The Vow of Silence

This is my third attempt at putting this story in the right place, as I first started it on the Happy Feet Fanon Wiki, then onto the old Guardians Fanon wiki. I hope this will be the proper place to put it, and hopefully continue it. Thanks.

## The Vow of Silence

### Prologue

Off the minute Firth of Rutenspyrr deep in the Firth of Fangs lived
one lone owl, nearly secluded from the relatively civilized world of the
 Kingdoms of N'yrthgar. When others preferred to live in a community, he
enjoyed the chance to be away from the bustle, and to lead a life of his
 own making. This owl lived simply, but was by no stretch of the
imagination one to be idle. Daily, down would he fly from his mountain
hollow home to catch himself a lemming, and enjoy the frigid air that
constantly whistled through his own firth, through his own sky. He would
 survey the landscape, each time, just as he remembered it, and carry on
 with daily tasks, which ranged from fishing to writing observations of a
 few small whitefir tree saplings he had planted only a few moons
before. His days went on, uninterrupted, this way for many happy
seasons, until the night he discovered two new inhabitants in another
outcropping, not twenty wingspans from his own.

### • • • Ch. 1

"Byootful day out today, eh, Ragnar? I hear a kitibits been through
an' cleared them clouds right up. Great fun flyin' em'." Wik shook
himself awake from his half-sleep and looked bleary-eyed around the grog
 tree hollow. He recognized his old friends, Grast, Ragnar, and Otto all
 telling stories on an exterior branch. Wik prodded his memory to fish
out why he was here, and not in his own hollow, just up the coast on the
 H'rathghar Glacier. *Right,* He thought, *Otto bet I couldn't stay sober for the whole night.* He looked around himself, at the nut cups strewn at random around where he slept. *I guess he won.*
 Wik was a stocky Boreal Owl, streaked in brown and white stripes with
white dots speckled on his head, and his yellow eyes were dull with
grog. He had never been very tidy and never much cared for his
appearance to others, so he normally did not take the time to preen
himself regularly, to realign the barbules on his feathers, which gave
owls their renown smooth and silent flight. Wik saw the daylight
streaming into the hollow from the opening, and could see the grog
seller beginning to close up shop for the day. "Eh, Wik, you mind movin'
 off those nut cups? I need to gather my wares for the next night. You
can come back at tween time if you'd like."

"Hmm? Oh, Yeah, sorry," Wik replied, still groggy from his
unrestful slumber, "I'll see you then, but I'll first need to yarp a
mountain. You need to tone down that juice a little next time."

"Oh, I did, when I saw how many cups you'd already downed before Twixt time."

"Right... I'll just need to be more... prudent with it all." Wik replied more to himself than to the seller.

"Hah! Now that's a thought! Wik being prudent with his bingle
drinking! I'll believe that when chipmunks sprout wings and take to the
skies," The seller guffawed as he went on with his business, "Now let me
 finish my cleaning."

"All right. I'll see you later then." Said Wik as he began his
attempt to hobble out of the hollow and onto the branch outside. As he
inched out onto the branch, careful not to pitch forward, Otto called
out to him from another branch where he perched with Ragnar and Grast.

"Wik! You owe me a moon cycle's worth of bingle now! I'm
surprised you didn't sleep longer, with the, what shall we call it...
relapse last night?"

"Oh, for Glaux's sake, Otto... I ain't feeling too well. Can you
save this for later?" Wik replied, starting to feel another pellet
coming up.

"Ooh, sure, you've gotta be feelin' somethin' after that show
last night. Ten cups, would you believe? Why, I'd be surprised if you
can e'en remember anythin' now." Added Grast.

After he had yarped up a miserable little pellet, Wik turned to
his friends, "Well, I think I'll go for now. I have to finish a few
important studies in the old hollow of mine, all of them time consuming.
 I don't know if I'll come back tonight... it seems I've had my fill for
 a while of the juice."

"Aighty then Wik," Ragnar spoke up, "We'll be seeing you later,
chap. And don't forget Otto's bet!" he added as Wik took wing slowly and
 started to fly back to his own hollow.

### • • • Ch. 2

During the warm moons of issen frahmm, the region on the H'rathghar
glacier where Wik had made his nost began to drip with water as the
glacier slunk back from the suns rays, only then to be refrozen by the
cool temperatures of the short nights. Wik enjoyed this time, as there
were no furious storm winds or flurries to interrupt in his exploration
of the glacier. He had always been an inhabitant of the H'rathghar
Glacier, ever since he arrived with his mum and da many seasons ago. He
loved the way the ice reflected sunlight, and how the occasional gust
would whistle lightly through the cracks in the ice. Wik, however, would
 always remember the night he lost his mum and da most strongly of any
night he had lived. But he could not think of them now. *I need to think of whats next,* he chided himself, *what I am to do now, and how to go about doing whatever it is I want to.* That
 was just the problem, Wik knew he had no visions of the future; of him
joining the fierce battle against the Crowls, which had raged for years
as many of his family had done, or of him settling down with a family of
 his own. He had taken to Bingle juice as a way to escape the thoughts
that constantly battered his mind, though that had only helped
temporarily, and left him feeling worse than when he began. And now, he
had decided to give up on even the drink. *Like Grast and Ragnar ever really cared about my health,* Wik thought, *Yes, time to move on... but move on to what?* *What more is there left in this Glaux forsaken world that can help an owl in my situation?* These
 thoughts circulated in Wik's head as he perched at the edge of his nost
 that looked out over the Bitter Sea. Perhaps the only way to find
solace in his life would be to end it, and all the complications,
problems and worries would simply vanish, as if swept away by Glaux
himself.

