On Wings (Archimedes, Open)

[Alice]

Alice was seated in Merlin's cottage. As usual, she was supposed to be paying attention to Merlin's history lesson, but history was Alice's least favorite subject. And it was difficult at best to pay attention, when it was such a gorgeous, sunny day outside. Alice was seated by a window, which was a big mistake: all she did was stare outside the window, watching birds take gracious flight into the sky. Alice watched and sighed romantically, her red lips in a perpetual smile, her blue eyes lost in daydream.

[greatprince]

The Great Prince was out and about today. Of course he had glimpsed the cottage in his territory on previous treks -- he was always observant, and nothing escaped his notice. Minutes of indecision stretched out as he remained perfectly still amidst the dense thicket, warring with himself whether or not to go forth in spite of the unnatural obstruction and the lonhgaired man whose face was visible.

Finally sensing no danger from the Man dwelling, Lucian decided to move. He stayed along the edges of the clearing, sniping at the tender blades of grass that grew there and careful to occasionally raise his head in the directionof the cottage in case of danger.

[Merlin]

The wizard scribbled at his chalkboard furiously, unaware that his beard gently erased some of the chalk any time it brushed against the board. "... therefore, Socrates--"

Merlin turned and immediately saw that his pupil wasn't paying attention. It made sense; it was a favorable day outside, and Alice was always a daydreamer. Still, the wizard was slightly annoyed. "Alice!" He still held a piece of chalk as his eyebrows furrowed at the girl. "You're not listening!"

[Alice]

Alice's eyes were pulled from the daydream and appeared normal. She sat upright with a guilty jolt and faced Merlin so quickly that her hair shook behind her head. "Oh! I beg your pardon, Merlin! I was just..."

There was no denying it: Alice wasn't paying attention at all, and Merlin had caught her. The girl sighed in embarrassment and shook her head. "No, I wasn't. I'm sorry, Merlin. I didn't mean to be rude, but..."

She looked outside and, seeing more birds, smiled again. The girl didn't mean to appear shameless, but Alice was very easily distracted today, all because of watching birds in flight. "It's just that it's such a beautiful day, and... I do love birds." Recognizing what she said, she looked to Archimedes, resting her chin on her hands from where she sat. As she looked to the haughty owl, the corners of her mouth upturned in a mannerly, ladylike smile. "I should think you are fortunate to have been born an owl."

[Archimedes]

Unlike Alice, Archimedes wasn't particularly fond of bright, sunny days, being a primarily nocturnal creature. As such, he most commonly spent his time during such days snoozing away - which is just what he was doing at the moment. He was not in his cozy little birdhouse, however - he had intended to keep watch over Alice and assist Merlin in his lessons, and was seated on a nearby perch close to Merlin's chalkboard. However, like Alice, history was not a terribly compelling subject for the owl, and he quickly lost interest - he cared nothing of the feeble accomplishments of humans that have long gone, even if he was named after a famous Greek philosopher. Merlin's droning on about the subject was an apt a lullaby as ever for the owl, and he was half-asleep, at the moment.

Merlin soon stopped to raise his voice at Alice, which caught the bird's attention. Repeatedly blinking his large eyes to wake himself up, he looked around to see what all the fuss was about. It seems Alice had, once again, been daydreaming... oh, whatever would they do with that girl? She was an incredibly intelligent child, but sometimes Archimedes, not having much concept of imagination, would go so far to think of her as just a little airheaded.

Archimedes raised his eyebrows in surprise, caught off guard by Alice's remark towards him. Honestly, sometimes it outright bothered him, how fond of him this girl was. The owl sighed, knowing that he had no choice but to respond to such an awkward statement. How would she feel if he said the same thing towards her, about being human?

"Well... I suppose I should be thankful. I certainly wouldn't want to have been born as any other creature." For a brief moment, Archimedes thought back to all those times Merlin had threatened to turn him into a human... and was quite thankful that he never actually did.

[Alice]

Funnily enough, if Alice were asked a similar question, she would have answered it earnestly. The girl didn't realize (or didn't acknowledge) that her penchant for Archimedes often bothered the owl. Today would not be an exception; after Archimedes answered the question, Alice looked out the window again and rested her elbows on the sill, and rested her chin on her palms. Her cheeks were mostly covered by her fingers, but not her smile, which exuded childhood wonder.

