"So you see the really interesting this about the Northern Arctic Osprey is the way they hunt. They dive, you understand, at the ice, managing to pinpoint the exact locations where it is thin enough for them to break through unharmed, grab a fish in their talons and voila! Out pops the falcon with a hearty meal. I hope to discover how it is they know where to dive. Of course, the name Northern Arctic is something of a double positive, because Arctic means north ice cap, and of all things," he leant in, as if whispering some great secret, "no one from the Society has ever even been to the Antarctic, nevertheless sighted an osprey with similar enough characteristics for the definition between the Arctic and Antarctic breeds to be necessary."
Sunny paused for laugher, his wide grin holding even as the stall keeper's expression didn't change. The portly woman, who was apparently mimicking the whales and coating herself with blubber, had her mouth hanging slightly open, having endured a good ten minutes of Sunny going on about birds. "Look," she said thickly, regaining the use of her mouth, "Do you want buy it or not?"
Her chubby finger was pointing at a gold necklace with a large locket on it. It was cheap, too cheap to be real. The woman's refusal to touch it was probably because she knew the gold powder would wipe away as soon as she did.
Still, it was shiny, and Sunny never could resist shiny. "Yes alright, here you go." A handful of silver pieces fell into her greedy little hands, disappearing quickly. "Shop closed now!" came her bark, giving him barely enough time to scoop the necklace up in a gloved hand before the front panel of her shop snapped closed. "No returns, I take it," he grumbled, stuffing the thing into his pocket.
There was work to be done, thing to see now that he was done here, having resupplied enough to last him for another day trip. Lack of a pack animal had him returning to Hyoite every night. Not that there was night here at this time of year, not for another month or so. During the summer months the osprey hunted, and during the winter they nested. He was interested in their nesting too, but he was here for their feeding.
The crunching footsteps his feet left in the snow were brushed away by the long, wide tail that dragged along behind him, its feathered mass covered by white cloth draped over it that served as both protection and camouflage. The rest of him was similarly concealed by white wools, thick and heavy to keep out the cold, with even his bright hair and crest hidden beneath a while beanie. A notebook and telescope kept on the outside of his pack were the only things giving him away, should he choose to lie still in a snowdrift.
As the town grew smaller in the distance, Sundast remembered the necklace. Fishing around clumsily for a moment before getting frustrated and removing his glove he pulled the thing out and examined it. Certainly a good fake, but a fake nonetheless, surely. "Well, jewellery was made to be worn, and there's no good sense in wasting the space of my pockets on it is there now?"
No one to answer but the wind as he slipped the thing over his neck and let it hang over his coats.
