So, this was a new one for Owl!
Owl normally dealt with people. Criminals and the like. During the day, living her usual noblewoman life, she liked to keep an ear open to pick up any rumors or gossip about fresh criminal activity--and then check it out at night. But the day before, she'd picked up something different, talk about a strange, hulking beast that prowled the woods and preyed on children, snatching them up in its jaws and gobbling them up.
It sounded like a tale mothers told their children, but the guards she'd overheard chatting about it even seemed a bit nervous. Werewolf, one had said. A job for the Order of the Moon, another had said, and definitely not something a normal person wanted to mess with. They were horribly hard to kill. An older guard standing watch with the younger two had laughed at them for being all spooked, but he'd also admitted to hearing the rumors, too, and that while they were no doubt exaggerated as rumors were (where were all the bereaved mothers?), there was probably some truth to it.
Probably just some mangy mutt that had eaten someone's pet and been turned into a cautionary tale.
It was still worth investigating, though, and since it was a slow night with no fresh news of illicit activities, Owl took to the woods.
It was probably a stupid, stupid idea, going to the woods alone. Varian could be there with his horror show. Or Smed with his gang. Alone she was vulnerable--but wasn't she always? Varian had proven before that he could visit her mind, even in a room full of people, and Smed? Gods. She couldn't go her entire life hiding and living in fear.
She told herself that as she slipped out the city gates and to the thin woods beyond to do her own investigating. She had to be brave. She had to train herself to be bold and fearless again, because the world was full of horrors, and all she could do was make herself stronger. Face her fears head on and learn how to deal with them, not stay in her room cowering. In the end, she could only rely on herself, right?
And this was as good of a test as any of how much she'd learned.
Crouching down by a patch of recently disturbed earth, Owl checked for prints--and thought she could just barely make out a large paw print. Maybe it was her imagination--she was still learning how to track--but...hmm...
She tilted her head, studying it a bit longer, and then continued onward in the direction it was facing, moving silently as she could, her training with the Shadow Wolves coming to play now.
It was probably just a big wolf, she told herself.
