"What's going on Nosal? Why have you got a a a..," spoke a flustered Dornmit as he attempted to process what was going on. He was still tingling after the rush of battle and probably suffering from over-leveling. But he still had enough clarity to understand that something weird was going on if Nosal was leading a small crew of Owlmites about.

"Flock of blinkers?" Kano chimed in whilst shaking his head. How do I explain this without lying too much? He thought as he felt a headache coming on.

"Yes a flock of blinkers!" Echoed Dornmit as he took shaky steps towards Nosal through the devastated underbrush.

What the Realms am I going to say? Nosal thought with exasperation as he wringed his hands with nervousness and a musk of fear. The boy visibly deflated as he decided just to come clean.

"I'm a healer now Dornmit, I just wanted to help the hurting Owlmites," he whispered as he took his eyes of his friend and cast them downwards, feeling slightly ashamed for not telling him sooner. Below him a multitude of owl-like eyes stared upwards, whilst their owners wildly gestured and signalled for Nosal to continue looking for more of their wounded brethren.

"Wait what?! You're classed already? And as a healer?!..... Why haven’t you told me before! Wait you should be ten by now.... and when your dad said you were sick.... You had your calling!?" slurred Dornmit as he placed his left hand on Nosal's shoulder to steady himself. The small Owlmites that surrounded Nosal quickly backed away with a few warning cries from the orc who they perceived as a bloodthirsty goliath.

"Yeah well it's a little more complicated than that," spoke Kano as he joined the two, having finally managed to extract himself from the bush. "Shall we get out of here first? My clothes are all ruined and we are both covered in blood," he stated whilst addressing his bedraggled clothing and Dornmit's own blood soaked attire.

"Wait! You gotta tell me about your class Nosal! And here I was just boasting about my new skill..... Realms! I never even got to show you guys my double block! There were so many good oppurnities-" Complained Dornmit continued his babbling with the exhaustion of battle setting in. Kano decided it was best if he took his friend someplace else, so he gentle lead Dornmit away by the elbow.

"Hey how bout you show it to me to skill? How about by the hay barn, whilst we leave Nosal to do his stuff hey?" Kano spoke gently to coax his friend as the two headed back towards the front of the orchard.

Left alone with the Owlmites that started to appear from the underbrush, Nosal stood there for a few moment as he breathed out a sigh of relief.

He wasn't going to have to explain or lie about his class for now, but he still had a lot of work to do. As the sounds of distressing little sad hoots and long wailing noises filled the air, Nosal got to work. So with the Owlmites tugging his boots and the fur on legs, he let himself be lead through the orchard.

His charges were many; from slightly bruised to heavily limping, unconscious Owlmites littered the orchard like fruits, but the worst of them all were the ones he could not help. The boy felt a sense of purpose and a rush of joy at the beginning as he saw the effects of his spell visibly rejuvenate his patients. But this joy was soured, and eventually was replaced by a sad and depressing acceptance as he found more and more of the dead. It didn't help that the bodies were all of the smallest and youngest Owlmites. They had been the ones that just couldn’t run fast enough or just didn’t have quick enough reflexes during the chaos of battle created by the Lesser-Garuda.

Nosal also had to tune out his communication skill once he learned that they were all one big family. The morbid and heart wrenching thoughts of a family in mourning were just too much for the ten year old Capyban boy. Nevertheless he kept on healing.

The boy’s usage of mana was quite steady even if he felt a large headache coming on, with only small increments used per Owlmite. But it dropped dangerously low and gave him a splitting headache on the last of his last patients, which were the Bronze ranked Owlmites. The unconscious one was fine at a cursory glance but in actuality had a plethora of internal injuries and required a large injection of mana to heal. But the boy managed to provide healing to all the Owlmites that were found with the aid of his little helpers.

Nosal didn't know how long or how much healing he had to perform, as he stood there exhausted in the orchard. He was only thankful that he had enough mana to provide the help he could. The truth was that he would’ve actually bottomed out his mana pool and fainted if he tried all the spells in one go, but his mana recovery helped him refill to the required amount as he healed and searched for the wounded.

A forlorn hooting call was made from the largest of the Bronze ranked Owlmites and Nosal’s small crew immediately dispersed to his surprise. The Owlmites flitted about like shadows whilst hooting softly as they began the macabre task of collecting their dead. The boy watched on in silent respect as the Owlmites piled their dead young in a morbid circle on the ground. The bodies that were carried between two Owlmites were gently laid down along with small soft hooting noises by their bearers.

Finally when there were no more to be found, the survivors stood in a circle around the dead and closed their eyes.

