Exodus Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight
The Movies Don't Change


Mrs. Winter was right about the cell phone reception being bad. In fact, it was so far beyond bad that I couldn’t reach anyone and my texts didn’t actually send. My mother just made an off hand comment about how at least some good comes from a crisis when I told her, so I don’t think that she was being particularly sympathetic. The land lines still worked, and so we eventually all agreed to meet at now closed Mr. Pickle Diner. I mean, we had been doing that already, but now we actually made that a scheduled meet up, since it was harder to coordinate without our own phones.

The sky was still clear and seemed to absorb all the noise. The days were still and quiet and cold. The light from the sun seemed hollow when contrasted with the cold air. Everything seemed eerie, like we were just about to get the biggest storm we'd ever known. The air was so dry that our skin kept cracking, and chap stick had become a coveted item and the corner store had run out very quickly. Everything was brittle and sharp from the lack of water, leaves and bark were like sand paper and steak knives against our hands. The whole world seemed to be on edge, waiting and worried to see what would happen next. The weather and seasons felt like us, as though everything was primed to explode.

Owl and Wolf were already at the Diner when I showed up. Raven arrived next, and Viper was the last to arrive.

“What took you so long?" Owl asked Viper.

“I got yelled at by my dad. He was cranky, because he didn't have his morning coffee. And apparently the brats whining because we're out of Sugar Bomb cereal is my fault. They had me do all their dishes before they let me go. I think it was meant to be a punishment, but I do all the chores in the house anyway, so it's just more of the same. At some point woodland creatures are going to start helping me every time I sing.”

“My mom had coffee this morning.” I said.

“You mom is part of the government.” Viper said.

“My mom has enough coffee stored to last till the end of the world.” Owl added.

“So not very long then?” Viper asked.

“This isn’t the end of the world.” Owl said.

“Just the end of my world.” Viper said.

“Not just yours,” I added, “Mom told me that Mrs. Pinchen put Mrs. Urban in the hospital.”

“How?”

“Mrs. Pinchen slapped Mrs. Urban so hard she popped something in Mrs. Urban's eye. Doctor Morrow doesn't think Mrs. Urban will be able to see out that eye ever again.”

“What were they fighting over?”

“Cigarettes. The stores are out and both ladies are smokers. Mrs. Pinchen still has some cigarettes left, and wouldn't share with Mrs. Urban. Mrs Urban tried to grab the cigarette in Mrs. Pinchen's mouth. And Mrs. Urban slapped her.”

"They haven't changed the movies at the theatre." I noted as we wandered through town.

"Of course they haven't. The road is closed, where are the new movies going to come from?" Viper said.

"I hadn't thought of that."

"If they can't get new food in the grocery store, they aren't going to get new movies either." Raven added.

"Adults are useless." Owl said.

The biggest change was that I wasn't allowed to attend the town council meetings anymore. We just found out about the changes that were going to happen when they happened. My mom stopped talking about the meetings too, but she always came back from them angry.

We finally found out what was being stored in the school. It was kind of anti-climactic given all the mystery that had surrounded it. Most of what was stored in the school turned out to food like rice that would last without refridgeration for years. But although it was anti-climactic, it was decidedly creepy. This meant that Mr. Wolf and Mrs. Winter had been expecting people to run out of food.

With the road closed off and food supplies from anywhere else entirely stopped, the Pulp and Paper Union workers had started handing out rations of food to those families who didn't have enough food to feed themselves. It wasn't much though, a ration of rice and canned ham and canned green beans and a multi-vitamin per person.

I suppose that it was necessary, but it was really unpleasant to watch. In order to qualify for rationing, people had to prove that they had run out of food or that their food supplies were too low to manage without assistance. And, I mean that seemed reasonable, but what that really meant was that Union got search their house. In the process the Union normally confiscated tools and other equipment that they had deemed useful to the council. Hunting equipment and firearms were always taken, I noticed. I don't think that they had the actual authority to take the things that they took, but if people wanted the food ration, that was how it was. I know that my mother didn't like it. But ten police officers did not have the ability to go against over 60 Union members. Mr. Tailor's resignation had made the power dynamic here in town frighteningly clear.

I noticed that the Union members were carrying night sticks since the avalanche. I asked my mother about it.

"It's a temporary accommodation." She had said.

I didn't know what she meant by that, but her voice didn't sound happy, and I wondered about the whole 'temporary' thing.

I also noticed that a bunch of the places that had shut down, like the Mr. Pickle Diner, were now being used by the Union to store things, generally equipment and tools confiscated from people who needed the food rations. I know that Mr. and Mrs. Butters weren't in the Union, but apparently they were either willing to let the Union use their Diner as a storage facility, or unable to stop them from using it. I didn't like either possibility.

