Deathbird sings at midnight

Chapter 1
A mysterious prophecy



Amber Jens sat cross-legged on her kitchen floor. Her uncle, who’s mop of gray hair was close to touching the ceiling this morning, was busy tinkering away at an old broken alarm clock. Amber felt ridiculous sitting there, her uncle was such a fan of omens that she had sat in the uncomfortable position for three hours straight humming whatever he told her to hum and mutter words that seemed to come from nowhere. All this was because their cat had found a dead mouse in his bed the night before. She looked down still humming like they did when meditating. Her pants were rosined with grime, and the seam that ran down the middle of them was coming unsown again. She would later have to get out the sewing machine and fix them... but right now there was no escaping the hawk eyes of her uncle. Smoky, her cat strolled nonchalantly in through the living room door and plopped down with his fat seeping to the sides of him. Smoky, the family cat had lived here for seven years and had gotten way past his limit with her uncle lately. Amber wished there was a clock in the kitchen, she felt so bored. She silently reached her fingers outward to stroke Smoky.
“What are you doing?” She recoiled at her uncle’s shout. As usual his voice was wry and gruff. She looked up and tried hard not to look into his eyes, sometimes they could turn pink with rage... Not quite red, but pink.
“What did I do now?” Amber answered sarcastically. Her uncle made a face at her and stood up meningcinly. He seemed like a giant, and Amber suddenly felt so small while looking up at him.
“Don’t touch that cat!” he dropped down to his knees and yanked her hand away from Smoky’s gray flank. “He brought me an omen! Death! Don’t you see?” He pulled her hand so she was forced to move her whole figure until she was face to face with him. His eyes were filled with a seriousness that made a tingle of unease slip down her spine and she could feel her neck hairs rising.
“I’m getting older Amber! Everyday could mean death for me!” She tried hard not to flinch back and wrinkle her nose from the rancid smell of his breath. “Now go up to your room! And don’t take that darn cat with you!” She pulled her hand away and rubbed it soothingly. He went back and sat on the edge of his seat to finish his project. This had been a bad day to be living... Amber had never seen her uncle’s eyes so pink and blotchy before. Amber shot up and looked at smoky. Was there a chance I could take him without him noticing? She looked over at her uncle who was cursing and rubbing blood from his finger gingerly. He must have scratched it on a loose wire or edge. She snuck another look at smoky and felt a tinge of sadness by looking at his wide pleading eyes. Amber thought about it but decided to better it. Instead she drifted off down the hall to her bedroom. A blast of pine scent hit her scent gland and made her take in a deep breath. She had hung a bunch of car air fresheners on her mirror and they had worked perfectly. Although the only thing she had really gotten them in the first place for was that smoky had decided he needed to pee under her bed. The stink had remained at large until she took action. She took one last sniff and walked fully in, closing the door behind her. After the two hours of sitting she needed to stretch out her aching legs. She sat on her bed and spread them wide out in front of her. The wall stood about a foot away from where her foot was, and her head was barely an arms length from the ceiling. Her uncle was poor and could only afford a small house in the middle of nowhere. Years before the authorities had taken her away from her parents for child abuse. Her mom had long curly blonde hair and ashen cheeks. She looked like she could be more of a hair-dresser than a house wife. Her dad looked more like Amber than her mother; he had dark black hair and brown eyes. If she did a single thing wrong while still living with them, then they would slap her violently. She hated her mom and dad, but somehow loved them still because she had only become stronger and able to take a punch from anybody. She glanced at her wrist and became aware of the fact her uncles bony finger prints were still impressed into her flesh. She snarled to herself. Why did her uncle have to be like this all the while? When her legs were stretched she layed on her bed, which took up most space in the closet sized room, and stared at the ceiling. The paint was chipping so badly that there were blank white blotches, set apart from the regular purple. She often liked to pick out shapes they made that looked like animals. Her favorite animal that she could always pinpoint was a spot shaped like an owl. She enjoyed hooting up at it, and sometimes when she was very lonely she would talk to him. This right now was a perfect time to express all of her inner emotions to the paint owl.
