Chapter 125: Chapter 123: The quiet ways of the most flexible of owls

Hineni lifts his hands up towards the sky, feeling a pop in his back. “Ah, f-” he catches himself swearing, stopping before he starts.

 

“Thank you,” says Seltsam, standing behind the large tree atop the hill.

 

Hineni continues the movement, bending down to try and touch his toes, which he vaguely sort-of-kind-of comes close to doing.

 

“It’s easy,” says Sockel, leading the exercise and having no trouble at all doing so.

 

“Yeah. Easy for you to say,” says Hineni. He looks up towards the elf, who is leading what is supposed to be a concept for a new group activity in the mornings. Stretching. Although, he isn’t convinced that he’s a fan.

 

He has no idea where she got the idea from. But he’s willing to give anything a go. The others all wanted to think of something to do too.

 

“Flexibility is important,” starts Rhine, standing next to him. He bounces down somewhat, touching past his toes to the ground.

 

“— Don’t bounce,” says Sockel. “It’s bad for your tendons.”

 

“Oh. Sorry,” says Rhine, slowing himself down and just holding his palms flat against the grass. He looks back over to Hineni. “If you have a lot of muscle, but you don’t stretch or work on your flexibility, it will cause a lot of problems with your posture and health as you age.” He lifts a hand, pointing at the back of his knees. “These tendons all over your body need to be kept at a healthy level of flexability.”

 

“The way this feels, it can’t be healthy,” replies Hineni.

 

“— Okay and back up,” says Sockel. Hineni sighs in relief, pulling himself back upright. Sockel places a single foot ahead of herself, puts her hand on her hip, and leans forward. “And now let’s move on to the hips,” she says.

 

Hineni moves on foot ahead of himself, trying to hold his balance as he leans into the movement that seems like it should be easily doable.

 

But before he even gets close to moving as far forward as Sockel is, he feels a tight pull on the inside of his upper leg that stops him. Hineni strains himself, pushing a bit further. “You seem fine with this,” he says, looking to his side at Obscura.

 

The owl-god is easily mimicking Sockel’s movements, in some cases going out of her way to over-exemplify them. Hineni can only assume that this is to establish some sort of dominance over the elf. They’ve always had an odd spat here and there about social hierarchies. “This is because there is nothing more graceful than Ob~ scu~ ra!” says the owl-god, proudly, lowering herself down.

 

“— Do you even have the same joints and stuff that we do?” asks Rhine from the side. “Do these stretches even count if you do them?”

 

“Who~!” hoots the owl-god, her head turning his way in an instant.

 

Rhine shrugs. “I just mean… you know… with your birds-legs and all… and… uh… Nevermind,” he says, looking at Obscura who is hissing and clicking with her mouth the entire time.

 

“Stand your ground, Rhine,” says Hineni, wobbling his way deeper into the stretch, closing an eye as he fights through the discomfort. “It’s a valid question.”

 

“Silence!” hoots the owl-god.

 

“— Aaaand… switch,” says Sockel, switching legs. All of them switch their legs, trying to do the same stretch again from the other side.

 

“Of course they count!” argues Obscura. “They count three times! Three! The stretches of beautiful Obscura count as often as her number of legs!”

 

“Wait, what?” asks Hineni.

 

“— Foolish river-boy,” says the owl-god. “You may be growing strong and tall like this beautiful tree,” says Obscura. “Which is given, since I have nurtured you both.” She looks his way. “But your mind has been corrupted by the smell of socks!”

 

“Huh?” asks Rhine.

 

A voice comes from behind the tree. “I think she’s saying that Sockel is a bad influence on you,” says Seltsam. Hineni looks towards it. She’s joined in on the stretches too. But he can’t even begin to imagine what exactly that looks like. Although, he had seen her back in the old library, when they had all confronted her.

 

Looking back on it, it seems odd that he didn’t get turned to stone, like Eilig or Kleidet had. But he had just attributed it to a quirk of the owl-magic affecting him.

 

Hmm…

 

Somebody had explained it back then, but he honestly doesn’t remember anymore what the exact details were.

 

“Okay,” says Sockel. “And now we’re moving on. The same thing as before, but from side to side.”

 

“Sockel, are all of these leg stretches?” asks Hineni.

 

“What?” asks Sockel. “Stretches? These are the warm ups for the stretches. We’re working our way up.”

