Chaure. A story of augurs

marlyncabrera (70)in #fiction • 5 years ago (edited)

Attribution: Picture by Bill Bouton (2011) - Image under CC2.0 licensing

The story that follows is about a Venezuelan superstition: The chaure’s hooting is supposed to be ominous, but not always; if it flies near your house during the day and calls three times, it means somebody will die anytime soon, but it means a woman in the house is pregnant if it calls in the night.

Chaure

Augur wonders what would she look like if she was a woman? She spreads her large white wings and asks Night for a new disguise. She flies in the moonlight and feels how her body becomes heavier and heavier; she grows limbs and her luminous feathers become skin. Soon her naked body is covered by a vaporous white dress, but her face, still the face of an owl is concealed under a hood embroidered with pearls.

Attribution: Picture by Greg Hume (2011) - Image under CC3.0 licensing

Unless they get to see her real face, no one would think she is dreadful, like last time when she turned into a black bird, or that other time when she turned into a serpent beneath one of God’s favorite trees.

After several hours of exploring, she meets Dawn, who recognizes her and warns her about her having to turn herself back into her original shape. Augur finds herself a bit lost, for Night is gone and Day hardly ever listens to her. It happens to her when she sifts shape that she becomes forgetful. It seems to her she cannot stay hidden for much longer for there is daylight already. She gives it some thought and soon decides to speak to a man who is cutting wood near his house, a lonely property inside the woods.

A girl is sitting by the peasant, looking pale and worried. She thinks it must be his daughter.

Omen, another barn owl recognizes Augur. She stays still, perched on a branch beneath the thick foliage, and calls three times: hoo-hoooooo, hoo-hoooooo, hoo-hoooooo! The hooting strikes Augur as rather disquieting; however, she steps forward and speaks to the good peasant.

—Good morning! I beg your pardon, sir. Could you tell me which way I should go to head south?

—I can see you’re lost. Where are you heading?

But she could not tell, for she wasn’t sure. And besides, she was really afraid that the man would see her face, for human beings were really scared of the things they didn’t know or understand.

—Never mind, mister. I’ve just remember my path.

She replies as gently as she can, while regretting being so rude as not to show her face to her kind interlocutor. The man looks at her, puzzled.

Omen comes across her and with a blow of his wing helps her to get rid of her humanlike form. Once she is back, she realizes the girl is going to die today, for her friend has called her thrice.

—Listen, Omen, I see you just called Death on that girl, but she’s pregnant. I will stay around and wait until it’s nighttime; then I’ll hoot over the house, and she will live so the child can be born.

Death is listening to the conversation. He says nothing but turns around and leaves. He will not admit it to anybody, but he is happy he doesn’t have to take two innocent lives today.