The Tale of a Princess, a Geek, and a Punk, The weirdest trio ever formed....xDD

[Strix Moonwing]

"Wow, it's just as beautiful as I remember it!" Cooed a sweet voice that belonged to a young, female Spotted Owl. Princess Estrella, or Stella as she was most known by, stood perched on one of the boulders that jetted from the rocky, ice-covered cliffs and scanned her dark eyes around at the surrounding area- gazing upon the iceflows that floated upon the dark waters of the never-ending ocean. In the distance, there could be seen the outline of the ancient Hrath'ghar Mountains. Though the Ga'Hoolian princess had never been that far north, she could faintly remember hearing her brother and his friends tell tales about it and how dangerous they were with the kraals that were said to inhabit it. She turned her head and stared through the top of the Everwinter Sea. Memories of the different islands that were across the freezing sea made Strella shiver with excitement. It felt so exhilarating to be back in the Northern Kingdom again! And this time she had her own mission to complete!

"Of course, it looks the same. It's nothing but rock and ice!" droned a familar voice. Next to Princess Strella's small, pretty form, was a tall, sharped-beaked figure with glaring yellow eyes, and shaggy black feathers. He also had a look of extreme disdain and agitation on his glaring face.

“Oh, don’t be like that Rowan. Look at the icebergs floating so delicately in the water.” Strella cooed, pressing her wings close to her heart as if to hold on to the sigh forever. “Isn’t it so lovely?”

“Wow…..floating ice…” said Rowan sarcastically rolling his eyes. “…beautiful.”

Strella let out an exasperated sigh. "You are impossible. I do hope that you and Babus aren't going to be like this the entire way to Firthmore."

Flying all the way to the Ice Narrows from Ga'Hoole had been nothing but a giant headache for all of them. The conversations passed between the three travelers had been nothing but arguments. Rowan was annoyed by Babus's geekiness and his obsession with Strella and by Strella's so called airheadness while Babus was enraged by Rowan's ill-tempered atittude and Strella was just irritated by the both of them and their clashes.

"Don't worry, Princess," While Babus used this title towards Strella with the utmost respect, Rowan used it as a mocking nickname for the preppy female. "You won't have to worry about me as long as the geek here keeps his beak shut for the rest of the trip or else hands over that stupid book so I can burn it and toss the ashes into the ocean where they belong."

(OCC: Bring in the bug book, TP!xDD)

[TurquoisePheonix]

"This book is important!" Babus insisted, glaring at Rowan. "And why do you have to be so sour? Why did you even come?" He asked - the Spotted Owl was as tired as always, but recently he had been more foul-tempered than ever. He had always been a mild, likeable owl - and all of a sudden, he had become a rather argumentative one when it came to Rowan, often yelling at the hagsfiend and arguing at him back. How dare he talk to the Princess the way he did? Babus simply couldn't understand it. But still, while there had been some problems on their adventure thus far between the hagsfiend and himself, he and the Princess had gotten much closer. She was irritated with his arguing with Rowan, but sometimes it was just so hard to stop! He was so ignorant when it came to books, to how one should act around a Princess, to the danger that they would all be in.

"See! I mean, it's not so useful right now...but it's still a book!" The nerd insisted, holding it up, blinking his heavy eyes. On the cover read 'A Guide to Silverveilan Entomology' , and it was entirely useless. Babus had tried to grab a book of maps and guides to the Northern Kingdoms, but had accidentally grabbed the wrong book instead. It was completely pointless to have, but Babus respected books almost as much as he respected his Princess, and wouldn't let Rowan put his talons on it - the first thing he'd do would be to toss the thing into the ocean below them.

"I'm sorry, Princess..." Babus said, looking at Estrella. "I will not argue any longer...are you cold? Should we stop?" He asked, concerned for her.

[Strix Moonwing]

"Important? IT'S A BOOK ABOUT BUGS!" Rowan scoffed, throwing his wings in the air in frustration to make his point. "560 pages of nothing but useless, pointless facts about BUGS!"

"Now, come on, Rowan," Strella quietly reasoned, trying to defend Babus. "I'm sure that a book of bugs might useful in some way."

