StrangeOwl Chapter 5
It is now midmorning and I have packed only what I can carry. I can always make what I need once I get to the Hidden Glen. I am excited and sad all at the same time and I feel a need within me to get moving. I feel an anticipation type feeling and my head is tingling with an awareness of self and what I am yet to discover.
I meet up with the four warriors who are acting as escort in the middle of the camp and without a word we start to walk. The village is quiet and it makes me nervous. The people are standing outside of their lodges watching as we go by. There are no greetings, no goodbyes...nothing.
We leave the camp and the warriors start a slow run and I fall in. About a half mile from camp we reach the top of a hill and the warriors stop. I stop as well and look at them with a question upon my face. Eagles Mark, a friend I have known since I could walk now speaks to me. "Strange Owl, will you take one more glance back at what you have called home?" he asks. I shake my head slowly and reply. "To look back when one goes forward only delays what is ahead of me." I ask a question of my own. "Where is the Hidden Glen?" "The Hidden Glen is only a days hard journey from here." he replied. "Think you can keep up with the rest of us?" he said with a slow smile. I grinned back. "Eagles Mark, I thought your face was going to crack like an Sparrows egg back there." I said with a laugh. "Hey, it's not easy being stoic and brave in the presence of all those Elders." Laughter rang out as we all continued on our way.
When running, one has to keep a steady pace and keep focused. The added weight of my wings made things a bit harder and occasionally my heels touched the tips that were hanging down my back. Suddenly I stumbled. I automatically threw my hands out to catch myself and my wings opened and caught the wind. Before I knew what was happening I was up in the air and skimming the heads of the Warriors ahead of me! I was gliding and headed straight for the trees up ahead! "Remember what you have learned!" shouted Eagles Mark. My mind was in shock and I could only look helplessly as the trees loomed closer. "Look out!" all four Warriors yelled. I reached out ahead with my hands and with a thought, talons sprung into being. I grabbed a branch as I crashed into the trees.
When the Warriors caught up to me, I was hanging on the branch and my talons had a death grip on it. I hung there like a piece of meat drying. Leaves and twigs were stuck in my hair as well as my wings. A burst of male laughter rang out. "Is that Strange Owl hanging there or is that lunch?" laughed Eagles Mark. More laughter surrounded me. "Let's see you try it, O Laughing One!" I said indignantly. Wiping his eyes, Eagles Mark then reached up. "Come on, let go and I'll catch you, Kitty." More laughter rang out from the other three warriors. "I can't! My talons are dug deep into the branch." I replied in a huff. Walking around to the front of me so he could look at my face, Eagles Mark put his hands on his hips. "Now you're talking like a helpless little girl." he said with a grin. Oh! That was the wrong thing to say to me. With a thought my talons turned back into hands and I crashed again, this time right on top of Eagles Mark. "Take that back!" I yelled at him. My wings came down on either side of me and with another thought my talons were back and holding him down. The grin wiped right off his face. "Now you're talking and acting like a Bird Woman." he said quietly. "Besides, it got you down, didn't it?"
I got off of Eagles Mark and offered one of my talons to him. Raising an eyebrow, he hesitated until I grinned and changed the talon back to a hand. The grin returned to Eagles Mark and he clasped my hand and I pulled him up roughly. "You always did play dirty." I said with a laugh. Hilarity over and my humiliation, we continued on with the journey.