OWL - The Occult Wildlife Landing

Being a writer sucks. Pushing deadlines, the vultures of media, the pressure of expectations. So, to make things easier, the writer pretends everyone around them is a character, that if forced/written enough, will help them.

While being deployed in Vietnam, Gladys Newman was send ahead of her squad in a reconnaissance to scout out the exact location of the enemy camp harboring prisoners of war.

While on her way to the lookout spot she crashed through old wooden boards covering the entrance to an old forgotten Vietnamese grace site. The stone cave was filled with strange symbols carved into the stone , with the only other thing of notice being a stone pedestal with a red veil on it. Gladys felt the veil almost calling her to pick it up. Falling to temptation Gladys decided to pick up the veil uncovering a horrific site to behold. The thing that was being covered by the veil was a head that was cut off long ago.

Once she had the red veil in her possession she noticed something change. She was able to understand the text carved into stone walls. A part of them were prayers to the mother goddess , another part of them were protection spells trying to protect the grave site from evil spirits and the last part regarding the previous owner of the red veil , the shaman giao. That must have been the person whose skull was underneath the veil.

With the veil in her possession Gladys decided to climb out of the gave site and go on with her mission. After a couple of hours she was able to locate the enemy’s location. She got a close as possible to a building that seemed to have been the cabin of the officer in charge. Inside of the cabin were the officer and the captains discussing their plan of operation. To her surprise she was able to perfectly understand the words they’ve said without having spoken a single word of Vietnamese her whole life. It must have been because of the veil she carried with her!

Listening closely to every word spoken Gladys uncovered that the camp was actually a decoy leading into an ambush which would lead to a high amount of casualties on the Americans sides. The location where the p.o.w. were relocated to was also one of the topics . Hearing this Gladys headed back to her squad and reported her findings to her sergeant, only leaving out the part about the red veil and its ability’s.

Her discovery led to the US Army being able to take out the decoy camp with minimal soldier casualties and also able to rescue the p.o.w.’s from their actual prison. She got a Purple Heart for all of her troubles and the war continued as if nothing happened.

Years later Gladys found the veil in a chest containing all of her old equipment from the war. She knew of the possibility’s such an artifact could bring but she decided against using it herself and gave it to her son Freddy knowing that he would use it to make the world a better place.

She still sometimes gets letters from some of the p.o.w.’s telling her about their life and thanking her for the service she did.

On music:
It's a blemish in Zephyren's past, yet one of his most fond highlights all the same. The sense of community that music brings is universal, as anyone can understand when a score sounds upbeat or solemn. He could put his emotions into it and no one would know the subject of his grief, only that he does have feelings after all. It never quite leaves his mind, so he finds himself stopping in his tracks whenever he hears it - whether geophonic or anthropophonic or biophonic - he has to appreciate how it all flows together.

On animals:
Wildlife is harder to spot in Hong Kong, with all the urbanization. Zephyren remembers his first few months in Canada, which were often spent just gawking at the animals he's never seen. Particularly, he had no idea coyotes were dangerous. Whoops.

On comprehension:
Now that even animals can speak to him, he has more noise to filter through. It might just be his downfall.