Immortal Darkness: Shadow Across the Land

by Alex Rey

Coming up to the nest, Leyoht nearly tripped over the edge once again until he found himself being safely captured by Sahemawia’ wings. Using the muscles she usually reserved for flight, she lifted him from the edge of the nest until his feet touched down onto the nest’s interior.

  Another pause came into play before Sahemawia finally started her story. “This starts with my sister, brother, father, and mother having an ordinary day until I ran into a new kind of creature. Molea—my sister—and I were talking about our little brother, Kenyei.”

  “From oldest to youngest, my family was set up with me being the oldest, followed my my sister Molea, and finally my brother Kenyei. Each us had very little interaction with the humans.”

  Looking over to her son, Sahemawia noticed a look of confusion crossing over his face. To ensure the confusion’s disappearance, she explained with a small chuckle, “Humans are very smart creatures that use their surroundings to their best advantage.” She sighed before continuing, “They can become very greedy, through. Some of them are nice, but there are still others that will do anything to get what they want.”

  After a short pause of silence, Sahemawia continued on with her story. “I didn’t have a very good relationship with Kenyei when I was young, yet I had a very strong relationship with Molea. Us being so young, Kenyei was extremely annoying to both of us.”

  “At this age, each of us had a lot of dark-brown spots on our feathers that would someday be replaced by white. Most of our gray down was unnoticeable to anybody who looked at us from one simple glance, as our feathers covered much of it up. It was also at this time where we were all learning the first steps of flight.”

  “It was a very peaceful day, and it was nearly time for me to leave your grandparents and find a home for myself. I couldn’t wait to leave, as Kenyei constantly egged me on to hurt him.”

  “Having some time for myself, my sister and I decided to fly away from Kenyei and our parents. We eventually found our boulder—where we sat, talked, and relaxed for the day. Although this was usually meant to be a peaceful time of day for us, I wasn’t feeling as cheerful as I usually did.”

  “Molea and I walked over to the boulder after making our landing after a flight. To help us make our way on top of the boulder, we both gave ourselves a boost by creating an explosive rush of air with our wings. It was an old trick that Molea had taught me one day when we were both having trouble making our way on top of the boulder.”

  “Once on top of the boulder, I already began to start complaining about what your uncle had done that day. The usual complaints I would make would be for what he had done to irritate me. His clumsiness didn’t make him a very good flier, so he usually bumped into things while in flight.”

  “‘You won’t believe what Kenyei did earlier!’ I complained once we came up on the boulder.”

  “‘What did he do?’ Molea asked me with her soft voice.

  “‘I was trying to build a tower of rocks, and he crashed into it when he was trying to land from a flying trip.’”

  “Back at that age, I loved building things out of materials like rock, leaf, and sticks. Unfortunately, they would either become too hard to build or destroyed by Kenyei. To be honest, I find this much funnier these days than I did back then.”

  “However, I thought Kenyei’s blunders had become very old and unwanted for me at this age. And—unfortunately—I had a negative habit of eating when I was stressed. At the moment I began talking to Molea, and I could feel my stomach growling with every word.”

  “I’ve never been much of a fan of bugs, but the one thing I wanted more than anything at this moment was a worm to munch on. Since there had been a recent storm, I was sure that there had to have been many warms making their way out of the ground. To my displeasure, I couldn’t find the tiniest worm anywhere!”

  “I took myself off of the boulder—with Molea following me—to see what we could find. We looked around at every direction until I heard Molea calling me over.”

  “‘Sahemawia, look at this!’ she yelled while holding what she thought was a nice, pink, plump worm in her talon.”

  “‘Wow, that one is huge!’ I exclaimed. I took a closer look at the worm and noticed something strange about it. Yes, it was pink, and it was wiggling like any other worm, but it also seemed to be flicking out a tongue! It was odd how Molea—the owl holding the creature—had no idea of this.”

  “When I thought things couldn’t get any weirder, I turned over to see a snake come out of a hollow tree!” At the sound of these words, Leyoht gave a small shriek of fear just before his mother continued on with the story.

