The 2nd First Blood Ceremony

[ForestOwl]

A Barn Owl stood in the pelletorium. Flecks were mostly scattered around the box canyon, but some of them had been picked by the the Pure Ones and stored in the inventorium. The crimson stone around his neck glowed in the moonlight. The new High Tyto looked at all of the Pure Ones gathered around.

Where another snake had once been tied, a nest-maid snake had been found for the First Blood Ceremony of Anabel. She had originally been the nest-maid of a parliament member at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Her name was Arra, but that's not really important. What was important was the reason she was tied up.

"Anabel! Come forth! It is time for your First Blood Ceremony!" Candark called.

[Micky'Lenz]

Anabel emerged from behind all of the other owls and snakes bravely. Once again, the victim of the First Blood would be a snake. This didn't bother Anabel, although she made it a point not to actually hunt for snakes exclusively, she had preyed upon them before she entered the Tytonic Union. She looked at the rose-colored snake with determination filling her soul. Anabel took a quick scan of the owls watching her. Some seemed bored, others exhilerated. She narrowed her eyes as she looked at Candark for the okay-go...

[ForestOwl]

Candark flew to the snake, untied her, and threw her to Anabel. He nodded to her and flew back to his place among the Pure Ones. Henry chirped excitedly, for he would soon have his Second Blood Ceremony. The Long-eared Owls for his and Tintagel's ceremony was elsewhere, and there was another nest-maid for Tintagel's First Blood Ceremony.

The snake looked nervously at Anabel. What is she supposed to do? she wondered. Err...best not to think about that. The Barn Owl with the red stone around his neck seemed to be the leader, and he wasn't giving her a nice look. More like the look you give your favorite prey.

[Micky'Lenz]

Anabel lifted up and flew circles above the snake. It watched her fearfully as Anabel stared down at her prey appetizingly (word?). She would prove to the Pure Ones that she had what it takes. She lowered herself slightly and stared into the snake's scared slits where eyes should be. The snake was old enough to know exactly where Anabel was, but that didn't lessen her determination. Anabel extended her talons and scooped up the snake with no problem.

Carlisle, who was watching Anabel from his perch next to Henry, his new friend. He had shed all of his baby down, and was counting on the rest of his flight feathers and new down to keep him warm in the canyonlands. He held his breath as Anabel held too tight onto the snake with her talons and strangled the snake.

Anabel, having killed the snake, landed where the snake was released with her foot ontop of the carcass. Her talons were covered in blood from when she had grabbed the snake with her talons. Anabel preferred not to kill with her beak. She felt that the beak should only be used for eating and talking. She looked up at the High Tyto with wandering eyes.

OOC: Anabel a good hunter, no?

[ForestOwl]

Candark praised Anabel, "Perfect! With a little bit of training, you should be ready for your Second Blood Ceremony in no time!" He smiled at her and the nest-maid snake, now dead. "It is time for another First Blood Ceremony. Tintagel, please step forward."

The Barn Owl noticed the exhiliration of giving orders instead of following them. He had plenty of owls for him to command now. It wasn't exactly an army, but they would do. Some of the other owlets had hatched, and all of them showed promise, including Carlisle, Henry, Tintagel, Arianna, and the older owlets. The empire was well on its way to being restored!

[Secretwing]

Tintegel stepped forward. She didn't usually get excited about things, not because of cynical-ness but simply because she was a calm owl, but she had been dreaming of being able to fly-and hunt-for weeks now. When she had finally grown her primaries in, she had been estatic! ((OOC: spelling?)) She had dived and looped and even practiced hunting, nervous she'd get it wrong at the ceremony, but always purposely missing the prey so that her first blood ceremony would actually be her first blood. Now, she felt like her gut was filled to the brim with the blood of nervousness as the gray owlet scanned the bare rocks for a snake or a mouse.

A few seconds passed, and she saw something else, but just as good-a chestnut-colored vole, walking out of a nook in the rock to nibble on some seeds. Tintegel's feathers itched to death-spiral, but she waited until it was a far distance away from the hollow in the rock. Then, she spread her primaries and dived onto the vole, talons first as she had been taught. She felt her claws sink into the meat-and, indeed, blood-of the vole. In a second it was lifeless, and the storm-grey fledgling brought it up to the limb of the tree, silver eyes gleaming with mastery. She had caught her first prey!

