//------------------------------// // Aloysius // Story: 7DSJ: Treasure // by Shinzakura //------------------------------// “C’mon, Spike, you’re going to miss this!” Twilight said, her breath crystallizing in the frigid winter air. Granted, birdwatching wasn’t one of her normal hobbies, but she did like to do it from time to time, and besides, it would give her younger brother something to do during the holidays besides sit at his game console and waste the world away. Of course, Spike didn’t see it that way, currently ignoring the world in favor of what was on his 3DS. “Remind me why you wanted me to come with you?” he whined. “Because I want you to learn something, Spike,” she replied, as the pair walked away from the bus stop into one of the public trails that led into the Everfree National Park. “This is something that Shiny and Cady always used to do for me and Tavi when we were your age, so you should appreciate it.” “Yeah, yeah, Mom and Dad say I should get outside and play more. But I’ve learned that I’m as cold right now as I was then, I’m bored, snow is wet and cold and you just want to stay here and look at dumb birds.” He looked at his sister and grinned. “The only thing I’m learning right now is that the last place in the world I want to be is out here! I should’ve gone with Dad and Sunny.” Hearing him complain, Twilight was hard-pressed to disagree, if only so she didn’t have to hear his grumbling. Both her father and her foster sister had left an hour ago to pick up her aunt, uncle and cousin from their (as usual) disastrous Christmas vacation at her aunt’s parents’ place in New York. Her mother was at work, and Shining and Cadance were at the airport as well, seeing their friends off – as well as that one weird teenager that Shining had briefly got himself mixed up with. I swear, the way she acted, you’d think she was a hooker or something, Twilight thought, but then dismissed that; it was rude of her to think that way and the chances of what-was-her-name-again? being anything like an actual sex worker was ludicrous at best. As they moved into the forest, Spike whined for the umpteenth time, “Do we have any more hot chocolate?” “Spike, if you drink it all, we’re not going to have any for the trip back and then you’ll really be cold. As it is, I’m saving both thermoses for when we need them, got it?” “Ugh, whatever.” He shook his 3DS and the screen went blank. “Great, either it’s too cold, or the batteries died.” “Good; maybe now you’ll pay attention,” his sister said, looking for the thickest copse of trees to provide the best area as they searched for their quarry. “In fact, this seems like the perfect time to tell you a story.” “Does the story involve lasers, guns and/or superheroes?” “No,” Twilight answered. “Seriously, Spike, you really should expand your horizons. Anyway, it was about this time, eight years ago. You were just a newborn, and me and Tavi were about your age….” A beautiful young woman, her magenta, violet and crème hair tied into a ponytail, watched the copse of trees through binoculars. “Almost there….” she said softly, her breath frosting into a small cloud that briefly fogged up the lenses on the far ends. “This is just amazing, Shiny. Thank you for bringing me.” “It was nothing,” a boy said beside her. Like her, he was a teenager, but where she was cute and perky, he was lanky and awkward. His lithe, unmuscled frame showing a teen almost near starvation, though that was hardly the case. “I just figured that now would be the best time to do our research paper on the northern spotted owl, since this is their winter nesting grounds.” Cadance smiled, giving Shining a coy look. “Oh, so you didn’t bring me here just to make out?” Shining’s eyes widened. “No! No, I didn’t!” She pouted. “So you don’t want to?” “No! I mean, yes! I mean…Cady, what about Twily and Tavi?” The answer to that was Cadance’s sudden giggle fit at his discomfiture and his sigh. “Hahaha, very funny,” he sighed. He was still getting used to seeing her as a woman in her own right; while they knew each other since childhood, they had very different social circles and class schedules. So it had come as a complete shock to him that the girl that he’d grown to like from afar not only did not like that idiot Buck Withers, but instead had always liked him since the day she had agreed to babysit both Twilight and Octavia. Still, it was unusual to not only have a girlfriend, but the most popular one at their school, too. Really, he was a geek that mainly focused on Dungeons & Dragons, The Lord of the Rings and all its trappings, and video games. He also studied for the day where he would hope to become a forensics analyst for the police; he never really saw himself doing anything else. But there was something about Cadance that made him want to reach farther than he ever dreamed. He’d even talked – in private, of course – to the gym teacher about working out a little, not because he ever planned to do anything muscular in his life, but rather because he wanted to look good for her, as well as to get Buck to shut up about “the string bean dating the school princess” or whatever smartass comment the jock had. Before he could say anything further, he felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked down to see his sister standing there, looking a little nervous. “Are we gonna be safe, Shiny?” she asked, a concerned look on her face. Behind her, his cousin Octavia simply looked at him, not frightened in the slightest – she was always braver and more daring than his sister, and he silently wished that Twilight would emulate Octavia more. Perhaps in a time to come it could even happen – they were just children still, after all. “Aww, c’mon, Twily!” Octavia chirped behind her. “Shiny an’ Cady are gonna protect us, an’ if they don’t, I’ll protect you!” Twilight turned back to her cousin? “Really?” Octavia nodded. “Yup!” Cadance picked that moment to interject. “Oh, hey girls, look at this!” Both of them went over, and Cadance handed her pair of binoculars over to Twilight, then pulled out an additional pair for Octavia. Twilight put the binoculars to her eyes. “Brrrrrr….” she moaned, disliking the feel of the cold plastic against her face. “Ugh, I know how winter works, but why does it have to be so cold?” Meanwhile, Octavia was struggling to keep her mittens around the sides of the large device. “Yeah, I kinda wish there was a way to wrap winter up early,” she said. “Maybe there’s a way to do it with magic?” “Oh, c’mon Tavi! Magic doesn’t exist, it’s just in books and make-believe!” The older girl scoffed. “Twily, you have no imagination.” “I do!” “Do not!” “Do too!” “Do not!” “Do too!” “Do not!” “Do too!” “Do not!” “Girls,” Shining finally said, interrupting their bickering, “the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can take you to go get some hot cocoa, okay?” “Okay!” both said at once, their spat forgotten in an instant the moment hot chocolate was mentioned. Shining shook his head and Cadance giggled; he couldn’t help it but join in a second later. With that, they turned back to their pursuits, leaving Shining and Cadance to talk about other things. Twilight really didn’t pay much attention to that; it was mushy grown-up stuff, after all. After a few more minutes of watching the owls and “talking”, Shining announced, “Okay, girls, time to get out of here and get some lunch. Who wants to go to Subway?” Three hands shot up, followed by both Twilight and Octavia scurrying around, trying to gather up all the stuff that they used in order to go birdwatching. To the teens present, it was like watching the Oompa-Loompa-lympics, and both tried very hard not to laugh at the far-fetched ministrations of both girls. “Shiny! Quick!” Twilight’s high-pitched voice suddenly cut through the haze as she pointed at something. Following the trace of her finger’s direction, he saw what the problem was: an egg was falling from one of the nests, and given the height, it wasn’t likely to survive the fall. Instinctively he raced towards the tree as fast as he could, pushing himself to rush as fast as he could, given the snow blocking his path and weighing down his every footfall. Ripping off his scarf, he finally dived towards the egg, holding his scarf between his hands like a hammock in order to ameliorate the terminal velocity. By some minor miracle of gravity, the white and brown-speckled egg bounced once on the scarf before coming to a safe stop on the scarf. Wrapping it up immediately, he ran back to the others, and said, “Change of plans: we’re headed back home to put this in a safe place while we figure out what to do with it. We can order pizza or something, okay, girls?” “Yay pizza!” Octavia cried, just happy to be out of the cold. “Is everything going to be okay with the egg?” Twilight asked her brother. It was Cadance that answered. “Let’s swing by my place first. We have an old terrarium from back when my dad had a pet iguana. It has a small heat lamp attached, so it should come in handy.” Shining smiled. “That’s brilliant, Cady.” “Oh, it’s nothing compared to what you just did,” she said, causing him to blush. “C’mon, let’s get the girls out of here before they turn into kidsicles.” It was about late January when the egg, having adjusted to the fully-artificial cycle of the heat lamp, answered the call of nature. Twilight, who had been allowed to keep the terrarium in her room, heard the crackling, followed by the chirping of the owlet as it tried to escape its calcium-carbonate prison. “Mommy! Daddy! Shiny!” she called out, dropping her book and heading towards the terrarium, watching the goings-on with rapt interest. Since the successful save of the egg a month prior, the young girl had used the full and awesome might of her library card to research everything there was on northern spotted owls; within two weeks, she’d already learned enough to have been able to write Shining and Cadance’s respective reports, and likely would’ve gotten a higher grade. Afterwards, she then turned to the limitless font that was Google, trying to absorb every little bit of information she could before the egg hatched. And now that moment had come, and Twilight planned to use the information for all it was worth. “Oh, sweetie, the egg’s hatching – that’s nice,” Twilight Velvet said as she came into the room, newborn Spike in her arms. Behind her, Night Light soon followed. “This should be interesting,” she said as Shining finally entered. The teen moved over by his kid sister. “So, did you give it a