“Hmmm... I guess that you know what I’m about to share don’t you owl?” She gazed up at the owl and when it didn’t move she went on. “Sometimes I just wish that I could sail away from this wretched life... to sprout wings and fly from here to another world... if you were real... and not just a paint blob... would fly away if you could?” A moment of silence passed and Amber sighed, feeling like an idiot she sat up and dug her face into her knees. Suddenly she heard a mew at the door. Smiling at a thought of some way to make her uncle mad she off of the bed. She grunted at every step she took from the pain that shot up each of her legs, and let smoky in. The plump mob of gray fur scrambled clumsily onto her bed and curled into a tight ball. He looked like a gray pillow with two emerald buttons, which were his eyes. How pretty green eyes must be to have. She looked at Smoky’s eyes and then at her own in the mirror above her bedside table where the air fresheners hung. Her eyes were dull musty brown... the only thing her dad had ever given her besides a hand to the face. She closed them and somehow she felt a burning sensation. They were like having a scar... A scar that came from somebody you reviled almost everyday. The next thing her dad had deplorably given her, besides birth, was her hair, and she stroked her black tresses lovingly even though there wasn’t much. Last year her uncle had found a louse in her hair and distinguished as a bad omen, thus he sheared it all off with a jack knife. Finding nothing else to do in the god forsaken room, she went over to her oak wood dresser and pulled the drawer out. It wasn’t heavy but still, she set it on the bed and was careful not to disturb smoky. It was filled with the usual junk; a note pad, her lucky sticker from when she was seven, and five dominos. She picked up a domino and admired it. Although not many would pick up a domino and study it, well Amber liked the design stamped onto it. A Chinese dragon swirled around so that its body covered the surface, its tail was spiked with long wisps of feathers, and its bird like mouth spurted a line of flame. She ran her finger over it and could feel each individual scale. They were given to her by her aunt before she passed away. A gypsy or at least that’s what she had called herself, had given them to her aunt as a gift for letting her sleep in the shed for a couple nights. Bored with it now that the sadness of loss was coming to her soul, she layed it down and began to fondle with Smoky’s pelt. He let out a purr of satisfaction and closed his eyes. She smirked. I wonder what he would say if he could speak? Amber contemplated the question before she let her eyes stray once more to the beautiful dragon domino. This time she froze with sudden angst... the dragon was writhing to and fro on the domino, and for a split second it looked at her with eyes that had a shy, wisdom trapped inside but another light showed stronger than wisdom. It lit up with a strange bright was it fear? What was he afraid of? As if the dragon had read her mind he let out a cloud of smoke. Amber squinted at it and realized that a faint word, but a word none the less, was hidden inside the smolder. She squinted her eyes hard to read it.
“L-o-c-k-e-t... locket?” She was confused. She didn’t have a locket; she knew that she must have been imagining it because the dragon was stagnant on the domino once more. She rubbed her eyes and looked at it again. Still she could not get the small feeling out of her that it was real, that she really had seen the dragon come to life on the domino. She quickly put it back into the drawer and put the drawer back into its space in her dresser.
“Come and get dinner Amber! I hope you don’t have that cat in your room!” called her uncle. She barely heard him through her own thoughts... but it was too late, he walked in and immediately fell silent as he scrutinized the sleeping cat with wide crazy gray eyes. The icy stare fell upon her and it felt like it was burning a hole into the face; melting it with anger and frustration.
“That’s it!” he yelled. Smoky awoke and looked up annoyed about the fact he was woken up from his relaxing doze. “You will not sleep in this house tonight! Take your things and go to the shed! And take that revolting creature with you!” He left and Amber let out a large sigh of relief. She liked sleeping in the shed, better infact, than sleeping in her stifling small room where she could touch her feet to the opposite wall when she stretched. She gathered up three blankets and her pillow. Smoky jumped back onto the bed after she was done and layed back down to resume his catnap.
