Catching Magic

“I can do this,” Koilona whispered to the night sky.

The stars twinkled back in encouragement, or maybe as a warning to turn back. Koilona stood next to a fence that was between the farmland and the forest, the rusted barbwire tied around the rotted wood post the only thing separating him from what could lie beyond. Koilona’s older brother said that a witch lived in the forest, his sister said it was fairies, his parents said wild animals, but Koilona new the truth…magic lived in the forest, and he was on a mission to catch it.

The shine of the moon glanced off his bright orange hair, and his freckles stood out in stark contrast on his pale skin. As he stood looking into the dark void, he felt the eyes of creatures staring back at him.

“Come on,” Koilona said, not to himself, but to his feet as they seemed planted on the earth, almost like they found a new home beside the cow manure.

His feet were not in agreement of him moving. Koilona bent his knees until the back of his blues jeans touched the earth, he then brought his knees to the ground and his hands to the grass and started to crawl toward the barbwire fence.

“This is the hard part,” he told himself as he laid flat on his belly, “crawling through mud is always the hard part.”

As he pulled himself under the fence, he felt the back pocket of his jeans get caught on one of the barbwires. “You cannot stop me!” he told the sharp rusted wire.

With a final push he cleared the fence, with only a little tear in his jeans and mud streaked across his tee-shirt as proof of his bravery.

Well, when I catch the magic I will be able to fix that right up,” he told himself. “The only thing that can stop me now are my feet.”

He looked down at his tennis shoes, the double knotted laces and the hole with his pinky toe playing peekaboo looked back up at him, mocking him for his courage.

His feet refused to do his bidding. He went to school, he was in 5th grade, and in Mr. Wilson’s science class he learned that the brain controls all functions of your body—unfortunately Mr. Wilson did not talk about scared feet being replaced with cement bricks- school was stupid, and this was reason 186 on why he did not want to go back. Teachers were never right.

With a deep breath, Koilona squared his shoulders up to his ears, pushed out his chest to show his feet who was truly the boss, and took one step forward. He did not look at where he was going and his foot landed on a branch, and a loud cracking noise echoed across the night sky, it almost sounded like bones being split in half. This made Koilona’s feet get scared all over again and refuse to move… AGAIN.

“Nope,” Koilona said, “we are doing this. Get a move on feet, come on, right, left, right! Let’s go!”

Koilona was able to move his feet to the edge of the forest, being this close he could finally make out the trees.

“See, nothing scary about trees,” he told his feet.

The trees gave a shudder in response, the creek of the branches and the sound of the leaves rusting in the air was NOT reassuring. It was almost as if the trees that outlined the forest just said in a very clear tone DO NOT ENTER.

Koilona stared at the trees seeing if he could see the magic from where he stood. The trees stared back at him, not willing to show the secrets of the forest.

“Two more steps,” Koilona whispered, “and then I can catch the magic.” With a breath for bravery, and a silent pray for protection Koilona took the two steps forward and entered the forest.

The treetops concealed the moon from the path, and all light was instantly gone. It was so dark Koilona could hardly see his hand in front of him. He grabbed his flashlight out of his front pocket and turned on the light. The bright light beamed off the bark of the trees, and the rotting leaves at his feet. Koilona heard a noise to his left and quickly shined the light in the direction, but all he could see was the back of a creature scurrying into the hollowed-out tree that was laying in the path.

“Okay,” Koilona whispered as he looked at his surrounding, “if I was magic where would I hide?”

In answer to his question a wolf howled in the distance, Koilona moved his flashlight in the direction of the sound to see if he could see anything in the darkness.

“Well, obviously not that way,” Koilona mumbled to himself, making a sharp turn in the opposite direction of the howling sound.

He moved the light of the flashlight around him looking for a path amongst the rotting vegetation. He took a step; the ground muffling all sounds of his progress.

Koilona walked on his own path, shinning his flashlight along the way, keeping an eye out for the magic. He didn’t know if the magic would be hiding under a rock, or high up in the trees, or in a cave made from dirt, so he had to keep a sharp eye out for anything that did not belong, or sparkled, or glowed.

“What did magic look like anyways?” he thought to himself. From his research of magic, he could only assume it glowed.

Looking for a large glowing…something in his path Koilona kept on walking. The further he walked in the forest Koilona’s fear was slowly disappearing.

“Not scary at all, see you had nothing to be frightened of,” he whispered to his feet.

As he was shinning his flashlight to the path ahead a voice from high in the treetops asked with a squeaky rusty voice, “Why would your shoelaces be scared?”

Koilona froze for a split second, as panic and fear set in. “Yep, you heard a voice from the trees, the leaves are talking to you,” his subconscious told him.

