FACT: The owl has better vision than the eagle and will not hesitate to inform you of this

The Meadow became a golden blur as they past above it. Instinctively, he grasped tightly to Adrianna’s talon. She chuckled. They circled round the Meadow rising higher and higher until the familiar landscape became a featureless mass; an artist’s rendering. Aubrey saw smoke rising from a dozen burrows where families were just settling down for supper. Little ones gathered around for portions of cornbread and stew. He pictured fathers’ sitting with feet propped on footstools enjoying the close of the day. He wondered what they would say if they could see him above it all; taking it all in. He saw the granary where his father had spent sixty years of his life. Everything lay spread out before him like words upon a page.

As they flew, Aubrey became aware of unknown land beyond the borders of Fairfield Meadow. They followed the river upstream beyond Hammerfield Bridge which served as the northernmost boundary. Great stones littered the streambed creating a turbulent cascade which shimmered like a flow of diamonds in the light of the setting sun. Up and up they flew until Aubrey was forced to squint into the flare of the sun which hung just above the horizon like some glittering jewel set upon the countryside. Far beyond lay lands foreign and exotic. Aubrey marveled at patches of forests, dark and foreboding. Lakes of all sizes dotted the land like teardrops. Above all, he was amazed at the vastness of the world which seemed to spread out in all directions as limitless as the sky.