fantasy

chapter 2

The shutters of her window blew open with a bang against her wall moonlight flooding in and the smell of rain and dirt filled Akemis senses as she woke up instead of  being at her desk where she had fallen asleep she was in bed filled with a slight confusion on how she got there and how her window opened in the first place she crawled out of bed and stood walking to the window to close it yet again but she was met by bug brown eyes and a who  she stared puzzled for a moment still trying to gather her thoughts she smiled as she took a double take at the snowy owl Infront of her she tilted her head " hey little fella " she said and looked at the time three in the morning what a bizarre  time for her to wake up she looked at the owl again as it pecked at the window seel she laughed " what is an owl of your kind doing in Arizona ?" She spoke to it and to her surprise it looked at her as if it understood her she moved her hand closer to try and see if she could pet it and instead of normal owl behavior of flying away or pecking at her it forced it's head against her hand like a cat that wanted attention she smiled and pet the feathered creature she looked around grabbed a chair and sat down at the window, as the wind picked up and hugged her and the moon light kissed her skin  she slowly began to fall asleep with the bird  under her hand it rained slowly out side.
  The soft pitter patter of the of rain hitting the closed window and the sun shining in her face woke her up   she yawned and looked around confused on what had happened to her little bird friend or how she was back in her bed. She looked at her clock it was 8 in the morning on a Saturday she yawned she could've gone back to bed but instead she looked at the box on her desk it was old and medium sized  wrapped in turquoise paper and fake gold ribbon  she looked at it confused and walked to it no letter so it must have been another present from her parents as she opened it she found an old book with a lock on it and a box of cookies she smiled at the cookies her mother's homemade pomegranate red velvet chocolate cookies, the ones her mother didn't want her knowing about she got a box of them every year on her birthday since she was three she asked her mother about the box of cookies once and her mother denied ever knowing about it and claimed she was the worst at baking and was told never to ask again so akemi never did.   She took one of the cookies closed the box and hid it under her desk and walked down stairs finishing the cookie before she did  a walking into the kitchen to see her parents drinking coffee and talking her father greeted her with a hellos sunshine as she sat down " did you move me into my bed last night ?" She asked her Irish accent thicker than usual he laughed " you fell asleep at your desk so of course i did   and i closed your window for you as well, you shouldn't sleep with it open you already sound as if you have a cold " her father said and poured her a cup of tea and smiled  she stared confused at him and took the cup smiling " thank you " she said sipping it slowly confused on what he ment closed her window it was closed when she fell asleep the first time.      She finished her breakfast and heard the door open she smiled " RICHY!" she yelled as her best friend walked in saying hi to everyone and biting a piece of Mr.nightshades  toast and sitting down smiling "you ready for today's adventure ?" Richard asked smiling as he drank Akemis tea she laughed and nodded " gotta change be right back okay" she said as she stood her father questioned her best friend about the adventure of the day. She ran upstairs as Richard tried to lie his ass off about what they were doing that day. She went to her room and found her bedroom window open again she sighed closed it and went to get another cookie from under the desk she found white and grey feathers in her desk chair  she picked it up and smiled " so maybe last night wasn't a dream?" She spoke to her self then grabbed the pendent she received from her parents the night before and put it on then changed her clothes and put books and water bottle in a bag  and put her shoes on she grabbed her phone from the charger and ran down stairs as Richard was yelling for her help she entered the kitchen to  find her father pinning her best friend down and her best friend trying to scramble away with another piece of toast in his hand she laughed " you took his toast you know not to do that " she laughed and took a bite of the piece in her hand " now it's mine. Come on Richy we gotta go "  she said and smiled kissing her father on the cheek and waving her mother bye " I'll be back before dad goes to the market " she said and bolted out the front door her friend on her heels. They ducked behind the house and into the woods being sure her parents couldn't see them.   Running through the back yard and into the woods  was one thing the two friends did daily. As they walked along the brush the smell of wet ceader and citrus filled their senses akemi walked with her eyes closed down the little path the two had made from the year of going through. The sound of birds chirping and the sound of water rushing getting closer masked the sound of her best friends voice as the sun kissed her place freckled face  and the wind blew her hair back. She didn't realize that her best friend was trying to get her attention  until a rock hit her in the calf she turned abruptly and halted at him " Richard " she growled yet he had his finger to his lips as he knelt down and pointed behind her she looked at him confused turning slowly to see a giant golden fleece move past her the fleece was printed with  small blue spots and as she took a step back in fear it turned to face her a cougar of a strange species  instead of attacking it stared at her with it's massive green eyes  and like that akemi couldn't move like she was hypnotized by the creature and the beast was the same by the girl. Richard who had finally snapped out of the traumatized trance and snatched his friend back away from the beast as it crouched and pounced away after a passing deer. Richard yanked and dragged akemi away  from the position on to the river where they usually hung out at. After a while of akemi not responding Richard took a small bucket from his bag and filled it with water and splashed akemi with it. She yelled and gasped "your a jerk Richy!" She yelled as she stood and rung out her shirt as she galred " what was that Akemi?" He asked looking at her with amazement in his eyes " you got so distracted and and...like you were hypnotized by it. Like you were speaking with it ...how did you know it wasn't going to attack you?" He asked she looked at him and laughed " it was a cougar you know a mountain lion, you know if you stand still it won't attack " she muttered and lied most of the time as she answered his questions " all cats have the ability to hypnotize you with their eyes" she responded as she took her shoes off " oh really cool...wait what about how it was coloured it shouldn't be gold like that should it it should be tan right and those spots of blue  those aren't natural" he  said but was cut off from any other questions as akemi splashed the poor fool with water for revenge she laughed. " Hey what do you know about snowy owls " she asked gripping  onto feathers in her bag. He laughed a bit " they don't live around here because we don't have fire, and they have a loud screech..wait why?" He asked confused
She looked down " well" she trailed off taking the feathers out of her bag and handing them to him " i think i saw one last night maybe someone lost it as a pet  or it's migrating do they migrate?" She asked confused he looked at the feathers then at her and laughed " funny very funny these have  purple stripes in them so they are fake were you trying to pull my leg. I mean they look very real besides the purple " he said and she galred at him " you just saw a gold and blue cougar and your telling me that purple on an owl that doesn't belong here is fake seriously " she galred and sat down grabbing a small pebble and throwing it across the river he shrugged and gave her the feathers back and joined her in the tossing of stones. Akemi sighed as she threw rocks and as she missed the water with ove of them she noticed a figure moving in the woods across from them as if it was staring at her  she shivered and blinked and it was gone  she shrugged and ignored it throwing another rock and seeing the figure yet again  it was six foot tall and slouched over it seemed to have antlers growing from its head she got to her knees and crawled closer to the water to try and get a better look at the figure that was far away  she tilted her head and as she did Richard looked at her " are you okay?" He asked she nodded and pointed to the figure and as he looked at it a buck jumped from the brush   and she jumped back  and they both laughed " you got scared by a deer " Richard yelled and as he did the buck turned its head slowly and looked at them staring for a  long while  during which the young nightshade stood and looked at it staring back with it. A rustling in the brush  had scared the deer away and caught Akemis attention she looked at the time and laughed " holy it's almost time for my dad to leave we should go" and so they did  heading home with the fresh image of a young buck staring at them still engraved in their memories. Along with the cougar and in Akemis she still couldn't get the feeling of the dark figures eyes off of her back.