The Silver Owl

29

My foot misses the branch. 

Crap!

I feel my shaky limbs tighten. I cling to the trunk. I know if I fell, I would break at least one bone. I wouldn't be able to get back. Zac wouldn't find me. I'd be stuck.

It's probably better that I get down now. I lower myself into a pull up position and lower myself onto the branch below. Maybe I have gotten stronger...

I scale the tree in reverse and I jump from the last branch. I land with my hand between my legs with the other out to the side. Ninja style.

I am a ninja.

I laugh at my own comment. I return using the little mental notes I made while running randomly. My skin is numb. I rub my hands together. My left hand hurts. I find a small opening in the canopy, finding that as I was running a branch snagged my hand. Ow. It isn't deep, it looks like I just got scratched by a cat. Oh well.

I continue back until I hit the clearing. The moon is no longer golden and oversized. It's full and shines silver light down. I look up the stars.

I look at them for a long time. By the time the light from the stars reaches your eyes, it's been thousands of years. I literally am looking back in time. I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I hear the crunch of leaves. It's movements are heavy, but they're are too many to be just one person. There has to be more than one person, or maybe it's a deer.

Yeah, probably just a deer.

Something moves. Again. I look for it this time. It's white.  I give up on trying to go back, because this is far more interesting. I move slowly and quietly, I cannot hear myself breathe. I am completely silent.

I move slowly in the direction that the animal went. After several minutes of searching, I give in, it probably just ran away. No way I'm going to find it now.

I return to the clearing, and climb through the window again. I crawl into bed, and pull my legs up to my chest. There's no way I'm going to be able to sleep. But I sit there silently, waiting for sleep to take me.

I wake up to the sound of food cooking, and a powerful odor of meat. Bacon, that is.

Oh, that smells good.

I throw the covers back with my arm and swing my legs gracefully over the side. I walk out barefoot, where I find Zac cooking in the kitchen. He is cooking bacon.

"Good morning."

"Mornin'!" I exclaim. "How'd you sleep?"

"Pretty well," Zac hesitates, "I just had a weird dream. What about you?"

"Pretty well," I brush over my scratch, and quickly pull it under my sleeve, "What about?"

"My dream?" Zac asks.

"Yeah."

"Well, I was in the woods here, and- what's that on your hand?"

Zac found my scratch, "Oh this? It's nothing."

"What happened?"

"I don't know," I fib. It's not a big deal.

"Have you cleaned it?"

"No..."

"Go," Zac points in the direction of the bathroom.

I choose not to fight it, and I go to the bathroom and wash my cut. I expected it to sting, but it didn't.

I dry off my hands and return to Zac who has waffles and bacon on a plate waiting for me. He comes around the 'L' and sits with me.

"So tell me about your dream," I ask, I sound like a psychologist.

"Well," Zac begins, "I was in the forest and I was just sorta walking around, and I ran into a white horse, and it was beautiful. But when I went to touch it, it ran away. So I didn't think much of it, until- in my dream- the horse started to approach me, after it ran off a few times. And when it did, I saw it had a horn. And it was a unicorn, and it let me pet it, but when I tried to ride it, it threw me off..."

"Wow, what an elaborate dream," I say. We discussed it some more, and laughed at the fact that unicorns aren't real. After eating we watched some tv. Well, I did. Zac decided to go through the bookshelves behind the couch.

We went into town and spoke with some of the locals. We sat in several shops, but it was fairly uneventful.

We return back, and it's fairly late.

"We should get some sleep, find more about the compass parts tomorrow," Zac makes the plan for tomorrow.

"Yeah, alright," I nod. I reside to my room and we both shut our doors. I fall asleep almost immediately.

• • •

When I wake up, I immediately sniff the air, hoping for a whiff of bacon, or food. I am disappointed with the reality. I get out of bed slowly and laboriously. I stumble my way toward the door, and when I open my door, I find Zac's is open too.

I do not hear anything in the kitchen, nor do I hear anything in the living room. I poke my head around to see if he is reading a book. He's not.

I feel my panic rising. I run to his room, which is nearly kept. His bed is made, and his drapes are slightly open.

I run to double check he is not in the kitchen, I check the bathroom even though the door is open. I am running around the cabin like a mad man.

I walk quickly to the front door and open it, where I do not see Zac either.

I begin to panic, but I stay quiet, and then I heard a laugh. Zac's laugh.

His laugh is unmistakable.

I run to the left of the cabin. Nothing.

I walk around back to the front and I go to the right.

I almost pass out when I see him. But it isn't Zac that has frightened me.

Zac was laughing lightly, and he looked like a child next to the monstrosity next to him. His eyes were wide, but not with fear, with wonder.

I feel myself fall to the cabin wall for support, as I feel my excitement making my legs numb.

Zac pats the beast next to him. It is tall, and beautiful.

Zac sees me and smiles. I can't believe it's real. I- hats what I saw in the forest.

Zac was standing next to a unicorn.

A/N: Whoop! Yay for unicorns! Just a friendly reminder that I don't own any book, songs, tv shows, movies, etc. mentioned in this book at all. I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia, where next chapter there will be reference to. I do love the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis though... They're great books and I think you should read them.