Rowan let out a sarcastic laugh. "Oh, right Princess, I'm sure it'd be plenty useful....IN SILVERVEIL!" he ended with a dark growl. "Look around you! Do you really think we'll encounter any bugs in the middle of snow and ice? And even if we did see one, WHY THE HAGSMIRE WOULD WE EVEN CARE TO LOOK IT UP IN A FREAKIN' BOOK?!" He crossed his wings and glared at Babus. "Face it, geek, your book's almost as useless as you. Oh wait, cross that. You're more useless. At least we can make a bonfire out of the book. You're pretty much deadweight."

The moody hagsfiend gave a careless shrug when Babus asked him why he had even come. "I came because, like it or not, I owe Miss Princess and I'm the only one that can actually fight."

"I can take care of myself, Rowan." Strella said folding her wings and jerking her head away to pout. "I handled myself just fine with that wildcat, thank you very much."

"Oh please, like hiding in a tree is 'handling yourself'." Rowan taunted with a smug smirk on his face.

"Well, if Solar and Nagmora hadn't been there to help to you then you wouldn't be here right now." Strella retorted. A dark scowl crossed Rowan's face.

"I could have beat that stupid cat all by myself if I'd wanted to. I'm a hagsfiend and no creature ever messed with a hagsfiend and lives to regret it." Without another word, the dark bird turned his back towards the two and stared out into the dark, frozen ocean.

"My mother and father did." Strella whispered quietly to herself. She turned to Babus and smiled cheerfully, pleased by his polite offer. "Why thank you, Babus! A short rest would be nice. We haven't stopped in ages!"

"More like an hour ago." Rowan muttered, loud enough for them to hear.

[TurquoisePheonix]

"Er...." Babus had little reply for Rowan's assertion. It was quite useless in the context of the place theey were in. There was little use for a bug book anyway - sure, Babus found them terribly interesting, but he certainly knew that the book would be entirely useless in the Northern Kingdoms - there would be no Silverveilan bugs in the Northern Kingdoms, obviously. He blinked at Rowan, and simply didn't say anything. There was little to be said. They stopped, landing on an iceberg - the things populated the Ice Narrows, and would serve as a decent enough resting place. Babus adjusted his glasses as he landed, and though.

Was he really deadweight? Strella seemed to yell at him a lot for fighting with Rowan. And Rowan…well, he just hated him, or at least Babus was pretty sure he did. He had never done anything to the older male; why was he so unkind, anyway? Was it really that Babus was slowing them down? Or was the hagsfiend just saying that to anger him or hurt him? Somehow, Babus thought so…he sighed, looking out from the iceberg. Maybe he should just have gone home. Apparently no one wanted him there. He was deadweight, like Rowan said. He couldn’t fight. He had no real reason to be there, and had no personal skills that would help the Princess.

He sighed again, turning to look at the Princess and Rowan. He looked at Strella.

“Princess…” he began quietly. “May I speak to you? In private?”

(OOC: SDWI. XP)

[Strix Moonwing]

Strella let out a sigh of bliss relief the moment they perched upon the iceberg. The large floating pieces of ice were decent enough resting stops, though the Ga’Hoolian princess would have preferred if it had been a nice tree or at least a piece of land that wasn’t freezing and had some food. Oh well, as traveling royalty, she must work with what she had.

Traveling royalty…Strella like that sound of that. She smiled at the idea. Perhaps, when she got back, she would be known as Princess Strella the Traveler. She frowned.

“No, traveler is such a common term.” The princess thought. “Hmmm, what else could I be called? Traveler…..Wanderer…eck, no…..Quester? Oh yes! Quester!”

Strella liked it. It sounded both noble and exotic, perfect for a princess like her! Of course, she didn’t take in the fact that her older brother had traveled to many more places than her that were much more farther away than the Northern Kingdoms, but she didn’t care. This was the single most exciting and most important act of princess duty that Strella had been appointed with and she would not let anything get her down. Not her two bickering travel companions, not the cold or hunger, and not even the fact that she knew almost next to nothing about how to survive on her own in the icy wildness! Nothing! She would make her father, mother, and brother, as well as her subjects, proud!

