Chapter 4 - Night Watch.

Alexander tossed and turned in his sleep. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that wouldn’t go away. His dreams that whole night seemed to be shrouded in bright lights and fire. He woke up from the sound of Luna screeching beside him. He was in a sweat.

There was a full moon outside his window.
“ Luna… why did you wake me?”
“ You have schooling.”
“ Ughh ..” Alexander sighed.
“ You must improve on your skills in archery and also on looking after other Animals.”
Alexander nodded sleepily and stuck his trousers on and a plain white top.
“ Where are we going today?”
“ The great fields. There is rabbit trapped .”
“Why cant I speak to anyone else Luna?”
“ I’ve already told you . There are no other humans in this part of the woods.”
“ and beyond the woods?”
“ Yes there are other humans but you cant leave until you are 18.”
“ I know.”
“ Are you in such a hurry to leave me anyway?” Luna asked.
“ You will not come with me?”
“ No Alexander. This is my home.”
“ You could make a new home with me.”
“ No Alexander, There are humans who would kill me simply for being in their territory. Human’s class themselves as higher than owls, we are mere pets to..”
“ Really?”
“ I’m afraid so Alex. We will talk more of this later though. There are small animals in need of help.”

A little further along. There was a small rabbit with its leg caught in a rope. It seemed to become very shaky after seeing  Alexander coming closer. He bent down next to it.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“ It has a rope around its leg.”
“ Its ok little one.” Alexander said and held his hand out to pet the rabbit. The rabbit bit him hard and he pulled back.
“ Why did he do that?” he asked Luna
“ This is a human trap.”
“ A human trap?”
“ They are now coming into our sacred forest to eat our animals.”
“ They.. Eat them?”
“ Yes.”

The owl squawked at the rabbit for a few moment before the animal calmed down and squeaked gently.
“ You can take it off now. He said most of his family have been caught by these things now.  He’s been trying to gnaw through the rope but he’s still stuck.”

Alexander cut the rope around the animals foot and around the tree with a small sharpened pocket knife. The rabbit nodded slowly and then bounced off.

“ He is safe for now.” The owl replied “but I doubt that the human will be happy when he realises something let his catch get away. You will find most humans eat animals Alex.”

“ But.. that’s horrible.”

“ Perhaps, but I cannot blame them as I too eat smaller animals. However humans are greedy. They often kill more than they need. Which would explain why they are coming here. This is well outside their boundaries. They have plenty animals where they are. I fear.. They will kill off most the animals in this forest.”

“ Why would they do that?”

“ Simply because they can.”

There was an angry silence in the field. Anger from both the owl and the human.
“ I think you ought to go back to bed now Alexander. Its getting late.”
“ Yeah.. Ok”