With the confirmation that he indeed heard a voice from the tree Koilona panicked. Screaming like a broken whistle Koilona jumped into the air swinging his arms to cover his head. Dropping to the ground Koilona was frozen in fright, with his arms covering his head, and his knees up to his chest, Koilona was as still as stone.

“Oh no, this is it,” he thought to himself, “the talking leaves are going to smother me, or take me to up into the branches, or kidnap me and sacrifice me in front of their master.”

I will never see my family again,” Koilona thought. “But wait, I love my family. No monsters are keeping me from my family.”

With a shout, Koilona jumped to his feet, his flashlight pointing to the branches of the talking tree...talking leaves? Maybe a talking animal? He did not know what was talking only that all he had was a flashlight and bravery and he was not going to let a talking whatever do unspeakable things.

“Who is there!” he shouted or tried to shout but his voice came out in a broken whisper.

He heard a flapping sound, and a squeak from high up in the trees. And then dead silence, as if the forest was frozen and the only sound was Koilona’s gasping breath.

“Who is there?” Koilona asked again. The light bounced off the top of the trees, Koilona’s hand shacking so severely that he could not hold the light still.

“I SAID, WHO IS THERE!” Koilona asked more forcibly, magic forgotten as fear raced through his veins.

And then he heard a squeak, and the same rusty voice asked, “You can hear me?”

Koilona reassured himself that anything with a squeaky voice cannot be that scary.

Koilona answered, “Yes, I can hear you.”

The flapping sound was the only answer to Koilona, and the flapping sound only got louder as a dark blur flew down from a branch. The flashlight tracked the blur’s progress as it got closer. Koilona stood his ground, telling himself that he was not scared, even though his knees almost buckled as a something landed on the flashlight right next to his hand that was clutching it in a death grip.

Koilona turned his head slowly to look at what landed on the flashlight, only to see a pale face staring back at him.

With a silent scream Koilona threw his flashlight far away from him, the light bouncing off a tree to land on the ground. However, the pale face was still there, staring at him.

Then without a sound the pale face floated over to the abandoned flashlight, picked it up, and brought it back to Koilona.

“Hello,” the pale face said.

“That is it then” Koilona thought, “I have lost my mind, or I am going to die.”

And then with no idea of where to go Koilona did the only rational thing he could do. He ran in the opposite direction of pale face, tripping on twigs and getting scratched by branches. But Koilona did not care. There was a floating…something…chasing him with a flashlight.

After what felt like hours Koilona finally ran out of breath, he squatted down and used his hands to find something to hide behind. Coming close to what felt like a tree, Koilona wrapped his arms around the trunk as if it could offer him protection from whatever that thing was.

Trying to catch his breath Koilona looked around him, trying to see if the pale face had followed his escape. He turned his head one way and then the other, letting out a breath of relief that he outsmarted the talking monster and escaped its evil plans.

He loosened his hold on the trunk of the tree and sat down on his butt in exhaustion when all of a sudden, a bright light blinded him as his flashlight was shined into is eyes.

A squeaky rusty voice said, “You forgot your flashlight.”

Koilona grabbed the flashlight to shine it at the evil monster. Turning the light onto the pale face, he saw dark eyes staring at him, judging him for his fear.

Taking a deep breath Koilona shined the flashlight lower, assuming that this monster would have 8 tentacles, and a pitchfork for a tail. Only to find…nothing.

The monster was just a floating face!

Koilona leaped to his feet and took a step back, still shinning the light on the pale face. He refocused on what he was seeing, his mind could not connect that he was not seeing a floating face, but an owl.

Its wings spread and flapping, and his head cocked, the floating talking face was… just a barn owl?

“Can you talk?” I whispered to the owl.

“Can you hear me?” The owl whispered back.

The forest then echoed with both Koilona’s and the owl’s gasps.

“You do not glow,” Koilona stated in an accusation.

“Well, either do you,” the owl squeaked back.

“But your magic,” Koilona said, “you can talk, so therefore you should glow.”

“You can hear owls talk so therefore you are magic, and you should glow,” the owl stated back.

“I am a child,” Koilona said.

“Well, I am an owl,” the owl said back.

Koilona thought this was the weirdest moment of his life, he was arguing about who should glow...to an owl.

“How do you talk then?” Koilona ask.

“How do you hear me?” the owl answered.

“I do not know,” Koilona whispered back.

“Maybe we are both magic,” the owl concluded.

“I know I am not magic; I came to the forest to find magic.” Koilona said.

“Well…it looks like you found some magic in the forest.” the owl replied.

For the first time since being scared out of his mind, Koilona smiled, and with a grin stretching his face Koilona realized he did find magic.

“What is your name?” Koilona whispered.

“Atlas,” the owl responded.

“Well, Atlas, my name is Koilona. Do you want to come with me to hunt for magic?”