A bunch of power lines were down because of the avalanche, and as a result electrical use was now heavily restricted. One one light on at a time after dark. No lights on during daylight. All to conserve energy. Cars and trucks were taken off the road. And the gas from most people's vehicles was systematically siphoned for use by 'official' vehicles and 'necessary' vehicles. Mostly it was used for big pick up trucks that the Union members used to transport their equipment. Safehope Bluff wasn't big enough for that to cause too many problems, and anyone with a farm or similar got to count their vehicle as 'necessary'- so that was something.

And in addition to the Nightsticks, the Union got a lot more formal and police looking in their patrols. From my bedroom each night I could see them walking the streets and counting lights in the windows as the sun went down. One night I saw them give Mr. Brown's house a look as sun down hit. He had several lights on. After a moment they walked up his front walkway. I watched from the window as three big men in reflective vest knocked on Mr. Brown's door. I popped open the window and listened as Mr. Brown answered the door.

"Sir. Your lights are on in multiple rooms. We'll need you to turn off the excess lights to conserve energy."

Mr. Brown put his leathery hands on his hips and shook his head slowly.

"You better look at the solar panels on my roof. Because I don't use anyone else's power in the evenings to light my house. Now go bother somebody who is wasting energy."

And with that Mr. Brown closed the door. The Union guys left, but most people didn’t have Mr. Brown’s solar panels and so when the Union showed up, most people had to back down.

And it wasn't just that the Union was acting like a police force a military unit, they were also recruiting people to assist in their duties. Volunteering meant a increase to rations, even if you didn't need a food ration. This was apparently because the volunteers were supposed to be working more and thus needed more food.

Most of the volunteers were given reflective vests and put to work storing food and supplies and directing traffic and things like that. But some of the volunteers, men who were bigger and more imposing, were given heavy black vests and sunglasses that I recognized as police issue. I remembered the sunglasses from the last meeting I attended, where the Union wore them for the first time. The effect was creepy and dehumanizing. These were all people I knew.

Safehope is a small town and everyone knows everyone. But behind those sunglasses, the people seemed to vanish behind a wall of unknown. Behind the sunglasses, people ceased to be people I knew. They became 'They' with a capital 'T'. Behind the sunglasses and underneath the black vests a group emerged: They. They never seemed like real people, always like a group or a mob or a shadow across the floor. Always They, always Them. They were a large mass of black that moved like and army and marched in time to some dark drum. They were order, They were rules, They were silence, and They were death.

I don't remember when we stopped doing school classes. They just kind of run out of steam. All the adults were too distracted. And so the kids were all just kind of left to do whatever. And I could tell that the adults really just didn't want us to be under foot, and didn't want to have to look at us for too long. It was that second part that scared me. They didn't know what to do. I could see it in their eyes. They didn't know how this was going to end and they weren't sure that they could promise us kids a happy ending. And so they didn't want to look at us, or have to face the fact that they didn't know. And so we were just kind of left to do whatever.

We had started to avoid main roads and areas where They tended to work. They were the only adults who didn't have a problem talking with us, and they all talked like bad TV government agents. I think it was the sun glasses. They were pushy and obnoxious and we generally just avoided them. Although we would watch them from a distance.

"This is ugly." I said, looking down at the school with all the people in reflective vests milling around moving food and supplies here and there.

Raven clenched her fists, "People are supposed to be happy. I try to make people happy every day. But this is bad, worse than people not being happy. People are happy about things that are making everything worse. People are being happy for the wrong reasons. And soon everyone will realize that the happiness is wrong, and then they'll start lying- pretending to be happy on the outside and crying on the inside."

"People shouldn't make themselves happy, by making other people cry. It's wrong. That's how you spot the villain in any story. Who kicks the dog? Who hurts their friends? Who's mean? Who's petty? You can see the bad guys a mile away. It isn't what they do. It's how they do it. A villain could find a way to make saving the world a horrible thing."

"Adults ruin everything." Wolf said bitterly.

“Adults are useless.” Owl added.

"They're trying to fix things." Raven said.

"This is fixing? Can you imagine the school opening again?" Viper said.

"I can't imagine anything being the same again." I said.

"I can't imagine tomorrow." Owl said.

"That what I want, you know. I want to see tomorrow." You know, I don't remember who said this. I remember it being said, but I don't remember who said it. It's funny how that is. But really, it could have been any of us. Everything was still broken. Owl and Viper were still being 'friends only', and everything that seemed certain before- new movies and breakfast cereal and cell phone reception- it was all gone now.

"Come on, we'll take the shortcut through the alleyway." Owl said as we left our perch.

We turned the corner into the alleyway an all stopped in our tracks. Ahead of us, clustered around something we couldn't see, were six thin and hungry looking coyotes. They looked up at us with bloody muzzles as we stopped, less than ten feet between them and us.

"What are they doing in town?"

"It's winter, they're probably hungry."