### • • • Ch. 3

"Eroe, have you left your perch at all tonight? For Glaux's sake, its nearly twixt time!"

Eroe sighed as he lay down his quill and began to tidy up his study. "Yes, I can clearly see what time it is, thank you Marina."

"Well then, would you kindly get your butt feathers off that
perch and fetch a lemming or two for breaklight? You know, stretching
your wings *is* good for your health." Marina added, coming into
the study. Eroe turned to see her pure white face and preen her shoulder
 with his beak.

"Well, I suppose I could use a meal right about now. Really, I don't know how I would manage without you."

"Not well, I would imagine," Marina replied, happily returning his gesture. "Now, off with you."

As Eroe turned to leave, he caught his talon on a Bhag that lay
on the ground and stumbled. "I'd better tidy this place up as well, if
I'm to remain in good health." He murmured to himself. The night had
begun to turn to day, and the sun was just peeking over the horizon when
 he set off. *Perhaps I should try a new area this time,* He thought to himself. *The glacier would be beautiful during this time of day.* He turned from the coastline of Stormfast and set his course toward the looming white of the glacier in the distance. *This Glaux given world can be absolutely beautiful. If only the two sides of this war could see it.*

As Eroe arrived at his unplanned hunting location, he began
scanning for any sounds of a heartbeat under the snow. Since he himself
was a Barn Owl, he possessed the extraordinary capacity to hear and
pinpoint the location of something so minute as a mouses heartbeat from
underneath a snowbank. Though now, as he was scanning, he did not hear a
 mouse, but instead, it seemed, another owl. To him, it sounded like a
soft sigh in the wind, though as he located where the sound was coming
from, his gizzard gave a mighty lurch. There beneath an ice ridge stood a
 lone Boreal owl looking down at the sea, and as Eroe watched on with
ever mounting distress, the sound of soft whispering turned to the sound
 of splitting ice. *Does this owl know what is happening!? The whole frinkin' ridge is breaking off!* Thought Eroe. *He hasn't even looked up at the sound!* In fact, the owl looked more defeated, as if it was inevitable that the ridge would crush him. *I must do something!* Eroe
 began quick a spiral down, and at that moment, a chunk of the ridge
broke off and began to fall. Eroe saw that he was only a few wingspans
ahead of it as he and the chunk plummeted at blistering speed down
towards the owl. With his eyes slits against the wind, he extended his
talons, and with fractions of a second between him and the chunk of ice,
 scooped the owl out of the way, barely managing to keep them both from
tumbling into the sea. There was a resonant boom when the ice hit where
the owl had perched seconds before, and the ridge was pulverized against
 the rocks next to the sea.

### • • • Ch. 4

"Racdrops! Can't anyone leave me be? I can't even take charge of my death, let alone my life!"

These were the first words Eroe heard the owl say, only moments
after he had risked his own life to save him. "Pardon, Leave you be!?
You would be dead if I had not decided to dive down to help you. Could
you not hear the ice breaking?"

"Of course I could, and that's the whole point, isn't it? I have
nothing left to look forward to in life, not a family, not a future, and
 now no control over when to end it all!" The owl collapsed with a sob.

This was an owl in desperate need of consolation, Eroe realized.
He needed to know the owl's full story and convince him life could get
better. Eroe knew in those few seconds that this would be a challenge,
though he believed he could do it, with Glaux at his side, and
revitalize this owl who so much wanted to end his life.

"Now, now, I'm sure everything can't be that bad. After all, you
did have a stroke of luck that I happened to be here for you," Eroe
began, "And I believe that anything can get better with a little help
from the outside." Eroe paused, looking down at the still sobbing pile
of feathers, and sighed. "Please, can you tell me your name?"

"Wik, and I don't want anyone feeling sorry for my life." came the muffled answer.

"Ah, well. Pleased to meet you, Wik. I am Eroe, and I would like
to help you, though I would not want to help any owl who thought he
deserved the pity of the world. I can see you know you can do better
because of it."

Wik had stopped his lamenting and had dragged himself slowly to
his talons. Still looking down he asked, "And what exactly do you see in
 me that could possibly do any good in this world?"

This, Eroe realized, was what the owl needed: a purpose. If he
could find some way to rebuild the sense of purpose in Wik, he would be
saved, and no longer would he feel as if the world did not need him.
Eroe would need to raise up the spirit in this owl and give him the
fortitude to go on, no matter how long or hard the journey was.

### • • • Ch. 5

The harsh winds buffeted the lone owl in the Firth of Rutenspyrr. His
 eyes were slits against the sleet that the early storm had produced,
and he meditated more on his own time alone in his hollow. The firth was
 not as secluded as it had once been, a perfect place for some owl of a
quiet and studious nature, but instead had been inhabited by a small
family of Spotted Owls. Now that he was not alone, many of his previous
experiments had to be put on hold until a more solitary spot could be
found.

–––

(TBC)