"Right in here, soldier, come along."
Ginger slowly and quietly followed the Ablah General towards the hollow opening. She could hear the voices of other owls in there.
Nyra motioned for her to step inside before her, and she nodded, then entered...Then marveled.
This hollow was even more immense than the one she'd been given, perhaps big enough to be considered a cave in its own right. The open roof let the moonlight shine fully through from above, and in the room there was a large, flat stone in the center of the floor with several freshly-killed rodents piled onto it and a single bookshelf along the back of the rounded wall. And, intermingling with one another all over, were the four other trainees.
All of them had the distinct heart-shaped faces that all Tytos possessed, but at the same time, they all looked quite different from one another.
The first one that caught her attention was another Tyto Abla, like herself, but with lighter, almost buff plumage and large, bright sea green eyes. She sat in the corner, her beak stuck in one of the books from the shelf.
The second was no Tyto Abla, as evidenced by his mottled ashen and charcoal feathers, as opposed to tawny brown and white. The greys and blacks were lightly speckled with small white dots, the feathers just above the dark rim of his facial disc were somewhat messy, and his eyes were a soft, subtle brown. He was listening intently to what one of his comrades was saying to him.
The one speaking to the black and grey owl also had dark-colored feathers, but they were much brighter than those of the latter. His plumage was a deep umber brown with tan undersides, and his face feathers were a bright, burnt gold, making the forest green eyes on them extremely obvious. He seemed to be in good humor, and was entertaining his sooty-painted friend with personal stories of his, it sounded like.
Then, the last one. He was yet another Tyto Alba, with bright, reddish rusty brown plumage, and his lightly speckled white undersides looked just ever so slightly sun-kissed. His eyes were a deep amber, and just atop his head was what looked like a feathery fauxhawk. A strangely handsome trait, to say the least. He seemed to...stare at Ginger a bit as she entered the room, and when he accidentally made eye contact with her, he seemed to flash a bit of...deep thought in his eyes before turning his head away, pretending to ignore her.
Nyra entered in right after her, then stamped her foot down onto the stony floor, then screeched to call the attention of all four of the owls. She was met with them all bustling about, putting what they were each doing aside in order to assemble in front of her in a straight line. The umber owl stepped out from the center of the formation, talon raised.
"Trainee Squadron, reporting for duty, General Ma'am!" he answered her.
"Excellent. At ease."
They all loosened their stiff postures, and she continued.
"I am excited to announce a new member of the team. Everyone, this is Ginger Wingren. This fine young'un was retrieved from the midst of a hail cusp by our patrollers, who discovered dodging the falling ice with...quite unorthodox skill for one her age. She's going to be training alongside us from now on, so I'll leave all of you to get acquainted with one another for an additional, shall we say, erm...fifteen minutes? I'll be back at that time."
"Yes, General Ma'am," the umber owl addressed her one more time as she left the hollow. He then turned his attention toward the newcomer.
"So, new recruit, eh?" he began, extending a friendly wing. "Good on ya. I'm Vaygar. Been here pushin' a year."
"Well, that's longer than me," she marveled, meeting him halfway.
"I should say so. You just got here!"
He hooted a laugh, hoping she would join him, but she just stood there, white feathers turning pink. He deflated some.
"So...Where you from?"
"Erm...Chatham?"
"Never heard of that place," the female Barn Owl commented, pulling an atlas from the bookshelf to search for said location. "Which part of the Kingdoms is it in?"
"I...don't think it's in any," she answered.
She looked up from her book.
"...Implying?"
"I'm not exactly, uh...from these parts."
"You don't know which Kingdom you're from, then?"
"Is the United States a Kingdom?"
That was the moment when every eye in the room turned to lock onto her, and she wilfed.
"...You're serious?" the mottled grey and black owl breathed.
"Yes?"
And then, she was swarmed by the three.
"I THOUGHT that accent sounded funny!" the leia exclaimed.
"You're actually from the outside!?" Vaygar screeched. "How'd you GET here?!"
"Erm...I was carried most of the way, I think."
"What's it like?" the female owl asked her.
"Well, there's a lot of...trees where I'm from, I guess?"
"More than here, I imagine," she continued. "The Beaks don't have that much in the way of vegetation except for the oasis of-"
"Don't mention that place, please," the Sooty Owl begged her.
"Sorry, Phillip...But anyway, you get the idea. Ha...No wonder I couldn't find that place on a map, I was lookin' at the wrong one! Come on! Let's see!"
She took Ginger to the stone slab the book was laid out on, then started flipping through the pages.
"So...I think you're the one Nyra was telling me about, is that right?"
"Huh? Who? What? What'd she say about me?" she stammered.
"That we might get along well...Maybe."
"Well, I'd hope so! Oh, I don't mean to be a bother, Ginger, but I've just got so many questions, this is amazing! Ha ha! Ha...Eh..."
She trailed off a bit, a bit ashamed of her rambling, but she perked right back up and stretched a wing out to greet her properly.
"I'm Uklah. Pleasure to meet you, Ginger. Sorry 'bout my over-enthusiasm."