The coyotes did look hungry. They were lean, I could the ribs under the fur on two of them. Their coats looked reasonably well kept, which I concluded meant that they were probably healthy. But they did look hungry. The looked at us with eyes that practically glittered with hunger.

Frisk growled, and Owl shushed him quickly. I looked down at the Terrier. Every single one of his muscles was tensed for combat. The coyotes seemed unimpressed though.

"But we never see them actually in town. We only ever see them on the outskirts."

"Maybe people aren't watching them as closely as they used to."

"Maybe there's more to eat."

"We have less to eat. Why would there be more to eat if we're running low on food."

"What are they eating? Maybe that will tell us."

We spread out, trying to see around the coyotes to their meal. Raven saw it first and gasped.

"what is it?"

"It's one of Mrs. Giller's cats!"

I could see the cat's body now. The coyotes had opened up its belly and were in the process pulling its insides out and and devouring them. The cat's fur was powder grey and the dirt and asphalt of the alleyway were spattered with crimson. I felt sick for the cat. It somehow seemed to be part human, or part of the town at least. And the coyotes seemed alien here in the town, like invaders, or maybe vultures circling.

We were silent for a long moment. Then Owl spoke.

"People have started asking me how I can manage to feed Frisk. Like, there's something wrong with me feeding him. I'll bet people are having trouble feeding their pets. I'll bet pets are hungry, and starving, and easy prey for the animals that are used to not being fed by humans."

"The wild animals are eating our pets?"

"Meat is meat. And I don't think people are caring for their pets as carefully as they used to do. But Frisk and I like brothers. I'll die before I let him starve, before I let him get hurt, before I let him die."

Thoughts ran through my brain at this. I remembered hearing people at the council meetings talk about stockpiling pet food to prepare for a worst case scenario. I had thought that they meant for the pets. But, what if they had meant that we should stockpile the pet food for people? In that case, a lot of people wouldn't be feeding their pets.

"Speaking of which, aren't we meat?"

The coyotes were still eyeing us more than a little hungrily. There were five of us- six counting Frisk- and six of them, but we were bigger. But then again, we didn't have teeth or claws. And we weren't used to killing our own food.

I took a slow step back reflexively.

"Do we run?"

"Can you outrun a pack of wild animals?"

"I don't know."

"We're bigger and there are almost as many of us. Maybe we can scare them off."

"Maybe we can go our separate ways."

"Maybe we can get eaten like Mrs. Giller's cat."

We stared at the coyotes for what seemed like hours, but was probably much shorter. Finally the coyotes seemed to come to some sort of a conclusion about us, and they returned to their meal.

We traded glances and then slowly backed out of the alley, with Owl holding Frisk's collar to force the dog to retreat.

We were still meeting with Mildred Sanger though. She wasn't bothered by the crisis, or if she was then she didn't show it. I don't think Mildred saw herself as part of the same group that the rest of the town saw themselves as part of, and so our parents all felt as though they were failing because the system seemed to be failing- whereas Mildred seemed to see it the same way I would see a news report about an earthquake in China. Her calm during everything was powerful and reason enough to keep talking with her. But her talk about warriors is really what kept drawing us back.

Now that there weren't really classes anymore, Mildred didn't go out much. I suspect that she had enough food to last, but she didn't make a fuss and just stayed below everyone's radar.

Now that cell phones were virtually useless, we were meeting in front of the closed Mr. Pickle Diner each day to save trouble. One morning, Sparrow cornered us in front of the Diner.

"Why are you talking to Mildred Sanger when you're not in class?" He demanded. “We don’t even have classes anymore.”

Raven shook her head, "It's private, If it were our business to say, we would. You'll have to ask her."

"This town is dying of secrets." Sparrow said, "All the adults are keeping secrets and lying to us, and now so are we."

Owl tilted his head at Sparrow, "We aren't lying. We told you guys last time that she’s decided to be our mentor. You want to know more, then ask her- if you're brave enough. If she thinks you're up for it, she'll tell you. But here's the secret, if you don't think you're up for it, then there is no way she's think you're up for it. So how big is your mojo little man?"

“Fine, I’ll ask her. When are you meeting her next?”

“We were just about to head over now.”

“Then can I come along?”

"Fine. If you want to come with us, you can come with us. But Mildred will decide if you can stay. And either way you can't tell Mouse about this. He talks to the wrong people."

When we arrived Mildred looked at Sparrow in mild surprise.

"Are you expanding your warrior circle? Building a new tribe?" She asked.

"He wanted to come along and learn from you too."

"Wonderful, welcome aboard Sparrow."

"Thanks,” Sparrow said, “The new restrictions are creeping me out. I don't understand why they're doing things they way they are. It like they're trying to build a prison to keep everyone safe. And that seems weird to me. Hawk is angry at you guys, because she thinks you're holding out some big secret. I figured, it probably isn't like that- so I thought that I would ask. "

"Of course they’re adding more restrictions. A group of slaves can only build more plantations." Mildred said flatly. "We're going to do something new this time. I'm going to trick your minds into looking into the dark recesses for information that might otherwise be inaccessible."