  “The snake’s skin appeared very soft with a light-pink color showing. Both of us gasped as the angry mother snake tasted the air by flicking out her forked tongue. Both of us slowly backed away from the snake until we could barely see her hissing at us.”

  “Once we thought were safe, I asked Molea, ‘Can I have that?’”

  “Molea nodded and handed me the baby snake. Although it wasn’t a worm, I had tasted snakes before; I knew that this would have brought my cravings to an end.”

  “Right when I was about to put the snake in my mouth, I felt the mother snake’s teeth bite into my wing—which made me let go of its baby. Although I wasn’t sure where the baby had gone, I placed my uninjured wing over the injured one to stop the bleeding.”

  “For what seemed like a very long time did I lie on the ground. I screamed for help, but your Aunt Molea was too scared to even speak.”

  “I still don’t know how long I stayed there on the ground, but it was long enough for somebody to come to my aid. After a long time of lying in wait, I slowly fell asleep. Most of what happened for a while after that is a blur to me.”

  Sahemawia gave a sigh before continuing on with the story. “When I woke up after a long sleep, I found my brother, sister, and parents sitting over me—each of them looking as if they hadn’t slept in days.”

  “‘Sahemawia!’ Molea screamed once I opened my eyes. I felt her rush over to me, crying as she and Kenyei hugged me.”

  “I’m still alive? I thought as my family continued to surround me. By the way they were crying, I could tell that they had also felt the same way.”

  “‘Maybe it wasn’t a venomous snake,’ I heard my father say to my mother.”

  “Through the rest of that day, I heard many people telling me how much they thought I would die from the snakebite. Because of all these people telling me this, I learned a very important lesson: never mess with another mother’s child!”

  A short pause of silence coming into place, Leyoht placed a smile on his face when he exclaimed, “Good story! How were you saved?”

  “I was saved by the one person I had never expected.”

  “Who?”

  “You’ll find out one day,” Sahemawia assured him. Changing the subject, she asked Leyoht, “Do you want to hear another one?”

  “Yes!” the owlet squeaked, nearly bouncing up and down on his feet.

  Giggling, Sahemawia assured, “Okay.” As anxiety pushed Leyoht at every corner, his mother set herself into a comfortable position. Her wing wrapped around her son as she began to tell her second story.

  “Leyoht, you will one day be able to go in and out of the hollow as you please. There are many, many things for you to see out there. I’ve been told many times in my life that the world is larger than even I could possibly imagine, and there are things that even your grandparents haven’t seen.”

  “However, there are some owls out there that will take joy in making you feel bad about yourself. I will tell you a story about the day when I found out how to overcome what bullies would throw at me.”

  “This story takes place when I had just become a nestling. It was also the time when your uncle Kenyei was hatched from his egg. I still had plenty of fun with Molea, although at this time she could prove to be as annoying as Kenyei was during the times when the other story had taken place in.”

  “I was not nervou
s, but as excited as I had ever been with the thought of breathing in the fresh air that remained outside of your grandparents’ hollow. I always wondered how different it would have looked, smelled, and felt to be part of the outside world.”

  “The moment I set my talon on the ground, I felt a jolt of excitement go throughout my entire body. I slowly pushed myself one step at a time, taking many looks at the forest that surrounded me. I saw many creatures—called squirrels—that stood on the branches of the reddish trees that they called their homes.”

  “At the time of the year when this was happening, it was normal for special plants—called leaves—to fall from the trees after changing colors. The leaves change into so many colors—like green, brown, orange, yellow, and even some with a red or purple tinge.”

  “As I continued to take glances toward my surroundings, I soon stopped paying attention to what stood in front of me. I realized too late that there was another snowy my age who was also paying no attention to where he was going. We nearly ran into each other—but thankfully a rough breeze brushed past us. As the breeze brought me back to my senses, I noticed my beak only a very short distance from his.”

  “I slowly backed away from him when I realized how close I had come from knocking him over.”

