Little animals frolicked through the adows. Dozens of bunnies were hopping around the seven solitary trees in the distance. Foxes, actual ones, played near the large tree in the center. Deer of all sizes ca and went, walking slowly through the adow from one end of the forest to the other. So ate leisurely while so galloped as if on a journey.
As usual, the Owl's Nest was full of life.
An oddity, concerning how dangerous the forest which surrounded it, were.
Yet at the sa ti not. After all, even a basic animal could learn where to go and where not to. As long as it listened to its basic instincts.
What kept the humans at bay, keeping them from entering this deep into the forest, was the sa thing that kept the animals here sheltered.
Even though both the animals and the humans would suffer that creature's wrath all the sa.
It cared not who or what you were. It would kill you all the sa.
"Protector."
I turned to acknowledge Lilly. Lomi wasn't with her. This ant she was either sleeping, or playing with the dog again. She seed weary of Windle, so I doubted she was with him. Maybe the way the thin man's head turned a little too unnaturally bothered her.
The tall woman smiled as she approached, and for a tiny mont she looked for all the world happy to see .
That mont didn't last long, as her smile turned into a small frown upon getting closer.
"Yes?" I asked.
"Lomi tells you left a predator at the Sleepy Artist," Lilly said.
I shifted a little, but not because I was being accused. Not because of her tone, or upset expression.
"A large forest cat. Yes. Her na was Renn," I said.
Lilly's expression didn't darken, but it didn't get softer either. Her eyes lingered on for a mont, and then glanced around. At the massive tree they called ho. At the adows surrounding us. At the thick, dark forest, surrounding the adows.
"I'll not ask if it was wise... but..." Lilly stopped talking for a mont, and I wondered what she really wanted to ask.
"Out with it, or you'll never know the answer," I said to her.
Lilly went still for a mont... then a part of her shirt shuffled. I heard the remnants of her wings as they fluttered beneath her shirt. Annoyed. "Predators are becoming rare. Rare enough that any t could be the last," she said.
"So it feels like," I agreed.
"Then... why leave her there?" she asked.
I nodded, understanding her frustration.
Here I had expected her to be upset over risking the Sleepy Artist.
"She's not a warrior, Lilly. She is stronger than most, I noticed a lot of strength in that small body... but she's no warrior. Not a knight," I said gently.
At least, she wasn't one yet.
Lilly's eyes narrowed, and her brow furrowed. For a brief mont an injured owl stood before , not a woman.
"Yet..." she whispered and grabbed her arm with her other hand. Squeezing it tightly, as if scared.
Scared. Yet this owl was not capable of being scared.
She was a warrior. Even if wounded, and no longer able to fly.
"In ti maybe. For now, she needs to find her place. She's older, not as old as we, but older all the sa. I don't know her whole story, but I can tell you she is unaccustod to our kind. She knows more about humans than she does us. And even then, she knows little. Give her ti to... settle. To nest. To find sothing worth protecting," I said to Lilly.
The owl sighed, as if upset that I had already long understood what needed to be done.
"I've done this many tis before, Lilly," I said to her.
"Yes. You have. Yet that is the issue. You bring us to those we fall in love with. And lose any opportunity to enlist us as soldiers," she said.
I frowned. "I've always seen you as a warrior, Lilly," I said to her.
She blinked, her pupils going wide as she looked into my eyes. As if in doubt of what she had heard.
I nodded, unafraid to be so honest.
Lilly smiled softly, and nodded back. "I see. Still... all the sa. I do wish you'd enlist those who were capable, before it was too late," she said.
"If our kind could be saved by just having a few more soldiers, Lilly... we'd all be fine. The war would be over already," I said.
"I find that hard to believe Vim," she said briskly.
"Yet it's the truth all the sa. Even if there were ten of , our lives would be no different," I said to her.
"What if there were a hundred? A thousand?"
I took a breath, and realized suddenly why Lilly was so focused on expanding her household.
Was this why she was so... prolific?
"Sorry," she whispered, and looked away. As if ashad she had just questioned .
"Don't be. But Lilly, do rember... Do you rember the battle?" I asked her.
Her back went stiff, and her shirt beca tight again. This ti tight enough to show her belly.
It was a little rounder than it should be.
"You rember that morning?" I asked her.
"I do." Her nubs of wings flapped.
"Did it change anything?" I asked her.
Lilly blinked, and with her blink her eyes beca watery.
Silence grew between us, and I knew it was because I had just taken her heart and soul and stepped on it.
It was very likely I was the first, and would be the only, person to ever ask if losing her wings had changed anything. Anything of value.
"Very little," she whispered finally, after a long mont.
"Yet it was montous, wasn't it?" I asked her.
Lilly blinked a tear out of her eye, and then frowned. She spent a few monts pondering my words, but then slowly nodded. "Yes. It was," she said.
"I've forgotten more monts like that than I can count," I said to her.
The owl hesitated, and stepped forward. As if to argue with . As if to contradict .
I continued before she could, "Thousands of those monts are re mories for ," I furthered.
Lilly's eyes narrowed as I pointed at the tree nearby. The massive one, which she and her family called ho.
"That there is precious. It is worth protecting. It is worth the price of sacrifice that it demands," I said to her.
"Yet it will be cut and burned, if we don't do sothing," she argued.
I nodded. "I agree. But, Lilly... it will happen anyway. Eventually."
"All the more reason! If it's bound to happen, by fate and design, than we should struggle all the more! Otherwise what would be the point and...!" she went quiet, but not because I stood there quietly.
Not because I was looking at her with pity.
"You could amass an army, Lilly. But all you would do is add a few monts," I whispered.
She shook her head. "Yet you will march with , the mont I asked you to."
"Never said I wouldn't," I countered.
She smiled as she sighed. She nodded weakly, as if tired all of a sudden.
"Your children. I hear so have picked up the sword, while others have found love," I said.
Lilly wasn't bothered by my change of topics, but nodded softly all the sa.
"That's how you win, Lilly," I said to her.
"Is it, Vim?" she asked.
"Only those like them are still around, Lilly," I said.
Lilly twitched, and I knew it was because she herself had thought sothing similar. Even if she didn't want to admit it.
"Let the cat find her place. Let your children. Let them all find a ho, a place to treasure. We cannot amass armies; we cannot field warriors... so we must simply struggle. Striving to outlast that which threatens us," I said to her.
"Until we're nothing more than the very thing we fight," Lilly whispered.
"Possibly. That can be one of the many outcos. I hope you didn't fault your daughter for falling for a human," I said.
Lilly smiled, quickly shaking her head. "No. I'm not so cruel as that," she said.
So birds landed nearby. Colorful, and a little bigger than usual. So kind of forest bird, with their pretty colors. They began chirping and pecking at the thick grass.
I knew if Lomi had been here, she would have run into their little group. Chasing them off with a laugh.
Lilly stood with , quietly watching the birds for a mont.
A mont turned into many minutes.
Then finally, the birds took to the sky. Flying off towards the high branches of the mighty tree.
Lilly's breathing got a little stronger at the sight, and I heard her wings again.
She turned to leave, walking back towards the wooden house. Seed our little conversation was over.
"Do you regret it, Lilly?" I asked her.
She paused for a mont, but didn't look back at . Instead she looked back upward, to the sky.
"I do miss the sky. But no. I'd do it again."
Smiling at her as she returned to the house, I nodded my head in a small bow to her.
Warrior indeed.
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