“Oh no you don’t!” Amber said matter of factly. She reached down and picked him up in one hand. She ignored his mews of aggression and stuffed him into an empty pillowcase. “You have to come too silly.” She decided to climb out the window and avoid her uncle. She threw her blankets out after making sure the ground wasn’t muddy. The pillow went next; she thought it was very easy until she saw sharp claws come out through the thin fabric of the empty case in which smoky was in. It wouldn’t be easy to drop a 20 pound cat out the window. She climbed onto her bed and lifted one leg out; gradually she sat on the edge of the window with the curtain folded neatly behind her. She sat holding the pillowcase tightly so smoky couldn’t scamper away. The sun was dying behind a mountain in the distance. It reached its fingers to the delicate lines of clouds above and made them turn the combined colors of red, pink, and orange. How she wished she could sprout wings and fly to another land, a land that nobody made you sleep in the shed because you petted your cat, or hit you... she sat a long time and watched it set silently. Before the last of it disappeared she looked down to see that smoky had made a small enough hole so that his eye was left peeking up at her. He mewed innocently. She knew how he felt, trapped and unable to find a big enough hole to climb out of. She bunched up her muscles and leaped from the window frame with a loud belt of laughter. Landing with a thud on top of the pile of blankets and pillows she layed there for a moment before gathering them all up and rushing to the shed holding smoky firmly against her chest. The cat struggled, but as she passed a large oak tree he finally gave up, and soon Amber could hear his snoring. She smiled and lifted a foot to take another step... then froze abruptly. Before her perched the most magnificent owl she had ever layed eyes on. Its dark brown feathers were tipped with a mix of gold and black, its breast was white with black; claw shaped splotches. The face was flat and its nose made an even slope downwards so that the beak was level with chest frame. Amber stood, mesmerized by its deep brown gaze. Almost at once it opened its wings which were as long as she was tall, and flew right in through an open window into the shed. Amber stood there rooted to the spot. Her mind whirled. It was as if the owl had met her there, and was now leading her into the shed. She followed silent and vigilant. A blast of dusty air met her face when she swept the shed door open and tread in. The owl was preening its wings and looked up distractedly as she stepped closer to it. The owl seemed to sense her unease and it flew and landed on top of the many covers piled on her shoulder. He let out a loud hoot and she heard Smoky yowl in surprise. The owl rested his beak on Amber’s shoulder and cooed.
“Can-can you... understand me?” the owl swooped down and landed its giant talons on a self to her right. To her amazement it nodded, and a slight twinkle appeared in his auburn eyes. Amber dropped the blankets and took a step nearer. The owl stayed where it was and stared at her intently. She keeled down before it and green met ginger as she gaped at it.
“Can you talk to me?” The owl shook its head and placed its gaze on a tiny bronzed bag suspended on a rusty nail. “You want me to get it?” Amber asked it. The owl nodded and spread a wing to point. Amber got up and snatched the bag from its post. She sped back to the owl. She dropped it in front of him.
“What now?” Amber’s mind was in frenzy and she felt as if she could faint as the owl took the small package and used a talon to open it. She saw a glint of gold, as she looked closer she noticed with curiosity that it was... a locket! The owl dropped it in her hand.
“Put it on?” she asked, she wanted to put the small locket on very badly! The aged gold finish was dull... but it had the most unusual design, a falcon with a large feather in its beak was perched under an outsized “s”. It was suspended by a gold chain. The owl nodded and rolled its eyes as if that was the most obvious thing to do. Amber could barely hold in her excitement as she draped it over her neckline. Her neck felt an eerie coldness, and she felt her throat emerge in ice. She gasped for breath but found it hard. What was happening? After a long minute of no oxygen she found herself back to normal and gulping in air like she was taking great amounts of water. The owl smiled. It lifted a wing and Amber gawked at it as it spoke.
“The realm of victory has begun! Sellestdramia will breathe again!” Amber’s eyes widened. Real words! Real words were falling from its beak.
“Oh! Pardon me! So sorry! My name is Larous! I was sent to pick out the chosen one... and I’ve finally found you!” Amber let her hand fall to the locket. The golden coat was unusually warm and, every rise and fall of her chest she could hear it breathe too. The locket was living! She stumbled to her feet, tripping over smoky as she went. The cat let out a hiss of annoyance.
“Can’t you ever watch your feet?” He mewed sarcastically. Amber thought she would soon faint of pure fright. This is only a dream! She thought clutching the locket and trying desperately to yank it off. I’ll wake up any moment now, in my bed! Safe and sound! As hard as she tried to make herself believe it was a dream she couldn’t. It was all so real! Larous spread out his wing and stirred up some dust that lay upon a shelf. He sneezed and fell over. Regaining his standing position he began to explain himself.
