The owl spiraled down from the clouds, surveying the distance below. As it coasted close to the strange metal building—to the square, shiny block interrupting miles of grassy terrain—an updraft sliced across its body. The bird pumped his wings harder until it caught a gentler current near the snowy peaks of the mountains, twirling contentedly on the cooler breeze. Amidst the peaks and pinnacles, the vast structure still appeared as a massive, indestructible blot on the scenery, reflecting the sun and moon against the slick, cold steel. Nearby, a dozen horses grazed beside a large wooden barn. A footpath had been worn to the dirt from the trespassing of people between those two places.
As the owl rose higher, it suddenly detected the barrier that kept the good air in and the bad air out. The sky flickered with a pulse of electricity that immediately changed the bird’s course. With a screech, it plummeted down until it reached the heavy woodlands, masking the disturbance with a blast of pine and oak. There, it trembled on a heavy branch, glaring at the wolves gathering below. With the painful sense of its own limitations, the owl knew that the ruined sky beyond the invisible obstacle reeked of smoke and pollutants. Sometimes it had a half-smothered yearning to soar beyond, but the stench of death wafted where the remote areas ended and the cities began—where wolves and humans coexisted with the unendurable silence of the earth as her great heart stilled.
Impatient to feel the wind, it suddenly propelled itself into the air again, flapping against the draft toward the odd structure. Despite the building’s size, only a few people lived there and now; as the owl dove past, it noticed a girl lounging on the roof staring up into the clouds...
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