The Stone Owls
Prologue
Layla took a peek at Aly and was horrified to see that most of her was completely covered in stone, save her face. Tears were running down her face, creating grooves and cracks were appearing all over Aly’s face. It was like Aly’s tears were eroding her face away, like a rock.
“Yah!” Eliza cried, lunging forwards with the lit branch, waving it back and forth, keeping the Hounds members at bay. Eliza startled Layla. She knew Eliza for a few years, but Layla had never thought Eliza could be this aggressive at protecting her friends. A growl erupted from Layla’s throat and she thrust out her burning branch at the Hounds members if one got too close for her liking. Amber suddenly shrieked loudly in fear and backed right into Layla. A Hound member was reaching out to her.
“Leave her alone!” Layla called, spinning around and sticking the burning branch in the member’s face, burning his face a little. Amber was shaking violently behind Layla. She found it hard to stand still and hold the burning branch without burning herself in the process.
“Amber. Calm down,” Layla had started to tell her before hearing Aly call out Jack’s name. Amber, Eliza, and Layla spun around. While they were fighting, Jack and the animals had completely turned to stone. Aly was lying on her
stomach, reaching out with one hand and in that hand was the owl. She wasn’t able to complete the circle in time.
“Jack.” She whispered, barely able to be heard.
“Aly!” Layla cried out, dropping her branch. Eliza darted forwards and grabbed her branch before it could set the whole forest on fire. Layla grabbed Aly’s shoulders and spun her around so that Aly was on her back.
“No! Aly! Please. Don’t leave me.” Layla pleaded uselessly. Aly looked up at her and smiled sadly.
“I’m sorry.” She murmured as the rest of her turned to stone. Layla sat there in horror, silently watching Aly be a literal shell of who she once was. Tears ran down Layla’s face, but she didn’t bother to wipe them away. Everyone stopped fighting and watched her huddle over Aly’s body, crying and begging Aly to come back to her. No matter how much she pleaded for Aly to come back to her, Aly was still a stone statue.
1
It all started when Violet saw them. We were having a birthday party for Bear. Leaves and stray branches crunched beneath our friend’s feet as they danced and a twig or two was crushed under Jack and I’s feet when we both tapped out the rhythm of the song we were playing. As we played our instruments, our furry friends danced around Bear while he clapped his claws together, helping Jack and I keep a beat for the music. I played my violin while Jack played his
song when Violet ran into me, causing me to give a short cry that was half surprise and half pain.
“Aly! There are men! There are men!” Violet, our white tailed deer friend, kept saying as she pranced around us nervously.
“Vi. Take a deep breath then tell me what’s wrong.” I said. Using the moment to safely put my violin in its case while Violet took a breath. While using my powers to mentally send it to our temporary home, I quietly listened to what Violet was telling Jack.
“There are men with long boom-sticks and very short things with puffy things on the end. I heard them planning to shoot us and take us somewhere, a hoo? I think.”
“Was it a zoo?” Jack asked, wrapping a cloth around his harmonica and handing it to me. I closed my eyes and used my powers to mentally send it to his room in our home.
“Yes, I think that’s it! Are we going to be separated from you?” Violet asked, all sad very suddenly.
“What’s a zoo?” Ash asked us, voicing the question that plagued our friend’s minds. His squirrel tail curled tightly around him. As Jack turned and started explaining what a zoo is to the others, I leaned forwards towards Violet.
“No one is being…” But I didn’t finish the sentence. ‘Whiz!’ Something flew past me, snagging my black beanie and pinning it to a tree behind me. My bright blue hair fell from its restraint and draped gently around my shoulders.
“Yikes! What was that?” Jack asked, looking at a dart stuck in the tree. “Hey, don’t look at me! I didn’t shoot it.” I said, waving my arms while walking over to the dart and sharply pulling it out. Detaching my beanie from the dart and placing my beanie back on my head, I was thankful that it didn’t make that big of a hole. Quickly putting my hair into a ponytail so that it wouldn’t fly around me, I noticed that men and women of different ages were surrounding us. Just as I walked over to Jack so he could look at the dart, out of the corner of his mouth he told me,
“We’re being surrounded. We should go. Now.” I glanced at him, raising my eyebrow in a silent question.
“They have guns. I count 12 people. No…. more like 14 people.” Jack said, using his power to sense for anyone in the immediate area.
“Everybody ready?” Jack asked. “Yup.” Everyone said.
“I bet I’ll beat you home.” I told Jack. “Oh you’re on.”
“On the count of three,” I said. We traded the counts. “One…. ”
“Two….”
“Three!” We both cried, as everyone bolted in different directions. Darts and bullets scattered all around us.
We can’t show them where home is, Jack. Go the long way. I’ll meet you there. I thought to my best friend as we split and went separate ways. I bolted towards the direction of the nearby lake. Well, it’s more like a pond with a waterfall. I could hear some men chasing me, but I’ve lived here basically my whole life. I know this place like the back of my hand. Running to the lake and slipping in, I let the magic flow into me, changing me into my favorite animal form, a small brown wolf pup. Usually shifting into a full grown one as I loved the feel of the ground under my paws, but the bushes nearby were only just big enough to hide a pup.
