The next morning Rosalie, the Horse, Little Owl and the team of Owls woke from their sleep. The Horse greeted everyone with an annoying whinnie that only the Little Owl seemed to appreciate by giggling. The group began eating their breakfast of mice and berries for the Owls, shrubbery for the Horse and cheese and bread for Rosalie.
As they were eating on the bank near the water, a cloud
suddenly darkened the sky and they heard a whooshing of wings flapping the air.
They looked up and saw five hawks
menacingly hovering over them. The lead
hawk swooped down in a dive toward them.
Rosalie could see that it had only one eye with the other being an open
socket where the eye should have been.
She remembered this hawk from their first battle. As the hawk dove toward them Rosalie scooped
up the Little Owl and everyone ran for the shrubbery for cover. The hawks dove and tried to reach them. Sensei had picked up the jar of optical
particulates in her beak and handed it to Rosalie. She told Rosalie to scatter the particles on
them so they would be invisible to the hawks and disappear in the
shrubbery. Rosalie opened the jar and
began sprinkling the particles over each Owl, Horse and herself. Within moments they were no longer
visible.
From above the hawks continued to circle and dive. But after each dive they saw fewer and fewer
of their prey in the shrubbery. Until
finally all of their prey had disappeared and the Hawks saw nothing but
shrubbery below them. The Hawks circled
for awhile longer and then flew off into the distance. Rosalie and the group were still covered in
the particles and invisible even to each other.
One of the messenger Owls quickly walked to the water to remove the
particles from himself. Slowly he began
to become visible. The rest of the group
began also walking toward the water when they heard screeching and a hawk dove
to scoop up the wet messenger Owl in its claws.
It flew off with the Owl trying to free itself from the Hawk’s
grasp.
Rosalie and the group were invisible as they had not yet
washed the particles from them. Out of
the sky, the four remaining Hawks landed on the shore near the water. Rosalie and the group were invisible to the
Hawks but any sound or movement would trigger the Hawks’ attention. The Hawks were assembled in a circle talking
among themselves. Rosalie was holding
the Little Owl in her arms when without warning the Little Owl let out a small
sneeze. Thinking they heard something,
the Hawks stopped talking to listen more closely. The one-eyed Hawk began walking toward the
sound where the Little Owl had sneezed.
He came closer and closer to Rosalie and her eyes became wide.
Just then a gust of wind came out of nowhere
and kicked up sand all around them. A
blinding dust storm swept over them. In
the same instant, it was suddenly gone with everyone dusted in sand and those
who were invisible were now visible to each other.
The one-eyed Hawk cleared the sand from his eye and saw
Rosalie and the Little Owl directly in front of him. Rosalie dropped the Little Owl to the ground
and prepared to fight the one-eyed Hawk.
She attempted to kick him but the Hawk caught her foot in its claw and unfurled
its wings. The Hawk suddenly rolled to
its side and the Horse was standing over it.
The Horse had kicked the Hawk where it had lost its eye and caused the
Hawk to stumble aside in pain. He was
still holding onto Rosalie’s foot and she tumbled with him. The Hawk managed to recover and took flight
with Rosalie in its claws.
