I'll Fly Away
Mother owl was a barn owl who stood in her tree hollow, staring at her five new eggs. It was her first clutch to bring into the world, not knowing the trouble it would bring her.
Day 9: The sun dipped below the horizon and mother owl knew her time to hunt had come. Perching in the entrance of her tree hollow, she scanned the surrounding tree branches and spotted a crow that stared back at her, motionless.
Mother owl knew she couldn’t leave her unborn young ones alone while mister crow lurked about, so she stayed and stared back at him. She knew from experience she could kill a crow if she wanted to, but thought there might be other crows nearby who would want revenge on her. Mother owl couldn’t risk her babies’ safety.
Minutes passed, but mister crow was still on his branch, watching. Mother owl did not want to draw attention to her hollow, but she saw no other option in order to get mister crow to leave her home alone. She began to screech at mister crow. It was loud and disturbing, but eventually, it worked causing mister crow to flap his wings and fly away. Mother owl waited a bit, before spreading her wings and flying away for her hunt.
Young opossum was three months old and wanted to prove his independence as his opossum family went along the floor of the woods. He decided he would climb the tree he saw a barn owl fly away from, to see if it had a nest up there filled with some delicious eggs. Mother opossum didn’t want any trouble, but she saw no choice other than to follow her foolhardy child as he ran towards the tree and began to climb. With the rest of her children on her back, she didn’t want to take the risk of climbing the tree herself, so she stared up at young opossum from the base of the tree, worriedly waiting.
Young opossum made it to the hollow of the tree, looked inside, and saw the clutch of eggs just waiting for him. As young opossum began to crawl inside the tree hollow to claim his prize, he heard a chilling screech come from behind him. Before he knew what happened, young opossum had mother owl’s talons piercing his insides, and mother owl’s sharp bill crushing his skull.
Mother opossum saw mother owl return to the tree hollow and go for young opossum. Her heart was torn between fight or flight, but her five other children on her back weighed down the side of flight, and she scurried away as fast as she could.
Day 21: It was once again twilight – time for mother owl’s hunt. As she poked her head out of her tree hollow, she once again saw mister crow staring back at her.
As she was about to let a loud screech out, mister crow flew away. Holding her smug owl face high as she watched mister crow fly, mother owl didn’t notice old grey fox until he had a paw on her.
Old grey fox had been walking along in the woods, two days without a decent meal. He looked and saw a crow not far up a tree, and he was desperate enough to take his chances on going for it.
Halfway up the tree, old grey fox saw mister crow flap to the branch of a different tree, but old grey fox was too hungry to be discouraged. The branch mister crow flew away from led to a hollow in the tree, and old grey fox thought this crow he was after might have some eggs in there. He continued to climb the tree, and as old grey fox got close to the hollow, he saw mother owl pop out of it.
Not believing his good fortune, old grey fox took a swipe at mother owl. His intention was to pin her to the tree so he could bite her, but he ended up knocking her out of the tree. Old grey fox had to catch himself to make sure he didn’t fall off the tree as well, and as he worked to get a good grip, his eyes caught a glimpse of the delicious eggs resting inside the tree hollow. Ready to feast, old grey fox stuck a paw inside the hollow, and as he did, he received a talon into his left eye.
With his right eye, old grey fox could see it was mother owl who was causing him such pain. He bit at mother owl, unable to get a hold of her. The last thing old grey fox saw was mother owl’s sharp bill going into his last remaining eye. Old grey fox let go of the tree and fell to the ground. Unfortunately, he did not die, and had to spend the rest of his time wandering the woods, blind.
If old grey fox had been a younger more capable fox, mother owl was sure she would’ve been his dinner. Mother owl went into her hollow to rest and was devastated to find that, of the five, her two favorite eggs had been destroyed.
Day 60: All three of mother owl’s little owlets were chirping away as the evening came, letting their mother know it was time for her to find them some dinner. Mother owl perched herself in the entrance to the tree hollow and looked along the ground and the nearby branches. With no sign of anything worth worrying about, mother owl took off into the darkening woods.
Mister crow watched mother owl fly away as he waited, hidden high up in a different tree. Once she was out of sight, he flew down and into mother owl’s tree hollow. Inside, mister crow stood over mother owl’s defenseless owlets. Now would be his time of revenge for mother owl killing the other two crows he had in his murder three months before.
With a quick succession of pecks, mister crow killed one of the chirping owlets. He kept pecking even though the nestling was dead. Mister crow stopped and turned towards his next owlet, itching to give it the peck, but before he could, mother owl swooped into the tree hollow and used her sharp bill to tear away at mister crow’s neck. It didn’t take long before mister crow was dead.
A few weeks later, the two young owls took their first flights. They enjoyed the freedom of being away from their tree hollow, not knowing the troubles life would bring them.