Introduction
The following text is a story I wrote yesterday. There are some deep layers of meaning (such as the character's main name, "Baykus", from the turkish word for "owl"). There are some "Lovecraftian" aspects as well (although I'm not really a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, but let's say me and him were inspired by the same... realm).

There is also a defense of Mother Nature (Gaia, Pachamama, Goddess Isis, Demetre, the list goes on), Her relationship with ancient knowledge (hereby represented by the archetype of the owl and the oak tree), and a critique of the way people fear the unknown, especially the darker aspects of the nature (Darkness is not evil; if it weren't by Her dark aspects, there'd be no light).

The story is human-written (i.e. not an AI output), I guess it'll be evident as there are some English grammar errors of mine (I'm Brazilian and my native language is Portuguese, so I'm aware I commit a lot of mistakes when I write English texts, even though I'm capable of writing rhyming poetry).

The shadows of Baykus oak tree
The quietness of the boy made her restless. She noticed that Baykus hasn't eaten since yesterday, preferring to sit below that old oak tree. Every time she tried to approach him, he'd run away somewhere else inside the big yard.

The sky was overcast, it'll rain any time soon. But these dense clouds didn't suffice to scare Baykus, as he continued to sit and gaze at the nothing like a thousand yard stare. As the day became darker and darker, his mother could finally understand what he was looking at. Mesmerized, she went outside and sat by the stair steps.

Days passed and the neighbors started to worry about the absence of both Baykus and his mother. They tried to call, but no one answered. They tried to spy by the window, the kitchen door was open but there was no signal of them. Another day passed and the neighbors called the police. When the policemen broke into the house, they readily started to notice a dark smoke coming out. Initially thinking that it could be some pot that was forgotten by the stove, they found the kitchen abandoned, but there was no lit fire nor pot over the stove, and the smoke was coming from everywhere across the house, letting the agents curious and confused about what was going on.

One of the policemen noticed the opened door that led to the yard and decided to go there. There was no one there, except for the shoes of Baykus' mother at the stairs, and the black smoke permeated the entire yard. Next to the oak, they found another pair of shoes, these from Baykus. They also found the source of the strange smoke inside the oak's trunk, but the oak wasn't on fire.

There was a little hole and they decided to look inside. The policeman put his eye near the hole and then he fell to his knees, paralyzed. Fearing that the smoke could be some toxic chemical, the other policemen readily ran to the car and fetched some masks. Another policeman, masked, tried to look, and the same situation happened as soon as his eye approached the hole: he fell to his knees, with his eyes wide open.

The third and last policeman decided to cut through the tree trunk, so he fetched an ax. When he was going to wave the ax against the tree, the voice of Baykus was heard coming from inside: "Don't!". The policeman tried to talk to him, but this was the only word they heard from him. The policeman, desperate, continued with his idea of cutting through the trunk (if Baykus is stuck inside, cutting the trunk of the tree would help, he thought). As he approached the ax against the tree, the blade got extremely hot, glowing red, starting to burn his hand as he dropped it.

Confused, he tried to put his hand inside that hole, only to be grabbed by a couple hands inside. These hands were cold, like icy cold. As he tried to pull back, the hands started to pull him inside. He tried to fetch his gun, but it was as hot as that axe he was using. He started to panic when the hands let him free.

He ran away thinking of calling reinforcement, but as he tried to enter the kitchen, he noticed something even more weird: there was no street but a black veil all the way from the sky. He looked back, trying to find another exit, but as he turned, he came across the boy and his mother, standing together both staring at him. He looked to his side and saw the two policemen, also standing and staring at him. Scared by the way they were staring at him, he slowly paced backwards, only to find the wall behind him.

Baykus approached him and gently grabbed his hand, taking him to the oak tree, the others followed. As they approached the tree, the man was paralyzed by what he saw: the eyes of Baykus got bigger and darkened.

The smoke surrounded the policeman and he started to hear voices, billions of voices: they were the thoughts of every human alive and dead. They were memories, both good and bad, but mostly dark and shadowy. The grieving from those who lost their loved ones, the woe from those who were alone, the suffering from those who were in pain.

He started to know everything, from the known knowledge to the unknown, and this made he feel the burden. The burden She has had since the beginning of times, the burden faced by Darkness, an unknown entity that he was starting to know. "She is our mother. The mother of all living beings, and She is your mother, too. She was looking for you and now She is looking after you.", Baykus said. Although paralyzed, the policeman smiled.

The smile couldn't be seen by the neighbors: all they could see was three paralyzed policemen, one of which was paralyzed as soon he walked inside the kitchen. The neighbors couldn't understand what was going on and, scared by the unknown, they ran from it... As everybody does... 🦉🌲🌒