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In...and out……in....and out….. A single breath…. And then another…..in…and out…. Silent….without a sound the breaths came within the cold darkened room. Candles slouched mounted against the wall, their wicks weeping from being long burned before extinguished. The sounds of something shifting within the safety of warm, tight, sheets echoed in the room, followed by a soothing coo of an owl….and then another coo….and another…. Each one louder than the first. Like a whisper, and then it worked itself into a hoot. And the five, small, white, fluffy tome owls woke, one by one, by the hoot of another. Soon they were all hooting and hopping up and down in their little nest, parliament was in session, and their first act of order was to wake the sleeping woman below them.
The owls silenced themselves as the person below shifted in the oak framed, dark stained, medieval bed, but the person did not wake. One of the owls cooed quietly and the hoot drawn out, it’s little round eyes narrowing. It wobbled back against the wall, it’s fellow members gathering around it, but then they parted with wide eyes as their brother wobbled forward quickly, eyes still narrow, and jumped off of the shelf. The four remaining owls hooted in unison, and wobbled to the edge of their shelf to stare down at their brother, who had landed smack dab in the middle of the person’s face…. But still, the person slept, and only let out a moan. The owls on the shelf looked at eachother with wide eyes, and the one to the right narrowed its beads, and followed after its brother, landing on the woman’s forehead. The one to the left was the next to go, landing on her nose, and after it were the two in the middle, landing in a puff of feathers, on their brothers.
The woman bolted upright sneezing and with a cough, sending the poor creatures flying with hoots to the foot of the bed. One by one the five owls bounced, one off the foot of the bed, one off to the side against the wall, and the remaining three over the edges of the bed, one off the foot, then one off the side, and the last one off of the corner post.
The woman let out a deep sigh as she wiped her face clear of the fluffy down that had been shed by her poor creatures, and then blinked in confusion, her mind attempting to register what exactly had happened.

“You gooberwads….” She said under her breath, leaning to one side to see the small owls dazed and on the floor. “All you had to do was hoot.”

One by one the owls got to their feet and they fluffed in unison before turning to glare at their master. Each one voiced its complaint in a different tone, but the woman’s ears were soon swamped with the discording hooting and clacking of the small, angry owls.

“Alright, alright!” The woman said, shaking her hands in front of her, silencing the owls “I’m sorry I didn’t wake up….. it was a late night last night….”

One of the owls puffed up with a clack, causing the others to seem to laugh, their wings in front of their beaks. Ximly glared at them, crossing her arms. “Coover!”

The owl that had puffed up looked at the woman, Ximly, with an innocent look. Did it do something wrong?

“Don’t give me that….” Ximly huffed, “You know damn well what you did….”
Coover looked down and puffed his feathers still, hiding his face from view, his brothers still hooting in amusment.

“The five of you are slacking, get to checking the rest of the house.” Ximly said sternly, her voice strong yet gentle at the same time.

The owls clacked in unison, raising one wing to their horn tuffs before taking to the air and out the little hole above the only door in the room. Ximly threw the covers off of her legs, and swung herself out of bed, smoothing out the wrinkles in her fleece pants and then the cotton tang top she wore. She picked up a silk robe from off the corner of her bed, and put it on quickly as she walked to the other side of the room.

The room was large, a medieval oak wood bed pushed up against the wall on one side, a small wooden lamp next to it, and four shelves on the same wall, lined against eachother, two by two. Above the bed was a single window, closed, locked, and shuttered. On the other side of the room was a large, grand piano with candle stands on either side of it, and two candle stands mounted on the wall behind it. Ximly gave a slight nod to herself as the tips of her fingers brushed the instrument as she passed it. It was a reassuring action, and content with the piano still being there, the woman turned to face a desk that was pushed a few feet away from two gothic bookshelves, their shelves and drawers packed with books and papers. The woman put a hand up to her face to move her long hair out of her face, her other hand on her hip. What a mess…. She thought to her self with a sigh.

There was a knock at her door as a moan echoed into her room as well. Ximly jumped, and looked at the door with narrowed eyes, but at hearing the moan she sighed and walked forward. “Yes?”

“The owls…. Muuum…… the owls…….”

Ximly let out a sigh, and opened the door to see a short, young boy with semi-long, jet black hair in front of her. The boy wore a cotton tang top with shorts, and was rubbing his eyes sleepily.

“What about the owls, Brian?”

“Coover’s stuck on my door again….” Brian sighed, looking up at Ximly.

Ximly let out a sigh and walked past her adopted son, and to the end of the short, bland, hallway. There was a staircase in front of her, waiting for her to descend to the hall below, but Ximly stopped to look over her shoulder and motion for Brian to follow. The boy gave a short nod and followed affter her, down the stairs into another hallway. This one however, was more decorated than the one above, as it had a long, fancy black rug that lined its entire length, and electrical lights mounted on either side of the walls every few feet, with a lamp on each end of it as well. Five doors lined this hallway, two on either side of it leading to regular bedrooms, and one at the end, leading into the main part of the house. On the first door to Ximly’s right, was the poor tome owl Coover, who was stuck to a cork board by his beak and talons.

“Coover….” Ximly sighed, approaching the struggling owl quickly, and with her hands in front of her.

The remaining tome owls sat crowded above them, in the small hole above the door, watching with hoots and clacks as their brother was removed from the cork with some struggle from their master, though they soon silenced themselves as Ximly looked up at them and spoke.

“You’d better not be stuck in that hole…..”

[[OMG, this journal was HUGE! I cut the half after this out, and I'll post it tomorrow. XP]]
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