Chapter 5: Angelic Grace

Early in the evening when I came back from my first prey ceremony my parents looked upon the image of me now fully fledged. –"I had no idea this day would come so soon."- My mum said telepathically to my da.

-"I'll come visit I promise."- I said telepathically to my mum.

-"We know you will Mesmo, this place isn't so big. In fact we'll visit you."- Replied my da.

-"That would be great, but where am I going to stay and will I be alone?"-

-"Son, There's something that we've been meaning to tell you. You are going to have go out and pick an empty hollow in this place tonight and find some soft moss for it and in so have your first moss ceremony. Then you will have your first lesson at The Telepath Academy which I know you're exited about and have been looking forward to for a long time..."-

I nodded –"Is there something else da?"-

"You need a mate!" My mum blurted out and quickly clamped her beak shut.

"Valery..." The conversation turned verbal as my mum and da spoke to each other.

"I'm sorry Neuro. I know we wanted to ease into it, but you got stuck."

"That's quite alright dear." Then they turned to me.

"I know that I need one." I began before they could speak again. "I just don't know how to go about looking for one." My mum and da smiled at each other.

"Well Mesmo," said my mum "While you were still in your hollow we made a visit to all the Barred owl families in Tele Town and it turns out that two recently had a female barred hatchling. Our friends and another family."

"They are your only two options and the one you pick will be your mate for life." Concluded my da.

I was both excited and nervous and nervous at this.

We lifted off in flight and as I followed my parent's to their friends' house I felt a little queasy. 'What if I yarped a pellet right in front of the girl of my dreams?' I thought. No, I had to keep it together and be myself. I had never felt this scared. We had not flown very far before we came across a fir tree a little smaller than our own. After we had alighted down in their hollow, I was acquainted me with my parent's friend and their daughter. I didn't register on anything but "And this is Nina." My jaws dropped, but not for the reason they thought it did. I had never seen such a fat owl! Had I seen a turkey before at that time the thought would have come to mind and they would have read it. Her parents read my mind anyway and I'm glad they did because I could not commit to someone larger than me. I don't mean larger as in taller and having bigger bone structure and body mass as Barred owl females are larger than the males. I mean a lot broader and what made her even more unattractive was that she was older than me and still shorter. Plus she spoke funny. I think my parents lost their friends that night and they weren't too impressed with me since Nina was their first choice. I didn't care though because I still had the dreadful ringing of her creepy tele-voice in my head. Would the other owl also as hideous. Or even worse? It was either her or the turkey. I gulped at this thought on our way to the second family.

The three of us headed for another fir tree just about the same size ours. The next thing I knew I was in the presence of too gruff middle-aged Barred owls with stern looks on their faces. I could see why my mum and da had made friends with the other owls and why Nina was their first choice despite her unfortunate physical aspects.

The two Barreds did not take kindly to this thought but knew that I was the only male Barred owl that had recently hatched in Tele Town. So they stepped aside revealing their daughter perched at the back of the hollow. I locked eyes with the most beautiful owl in all the owl kingdoms. Her silvery plumage reflected the moonlight in a blinding and truly mesmerizing way. I thought I might just be moon blinked on the spot. I felt something stir in my gizzard that I had not felt before. She was a vision of absolute angelic grace and shear majesty. Her thoughts were innocent and pure. We both thought the same thing and we knew it because we read each other's minds. In that moment we knew that we were meant to be together for the rest of our lives. I walked over to her past her parents who were examining my every move, I however didn't even care.

-"Hi, I'm Mesmo"- I said telepathically as I approached this mystifying angel.

-"Hello, I'm Silvaria"- Her enchaining voice and that breathtaking name exploded in my mind.

-"I will never let you go"- I promised her.

-"I'll always hold on tight"- She promised back.

We soon left her parents hollow in search of our own. During our search we gleeked about in the night sky, chasing and flying circles each other until we finally came to a hollow that we both agreed on.

"It's perfect!" She exclaimed. Then she sighed, "We are going to be so happy here." She paused and then said "And so will our hatchlings."

I wrapped a wing around her and said, "I love you Silvaria."

She sunk her head into my breast feathers and said, "I love you too Mesmo." What had I done to deserve her?