Outside,the mist curled through the abandoned neighbourhood,the streets were dead silent.Inside Mina stumbled through a house searching for a place to hide Cutlery lay scattered across the kitchen floor,a couch snapped in half coated in dust and glass shards were littered throughout the house.To her horror the mugger blocked the door.There was no escape.

Behind her,a bloodthirsty man dawdled towards her, a knife glistening in his hand.Mina’s breath was stolen by fear…

…but all of sudden,a creature flapped,shovening the wind away in a ‘WHOOSH’.Emerging out of the darkness;not one but two glowing yellow eyes appeared,a glint of brown and a hook-like beak.Whatever it was dashed past Mina and stood between the both of them staring intently at the mugger.

It was enormous!Huge and brown.Mina realised she was stand next to a massive owl.It hovered in the air as it threw back its shaggy head and shrieked.At that very second the man dropped his weapon and ran.

The owl turned and sat down in front of Mina ,resting his feathers.She could see that he was injured.A strip of  red ran across his side.Mina had never been next to a owl or even dreamed of being this close!She could smell an earthy,dusty aroma as she watched his feathers ripple all over his body.

The two stared at each other.she felt that he was sizing her up,peering into her soul.But her tension eased and she held out her hand.The owl leaned forward -cautiously- and examined Mina’s hand,he nudged  it wit his soft,thin feathers.His eyes thundered as if they were made by a storm.Mina could see kindness in his heart yet sadness.

Then a torn, croaky voice seemed rise from the Earth’s crust.””I need your help,we need to find the gateway.”Mina’s eyes widened,was she seeing this?Is this a dream?

She nodded pretending she knew what it meant.At that moment Mina knew she had to do all she could to protect this gorgeous,huge beast.”They’ll be back,we need somewhere to hide,somewhere safe,somewhere remote.”

After some tim Mia handled them down a path towards Brandon forest by the abandoned shed.Rumour had it that the ghost of the founder of the forest had died in the very shed so no one dared venture near it.It was perfect.Over last summer she sat in the shed watching deer,catching bugs and much more.As soon as the owl saw it he huddled in a dark corner until he was asleep.