[ForestOwl]

Candark chuckled. "Good, Tintagel. Now are you ready for bigger prey?" he asked, and flew into a side box canyon. The Barn Owl came back with another nest-maid snake. He threw it at Tintagel. The snake hissed and she was stunned for a moment.

"Go for it, lass!" He shouted to the Barn Owlet. The snake all of a sudden screamed as, unlike the other snake, she realized what was happening. She wriggled and writhed around. "GO AWAY, GO AWAY, GO AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" The nest maid screeched.

[Secretwing]

Tintegel blinked. She knew that this owl was laughing at her, in a at-the-back-of-the-brain sort of way. Her insides turned and wilfed a little at that thought, but mostly, she remained calm. She would give them what they wanted; that's what she had done all her life. She had never been close to anyone, never had strong feelings, and so what she did and how people acted she just took in as a routine for them, too, as everything was a routine for her. Calmly, she grabbed the snake with a rapid strike of her pastel-yellow talon, and, taking her other talon while absentmindedly restraining the nest-maid in her grip, she slit it's throat. Tintegel would never be a Pure One who enjoyed cruelty, only one who didn't understand why it mattered to most. She'd slit her own throat fairly willingly, taking fate as fate and nothing else. If you thought about it, it was much more refined than most young owl's extreme ups and downs. She dropped the limp body of the snake at the older Pure One's talons. Preening her wing a bit, she glanced up and awaited further orders.

[ForestOwl]

"Good," Candark said, smiling at Tintagel. "Welcome to the Pure Ones, Tintagel. Welcome to the Sintmore Chicks. Alphonse will be your teacher." As much as it loathed him to let Alphonse have so much power, he needed powerful owls like him. He turned to Carlisle and Anabel.

"We can have a class right here, right now. I want to teach you some fighting skills," Candark told them. He wanted to get Carlisle and Anabel trained so that they could become full-fledged soldiers. The more owls in the army, the better. He also needed to appoint a drill sargeant soon...

[Micky'Lenz]

Carlisle was immediately interested. He knew he wasn't much use to the Pure Ones yet, since he couldn't really fight. He looked up at Anabel and Candark.

Anabel nodded her head at Candark. This was the whole reason she came to the Pure Ones in the first place. Finally... she thought. Maybe, if she was any good at this, she'd be promoted and not have to be a lowly soldier. But, Carlisle's a better flier than me, and he's just hatched recently! Oh well, Carlisle was doing a great job. She looked back at Candark and cocked her head.

[Strix Moonwing]

General Alphonse Stag watched the different ceremonies being performed from a short distances away from Candark. If he had had a choice in the matter, he wouldn't have come, but since he was General it was his duty to be present at important ceremonies such as this...when young owls officially became recruits for the Pure Ones instead of just owlets. Though he as proud for Anabel and Tintagel as any other Pure Ones present, the very knowledge of what the sacrifices they would have to make to really become a true soldier of the Pure Ones was one he wished for no owl.

Alphonse's eyes narrowed and grew as cold as steel as he watched Anabel prefer her First Blood Ceremony. The young nest maid from Ga'Hoole had no chance as Anabel wrapped her talons around her thin neck and strangled the creature. When Anabel's task of done, she only a look of pride on her face...not of disgust or revoltion of what she had had to do.

There was a time when Alphonse had been the same way, happy to please the High Tyto, excited and exhilarated to have completed his First Blood Ceremony, but that was long ago.

Tintagel's other ceremony didn't take as long. It was mere slash of the throat and the snake was dead, it's screams silenced forever. It was official, the owlet was now a Pure One.

"Welcome to the Pure Ones, Tintagel." Candark had said. "Welcome to the Sintmore chicks. Alphonse will be your teacher."

Alphonse blinked in surprise at the announcement. Him? Teacher? The General looked down at Tintagel adn realized for the first time that this was the owlet he had found sleeping in his secret library. The one that had seem so interested in books...in reading.

