Locked out.

-“Any second now.”

-“Watch, do you see it?” he whispered so close to my ear, his breath crawling up my neck in the frosty winter twilight.

-“An owl?”

- “A barn owl.” he replied, “Do you have the mouse?”

Quietly I lied down the mouse in the owl’s sight and got back next to Jonathan.

- “Is she going to go for it?” I asked my voice still trembling from the silent swift movement.

- “Just watch!”

A few minutes went by and the silence felt unbreakable. The misty air chilling our lungs, everything was a little damp, and the fading twilight shade was all that let human eyes see. Waiting was unbearable, moments stretching into eternities. No way I might have broken the silence. “Your mind Zoe” as if I heard a distinguishable voice in the overlapping of hundreds in the back of my head. As quickly as all the chaos came to be, a deep quiet dawned in my mind. My vision was focused and heavy, my ears, sharp.

The owl looked down, tilted her head with curiosity. She knew what it was, she knew we were there, she knew our intentions. Discernment was radiating from her in waves. In magnetic golden waves, untangling every particle in the air into the harmony of an untouched spool of yarn.

Stillness... calcified moulds of human bodies, with a flexible spirit. The energies were so vibrant that the only way to keep the quiet going was to guide the vibrations of night watching above our bodies. Swift, hard to see and impossible to hear, the owl was by the mouse.

Jonathan elbowed me. I had to do it now, reaching for my pocket, as I touched the totem, my vision electrifying. The first bite of the mouse with a hasty strike of the beak.

“A child of Eve; have you lost your way, gentle soul?” The voice asked, coming from an etheric light. I was levitating, my heartbeat was loud, all around me, I could feel the pulse in my field and the heat of the portal. Blood rushing to my cheeks.

- “Minerva, my people are dying. Remedies don’t work, the food is running out, and wells are drying. The chip has made us sick, only the strong spirited can fight it. No one touches anyone else out of its fear. Loved ones are separated, children are orphaned. The minds once so pure you could hear the cosmic melodies go through them over and over, cannot conjure a single word of kindness. Help us.”

- “Your ancestors, they treated us with respect, took what they needed, left some for the wild. We gave them magic, a mind that could bend universes and hands that could write, yet the lessons left for you seem to have been inadequate to bring you to the light that you are seeking. The law is firm. If it changes, the world would fall into uncontainable chaos. No one can save another.”

- “Some get the chip before they develop any tool to clear their minds. They have never looked at a true sunset or made an offering to the ocean. They are helpless. The chip grows deep in their souls, blinding them to any clue, any sign, anything that might smell of the Source. The chip cuts their roots before their throats.” I explained pleadingly.

- “No more car horns, no more baby rabbits trapped in human waste. Happy trees without toxins in their waters and fish that don’t drown in oil. Explain to me, child. Why would I change that?”

- “Isn’t the source supposed to nurture all its creatures the same? Aren’t humans as worthy of life as rabbits, fish, and trees?”

- “The law is clear. Following your greed, you have gone beyond measures. Hunting to eat is natural, farming and herding was my gift to you so that your children would thrive faster and magic could flow in the veins of these lands. The ones who killed in gluttony and corruption. those who sucked the life out of every inch of the lands they lived on, were sucking the life out of themselves all way long, not even a god can change that.”

The dry snow falling off the branch as the owl took another bite of the mouse. I was gone forever. I was back as if time was untouched. Slowly turning my head to look at Jonathan staring back at me with wonder, waiting for me to tell him the answers.

I can’t believe I failed, Minerva heard us, and she, very clearly, stated that there was nothing to be done. How can I tell a man who has been hiking in the gushing wind for two weeks in the hope of saving his family and friends that we need to go back empty-handed?

- “What did you see?” He questioned with a trembling voice."

- “We are on our own Jonathan. We are the only shot we have.”