Poetry of motion

He rolled his eyes again at her repeating his own answer, poor, stupid child. Though he couldn't fault her TOO much, she WAS a mermaid after all, usually very ill travelled and ill-known about land and all those that resided in it.

"Perhaps this is not the wood for us...." The young beast mused, following the sweeping movement of the owl's wing. "Me and my brother, we are looking for a wood of our own. If men are encrouching already, maybe this wood is not for Unicorns."

"No, not all of them," the owl nodded, following her gaze to the little cottage that he and his human counterpart had resided in for a while now. Until they would up and leave to the next location or time.

It was a breath of fresh air, talking to such a competent creature, wise and old and yet still young. Unicorns were such marvellous creatures... It was a shame there weren't many more about.

“Fly away, then!”

“Are you molting?”

“Are you an angel?”

“Why WALK anywhere?”

“If I was you, I’d never land.”

“What does it feel like… flying?”

“Can you actually fly with those?”

“You look like an angel with those.”

“What is the highest you’ve flown?”

“What’s the view like from up there?”

“Could you take me flying sometime?”

“Night flying just sounds… dangerous.”

“Just how rough was that last landing?”

“Stop pouting and glide back down here.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were molting?”

“They’re like a big, feathery blanket! So warm.”

“You can’t fly tonight, there’s a storm out there.”

“I can see you’re sad. Your wings are drooping.”

“You have wings… Oh my god, you have wings!”

“I’m cold and your wings are warm. Come here.”

“Your wings got hurt? How bad? Can you still fly?”

“I can see you’re scared. Your wings keep shaking.”

“I get it. You can fly. You can stop showing off, now.”

“When was the last time you brushed your primaries?”

“How do you even get this much glitter on your feathers?”

“No, sharing a bed with you means a mouthful of feathers.”

“Stop shaking your feathers! You’re getting water everywhere!”

“Could you stop flapping? You’re sending all my papers flying…”

“Okay, that’s it! Land and say that to my FACE, you feathery jerk!”

“Hop in the bath… and don’t clog up the drain with feathers this time!”

“Your feathers are looking a little disheveled. Should I straighten them?”

“That was my favorite shirt. You cut wing holes in the back of my favorite shirt?”

“Running off into the sky isn’t going to make your problems go away, you know.”

“Your wings are still soaked. Come here, you’ll get sick if you don’t dry them off.”

He was glad that the owl had listened to him, but he would be lying if he wasn't worried with those sharp tallons on his wood works. Still, it looked curious about it so he wasn't going to shoo the creature away. Still, he was quick to go and grab some bird food he had (often he offered to the pidgeons) and put it on a bowl close to the owl.

— Thank you, you c-can have this if you want. Excuse me...

He was quick to move since it was almost time to ring the bells and now that his feathered visitor was out of harm's way, he could do his job.

The owl raised a brow as the bowl was placed down on the table close to him. Bird feed? Tsk. Featherbrains ate that stuff, he much prefered something more hearty.

Archimedes settled back down on his temporary perch, fluffing up his feathers and readying himself to just remain comfortable...

A mermaid? PINFEATHERS! Surely not, he hadn't seen a mermaid shed its tail in ions. The owl huffed, at least she had somewhat of a better greeting now.

"Archimedes," he greeted back in return. "And it is clear that you haven't, though, not many actually have, I suppose." He rolled his eyes, flying down and landing closer to her to be more at eye level.

Cover illustrator unknown

A lad and his (✨️magical✨️) owl.

These past months have been pretty crazy so far, but hopefully, I’ll have a new update for the crossover available, most likely between the following week or the one after!

Good, seemed like the owl understood him if the feather fluffing meant anything. He wasn't used to deal with that kind of bird, usually the only feathered visitors he had were the pidgeons. He didn't count the Gargoyles since their wings were made of stone. But because this one wasn't used to the tower, the bird needed to be warned about being too close to the bells.

— Don't you want to c-c-come down, mr. Owl? This... isn't a good spot for you to be. You are too close to that bell and I need to ring it very soon.... I- I can give you some food in e-exchange.

Archimedes drummed his claws against his perch, annoyed that the boy was still talking, then his eyes went up to the large bell he had chosen to rest by, large working ones and he supposed it would be quite deafening if he stayed near it.

He couldn't help but to marvel at the magnificent creature when he saw Archimedes perching near one of the bells. Oh! It had noticed him!

— You are a very pretty bird, did you know that mr. Owl?

Pretty???? Archimedes fluffed his feathers up, he would have preferred a different compliment in all honesty, but at least this human had the decency to actually give him one, others just ooed, ahhed and pointed and wanted to catch him.

"Very good observation there..." The owl rolled his eyes, here we go again. "Usually when one meets someone new a polite greeting is established, not staring and stating the obvious."