Excerpt: When the Day Met the Night

A lonely owl silently swoops through the treetops on a dimly lit, overcast night in search for some breakfast. Anything would suffice. A nice, plump field mouse perhaps, or maybe even an unsuspecting squirrel! He gave a loud hoot at the thought, temporarily forgetting his needed composure. He shook off the anticipation and hunger brought on by his silly dreaming, and again began to scan the ground in silence. This was no way for such a large and stately owl to behave. What would his fellows think?

Just then, he spotted some movement in the leaf litter below, and began his descent. Closer... closer he came to the rustle, talons outspread and wings nearly brushing the ground when...

SCREEEECH!!! Leaves flew into the air, startling the owl and blocking his vision. A blur of blue and a flash of white were all he could see as his talons grasped soil and roots, and he flipped head over hind into the bushes.

His nerves shot from the incident, he shakily regained his footing and looked back to where the thing that had startled him so. The blasted pest was still sitting there shrieking like an imbecile, as if it wanted to be someone's meal.

"Oh, do SHUT UP!" demanded the owl, in his most cutting voice. "I've never heard such a racket! And all over something so silly as breakfast!" He took a few steps forward to get a better look at the annoyance, which suddenly fell quiet.

"Now that's more like it," he said, much more softly. The corner of his mouth twinged upward, threatening a smile. Perhaps the thing was trying to keep quiet, hoping that it would go henceforth unnoticed-- a pointless attempt. Its heartbeat and breathing were so loud, he could have found it blindly in a blizzard.

But then, its eyes grew wide as they met the form of the thing. It was a bird the likes of which had never been seen in the nighttime forest, with plumage brighter than the moon or stars, and bluer than even the night sky.

In other words, it looked just about as obnoxious as it sounded. And if that was any indication, it would probably taste that way as well.

The owl fluffed his feathers in irritation, and kneaded his talons into the soft earth. He was famished, and quite upset that so much of his precious energy had already been wasted on something so inedible. To top that off, he also now had a splitting headache.

Angrily, and without so much as an "adieu," he once again took to the skies, intending to make his way home and try again tomorrow. He would just have to go without a morsel that night. Maybe his luck would change after some much needed rest.

The "pest," quite already recovered from the experience, watched as the huge owl flew away into the distance. Intrigued and unafraid (the encounter had merely startled her, as she had no idea as to the danger she had just been in), the naive bird followed the predator into the night and toward his lair, intending to discover more about this creature of the night.

Besides, she could barely see anything in the night, and couldn't stand to be so alone in the darkness. And maybe it could direct her back home to her cozy nest in the willow by the lake, and to her dear fledglings...