A/N: This is my first crack at AC. If somebody recognizes this, don't be alarmed, I will be cross posting this ti AO3, where you can find it as well. I will post the censored version here and the uncensored one to AO3.


Prologue

An old oak tree grew outside of Leonardo's workshop with thick limbs that sometimes cast unconventional shadows on his works. Whenever they fell on his in-progress paintings or schematics, he considered asking someone to cut the tree down for firewood, but other times he enjoyed the songbirds nesting on its branches, singing melodies while sketching them down with a charcoal.

However, one day in the early spring the oak tree was dead silent. All the songbirds had disappeared overnight as if some nightly hunter had devoured them. Leonardo, accustomed to the constant singing noticed this immediately when he woke up late in the morning. The sun was already high up in the sky beaming down warmth unique to the Italian spring. He stepped outside his workshop still wearing the same paint-stained garments he had fallen asleep in in the previous night and cast his eyes on the oak tree.

He examined the tree, but could see nothing out of ordinary. The leaves were still full and green, the bark still thick and brown, and the branches still strong enough to support several full grown men. Nothing that should scare away an entire colony of songbirds was observed until he took notice of the large cavity in the trunk now inhabited by very big and mean looking owl.

The owl was nesting he realised, but it took a few more seconds to determine the species as eagle owl. The owl was huge - just a little bit smaller than a golden eagle – had a menacing angry glare and ear tufts, which would have amused him in any other time. It was bad news as he soon found out when the male owl appeared looking less than happy to see Leonardo peering at the tree.

Leonardo managed to avoid the terrifying talons of the gigantic owl by hair's width, while scrambling towards the backdoor of his workshop. He slammed the door open and hastily closed it behind himself after he had all but dived through it.

'Well that was exciting,' he thought to himself while attempting to catch his breath, shortened by the shock of attempted violence by sharp talons. For a while he thought of asking the Auditores to come and drive the owls out, but decided against it in the end. He could leave the back door of his shop alone in favour of using the front door exclusively. It would be only this summer and then the owls would be gone. He could manage.

As time went on Leonardo found himself infinitely more amused by the owl family than he ever had with the songbirds. He sketched the owls while they perched on the branches and found himself observing the two hatched owlets over the past few weeks since nesting. The owlets would wander around the nest even during daylight hours, looking very out of place with their grey feathers contrasting with the dark brown bark of the tree.

The owlets looked more like balls of fluff with sharp talons than the majestic birds of prey they were supposedly becoming. They seemed to be insatiable creatures by nature, since all the hares and other prey the parents brought their younglings were devoured near instantaneously. Of course there were other side effects to Leonardo's life from the presence of the eagle owls other than not daring to use his back door anymore, such as the rapid decline in rodents invading and eating anything even slightly edible his cupboards and other storage spaces.


All in all the owl family didn't really affect his life much until one rainy day he looked outside of his window. All he saw at the oak tree were scattered feathers everywhere and some blood and bits and pieces of something akin to meat were laying in puddles soaked red from blood. There was also a considerable lack of owls there. Leonardo had learnt where to look to find the owls in the tree, even during daylight hours and right now he didn't see any of the four owls.

The only logical conclusion was that something had driven them away and possibly killed the owlets. Maybe it was a weasel or a mean cat. His neighbour had a huge tomcat who liked to eat anything it managed to sink its claws in and wasn't afraid to fight other cats or even dogs, so not too far fetched an idea? Or maybe a weasel had slunk up the tree while the adults had been away hunting and eaten the young ones before anybody had noticed anything. The possibilities were endless, but he couldn't afford himself to be caught thinking in endless loops about owls while he had actual work to do, so he returned back to building one of his many, many contraptions.

The monster hunters under Auditore rule were on relying him to design and build them better equipment. He had designed endless amounts of crossbows, swords, bombs, traps and even runes. The land was infested with all kinds of terrors waiting to consume their next victim while taking forms varying from giant wolves to magical demons possessing trees and people alike. He couldn't afford to mourn for owls, not in the middle of all of this.

However he was thrown out of his thoughts while working on a yet another weapon design by a sudden heavy thump sound to the back door. He wasn't expecting anyone and while the Auditore children made unplanned visits to his workshop, they knew by now to use the front door to avoid the ire of the owl family.

He reluctantly left his work to make it towards the door. His mind went through all the possible visitors he could have who would throw themselves or some object at the door and use the backdoor at that. When he had arrived to the point where he had his hand on the handle, his most urgent thoughts were how he was completely out of cookies to serve for the visitors.

However all his thoughts about cookies, tea and weapon designs immediately vanished when he saw what actually was outside of his door. Two children sat huddled together, wet from the rain and covered in mud, although that in itself was not the surprising part; the neighbour's children and his main employer's three did the same during spring rains. The surprising part was seeing two quite naked and obviously foreign children, immediately deduced from their much darker skin colour and hair sitting huddled outside while looking so very, very lost.

Leonardo stood at his door with his mouth agape, while his mind was racing in an attempt to find a logical conclusion. The children looked at him with eyes wide open in some undefinable emotion, looking awfully lot like the two owlets and he looked back at them with a similar look before he finally asked:

"Where are your clothes and your parents?"

The bigger and older one of the two, although not by much if what Leonardo estimated was accurate, answered:

"I do not know. I do not even know where we are."

The oddly calm voice was accented, so yes, definitely foreigners.

"Can we come in? It's cold here," the smaller child piped in, while the older one glared suspiciously.

"Sure, but only until we find your parents. You couldn't have just dropped out of the sky here," Leonardo answered while moving out of the way.

He couldn't possibly have known that the short stay until the parents would be found, extended well beyond ten years. The owls may have been gone from his yard, but in their stead two little boys would be terrorizing his workshop. It was not a position he ever thought he would find himself in, but life is unpredictable like that.