  “‘H-hi,’ he shyly said to me. I do not know where this boy is now, but he had the highest-pitched male voice—next to yours—that I have ever heard. Unfortunately, he talked very little because he was born with a speech problem.”

  “‘Hello, I’m Sahemawia,’ I told the young boy.”

  “‘I—a-a-am—Al-Al-Alar,’ he replied.”

  “This is when I met your father. He was the same age as both Alar and me—but he himself was the bully in this situation, unfortunately. He and two other older owls came up to us shortly after I had just started talking to Alar.”

  “‘What is I’m-terrible-at-talking doing here? Why don’t you go back to your home? By your home I mean your rock!’ Your father and his friends began to laugh at Alar. It seemed to me that he must have met Alar before.”

  “Why was Father being so mean to Alar?” asked Leyoht, the question scratching at his mind.

  “Unfortunately, some people will take joy in making other owls feel bad about their selves.” Sahemawia gave a sigh and continued the story after a pause. “Only a short time of the laughter took place before I decided to step in and stand up for Alar. ‘Stop it!’ I yelled at your father.”

  “‘Why would we do that?’ your father asked. ‘I just can’t help myself. I think the more important thing for me to say is to tell you to back off!’”

  “I tried to run away when your father walked toward me with his wings stretching outwards. Just when I felt frozen in place, I felt his wings push against my chest, which made me fall back.”

  “At first I thought the outside would be filled with nothing but wonders—and I was right. It was a wonder why anybody would make fun of another because they were born with a problem that they couldn’t control. It was a wonder why your father had had any friends at the time.”

  “Looking up at your father, I noticed he and his friends smirking at me. Although I tried to hold it back, tears started leaking from my eyes. This only gave them the satisfaction to stay with us even longer.”

  “‘I bet you don’t even have a father to take care of your speech problem!’ your father teased Alar. Using his tongue as well as he could, Alar stood up for both me and himself. ‘A-re-are you s-sure th-th-that is not your pro-problem-m?’ he asked.”

  “Your father’s eyes widened as he put an angry look on his face. ‘Hey! You shut up!’ your father yelled.”

  Leyoht looked up at his mother at hearing the two words which he had been told never to say at his current age. “Sorry. Don’t say that. I am also surprised your father was able to say that without covering his beak after he said it.”

  “Alar and I exchanged nervous glances. For a reason we did not know at the time, your father looked as if he were going to explode. His anger did make an explosion when he told Alar and me to leave and never return.”

  “Since we were very young, we couldn’t fly away—but we could only run away. When I felt my fear slowly fading away, Alar told me something inaudible. It was only after a few seconds after he said this when I found out that he wanted me to follow him—so I did.”

  “Alar took me to his hollow, where I met his parents. They were both very kind snowies, but I forget their names. I could also tell that Alar most certainly did not live in a rock, but that he was one of the few snowies that had a family who found it more comforting to live in a tree.”

  “After meeting Alar’s parents, we both made our way to a corner in the hollow where we peacefully became friends. ‘Let’s not try to be mean to him again,; I begged him once we made it to the corner.”

  “Alar glanced at me when he stuttered, ‘B-b-but it wa-was th-the on-only way to make him f-feel gui-lty for wh-what he d-d-did.’ I put a confused look on my face when he said this. At first I wasn’t sure what he meant, but then I understood what he was trying to tell me.”

  “The lesson here is that some owls will often make fun of you for having something bad in your life, which is often how they cover up the negativity in their own lives. At your age, they’re not so good at covering these kinds of things up when you talk to them about it. When you are older, however, the bullies you meet will only make fun of you more when you remark the negative truths about their selves.”

  Leyoht let out a huge yawn before he collapsed on his mother’s breast, sleep plaguing his thoughts. It seemed as if he had just awakened only a few heartbeats ago; but here he was falling asleep in the mist of his mother’s feathery plumage.

