Chapter 165
As they started clean-up of the camp after breakfast, Sophie had remained quiet and contemplative. After all, she was still trying to process everything that Shannon and Nat had told her. They had unloaded so much information, especially with the fact that they have had weird dreams like that as well. She was trying her best to wrap her head around everything, while also trying to figure out which direction she wanted to go.
When she had first heard of being able to bond with animals, she imagined herself riding large and imposing creatures, riding off into the sunset. Or big fluffy ones, that would be comfy to cuddle with. Not a single time had she imagined herself with owls, or any other kind of bird. Did she want that? To bond with owls, who at their largest were only two feet tall? She wouldn't be able to ride them off into the sunset, or into battle against her enemies. As it was, even with the whole series of questions she had asked Natalie, there was still so much that she did not know about them as a whole. Sure. She now knew what some of them sounded like, but left her wondering so many other things like how fast could one fly, what did they even eat, or what their habits and behaviour was like.
When everything was done and they were all ready to go, Sophie went down the road hand in hand with Nat. After all, today would be the first time that she would start learning about how to survive in nature, and what she could need to know. As they got on the road though, and traveled up the highway, Nat did not go into stuff like how to start a fire or find directions. Instead, she went into a full-on lecture mode, talking all that she knew of owls. She dedicated her time to the ones that she knew could be found in the area. All in all, sixteen different breeds called Canada home, which was just under one percent of all types in the world. With being a wildlife conservation officer, Nat had been trained to deal with all of them, and the few that occasionally came over the border to the south. However, that was info that took a long ass time for her to learn, and most would not be practical for Sophie to learn for if she wanted to bond with owls.
She went over subjects such as their favourite types of food, to their usual habitats, all the way to how they defecate. As it turned out, owls did not function at all like most other animals. For one, they lacked any body cavities in the slightest. This meant they did not have a circulatory system, respiratory system, or even any form of guts. As far as bodies go, they had to be one of the most solidly packed animals in existence. Just a gathering of feathers, claws and a beak. Due to this, they did not excrete waste through a hole on the lower half of their body. Instead, whatever they ate would be compacted inside their stomachs, turning them into pellets that they would regurgitate. This process would take up to ten hours, but as soon as the pellet came out, they would once more be able to eat. Owls weren't the only ones that did this, but they were regarded as unique among all that did. That was because their stomach acid was far tamer compared to the others that did, causing everything but the nutrients that were eaten to come back up. This includes the bones, fur, and feathers that had been on their meal.
When she went over all of this, Sophie was not grossed out by what she heard. Instead, she was intrigued, in how it functioned to be the most efficient for the owl who was eating. After all, the pellet only came out once all the nutrients that they could use were digested out of their meal. As Natalie put out fact after fact, the other members could immediately notice that Sophie was becoming far more interested in the avian species. And by the time they had decided to make camp, Sophie had been sold on the owls, now wanting to have a bond connecting herself to the spectacular birds.
They only travelled for six hours today, but they did so for good reason. On the horizon, they could already see Leduc, which was one of the small towns that sat just outside of the Albertan capital. However, it sat so close, that there was almost no line between where the town ended and Edmonton began. Thus, they stopped for the day just outside the city limits. They found what appeared to had been a tree farm that had plenty of open space and seemed to be abandoned. That, or they did not usually come out here at this time. Other than vehicles marked as being part of that business, there were no others around. Which was just fine to Nat and Shannon. After all, outside of the city would have far less of a chance of monsters, and the real danger of other people had no signs of being here in the past month. After all, what the monsters would do was very predictable. What another person would do varied so much, that any plan was destined for disaster.
Regardless of the fact that they stopped, Natalie continued going on with the days lesson on the silent predator of the skies. Only this time, it was time for review to see how much her little student had retained from the lecture of the day. She wanted to make sure that this teaching method worked for her after all. If Sophie was unable to grasp and remember the info from being told it in a lecture style, then she would have to change it up. Thankfully, it seemed to hold pretty well. The only stuff that Sophie did seem have an issue with was the stuff covered at the beginning of the day. But that worked for Natalie all right. It meant that it was an effective way for her to learn, and that was the only half of the equation that she could contribute when it came to a learning environment. The other half had to come from the student, where they had to have a willingness to learn and be taught.
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