Maybe, this could work out.

Alphonse nodded and saluted to Candark. "Rest assured, she will be taught well." Al then turned to look down at the newest Sintmore Chick and smiled encouragingly at Tintagel.

"As Candark said, welcome to the Pure Ones, Tintagel. Are you ready to start your training?"

[ForestOwl]

Candark smiled at Alphonse and Tintagel. "I'm sure she will." The General may have once been Candark's rival, but there was no one else suitable to be a teacher. Elitte and Ettile were a bit too...playful, Anabel hadn't even become a full-fledged soldier yet, Andy was kind of out of her wits, and Cecil was just plain creepy. Candark didn't need owlets to be traumatized by him.

"Now, Tintagel, Carlisle, Anabel," he adressed the two. "First of all, there is one rule about fighting fellow Tytos, not in the Pure Ones: Never attack another Tyto unless they are Ga'Hoolian. That Tyto may become our comrade one day." He hopped over to a little niche and pulled out two battle claws, that Mrs. Revithilp had gotten before she was banished.

"Try these on and fly around with them to get used to it," He said, and gave a pair to Tintagel, Anabel and Carlisle. He took another pair from the niche and showed them how to put it on. "Slip your toes into here, make sure it is the correct toe." He pulled on his battle claws and showed them how to lock it. "You need to lock them so that they don't fall off during battle. That could be fatal."

[Secretwing]

Tintegel blinked in surprise at the owl who was too be her mentor-it was the one she had had the encounter with a few days earlier, in that strange forbidden place with those things...books...in it. He had seemed nice enough, although rather strange-that whole thing about asking her if she had orders. Then again, he was an adult. She bowed her head to Candark as he announced her promotion. "Thank you," she said, and then walked over to her teacher-she knew his name now, Colenal Alphonse Stag, although she still thought, given its length, that she would be better off calling him "sir"- as Candark brought out the shining battle claws. She was mildly surprised that she was ready to use them-she had always thought the time she would be a warrior drawing blood in battle was a long time away-but she was happy to don them now. She slipped her talons through the finger-holes and locked them, clenching and unclenching her talons. They were unweildly, but they made her feel an extreme sense of power exerted only by clenching and unclenching her talons-for furture Ga'hoolians, the difference between life and death.

[Micky'Lenz]

Carlisle and Anabel accepted the claws willingly and slipped them on. They seemed to be a little too small on Anabel, but that was okay. She was merely happy that she had the oppurtunity. She almost couldn't contain her unusual giddiness. she held her breath and smiled down at her talons.

Carlisle felt exhilerated, but still heavier. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to fly with them, but by Glaux he'd try. He smiled up at Candark with an open beak as he locked them.

"Like this?" he asked. Anabel nodded her head at him as she helped him. Carlisle picked up her foot off of the ground and shook it to make sure they were on properly. Oh, how exciting it was fort he two. Anabel completely disregarded the fact that she was learning the same things as a couple of chicks and focused on her goal- to make the Ga'Hoolians suffer at her talons...

OOC: Ooooh, evil Annie...

[Strix Moonwing]

Alphonse nodded at Tintagel, realizing that this owlet was one of few words. Perhaps this had been all for the best. Even though the Colonel would have been honored to have had Carlisle as a student or maybe even little Henry, Tintagel was still a much better choice than having to teach Anabel. She was going to be a cruel one when she gets older, that was for sure. Already, he noticed as Anabel slipped on her battle claws, there was a hint of bloodlust in her eyes.

He looked down again at his student, who was now clanned in her own battle claws, and realized that she was a mystery to him. She, like the rest of the owlets, had an excited look on her face about receiving her first pair of battle claws. Alphonse looked down at his own battle claws, which belonged to his father who had supposedly died in an scouting mission gone wrong. Though they were old, they still gleamed like they were new.

"Try to get used to them Tintagel, on ground and in flight and wear them proudly. They will serve you very well in battle." Alphonse knew that one of the first lessons he would need to teach her is how to flight with the claws on and then how to fight. It would be long and hard, but the lesson would be worth it.