Hoot

*I saw it! I saw it! I swear I saw it! It’s real, oh God, it’s real. I know it is! I saw it with my own two eyes. It was definitely the real deal! No way it was something else. It was that… Yeah; it had to be. It couldn’t be anything else. There’s no way – no. It had to be that!*

*I didn’t really see it, but then again, that’s expected. I’m dealing with a stealthy predator here, after all. I saw the wingspan however, the shadow of its wings. Massive. Way bigger than I expected. I thought it would be the size of a dog, maybe a bit bigger, boy was I wrong. Judging by the size of that shadow I saw, it’s probably the size of a cow if not bigger. This thing’s huge.*

*The most important thing, though, is that I know for sure it’s real – it’s no longer a cryptid. It’s an animal, and I’ll have its gargantuan body. I’m not sure where I will store the damned thing considering its massive size but I will have it taxidermied one way or another. Maybe I could put it in my garage or something, ehh I’ll think of something.*

*First thing’s first, I need to find a way to overcome the fact that this thing is an obvious super predator. Lifting a grown man like that is something I didn’t expect it to be able to do.*

*Honestly, probably the most awe-inspiring thing I’ve seen in my entire life, probably also the most horrifying as well. The sound that this man let out before the raptor snapped his neck was truly blood-chilling. I froze when I heard that choked shriek escaping his throat. I’m fairly certain it was reflexive, probably as a result of the claws of the mega bird sinking into his upper body. Humans are shouldn't to be able to let out such terrible sounds.*

*I’m getting ahead of myself here.*

*I’ve to reorganize my thoughts.*

*Well, tonight started with me going on a walk on the mountainside on top of which sits Lowe’s lair. Ha, Lair… Yes… It fits his name, “Lowe”, Lion. Yeah… Lion… Now that I think of it, it’s kind of weird that a man whose last name is German for Lion lives in relative seclusion on a mountain in Washington of all places. Not to mention, has some an obsession with birds. Then again cats prey on birds whenever they can. I’ve heard that Lions hunt birds as snacks from time to time, not sure if that’s true or not but sounds fairly plausible. Not to mention his obsession being the reason we’re so close, I am just as obsessed with birds as he is.*

*God, I’m so disorganized right now.*

*I’m still somewhat shaking; it’s been a while since I’ve been this excited. Though I have a reason to be dancing with joy now. I know that my research was not in vain. I can say with the utmost of certainties that the super-owl exists, and it’s here. It’s real. It is very much so.*

*Holy…*

*It’s real.*

*It’s monstrous.*

*It… It… could eat me…*

*I…*

*I don’t know…*

*I don’t know if I can…*

*I’m not really sure I should do this… Jesus… That thing was bloody massive. Birds shouldn’t be this tall. What if it’s not an owl? What if it’s some type of reptile? A dragon perhaps. A remnant from the Jurassic period, still living out there mocking our presumed understanding of the current state of nature.*

*No… It has to be an owl…*

*Nothing can fly emitting no sound, nothing but owls. Yes, only owls are like that. It’s definitely an owl. The mother of owls…*

*What if it’s a god? One shaped like an Owl. An Owl God, yes, that could be it. Some sort of ancient mountain deity patrolling its turf and I was lucky enough to witness it.*

*No, get a hold of yourself. It was an animal; it can only be an animal. For Christ’s sake, there’s nothing supernatural about this bird. It’s just a massive bird. One we have yet to discover officially. It makes sense, after all, we’ve only observed giant and colossal squids fairly recently and the legends about those sea giants were around for the longest time.*

*I’ve discovered it, though… I’ve seen the bird… Yes…*

*Now all I need is some physical evidence. I’ve to get some samples from the animal, some dung. Maybe a feather, a feather would be nice.*

*Bloody hell, I’m rambling again.*

*Ok enough… Enough rambling… Honestly, I don’t even feel bad for the guy the owl-god took. I think I might call it that, sounds somewhat appropriate. Anyway, I knew there was something familiar about this man’s wife. Now it clicked, there was a story of them sexually abusing teenage girls in the news. I guess that serves him right, serves both of them right. I’m fairly certain she will live in fear now. It fits almost I’d say; a force of nature, a god, an owl-god dished out some vengeance on those who hurt the innocent.*

*I can’t help but smile at the notion I’ve seen this elusive beast.*

*I have to stop rambling – I took a walk through the woods tonight, wasn’t planning on taking anything down. I’ve already gotten myself a great gray owl. Almost finished stuffing it too. It’s a beauty. I wasn’t even looking for the super-owl. I was just out there looking at owls; I enjoy looking at them. It’s like they’re some sort of alien entity. They hear something; they lock their heads on the target; they follow it, in deathly silent aerial maneuvering and then they strike, once close enough. One blow from an owl and the prey is done for. If the target moves, the owl repositions its body while the head remains fixed in place.*

*I was in the middle of observing that when I heard a woman crying for help.*

*Immediately my attention was diverted from the raptor. I took off my night vision goggles and called out back to her. She came in running to me; clearly distressed. I couldn’t even understand what she was saying for about two minutes because of how rushed and jumbled her speech was.*

*It took me a while, but eventually, I figured it out, her husband was trying to “fight off” some “predator” that was stalking them. Quote unquote predator because she claimed they were sure it was a person. She mentioned hearing something akin to a very loud and long “oh” sound, almost like a muffled bass-filled moan.*

*It was probably the hooting of the owl-god. Big bird, loud vocalizations.*

*I didn’t sound right to me, so I decided to follow her and see if I could help her husband. I’m glad I didn’t recognize her face at the time, otherwise, I would’ve flipped her the bird and carried on my casual observations – missing my most important sighting in the process.*

*Anyway, as we were walking through the increasingly thickening forest, she just kept on rambling about how much she was worried about her husband getting hurt. I kept on trying to reassure her that everything will be alright, but I guess she’s the type of person who is simply annoying like that.*

*For some reason, she didn’t think she should mention the fact her husband has a gun until we were deep in the forest.*

*Not the brightest tool in the shed I suppose.*

*Just as she mentioned the gun; the cracking explosion of a bullet leaving a barrel boomed through the forest to my left.*

*Instinctively my body shifted gears, I told her to follow my lead and began running toward the explosive noise.*

*Another shot went off.*

*And another one.*

*The woman, she was struggling behind me, must have gotten stuck in some of the roots I jumped over. I just pushed forward.*

*Edging a clearing, I heard it; the blood cementing sounds emitted by an unfortunate proverbial mouse caught in the talons of a literal monster raptor.*

*I froze in my tracks, and my heart pounded at what felt like five hundred beats per minute. Everything seemed to slow down to an excruciating crawl. I was trying to process everything while the moonlight illuminated the surrounding forest in a glistening silver tint.*

*The owl god didn’t give me nearly enough time to make sense of everything that had just happened as it flew over me. Its massive figure obscured the moon, and for a millisecond the surrounding environment turned pitch black.*

*I looked up.*

*There it was; a massive figure with illogically large wings.*

*Completely… silent…*

*I stood there, frozen in place by amazement and terror.*

*Something limp hung from beneath the anomaly’s form.*

*A human shape…*

*The sight broke me out of my trance, and I ran, forgetting everything, I ran as fast as I could. I ran leaving that woman alone. I don’t regret it, hell; I forgot about her being there until I got back to Lowe’s place.*

*I didn’t out of fear; I ran in a fit of mania because I knew I’ve finally gotten to see the legendary avian I was looking for.*