Suspicion of Owl Play

Resting regally upon my alder alter, as daylight wanes, the expected hunger grips me. Softly silhouetted by ancient conifers and the dramatic deciduous, mice and squirrels skitter and scuttle amidst the leaf litter below. Their time is not yet come.

Regarding my armor of silken feathers, a pre-hunt preen ensues. This beak, these talons- have gripped much death, balancing the scales between predator and prey.

Mauve-plum patinated sky and the biting scent of snow mark dusk's descendance. The forest is chilled to quietude by a glacial wind. These cold and dim conditions unlock a hyper-acuteness of the senses. Light to these luminous avian eyes, mistakably feline in their capture- glittering golden orbs that have long hovered- just above and just below. They can see it all now. They could see it all then.

The winter night holds its hidden cornucopia tightly, a dark, frigid promiseland. Quiescently, I shall seek and find, as I have done, every night before this one.

A pointelist tapestry of scintillant stars rebukes cloudage. My movement, stealthily silent, as the icy currents propel me to nowhere particularly planned. Mother moon waxes gibbous. I watch. I listen. I feel.

Deer dot the bucolic below. Their cloven hooves crunch a struggle through sparse, frozen fields. Deer at peace means safe hunting. No human scourge to avoid- overly often they insult this ground with their presence. A gnarled branch welcomes me to begin tonight's patient hunt.

The crackle-crunch of trodden twigs and snaps of slender saplings steal the scene's hush. Foreign footfalls pound the ground.

There were 2 of them. Inquisitive- unperturbed, I remain. Unlike deer, I am not threatened. I am in fact, the threat.

Keenly observing the intrusive couplet, their behavior is unreadable. Cackling fecklessly and thrashing about, they lit a fire in my wood, and settled themselves. Humans are an invasive species, ignorant to the disdainful environment surrounding them. No respect for territory. Blind to the unspoken rules governing wild things.

Behold the stranger's erraticism. Their voices over-sonorous, spitting sloppy sentience into the snow. They passed between themselves a glass vessel.

Olfactorily assaulted by the acrid repugnancy of what seeped from their pores, I found myself disgusted. Humans are readily detestable.

Apparently, one felt a similar sentiment toward the other. Aware of their callousness, yet taken aback by their cruelty, I watched one bash wide open the cranium of his comrade. Brain matter and fetid flesh flew all ways. This will do well for dinner, I thought. Cracking bone, tearing flesh, snow-meltingly warm blood. Scavengers would not be the first to benefit from this mass of meat.

Dampening the fire, the assailant didn't so much as taste his victim before trudging off, toward the forest's edge. If not to eat, why bother to kill? It defied natural logic. 

Past the field, was the town. Small false suns delineated the wild from the tame. They adorned buildings, and tall, false trees that never bore leaves. An invisible, unquestionable line marked the end of my safety. I neither dared nor deigned to fly across.

Waiting until the murderer's careless trek became inaudible, and he'd surely gone, I descended- a winged phantom. Lighting upon the stump of a once grand oak, the fresh corpse, I now regarded.

Glassy ocular surfaces reflected dying embers. I would not wait for the body to cool before partaking in the choicest bits. Keenly aware this delectable bloodshed would soon draw the attention of other animals, I worked fastidiously.

The human beast was covered in thick layers of fabric…it would consume too much effort and time to tear through them. Wise decision not to try. I perched upon the roughened neck, making an appetizer of moonlit brain bits. Not much flavor here- it likely served more of a purpose now, as my sustenance, than it had served him while alive.

My main course would be simple, yet divine. One talon balanced me- while the other dug deep into the occipital cavity. Optic nerves severed easily, practically plating the eyes for me. I plucked out both before eating- their cavernous sockets, somehow, a comfort to behold. This man would pose a threat no longer. Upon finishing my morbid meal, sanguine satiation beset me. I'd dallied with the deceased long enough.

A midnight zephyr carried me soundlessly through stark shadows, back to roost. Tonight my belly had been filled by brutal indifference, though not my own. Grooming dried blood from feathers spectral, I am glad indeed, to have been born of the wild wood. Human places are unenviable. Certainly, undoubtedly- a different sort of wilderness. One governed by wanton madness.