Duzz, Crefar and Hekto looked at each other disconcertedly as they heard the owl speak in human language.
The owl started twisting its wings as if they were hands and made incomprehensible noises with its beak. As if in answer to that, the door of its cage swung open. Crefar, Duzz and Hekto took a step back, not knowing what to expect from this strangely humanoid animal.
"Oh, please don't take me for a threat. I'm much obliged to you for helping me. I was locked in this cage by magic that the demonic creatures put upon it." The owl lifted its wings in a calming motion as it stepped out of its cage.
"Who... what are you? Are you the inventor?" Crefar asked it.
"Oh no. I'm afraid you're not going to find my master. Not alive, anyway. When those demonic creatures found their way into the tower, they took him upstairs and that's the last I know of him." the owl answered.
"Your... m-m-master?" Duzz inquired. "Then... y-y-you are...?"
"It's..." The owl took some to respond. "...complicated. What I used to be is my master's pet. He kept me as both a message carrier and a subject for some of his experiments. But that is not what I am anymore, because something happened to me in the moment when the demons came."
"A rift opened? And magic spilled over." Crefar said.
The owl tilted its head. "Yes. You seem to be knowledgeable in the ways of the arcane."
Duzz looked at Crefar and on the inside she sighed with relief, as the owl had just confirmed that Crefar was indeed a magic expert. She saw him use magic before, but as they traveled together, she started suspecting maybe he was just some victim of a magical influence and had no real idea of how magic worked. He rarely used magic himself and with his sarcastic and tricksy attitude, it was easy to suppose he was pulling everybody's legs including hers.
"Yea, I know my share." Crefar replied to the owl. "And what was it that happened to you?"
"Well, you see, before the rift opened, I was a simple animal. My understanding, my consciousness and my perception were all within the realm of a bird. Not that I couldn't see what was happening around me or understand what was wanted of me, but I could not see into the learned abstractions of what my master was performing and could not communicate on human terms or interact with my environment the way humans do. But now..."
"Y-y-you can." Duzz finished his sentence.
"Yes. And that is not all. I remember, of course, most of what I had seen my master do. So I know, for example, the purpose of that broom you have on your shoulder." and he pointed at the broom that Duzz had scavenged on the first floor of the tower.
"R-r-really?" Duzz asked, confusedly. "Then, what does it do?"
"It is the result of my master's dabbling with explosives. If you fill the chamber there with that powder," and the Owl pointed its wing at one flask on a shelf next to him that was, thankfully, still standing, "and pull that little lever, the powder inside will ignite and send any projectile in that pipe forth with enormous force and precision. I saw my master use it once on a glass flask from a large distance."
Duzz looked at the broom and started getting all sorts of ideas. Then, she scooped the flask with the powder in it and put it into her pouch.
"So if you know all that happened before you... changed... then, do you also know what happened afterwards? Why the tower is the way it is and why is the sky above like the sky in the Inferno realm?" Crefar asked. Duzz looked at him inquisitively.
YOU ARE READING
The Hall of Heroes
Fantasy"It is not just a tale." the wise woman said calmly. "The Hall of Heroes exists. It is a tomb built by our ancestors that houses the remains of long dead heroes native to this mountain country. And through a certain ritual, those heroes can be calle...
