The Nagual

Felia woke up with her dark brown hair cascading over her eyes, creating a dark curtain. She was able to hear the ocean, the whispering of waves just outside the hut. She breathed in the salty air deeply, feeling her back arch up as she was sleeping on her stomach. The curious sound of pitter-patter somewhere in the single-room hut made her pick her head up.

Her eyes still being concealed by her hair, she brushed it out of the way with her fingers and looked about the room. There, on the ledge of the opened window sat a barn owl looking at her with a cocked head. Its white, heart-shaped face had all of the cunning of a wolf and all of the sweetness of a rabbit. Its beak was long and slender but Felia knew that that beak was made to kill small animals. Felia swallowed. Her mouth was dry. Her nostrils twitched. The sound of wooden wind chimes echoed off far away. The owl, as if feeling awkward from the silence, ruffled its feathers.

Before she started to wonder why an owl would be in a tropical surrounding, the little creature screeched, making her flinch. Finally sitting up, Felia continued to stare at the owl. A warm wind blew into the room. Felia tried to laugh. She cocked her eyebrow and asked, "Well, can you talk, little fella?"

"Yes, actually, I can."

At this, Felia was taken aback. She almost fell backward had her hand not landed first behind her on the bed.

Shaking its head and ruffling its feathers, the owl said as if in annoyance, "Well, expect an answer when you ask a question."

"I'm sorry." Felia said, rubbing her forehead with her hand. "I've just never talked to an owl before. Or any animal, for that matter"

"You talk to humans, don't you?" the owl said, leaning its head in.

"What?"

"Humans. Remember those?" the owl said, pecking its feathers clean. "Don't you talk to them?"

"Well, yes, all the time. They're-"

"They're animals, too, sweetheart." the owl retaliated. "We all are."

Felia sat with her legs dangling off of the bed. "So . . . every human can talk to other animals?"

"No." the owl said. "Just certain ones like you and me."

Felia was bewildered. "I must be going crazy." she mumbled to herself.

"No just wait one minute. If you're going crazy, then I'm going crazy." the owl said with dignity.

At this, Felia laughed. "That isn't exactly reassuring. I mean, you just called yourself human. And, well, I hate to break it to you, little owl-"

The owl interrupted, "-Kahili."

"I'm sorry?"

"Kahili." repeated the owl. "It's my name. You can use it, you know."

"Right, then. I hate to break it to you, Kahili, but you're not a human. You're an owl."

"Is that right?" The owl seemed to laugh in an almost cooing sound. "My, my, you have a lot to learn."

After Kahili said that, the little owl started to spread her wings and flap them. Each time, they rose higher and higher. Then, she flew into the room but instead of flying to the other side of the room, she morphed. Felia looked on with astonishment at the process that took place in about twelve seconds. The wings spread out into human arms while the claws that were once on the owl's feet changed into human legs. The feathers turned to hair, the beak to a small Roman-shaped nose, the torso of the bird into a fully clothed body, and the feathered face into one smooth-skinned human face. The few things that remained the same about this new body that appeared in Felia's hut were the dark eye color and the heart-shaped face. What once was a feathery creature sitting on the window of Felia's hut was now a slender and grown young woman whose body rocked with the recent change.

"Satisfied?" cooed the woman before her.

With a cracked voice, Felia answered, "Very."