"Alright, owlets, pay close attention. In this trial, I'll be testing your tracking abilities. This should be interesting..."
"What are we to be tracking down, your Pureness?" Phillip inquired.
"Why, you'll be pursuing me, young Tytos. What I will do is flee the training grounds for another section of the palace, and through the various pieces of...'evidence' I will leave scattered around my wake, you'll have to locate me. Whoever gets to me first will be the victor."
"So, is this, like, some extreme version of hide-and-seek?" Ginger likened.
"Yes, yes, in a way...Now, if you'll excuse me, before we begin, I feel the urge to yarp. I'll be with you all in a moment."
Nyra exited the training grounds' main hollow again to tend to her business, and during her absence, the trainees talked among themselves.
"What kinds of clues do you think she'll leave?" Ginger wondered aloud.
"I'm thinking feathers..." Uklah surmised. "...But just those might make it too obvious. She might try other things."
"Like what?"
"We'd have to see to find out, I suppose," Phillip responded. "But one thing's for sure, we all know who's not going to win this."
They all eyed the rusty brown buff with the feathery fauxhawk, who raised his own eyes at this insinuation.
"Oh, shut your beaks," Kludd grimaced. "At least I've more muscle than all four of you combined."
"Really, do you?" Ginger challenged him again. "If I remember correctly, Vaygar and I didn't fall too far behind you in that regiment."
The owl opened his beak to defend himself, but nothing came out. Ginger did have a point, he realized, so he looked away from her and shut his mouth, silently acknowledging her upper hand in this argument.
"Hm..." Vaygar hummed to himself. "...I could be wrong, but I don't think it takes this long to yarp a pellet."
"Yarpie-barpies, maybe?" Uklah guessed.
"Wait," Phillip interrupted everyone, his brown eyes growing wider with realization. "...You don't think she-"
Ginger was the first to make a mad dash for the exit when she caught on to Phillip's theory, and she stumbled out of the hollow to look for traces of the Ablah General.
There on the ground, not far to the left of the entrance to the training grounds, was an owl's pellet. And just above was another cave opening, leading through a tunnel and into another portion of the palace.
"This way..."
The hushed whisper came not from her, but from Phillip, and he'd already taken to the air before Ginger could even think to spread her wings. But once she realized what was happening, she did just that, and followed after him. She'd seen it first, and she wasn't going to let her chance at victory be stolen quite so easily.
Stolen victory...
Her gizzard panged lightly, and that small sensation seemed to point right in the Sooty Owl's direction. This was the right way to go, she realized. That 'gizzuition' thing that the Ablah General had told her about was beginning to take form.
And that was when an idea popped into her head, and what a malicious idea it was. She would follow Phillip on the sly and see if she could nab her victory before he could.
Genius...! she said to herself.
Phillip continued through the tunnel, and soon came into a great open area of the palace. He landed on the ground, in search of more fresh evidence, and Ginger came in for a landing herself and peered around the curve of the tunnel to study him. He didn't seem to be aware of her, so she crept further out into the open to watch him more closely, careful to not let the tips of her claws clack against the stone floor, lest she be heard.
She saw his gaze lock onto something, and she followed after him as he escaped her view from the tunnel to the right, and she saw what he'd discovered. Right there on the ground in front of him sat a white covert feather, tipped with scarlet.
The young Sooty Owl spread his wings again and took off in that direction, and his follower did the same, still being especially mindful of her volume and position; if she fell too far behind, she might lose her chance to seize his win, and even lose his position altogether, and if she got too close, she would be spotted, and her stealth mission would be jeopardized.
Especially now; Phillip seemed a lot more alert than before, indicating that he knew he wasn't alone. She wasn't the only one here with a sharp gizzard.
Ginger looked behind her; no other owls coming up yet. Maybe they'd gone off somewhere else in fear that just following the two of them would lead to a dead end, so they'd opted to split up. That was good for her, for certain. She only had to worry about Phillip and herself.
He kept scanning the area, Ginger tailing far behind, flying just a tad faster whenever he turned a corner, only to come sneaking slowly up from behind to keep herself well hidden. The one she was following came across yet another feather. The quill was red and wet with blood, indicating that it had been plucked prematurely instead of shed, and beside it was a fresh slash mark of claws in the stone. He slowed his flight and planted his feet on the ground. He was extremely close.
"Alright, General Ma'am," he whispered to himself. "Where are you...?"
Presently, Ginger felt the sudden urge to clear her throat, and strained to keep quiet...But then she had another idea.
What if I catch him off guard...and then follow Nyra's trail while he's dazed?
It was worth trying. So, she allowed herself to grunt out a deep "ahem," and she heard the Sooty Owl's talons begin to clack closer.
And then, just when he was upon her...
"General Ma'am?"
She sprang out in front of the owl and let out a shrill screech, just inches from his face.
Phillip suddenly began to panic, and staggered backwards, looking about ready to faint.
Ginger saw her chance, and took the opportunity to look about the claw marks and feather for the Ablah General. There were two stone hollows adjacent from each other on either side of the evidence, and while Phillip was hiding his head in his wings, she slowed her breathing and listened closely for a sound; a breath, a heartbeat, anything. Her ears could pick up a rabbit's heartbeat from at least thirty feet above ground, so they could hear another owl's if it was within close proximity.
Then, she heard it, coming from the hollow on the right; shallow breathing. She was in there.
"No," another voice came. "No, no, no, please no!"