She was brought out of her dreams of glory by the sound of Babus’s voice. She blinked once in surprise and turned to him and stared curiously.

“Uhhh, sure, Babus.” She said, forgetting to correct him about the calling her ‘princess’ as she walked to over to him. “What is it?”

Rowan rolled his eyes as the two talked on the other side of the iceberg. In his own opinion, which had voice out loud since the beginning of the journey, this whole thing was a waste of time. Neither Strella nor Babus had ever been out on their own outside of Ga’Hoole before and yet they both had the crazy belief that they could survive in the Northern Kingdom, of all places, by themselves. At least Rowan had survived on his own before. All because of a crazy dream that Miss Princess had about her father. Either she was nuts for actually believing that her father was still alive or her father, if he was still alive, was nuts for telling his spoiled daughter to go on this quest thingy! Shouldn’t a king have enough sense to actually pick someone that’s actually capable of doing something?

“Princess?”

The young hagsfiend blinked when he suddenly heard a voice. He looked around and growled, “Okay, who said that?”

“Princess?” Rowan looked down and blinked in shock to see a puffin staring up at him with big, wet eyes. He raised a questioning brow. “Excuse me?”

“Puffin Princess return?” The puffin asked, staring up at Rowan with a look of wonderment in his eyes.

“Puffin Princess? What the sprink are you talking about?” He jerked his wing over his shoulder, pointing at Strella. “You talking about her?” The puffin turned his unblinking gaze from Rowan and stared at Strella. Rowan had to hold his earslits as the puffin cried out.
“Our princess has returned!”

“Wha-?” began Rowan but he was silenced when there were suddenly a dozen more puffins in front of him, all gazing up at him and chanting in eery voices.

“Princess…Princess….Princess….Princess….”

“Great,” Rowan muttered, glaring at them. “This quest just got even more ridiculous. “ He called over his shoulder to Strella. “Hey Princess, your royal court of jesters has arrived!”

[TurquoisePheonix]

"Just what we needed..." Babus said, looking at the puffins. He blinked down at the dozen or so puffins sitting and staring up at the Princess and her traveling companions with glowing eyes filled with great wonder. He tried to smile at the puffins, but he felt too saddened to try and be his good-natured self. He sighed, looking at Strella. She looked so pretty in the moonlight, like this. But he didn't want to burden her. He clutched his book close to him. He wanted to stay with her and protect her from the dangers of the Northern Kingdom, but it was just like Rowan said. He was a burden. He couldn't stay with her here if that was the case, which it was. Which meant only one thing. He had to go somewhere he could help the Royal Family. But they were fine, back at the Tree. He sighed once more, looking at Estrella.

"Princess..." He began, looking at the pretty Spotted Owl; she immediately sensed the serious tone in his voice and looked at him with equal seriousness. Babus decided he did not like this; she was much more beautiful when she was happy and bubbly and innocent. He touched his head - he couldn't let any personal feelings get in the way of what he had to do. He couldn't stay if he would get in her way and maybe even indirectly be the cause of harm to her.

Just as he was about open his beak and speak to her, to tell her he couldn't travel with her any further, that they couldn’t be around one another, something small and multicolored with an oddly-shaped beak crashed into him and locked beaks with him in a kiss. Babus’ eyes widened and he looked at the puffin who wrapped it’s wings around him and was hugging him; his mouth tasted like fish and was somewhat disgusting, and Babus managed to pull away and shove the puffin off. As soon as he did, it hugged him around the middle, nuzzling it’s head into his feathers.

“You bring back Puffin Princess! You bring back Tuff and Bing, too?” The puffin asked. Babus blinks down at the puffin as he tried to get the fish taste out of his mouth. The female’s eyes were wide, looking up at the nerdy owl. Babus pushed up his glasses. \\

“Tuff? Bing?”

[Strix Moonwing]

Rowan's harsh, mocking laughter filled the entire iceberg. Several puffins had to hobble out of the way as the teenage hagsfiend flopped down on the cold ice, his body shaking in fits of laughter.

