Burl returned to the table and placed the juice and the small pie carefully down in front of Anwyn before sitting down. "And now that you're watered and fed, why d'you have a great bird like that on your shoulder?"
Oberon had been observing these two humans. One he recognized, though it had been long since he had met him. He could tell that his human-sister liked him. He could also discern that the one he recognized was not in a good mood. Why this was he wasn't sure. The other human seemed to be interested in Oberon, but the owl was again uncertain why. He could tell that he had drawn the human's attention though, so he looked back, studying him for potentials of threat or ally. He had to be alert, to protect Anwyn-sister.
"Oberon is a very intelligent bird. It's too bad that he can't talk to me, since he seems to like me", Anwyn said with a shrug, before taking a bite at the pie. Secretly, she was rather pleased that Oberon had decided to keep her company. "I've never been friends with a bird before", she added thoughtfully, "but maybe he was just lonely ... like me ...". Her voice trailed off wistfully for a moment.
Burl was about to answer, still fascinated by the owl, but Anwyn began talking again, this time to Gwenn.
"It's not FAIR that I have to sneak out to avoid having to live like a hermit", Anwyn protested, with a sigh, "But Oberon's definitely good company".
Meanwhile, Oberon had been watching and listening to all this. Anwyn-Sister was obviously feeling upset and bored and lonely. He kept getting from her an image of Kay. He felt before how much Anwyn was enjoying being out and about.
He didn't understand a lot about humans, but over the years he had come to realize, in his own way that they lived much slower than he and other animals did. Ceroill always had an almost timeless feeling to him, as if he had been around almost forever. Not as much as trees, but moreso than any animal or bird he had met. He was also able to sort of understand that Anwyn was sort of a fledgeling, and this got reinforced in his mind by her feelings of relief and freedom, frustration and impatience.
In addition to Anwyn's feelings, Oberon was also picking up strong feelings from Gwenn, and curiosity from Burl. He looked straight at him, turned his head sideways, and gave a soft burble.
Burl simply said, amazed, "He actually talks to people?"
For a moment Anwyn totally forgot that she was mad at Gwenn and mad at Kay. So it was a good thing that Burl had distracted her, BEFORE she got so mad that Gwenn wouldn't want to talk to her anymore.
"Well .. not like people talk to people -- though I wish he DID", she said in answer to Burl's question, glad of the change of subjct, "But he's a totally smart bird, and alot of the time it seems like he understands what I'm telling him. I'm nowhere near as good at figuring out his various owl-noises and body language. But I'm learning ! I've been studying about owls like him".
[OOC: Anwyn doesn't have any of the MacAran Gift, which is why she seems like a rather not-too-bright fledgling to Oberon]
"Hey!" said Burl, moving to pet Oberon. "He said something to me!"
"Ye dinna' want to do that, Burl," Gwenn said quickly, standing up and grabbing Burl's arm. "Never touch a bird wi' a bare hand. Best to stroke 'im wi' a feather, if possible." Gwenn automatically looked down to see if a feather had fallen to the ground. "Assumin' he's willin' to let ye, o' course," Gwenn added, with an inquiring look at Oberon. "Otherwise, ye may lose a finger."
The owl could tell the attention was on him at the moment, even though his name wasn't being used. But then the curious one reached a hand toward him, in a way he'd seen before, rather clumsily (from the owl's perspective).
Oberon didn't want to have his feathers dissarayed, or to be poked and patted too hard. He fluffed up his feathers, and clacked his beak a couple of times, in warning, before Gwenn stopped the other one's hand. He looked up at Gwenn, and blinked, then slowly relaxed. This one knew. Smarter than most human. He looked back at the curious man, and opened his beak as a reminder, showing he was ready to bite if need be. Gwenn was in luck, for he saw a fallen feather. It was a minor wing feather.
Anwyn curiously watched the two young men fuss over the bird on her shoulder, still too distracted to be mad at Gwenn. Though she WAS kinda happy when Oberon stepped careully down to the table, carefully avoiding her cup and plate. Neither of them would have been happy if he'd gotten pie filling all over his feathers.
Gwenn spied the feather on the ground. He picked it up and softly blew off the dirt. "Ye pet him so," he explained, holding the feather and stroking it along Oberon's neck and back. "Yer hand'll damage his feathers if he'd let ye touch 'em wi'out bitin' ye, which it looked like he was ready t'do." Gwenn handed the feather to Burl and guided the man's hand as he explained further, "Always stroke in the direction the feathers are growing. If ye ruffle his feathers, he'll get peeved and bite ye. It hurts 'im, just as gettin' yer hair pulled hurts."
Burl happily stroked the feather on Oberon, as he'd been shown. Then he saw that Anwyn wasn't eating. "I thought you were hungry, damisela. Is the food not to your liking?"
Anwyn giggled "Right ... more eating ... less talking". She'd gotten so distracted by arguing, that she'd forgotten. Her stomach growled at her again. Then, for a couple of minutes, there was quiet as she finished her snack.
Oberon half closed his eyes as Gwenn used the feather, enjoying the
caress from someone who knew how.
After a few minutes of quiet, Gwenn muttered with a disgruntled look
on his face, "That's more like it." He was still unhappy at having
Anwyn tagging along. Burl turned to Gwenn, momentarily taking his
attention off what he was doing with the feather. "Ah, Gwenn, she's okay."...