I made my way up north over the mountains. The valleys rose up making it look like the peaks lowered. There was barely any place in between the rocky hangs anymore and what little life there was, was hardy and sparse. I decided to take a slower speed, just in case I would come across something interesting. After two hours or so, I reached the edge of the mountains.

Below me, the rocky peaks turned into forested hills much like the dwarven lands. This looked somewhat familiar but I quickly found I was not near my birthplace. That was not unexpected, though, and I turned east to follow the trees.

The edge of the forest hid a village or two over the next few hours and I stalled near each of them, trying to see if I had reached my goal. Just an hour or so before dawn, I got to the third human settlement. This time, there was no mistaking it. I need not have worried. The peaks I had hatched on were burned into my memory.

Since the night was nearly over, I stayed high up and observed the surroundings. It was about three months after my birthday and if my parents had another batch of hatchlings, they would likely be fledglings right about now. My shadows veiled my form in the last bit of remaining darkness.

Lo and behold, about ten minutes after I arrived, I saw an owl. Shortly after, there was another. And then a third form lacking one of her ear tufts. That was my mother. There was no mistaking it. I apparently had another two siblings. My mother was chasing them back to the nest where my father sat and waited. Was he relegated to guard duty, or what?

With there only being two newly fledged owls, this batch of eggs seemed to be smaller than mine. In all honesty, I felt little for the young birds. My mother, though? There was something there. And I was about to find out it seemed since she just left the nest again.

I made sure to stay stealthy and follow her. She circled the mountain halfway and then dove into the forest. I quickly saw what she was aiming for. There was a node. Fire and air, medium size. And my mother lost no time settling in nearby and starting to carefully drain vis. Making my way around, I saw a second owl. She sat there looking at mother for a moment before focusing on her surroundings. And then it clicked. Owls are solitary animals. We would not share our hunting grounds unless with a partner and our chicks. The fact that two of them were there could only mean one thing. They were sapient.

I decided to take some more time to think this situation over. I could maybe communicate with my mother properly. Potentially. If it was like with Vivi, I might have to teach her Ordugh first. Or any language, really. But did I want to do that?

I remembered my mum from my life before. The “Eternal Blossom”, as her name Aiyana meant. I remembered her love and care. I also knew my current mother had cared for me. She had not chased me away with a completely frozen heart. There was some cold calculation of considering the capacity of these hunting grounds but she had taught me everything she believed I needed. I felt like I should at least try to thank her.

And so, I undid my cover of shadows and slowly circled downwards. The node came closer and after several minutes, I was only a hundred metres or so above the other two owls. The one currently guarding had spotted me but made no move quite yet. Only when I proceeded downwards did she let out a shawl of shadows. Hers were rather different from mine, though. If only by the simple fact that they were burning. Literal fire licked out of the swathing darkness as it swirled around her. It was a clear threat but no active aggression. And when I saw the ease with which she manipulated her Skill, I recalled a particular individual I had not met in two years. My sister.

I decided to flex out my own shadows, forming them into a second set of wings. By alternating their beats, I was able to nearly stand still in the air. I was a little wobbly at first but it let me keep eye contact with her. And then, I decided to [Identify] her.

[Identify]

Species: Great Eagle Owl (adult)

Age: 2

Name: -

Gender: female

Status: sapient, healthy, vis enriched (minor)

Level: 24

Class: [Hunter], -

The reaction was immediate if unexpected. I had not used [Hidden Identify] for the simple reason that I wanted her to know I was sapient. And I had gotten the message across. The telltale push of an [Identify] pulled on my soul. I did not know how much she saw but it would be unlikely for her to have it much higher than level four. And with how she did not freak out, I assumed she did not see my level.

Instead, I was welcomed with a hoot and the flaming shadows retreated. I hooted in answer and dropped the last bit of distance while my mother broke out of her meditative trance. She clacked her tongue at my sister and they hissed for a moment before turning to me. I bobbed my head in greeting and identified my mother as well.

[Identify]

Species: Great Eagle Owl (adult)

Age: 27

Name: -

Gender: female

Status: sapient, healthy, vis enriched (minor)

Level: 46

Class: [Wyvern Hunter], -

This time, the reaction was a little more interesting. The older owl started hooting and waving her wings at my sister and the two got into something like an excited argument. It seemed very simplistic with how little detail I could make out in their noise and gestures but it clearly showed they were fully sapient even without seeing their Status.

Eventually, they turned back to me and my mother’s eyes narrowed. She gestured at the node and hissed. I was pretty sure she was telling me I would not get anything from it but that was not why I was here. With the ‘conversation’ shifted towards me, I decided to finally activate [Telepathy]. The Skill made their eyes widen as they felt their souls connected to mine.

