The Tree-King would soon set that right though, she thought. At the up and coming Court meeting. Also, it seemed, these two skinny and poorly prepared Humdrum children had not yet actually been told anything about what was really happening in the world at large, at all. Seems they were to be nudged and guided – but not coerced and enforced.
“Now, Mary – it is Mary isn’t it?” asked Athene. “All I can say is that you are quite right; yes, you are on an adventure, and you are exploring too, Roger,” she added, looking at Roger. “We know that your kind isn’t used to our kind at all, and you may even have some strange ideas about us, but we do wish you well, and we are definitely not your enemies. I hope you do appreciate and understand that?”
Both Roger and Mary realized by Athene’s tone that they were being spoken to in an adult way and about very important matters, though they weren’t at all sure why.
“Yes, Mistress Athene, we understand,” Mary answered for them both.
“Now despite you Humdrums, excuse me, you young humans,” she continued demurely, “encroaching as you have upon our avian territories, we do know it is but a relatively few of your own kind who are dedicated to a belligerent and bellicose course of action, and who are truly responsible for the chopping down of so many of our ancestral trees and the polluting of so many of the Great Forest’s pristine streams. But we do not blame the child for the hate and greed of the parent! Do you understand?”
“Y-y-yes, Ma’am, I m-m-mean, Mistress Athene, I understand … I think,” said Roger, now looking like he’d just been told off, but quite politely, by some Headteacher at school.
“Yes, me too,” said Mary, “but, we can always come back and visit you here another day, you know. And we’d only come if we were invited, honest we would. We don’t want to harm anyone at all, as I said, really, we promise, we don’t!”
“My Dear, You, are not the problem, I can assure you, but alas there won’t be another day, I do fear, not unless you and your friend take the true path and the adventure that awaits you! Please believe me when I tell you … your destiny lies ahead of you, and not behind.”
Athene now paused; her tawny chest feathers ruffled as if a shiver had run through her.
“Children, I can tell you this much; you both have a much higher calling, and I advise you very strongly to listen to that calling. The age-old realms of Mother Nature and of Mankind and Machines are at odds and have been increasingly divided. The rift between our realms grows ever wider. I urge you to listen to your true natures. If you do so, then you can help heal that rift. Now, no more chatter and chirp; for now, we must fly!”
And with that, the Giant Owl, Strix, spread his wings and arched over Mary and took her firmly in his talons and beating his mighty wings took off, gliding out through the magically expanding knot-hole of the oak-tree, and up and away, heading to the top of Hooter’s Hill.
Then Tyton did the same with Roger, and the two Owls soared skilfully upwards, Roger dangling a little behind Mary, through the soft blue haze of the late afternoon sky.
Athene took off and swiftly followed. The three Giant Owls flapped and flew upwards, curling higher into the sky, catching the thermals there in order to ascend the ever-steepening gradient of the top half of Hooter’s Hill.
As they flew onward and upward, Roger and Mary could see the lush, wooded landscape spread out below them like they’d never seen it before, a patchwork of meadows and woods that stretched into the distance all around. Behind them the little silver trail of their own river, the River Quaggy, pencil-scrawled its winding way, marking the forbidden border between the so-called ‘Bad’ and the ‘Good’ Woods. But right ahead of them loomed the ever-rising, tree-covered slopes, of Hooter’s Hill.
As they paralleled the slant of the wooded hillside, the trees grew more and more stunted, becoming increasingly scattered and scarce, until the very last of the trees and owls, or any other birds, lay far beneath and behind them. Then, at last, they were nearing the very top of the highest hill in South Lundun.
The curved top of Hooter’s Hill jutted like a monk’s shiny, bald head, above the higher, wind-blown scrubland and the lower-lying, dense, green tresses of the Bad Wood.
The never-before-seen inner-reaches of the Bad Wood, beyond Hooter’s Hill, now spread out before them, in a grand and sweeping panorama of undulating treetops, swaying in the breeze. A sea of wild, green trees of all sorts and sizes, that flourished as far as the eye could see. It was to their eyes, a vast verdant ocean of unknown and unexplored Tree-dom!
The Owls gently dropped them onto the crown of the hill, which was a broad and grassless area of sand and rock, sitting high above the treeline from which they’d flown.
Athene, Strix, and Tyton stood together, like three solemn, giant Owl-Statues, looking out over the green expanse of the Great Forest of Lundun. To them, this was home. There was nothing ‘Bad’ about it at all.
Athene finally ruffled her feathers and spoke her parting words of wisdom to them.
“We have brought you this far and no further as it is believed best that hereon you decide yourselves on what your next course of action should be. Remember, Children, the wise bird knows he yet has much to learn. Do not assume all you have been taught is either true – or even all there is to know. I would advise you both endeavour to learn to unlearn – and having unlearned – then learn anew – and then what you do know … is what is truuue for yooou!”
Roger was bewildered by all this and just stood, saying nothing and looking down at the ground, nervously shuffling his feet. He’d found the whole flying experience very unsettling. What on Erf was this Owl telling him? That all his hard work at school and being top of his class each year, was a waste of time and something to unlearn? He really didn’t get that at all!
Mary though, did understand what the wise, old bird was getting at. Or she thought she did. Her dear Gran had said something very similar to her, many times, over the last couple of years or so.
“You do what you can do at yer School Mary, and you does yer best, but the best lessons there are, are the ones you learns yerself, especially from ol’ Mother Nature.”
Athene now lifted one of her stately wings and plucked a large tawny feather from it with her pointed beak and lifted it towards Mary. “Take this, young one. I believe it will help you both on your ways, whatever way that happens to be!” she told her, with a bright twinkle in her large, round eyes. Mary graciously took the offered feather, twirling it around between her fingers and thanking the Giant Tawny Owl for her gift.
“What on Erf are we going to do with a feather?” Roger gasped at her, but Mary gave him a sharp, hot glare, and he quickly apologized.
“Oops, s-s-s-sorry, Ma’am. Thank you, very kind, I’m sure,” he said meekly.
The three Giant Owls now took flight again, swooping and hooting and circling together, right over them. As they dived and flew away, Athene called out in her regal, Queenly tones.
“Farewell and Fare Well, yooou Adventurers Twooo, we will meet again soon, but before we dooo, you must see the Sign; you will know it when you see it. Too truuue, too truuue!”
And with that, she flew away, with her fellow Co-Primes in tow, swooping and gliding back down the hill to the bird-filled trees of Castle Woods and their Castle Oak-Tree and the pressing business of the awaiting Owl Parliament.
Roger though, was a bit peeved about it all. “Well, what’s that s’posed to mean, anyway?” he griped. “Oh, we’re in for it now aren’t we? We’ve got even further to go now haven’t we, just to walk back home?” he moaned rather grumpily, standing glumly with his arms crossed while surveying the forest scenery stretched before him; all with a very serious, ‘grown-up’ frown on his petulant, boyish face.