Reaching the cave opening he noticed, coming out of the ceiling, were roots from the forest above the cliffs. But that did not catch his attention as much as the nest near some rocks, and pellets, fresh and old, over in a different part of the cave.

Suddenly very alert and cautious Blackerst prepares to leave imediatly. But suddenly the cat he saw wandering around enters the cave entrance, looking at Blackerst with a death defying stare. He wilfs till he is the size of a tree branch, wondering if he is going to be devoured by this cat. Dead or alive, the thought of being eaten, hearing his bones break under the jaws of this creature scared him more now than the pits of Hagsmire. But astonishingly the cat does not attack but looks to the sky, where Blackerst sees an owl flying toward the cave from the distance.

[Dapplewing]

A dappled barn owl soared across the night sky. True, she was a barn owl, and quite a beautiful one at that, but no Pure One would accept her as one of them. Her feathers, especially her wings and belly feathers, were splattered and striped with bright hues: oranges, auburns, reds, maroons, ambers, russets, sorrels, umbers. The beautiful colors were streaked and dappled all over her-only her facial disks and the down under her wings were white. She alighted on a low orange-brown canyon ledge protruding from a cave. Her wings blended into the sand and rock of the cave overhang. The owl glanced down at the small black-and-white cat under her. She decided to hunt, and her ears strained for the sounds of mice. Suddenly, with her barn-owl-acute-ears, she heard the breathing of another bird, a smaller one. It seemed to be coming from inside the cave! An owl? Or just a songbird? But no-a songbird would be flying around desperately, hoping to escape from her. She hoped it wasn't that frinkin' Ares Forest again, thinking her cave was deserted and mussing up her nest. But no-this was only one bird. She turned her head rapidly, and soon picked out a gray-and-white pygmy. "Hello," she hooted, holding her temper that an owl was trespassing. "I'm Dapplewing, and this is my cave. Who are you and why are you here?"

[Blackerst]

Blackerst was stunned at the color this owl displayed, for he had never seen anything like it before with the dazzling hues and colors. Blackerst took a while to recover from the shock of seeing this strangly colored owl, but replied to the barn owl's question appropriatly, "My name at this point is no concern of yours. But why I am here is that I am looking for an owl who has invited me to join with them, but have not found this owl yet." Blackerst tried to stay as anomynous as possible to prevent the risk of this owl hiring some form of hire claw to hunt him down for his trespassing. "Would you be the possbile barn owl that has sent for me to join with you, or is there another barn owl around in these caves that you might so kindly direct me to?" Blackerst replied, trying his hardest to show no emotion or fear of the cat lurking within the cave.

OOC: You like your characters to be... well... exotic (not saying the crowl would be as exotic as this barn owl ), do you not? I mean it's a great thing, but I just don't have the imagination to put such a charater together.

[Dapplewing]

((OOC: Yeah...well, you should see some of Nisinka's characters, on Night Guardians. He has a black vampire wolf...who's awesome... But yeah, I do like exotic characters. Dapplewing is my second-most exotic, maybe third. My most exotic is on a Warriors site))

Dapplewing churred, a soft, low sound, a bit like a trumpet playing. "Really? Well, I am trying to form...a group, shall we say, and I have invited a pygmy from around here. I believe I'm the one you're looking for. Dapplewing's my name." Colors flashed as the middle-aged owl turned her heart-shaped head toward Blackerst. Dapplewing was a direct owl, really, not one of those prophets who gave you two symbolic clues to who they were, and then flew off. She sighed. This young owl reminded her of her brother a bit. She wondered where he was. Had he ever found that huge tree...what was it called...that he said he would? He was a good fighter, she could just imagine him talon-locked with some evil red-eyed great horned, defending the land. Splatters rubbed against her and purred, while peering at the pygmy with anxiety.

[Blackerst]

Blackerst felt still uneasy as the cat peered at him with what seemed to be caution, which can make creatures jumpy and unpredictable. I must get in a safer position than I am now just incase... Blackerst thought quickly, even though this owl seemed to be friendly. But no one can be too cautious, remeber what happend to Hort. Blackerst recalled what happend only a couple nights ago, when a assassination mission went astray, killing his partner named Hort. "I am Blackerst, a Pygmy owl born in Silverveil and trained in the Beyond. I do believe that you are the one who has asked me to come, but I must insure my name and whereabouts will not be uttered to anyother owl that I do not know. Do I have the pleasure of such assurance?" Blackerst asked moving slowly out of the cave while still looking straight into the barn owls deep, black, unforgiving eyes that potrayed no thoughts nor feelings that Blackerst could tell.