For trafalgars-law , hope this is up to your standards. Eostra the eagle owl, despite her intelligence, could not quite work out when her defences had slipped and she had unintentionally let a bat of all things into her life. Maybe it was her old age, maybe it was her heart, whatever the reason, she could not pinpoint when she had stopped trying to be a curmudgeon like she usually was to her fellow owls and lightened up a little. The bratty bat was true to his name; Brook kept up a constant bubbly but quiet chatter with barely enough pauses to insert her own responses. He did stop when the situation called for his attention but that was rare. Eostra used to be known and associated for one thing:death. It was one thing that stayed consistent in her life. Owl's are natural predators but her interest of her prey's anatomy was not. Eostra began normal enough but soon her parents started to notice what she liked to do. Even before she learned to branch (that is hopping from branch to branch to get her wings into practice before the big day where she would fly) she liked to examine her prey, first the bones in the pellets she'd cough up then eventually actual organs when she could catch her own prey. Her family was so creeped out by this that they were glad when she left of her own accord. She was the cleverest of her clutch and mastered the essential skills for life quickly. She didn't care that she had no tearful hugs from her family or any goodbyes; there was a whole world she wanted to see and besides, she'd see them again right? They might of been glad she was the first to go but she wasn't bothered. Her freedom to roam felt magnificent. Doing anything she wanted to do away from the stuffy nest hole,satisfying her ever growing curiosity for the world. She wanted to investigate anything and everything. That got her into a few scrapes with other animals when she tried to examine their prey but they soon got things sorted one way or another. She didn't venture into human settlements much but she did like to sample their food from time to time, usually snitching it straight from peoples tables. Eventually though, she felt a little bit of homesickness and returned home to visit. Nobody was home and the nest seemed abandoned. That was ok, she figured her parents must have found a better nest hole. But she found it strange that none of the other owls that had lived near them were around either. She flew away to find someone to ask. Maybe she shouldn't have. When she was informed of the truth, she flew into a furious rage. The owls in her area had all been culled and taken away. No one knew why they were. Her grief was immense and she began a small killing spree in an attempt to cope with the stress. She knew there was no point in trying to assault the humans. Even if she knew which of them had been responsible for the massacre, it wouldn't bring her family back. Her innocence was gone and she was nearly driven completely mad. Her grief eventually passed but her murderous intent didn't. She flew faraway and segregated herself in a territory and set up some warnings for intruders to leave her alone, namely involving bloody paintings and mutilated corpses. She no longer cared for the world, her curiosity gone. She was in a vicious circle of hatred and self-pity, feeling anger whenever she saw living beings and slaughtering them, prying them apart before discarding them. Eostra knew what a terrible waste she was making but she couldn't stop so she usually kept to her hole in a attempt to keep the casualties down, whether it was a tiny bird or a young deer. The majority of her years passed like this till the day Brook trespassed into her territory. Her usual method of killing was to pin the victim against a tree and listen to their pleas for mercy as she asked "Any last words?" before slitting their throats. Brook had been different. He had made no struggle and their conversation ended up something like this... "Any last words,punk?" "Only a few silly questions." "Like what dipshit?" "Is it really true that owls are friends with cats?" She had squawked loudly as if in laughter before replying. "If you meant have I ever tasted a cat, then yes I have, once you get all the fur off they taste pretty good, a lot better than bats like you do." "Ok then what's your favourite food then?" "What is this, twenty questions?" "My favourite is-" "Hey I didn't ask you that." "I don't care" "Got any last words before I-" "Slit my throat? I still have loads of questions to ask if that's what you mean" And the banter continued for a while longer until eventually Eostra had enough with the bats attitude and let him off. To her annoyance, the bat had kept appearing at her hole to have conversations with her but eventually without realising it she looked forward to these daily conversation and even yearned for them. Perhaps she didn't like solitude as much as she thought she did. They revealed many of their darkest issues with each other; Brook talking about friendship issues in his group and his family constantly persecuted by humans and ,in time, Eostra confessing about her dark past (not that Brook had a problem with that). The two also liked to laugh about what they could see about the humans interpretation of their species. Brook was often mistaken for a vampire bat even though they didn't live on the same continent and had people panicking when he landed on their heads to test how soft their hair was. Eostra on the other hand, before her dark phase, had received overawed gazes although she enjoyed striking fear into the hearts of others equally as much. When Brook was around, it was a relief to temporarily revert back to her old self and forget about what had happened. Without noticing it, she also started to pull back on her killing spree and spread her wings more often, going on leisurely flights. Feeling the air in her wings made her feel better. She lived on in old age for these moments but her time came sooner than expected. She had let her guard down and before she knew it she had been impaled in the chest. Of course other owls would have wanted her territory, how foolish she was to think she could be queen of her patch forever. She might have needed more to kill her if she was younger but she was at the end if her lifespan and a simple stab or two would be enough to kill her weakened self. The only mercy was that the opponent did not finish her off immediately so she was still alive when Brook came. He was horrified to see her bleeding her life out, blood dripping from the edge of her tree hole so thin bloody streams flowed down the tree trunk. Eostra knew what sort of shock and feelings he'd have, she'd been through something similar though under different circumstances so she didn't say much. Eostra demanded one last conversation before she passed on and so Brook chattered on albeit with a wavering voice. When she felt her time was at an end, she caressed Brook with her wing and uttered her last words: "Brook my dear, thank you for being my companion these past couple of months, it had been a pleasure to have you around and though I have no sons, I would be more than glad to say you are my son. You have a real mother though so be kind to her ok? I do not mind whether you remember me or not, all it ask for is that you live on and not let your past sway your morality like I did. The time has come for me to say farewell my little bratty bat. Goodbye and keep up that banter for me would you?" And then Eostra the eagle owl passed on leaving her companion, Brook the bat to weep. AN: thanks to trafalgars-law for the prompt. Inspirations for this story include Eostra from the 'the chronicles of ancient darkness' series for our owl's name, the LawLu pairing for Eostra and Brooks relationship (you can see the sort of similarities) and lots more. Brook wasn't meant to be named after the skeleton from One Piece (I picked the name from a list of boys names) but I did think of him when writing this.And did you all notice how much alliteration I've unintentionally put in? This accidentally shifted to more focus on Eostra then on both of them but I hope you all enjoyed reading this. Have a good day :)
