Being locked in the Snoot cage by a centuries-old Everine controlling the body of your new best friend sucked, but at least it gave Otto an opportunity to examine his new self.

He had not been in human form for a few hundred years. In fact, the last time he could remember was during the first Snootcoming. As the honoured guest, he had been seated at the top table, and had gotten to crown the King and Queen himself. That was back when people knew that he and the owl were one and the same. The Snoot cage had been built by the villagers for his owl form, but he normally lived at the Manor.

Since then, he'd become a bit of a recluse. When the first Everines came, they took over the Manor, using the vast room downstairs as a weaving room. They had condemned Otto as an inferior demi-god, claiming that living in the human world was a punishment for him. Of course, they were right. At the time, Otto had reasoned that his father had sent the Everines, to stop him from becoming too cosy on Earth. He had left the Manor and set up permanent residence in the Snoot cage, remaining in owl form all of the time. Over the generations, people forgot that he had ever existed outside of owl form at all. Some people offered him thanks for their good luck, as if that had anything to do with him. Not a single villager in the twenty-first century could even remember he had a name other than 'The Sacred Snoot'.

He had gotten lonely, admittedly. Solitude was peaceful for a few decades, tolerable for a few more, then downright boring after that. He longed for a friend, someone to talk to. He found himself missing Valentina more and more.

His biggest adventure in the past three centuries had been messing with Jake and Ludo the previous day. Seeing the look on their faces as he flew out of the cage and soared across the sky was the most fun he had had in ages. After a while, he had gotten dirty and cold, so had willingly gone back to the cage with them. Besides, he didn't really want them to get into trouble. Afterwards, he had remained in the cage, loneliness descending upon him like a stone wall.

That was, until Tara.

He'd been flying around the Manor, peering through windows and listening to conversations floating up through the chimneys. For the first time ever, a tapestry leaker had escaped. Otto saw her roaming around the Manor, and recognised her immediately. There were few people who escaped his memory, even those who had never even known of his existence. It was Cotton Lively, a young villager from the 1500s. He felt sorry for her. Being quarantined before the biggest day of her life… being outcast by her friends… Otto could empathise with her in more ways than one. But now she posed a threat to all of Evermoor. Otto saw a chance to kill two birds with one stone – although he severely disliked using that phrase.

Sorsha Doyle, the mayor's daughter, was a stickler for tradition in most respects, so she always politely curtsied to him whenever she went by his cage. On that particular day, she had been followed by two of the newcomers to the village: a nerdy teenage boy called Seb Crossley, and his step-sister, a loud American girl called Tara Crossley. Seb was discussing the possibility of there being a ghost in the Manor with Jake and Ludo. When they had left, Tara was still standing outside his cage. Otto did something he had not done in several centuries.

He spoke.

"It's not a ghost," he said, as loud as he dared. "It's a trainee Everine from 16th century."

That was more than enough information to give Tara a helping hand with the problem, he thought, but she just replied with confusion:

"Who said that?"

For effect, he hooted a little as Tara entered the cage and looked around curiously.

"You know, you humans say that more than we do."

It was about that time when he remembered that Tara, being a newcomer, had no idea what a Snoot was.

She glanced up at his perch, and saw him sitting there, examining her. She threw her hands up.

"Oh great. A talking owl now?"

Well, there was no going back now. Even in a magic village, a talking owl was harder to explain than a shapeshifting demi-god. Otto spread his copper wings and glided down from his perch, transforming into a human moments before he touched the ground.

Tara's eyes widened as he smiled at her.

"Snoot," he said. "Thank you very much."

Tara was actually nicer than he had expected, despite her tendency to constantly deliver sarcastic quips. It had rather annoyed him when Cotton Lively took her over and force her to lock the cage, trapping him inside.

Then again, a few hours to himself were nothing in the grand scheme of things. He looked down at himself as he admired his new clothes.

Part of the shapeshifting was that it gave him clothing depending on what was fashionable. At the time of the first Snootcoming, he wore the traditional outfit of the time: a simple tunic, adorned with various shimmering beads; dark leggings; a red felt hat and a pair of smooth leather boots. Today, he wore a white shirt and grey waistcoat, a blue blazer with a striped hems, similar trousers and oddly comfortable wicker shoes. He hoped that was acceptable in this day and age. He also wore glasses with circular rims. They had never been present before, but he guessed that one's eyesight got worse after a millennium.

Otto decided he wanted to get used to some of the twenty-first century customs. To try some of the things the modern day Evermoorians did. He glanced over at the large lock and chain tightly holding the cage doors together, and sighed.

As soon as someone found a way to let him out.