[Gift] The 11th Hour | Tundra

Kaiser moved like the winter wind over the tundra. He wove in and out of the morning and evening fog, barely visible except for his skull, wings, and halo. He stood out most when the fog finally faded, outline visible against the more-vibrant sedges and lichens which spread out in bleeding pools of gold and red.

His rider had sent him on a simple mission: find a snowy owl.

With the lack of snow and the plentiful food, one would have thought it an easy task. But perhaps the plentiful food was the problem. He’d found lemmings and voles and seen more than a few hares running across the tundra, never happy to see him.

He had seen several foxes as well, but those had hardly counted. They were young; they could not range across the tundra, nor truly run from him if they wanted to. Limited by their knowledge, limited in their fear.

But his rider hadn’t wanted a fox. He wanted an owl.

And he would disapprove of any crueler methods of getting one. Kaiser had considered, of course, limiting the supply of food, every time he’d found a new cache, before he’d felt a sting of conscience that felt like Vonius’s voice at the back of his head. He’d considered traps, but he was just as like to catch a fox kit as he was the damned owl.

A few days in, he’d caught a meal for himself, his skull stained red, when he’d blinked and seen the bird watching nearby, eyeing his food as if it weren’t surrounded by a buffet made solely for its talons. Kaiser, annoyed, left his kill where it was, and did his best to vanish, determined to catch it and go home.