10-09-2021, 09:48 AM
The hooting call of the owl startles Malik’s batlike instincts, and the little animal folds its wings tight and drops through the air, a very not-batlike reaction that would have saved him had the owl not been his cousin in disguise.
Malik catches himself before he hits the ground, flaring his leathery wings and flapping them rapidly. This shape is not as good at such a maneuver as his crested eagle, but the advantage of his echolocation in the dark is not worth trading for an easier flight.
He circles overhead as Bolder the owl becomes Bolder the wolf while telling Malik that he is on his way back home. Where has he been, Malik wonders? The bat’s nose is not strong enough to recognize any scents, not from this distance, so he swoops a little closer. Unperturbed by his cousin’s growling voice, Malik lands unceremoniously on the soft fur of Bolder’s back, his dark claws gripping at the fur as he climbs down. The chestnut hair is a much softer landing than the ground, and Malik still lacks his older relative’s ability to shift while landing. He always ends up in a bruised tangle of limbs when he does.
Bolder’s fur smells of flowers and warmth even more intense than the riverlands, and Malik knows he must have been in the West, but exactly where he cannot be sure. He considers asking, but knows that Bolder will tell him eventually. There is little that they do not share, after all, including the knowledge that if Maik had really lost Myrna again, that he wouldn’t be nearly so relaxed as he currently is.
(His mother had charged him with her safety, after all, and he considers that priority above even completing his quest.)
“No,” Malik replies, having shifted into a dark furred wolf like the one that Bolder wears, “I’m on a hunt. For my quest!”
@bolder
Malik catches himself before he hits the ground, flaring his leathery wings and flapping them rapidly. This shape is not as good at such a maneuver as his crested eagle, but the advantage of his echolocation in the dark is not worth trading for an easier flight.
He circles overhead as Bolder the owl becomes Bolder the wolf while telling Malik that he is on his way back home. Where has he been, Malik wonders? The bat’s nose is not strong enough to recognize any scents, not from this distance, so he swoops a little closer. Unperturbed by his cousin’s growling voice, Malik lands unceremoniously on the soft fur of Bolder’s back, his dark claws gripping at the fur as he climbs down. The chestnut hair is a much softer landing than the ground, and Malik still lacks his older relative’s ability to shift while landing. He always ends up in a bruised tangle of limbs when he does.
Bolder’s fur smells of flowers and warmth even more intense than the riverlands, and Malik knows he must have been in the West, but exactly where he cannot be sure. He considers asking, but knows that Bolder will tell him eventually. There is little that they do not share, after all, including the knowledge that if Maik had really lost Myrna again, that he wouldn’t be nearly so relaxed as he currently is.
(His mother had charged him with her safety, after all, and he considers that priority above even completing his quest.)
“No,” Malik replies, having shifted into a dark furred wolf like the one that Bolder wears, “I’m on a hunt. For my quest!”
@bolder