name?” he asked her. “I hadn’t thought of one,” she admitted, but then walked over to one of her bookcases and pulled out a dictionary. “Maybe I can find one out before it hatches.” “Better move soon,” Shining told her, “because it’s starting to emerge from the shell.” Meanwhile, the young girl was tearing through the book as though her life depended on it, looking up only to see the egg tooth tear through the shell as though it was nothing. Still, she continued to flitter through the large tome, hoping to find something – anything – that would fit the fledgling. Finally, there was a cheep and Twilight looked up to see a bird, crying out for a mother it didn’t know wasn’t present. Shining looked at his sister and said, “It’s hatched. Did you come up with a name?” Twilight looked at where her finger was last on the book: Aloysius: /æləˈwɪʃəs/: Latin, from German, initially meaning “fame from war”. Initially a boy’s name, now obsolete. Twilight smiled. “Aloysius. I’ll call him Aloysius.” “Hold on, Twily,” Velvet said, sitting down next to her while Spike gurgled in her arms. “Are you sure you want to call the bird that? He might be a she, you know.” “Why not ‘Owliscious’?” Night suggested. “Besides, that way if you find out that he’s actually female, you can change it to ‘Owlison’.” Twilight gave her father a lidded look. “Daddy, that’s dumb. Aloysius befits an owl’s name. Noble yet refined.” Sometimes, Shining and his parents noted, the way that Twilight could change on a dime from being just a little kid to being an incredibly smart girl made them pause. It had been decided long ago that regardless of whatever Twilight’s theoretical IQ was – one test she took had her in the 99.7th percentile of intelligence, well above the average adult – she would have a normal life and not be one of those weird “two degrees by the age of twelve” kids that were paraded out on television on occasion. “Aloysius is fine, sweetie,” Velvet agreed. “But remember: He – or she – is a wild animal. Hatching him means that you’ll have to take responsibility for him until the day that he’s old enough to fly away, okay?” Twilight nodded in response. Not only was she going to take care of Aloysius, she was going to make sure that he was the best owl ever! Baby Aloysius cheeped at his supposed mother, while Twilight tried very hard to get the dropper into his mouth. It contained a mixture that Twilight had found online that the zoo fed to its own fledglings, and if it was good enough for the zoo, it was going to be good enough for Aloysius. She had been doing this for a few months now, making sure that the owlet was going to grow up as strong as healthy as possible, given the circumstances. “C’mon, Aly,” she said, her mouth screwed up in concentration except for the edge of her tongue that stuck out of her mouth. “You gotta eat something, okay?” The owlet finally accepted the dropper, with Twilight gently administering doses of the meal that Aloysius was eating. “That’s a good bird,” she said softly. “You’re doing good!” “Wow, Twily, you really are watching that bird,” Octavia said from her bed as she looked up from her homework. Her parents had departed on yet another tour, leaving her behind to stay with her aunt, uncle and cousins. It had happened so often that she now had her own separate bed in Twilight’s room, even though the two still slept together in the same bed regardless. “I promised Mommy, Daddy and Shiny,” Twilight said with a sense of firmness. “They said that it was important, so I promised them that I would. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to let Aly go without a mommy. That’s just not right.” “If you say so,” Octavia said, unsure. She was used to her cousin doing weird things now and then, but even for Twilight this was unusual. Besides, she tended to have a bad history with pets – the family no longer had a dog, after the last one had passed away and traumatized the young girl. Emerald had been a weird dog anyway, though he had been sweet. Twilight had never taken his passing from old age well. “Do you want to pet him?” Twilight asked, reaching into the terrarium for the little ball of fluff. Aloysius popped into her hands with no problem, and as she brought him face to face, the bird instinctively nuzzled out to her, rubbing his whole body against her nose. “He’s so sweet!” “Really? Can I pet him?” Twilight then handed Aloysius over to her cousin, who then took him. Aloysius happily chirped at his new friend, then danced around in her palms before Octavia brought him up to her face for a nuzzle. “He’s adorable, Twily!” she cheered. “It’s gonna be a shame when you have to let him go.” Twilight looked down at the bedspread. “I know,” she said sadly. “I don’t want him to go, but…he has to be with his owl friends sooner or later. I don’t think I’d want a life alone, even with all the books I could read.” “You won’t,” Octavia said, putting her free arm around her cousin. “You have me, okay?” “Really?” “Really.” Summertime finally came and with it Night’s edict: “He’s old enough, Twily. You have to let him go.” Twilight, of course, insisted otherwise, pleading to her father that Aloysius wasn’t strong enough to fly, that he could get hurt or killed out there. That furthermore, he’d bonded with