Chapter 11: 11. Chasing Owls

For a moment, he hesitated, looking down at the forest floor with clear trepidation. A single mistake would send him plummeting, and he didn’t think his meager stats would be enough to offset any injuries he might get.

A moment later, however, he grit his teeth and leapt forward into the next tree over, stumbling as his feet almost slipped and slid off of the branch he found himself on. It was only by tightly wrapping his arms around the tree’s trunk did he keep himself standing upright. 

Desmond took a deep breath to calm his nerves before looking up, trying to find that owl again; Only to spot it a couple of trees over, staring at him with its wide, almost glowing, pink eyes. It was barely a foot tall, with a matted collection of gray and near-black feathers across its entire body, save for the white fur covering its underbelly and a small, black diamond mark directly on its chest.

As soon as it caught him watching it, it spread its short, broad wings and silently leapt off the branch again, soaring above the trees and out of sight.

“Wait, dammit!” Desmond huffed, steeling his resolve as he hopped into the next tree over. His landing was much steadier this time around, but he still needed to put his hands against the trunk to make sure he didn’t fall. 

The owl, however, didn’t come back down to wait and see if he was following. So Desmond didn’t waste his time waiting for it, either, and tried his best to continue catching glimpses of it through the leaves above. 

This chase went on for what felt like only minutes to Desmond, as he continued to hop from branch to branch as he trailed after the bird. As time went on, Desmond's traversal through the trees got better and better; He no longer needed to pause and steady himself on each landing, and was able to deftly leap from branch to branch without his pace slowing.

In fact, he felt like he was getting faster, even, as he looked up to the trees above and noticed the owl soaring just ahead of him.

With a smile, he began to pick up the pace, leaping to higher and higher branches so that he could get a better look at the creature before he tried anything else. Luckily for him, it didn’t seem as if the owl was trying to lose him or anything; In fact, if he were thinking logically at all, he probably would’ve assumed that the owl could easily lose him and most likely wanted him to catch up to it, for whatever reason.

Soon, Desmond broke the ceiling of leaves above him, leaping from thinner and thinner branches to keep up, yet miraculously breaking none of them. The night sky was open above him, with nary a cloud in sight and the crescent moon beaming its light down onto him as he continued after his prey. The small owl, to its credit, continued to soar unperturbed, as if it didn’t care that Desmond was mere meters behind it now.

Each new leap brought him another foot closer, his arm outstretched and reaching toward the owl’s short tail feathers. Sooner, rather than later, Desmond was able to leap forward, both arms reaching forward for the bird as he beared down on it from behind and above. 

It spared a single glance back at him, spinning around and curling its wings in on itself as if to make itself a smaller target. But Desmond got to it before it could zip away, clasping his hands around its feathered body and holding tightly onto it as a sense of pride ran through him. 

“Got you!” He exclaimed, a bright smile spreading across his face. It only lasted a moment, though, as gravity took hold of him and he began to plummet back down into the trees below. 

With a yelp of shock, he pulled the owl into his chest and spun his body around just in time. He felt a number of thin, spindly branches crack and break under his body as he fell through them with reckless abandon. He spared a glance below him, only to see the ground approaching much quicker than he would’ve preferred.

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‘Okay, okay, don’t panic!’ He thought to himself, quickly activating ⦓Eye For Detail⦔ and casting his gaze across the nearby trees and letting the information flood into his head as he sifted through it as quickly as he could. ‘I just need...one good branch!’ 

It felt like minutes of waiting, but Desmond knew, logically, that it was only mere seconds. Finally, he found what he was looking for as his eyes darted to the right, catching sight of a thick, sturdy branch very quickly entering his range.

Desmond wrapped one arm around the owl, pulling it further into his chest, as he reached out with his other arm, fingers splayed. Sooner rather than later, his hand slapped into the branch, sending a shock of pain flooding through his arm, but he grit his teeth and suffered through it as he gripped the branch with all his strength.

His body snapped to one side, the force of changing direction almost making him lose grip on the branch. Almost, anyway, as Desmond was able to just barely keep hold of it as the remnants of the thin branches he broke with his body fell past him and toward the ground below. He could hear them splinter and break further as they hit the ground, leaving him to sigh in exasperation.

His lower half went slack as he hung there, swaying from side to side as he tried to catch his breath. In his arms, the small owl cooed quietly and sat eerily still, as if not to bother him. Desmond spared it a single glance before looking up and around him, then down at the ground.

“Now we just...have to get down.” He huffed. Thankfully, there were numerous other branches below him, so it didn’t take long for him to drop to a sturdy-looking one, then gingerly pick his way down the remainder of the branches until he was able to touch down on the forest floor again. 

Once his feet settled on the ground, all the strength in his legs disappeared and he collapsed backwards onto his butt. Pressing his back against a tree, the boy sighed and let his eyes fall shut as he tried to compose himself. 

For what felt like a long couple minutes, Desmond simply sat on the floor, waiting for the shaking in his legs to subside. To his surprise, the owl in his arms continued to sit still, seemingly not keen on trying to escape his grasp. 

Now that the excitement of the situation left him, Desmond very slowly furrowed his brow in thought. He looked down at the small owl which, similarly, turned its big pink eyes toward him. They locked eyes for a moment before Desmond blinked furiously and squinted in confusion. 

“...Why was I chasing you anyway?” He muttered aloud. As he expected, the owl simply hooted quietly in response. His eyebrows knit together further as his eyes flashed pink and he looked the creature over with ⦓Eye For Detail⦔. 

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