"What you mean?"

Mildred Sanger reached into a drawer in the hardwood coffee table and removed an old deck of cards. They looked different from normal playing cards, with fancier pictures and different names.

"Tarot Cards." Viper breathed the words out softly.

"Are they magic?" I asked.

Mildred snorted, "They are magic in the same way fire was magic to cavemen- something powerful and not yet fully understood. Magic is simply power that one person understands and many other people do not. When a magician makes something disappear, they have simply concealed it in a way you do not see. Their power comes from your ignorance. These are no different."

"My Mom says stuff like that is witchcraft." Viper said.

Mildred shuffled the cards, "That are paste and paper with pictures on them. Nothing more. Provocative images and vague names that invite interpretation. The cards are useful because we can read so much into them, they let us surprise ourselves."

"That sounds silly." Wolf said.

"Then you won't mind if we use you as the first example." Mildred said.

Mildred quickly laid out three of the cards face down. Wolf stared at the cards. Mildred turned the first card over. The card showed a boy tied up and blindfolded with swords all around him.

"The first card shows you. This is the Eight of swords- the prisoner."

Wolf fidgeted uncomfortably.

She turned over the second card revealing a King on his throne holding a sceptre.

"The second card is the dominant influence on your life. This is the Emperor, the strong- normally male- dominant figure who imposes order and rules."

Wolf stood up, "This is crap. I don't want to listen to this."

"Sit down child. Your fear will not change what is so."

"I am not afraid!" Wolf squared his shoulders and glared at Mildred.

"Then prove it, by not running away."

A silence stretched between Mildred and Wolf, and then Wolf slowly sat back down and Mildred turned over the last card.

"The last card indicates the way forward."

Wolf looked down at the card, a man paddled a boat with six swords in it.

"The Six of Swords. This card is the boatman. It indicates a dangerous journey."

"How did you do that?" Wolf asked cautiously.

"I did nothing. These cards are just that- cards. Whatever meaning these images and words have to you, are meanings you gave them. This could easily be applied to the whole town as well. We are prisoners of the new unofficial town council, who certainly qualify as a strong dominant figure imposing order and rules. Wouldn't you say?"

"So they don't mean anything?" Raven asked.

"They mean what you think they mean. Their magic is in helping you see things that you wouldn't normally want to look at. They are gateway to your subconscious and your instincts and your buried secrets." Mildred looked pointedly at Wolf, who looked away.

"So what are we does the Six of Swords mean?" Owl asked.

"It means what you think it means." Mildred answered, "I am sure that Rabbit's mother would say that it means that the journey back to stable society will be dangerous. I know what it means to me. But only you can decide what it means to you."

Owl grinned with his trademark grin, “I always decide what things mean in my life. I wouldn't let somebody else tell me what anything in my life means. It's my life, not theirs, I have to live with it.”

Mildred nodded, “ Precisely. Magic.”

"So how does all this help us become warriors?" Owl asked.

"There are three things that you must be able to do if you are going to be a warrior. You must be able to think for yourself, provide for yourself, and defend yourself. Anything less and you are not a warrior.”

“If you cannot think for yourself, then somebody else will be happy to think for you. If you cannot provide for yourself then you are at the mercy of whoever is handing out the food. If you cannot defend yourself, then anyone can take what they want from you.”

“What I am attempting to do is teach you how to think for yourself. I am trying to trick you into looking in different places so you become comfortable thinking in new ways. I am trying to challenge your understanding of the world, so that you will learn to do the same thing yourself. I am trying to force you to consider contradictions and paradoxes and unpleasant truths, because the truth is not always pretty and frequently messy and not easily delineated.”

“You need to build all three skill sets, but if you do not start with critical thinking, then the other two abilities can frequently be used against you by somebody willing to think for you."

“I get it,” Wolf said, "Spider-man always knew that 'With great power come great responsibility'. And what we know is power, even if it isn't a radioactive spider. We have a duty to do something with it." Wolf crossed him arms and looked at us one at a time.

"So how did you learn this stuff?" Sparrow asked Mildred.

"I learned it the hard way, by making the same mistakes over and over again until the lesson was hammered home so hard even a stubborn girl like myself couldn't miss it."

"I don't understand." Owl said.

Mildred Sanger sighed.

"I used to be quite the wild child. I dated who I liked and had fun whenever I liked. And then I learned that acting like that could hurt people. Everything has consequences, I learned. I could have fun, but I might hurt other people and the people they were with, and their children. I hurt people, never intentionally- but what does that change? And so I do penance, to families and to children, for the damage that my fun caused."