"Sometimes I wish I could be a bird, even if only for a few hours. I've always wondered what it would feel like to fly, and to meet other birds in the forest. Every morning in spring and summer when I watch birds fly, I wonder..."

Alice continued to talk whatever came to mind on the subject. As she watched more birds outside and spoke, she was completely oblivious to what happened in the cottage.

[Merlin]

Merlin was annoyed with Alice, but he couldn't stay crossed with her for long, not just because of her honesty, but because of her curiosity. Even though Alice wasn't paying attention to her history lesson (she rarely does), she was very curious about a different topic: birds in flight. Now, there was a subject she was more than willing to learn about. What convinced Merlin to help out to the extreme were the words, 'Sometimes I wish I could be a bird.'

That settled it. Merlin grinned slyly, his mustache tugged by the smile, as he grabbed his staff and sneaked closer to Alice. He made sure to be as quiet as he could so as not to spoil the surprise. If Archimedes was watching, he'd probably know what was obviously about to transpire.

Merlin, when close enough, waved his staff above Alice's head and whispered a very precise incantation that he, amazingly, remembered off the top of his head. His smile only widened when the magic spell took effect, and theatrical glitter and sparkles engulfed Alice.

[Alice]

Humorously, Alice didn't realize her transformation. When Merlin's magic spell took effect, Alice coincidentally closed her eyes and sighed as her body transformed. The sparkles and glitter vanished by the time Alice opened her eyes and looked outside again. She turned to look at Merlin and Archimedes, not realizing that she was now standing on the window still, rather than sitting at it.

What was at the window was no longer a young girl, but an owl of unique color. With her remarkably white feathers and black beak, her appearance could be best described as a female snowy owl. But even that wasn't entirely accurate, because Alice's owl form deviated from any real type of owl. While her snow white feathers were similar to that of the snowy owl of the strigidae, Alice was actually more structured like one of the tytonidae. Her legs were strong, and her talons (which would be revealed later) were powerful. Also, unlike a typical snowy owl, the colored feathers on her back, which would be black if she were truly normal, were instead the color of ripe wheat, just like Alice's natural hair... when she was a human.

But if there was one part of Alice that her new form retained, it was her eyes, although even they appeared more owl-like. While Archimedes's eyes were yellow, Alice's were like deep sapphires, similar to Alice's eyes when she was a human, though her black pupils were larger and more defined as an owl.

And Alice didn't even realize what happened to her! "... but I suppose it's just my curiosity." Alice blinked in shock when she realized something very odd, but she was still unmindful of her new form. "Merlin! You've grown! Why are you so large?"

She may have been an owl, but her voice was just the same.

[Merlin]

Merlin grinned when Alice's transformation was successful. He then laughed at the female owl's surprise. He treated the unnatural notion of transforming a little girl into an entirely different species with levity, like it was a simple practical joke and the prankster was having a laugh at the result. The old wizard had to fight his chuckling to answer the question.

"I haven't grown, Alice; you're just small!" After another fit of giggles (for a sage with astounding powers, he sometimes had the giddiness of a child), Merlin turned to Archimedes and gestured to the confused Alice, whose face was etched in more confusion after Merlin's reply. But he struggled to speak to Archimedes because of his laughter; he really was amused by Alice.

"Archimedes, may--heh-heh-ha!--maybe you should tell her what's happened to her!"

[Archimedes]

Archimedes' reaction to the transformation was practically the polar opposite of Merlin's. The owl was absolutely flabbergasted.

His beak hanging open in shock and his huge eyes even wider than usual, he simply sat and gawked at Alice's new, featherier form. In all of the time he had known the child, he had never even imagined what it would be like if she had become an owl, or any bird at all for that matter - this made the sudden image of a small, snowy white, feathered, beaked, and taloned Alice all the more jarring to Archimedes. Amazingly, the girl hadn't even noticed.

It was then that Archimedes' attention shifted to the unashamed culprit, Merlin. It took a few seconds for the owl's almost petrified face to twist into great displeasure. However, he was unable to scold the wizard - all that came out of his beak were frustrated stutters as he struggled to find his words. Alice's new form was simply that startling to Archimedes; had she been transformed into any other creature, he would have been perfectly surprised as well, but it just had to be the same variety of animal he was...

