A great bird made swoops in the sky. It glided across the blue and those down below stopped to watch it. As it got closer to the town, it disappeared from view. The man from the forest emerged without a word. The people from the town hadn’t seen him in some time. And the were all afraid of him. Partially because it was rumored that he could turn into a bird. Still, no one had ever seen it, but there was always a lone bird that looked a certain way that swooped the sky before the man walked into the town. 

The town became more silent as it realized the man was in its midst. He thought to himself that this was the very reason that the girl should stay well enough away. 

Stay in the forest and be carefree. 

Eventually, however, if she wandered deep enough she would find this place and others like it. And she would learn how different she was. And she would try to fit in. It was just what happened. She needed to find the pool of light first, then maybe she had a chance.

In the town there were whispers of the past. Every area the man had walked to, he could hear, feel, almost see the ghostly shapes. Flourishes of conversation movement. Like contact between another about to happen, he felt as though they would collide with him at any moment. Sometimes, when he was quiet. As quiet as he could become, he could hear the whispers long enough to know their conversation, their story.

This was one of those times. He was so consumed by it that he almost missed the man in the doorway of an old rundown shack of a house trying urgently to get his attention. The little man waved his hands and ran up to him. For a moment, he didn’t know where he was and then, yes, the town. That’s right. And he turned to look at the man who was trying to speak to him.

“I…I know you’re a bird,” the little man blurted out.

“What make you say that?” 

“I’ve seen it.”

The man looked deep into the other’s eyes as if trying to tell something from them. 

“And I have something I’m supposed to give you.”

Now this got the man very curious. He never or at least very rarely interacted with anyon from the town. But the night before last he had a dream unlik any he had ever had before. As he awoke, he knew that he had been called. And once you were called, there was nothing you could do to refuse it. In his youth he had mistakenly tried to avoid it, but now he knew better. He had made a promise never to repeat that kind of turmoil ever again. So now he was here and he had assumed that he would find it on his own as he had done hundreds of times before. However, something in the little man’s voice told him to consider otherwise. 

“Okay.”

The little man lead him into the old shack. The man didn’t like the look of it, but sometimes there was nothing you could do to control the message. H closed his eyes very briefly before entering the man’s home. And then took a step inside to see what awaited.

…