Stone Arch Bridge

Anna walked with her hands in her jean pockets and shoulders sagged. The leaves on the ground of the cracked park sidewalk were brown and dried up. She had just moved back in with her grandparents after failing her first semester of college and getting kicked out of the program and dorm. 

She let out a breath and kicked a twig in her path. 

“You failed so badly they told you to leave after only one semester? What are you, stupid? No, I know you’re stupid.” Her mother had said this morning while watching her unpack boxes out of the 2003 Toyota her grandpa gave her when she first moved in with him. 

The dark sky above her head wasn’t enough to deter her from taking a walk to clear her mind while her parents argued with her grandparents in the sitting room. Elm Park was three blocks away but she didn’t visit much before college. Never felt the need to. Her parents didn’t visit much after she moved in with Nan and Pop Pop. 

The first clap of thunder was almost enough to make her regret leaving the house without a rain jacket. The big droplets that landed on her glasses was more than enough. 

Her Vans skidded over the leaves as she ran for cover, the old stone bridge on the outskirts of the park. It was purely decorative and starting to crumble, but it was enough to protect her from the wind that picked up. It had three arches and she was under the one closest to the thickest part of the tree line. She suspected they didn’t mow around it much, there were vines crawling over the ground and new stalks perking up through crags. 

Anna huffed and removed her glasses, furiously scrubbing at them with the bottom of her university sweater. Creaks from trees and branches being pelted by rain sounded from the woods behind her. 

“Why do these trees sound like a baby crying?” She said to herself as she inspected her still-dirty glasses. 

Something scurried across her peripheral and she heard the creak again. Coming from it. Lowering her hand with her glasses she looked down. A cat shook itself and shivered. 

No. Not a cat. 

Anna hurried to put her smudged glasses back on her face as the animal ran out the other side of the bridge. It had the body of a cat, cat-like tail, butt, back legs. The head was nothing like a cat. Slick feathers directed the rain water from its eagle eyes and a sharp crying came from the beak that opened instead of a cat mouth. 

“What the…” Anna’s voice was lost in a thunderclap. “What is that?” 

It turned right as it left the shelter of the bridge, heading into the thick of the undergrowth. Anna peeked her head out and watched its lion tail zig-zag through a bush. 

“I must be going crazy,” She said while watching after it. 

Something compelled her feet to move. Maybe it was to figure out what kind of creature it was, maybe it was the desire to stay away from her parents as long as she could. Maybe it was that the rain was now coming down sideways and the bridge was doing little to actually keep her dry now. Either way she ignored a growing puddle and left the shelter of the old stone arch bridge. 

She sort of just crashed through the bush with little grace and absolutely no elegance. It cried again up ahead. 

“Are you okay?” She called only to be drowned out by more thunder. A wet leaf slapped her in the face and she slipped down a slope into a swelling creek. 

The creature was on the other side and jumped when she interrupted its journey. It looked at her, wet and sitting in a stream during a thunderstorm, before running off again. That’s when Anna realized she was sitting in a stream during a thunderstorm. She pulled herself up and splashed after it. Its wide eyes worried her. 

It hopped onto a thick fallen log and descended on the other side. Anna had to straddle it to get over, not only because she was barely 5 feet tall, but it was just that big of a tree. There was more canopy coverage on the other side. The grasses that had grown were trampled down and there were twigs arranged together in a circle. Almost like a..

“Nest,” Anna gasped. 

In front of her were three of those little cat-eagle things. All were staring at her like she was the weird one. They had small wings tucked close against their backs.

“What are you?” She pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “Oh, shit.” It was soaked. She tried to hold the power button but the screen only flickered once before going black. 

“Thanks, like I haven’t heard enough from my parents today,” Anna looked up into the rain and held out her phone. 

A mewling brought her back to the creatures in front of her. The one that she followed stood a few feet in front of the other two. It was shivering the worst, and seemed to be the wettest. She reached out to touch it, but it backed away at the sight of her hand. 

“Oh, sorry,” She held her palm up and retreated. 

Thunderstruck, and then again. The rumbling almost made the ground shake. A tree fell somewhere close by. The three creatures jumped around and faced the opposite side of the nest. The storm must have been right on top of her as the rumbling was almost non stop. 

A sharp cry pierced the air, followed by a large beak dividing two branches. A larger version, much larger, of the creatures in the nest padded into the circle of twigs. The babies spread their wings in greeting, but it ignored that and went to the one Anna followed. It sniffed it, then swatted it with a taloned paw. Anna had to put her hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming. 

Behind that one a second creature emerged. It was even larger. Mom and dad. Dad, the largest one, scanned the nest and his eyes landed on her. She stared into them, yellow and slitted. He seemed wise, as wise as a weird forest-creature could seem upon first meeting. He held his head high, shoulders back, and stood on his talons in a way that made him seem ready for anything. 

Mom noticed Anna now too. 

“Oh, shit.” Anna said again. 

The mother spread her wings wider, not full length, and leaned toward her. Anna put her hands on the twigs on the nest and braced herself. The wet baby padded forward and nudged its mother. She rumbled and inclined her head toward the path Anna took to get here. 

“Yes, ma’am.” 

She vaulted over the log and took off through the trees. Dirt had run off into the creek and it was flowing fast with brown water. Her Vans didn’t have great traction on the wet pebbles but she didn’t allow herself to slow down until she reached the stone arch bridge. 

Then she stood panting with her hands on her knees. She was shaking, wet and cold or afraid, probably both. An eagle’s cry sliced through the storm, and then it was moving on. The rain let up, clouds moseyed on their way. 

Anna looked around. There was nothing. No angry griffin things after her, no sasquatches, no freaking unicorns. Just leaves and scattered broken twigs. 

She laughed, a little, then a lot. Threw her head back and let it out. When she was done she left the park. She was sure to hear a lecture about being out in a storm, and breaking her phone, on top of failing out of college. 

“Well, maybe you need a little more imagination,” she pictured herself saying to her mother and smiled like the Cheshire cat. “Why must we take life so seriously?”