As Jay stood beside Tylisia's pile of downy feathers, on the other side of the hospital nest from where Sanga, the owlet, and the others were, he preened his feathers. He stopped suddenly when he saw Tylisia stir a little. Her eyes blinked open, though they looked cloudy and confused still. She looked around, then saw Jay watching her. Immediately, her eyes seemed to come back into focus and become brighter.
"Jay!" She cooed.
"Are you feeling any better?" Jay cooed back, smiling with relief that she was coming out of it. It was very early in the morning, after the incident with the Pure Ones had been that previous night. Nurse. Noperich had said that sometimes it took less than a day for an owl to awake after getting hit by something, and sometimes it would take a week. Thankfully, it had only been a few hours before Tylisia seemed to be recovering already.
"Yes, I am, actually. What happened?" Tylisia asked, straining to remember the sequence of events that happened...The twinkling stars in the sky, Jay's familiar voice calling to her in the distance, his voice sounding urgent and worrisome...The Pure Ones invading the kingdom and secretly lurking in the forests...Her telling him she would go to her tree hollow for safety...And the cold, evil red eyes, glaring down at her...The cruel metal mask...The swooshing feeling of being swept up and the pain of being grabbed by the sharp talons of the Pure One owl...And then blackness. That was the last thing she remembered. She shivered at the memory of it.
"Well, after you were captured by a few Pure Ones, I came looking for you. Sanga saw what had happened as well, and flew after you to save you. She had already begun battling a Pure One by the time I got there. We took one down together, and then found the one that had you. Sanga took that one out, and thankfully you landed fairly gently on a patch of moss," Jay explained. Then he suddenly remembered something else. "Oh yeah, and one more thing...A baby Barn Owl was dropped from nowhere onto the moss nearby you. We don't know where it came from, but Sanga has it here at the nest hospital and they're going to try and figure out whose its parents are."
"Wow...I thought for sure that, that..." Tylisia said, choking on her words.
"What is it?" Jay asked, concerned.
"It was just so scary...The part while I was concious anyway. That Pure One took me by such surprise that I never had a chance to react or defend myself. I thought they were going to take me away to someplace where all the Pure Ones are, and was never going to see my friends and family again...never going to see you again, so we could have another flight competition," Tylisia giggled, and added, "...And so I I could beat you agai!"
"Well, it's a good thing Sanga and I were there. We weren't about to let those Pure Ones take you," Jay explained. "And you won't beat me! You may have wont the first time, but I will definitely win the next time."
"We'll see then, and bring your friends to keep score." Tylisia said.
Jay laughed and smiled, happy that Tylisia was back to her usual self.
