Chapter 22: Floof~
A hush fell over as the sun fully disappeared from the horizon and the forest floor went ink black.
The clearing less so, as the bright silver moonlight reflecting off the pool graced the owl family and Noctis watched the shadowy trees coalesce with dancing silver sheen.
The owlets sat in a circle, huddled close. Their feathers were fluffed, tufts soft as whispers, eyes bright as tarnished amber.
Noctis saw curiously as one reached out with its beak, careful and deliberate, preening the ruffled down behind a sibling’s ear. Another leaned into the gesture, half-asleep, blinking slowly, calmly.
Without a haste or hurry in their movements, the siblings helped each other with any dirt stuck in a position they couldn’t reach and decluttered any debris stuck in the course of reaching for prey in between the complex web of tree-tops.
Noctis sat a little behind, half-naked, as his only pair of clothes hung to dry in the windy night. Not quite apart but neither really part of the click of the critters.
As Noctis saw the affectionate display with a hint of sourness, he suddenly felt a touch on his arms startling him, as he looked down to see one of the owlets looking up to him.
This one a bit smaller than the other three of its siblings, a girl, as it looked from the higher percentage of darker brown plumage on its snowy back.
The owlet the size of a normal owl pruned its head to the side showing its nape to him.
Noctis sat silent as the owlet stood still in that position unsure what to do.