Climbing out of the water, I found myself slightly unbalanced with four legs instead of two. Rushing into the bushes, my body curled itself up, wrapping my tail around my nose. And thankfully, not a moment too soon. I saw 4 pairs of legs running after my muddy footprints. I apparently had stepped into a mud puddle and was too worried about where the men were and was sort of running for my life, so I didn’t notice the puddle.
“Where did she go?” One of the men cried, looking into the clear water, hoping for a chance to spot me in the water.
“If we could have caught her, everyone would know that we weren’t crazy and maybe we could steal her powers!” A younger man eagerly cried.
“Isn’t it the Moonstone inside her that gives her powers?.” The oldest man asked. The others agreed.
I desperately tried to still my heart. My heart was beating so loudly, I was surprised that the men couldn’t hear it. That Moonstone was the reason that I have my powers. Jack’s powers come from a Bloodstone, but my Moonstone was stronger and more powerful than Jack’s.
Jack to see it. I used to hide in this bush when Jack and I played ‘Hide-n-seek’ as children. I never saw nor felt it before.
Jack. Where are you?
At home. With everyone else waiting for you.
Help. Me. Please. There are men here. They want the Moonstone. I’m coming! Where are you?!?!?
By the lake. Hiding. I watched the men start to look into the lake, seeing if I’m in there or not. One of them had started to look in the bushes.
Don’t give it to them, no matter what. I’m coming.
Jack. You know that would be suicidal. My wolf ears flattened to my head and I crouched lower into the dirt.
What’s wrong? Jack asked, sounding a little bit out of breath.
They’re starting to look in the bushes. Where I’m hiding. Seemed like such a great idea at the time. I crouched, going as low as I could in the dirt. “Aha! I found one of the animals. A little wolf.” One of the men said, reaching his hand towards me.
Al! Move! Jack cried. Waiting until the hand was really close to me, I sank my sharp teeth into the man’s hand. The man cried out in pain.
“The little bugger bit me!” He told the others, cradling his injured hand against his chest.
Al. Get yourself out of there.
How? They’re blocking my escape. If I try to run away, they’ll catch me before I’m out.
“Are you sure it was a wolf? And it wasn’t a snake?” One of them asked.
“Of course! I hate snakes! And I looked to see what it was before I stuck my hand in the bush. I’m not stupid, Greg.” An idea appeared in my head.
Watch for the green snake, Jack. That’ll be me. I’ll slither to you then change back to human. I only have enough of the pond’s power to change once more before I change back to human.
Go ahead.
Changing my form from the wolf puppy to a green snake, I slithered out and some of the men cursed loudly when they saw me.
“There’s a stone owl where I was hiding. Never noticed it before. It wasn’t there yesterday when I was hiding in that same place.” Jack turned around to watch the men.
“We’ll need a distraction.”
“You’re not going to use yourself.” I grabbed a rock and threw it at a large boulder kinda near us, but far away enough so the men won’t see us.
“What was that?” They asked one another when it made a loud sound. They started to move towards the source of the sound. Spotting a branch near the boulder, I made it snap in half by using my power. Telekinesis if you still don’t know what power I have. The men quickly went to the source of the noise,
believing that the noise was either Jack, me, or both of us.
“I’ll watch them. Go get it,” Jack said, turning his head so he could definitely not creepily watch grown men looking at and around a huge boulder. Dashing to the bush where the owl was, my powers pushed the earth away from the owl so I could see it better.
Hurry up, Al. I think they might be coming back. I know. I can almost grab it,
Reaching into the bush for the owl, my fingers wrapped around it and I grabbed it, scraping the back of my hand by stray branches and thorns. I pulled my hand out with the owl in my hand.
I’ve got it!
Placing the owl into the pocket of my hoodie, I made sure that it would not fall out. Jack and I ran as fast as we could away from the men, being as quiet as we could. Jack didn’t use his power to speed us away as he was really tired.
Running from our home to where I was took out a lot of his energy. Jack
accidentally stepped on a branch and it broke loudly. The men turned their heads to us.
“Did you really have to step on that?” was my question before we bolted. The men started chasing us, calling for us to stop. Like we would listen to them.
“It wasn’t my fault. The stick was in the way!” Jack told me, as we slipped into a rock crevice. We leaned against each other, silently praying that they wouldn’t find us.
“You! Go that way. You! Go that way. The rest follows me!” The leader of the group cried, pointing and ordering them around.
Please don’t find us. Please don’t find us.
A shadow crossed in front of us. A young girl with beautiful red hair around my age, 18, stood looking into the rocks. If she turned her head to the right, she could clearly see Jack and I. As if on cue, she turned her head to the right and her eyes met Jack’s first then mine. She stared at us, surprised that we were there. Blush creeped onto my cheeks as I stared into her bright blue eyes. My heart started to beat faster and I got lost in her eyes.
‘Wait….Why am I feeling like this?’ I thought, feeling my cheeks burn more as I realized how I was feeling.
