A Long Night

Her nose tingled from the cold air. Nestling her face into the collar of her sweater, she hugged herself tightly. She tried to catch a hint of some smell or sound that would lead her back to the family cabin, but nothing was familiar.

Her little feet crushed the leaves that had fallen weeks before. They weren’t crunchy anymore, just softly damp and decaying. She looked up at the dark sky and wished she could see the stars, but not even moonlight could penetrate the cloud cover.

She was hoping with every careful step she took that she would see the dull orange glow of their campfire, smell the lingering cigar smoke and wafts of sweet moonshine. Mommy had gone to bed and daddy was snoring loudly when she had woken from her chair next to him.

She went to grab more sticks like daddy had done, and didn’t realize how far away she had wandered. Now every tree looked like the ones she had already passed.

All the sounds of the forest seemed so much louder in the pitch black surrounding her. Every rustle of wind and crack of a stick became looming monsters in her 7 year old imagination.

Memories of campfire stories about large beasts and ancient creatures flooded into her mind, and all became living entities in the nothingness around her.

She took another step, and her foot couldn’t find any ground beneath her. Down she fell, her body slamming into the rough rocks. It seemed she would fall forever. Her back impacted hard at the bottom of the cliff, and her breath was knocked out of her as her head snapped back. Pain coursed through her body as everything about her crunched and cracked.

She lay there, unsure for how long, until her breath had returned and the pain that coursed through her head and neck dulled. Scrambling to her feet, she stumbled forward. It must’ve gotten colder because now she couldn’t even feel her face, or any of her skin for that matter. She sat on the mossy ground at the base of a tree and pulled her knees to her chest.

A scream pierced through the darkness, and she whimpered, trying to not scream herself. Visions of wendigos and deranged ghosts grew larger and she began to cry, begging quietly for someone to come save her. A flurry of feathers brushed past her as another screech stabbed into her ears.

“Go away!” She yelled, her voice small and insignificant amongst the ancient woods.

But silence followed. Complete and utter silence.

Slowly, she raised her head and peered into the void, straight into a pair of large golden eyes mere inches from her face. She gasped and scrambled backwards, putting the tree between her and the creature.

The thing leapt back in surprise, beating the air with its white wings.

“Oh my!” It screeched, just as surprised as she was.

The cold air burned her lungs as she breathed rapidly, her heart pounding between her ears drowning out every other sound.

“G-go a-away,” her voice coming out in nothing but a shaky whisper.

The creature came around the tree, and peered at her.

“Hello there,” he said, his voice chipper and bright. His two small legs had clawed feet, leading up to a white feathered chest, and a heart outlined face of a barn owl. His eyes blinked slowly, curiously as it observed the intruder.

“Are you quite alright?”

The little girl stared, her eyes as big as the owls. She nodded rapidly, unsure of what to say.

“Are you lost?”

She nodded again, wiping a tear that had unintentionally began running down her cheek.

“Where did you come from?” he asked, tilting his head inquisitively.

She pointed in the direction of the cliff barely visible in the dark. The owls head rotated on his shoulders. “Oh…” he said, his voice trailing away as his night vision observed what lay at the base of it. He looked back to her.

“Can you speak too? Because usually your species do the majority of the speaking so this feels rather backwards.” The owl chuckled, as if trying to lighten the mood.

“Y-yes,” the little girl said, still nodding vehemently.

“Well, perhaps I can be of assistance. This is my home after all. If you’d like I could show you around.”

The little girl climbed to her feet, still keeping the tree between her and the large owl.

“You can get me back to mommy and daddy?”

“Oh dear, I’m afraid you are quite lost in here. I can take you to see them though if you’d like. I’m sure they miss you.”

Tears pooled in the corner of her eye again as she nodded. “I know.”

The owl took a step towards her, reaching out with the tip of its feather to flick away the tear.

“There there. How do you feel? Are you cold? In pain?”

She began to nod again, but paused. She wasn’t cold anymore, and her neck and head didn’t hurt at all.

“I don’t feel anything,” she murmured.

The owl blinked at her.

“Well, don’t think too much of it. You’ll become adjusted.” He fluffed out his feathers and shook his head.

“Come, come close and let me wrap my wings around you.”

She hesitated, but he radiated a feeling of safety, so she kneeled down and placed her head on his feathery chest.

“Let’s go see your parents then.”

He spread out his wings and flapped them before wrapping them around her face. She smelled his feathers, warm with the smell of pine and sap. She took a deep breath, and other scents slowly began intermingling in. Fragrances of cigars, sweet moonshine and campfire smoke flowed into her nose.

She looked out from between his wings, and saw the cabin and her daddy and mommy, frantically running around with flashlights calling out for her.

“I’m here! I’m here!” She tried to run towards them, but her feet were stuck to the ground. She frantically swung her arms in the air, and her mom shone the flashlight right into her face, and then past her still calling for her. Her heart sank.

“Mommy?”

The owl tried to pull her back into his wings, but she swatted him away.

“No! I want my mommy and daddy!”

“And they want you, sweet child. But, you’re part of the forest now. You need to say goodbye.”

“No! Shut up I want my mommy and daddy!”

The owl flapped his wings, pulling them back to his side. “I know. But when you fell, you didn’t… quite make it,” he shuffled his feet awkwardly. “I can show you to them, but they will only see how your body is. They cannot see you as you are now.”

The little girl looked from her parents to the owl and back.

“I’m dead,” she said, no emotion in her voice as the realization settled in.

The owl blinked at her slowly.

“Well, not quite. Your fall was quite bad. Your body is still alive, but you will never wake up. Oh dear,” he cleared his throat and ruffled himself. “This part is never easy. You need to make a choice, little one.”

He motioned back towards the woods, towards the cliff. “You can return to your body, and I will lead your parents to it. They will take you to a hospital, but you will never see them again. You will forever be trapped in your own mind.”

He spread his wings out, and they seemed to emit a faint white light from between the feathers.

“Or you can stay here, in the night with me and all the other children who died before their time. You can visit your parents in their dreams, and watch them go about their lives.”

He lowered his gaze from her face and towards the cabin.

“They will never see you again, but you can watch over them until their time too comes, and you will all be reunited.”

The little girl watched her parents running about. She didn’t like either idea, but she couldn’t imagine never seeing her mommy and daddy again.

“I want to stay, I want to see them.”

The owl blinked at her slowly.

He ruffled his feathers and placed his beak against her forehead.

“It is as you say.”

She felt herself shrink, and looked down. Her sweater had become feathers. Her feet were no longer in boots, but little claws. She spread her arms to see feathery wings were now in their place. She blinked slowly.

“Can they see me now?”

“They cannot. But you can always see them. Is that not enough?”

The little girl owl thought to herself a moment, nodded and fluffed her feathers.

“Do they know I miss them?”

“They do, my dear girl. Now go, I will guide them to what you have left behind. I’d rather you not follow.”

He flourished his wing towards the sky. “Mourning is for the living. Your night is almost over, find you a soft place to rest.”

He spread his wings, screeched, and flew up towards the sky, where the clouds were slowly turning shades of violet and rose. She looked back to her cabin, her family, her life, and a tear rolled out of her golden eye onto her soft white feathers. She spread her wings, and flew back into the opened arms of the forest.

It had been a very long night.