Completed The owl who was a rooster

[Nemori]

12th of Fall, 516

The squawking was loud and obnoxious. Nemori attempted to ignore at it first, squeezing her eyelids tightly shut so that lines appeared besides her eyes. Despite these attempts the noise continued accompanied by the fast fluttering of wings and the banging of metal against metal. It was instistant and the noise very quickly became impossible to ignore. With a sign Nemori finally opened her grey eyes. The room looked completely normal from first glance. It was when she glanced at her owl, Whisper, that anything seemed strange. He was making the racket, fluttering about his cage and grabbing any loose piece of metal into his hooked beak before pulling it or dropping it against another piece of metal. Nemori could not identify if the impossibly loud shrieking or the rattled of metal was more annoying. For a few moments she stared dumbly at him, not understanding the cause of his upset state. They had to be some cause or reasoning. Birds behaved very much like toddlers but they tended to require a stimulus before playing up.He was ignoring her in his tantrum. As she watched him she noticed that a lot of the behaviour seemed tailored towards the window and she glanced outside hoping to see something obvious that was disturbing him. From the angle on her bed she could not see anything. It was mildly snowing but Whisper normally did not react to the weather too badly. With a sigh she lifted herself from the bed, swinging her legs out and standing up. It was about time for her to get up anyway, she still did not appreciate the noise forcing her to wake up. She took a few moments to pull her day clothes on, yawning as she did so. Whisper continued to flutter about screeching and banging parts of her cage against each other.


“What has bothered you? Whisper, Whisper. It is okay” Her words got increasingly loud as she attempted to calm the owl. Whisper however continued to ignore her, being annoyed by the thing outside. Nemori once more looked outside before sighing. A white and brown rodent was sitting on the floor. Its front paws were pulled up into a sitting position and it was chewing on something that it held in its paws. It had small ears and a large black nose. She recognised it as a type of snow gopher, they were common enough and generally none harmful. Occasionally they would slip into holds and steal food but normally they were content with things people accidentally dropped or food the horses decided not to eat. Was this what was distressing Whisper so much? “I will go chase them off, okay?” Nemori asked Whisper. She paused a moment hoping for some sort of indication but once more received none.

[Nemori]

Nemori started towards the door, knowing that they was nothing she required to carry with her simply to go chase off a gopher. She did however grab her coat and start to wrap herself in it as she moved out into the main hallway. She could hear Whisper’s complains from down the corridor and she hoped that nobody was sleeping or minded too much. She did not believe it would take long for the gopher to be scared away but she still did not wish to cause an inconvenience to the others within the hold. Few people seemed around, those that were she greeted politely as she passed. It did not take her long to get outside, into the mild coldness of the air. It felt nice to be outside. She trailed around the building. She could see the stable in the distance, a few elks grazing happily outside. The day felt calm. Before long she came to the point where the gopher was still sitting, happily eating and unaware of the chaos it was causing inside her room. It seemed to spot her, twisting its head in her direction. Its black eyes met her dark blues ones and its seemed to freeze, its paws still wrapped around whatever it was eating.


“I need you to go away, you’re distressing Whisper” She stated firmly at the gopher. It tilted its head some more as it stared at her. It seemed uncertain. “Shoo” She insisted, taking a step forwards. With this the gopher bolted, dropping whatever it was holding. Nemori felt a pang of guilt for chasing it away from its food. Depite this she turned back around, heading once more into the hold building. Back towards her room. As she got close she could already tell that Whisper had calmed down already, he was no longer screeching or clattering anywhere near as loud. Nemori pushed her door open slowly. Sometimes when Whisper had been spooked it was easy to do again, she wanted to avoid this as much as possible. They was silence as she stepped into the room, carefully closing the door behind her. When she finally glanced over at Whisper he was sitting calmly in his cage, his head tilted as he stared at her.


“Of course” Nemori whispered with a sigh. She stepped towards the cage, unhooked it so that the door sat open before retreating to sit on her bed. “You really are difficult sometimes, you know that don’t you?” Nemori stated as Whisper stepped out of the cage. He tapped his beak against the cage door by way of response, creating a dull thunk noise. Despite the difficulties he posed Nemori could not imagine not having him around to greet her return or keep her on her toes. Sometimes she felt bad for having to leave him alone for so long, working at the stables demanded a lot of her time Beyond that they was always something to do within the hold. As she thought about her duties Whisper seemed oblivious, fluttering his feathers before gliding onto the table besides her bed. He poked at a few of her possessions that lay on the table, moving pieces of fabric with his beak. “You have food in your cage” She muttered, keeping a close eye on him. Getting in the way of something he was determined to achieve could end up in badly damaged fingers for her. She knew better. It did not take long before Whisper grew bored of moving fabric around and he moved towards her. His head tilted once more, questioning towards here. In response Nemori smiled, placing an arm out towards the table. He immediately climbed onto it, allowing her to transport him towards the bed. It was nice sometimes that they had moments of understanding between them. It was a long learning process. Whisper moved from her arm onto the bed as soon as he could, wandering around the blankets. Occasionally he would pull at them, attempting to cause movement. He seemed content despite the previous distress and for this Nemori felt happy. She hoped that he was content. She sat watching him for a while, smiling as he attempted to smooth down the creases in her blankets with his beak.

[Nemori]

When it came time to put Whisper away Nemori hesitated. Something else that was difficult with birds sometimes.
“Whisper, I have to go to work” Nemori kept her voice calm and focused on the words. Whisper stared at her, tilting his head slightly for a few moments. This was followed by violent flapping of his wings and some screeching. “I know, I know. But I have to go help everyone” More flapping, followed by a disgruntled head bobbing from Whisper. “You don’t have to go do any work. You can sit all day in your cage and play. Father will check on you so you won’t be lonely” He seemed to calm down slightly at her words. “Will you behave?” Another series of flapping. However this time he finished flew to on top of his cage. “That is a start” Nemori stood up, moving towards him. She rested her arm against the side of the cage, allowing him to step on once more. This time he was lowered into the cage. He flapped and squawked a bit but was generally amenable to the idea. “I will play with you when I get back, Promise” Nemori closed the cage door, clipping it back into place so that he could not escape. He was smart and could easily open the door if it was not properly locked. His black eyes studied her as she started to pack her belongings for the day. Whisper would occasionally tweet, causing her to glance over and check on him. As she headed for the door she glanced over to Whisper. “I will see you later” She said to him with a smile, before slipping out for her tasks of the day.

[Maro]

Nemori Skills +Animal Husbandry +3 +Falconry +2 +Observation +1 +Wilderness Survival (Tundra) +1 Lores -An Irritated Owl: Impossible to Ignore -Birds Generally Need a Stimulus Before Acting Up -Prey Animals Can Rile Up Predatory Ones -Wilderness Survival: Always Dress Warm Enough for the Occasion -It's Easy to Spook an Already Irritated Animal -Getting Between an Owl and Its Desired Prize Can Be Painful -Whisper's Trust: Long Earned -Animals Don't Like Being Caged -Whisper: Smart Enough to Open a Cage Door Notes : This was a short thread, but I feel like it did a good job of exploring the relationship you have with Whisper. I will always feel new to the grading process, so if you have any questions about the thread or if you think you deserved more or want lore phrased differently, just send me a message to let me know. Please make sure to edit your request to 'graded' in the queue.