Mother had a plan. I had a guess what her plan was, but I was not sure I could do it. Since we could fly now, we should be able to hunt. Should being imperative here. I had seen a lot of dead animals in these last 2 months and even ate them, but I was not sure if I could kill something myself.
For now, I would just follow mother who led us towards the north, away from the forest. We flew for a few minutes before we left it behind us and crossed a small village sitting right at its edge. It was the middle of the night so I saw nobody moving around. Not even a single light in one of the windows. But I was able to make out squat wooden houses huddled together with a square almost directly in the centre surrounded by a few two-story buildings made partially from stone. There was a well in the central square and a small brooklet ran around the east side of the village.
No indication of whether humans lived here or another species. I was definitely interested, but for now, I would have to be satisfied with this view. Once mother was done with her lessons I would have the ability to explore on my own. Maybe I could come here in the evening and investigate?
By now we had gone past a few small fields of crops I could not identify and reached a grassy plain. Hills made it curve up and down and here and there a few trees grew in small groupings. A dirt road led away from the village curving around the steeper slopes. Mother slowed down and landed in one of the larger trees of a small copse.
Landing, huh? I had not thought about that before now. I trusted my instincts and spread my wings to slow down as I approached a branch close to where mother sat. Thrusting my feet forward I spread my talons and started flapping my wings quickly to slow down even more. With a stumble, my left foot gripped the branch but my right foot slipped and, startled, I flapped my wings to keep my balance. Luckily only a few beats brought my upper body back up and I was able to grip onto the branch properly.
Embarrassed I scanned my surroundings. Mother seemingly had not paid attention, she was instead focused on my presumed sister who was still looking for a spot to land. Her attempt looked as unskilled as mine had felt. Though she did land along the length of a branch and had space to walk a few steps on it instead of flapping her wings rapidly to somehow stay on. I should remember this for practice.
Once we both had settled down mother hooted at us to get our attention. She bobbed her head a few times while looking at our feet and pointed with a wing. Assuming we were supposed to stay put I simply watched her take off and glide over the plains. My sister followed after my lead.
After a few silent minutes of watching mother, I got bored and started looking around the plains. There was movement here and there. Small vermin maybe, looking for a midnight snack? I also realized I was able to hear the rustling grass and small twigs breaking throughout the night around me.
One of those rustling sounds had apparently caught mother’s attention as well because she slowly made her way towards it. Not a beat of her wings betrayed her approach to the unsuspecting victim. Then she suddenly pulled her wings in and backwards, thrusting forward her talons. At the last second, she pulled up her wings again to slow down a little more and with a thump she landed. A quick movement of her head ended the life of whatever she had caught and she looked back towards us.
I bobbed my head in response. I had seen everything. I was ready to hunt my own food. Mother flew back to us, prey in her bill. After landing, she immediately swallowed it whole. Then with a look and a hoot, it was our turn.
I took off. It did not look like I would get fed anymore. I had to find my own food now. After gaining some height I glided across the night plains and carefully scanned the ground. From up here, I saw even more movement in between the grass. There were mainly mice and rats. A hamster here or there and I even saw something like a mink or badger a bit further away. While I knew owls eat anything they can kill in a quick strike, I did not want to try too big a target for my first hunt so I settled on a mouse or rat.
Slowly gliding forward with a slight breeze keeping me up in the air I carefully observed the ground and listened for any noise directly below me. There! A rat, or maybe a mouse was making its way across the plains. To what goal I did not know, nor did I care. It was food and it would be my first hunt.
I drew in my wings slightly and started dropping towards the ground, still in a gliding motion. The rustling grass displaced by the rat’s movement was enough to keep me on target. The pale moonlight let me see every shift in its path as well. As I was only a few meters above it I finally folded my wings back and let myself drop to the ground. Shifting my legs forward towards the small skittering form and closing my eyes I caught my drop moments before I landed.
The impact of my feet on the ground reverberated through my whole body. Did I miss? An almost deafening squeaking in the middle of the night rushing away straight in front of me confirmed: I missed. Damn it! I was so close! Maybe I should have kept my eyes open? Frustrated I clicked my tongue against my beak. I would need some practice to get this right.
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I had to try a few more times before I succeeded for the first time. It was ingrained in my instincts to close my eyes right before landing on my target which made me miss a lot more than I felt comfortable with. On the eighth try, I was able to keep my eyes open for the first time. On the ninth I was successful.
I now had a mouse in my talons, pressed to the ground. A careful inspection made it look like an ordinary mouse. Grey pelt, big ears, long snout and skinny tail.
[Identify]
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Species: Common Vole (adult)
Okay, that was a mouse. Absolutely normal. And I had to kill it. Preferably before swallowing it whole. I really did not want to have it squirming in my belly. Quick and painless. I brought my beak towards its neck. Careful prodding let me find where its spine connected to its skull. I gripped it right above that point with a bite… and ripped my head around. Immediately the panicked squeaking stopped.