Too many, sadly thought Nosal as he watched with a hot unbidden tear streaming down his face. For a moment the boy felt like he should leave, as if he was some intruder in some sort of funeral rite. But he decided to stay to witness it, for somehow he felt that he had earned the right to be here after the help and healing he provided.

The Owlmite colony, no family, then began to hoot together in a low thrumming sad melody whilst rocking back and forth paying the Capyban boy no heed. Nothing happened at first, but then Nosal felt a small tingle on his skin as the surround mana moved to answer the call of some unknown spell. Small motes of green tinted nature mana began to float upwards and out of the ground in the surroundings before gently floating towards the circle of the dead Owlmites. In the epicentre of the spell, the mana formed into a small green globe that slowly dissimilated into shower of finer motes that gentle rained down on the seemingly sleeping Owlmites below.

Then slowly the dead Owlmites began to sink into the ground like a rock thrown into the marsh whilst their family kept on chanting their song, long past the point where they were gone into Delmathar.

Nosal watched through the whole sad and beautiful rite in awe, with hot tears running down his face and the cold sting of it in his nostrils. But the boy didn’t cry out, for he was just a witness into this precious moment. But after the main rite was over and as the boy stood there, his mind raced through the implications of what he witnessed. They feel sad like we do if they take care of their dead like this.... they have enough mind -no cognitive thought, to process grief. They aren’t just stupid little beasts like we always thought they were. The stray alien thought chiming in to help him process what he was witnessing.

The Owlmites continued to sing their dirge as they continued to summon mana into their funeral spell, long past the point of just burying their dead.

Nosal stood there for a while as the boy paid his respects, but before long, he felt it was appropriate to leave.

Walking out of the orchard and getting to know the Owlmites better, the little Capyban had to re-evaluated his viewpoint of them. His skill was a window into their world, and it looked like they weren't just simple beasts. If anything they were more cohesive and cognitively aware of themselves and the world around them then the Kaholins. Realms, they even have better funerals than we do! The boy gloomily thought as he opened the gate. He looked up to the sight of Kano throwing rocks at Dornmit who deftly blocked most of them through the use of his double block skill.

"Hey Nosal you're back! Now tell me all about your healer class! What's the stat gains like? What healing spells you got?!" exclaimed the Orc boy in excitement as he rushed on over, his rock game forgotten.

"I don't feel like It right now, I’m going to bed, why don’t you just have Kano or my dad tell you about it," whispered Nosal with a musk of sadness as he ignored the other two and headed on towards the house.

"Hey wait....," began Dornmit as he reached a hand down to stop his friend, but paused when the boy looked up with red rimmed eyes.

"I don’t really feel like it right now Dornmit, can you let me go?" asked a tired and sad Nosal.

"Yeah, yeah you go on up Nosal," Kano softly spoke from the side as he and Dornmit watched the boy walk away.

"Why's Nosal all like that?" Dornmit asked with a confused voice.

Kano sighed sadly as he wondered how to explain the situation. Whilst he was messing about with Dornmit, he delayed his friend by telling the Orc that Nosal was doing some healing. But was well aware that Nosal had been talking to the Owlmites, and if he was to guess, they didn't really have anything fun to say after what happened.

"Look Dornmit,” Kano began before sighing heavily. “Nosal can heal them but he can also communicate with beast’s, kinda like I do?” he continued with a hand on his friend’s back.

“So?” retorted Dornmit with a cocked thick eyebrow. The young Orc didn’t really understand why his friend had to be so glum, especially after that epic battle they had just won. He himself was elated before Nosal showed up, for he couldn’t wait to show his increase in levels when he uses Sacamin to present his stats to Master.Gazelle.

“Dornmit, he’s been healing the Owlmites, but after the battle quite a lot of them died, so it must’ve been terrible for them and for Nosal who can understand them,” Kano explained with a pained voice.

“Oh…… oh Realms that’s got to be terrible,” whispered Dornmit as his the coloured drained from his gumdrop green face.

“Yeah I know….. but I think we should just let him be for now, it’s got to be quite a lot for Nosal to take in by himself, but let’s let him be for now and I’ll send Dittat to cheer him up or talk to father about it,” Kano suggested with a musk of sadness as he walked towards the back courtyard.

Dornmit followed behind whilst he nervously tongued his budding tusks.

“So what’re we gonna do?” asked the Orc boy nervously.

“How bout we go piss off Chopeck? That asshat’s been kicking me all week,” Kano said slyly with an evil grin but he then he quickly flashed a look of worry towards the house.

“Yeah that sounds like a bit of fun, Asshat? Haha I like that one! You reckon I’ll be needing this armour?” asked the Orc boy nervously, as he too, still felt worried and sad for Nosal.

“Nah we will be fine,” Kano said with a shrug of his shoulders.