To help them become the way they are their ancestors bonded with the rowl, a species of owl who prefer to perch on someones head instead of a tree. The longer the rowl did this the longer its wings would grow. Like the adults the children had young rowlets. Unlike the older rowls the rowlets look like newborn owls. In time they begin to resemble the older ones as their partner grows to an adult. The most amazing thing about this relationship was that the longer a rowl sat on a persons head. The for the rowl would would act like the person.
The chief of the tribe, a man called Horn, was a kind ruler. He cared for his people as if they were a flock of sheep and he was their shepherd. Only ruthless when he had to be the people could rely on him and trust his judgment.
In the tribe there also lived a seer known as Screech. A blind old man whose predictions were never wrong. The king often consulted him before making decisions.
One afternoon the chief woke to see Screech sitting by the entrance of his hut, a look of terror upon his old face. "Screech?" The chief rushed from his bed to the seers side. "What brings you here at such an hour?"
Screech looked at the chief with his lifeless eyes and whispered, "It's coming."
"What? What's coming?" The chief demanded.
"Destruction..." He said, "Genocide. The end of our blood lines will fall."
"Who will do this to us?" The king asked.
"Not who. What?" The Screech turned his eyes to the ground. "I do not know the answer to your question."
"What did your vision show you?" The chief grabbed the seer by his robes and forced his gaze towards him. "What did you see?"
"Our planet." The seer began. "I gazed at it as if I stood upon the moon. Then it came. The fist omen of the apocalypse. The Strigidae asteroid."