Phillip was stumbling forward trying to catch up with her, wing over his chest. She was almost tempted to be that owl and run into the hollow to win instantly, but there was something...odd in his gaze. Some sort of strange fear. Something like a jumpscare shouldn't cause something like that. Something was wrong.
"...You know what?" she said to him. "Let's...go in together, alright?"
"Together...That's..."
His knees looked weak, and she propped him up with a wing as she lead him into the hollow. There, just inside the entrance, stood the Ablah General.
"Well, I never expected any of these to end in a tie," she remarked. "Might I ask what all the commotion out there was?"
"The screeches..." Phillip rasped. "So much blood..."
"Oh, dear me...Another one of those, eh?"
"What's a 'those'?" Ginger inquired, now concerned.
"Allow me to explain," Nyra told her. "Phillip, it'd be wise for you to bed down about now."
He gave a weak nod, then folded his legs to roost on the ground for a moment. And once he was down, the Ablah General explained everything to her.
"Phillip hails from the oasis of the Mirror Lakes, found in the center of the Kingdom of the Beaks. Some say that the waters are as cursed as they are beautiful; take one look at yourself in that perfectly flat reflection in the water and you'll instantly be enamored with it. And once that happens, it is not so easy to pull yourself away. It happened just under a year ago. Phillip's hollow was raided by a band of rogue owls wandering the oasis, looking for new recruits, we surmised. When they declined and tried to escort them out of the hollow, they lashed out."
"Screams...filled the air," Phillip remembered. "Blood all over everything...Da was...gutted. Snowy Owl...did him in. He was in pain...so much pain."
"Was this all because I screamed?"
"It usually takes a good scare for Phillip to experience anything like this," Nyra informed her. "I don't suppose you knew anything like this would come out of what was likely nothing more than a strategic implement...So, tell me, Ginger. How exactly did all of this go down?"
"Uh...You should probably just give Phillip the win here," she replied. "All I did was follow after him so I could nab the win."
"Hmm..."
Nyra pondered this explanation for a moment, a smile slowly inching its way across her beak.
"Despite the disturbance, I must say, young owl, I'm impressed. Pursuing an owl on the sly to take advantage of the situation is not a commonly employed tactic among the lesser-experienced Pure Ones. How long did you manage to evade detection?"
"Just when..." Phillip gasped, regaining his senses again. "Just when she popped out from behind the rock...Didn't know she was there until then."
"So...Since the start, then?"
"Yes, your Pureness," Ginger answered.
"Impressive, Tyto. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need alert the others that the competition is done with."
The Ablah General left the hollow, leaving Ginger and Phillip to themselves.
"So...Is your mother at least still alive?"
The Sooty Owl sighed.
"She is," he confirmed. "Works at the Academy in the Canyonlands as a pit guardian. She, uh...Has the same problem as me. Except...worse. She knew him longer than I did, so...it was harder on her, I think. I'm honestly glad I never had any siblings...then we might have lost two that day."
"You never had any siblings?"
"I consider myself lucky I never had any to lose...It's not a good mentality to have, I don't think, but..."
"Oh, in only you knew. I envy you, Phillip; I had a brother back in the states, and he's the one who drove me out of the hollow in the first place. He was crazy from day 1. No joke. Always talking, always griping, always getting into trouble...Be glad you didn't have to deal."
"Oh...Well...I have an...odd question for you, Ginger."
"What's that."
"If you ever got word that your brother died...How would you react?"
Ginger was silent. She thought about it for a few moments, hoping to give him a proper answer, but...
"I don't really know, Phillip. I...I guess I should be thankful myself that I didn't have to go through what you did."
"I suppose we both have a few things in common...Also, you don't need to apologize for what you did back there," Phillip told her, rising to his feet. "You didn't know."
"Well, now I do. And I'll be careful not to do that again."
"...Thanks for that."
"What are you two doin', flivving or something?"
The voice came from Kludd, who was now entering the hollow along with Vaygar, Uklah and Nyra.
"Wha-No," Phillip denied plainly.
"Like you're one to talk," Uklah reprimanded.
Kludd's mocking grin vanished in an instant, and he tensed.
"Shut your beak," he retorted.
"Should we do the chant, Uklah?" Vaygar offered.
"Hmm...Let's wait until it really gets juicy."
"I said SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!"
"That's enough, soldier!" Nyra commanded. "I don't believe the owl who barely left the training grounds has any right to yell about now."
"Expect the unexpected, right?" he defended. "It'd have been genius to keep close to the place we thought you'd fled!"
"While I see your reason, you still failed horribly at this."
"I told you so," Phillip acknowledged.
"Oh, give it a blow, Phillip."
"I'll be devising the next trial. I suppose you can all hang around in here while I prepare it."
"Yes, your Pureness," Vaygar agreed.
The Ablah General exited the hollow, then unfurled her scroll again to jot down the scores.
-Kludd: 7
-Vaygar: 11
-Ginger: 11
-Phillip: 9
-Uklah: 7
Things were beginning to even out; the brain and the brawn were currently tied for last, but they were only two tallies behind Phillip, who was, in turn, only two behind Ginger and Vaygar in the lead. Ginger was doing surprisingly well so far; sure, the chance of her actually coming out on top was extremely improbable,(and unfavorable) seeing how new she was, but if this was what she was capable of already, then the future held a lot for her in terms of potential. Besides, Nyra wasn't about to disqualify her just for that reason; it simply wasn't appropriate.
Ginger definitely made the game more interesting, but she knew that this next trial would be Uklah's chance, out of anyone's, to climb the tower.