"Hahaha, I take back all those cracks about him being your boyfriend, Princess! Hahaha, I didnt' know he was already taken! Hahahahaha!" Rowan cackled, still laughing at the sight of Babus being kissed by the puffin girl.

Even Strella completely lost her moment of seriousness and began to giggle at the sight. "Hahaha, oh Babus, that's so adorable!" giggled Strella, pressing her wing against her beak to try and stifle the laughter.

"Princess! Princess! Princess!" The puffins surrounded Strella, eyes gleaming with endless joy and happiness at the return of their proclaimed princess. Strella had been just a young owlet when she first met the puffins and, in her youthful innocent, had proclaimed herself the Princess of Puffins. The puffins, due to their simple-mindedness, believed her and treated her nothing short of a goddess.

"Oh, I'm so happy to see you guys again!" Strella cried in joy, hugging the nearest two puffins close to her. The puffins all cheered in delight and began to happily nuzzle their princess.

“Tuff? Bing?”

At the sound of the two names, a strange transformation fall over Strella. She stopped laughing and the expression of happiness fell to one of grief and sadness. Even Rowan was affected by the words. His laughter stopped and when he stood back up, there was a grim shadow across his face.

Strella stopped hugging the puffins and gently gathered them close together. "My dear friends, I'm so sorry that I have to tell you this." Tears began to fill Strella's eyes as she told the puffins, "Tuff and Bing aren't here anymore."

"Not...here?" The puffins stared at her and each other in confusion. "They be here soon?"

"No, they're never coming back." Strella sobbed. "They died protecting me from a bobcat! I'm so sorry!" The Ga'Hoolian princess broke down crying at the memory of her two dead friends. "It's was all my fault!"

The puffins gazed at her with watery eyes filled with sadness. It was hard to tell whether they were sad because of Tuff or Bing or because their princess was crying. Some even began to sob as well.

"Don't be too sad." Rowan's voice lacked its usual sarcastic edge and was quiet and solemn as he spoke to the puffins and Strella. "They died as heroes. That's something you should be proud of."

One puffin cocked his head to one side. "Heroes?" They were unfamilar with ever being called such a term.

"Someone that does something extremely brave and noble." Strella said, sniffling and wiping her tearful eyes. "Bing and Tuff were definitely heroes, just like Rowan said."

[TurquoisePheonix]

"Gah!" Babus interjected at his friends' laughter. He looked at the puffin who had kissed him, grimacing and wiping his beak off on his wing. Gross! All he tasted was some kind of disgusting fish now. He looked at Rowan, laughing hysterically on the ice, and Strella, giggling at him quietly. He looked at the offending puffin, angry at the little bird. Why did it kiss him? He didn't bring Strella to them. If anything, Strella dragged him along. He looked back at Rowan, laughing on the ice. He despised the hagsfiend already, and his laughter did little to make the young nerd feel any better. "Shut up, will you?! It's not like I kissed her!" He yelled. Babus had been a very mellow and quiet owl before, but this hagsfiend always got him so angry and fired up. "She kissed me, you blithering idiot! It's not funny!" He yelled, though he said nothing to Strella. Sighing, he turned to the Princess. At the mention of those two names, a sudden shift occurred in her demeanor. She went from giggling and amused to a serious and very sad in attitude, and Babus blinked. Why was she acting like that? What did these Tuff and Bing characters mean to the Princess? Before Babus had the chance to ask Estrella anything, the Princess burst out into tears, briefly telling of the two puffins’ fates. Babus was left dumbstruck. All of that time, and there was more to the story? He had heard some of it before; Estrella told everyone that she had defeated a bobcat, but he had never known about the two puffins. He heard Rowan’s consoling words, and Babus thought to himself on them. What good was being a hero? You were still dead anyway. So what if people remembered you? Whether they did or not was worth nothing to you when you were dead.

“Yeah. They were heroes…” He said anyway, if only to make everyone there feel better. He moved to the Princess, touching her wing. “C’mon, Princess, please don’t cry.” He looked to the puffins, and back to the Princess. “Tuff and Bing were heroes. If they could die to save Strella, well, then they must have been selfless, and really cared for the Princess. They were brave…” He was surprised - it was a fairly good argument for someone who didn’t even believe in that sort of thing.

