“Oh yuk!” cried Roger, “what on Erf is this stuff?”
The basket lying in front of him was indeed full of such diverse, tasty morsels as live, wriggling, pink worms, writhing, green centipedes and scuttling, black beetles, all mixed with a nice salad of yellow, pond-weed strands, brittle, brown twigs and the finest, home-grown mosses of emerald green!
Mary dug him in the ribs with an elbow. “Shhh, Roger, don’t be so rude; we’re their guests, after all, you know. They don’t know what we like, so be polite. We don’t want to make any enemies here, now do we?”
“Thank you very much,” she said to the two birds, taking the two baskets in her hands.
The serving-owls bowed, hooted and blinked their saucer-like eyes and seemed happy they had done their duty; then fluttered out through the knot-hole window and disappeared into the canopy of trees. When she was sure they had gone, she quickly threw the basket’s contents out of the window as well, then innocently put the two empty baskets down onto the floor of the Guest-Nest.
“What a lovely meal that was. Hope you enjoyed it too, Roj!” she said, rubbing her belly.
Mary’s teasing wasn’t of the malicious kind though, and her natural exuberance and sense of humour were very infectious. Roger’s sullen mood melted somewhat, and he grinned back at her, joining in and contentedly rubbing his own stomach.
“Yes, indeed! Those were some of the finest worms I’ve eaten in a while,” he laughed.
Mary explored the Guest-Nest some more, but it was just a very clean and tidy nest, and there wasn’t anything of further interest in it at all. Then she looked up and around her at the tiers of balconies that stretched high above them, and she saw very high up, a balcony much bigger than the others. There she could just about make out the bulky figures of the three Owl Co-Primes. And she could also just about hear that all three of them were engaged in some sort of urgent conference.
“Look up there, Roj,” Mary whispered. “I can see them; the Owl Co-Primes are up there; they seem to be huddled up on that larger balcony, talking to someone. Can you make out who it is they’re talking to? I can’t see who it is.”
Roger dutifully bent his head and peered intently up in the direction Mary was pointing. He quickly spotted the three Giant Owls and saw there were a lot of other birds up there with them as well; all of them of different sorts and sizes, and all listening intently to some other dark and shadowy shape, but he really couldn’t see who it was that was doing the talking.
Roger resumed peering out of the knot-hole window and could tell the sun was getting quite low in the sky now, as a green-tinged gloom spread through the oak tree’s branches. Whatever it was that was happening up there, high inside the ancient oak tree, was something quite important though, as the three Co-Primes were all listening very, very attentively.
Then, just a few minutes later, Roger saw the mysterious inky shape separate itself away from the three Owls and other birds there, and rapidly flicker like a shadow, off and away, through another, but much higher, knot-hole window.
“Well, whatever the Humpty-Dumpty, Humphry Davy, was that? Did you see it, Mary?”
“Yes, yes, I think so, Roj,” she replied. “I sort of saw it, I think, but it moved so quickly. But it definitely wasn’t an Owl though, whatever it was.”
“I thought I saw s-s-s-something like that before, you know, back when we were hiding from the Goat-men, I’m not sure,” Roger muttered, “it looked a bit creepy to me though.”
But then, all at once, their waiting in the Guest-Nest was over. Whoever the visitor had been, and whatever his urgent business had been, it was now all done and dusted.
The three Co-Primes, Strix, Tyton and Athene, left the lofty meeting-place balcony, and flew, gliding down to the Guest-Nest below them. For such big birds, they were incredibly versatile and aerobatic flyers, Roger admiringly observed.
The three Owls swooped silently onto the Guest-Nest and gently perched themselves around its wooden rim, folding in their magnificent and beautiful wings as they did so.
Then Athene took the lead and stepped towards them. It had obviously been decided that, of the three Co-Primes, she should be the Owl Parliament’s official spokesbird.
“Well, dear children,” she began, “we sincerely apologize for causing you any delay, but we now understand the extreme importance of your mission; although, as I understand it, you yourselves do not, as yet. But no matter, we, of course, will allow you to go forwards, and we will do what we can to assist you in fulfilling your mission… ahem, well, I mean continuing your journey, at least taking you to the top of Hooter’s Hill from our Parliament at Castle Oak here, in this our ancient and avian domain of Castle Woods.”
“Hmmmm, now that’s a bit of a change in attitude!” Roger thought.
“Th-th-thank you, Mistress Athene,” Mary stammered; unusually for her, she was almost totally lost for words. But she quickly recovered and pressed on with her explanations. “But, you see, we really are just exploring a bit, an’ we really didn’t mean to annoy or upset anyone. Isn’t that right, Roj?”
“Yes, that’s right.” Roger agreed. “But, what does she mean, our ‘Mission’?” he thought.
“And we’re not actually on a mission as such, either,” Mary continued, “well, not other than fer me, keeping an eye out fer some White-Willow Bark fer me ol’ Gran, fer her poor bone-aches. But you really don’t have to, well, you don’t have to, you know, put yerselves out, or anything… erm.”
She stumbled to a stop, as the giant Lady Owl just looked at her very intently and looked very much like she was somehow, well, just smiling at her.
“How on Erf does an Owl smile anyway,” Mary thought to herself, incredulously, but realizing that, after all, here she was in fact, having a conversation with a live, giant one… and up in a magical tree to boot!
Roger thought he had better say something as well, just to back Mary up. He felt that he had to somehow show her he really could be like a bold and brave knight of old, if needs be.
“Yes, er, M-m-mistress Athene, that’s quite right, what Mary says, an’ as it’s getting on, we best be going, you know; got to get home for tea and all that. Our p-p-parents will worry. So, you really don’t have to bother yourselves. We’ll come back another day, though, if that’s alright; so th-tha-thank you very much, anyway.”
But Athene said nothing in reply to that. The three Giant Owls just stood completely still and silent, perched at the rim of the Guest-Nest and looking intently at the children with their big, unblinking eyes boring down on them, and their sharp, hooked beaks agape, as if each was about to say something, but just couldn’t quite decide what.
What the Owls were thinking though was, “Hopeless Humdrums; what can yooou dooo?”
The Owls were far too well-mannered however, to say anything like that out loud.
What Athene had decided was to take a good, firm wing and claw with these two young humans. They may not be too ‘well-nourished in the head’ department, which was really her way of saying ‘stupid,’ but she now knew they were here on Hooter’s Hill for a very good reason; and one that demanded the Parliament of Owls’ utmost respect and attention.
She and her Co-Primes had been told enough by their mysterious and shady visitor, but she was also wise enough to know that the Co-Prime Owls had not, as yet, been told all.