That pretty much wrapped the talk up for that day. Mildred got us tea after we had finished the big lesson, she normally forgot until that point anyway. She had also taken to sending us out with what she called homework. She wanted us to build up our ability to survive without outside help. Raven had wanted to look up books on gardening and stuff like that. But since it was winter now, Owl argued that there wasn't much point until we could actually try to grow stuff. Instead, Owl suggested that we talk to his mom and get information about how she stored food and hunting and snares and stuff like that. Raven never liked to cause problems if she didn't have to, and so we found ourselves heading to Owl's house to talk to his mom. When we got there, we found her out front raking up the leaves in the front yard. She looked up as we approached.

"Wolf! Why aren't you wearing a proper jacket. Winter is coming. You should be dressing in layers to trap the air. Your body will heat it faster that way." Owl's Mom looked sternly at Wolf as she spoke.

"I'm not cold ma'am."

"When your body temperature drops below 35 celsius and you get hypothermia, then we'll talk again. “

"Mom, we were talking about how my friends need to get some experience hunting and being self reliant and all that stuff. And I figured you could help us."

“Owl, if you want to do some hunting, then you can get our dinner, I'm thinking rabbits. Try the logging road on Dzunukwa Hill. And don't let anybody see you hunting without me. I don't want to lose my license or get fined because you were sloppy."

“Is anyone really going to check these days?”

“I have no intention of risking the wrong kind of attention with your principal acting like Mussolini and Wolf’s father acting as her enforcer. So keep out of sight. Do you understand me?”

"Sure mom."

"Well you get going then. But if this is for them to learn, then you can't be hot dogging and showing off. You need to let them try as well."

"I will mom."

As we got ready to head out, Sparrow asked, "Can we bring my friends? We don't have to mention what Mildred told us, or even your Mom. But would you guys be cool with bring in my friends. I mean we all should know this, shouldn't we?"

Owl made a face. But Raven nodded before he could say anything. "That sounds smart. I like that. Do you know where they'll be?"

"We can probably find them if we go to town hall and find out what the junior volunteers are doing?"

At the Town Hall we were told that the volunteers were putting up what the adults there called public awareness posters. Apparently most of the people putting them up were working downtown, and so we headed there.

We found them together working to put up big paper notices that were almost as tall as any one of us. They were using some sort of paste that they would paint onto stone walls and then stick the poster against the painted wall and then paint over the poster itself with more paste. It was an awkward task from the look of it. And none of them looked as though they were enjoying it.

"And this song goes out to everyone working hard for the man!" Sparrow announced as we got close.

"It doesn't matter how often you say it, that is a really stupid catch phrase." Hawk said looking up at our approach, "So what are you doing with the freak and his friends?"

"They're going hunting for rabbits and Owl said he's willing to teach us how to do it too. Want to come?"

"Why would we want to learn how to hunt for rabbits?" Hawk said dismissively.

"Because you moms are getting into fistfights in the grocery store over what's left." Viper said flatly.

"Sounds like fun. What are we going to be hunting with? Rifles." Lion said.

Owl shook his head, "Throwing sticks."

"You can't hit a rabbit by throwing a stick at it." Hawk said.

"Well maybe you can't. But I do it on a pretty regular basis."

"Well, if you can do it- I can learn it." Lion said confidently.

"That does sound pretty cool." Mouse added.

Maize just shook her head and smiled, "I'm not really interested in the hunting, but I'd rather spend time with friends on a walk in the woods than I would putting up posters for Hawks so-called mentors."

"Hey, this is important." Hawk said defensively.

I looked at the text on the big poster. It was a list of the requirements to be eligible for food from the Official Town supply.

"Would you rather know how to hutn rabbits with a throwing stick, or wait in line for a handout?" Owl added.

Hawk paused, and then said, "We finish this poster and then clean up. Then we can go."

Finishing the poster took another five minutes or so. But washing the paste off their hands took Hawk and her gang about an extra twenty minutes. But once, that was done we headed out to Dzunukwa Hill to hunt rabbits.

Everyone knew about the legend of Dzunukwa- the Ogre lady. She was a legend of the local band: a pale old lady who whistles like wind through the trees and captures children and carries them home in a basket to eat. She is supposed to be like a sasquatch in some stories and an old witch in other ones. Parents in town had picked up the story from the Band elders years ago and Dzunukwa or the Ogre Lady had become the local boogeyman- like the Jersey Devil or the Mothman.

The story had shifted from the original legends. A huge number of crows nested on Dxunukwa Hill, and although Raven said that the original story doesn't mention crows, local stories generally had Dzunukwa using crows as spies, and feeding crows with bits of cooked children. The stories have been around so long that people call her Ogre Lady or Crow Lady more often than Dzunukwa these days.
The stories say that she can heal from any wound, and only burning her would kill her. The stories also say that she is blind or nearly blind, but with an amazing sense of smell.

I didn't know if I believed in the Ogre Lady, but I did know that I always felt a little creeped out walking through the cedar trees on Dzunukwa Hill and hearing the wind whistle around me.

