The Creature Made of Stars The owl watched silently as the moon beams touched the old church spire in a icy,cold light. The village was soundless , the houses huddled together in heavy shadows . The stone square was quiet too the windows reflecting back the darkness of the midnight hour. The owl made her move suddenly sweeping across the square toward the statue. She perched here after a long agile flight through the night air. The statue was made of iron from old war cannons used centuries before in a local war. The surface of the statue was pitted with tiny holes, grooves and the lumps and bumps of the years. The iron statue depicted a women holding a flag staring proudly up at the stars. There was a sense of mystery to the pose of the iron women. She had once been regarded as a symbol of indomitable courage , of patriotic fervour. She had faded after years in the summer heat and the winter cold . The indifference of new generations had left her without a formal purpose. Was she looking upward with a sense of resolve or a sense of war weariness? The locals had become so used to the statue that they hardly noticed it anymore. On market day a trader even hung apples and tomatoes from one of the statues upraised arms. The eyes of the statue were cold as the chill stars , her face was still and forlorn. Its plinth had been scratched and blurred by the years. The owl rested for a moment. It shuffled its brown feathers and turned its head toward the moon above . The bright glare of the moon's surface shone back toward the owl's sharp eyesight. Then the owl saw something against the pale , glowing background of the moon. The shape seemed to move across the surface of the moon itself. The owl stared with a quizzical expression. The shape grew very very slowly as it moved across the moon's face. The owl kept watching as the dark shape continued to grow . Its feathers ruffled uneasily. It stepped onto one claw and then another in a nervous shuffle. There was no doubt now that the shape, whatever it was , was approaching the square at an astonishing speed. The stars seemed to fall back as the shape streamed forward. The owl decided not to take any chances and in a split second flew out of the square back toward the black trees of the forest. The statue stood alone in the moonlight . There was
silence again . However the silence did not last for long. As the
stars shone a glittering shape moved over the village and forest. The creature looked around . Its eyes stood at the end
of a sharp triangular limb that moved slightly in the air. Its legs,
of which there were many, pointed in all directions at once. Its long
spine shimmered and shone with pointy bones and its hands had long
, thin fingers that also glowed white . The statue suddenly opened
its old eyes. It stared at the creature before it.
The creature made of stars shone for only a moment more before the light faded forever. The grave yard was silent except for the distant call of an owl. |