"Oh, no, no, don't be. I'll be honest; I was kind of afraid I was going to be left out of the clique because of me not...being from here."
"You haven't a thing to worry about; I'll show you the ropes just as well as the Ablah General could herself!"
"You'd do that?"
"Love to? Erm...Just curious; can you read?"
"Uh...No."
"Interested in learning?"
"Maybe."
"That's enough an answer for me! 'Ey, maybe when we finish training for the night, I could show you to my hollow and teach you the basics, how's that sound?"
"Well, it sounds...pretty good, I guess, actually!"
"Here we go!"
She stopped turning the pages when she came to a map of the very place Ginger hailed from.
"So, uh, let's see...Which one of these states is this 'Chatham' place in, you know?"
"Georgia, along the Atlantic Coast."
"Atlantic...Here it is. This is it right here."
She pointed with a talon at the state just north of the peninsula jutting out from the bottom.
"Let's see...Is it coastal?"
"I don't think it's too far from the ocean; I got there from my old hollow pretty quickly."
"Alright, Kingsland, Brunswick, erm...'Effingham?' Is that how it's said?"
"What'd ham ever do to you?" Vaygar chortled.
"Give it a blow, Vaygar...Huh. I can't find it. Maybe it's too small to be displayed here."
"Maybe so..."
"Hey, maybe it'd be on an individual map somewhere! I'd have to scour the library, though...If you want, we could go there instead of my hollow later."
"Whichever is better for you."
"Ah...Honestly, I'm up for some company. Hey, and maybe I could show you my-"
Uklah stopped talking when she saw the rusty brown owl approach and grab a vole off the table and hurriedly go back to where he was standing.
"...He's been acting all weird ever since you came in," she whispered. "...I've an idea. Why don't you go start up a conversation with him? I'd bet he's nervous. He's got this odd...superiority complex. Felt like he wasn't good enough in his own hollow compared to his siblings, so he let slip once, so I guess he tries to make up for it here. Might be worried about all the attention you're getting; it'd be good if you started out on a friendly foot with him; once you get to know the guy, he's hilarious."
"Well, I trust the judgement of an owl that can read," she responded, taking a small field mouse from the stone slab before leaving Uklah to join him. She stood beside the other Barn Owl, casually working away at the mouse, preferring to rip chunks off of it instead of just swallowing it whole, taking her time.
"...Hm..." the owl hooted. "So...Outside's a big place, isn't it?"
"Bigger than here, I guess," Ginger answered him. "Don't really know much about maps or geography just yet."
"Is it...nice out there?"
"I should think; at least where I'm from. Forests are nice and lush and green."
"Lush and green as Tyto Forest?"
"Don't know; never been there. Is that where you're from?"
"Yes, that's...where I'm from," he nodded, finally deciding to make eye contact with her.
"So then, you'd know. Just how green is Tyto Forest?"
"Green all year, almost. They're almost all evergreen trees, over in Tyto."
"Wow...Nothing changes color in the fall?"
"Not really. Does it on the mainland?"
"To an extent, in my home forest; the pines and leafy trees are kind of mixed into each other. In the fall, it's amazing; reds, golds, browns, and the scattered green...When the sun starts to rise, it really looks amazing; that sort of gold glow covers everything until the sun gets all the way over the horizon. It's real pretty."
"Wow..." he marveled, and then he turned his gaze away some, debating what he would say next.
"Erm...Do...Do you know what else is real pretty?"
"No, what?"
He tensed suddenly.
"Eh, nothing. Forget what I said; not important," he answered curtly. "Come on; can't I catch a break? Why do you ask so many questions?"
Ginger gave him a very strange look, and the owl turned his head even further away.
"So, uh...Ginger, it was, right?"
"That's it. You?"
"...Kludd," he just barely mouthed, nary a noise coming from his beak.
"Sorry, what was that?"
"KLUDD."
His voice broke as he squawked the answer out, earning him the eyes of every owl in the room. He finally found that his talons looked quite interesting.
"...My mistake," he answered.
Ginger simply shuffled a bit away from him, picking up the rest of her field mouse in her talons and sliding it down her throat as she normally did. She decided to ignore him for the time being; yes, Uklah did say he had a bit of a superiority complex, and was possibly nervous about her arrival, but this strange behavior wasn't exactly what the owl had been expecting. Plus, he was the biggest, and notably the most brawny out of all the other trainee owls in the room, yet despite supposedly being brash, he seemed so...
Anxious around her.
And what exactly did he think was 'real pretty'? Really, she wasn't sure she wanted to know, but pondering it only made her even more curious.
Her thoughts were interrupted by another sharp quip of a screech that rang across the hollow. All of the owls diverted their attention toward the hollow exit; there stood Nyra.
"Alright, Trainees, time to get back to business! You know the drill, target field A.S.A.P! Move out!"
As she called out the order, the five Tyto owls rushed out to follow after the Ablah General as she made her way out of the hollow and back to the training grounds, spreading their wings in order to follow her as she, too, took to the air. Having been caught well off-guard, Ginger staggered behind the group as they flew out.