“Hello”, I sent along with the feelings of greeting and respect.

My mother clicked her tongue while my sister was simply confused.

“No words, then?”, I asked, this time without any feelings.

It took a moment for me to get an answer. It was from my mother. And it was a simple question poured into an idea: “Who are you?”

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I thought for a moment before deciding on my approach. I remembered the day I had left my nest for good. The last preening my mother had given me and the fight we had that gave me [Aerial Combat]. Her eyes widened. As did my sisters. It seemed they understood. And yet, they were confused. “Why are you here?” That question pushed to the forefront of my sister’s mind. “Since when?”, asked my mother.

I lowered my head in a deep bow with my next feelings.

“Thank you!”, I sent. Not in words but in a pure ideal. I was thanking mother for giving me life. I was thanking her and my father for teaching me how to hunt. I was thanking my sister for being so friendly.

My mother hooted with pride.

“Of course!”, was the feeling I got from her, “I’m the best!”

Or something along those lines. I chuckled. The hacked apart noise prompted worried hoots from the other two.

“Are you healthy?”, they asked. “Are you in pain?”

I answered with amusement and showed them the image of a chuckling dwarf. And a chuckling goblin and human for good measure.

They looked at each other. I did not need to receive their next question to know it.

“How?”

And so I started to tell them about me. It was difficult to put words into emotions and I decided to cut a lot of the details since it took time to properly recall a memory. I showed them I was sapient from the moment I hatched. I showed them how I met the goblins and later Vivi and the dwarves. How I fought orks and found Alex. And that was it. It took long enough to progress the day until noon. I had made sure to speak Ordugh to them as well. Maybe they would pick up a few words. By the end of it, mother sunk in on herself. My sister was hooting aggressively and demanding more words and more details.

“Patience”, I sent. That calmed her down. A little.

Mother soon rightened her body and met my eyes. She sent me an image of the status page she had identified from me. It showed the first four lines, as expected. But there was a clear focus on the ‘Name’ row.

It took me a moment to understand what she wanted but then I spoke the words into her mind.

“Fio Catori”, I said with the human voice from my previous life.

My mother focused. For several minutes, she made strange noises and sent weirder ones through the connection. Then, she looked at me again.

“Heehow Cahoohee”, she sent.

Despite the butchered pronunciation, I could tell what she wanted to say. My mind flashed back to Roguk. Back when he decided to give me a name, I made two distinct sounds. A hissing ‘hee’ and my trademark owl ‘hoot’. Those two had been brought together and given form by the mushroom he had just taught me about. The fio-shroom that could nullify poison and acid by absorbing and transforming them.

Tears wanted to run down my eyes but once again I was reminded: Owls do not have tear ducts. Humans have, though, and I felt myself cry within my soul. My human self.

Hoot was the only thing I could utter. I jumped over to my mum and nuzzled up to her. I had almost twenty centimetres on the older owl and yet I could not help but feel like a child. She spread out a wing and pushed me forwards. I felt her beak carefully go through my down, then my covert feathers. For several minutes, I simply enjoyed the preening. I… was home? It was clear at that moment that I would never fully live here again and yet… I was welcome. My sister clicked her tongue and glanced at the sky. It was the middle of the afternoon and without any more communication, she took off. I asked mum what was going on and she told me they were rotating to absorb vis from the node. It had appeared some time after I left but before my sister was thrown out. The little rascal had found the node and started absorbing vis from it. Apparently, it had barely taken two weeks for her to reach sapience. Then, she started to bother my parents and eventually managed to drag them here as well. Within a month, they were all sapient.

I asked what happened to my brothers but they had not survived. Feathered wyverns were much more common right after the storm and with three of them within a week, my parents had not been successful in protecting everyone. They had taken a break last year and only now had new hatchlings. Once the little ones learned the basics, they would be allowed to draw on the node to reach sapience as well.

I told her I liked the plan just as my dad landed close by. He was visibly disturbed and yet quickly calmed down to join the preening session. I did some good work on his feathers.

When he was caught up to everything, the two of them shared a look. One I could only vaguely remember from my previous life’s parents. They had made a decision. And I was included without my opinion being asked for.

“Teach us!”

That was what they sent. In emotions and in a garbled and unintelligible mess of noise that remotely resembled speech.

I laughed repeated hoots.

“Of course!”, I answered without the slightest help of images or emotions.

They met each other’s eyes. I could see the realization dawn on them. This was going to be difficult.