The Fire Owl

This story begins in the village of the setting sun, in the lands of the Taori Indians of Nycatria, who every summer, when their crops die in the heat and the sun scorches the land, call upon the fire owl. Why the fire owl, you are about to find out.

Long ago, the fire owl came every year, every summer, and burned the fields to the ground. The Indians could not do anything except plant their seeds next spring. One young warrior, particularly keen on stopping the fire owl, searched every summer for something the fire owl may want, in the hope that pleasing it may make it go away forever, as there was no way of fighting it. Summer after summer, when the fire would die down and the charred dirt removed, a new layer of dirt was found underneath.

One summer, after the fire owl left, the young warrior found something unexpected: an egg the color of flames. It was a fire-egg. So the next summer, he placed it on the middle of the field. As he expected, the fire owl saw the egg, grabbed it, and flew away. It never came back.

But then, the villagers noticed something. After summer, the crops did not grow back. The cracked dirt had not been burned, and the dry trees still stood up. And nothing would grow between cracked dirt and dry trees.

So the villagers called the owl back by lighting a large torch, as it is attracted to fire and loves to play in the flames. The fire owl came back and burned the fields down.

That spring, the plants bloomed and the trees grew back, thanks to the fire owl. From then on, the fire owl comes every summer . . . and is respected by everyone.