the family, so much so that even as late as the week prior, they’d referred to him as “Twilight’s pet owl.” “Sweetie,” I know this is hard,” Velvet said, putting her shoulder gently on her daughter’s, “but he’s a wild animal. And he’s also an endangered one. He has to be out there with his own kind so that they can stay healthy and vibrant. Staying in a cage is no place for a wild animal, even one that we raised.” “Do you think he’ll ever come back?” Twilight asked, her face filling with tears. “I don’t know,” Night had told her, “but I know this much: he wouldn’t have made it without you, princess. Because of you, he’ll survive, find a mate and have kids, and all of them will be alive thanks to you.” “I know,” she said, “but I don’t want to let him go.” “We don’t want to let him go either, Twily,” Velvet replied, “but it’s the right thing to do.” The next day, the family had gathered at the location where Shining had saved Aloysius months ago. Given the green trees and the full, lush growth of the woodland trail, it almost seemed like an eternity ago when he caught the falling egg. And now the result of that save and Twilight’s ministrations had to leave them. “Is she going to be okay?” Cadance asked Shining. She’d also come along, given that she was there for the beginning. The two had just graduated high school the month before, and both would be attending UC Horseshoe Bay in the fall. The fact that they were holding hands now showed their solidified relationship, and Shining’s wiry frame now showed a bit more muscle on it, both from his own workout and, strangely, his growing friendship with Buck Withers, of all people. “I don’t know,” he said, never taking his eyes off his sister. “I’m sure she will be, but….” He never finished the sentence, instead letting the silence speak for him. In front of them all, Twilight opened the parrot cage they’d bought for Aloysius the month prior. He’d grown, and while still smaller than the average-sized owl of his species, he couldn’t fit in the terrarium any longer. Putting on the gardening glove in order to avoid his talons, she pulled him out. “It’s time for you to go,” she said sadly. “I want you to stay, but… you belong with your own kind.” Aloysius just affixed his deep black eyes on his mistress, as if focusing on her words. “You can go now,” Twilight said, her voice catching due to the sorrow she felt. “If you come back…I can’t let you stay. You need to find a mate and have lots of owlets so your kind can grow.” She reached over and scratched him under the chin; he hooted softly, as it was one of his favorite spots to receive attention. “But don’t forget about me,” she told him, “because I won’t forget about you. Now go, Aly – you’re free.” As if understanding this last edict, Aloysius spread his wings and then launched himself into the air, then dived back down, flying circles around the humans that had been his family for the past six months. And then, he landed on Twilight’s shoulder. The weight unsettled her for a second, but she quickly adjusted, and once she stabilized, Aloysius nuzzled her head, as if saying, thank you. And then, jumping away from her, he flew off into the sky, rising above the treetops, vanishing into the horizon. Twilight sunk to her knees as the tears came. She could barely hear her family tell her how proud they were of her, nor did she really respond when they put her to bed that night. “And that’s the story,” the teen said, feeling more than a bit misty-eyed by it all. “You were obviously too young to remember, Spike, but…he was important to me.” “So that’s why we have a parrot cage in the garage,” Spike replied. “I didn’t know that.” Spike then looked around and said, “You know what? That was a cool story, sis. Thanks for sharing it.” He then saw that his sister was crying. “Do you…ever think that he still remembers you?” Wiping her eyes, she said, “He’s probably not even alive anymore. Northern spotted owls live to ten years, at most, in the wild. It’s been eight years, so he’s well in the range of being gone by this ti—” A growl sounded near them, then two. Twilight looked up from where she was and saw a trio of coyotes, standing not too far away. “We must’ve wandered into their territory,” she told Spike. “Let’s move away carefully, okay?” Spike looked at the biggest one as it barked a warning to them. “Uh, okay, Twily,” he said, following her lead in walking away from them, slowly, backwards, step by step. “They’re not moving away,” he warbled. As if by silent agreement, the coyotes started running towards them, attack clearly on their minds. “Run!” she said, trying to pick up her little brother and run at the same time, but soon gave up, instead dragging him by the arm. The pair started running for the trees, in the hope that they wouldn’t be followed, but the coyotes immediately darted in, chasing the two. By some minor miracle, Twilight and Spike managed to stay one step ahead of them, but that soon stopped when they reached a roughly-oval shaped clearing. They ran to the far end of the clearing but were trapped, with the trees too dense for her to move through and Spike himself barely able to squeeze between each trunk, but more than perfect for the small quadrupedal shapes of the coyotes. Likewise, climbing