  Turning her head over to her son, Sahemawia began to yearn for the days when she had been at that age. She fought the urge to fall asleep, as she was well-aware of what work would need to be done throughout the day ahead of her.

  --

  Many, many days had passed since the first day Leyoht had caught sight of the many older owlets lurking outside. It had seemed forever since he had first taken a glimpse of the world outside his hollow tree. Since then, he had felt his strength, senses, and intelligence grow stronger with every passing heartbeat.

  Once awakened from his sleep, Leyoht jumped out from his nest in a rush of excitement, nearly waking his parents up. His excitement removed from his body the ability to remain still for a single heartbeat. He felt as if he would mentally collapse at that moment, as he couldn’t make his way outside until his parents had awoken.

  Since the day he had first learned how to speak, Leyoht’s body had undergone many various changes. From what he could tell, the biggest and most noticeable change was the change in his size—growing from the tiny hatchling he once was until he had become a creature over half the size of his mother. Another change he noticed how some of the down around his face and wings had been covered up by feathers.

  After what seemed like many days, the excited owlet took sight of his father’s eyes opening up. At this sight, he hopped over to a spot just behind his parents as he fought the urge to shake his father awake.

  Stretching one of his wings out, Leyoht tapped his awakening father when he whispered, “Father? Are you still awake?”

  Shaking his ruffled feathers, Ulpheir blinked himself awake before turning his head to take sight of his son standing behind him. Yawning, he replied, “Yes—I’m awake.” He gave another blink before pushing himself out of the nest.

  Once he found himself standing outside of the nest’s barriers, Ulpheir walked his way over to the edge of the hollow tree and wrapped his talons curved around the rim of the opening. Leyoht came just behind his father, a look of curiosity flashing across his face. He took a sudden look up at his father, asking himself, What’s he going to do?

  Ulpheir sighed just before telling Leyoht, “I know what you’re thinking about, Leyoht.”

  Before another word could be spoken, Leyoht blurted out
, “Can I please come with you?”

  A pause occurred until Ulpheir sighed once again, “I wish I could, but I can’t take you outside right now! You haven’t even had anything to eat yet.”

  Looking down at his feet, Leyoht mumbled, “Okay.” A spark of hope flashing in his mind, his head came back up when he asked his father, “Can you get something for mother and me to eat, please?”

  Chuckling, Ulpheir raised his wings into the air when he replied, “That’s just what I was getting to.” Without another word, he gave his wings a great flap as he launched himself into the air. Once he took sight of a bright, orange son rising over the horizon, he took a look over his shoulder when he cried out, “I’ll get back as quickly as I can!”

  His father’s voice ringing in his ears, Leyoht sighed as he turned around. Slowly did he stalk his way up to his nest, staring down at his feet all the while. It was with his sleeping mother where he would make an attempt at falling back asleep.

  A jolt of surprise surged through his blood when he flicked his gaze upwards and caught sight of his mother now awake. “Good morning, Leyoht,” she a greeted him, a collapsing smile showing on her beak. Leyoht noticed her let out a sigh as she gave a pensive blink.

  Almost instantly could he tell something had been bothering her. Before his mother could utter another single word, Leyoht broke the discomfort when he asked, “What’s wrong?”

  A confused look on her face, Sahemawia asked, “What are you—” The question came to an end when she gave a sigh and confessed, “You’re right; something is wrong with me.”

  Worry taking over his thoughts, Leyoht heard his mother ask, “How has your morning been so far?”

  His look of confusion still locked onto his face, Leyoht replied, “It’s—been okay.”

  After a short pause of silence, Sahemawia remarked, “I’ve seen how you’ve been doing all day, Leyoht.” Stepping out of the nest, she explained, “You woke me up when you came out of the nest earlier. I tried to fall back asleep, but you kept on fidgeting with excitement.”

  “I also witnessed the whole conversation between you and your father,” Sahemawia muttered. “It makes me feel slightly guilty that I can’t simply let you outside on your own right now. The problem there worsens when I realize that I would feel even worse if I did let you go outside right now.”