Noctis sat on a branch of a tree as he watched owlings catch practicing.
No really. The mother owl was throwing some rabbits and small deers off some height while the kids were trying to hold onto while flying through the tree lines.
They had trouble moving around nimbly and thus made quite some noise despite their innate silent movement.
Noctis observed the owlings and then whipped his head back towards the father owl, floating silently beside his tree with a rabbit in his beak.
The owl threw the rabbit a little to the right of him, just enough that he wouldn’t reach with a simple jump.
’God freaking dammit.’
Noctis jumped and quickly moved towards where the rabbit landed.
The owl came back down and gave him an admonishing glare.
The owl took back the rabbit and went back up.
And threw the rabbit a little further once again.
Noctis went up to it with quick feets, almost catching it before it landed.
The giant owl once again leveled to his height and glared at him.
The owl gave a low shriek before taking up the rabbit once again and another throw.
Noctis moved once again, nimbly as well as rather silently but the owl still gave him a rebuke.
Noctis gave up and just looked at his eyes.
The owl looked at him for a bit before taking the rabbit once again.
It threw it upwards this time with some force quite away from their position.
Henceforth the owl nimbly moved between the various trees, far too cramped for his massive size without touching a blade and caught the rabbit without going down in height.
The owls then looked at him.
"That was.... Very very impressive. I can’t fly though."
Noctis said exasperatedly, knowing the animal couldn’t even understand him.
The owl came to him once again.
"Haah. I don’t know what to tell you man. We-are-not same. Get it?"
Noctis sighed and tried to communicate with some hand signs.
The owl in turn tried his own hands, or claws as it tightened and loosened his claws at him, signalling grabbing motion.
Noctis took a breath and put both his hands on his chest pressing, before slashing his arms in crossed position signalling no.
The owl looked around the forest with his 180 degree head spin before pointing his claws at his chest.
"Aungh?" confused human noises.
Krooo~ annoyed owl whistles.
The owl then threw the rabbit in the air as it somersaulted its way into the branches of a nearby tree.
"What!? What does it even mean? I am not an effing tree!"
Noctis closed his eyes to calm himself down. He didn’t want to get mauled to death in case the giant stopped fancying him.
The owl took the rabbit once again and threw it some distance from Noctis.
As soon as Noctis moved a step it shrieked sharply, halting him instantly.
Noctis pinched the bridge of his nose as he heard the thud of the rabbit hitting the ground.
’How sturdy is that thing?’ he tried distracting himself to stop another outburst.
The owl blinked his eyes at him before taking the owl once again and the process related itself once more.
Krook-kook-koo-kook-kooook
Noctis facepalmed himself as he was being lectured by his sky master.
The owl once again took the rabbit high into the air as Noctis stared him down.
He saw as the rabbit once again projectiled in the air as the owl kept his eyes locked onto his position.
Noctis looked at the rabbit, then to the owl, and then to the rabbit again before violently ponting his arms towards the rabbit and said,
"Do you not see how stupid this is!? Do you want me to grow a tree there to catch it!?"
The moment he was finished, a thin branch sprouted out of the forest floor like a whip striking the falling rabbit as both fell to the floor.
A strange silence wept over the surroundings.
Noctis looked towards the scene gobsmacked. The owl looked at him with a matter of fact i-told-you-so expression, or maybe it was just its neutral expression.
For a moment even the other owlings stopped their practice as they came to his side blinking at the mise-en-scene.
The giant owl once again took the rabbit and flew up with low whistles.
Noctis crossed one of his arms on his chest and held his chin up with another.
’What just happened?’
The rabbit was launched once again, and Noctis once again thought the same thing.
The scene replicated itself.
Noctis looked at the whole sequence with incredulous expression.
The owlings whistled between themselves as they looked on as if applauding him.
The giant owl still shook his head and showed grabbing motion with its claws.
Finally the mother owl whistled towards the kids as they flew away towards their own practice as the giant owl once again.
’Alright let’s just focus on this for now....’
Noctis took a deep breath.
’Perhaps catching from the branches would be easier than just trying to make a whole damn tree.’
Noctis thought as the rabbit was thrown once again.
Locating the nearest tree to it he focused on his thoughts.
A vine sprouted from a branch as it whipped towards the rabbit but missed the timing.
The owl patiently took it once again and the process went on.
Noctis tried to catch via some vines and beaches while the owl threw the rabbit towards different distances and speeds.
Noctis tried vines, branches, even roots.
The vines were easier to produce and faster but lacked efficiency with his poor control. The roots were quite a bit slow and harder to make but gave good control.
The branches were good in-between for this exercise.
Thus the night went on the owls tried to pounce on their targets with their wings and claws and Noctis tried to catch them with weird protruding along the trees.