This man is even more skilled at tediousness than I was expecting…
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“Then the logical course for you would be to circle back to the start of our discussion. And answer my question.”
“Oh, yes, new research! You have very many fascinating devices here, I assume, given those I’ve seen already. There must be other ideas and possibilities you’re eager to share with everyone!”
The owl speaks in a grand and commanding tone. “We are simply wasting time. Just state, clearly, what needs to be said. You know what I’m referring to.”
“I see that you are a master of a guild and also of obvious distractions.”
“And furthermore, isn’t this evening intended to be a celebration? The Guilds gathering in one place to recognise the achievements of all? Surely this is a time for bringing everyone together, not for keeping secrets from one another.”
It seems my challenge has been accepted! Why am I only thinking that? “It seems my challenge has been accepted!”
“I think you may have been in this place for rather longer than I have,” the owl says in an innocent tone. “So you may be better qualified to continue on from ‘furthermore’ than I am.” Woohoo’oosh stares directly at Tolzias. Humans often interpret this as a challenge of some sort…
Woohoo’oosh sees Tolzias making a non-figurative attempt to drag Donralaiz away. Surely no worse provocation is required to justify my defending the honour of the Wood. The owl circles twice around Tolzias’s head, then perches on Donralaiz’s shoulder. “And furthermore,” the owl says in a deep voice, with precise enunciation.
So, Donralaiz is holding a glass while talking to another man, and the two are watching other with obvious suspicion. Donral’s swindling continues to be not entirely opaque. Meanwhile, a man in a startlingly bright purple-blue jacket seems to be about to intrude on their conversation - his gleeful smile suggests he’s looking forward to an opportunity to use Donralaiz to make trouble somehow. There’s a small group of people standing near the far corner - they seem to be trying to appear to be in a more sociable mood than they really are, and they’re not being very successful at it. They may need some cheering up. And Tolzias has just arrived, looking like someone expecting the total ruin of all his hopes and ambitions to occur across the next few hours.
Followed by a pixie, Woohoo’oosh flies into the ballroom. He turns his head to scan the room for people who could be interesting opponents in a debate.
“I think so, yes,” the owl replies dryly, and then launches himself into the air and flies towards the ballroom before the pixie can distract him from the directions with any more suggestions.
“I don’t think these people have seen owls before. Maybe not mephits either. I’m looking forward to hearing how he describes you when you finally stop being invisible all over the place. As for Donral, ‘transparent swindler’ isn’t entirely inaccurate.” The owl makes an approximate shrugging gesture with his wings. “All the same, it is rather inelegant for him to say all of that behind our backs. Or in front of our invisible fronts. What have you found out?”
“They’re lending it to me so I can speak their language. A good way to learn a bit more about their magic, I thought. I’m hoping to give Donral a chance to study it later. He may have an opinion. He usually does. So why are you bothering me rather than them?”
“Woohoo. Ahem. Um. Forgive me,” says the fey owl to the woman who has been showing him the way. “I hope this doesn’t seem impolite, but would you mind giving me directions to the ballroom, so I can catch up with you in a few minutes? I need to spend a little time alone, in reflection, to prepare myself. My people are unused to large crowds, and sometimes we seek spiritual guidance from the forces of air and ground, for balance, to help us avoid misjudgements and misunderstandings.”
“I believe there’s a party for me to attend?”
“Across many lands of my world, the owl is a proverbial symbol of wisdom,” Woohoo’oosh says. “Because you’ve been so hospitable, I will offer one piece of wisdom for free: It’s possible to have both misunderstanding and talking birds.”
“Your ingenious contrivance appears to be generating a fluent, prompt and pellucid translation,” Woohoo’oosh replies. Might as well put the thing through its paces.
Woohoo’oosh’s sneeze is soft and owlily charming. He ponders the Guild’s lack of organisation. Sadly, I do not believe that we are the strangers destined to bring a system of filing unto you.
A long journey interrupted only by incomprehensible conversation has much scope for improvement. If I ask Donral to translate, I’ll be demonstrating to these people that I can talk, even if they can’t understand what I say… Is that a problem? Am I gaining any advantage by pretending to be an ordinary bird? Perhaps? But Tririesk is probably having fun being invisible. So I refuse to be bored in silence! “Donral, what are they telling you?” Woohoo’oosh asks, speaking in the language of the Wood.
Woohoo’oosh hopes that Donral will have a chance to reveal the translated version of all of this some time soon. Meanwhile, he realises that most of their attention been on the building or the people in front of them. Behind, there’s an invisible gate, and then what? Woohoo’oosh takes a quick all-the-way-around look backwards, and sees they are close to the edge of a plateau. It’s impossible to tell how deep the chasm beyond is, though, because it’s almost entirely full of mist. Ordinary white mist, mostly, but with a few swirls of greenish-grey through it. That doesn’t look like wholly hospitable fog…
“I’ve no idea,” replies the owl. “But somehow… I’m still convinced.”
Well, I don’t know what the humans here are like. But the ones who wander into the Wood always treat Donral like… a person, even if they don’t trust him. While to them the rest of us are nuisances, puzzles or things to be appeased… “Incoming understanding!” says Woohoo’oosh. With fluttering feathers and arcane hoots, he casts voluminous vocabulary. He brushes a wingtip across Donralaiz’s ankle.
I think someone has a lot of talking ahead of them. But who shall it be? Donral’s got the humanness but I have the wordiness…
“Anything at all!”
“Hello!” says the owl brightly. “It would greatly help our prospects for constructive communication if you would be so kind as to say something! Anything!”
Woohoo’oosh decides there has been sufficient history-making-by-owls today. He lands quietly on the grass and waits for the others to catch up.
Woohoo’oosh flies over Donralaiz’s shoulder to go through the gate first. “History-making owl!”
“I whole-heartedly concur,” the owl says grandly. “Let us depart!”
“Hmmmm… Perhaps stopping the storms will require us to bring the argument to a halt. But how?”
“Indeed. Defining themselves in terms of what they are not. I remain unconvinced by their protestations of Courtlessness.” The owl flaps slowly across to one of the chairs and perches on the back of it.
The owl’s eyes open slowly. He walks cautiously across the bed towards Donralaiz and the saucer of tisane. “Yes, it would indeed be enlightening to hear an account of your perspective on this peculiar afternoon,” he says in a sleepy voice.
“Sorry! Not quite in complete flight control here!” |