“Layla? Did you find something?” One of the men asked, bringing me back to reality. Footsteps came closer, then stopped. I silently prayed that the girl wouldn’t reveal us.
“Layla! Did you find something or not?!?” The man asked again, growing impatient at her silence.
“No, John. I did not.” The girl said, snapping out of her trance before turning and walking away from us.
“Will and Ben. Did you find anything?” John ordered the others. They all said no. “Then we’re going home. We can try another day.” John said, walking away to order everyone to go home. The girl glanced at our hiding spot before running to catch up with the people she had came with. Once Jack and I were satisfied that they had all left, Jack took my hand and using his power, we ran home where everyone was waiting.
“Omg! Are you guys alright?” Violet asked us, when we came in, nudging us both affectionately with her head.
“Whoo! Of course they’re alright, Violet! Whoo! If they weren’t they wouldn’t be here! Whoo!” Hedwig scolded Vi.
“Here. I found this while I was hiding,” I told everyone, pulling the stone owl out of my pocket and placing it on the wood table in the middle of the room.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen something like it before.” He answered. A smaller disk popped up, startling us. Taking a careful peek inside, it looked hollow.
‘Weird. I wonder why this would appear if nothing was inside it.’ Thinking to myself. I suddenly got the odd impression that it was scanning all of us, and waiting for something. Like a cue or command.
“What do you think it’s doing?” Pepper asked, sniffing the disk and gently waving her tail behind her. Her tail was exactly like her brother’s, Marty. Red fox tail with a white tip.
All of a sudden, the disk started quickly shooting out shards of something, but too fast for me to see what it was. The shards, or whatever they were, painfully
entered our hearts. We all gasped, clutching our hearts. Well, really Bear
clutched his heart. Everyone else just gasped as they couldn’t reach their hearts since they didn’t have arms. Jack and I held tightly to our matching sweaters, mine red and his black. The force of the blow was so strong that it forced me to fall down onto my back. I looked upwards to see that Jack was pushed against the wall. Grunting, I lifted my head to watch the disk set itself on fire then fading away to ashes.
“What in the blazes was that?!?!?” Jack panted, trying to regain his breath. “I don’t… know.” I panted, slowly pulling myself to a sitting position.
“One of us should go and investigate what the hell this thing was.” Bear growled at the remains of the disk.
Noticing that the owl figure was lying on its side on the floor, it seemed like sometime during whatever just happened, the force had rolled it off the table. A little clasp was on the base. I wondered why I didn’t see it before. I guess that I wasn’t paying attention. I let go of my pounding chest and reached for the figurine, ignoring the headache that was forming in my mind. Priding open the hidden compartment’s door with my thumb, a small piece of paper fell out.
“What’s that Aly?” Oreo said, slowly creeping towards the paper, her pure white bunny ears pressed to her head. Oreo is really shy, but she likes to explore new things, even if it’s dangerous. Talk about mixed personality.
“A piece of paper. There’s writing on it so I think it’s a note.” I told her, stroking her fur with my right fingers and using my left to tightly grab the paper.
“What does it say?” Jack asked me, sitting next to me. Everyone else sat down around me where they could hear what I was saying. I rolled my eyes.
I looked at him, checking to see if he was ready. I gulped after a nod from Jack, then started reading.
“ ‘To save yourselves and your friends from a rocky doom,
go into Ironhaven where you must find an old shop that sells medicine. Tell him your problem and he’ll give you a riddle.
Then you may or may not get a stone owl. In the base will be a note.
Find all 12 stone owls to save
your friends and yourselves before it is too late. Only one may go and look for them.
You have 72 hours. Good luck.
This is the first owl.’ ”
We all sat there in silence. Maybe five minutes went by before Bear broke the silence and said,
“So… which one of you is going? Jack or Aly?” We both looked up at him. “What do you mean Bear?” Jack asked.
“Well… We obviously can’t go to Ironhaven.” Bear said, gesturing to him and the others.
“We’ll be seen instantly. You guys look like them, the men who came earlier, so you can blend in. And the note says that ‘Only one may go and look for them’, so either you or Aly can go. And we already said that we would learn more about that disk thing.” Jack and I looked at each other.
“I say we vote on who goes, but we can’t vote. That will make everything fair.” I said. Half of them voted for Jack, half for Me.
“Is that everyone?” Pepper asked, swishing her tail back and forth curiously. “I didn’t.” Oreo quietly piped up. I took Oreo into my arms. Gently running my finger over her ears, I asked her if she made up her mind.
“Uh-huh,” She murmured, “I think that you have the best chance. I just have a feeling.” She told us.
“I don’t know if you should be going, Al.” Jack told me. Bear nodded his head in agreement.
“Aw… are my two protective teddy bears getting worried?” I teased them, laughing at Jack’s flushed face.
Bear, getting up. I made my way to the door where stairs were leading down. Those stairs would lead to a room where Jack and I keep our weapons and first aid stuff in case something ever happens.
“Hey Aly? How long is 72 hours?” Pepper asked me.
“Kinda long. Why?” I responded, stopping in the doorway and looking over my shoulder.
“How long is it?” Pepper asked again. Sadly, I looked at her.
