"They can't read your mind, Alvin."
"Yes they can!"
"No, no they can't."
"We can."
"WHO THE SHIT WAS THAT?!"— Alvin and his now rather scared friend
Are you there, friend?
Resembling irisdescent owls, psylarks are a mysterious creature. Their feathers glow seemingly in response to the glow of their own kind, staying relatively muted with the occasional pulse of colour when away from their kin. Glowing yellow eyes pierce your own, staring deep into your soul, until you hear the soft words from within your own mind.
For a moment you believe yourself to be going insane, prescribing words to the stare of a bird. Then they begin to speak in ways that you would not expect. Providing answers to the questions you have in your head and asking questions of their own. Then more voices begin to join the first as more and more psylarks make themselves known to you. Each one varied like a persons but with a distinct echo of similarity between them.
Don't abandon us
Some who hear their voices never stop hearing them, even after throwing themselves underwater or hiding themselves in the deepest room of a dungeon, while others find themselves with no memory of several weeks going by, with those close to them wondering what had been happening with them over that span of time.
Those who can keep their voice separated from the gentle intruders are the ones that find themselves being aided by psylarks. While some might hope that they can solve the mysteries of the world for them, the aid of the psylark takes a much less grand approach. They provide peace of mind, sifting through the worst troubles of the visited and providing them with the answers they seek on them.
This aid is a simple one, but one no less important than properly bandaging a wound. There are many steps left in the recovery of a person, whether that be physically or emotionally, and while they are willing to help, they cannot be the ones to do it instead of the visited. No one quite knows where they find their answers, and some believe that their answers are simply what the person needs to hear, but it matters not, as the person who needs it the most won't choose to question it.
First off loved the beginning conversation. I quite literally laughed out loud. Nice work there. The Psylark really intrigues me. Reminds me of the idea of a Strix and really like them. It is really interesting that sometimes after an encounter people don't stop hearing them and have some trouble. It gives a really cool background information to someone and a neat concept for why they don't remember parts of their history. I think besides the beginning my other favorite part of your article is at the end about the Psylark helping and mending. They don't help in a grand way answering unsolvable equations or universal questions. Instead they aid in the littler things and maybe simply tell someone what they need to hear. Well done.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! I wasn't quite sure how they'd end up while I was writing them, but I'm happy with how they turned out. Definitely a bit of an enigma!