“I have been sent here to take you far away.” Amber hesitated. She had never spoken to an owl before... well she was sure not many others could either. Larous used his talons to climb onto a rather massive sized shovel. She had never known why her uncle kept one so big... her mind switched to a memory. She had helped her Aunt a lot in the past with the gardening. She liked to help water the flowers and hold the watering can in her small fists. Her aunt would watch her and grin. Amber had once asked her about her Uncles shovel. Her Aunt would only shake her head and crease her brow sarcastically. ‘Betcha it’s to dig ‘is own grave. Can’t open up to the sweet things in life.’ Then she would stoop down and stroke ambers hair, which was long at that time, and sing a beautiful song. Amber could almost hear her melodic voice, carry through the wind and land on her ear drum. Larous spoke again in his loud booming voice that always seemed to make Amber flinch like a hot roller had been put on her skull.
“Do you know why I am here?” He signaled the question right at her and amber pursed her lips. She didn’t know why this owl had bothered to try and pry her from her home! He couldn’t just walk into a house and steal its residents from it! She had lived here for a very long time and it was the only place where her aunts voice was heard loudly... like the winter wind; smooth and elegant.
“No Larous... I don’t know why you came here.” Amber tried and sustained her ferocity. Larous tipped his head to the side and let out a small hoot.
“No need to get testy... I know you are angry that I have come to pull you away from everything you know...” Amber sat back like her chest was hit with an arrow. Bloody bird can read minds!
“Now... I am here because you wanted me to be here... to answer your question... I would fly away from here. I have come to help you fly too. Come with me.” Amber stared at him and gawked. This owl was the same paint owl on her ceiling?! She couldn’t take anymore of this! She stumbled to her feet and swayed awkwardly. After regaining her balance she grabbed Larous and held him, not tightly, but securely under her arm. The owl screeched loudly and thrashed about. His wings were held taut under her force and she walked ineptly to the open window. She jostled him through it and closed the window firmly. She brushed her hands together to signal “good work” and settled down into her blankets.
“Smoky... if you don’t mind me saying, that when I am resting that you need not speak to me!” The gray cat flexed his claws and rolled onto his stomach.
“Humph! You humans never seem to pay me much of a damn!” Amber glowered at him. She had never known how big a brute her own cat was.
“But,” he said and looked at her with a little sneer. ”if this means SO much to you... then I shall keep my jaws hushed.” Amber seized her forehead and massaged it roughly. She layed a blanket down on the hay, placed her pillow on the top edge, and layed down covering herself with a large blanket. The moonlight shone through the window giving off a fair, eerie light. She groaned when she saw a silhouette of an owl appear on the window frame. His eyes were glinting with surprise, and brimmed with hurt feelings. Sighing she got up and leaped over to the window. She put her hand up and unlatched it. The next moment she was in a flurry of hazel feathers. Larous perched on top a self and stared at her with a mixture of fury and enjoyment.
“Listen!” said angry Amber, “If you are to stay in here... then I don’t want a peep out of you! Got it?” Larous lifted his proud head skyward and sniffed. How rude animals were. Amber thrust her body down and closed her eyes.

Amber woke up with a terrible sting in her neck. She groaned and sat up painfully. The shed was flooded with new morning sunshine. Larous! She jolted fully out of sleep and stumbled nosily to her feet. The owl wasn’t there. Oh! It was a dream! I was right! It was only a bad dream! Amber felt a small something inside her chest that almost choked her with sadness. Was she actually missing the bird she had loathed so? Then she remembered... reaching down, she felt her neck. She screamed with utter surprise and bewilderment when she felt the cold chain that was attached to the locket. Smoky looked up and fixed her a defiant stare.
“Can’t you humans ever shut up?!” Amber stared at her cat and sighed. She knew it was too good to be true. She stared around the shed and her heart flipped. She had wished to get out of this place so badly, she had wanted more than anything to fly free of her Uncles grasp. She realized with a jerk, what she had done, she had given up freedom! Amber stood up with a dumb blank look and, without giving the subject much thought, she ran out of the shed and closed it with a large “bang”. The ground was covered in fresh mist, but Amber took no heed to the fact that with mist... brought mud. She ran through the brown sludge slowly but desperately. She ran for freedom, she ran with courage, she ran for an owl she had talked to for a mere ten minutes, she tripped and fell smack on her face with glory!