Archimedes eventually could do no more but sigh in defeat, as he faced Alice with a reluctant facial expression. "Alice... look at your, erm... 'arm'." He lifted up his wing as he said this, as if to subtly drive home what had happened.

[Alice]

Alice was annoyed by the wizard's response. He had a laughing fit and even had the nerve to call her 'small.' She was about to talk back, but then Archimedes suggested that she look at her arm, which she was glad to do.

"Archimedes, what--" She instantly gasped and hopped in fright when she gazed upon a large, feathered wing instead of an arm. She grasped her mouth with the ends of her wings, her eyes wide in shock. But she didn't feel her lips; through her feathers she felt a beak, like what Archimedes had.

"What happened?!" she exclaimed in a frightened tone. She finally remembered a mirror next to the window. She looked to it and, for the first (and probably only) time in her life, she saw herself as a cute, mostly white owl. "Oh, my!" she cried the instant she saw herself. But the longer she stared at the mirror, the happier she became. She even smiled when she spread her wings out and examined them, even admiring how brilliantly white her feathers were.

No longer scared, she looked back to Archimedes and, apparently, expected him to become happier, too, just like her. "Archimedes, I'm an owl, just like you!"

[Archimedes]

Of course, Archimedes' view on the whole matter was anything but what Alice had expected. He didn't smile at all, but simply rolled his eyes to the side and sighed exasperatedly as the girl gushed about her newer, featherier form. "Yes, yes, so you are," he responded with a reluctant tone. It might have seemed that he was outright annoyed by her being turned into an owl - to an extent he was, but if only by the fact that Merlin deliberately diverted from her lessons to do so. In fact, he found this more awkward than anything... he now had to look at the girl as an equal, as one of his own kind. True, he was on good terms with her, but... well, this was just strange, and would take quite a bit of getting used to. Hopefully it wouldn't last too long.

Archimedes glanced up at the giddy old wizard to scowl and scold at him. "Well, Merlin, what exactly was it that you wished to accomplish with this? Hmm?" He crossed his wings across his chest as he awaited an answer.

[Merlin]

Merlin finished laughing. He had grasped his head as he laughed, but once he was done he lowered it and he cleared his throat. He looked to Archimedes, though he gestured to the pretty girl owl as he explained himself. "Archimedes, she wasn't going to pay attention to history. But she has an interest in birds, and birds in flight. After all, she should learn something today."

He smiled to Alice, who was examining herself on the mirror. She seemed to be most impressed by her wings and talons. Satisfied, the wizard spoke to Archimedes once more. "Well, you'd better get a move on, Archimedes." His tone was condescending. "I just know you'll want to educate her about the mechanics of a bird's wing. Hmmm?" He leaned closer to Archimedes, his face towering over him. He was mentally pushing the grumpy owl to Alice.

[Archimedes]

The closer Merlin's smug-looking face came to Archimedes, the more and more the disgruntled owl puffed up like a feathery balloon. He looked furious, almost as if he was one second away from pecking Merlin's eyes out. However, Merlin's tactic worked like a charm. Archimedes glanced back over to the ecstatic girl-turned-owl, and sighed heavily in annoyance. "Pinfeathers," he harshly grumbled to himself, shooting one last glare at Merlin before hopping over to Alice's side.

The elderly owl cleared his voice, held his wings behind his back and stood tall in a dignified manner. "Well, then, Alice... I suppose you'll be wanting some first-hand advice on the basics of flight, am I correct?" Despite his earlier reluctance, the tone in his voice indicated something of a restrained eagerness to show and carry over his knowledge to Alice. It was true that the owl had quite an ego, and at times he did take enjoyment in stroking said ego - that aside, he did take pleasure in tutoring young Alice, and it was only logical that, for once, he tutored her on something that only he could teach her.

[Alice]

Alice's attention was directed to the mirror. She examined her reflection proudly, obviously satisfied with how she turned out as an owl. But she wasn't completely gone, and looked to Archimedes when she saw his reflection. When he questioned her, Alice nodded as well as she could.

"Oh, yes! Please teach me, Archimedes. I promise I'll try to be a good student!" She smiled eagerly, ready for any kind of lesson the old owl would throw her way.