the trees was no option either, as the branches were too small and frail to hold either person’s weight. Realizing they had the advantage, the coyotes began to move slowly but surely towards the pair, knowing that they could bring down their quarry in an instant. “Stay behind me!” Twilight ordered her brother as she took off her backpack, bringing it forward like a shield. At the same time, she handed him her phone and said, “Dial 911!” Spike did as ordered, but was afraid that it wasn’t going to work – and sure enough, it didn’t. “Twily! I can’t get a signal!” he told her. “What?” She cried, as the first coyote bounded towards her, ready for the kill— It never came. The hoot of an owl suddenly pierced the air. Then two. Three. Eight. Then a multitude of them sounded, ringing throughout the Everfree, a deafening cacophony that stopped everyone in their tracks, both human and coyote. The humans looked completely confused, but that was nothing compared to the coyotes, which, unprepared for a situation such as this, lowered their ears and began to look to the skies, as if readying for something unprecedented. The attack came a second later: a single owl, screeching, dive-bombed towards the lead coyote, tearing at its ear. Before the coyote could react, however, two more began an attack run, striking the alpha’s counterparts. This was immediately followed by several more of them lancing towards them like brown cannonballs hurled at them from the trees, striking and drawing blood. The coyotes tried to fight back at first, but to no avail, biting and snapping only at air when just a second before had been a striking owl. Finally, a great owl, nearly double the size of the other spotted owls, descended like a lightning strike, slamming into the alpha hard enough to snap its head back as though it had been slugged with a club. That was more than enough for the trio of coyotes, who turned tail from their blood-spattered spot and ran a fast retreat as far away as the clearing, with no chance of stopping anytime soon. It would probably be a long time before the three dared to show themselves in this part of the Everfree forest, and doubtless anywhere that owls resided. Meanwhile, the two humans were surrounded by the owls, who were hooting much softer now. “What’s going on?” Spike cried. “I don’t know,” Twlight said, but something within her said otherwise. It wasn’t too much to hope for, was it? And a second later, an extremely heavy weight on her shoulder, so much so that she almost fell to the ground, answered that. She could feel his great talons sink into her shoulder just enough to get a perch but not so much that it would hurt her. She then turned to find a huge, aged owl, looking right at her with black eyes that somehow seemed to radiate warmth and love. “Aly….” she murmurred, unable to believe it. “You saved us!” Aloysius hooted softly, then bent over and nuzzled his old mistress. Twilight giggled in return, removing a glove to scratch underneath his chin, just like old times. The owl hooted in happiness once more, glad to be reunited. “Wow, and I thought I had an interesting day,” Octavia said, seated on her bed in the room she shared with Twilight. She and Spike had an interesting story to tell their family over dinner that night, complete with the owl escort back to the bus stop, where Twilight was able to say a final goodbye to her former pet. It was just after midnight now and both Octavia and Sunset were getting a retelling of the story, this time without Spike’s spastic hand-motions and ad-libbed sound effects. “Yeah, wish I could’ve been there to see it,” Sunset replied. “It was great, seeing him again,” Twilight said. “I didn’t think he’d remember me – I wasn’t even sure he was still alive. But not only did Aly survive, he grew to be enormous and the leader of their parliament.” “Leader of their what?” Octavia asked. “Parliament. It’s the name of a group of owls,” Sunset explained. “And how would you know that?” “Uh, I had to do a report on it two weeks ago?” Sunset told her pseudo-cousin. “C’mon, why do you think I spent so much time at the library earlier in the month?” To that, Octavia’s answer was a shrug, and Twilight laughed. “Yeah, thanks for the comforting backup there,” the flamehaired girl muttered. “Well, we should probably get some sleep,” Twilight suggested. “Back to your room, Sunny; it’s the only bed that can fit all three of us.” “Yeah,” all three girls said in unison, just glad that Octavia was back. Twilight awoke at two in the morning. She couldn’t explain why. Both Sunset and Octavia were still asleep, and the house was silent… …except for the soft noise outside. Twilight went to the window and looked out. There, against the clear moon of the night sky, was Aloysius, perched on one of the bare branches of the large tree in the backyard. Next to him was a smaller shape – likely his mate. The message was clear: though he couldn’t return to live with them directly, he was making the tree his home, if only to stay close to the family that had raised him. Pressing her ear against the window, Twilight swore she could hear the soft hoots of Aloysius and his mate, settling in. Giving him a brief wave, Twilight then yawned and crawled into bed next to Sunset, falling fast asleep.