 

“Mhm!” agrees Rhine from the side. “You shouldn’t stretch extensively when your muscles are cold,” he explains. “You’ll risk getting a tear.”

 

“I’m learning so much today,” sighs Hineni, trying to figure out how to place his feet to achieve Sockel’s stance.

 

He looks up towards the sky, past the many long branches of the tree that have begun to grow around its crown area.

 

---

 

Hineni spends the early part of the next day making furniture for the exterior structure. While the engineers had gone above and beyond to create the frame, all of the internal stuff is theirs to deal with, apart from the forge, which had a high priority.

 

The restaurant needs booths and chairs and tables. Hineni spends his day making these out of rare-wood from the forest.

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It’s honestly not so rare down here. In fact, it’s essentially the only kind of wood. But in the north, this stuff was worth a fortune.

 

He looks at the block of wood in his hands and shrugs, tossing it over his shoulder into a pile meant for firewood as he returns to his work.

 

---

 

It is the day after that.

 

Hineni is in the altar room.

 

“It must be high! And beautiful!” hoots the owl-god. She lifts a hand to cover her face with a piece of fabric from her sleeve. “A majestic, mysterious perch for the majestic, mys~ teri~ ous~ me!”

 

“Got it. A stick nailed to the wall and some beads.”

 

She clicks with her mouth, lifting her sleeve. “Please,” asks the owl-god. “You will make a throne, befitting of my majesty, yes?”

 

“Sure thing,” replies Hineni. “I gotta ask though.” He looks at her. She tilts her head sideways, observing him. “Is this really about re-establishing yourself as a dominant presence in the south?” he asks.

 

“The south?” asks Obscura. She lifts a taloned hand, holding it aganst his chest. “The south belongs to the owls, as it always has,” says Obscura. “There are merely vermin in it. FROGS!” she hoots.

 

Hineni nods. “Frogs.”

 

“But the lands that belong to my own do not satiate my hunger,” explains the owl-god. “I want it all.”

 

“Yeah. That checks out,” says Hineni, shrugging. “I’m not sure I can make enough weapons to make you strong enough to fight against a god like Avarice or Death for territory, though,” says Hineni. “Do you know how many coins there are? Each of them has the guy's face printed on it.” He shakes his head. “That’s why I let Sockel do the money stuff.”

 

“That is where you are mistaken; your thoughts are lost in sock-water,” says the owl-god. “Obscura has many games hidden in her sleeves,” says the owl-god, lifting an arm. “And her sleeves are very long, and there is not a single sock in them!”

 

“I guess so,” says Hineni, looking back up towards the room, trying to envision what the altar should look like.

 

“Frogs…” mutter both of them at the same time.

 

---

 

It is the day after that.

 

Hineni is working in the library. A lot of the shelving is set up and ready, but the workers only did the bare minimum. It’s up to him to really finish out the details.

 

“A little higher!”

 

“Like this?” asks Hineni, lifting up a shelf.

 

“Perfect!” replies Seltsam. “Thank you.”

 

Hineni nods, fastening the shelf into place. There’s a cutting sound of paper from behind him. Seltsam is working on labeling the shelves with strips of paper and glue.

 

“By the way, have you seen Eilig lately?” asks Hineni, looking around the library. “She was acting all weird a few days ago, and I haven't seen her since.”

 

“E- Eilig?” asks the voice from behind him. There is a shuffling of steps around for a moment. “Uh… yeah!” replies Seltsam. “I saw her yesterday, actually.”

 

“Is she up to something?” asks Hineni. “I feel like she’s up to something.”

 

“I uh… I can’t tell you,” replies Seltsam. “But she’s fine!”

 

Hineni raises an eyebrow, looking at the shelf behind himself. “Is this another secret?” he asks. “Why do you people all have so many secrets?”

 

The library is quiet for a time, barring some shuffling of paper.

 

“— Sometimes, you have to keep secrets,” says Seltsam. “Because it’s for a good reason.”

 

Hineni rubs the back of his head, staring towards the direction of her voice. “Seltsam… you know I saw you back then, right?” he asks. “When we cornered you in the old library.”

 

“…Yeah…” she replies. “Thanks for not telling anyone.”

 

“Sure,” says Hineni. “I get it,” he replies, tapping his face. “But how come I didn’t get turned to stone?” he asks.

 

The snipping of paper stops; the scissors half-way through the page.

 

“— Sometimes, you have to keep secrets,” says Seltsam.

 

The scissors snap shut.

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