Owl pulled a pile of sticks from his backpack that looked almost like boomerangs, if the person making them hadn't seen a boomerang before. The sticks were longer than most boomerangs that I had seen. Thye had a bend in them, but is was a more gentle curve that the sharp bend of a boomerang, and the bend was closer to one side the the boomerangs sold in the toy stores.

"There are a lot of different throwing stick styles out there. This is the one I was taught to use, so it's the one that I'm going to teach you to use." Owl said. "The trick is to throw it side arm away from your body."

"Yeah, but I can get a stronger throw if I do it overhand." Lion said.

Owl shook his head, "If you throw overhand, you aren't going to egt the right spin and it will either go straight into the ground or it will curve away to one side. It needs to spin, kind of like a frisbee."

"Look, I know you're like the hunt guru or something, but let me do it my way and I'll show you, and the pretty ladies, just what I can do."

Raven looked at Viper and rolled her eyes. Viper nodded in agreement. Maize walked over to them and I could hear her whisper, "Get used to this. He never stops."

Hawk slipped beside them, “Besides,” She whispered, “The pretty ones are always dumb.”

Lion whipped the throwing stick over his head like a major league pitcher throwing a fast ball. The stick spun like a buzzsaw and cut a path down through the air and buried itself in the forest floor. Lion stared at the stick in frustration as it protruded from the soil like a grave marker. He stalked heavily over and ripped the stick from the ground. He walked back to the group and winked at Raven with a grin from a toothpaste commercial and then turned back and threw the stick with the same overhanded throw again. He released his grip earlier this time. The stick flew further, but inevitably the rotation drew the stick down and it buried itself in the dirt again.

"That was better." Lion said, maybe to us and maybe to himself or some imagined audience, "I'm getting the hang of it."

Owl shook his head.

"Hey Freak," Hawk whispered, "He's not going to hit anything, is he?"

Owl whispered back, "Not on purpose."

Then he said louder, "Alright everyone, Lion shouldn't be the only one getting practice. Everyone grab a stick and give it a try."

My aim was awful and Viper's wasn't much better. I noticed Raven simply kept handing her stick to whoever had just thrown one. I suspected that she couldn't bring herself to risk hurting a rabbit. Hawk and Sparrow both did better. They didn't hit any rabbits, but they got a lot closer. Mouse kept sending his throws way off to the left of where he was aiming. Maize was more interested in spotting for Sparrow. We all took a few attempts as we walked along the road.

Lion was a different matter.

He was good at spotting rabbits as we walked along the road, and would respond by springing into action. As soon as he leapt into a combat stance, the rabbits would generally bolt. As the fled Lion would launch a full power overhand throw that would buzzsaw into the ground well short of where the rabbit had started. On Lion's third try, the throwing stick hit something hard in the ground and the stick snapped clean in two, splitting lengthwise  at the bend. Lion just asked to use Sparrow’s stick and kept going. Owl had brought six throwing sticks, we were now down to five. Lion tried and missed the same way three more times and broke two more sticks before he gave up.

"The rabbits are just too sharp today," He said, "And luck is against me."

"Well, I need to get some rabbits for dinner. So I'll have to deal with bad luck and smart rabbits." Owl said.

So with everyone else finished for the day, Owl took most of the throwing sticks back. Lion wanted to keep one in case he felt like taking another throw. Owl wasn't impressed, by this but didn't argue. We kept walking and Owl kept scanning the road side. Owl froze and the rest of us did moments after. I looked in the direction that Owl was looking and saw the rabbit eating the weeds on the side of the road.

Owl slowly raised his throwing stick and paused. He tensed, about to throw, when a loud shower of pebbles spooked the rabbit and sent it running. Owl threw the stick and it spun like a frisbee after the rabbit. But the animal was too far and too fast, and the stick skipped across the ground.

I looked back to see everyone staring at Lion.

He shrugged as Owl turned to look, "My bad."

We continued on. The day was passing and although Dzunukwa hill had lots of rabbits along the road, we were walking long distances without seeing any. When we finally found the next one, Owl put up a hand to stop us. Again he readied for the throw. And then a loud hollow thunk echoed down the road, sending the rabbit into full sprint. Owl spun around and glared at Lion, who had dropped a throwing stick on a large rock.

"What is your problem?" Owl asked.

“It’s looks like fate is against both of us. It’s probably just not our day.”

Owl shook his head in disgust, "Why on earth would you rather both of us lose than admit you're wrong?"

"It's just bad luck. I'm too awesome to be wrong."

"Awesome and without anything to show my mom."

"Just bad luck."

"Fine. But I need to bring some dinner back for my mother, so you and your bad luck can stay fifty paces back from me and my hunt. Actually if everyone can stay back, that'll give me the best chance."

Owl looked up and down the road, "We've basically walked the whole road and scared all the rabbits into the trees, I'm going head back by going off trail. If I get lucky, I'll stumble on some of the smart rabbits that we spooked earlier."