[Strix Moonwing]

"It takes two to tango, nerd! Haha!" Rowan guffawed at Babus's indignant comment. It was so entertaining messing around with the geek, especially about his obsession with Strella. Jeez, did the nerd really think that his annoying crush wasn't totally obvious? The hagsfiend bet that there wasn't a single creature at the tree that didn't know that Babus had a crush on Strella. Of course, Strella was just air-headed enough not to notice.

"I pity the day she becomes queen." Rowan secretly thought. There was no way Strella would be able to run an entire kingdom when her mother stepped down. Luckily, her brother, Prince Will, would probably take over the throne. Rowan didn't know much about him, but, according to Fen, he had traveled alot and was a great warrior. Rowan liked that.

Strella gave one last sniffle and wiped away the remaining tears with her wing. "Thank you," She said, gazing at both Rowan and Babus, with gratitude glowing in her dark, tearful eyes. "Thank you both for your kind words. Yes, Tuff and Bing were the bravest of heroes."

"Heroes! Heroes! Heroes!" the puffins ecstaticly began to chant. Never had another creature called one of their own a hero before. It was a pleasant surprise to know that their species were actually capable of doing valiant deeds that the more intelligent creatures held in such high regard.

"I want to be a hero!" One cried.

"I'll be the Princess' hero!" Another cried, bonking the other on the head with his beak.

"No, I'm the Princess' hero!"

Strella began to smile and giggle once again. "Oh, you silly birds!" The puffins stopped their fighting and began to, once again, squawk in delight at pleasing the Puffin Princess.

Rowan rolled his eyes and groaned. "Can we leave now? These birds are starting to get on my nerves."

Suddenly a high pitched and rather idiotic-sounding voice came from above.

"Oh, hoothoot! Hoothoot! Many, many big, webberty-colorific-beaked birds Hoothoot spies! Hoothoot! Some big-smarty-round-eyed-sharpy-clawed ones too!"

A little red-feathered Elf Owl, dressed in a garb of purple and green, mish-mashed clothed and a jester hat on his head, landed down on the ice and gave a clumsy bow to them.

"Howdy-do, Hoothoot!" He hooted, smiling like a dim-witted fool at the trio. "Gally, what strange-biggerty-fancy birds ye are. Hoothoot never see no fancy-biggerty birds like you before! Only colorfully-fun gadfeathers like Hoothoot! Hoothoot!"

"Is that your name?" Strella politely asked, instantly liking the cute, funny-talking elf owl. "Hoothoot?"

The dim-witted gadfeather flashed her a big, goofy smile. "Oh, yesserty! Hoothoot is my name! Hoothoot! First thing to ever come out of my beak, so my aunty kept on telling me! Hoothoot!"

Rowan suddenly had the primal urge to tear the small bird in front of him to pieces.

"What is this?" The punk hagsfiend scoffed, glaring the collection of birds around him. "A convention of nitwits and scatterbrains? I'm outta here! Get it into gear, Princess and Nerdo!" Rowan ordered and lifted his wings to take off. However, he was halted by a certain annoying voice.

"Ohnodeardosy! Hoothoot! Don't leaver me behind oh biggerty-scarety bird! Hoothoot wish to know where you biggerty-smarterty-featherty birdies are winging to!" The little strange elf owl blabbered on. Rowan's reply was instant.

"None of your business!"

Strella put her wings on her hips and cast Rowan a severe glare. "Oh, don't be so rude!" The princess turned to Hoothoot and offered the gadfeather a polite smile. "We're off to royal palace in Firthmore. I'm the princess there." Strella proudly added in a smug, uppity tone.

Hoothoot gasped loudly in awe. "Augh! You be a royal-queenty-princess? Really and truthfully?"

Behind Strella, Rowan rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, she's a royal pain all right."

The elf owl was estatic. "Oh, golly-jeeze! Hoothoot! No me gadfeathery friends will ever believe that Hoothoot speaking to a royaly-queenty-princess! Blessed stuffed mice of Glaux in glaumora! Hoothoot is so honored to meety you oh prettily, royalty one!"