Knight Owl

A picture on the wall… well a painting on the wall I should say, this painting that my grandmother created… What could it possibly mean? I asked my mother, “Why did grandma create this painting of an owl in armor sitting at the top of a barn?” What she says next I don’t think I will ever understand.

“Grandma says that the owl in armor is you Charles”.

It’s been 10 years since then and I am now 20 still trying to figure out why grandma painted this owl and how could it possibly be me? I would ask grandmother but she isn’t here anymore to answer any questions. Grandma always seemed a little different than others when I was younger, like she didn’t seem to be all there so she would always be painting or creating something. Maybe this was her way of communicating to people through her art? Yet, to this day I still haven’t got a clue to what any of it could mean. Now I am moving away to another country leaving my family to explore the world and live my life because all I’ve wanted to do is experience what the world has to offer, maybe then I can understand what the painting really is about. So as I am packing some things from the attic I see a bunch of grandmother’s paintings I had never seen before. I start skimming through these amazing and such detailed paintings remembering that grandma would spend countless hours sitting in the living room with a paintbrush in her hands. As I am going through some of them I spot out the painting of the owl in armor on the barn. I spend some time up in the attic just admiring grandma’s attention to her details. It's almost like I could touch the owl, touch the barn, feel the breeze that makes it look like the tall trees and grass sway back and forth. That owl stood so firm on the barn looking like it was guarding the whole place, but why the armor for? There could be endless reasons for what this means. But I headed out of the attic to go show my mom the painting of “me” again.

*BOOM!*

“OUCHH!”

I must have been going so fast that I tripped on my way out landing on my head and knocked out. Now I feel myself waking, but my eyes won’t open, I can tell I am no longer in the house, where am I? I don’t feel like me but yet I feel like I am who I’ve been all my life. My body feels heavy, heavier than usual, dang I must’ve really taken a hard fall if i feel like this. “Mom!” I say, no response, “Hello!?” No response, no sounds, not a thing. What is going on? It feels like I’m standing, I feel a comfortable breeze, I hear what seems to be rustling between bushes and leaves very far away. My senses feel different from usual, I start to understand what i’m feeling now, I hardly feel my eyelids start to open, a white blur is all I can see, everything slowly clears up, I took notice of the vast open fields and tall trees in the distance. A strong gust of wind flows and pushes me, my vision becomes clear, I see everything I feel everything, that's right, this whole time I have been this owl in armor. I must’ve had such a crazy dream where I was a human about to explore the world. As I’m falling from the wind I realize I am a human, not an owl, right? I doubt myself, I felt so confused I didn’t even know how to fly anymore. The ground inched closer and closer. I was scared and everything flashed before my eyes, all of my memories hitting me in a split second, yet something was off, it was all memories of me being a human kid, a teenager, a young adult, what is this? I woke up… I woke up back in the attic with human limbs, a human body, I’m back to who I really am, what the heck just happened? Everything hurts, my body is aching while I try to get up off the attic floor, dang that was a really hard fall I took, I’m all scratched up from this old wood up here. I get up and head down from the attic, then all of a sudden I hear a voice, a familiar voice say

“Charles”

It’s like she was really there, like really actually there but there is no way! Right? I slowly turn around and I respond “yes?” But no one was there, I knew it, dang I must really be out of my mind. I continue to head out and hear the voice again call my name, I get startled and hesitate to turn around. I then look back and see what seems to be an owl in the attic? Why is there an owl in the attic? The owl speaks and says

“Charles”

Of Course i freak out and trip on my butt staring at this talking owl that sounds exactly like grandma. It goes on to say

“it is me charles”

I responded with

“what do you mean it’s you”

even though I had a feeling I already knew who it must have been.

“It's me, your grandma Charles”

“No no, that’s impossible, grandma isn’t here anymore”

She tells me to do a favor for her, so I listen to what she has to say. It was a simple task to do, all she asked me to do was

“touch the owl in my painting”

I looked at her with concern, questioning if I should actually listen to an owl. I touch the owl in the painting thinking

“Nothing could possibly happen”

Then all of a sudden everything feels blank for a second, like there was no such thing as a reality or time or feeling or any of it. I realize I am no longer in an attic anymore, I am at the top of a barn in a suit of armor, in another body, an owl's body specifically. So it was real all this time, it wasn’t all my imagination, or was it? This feels so real. I took a look around and there she was, standing up there with me as an owl, it was grandma. She tells me

“I understand that this is all confusing for you Charles, but don’t worry, let me explain”

I stand there in my unusual body getting used to this feeling of wearing heavy armor on me and hearing what she has to say.

“You are a Knight Owl Charles, I was the previous Knight Owl, we are different you and I, you are a human don’t worry, you aren’t wrong about how everything feels off, I get it, I have been there before, our family have a connection with owls, your ancestors were once owls and we are their descendants, this barn we stand on, this land that it is on, the endless miles of land you see with your very eyes is all of ours to protect . We were put here to protect this land, you are the next Knight that protects everything you see here, every Knight is passed down to the generation after the next. So just like you, my grandparent, your great great grandpa was the protector before me. You are able to go back to your human life whenever you want, all you need to do is fall and let yourself go, I know it sounds insane but this is the jump that you’ll need to do to understand what I’m saying. You’ll then go back to your human form, this barn has many animals in here to protect from dangerous predators, these animals in here are not from here, no one knows where they are from but they are very very special and keep this world we are in right now stable somehow, if they are to ever be destroyed or taken it could mean the end of this world. You need to protect it Charles, my painting will call out to you in many different ways so that you will know when something isn’t right here and when that happens be prepared for anything.”

“Well how come you’re telling me all of this grandma?”

“Well Charles it is now my time to leave this world and join your ancestors in the afterlife, I have no life left to go on in these lands anymore, it is now your time.”

“I understand grandma.”

She then proceeds to walk closer to the edge, and says

“I love you Charles, take care”

with a tear leaving her eye she jumps before I could say a thing. I run to the edge in this heavy armor with no chance of catching up to her to see her falling, inching closer and closer to the ground. She then hits the ground but disappears, no longer there, just gone. I jump off and follow her down, then back in the attic I am. I look back at the painting and now I understand what grandma means when mom told me that it was me, it was literally me. I am the Knight Owl, I am a human, I am here for a bigger purpose than I knew, I finally have it all figured out! Yet I still feel like there is more to grandma's painting, could there be? Or is this it? I wonder what someone else would think?