Obnoxious Owl - Prologue
The sun sparkles through the painted glass window, sending a wave of colours through the large wooden room. I can smell the faint scent of pine coming from the corner as the old grandfather clock signals the coming of noon as a kingdom would its Queen.
"Hoooo!" says the owl as it springs from the top of the clock.
I try to ignore it.
"HooooooOOO" it repeats with a bit of emphasis at the end.
I continue trying to ignore it.
"HooooooOOOOoooOOOoooooOOOooooo" it says with great exaggeration.
With a slight huff I turn my head to look at the clock, its pendulum swinging with the mechanised ticks of the time, which now say it's a minute past noon. Yet the owl keeps HooHooing ever on. My eyes drift slowly up, observing the obnoxious old owl standing on his hand carved perch.
I can almost see grandpa's hands carving it, when...
"HoooooooooOOOOOOO are you day-dreaming again, Amara?" He scheeches at me.
An exasperated groan escapes my mouth, and I finally reply several seconds too late for his taste "What else is there to do you obnoxious owl?"
For a moment the owl stares at me, unblinking, possibly planning my death. With one great flap of his wings that reverberates through the room as thunder crackles through a field, he lifts up and lands next to me in a blink.
"Is yoooour great grandmooOOooother noooOooT waiting foooor yoooou at OooOOoold Red's little ooooone?" the owl asks in a way only an owl can.
"Perhaps she is, perhaps she isn't, owl!" I reply somewhat too venomously.
"You know how your Nanny can be when you don't go to Old Red's, he did..."
I interrupted the owl "...after all, build this house and that clock for her with grandpa, and..." I say mockingly, having heard it far too many times from him already.
He stares at me unblinking again.
I stand in defiance and make my way to the clock. It was always so fascinating with its intricate knotwork carvings. I hadn't met my great grandfather, but Nanny talked about him being a brave Knight of Green - like his father and his father's father and his father's fathers's father and... oh gosh, so many more of those - before him.
"Daydreaming again..." the owl hoots quietly behind me.
With a sigh I try to reach my hands further up the clock to no avail. Even on my tippy-toes I can't quite reach past the middle of the large old clock. The owl is being impatient, but I find myself trying for another minute or two, the time emblazoned in my vision to a stressful degree.
"Very well you obnoxious owl, I will head to Old Red's" I say, finally, after a few minutes have passed in blissful silence.
I turn back to the owl, and he rests there on the couch, seemingly lifeless, staring at me with blank eyes not unlike that of a plush animal.
With an eyeroll, I smile and head over to the chair across the room, reaching my hands between the back and seat cushions to retrieve my little blue plush mousey from his hiding spot.
"I think it's safe now little brother" I say to him while clinging him tightly and heading towards the door. Now I am off to head up the milky road, through the clouds at the top of the hill, and then down to Old Red's house. I can't help but start singing as I skip along.