~ding~ You have killed [Common Vole (adult)]. For hunting your staple food you have gained experience.
Sooo…? That was it? No telling me its level? It was adult, right? Was it so low level it was not enough to get me a level up? I was really looking forward to some more Attribute Points.
Maybe hunting some more could get me a level. Killing a million rats should give me enough power to rule the world, right? Hah, as if. I would definitely try though.
First things first, eating. I was hungry. I had only a small snack early in the evening before we started the flying and hunting lessons. So I gorged myself on the spoils of my first successful hunt. May there be many more to come!
My sibling had already succeeded once and was looking for another bite. Mother as well was gliding around, though she had a much better success rate, she was still hunting. She was quite the big eater.
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Hunting was wonderful. The silent gliding across the plains. Keeping my eyes and ears wide open to make out even the smallest movements in the grass. Then slowly approaching my unsuspecting target, before dropping on top of them like lightning. Okay, maybe a little slower than lightning, but still just as difficult to avoid. I just missed a lot.
This was the third night I had hunted my own food and while I had gotten a lot better I still missed about one in four hunts. I was much better than my sister though. She only got one in ten, one in nine at best. I also confirmed she was my sister, and the two other rascals were my brothers. Because I used [Identify] on every victim right before I killed them it had finally levelled up tonight. This is what showed when I used it on my sister:
[Identify]
Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)
Gender: female
I could now see the gender of anything I used this skill on. My sister and my brothers were a little upset when I used it on them, but I just screeched at them and they quieted down pretty quickly. I was still too scared to use it on my parents though. Not just because I had no reason to. I knew their species and gender. And I assumed they would simply show as adult.
I could have also used my size as a benchmark. Now that we were this old my sister and I started to tower over my brothers, even though one of them was born before her. I knew from my previous life female owls were larger.
Even though I had hunted enough to level up [Identify] from the number of mice and rats (and the occasional hamster) I had not gained a level. Every time I got a notification about gaining experience but the level up never came. Inspecting my status in greater detail did not help either. There was no indicator as to how much experience I had accumulated and how much I needed.
The fourth night, since I started flying, was quickly approaching though and my status reflected some improvements I had made:
Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)
Age: 0
Name: -
Gender: female
Status: sapient, healthy
Level: 2
Class: -
Strength: 8
Constitution: 8
Dexterity: 11
Perception: 12
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 8
AP: 0
Skills: [Owl Senses lvl 3], [Preening lvl 3], [Owl Stomach lvl 3], [Solid Grip lvl 2], [Soundless Flight lvl 2], [Intimidating Screech lvl 1], [Maths lvl 4], [Identify lvl 2]
All the skills I used for hunting had improved by one level. The improvement to [Solid Grip] was the most noticeable. I was able to far more easily hold onto prey, even if I only got it with a single foot. Landing on branches also became far less embarrassing. I barely even stumbled anymore.
Soon dusk was upon us. I was looking forward to another night of hunting. Maybe tonight I would get another level finally? Something was different though. Mother and father made a bit of a fuss, hooting and shuffling around the cave until father sat in front of me and my sister with mother shoving my brothers out of the cave and off our balcony.
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Today we were switching teachers. Once the other three were gone, father took off with me and sister tailing him. Instead of taking to the plains, we kept along the mountains for a bit before landing just above the treeline on a large boulder. Father hooted and spread his wings, looking at us expectantly. When he took off and we only watched him he turned around and flew a tight circle around us. Only when we decided to take off as well did he start beneath the trees.
In there I had a difficult time following him. The trees were far enough apart to glide in between most of them but branches and uneven positioning required tight curves and quick repositioning to avoid smacking into a trunk.
Every once in a while father landed on a branch and showed us food. There were a lot of insects just sitting there for the taking. At some point, I was able to make out most of them as well and helped myself to a few quick snacks here and there. All of them gave me a notification. It got annoying really quick.
With an annoyed huff, I willed away the most recent message and when I ate another beetle I was delighted to see nothing. I was able to influence the system. I should play around with it more tomorrow. For now, there was food to be got.
Following along after father he also showed us how to hunt the rats and other vermin hiding between roots and rocks. It was a little difficult to approach in a way to avoid smacking most of my body into gnarled roots and other pointy bits but I quickly got the hang of it.
At some point late in the night, when I caught a frog from next to a small puddle on the forest floor, I got a new notification. And this one was quite interesting:
~ding~ Requirements fulfilled! For killing 50 victims before they noticed your presence you have unlocked the [Assassin] class. Only one class can be equipped at this time. Do you wish to equip the class [Assassin]?
Hell yeah, a class!