He started off and Lion immediately followed close behind.

"Back!" Owl demanded loudly, pointing back to the rest of us.

"Chill, chill." Lion said, holding his hands up.
"You have broken three of my throwing sticks and ruined two of my throws. And you are being a jerk by pretending you didn't. So, I think I'm being pretty amazingly chill considering everything you've pulled. So to help me stay as chill as I am right now, when I say stay back fifty paces so I can get the food for dinner tonight like I told my mother I would, you do it."

Owl stared hard at the bigger boy. Lion seemed to waffle, shuffling his feet as though uncertain as to how he should proceed. I know Lion always figured he was really good in a fight. He was on the football team and he had hit puberty like a semi truck hitting a brick wall. But he didn't look certain that he could bully Owl with impunity. The moments stretched until finally he shrugged and headed back to us.

He flashed Viper a smile and said, "Fearless leader is getting testy."

Viper raised an eyebrow, "He does that."

And Owl stayed about fifty steps ahead of us, moving very slowly with his throwing stick in hand as he went. The rest of us moved as quietly as we could and kept well back. None of it seemed to help however, as the rabbits that had previously been easy to spot were nowhere to be seen. After at least half and hour of walking without seeing a rabbit, Owl began swinging deeper into the woods on Dzunukwa Hill. The forest got creepier. The trees became progressively more skeletal and spindly. The background noise of the forest got quiet, save for the sound of crows- which got louder and more frequent as we followed Owl deeper into the woods. And then we stumbled onto the cabin.

The cabin sat in a clearing with a few skeletal fruit trees growing at the sides of the building. Nesting or perching on every surface were crows, easily over one hundred coal black feathered shadows. Wind chimes made of animal bone and feathers hung at the edges of the clearing. The wind chimes added an odd eerie music to the air the made the whole place seem haunted. A decrepit and rotting fence lined the house, but wouldn't do anything to keep anyone out.At the front of the fence was a gate made of two poles that  were driven into the ground at the head of the trail leading up to the front door. Six feet high, each pole was topped with a human like mask that featured hollow eyes and and a pursed and whistling mouth. The masks were masks of Dzunukwa.

"Whoa." Sparrow whispered.

"This is not real." Viper added quietly.

"This is beyond freaky." Owl added.

"This is totally lame, just somebody trying to be scary." Lion said loudly.

The crows turned in unison and stared at us.

"It's working. I'm scared." Mouse said.

"Oh come on." Lion said, a little louder. "Don't be a wuss. This is totally fake."

The crows began to caw and suddenly the air was filled with the sound of crows calling loudly.

"Fine," Viper said over the sound of crows, "Prove it. Knock on the door."

"Oh come on, why bother?" Lion asked.

"Lame." Hawk said, "I'll do it."

She started into the clearing. And as she did so, the crows burst into the air in an explosion of black feathers. The hurricaned into the air, circling around her, landing and cawing and lifting off to circle again.

Hawk was frozen in place, her arms up around her face in a defensive stance. The hurricane continued and finally Hawk recovered and backed slowly out of the clearing. As she returned to the cover of the trees, the crows returned to their perches.

"Okay," Hawk said, "I take it back- it is totally not lame to not go in there. Nobody has to try that, and I won't mock anyone for not trying."

Owl shook his head, "I think they're expecting to get fed. Whoever lives there is feeding them. They figured you were going to give them food, I think."

"Or maybe they thought that I was food." Hawk countered.

"I think that's what whoever lives there wants people to think." Owl said.

"Well, if they just want to get fed, then anyone can walk up there." Lion said, and he stepped into the clearing. The crows burst back into the air, and although Lion hesitated momentarily, he kept walking. But as he got closer, more and more of the crows took flight and the hurricane of crows around him got thicker. Then a crow landed on Lion's head, and Lion froze in place. As if on cue, two more landed, one on each shoulder. Then a fourth decided to land on Lion's head beside the first one. And after a moment's consideration, the newest arrival leaned over and grabbed a mouthful of Lion's hair with its beak and pulled.

Lion screamed, high pitched and panicked. He spun in place, dislodging the crows and hurtled back to the safety of the trees, sending the mass of crows back into the air. Lion hid on the far side of a birch tree and frantically shook his head and brushed at his hair with his hands.

"Well, I guess settles it." Hawk said, "It's totally not lame to not knock on that door."

Owl shook his head.

"No, I'm sure they've just been trained to do this. Well not trained exactly, but fed by somebody who let them land on a person and everything. They think that's normal now. Somebody is using the whole legend on purpose. And I'm going to prove it."

