Matthew the owl lived happily growing up in the Happy Forest with his family and friends. He had a nice life; his family had a very nice nest, he visited his neighbors The Squirrels every day, and every night learned how to hunt. At the age of five, he decided to go out hunting by himself, further out than he normally hunted. He didn’t notice the dark clouds in the sky until the first CRACK of the lightning, followed by a torrential downpour. Frightened, Matthew tried to remember where his home was, but the rain disorientated him and he lost all sense of direction. Not knowing what else to do, he flew to the ground, but instead of dirt, the ground was black and didn’t give-way, like dirt. Instead, it was hard and continued down one direction, branching off at some points. Trying to find shelter, he noticed a large object stopped on the ground, next to the edge of the black ground. Not knowing what it was, Matthew landed next to it and hopped underneath, barely fitting. Looking up, he saw many different tubes and metal parts, not knowing what anything was however. The rain didn’t stop for another four hours, and all the while lightning cracked and thunder boomed. He got another glimpse at a large object on round circles driving by with a siren blaring.

When Matthew woke up, the rain had stopped, but it was still cloudy. Deciding to return home, Matthew started flying upwards to try and recognize where he was. Large, box-like things placed next to each other turning into pebbles below him as he rose higher and higher. When he reached an altitude where he could look in every direction, he recognized the direction to his home… but there was trouble in that direction. Thick, black smoke rose up from where his neighborhood was. Panicking and not knowing what to do, he slowly flew downwards until he had trouble breathing due to the black smoke. Suddenly, he finally broke through the branches to the forest floor, which was in a state of chaos. The ground had turned black, some of it turning black as he watched due the fire consuming it. Animals were running in every direction, some of the on fire, others injured, and others just lying there, not moving. Scared, Matthew flapped his wings as hard as he could, desperately trying to break through the trees to the fresh air. Coughing excessively, Matthew finally broke through, the sunshine blinded him for a few seconds as he flew away from the black smoke. Many things were racing through his head. “Where is my family? Where are my friends? Are they all right?” As he looked around, he noticed many humans wearing yellow clothing spraying water on the fires.
“If only they had gotten there quicker…” thought Matthew. “Then my home might still be there…

A few days passed, and Matthew had no idea where he was. He was weak from not having much to eat, for there was nothing to hunt in this… grey, square jungle of moving objects. He knew he had to land eventually. He found a small oasis in the middle of this vast grey jungle, a small patch of land with trees and dirt. He decided to land there to rest, but he knew he would have to find food eventually, or he might not be able to go much further. He landed on a large oak tree, weary from the past few days of flying. Eventually, he started to feel light headed, and eventually passed out, falling out of the tree to the ground.

Matthew woke up, drowsy and not knowing where he was. He looked around, and found himself in some sort of cage, in a room with many other cages, and creatures he had never seen before. As he was looking around for a way out of this cage, a door suddenly opened, and a human walked in.

“Oh good, you are awake!” The human said. “I’m glad you didn’t die, you were in a pretty bad shape when I found you.” The human opened the cage to put some food in for Matthew, which he ate greedily. He was still too weak to try and escape, but each day the human gave Matthew food, and each day he felt stronger, until one day the human let Matthew leave the cage for a bit. It felt good to stretch his wings. As days went on, Matthew started to grow a bond to this human. He decided that he had found a new home, with this human, in this room. This human had many other animals that she kept in this place, all of them friendly towards Matthew, and there was even a female owl there as well. “Yes,” Matthew thought, “this will be my new home.” And Matthew lived a long life with his new family and friends.