“Larous! Larous! Please! I’m so sorry! I was an ignorant jerk! Larous! Come back! I’ll go with you if you explain everything!” Amber’s voice reverberated through the forest... but the brown blur of an owl did not appear in the tree tops. Amber was furious with herself. She wanted to go from here so dreadfully. The hazy green sunlight made her hair shine strange silver and suddenly she felt old and slow with age. She was witnessing the future. Her mind set on herself, twenty years old; lonely, lost, unforgiving. Her uncle laying in his bed, and her, standing over him grasping a locket, a useless locket that breathed not a heartbeat. Her eyes flashed open and a scream of regret echoed from her lips, sending a group of rabbits tumbling away.
“Danger! Run! Must!” The female rabbit in the front sang in rabbit tongue. Amber got to her knees and forced her wobbling legs to support her weight as she stood up. Again, She ran swiftly through the trees. Dawn sunlight was dappled on the small beech leaves. Minutes passed in a blur until they piled up and she could not keep count any longer. She stumbled over tree roots and tripped—eventually—on rather large rocks. Her body felt like jello, it felt like she had been running for decades. She felt her legs give in; tired and miserable she collapsed in a large mud puddle. Her eyes filled with tears as the liquid oozed into her pants and down her shirt. She cried until her eyes could bare no more tears and only a faint gurgling sounded from her throat. I’ll never catch up to him! I’ll never get out of here! She lay there pouting; her face was pink and blotchy. Her only chance at freedom was gone, away with the wind, away with her hopes. There was nothing left to do now but pick her way through the forest back to the shed, back to her prison sentence. After a time she grasped a vine which had fallen from a tree and hauled her body up. Her short brown hair was a mess and caked with clumps of muck. How bad she thought her life was... she just wanted to grasp the vine and hang herself from the tree it clung to. At least she wouldn’t have to go back.
“What’s wrong friend?” Amber looked up hopefully, thinking she would see Larous. To her hearts frustration she saw the small figure of a chipmunk. It was crunching on an acorn and staring at her with wide russet colored eyes. Amber couldn’t bear it anymore... alone... unhappy... and muddy! She burst into tears again.
“Please don’t weep, friend!” The chipmunk consumed the last bit of its breakfast and hurdled down from the tree onto Ambers shoulder.
“Well... I bet you haven’t even seen an owl! He’s brown and-and has a flat face and-and...” The chipmunk silenced her with a flick of its tiny finger to her mouth.
“Shhhh... hush now friend! Indeed I have seen the owl you have described to me.” Amber took the creature from her shoulder with a tiny thanks to heaven.
“Please! Tell me where he went!” The chipmunk sat with its petite back propped on her thumb. He sucked on his fist in thought.
“Due south he went friend.” Amber kissed him on his head and stumbled to the tree. She put out her hand and the chipmunk bounced off onto the thick brown bark.
“Thank you! Thank you! I’ll never forget you!” The chipmunk’s cheeks turned a small shade of pink and he puffed out his chest importantly.
“Thistle is always glad to help, friend!” With that he clambered up the trunk and disappeared among the leaves. Amber turned her body to face the south mountains and started to run with a new hope flickering in her soul. The mist had cleared away as the trees started to thin out. She ran gasping through the last acre of pine trees and stopped abruptly. The moor land beyond was beautiful! The mountains lifted their peaks and greeted the clouds as dear friends. A golden prairie of grass spread out like a blanket, and it swayed with the wind like the rolling seas. The sky was clear and there was no sign that rain had ever teemed down upon the earth. She stood among the majesty of it all, gawking. Each step she now took was less precarious than her violent tromping about. She felt the warm of the sun on her face, it was magic. Amber looked around, and suddenly a thin appearance of a bird outlined the sky.
“Larous!” Amber cried out as the owl landed heavily on her shoulder. Overjoyed and suddenly realizing how exhausted she felt, she sunk down to sit on the grass. Larous hopped off her shoulder and skipped over onto a hollow log.
“Tell me about Sellestdramia now Larous...” Amber trailed off. Larous looked hard at her.
“Later, Amber, sleep now... we have a long journey ahead.” Amber didn’t complain, Instead she lay her head on a tuft of leaves and closed her eyes. Soon her chest heaved up and down in a deep sleep.