He stood up, and walked slowly and calmly out into the clearing, and again the birds erupted into a whirlwind of black feathers. As he reached the masks at the head of the trail, the first crow landed on his cowboy hat and knocked it off. The bird buffetted Owl with it's wings to regain its balance and then again landed on Owl's now naked skull. Almost immediately several more birds joined the first, landing on Owl's shoulders. Owl kept walking and actually held out his arms allowing more birds to land.

By the time he reached the front door, there was easily half a dozen birds perched on him. He stopped at the front door and knocked.

As Owl waited at the front door, the crows began to land and quiet. Owl was starting to look nervous and fidgety when the door creaked open and a skinny woman with a face like shrunken head topped with hair that looked like a mop made entirely out of steel wool. She was dressed in a long black dress and was leaning on a gnarly walked stick. She looked at owl and the crows perched all over him and burst into the most perfect witch cackle I'd ever heard. The birds scattered at the laugh, and she tossed out a burlap sock onto the ground the the crows immediately swarmed around.

She spoke with Owl and he pointed back at us, and she let out another witch cackle. And then she looked at him very seriously and put a finger to his forehead and then nodded solemnly and said something.

As Owl walked back towards us, the crows finished with the bag and fluttered back to a more or less even distribution, revealing that all that was left of the bag were a few scraps of burlap and a small blood stain in the dirt.

"I concede." Lion said, "You did it. I couldn't. You were right and that was awesome."

“So what happened?” Hawk asked.

“She told me that it was about time I knocked, and that it wasn’t polite to keep an old lady waiting.”

“She knew you were coming?” Hawk said.

“Well, she could have heard the birds. She must have known somebody was out here. I think she said it for effect.” Owl said.

“What if she did know?” Lion asked.

“Maybe she has binoculars in there or something then.” Sparrow added.

“Why did she tap you?” Viper asked.

“She told me that I was going to have to endure three sacrifices to survive what was coming.”

“What?” Sparrow said.

“She said that I was going to be tested.”

“What?”

“Yeah, and that if I wanted to survive would need to endure the loss of something precious three times before I could make it out of my trials.”

“What!?”

“You said that already. Three times actually.”

“That is all kinds of spooky.” Lion added.

“You know, Owl might be right about her playing with him. Witchcraft stories love using three as a magic number. So she could totally just be saying something spooky to sound scary.” Viper added.

“So we watch and see if Owl ends up losing three important things.” Lion said.

I was thinking about Mildred’s Tarot cards, “But couldn’t we just pick any three bad things that happen to Owl and say ‘bam’ that’s the three? I mean how would we know it was actually her prophecy and just us wanting it to be true.”

“So what was in the bag she threw?” Lion asked

“I don’t know, but it smelled like old dead animal.”

“Now see, that, is creepy.” Mouse said quietly.

The whole thing seemed to change the tone of the hunt. Even Lion seemed impressed and when Owl spotted another rabbit a couple minutes later, Lion didn't do anything as Owl threw his stick at the fleeing animal.

The throwing stick hit the rabbit in back of the skull and knocked it face first into the ground. The rabbit let out this horrible paiful scream and it went down, and I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach.

Owl sprinted to the rabbit and whipped out his knife. He looked back at us and noticed Raven- who looked shell shocked from the scream. He turned his back to us and hid the body of the rabbit. His shoulders tensed and he made a quick motion with his right arm and the rabbit's scream stopped abruptly.

The dying scream of the rabbit seemed to have attracted attention in the forest, because as Owl worked to clean the rabbit, crows began congregating, landing and hopping around us. We stared as the crows continued to land and those already on the ground began to crowd around us- looking with great interest at Owl and his kill.  We looked back and forth at each other nervously and the numbers increased. Lost count after the twentieth bird and the crows kept landing.

“You think she’s still watching us?”

“Nope.” Owl was doing his best to ignore them.

Owl kept his back to us as he worked. His arms moved quickly and once he was done, the  rabbit was placed into a heavy plastic bag, the rabbit's skin was placed into another bag and the rabbit's internal organs were placed into a third bag. Owl sealed each bag and placed them together into a large bag which he put into his back pack.

"And there we go." Owl said, "I think I'm done for the day. We'll have to settle for one rabbit."

I looked around at the murder of crows that had filled the area. I wasn’t going to argue.

"That was awful." Raven said, "Why did it scream?"

"Don't you think that you would scream if I hit you in the back of the head with a heavy stick?" Owl asked, surprised.

"It sounded so sad." Raven added.

"Well yeah, a rabbit doesn't want to die any more than you do. That's why I killed it quickly. I didn't want it to suffer."

"I don't know if I can kill something for food." I added.

"Animals kill each other," Owl added, "And we're animals. It's just how it is. I just try not to be a jerk about it, not to be mean. And I mean if I don't kill the rabbit, somebody is going to have to kill the animals that provide any meat that I do eat. I don't like the idea of making other people kill on my behalf, it seems cowardly."

I thought about the rabbit's scream, and I really wasn't sure if I could do it myself. Maybe I was a coward.