Mikael sighed as the cool breeze caressed his face. He reached up to brush his hair away from his eyes and leant backwards on the couch. He had open on his lap the history of the ancient kingdom of Nekkhara, but it had his attention only fleetingly. Whilst he was eager to learn, he had been reading for a good few hours and his mind had begun to wander. He instead took the time to gaze out over the balcony that he was sitting on, enjoying the wondrous views that were presented from the Sanctuary.
He stood and moved over to the edge, placing his hand upon the wall. Splayed out below him was a vast, glittering blue lake, its shorelines dotted with river inlets. Forests stretched off all around, and in the distance huge mountains rose, jaggedly slicing through the horizon. The sky was crisp and blue, with a faint touch of white as it neared the mountain ranges of the North.
Mikael closed his eyes and could hear the sound of the waterfall underneath his feet as it disguised the entrance to the Sanctuary. To someone looking upon it, where Mikael stood now was but an extension of the waterfall, smooth cliffs facing outwards and towering above the lake.
He breathed deeply. He did sometimes miss the outdoors, where he had originally thought he belonged. Still, he often came out here to satiate that urge, and he was never left disappointed.
Sighing with contentedness, he turned and settled once again on the couch, the sun's warming rays keeping the ambient temperature perfect. He reached for the book again in order to carry on digesting historical information on the necromancers of the East and their rebellions against the Gods.
He was distracted by the curtain moving to his right. It had been faintly swaying in the breeze, but it billowed outwards now, as if the wind had caught it full blast. Turning his head, he realised that this was not the case at all, but that someone had swept it aside and stepped onto the balcony.
"Good morning," Mikael smiled at Ria'torr, who had emerged through the curtain and was now facing away from him, staring out over the vistas. She spun to face him at the sound of his voice.
She beamed at him, the short skirt on her dress fluttering as she whirled around. "Good morning!"
Her woodland green hair was back into a ponytail, and it blended somewhat into the deep colours of the forests behind her.
"I've been looking for you," she said after a moment.
"Oh yes?" Mikael asked, curious, raising an eyebrow.
A large smile on her elven face. "Yup! I needed to thank you."
"Thank me? What for?"
"Ah, well, it's probably not something you were expecting to be thanked for," she said as she came over to him.
Mikael moved aside slightly so that Ria'torr could sit on the edge of the couch. She ignored the space and instead sat directly on his lap, her small frame weighing almost nothing. The wonderful scent of nature greeted him at her presence.
He chuckled to himself before replying. "Really? I've been thanked profusely over the past few days for my assistance in Habbrant, but that is only my role in the Cohort. I did no more than Melissa or Lucinda."
"Oh, that I know, although I think you do your efforts a disservice there. No, this is about something different, although it occurred at a similar time."
Mikael pondered a moment. "Hmm... then I don't know. I can't think of anything which you'd thank me for."
"Well, consider that I have some very close ties with the natural environment, Mikael. I know a lot of what is going on, more than you'd think," she pressed, leading him to the answer.
"The owlbear?" Mikael ventured, racking his mind for anything nature-related.
"Precisely," Ria'torr grinned, clapping her hands together with delight. "You saved those owlbear eggs from poachers, and you did it with no prompting from us. You really are a member of the Cohort."
"Well, I might not be as close to nature as you, Ria'torr, but I do know that owlbears are a rarity nowadays, unfairly hunted as vicious beasts. Living in the wild as a ranger taught me that, even if I don't have your elven background."
"Sometimes I wonder at that," Ria'torr said, sounding philosophical. "You are so close to nature, too, and so good at so many things. It is almost as if you do have some elfin blood in you. I would not be surprised."
Mikael shrugged. "Well, if I do, I don't know about it. I suppose it's possible one of my great ancestors could have been an elf, but as far as I can tell I'm all human."
"Perhaps," Ria'torr replied. Suddenly she broke into a huge grin, "But I haven't explained why you needed thanking yet!"
"I thought it was because I saved the owlbear eggs?" Mikael said, both confused and amused by Ria'torr's playful insistence.
"Ah, but there is more to it than that, Mikael. It may surprise you to learn, but owlbears actually have a society of sorts. They operate as a very loose community, not purely as animals as many suspect."
"They do?" Mikael asked, shocked. "I never knew that."
"Not many people do, Mikael, don't worry. Only the owlbears, the Gods and the other creatures of the forest know it to be the case. And of course, I am a creature of the forest."
"Well, I never knew that," Mikael said, still soaking it in. "I lived in the forest for years and never knew that."
"Which is why it is all the more remarkable that you saved those eggs," Ria'torr continued, getting back to the point. "It was not just poachers stealing the eggs of an endangered animal; it was a sentient mother losing her young. As I'm sure you do know, owlbears only breed once every ten years. Losing that brood would have been disastrous for the mother."
"That I did know, and I'm glad I could help her," Mikael smiled.
